I had the pleasure of reading Patti LaBoucane-Benson and Kelli Mellings’ The Outside Circle as well as interviewing 
both creators for Prairie Books Now. As a graphic novel it’s not only beautifully drawn, it’s a wrenching story of gang life, family and the legacy of colonialism in Canada. I’d say it’s appropriate — and would highly recommend it — for anyone in their late teens through adulthood who wants to learn what Canada’s history and government policies have resulted in for too many Indigenous people, and how reconnecting with family, either chosen or blood, and cultural teachings, can help. The Outside Circle is published by House of Anansi Press.
You might not think a PhD dissertation could be the inspiration for a graphic novel. But with The Outside Circle, Patti LaBoucane-Benson and Kelly Mellings have brought to life in a powerful story Canada’s colonial history and its effects on Aboriginal people today.
In the graphic novel, written by LaBoucane-Benson and drawn by Mellings, a young Cree man in Edmonton, Pete Carver, struggles to support himself and his younger brother as a gang enforcer. When Pete is sent to prison, he can’t protect his brother anymore and has to find a way out of the gangster life. A program called In Search of Your Warrior, which incorporates traditional teachings and unpacks Canada’s long-standing colonialist policies, gives him a chance to begin reconciling what his family has been through.
LaBoucane-Benson has worked at Native Counselling Services of Alberta for 20 years and been involved with the In Search of Your Warrior Program for 17 years.
Of Métis background herself, she says, “I’ve witnessed the healing journeys of many people and have been working on my own healing for 20 years. I believe that this is a very common story, but very few Canadians understand our history, how it affects families today and what needs to happen to break inter-generational cycles of violence, pain and disconnectedness.”
LaBoucane-Benson began seeking traditional knowledge 23 years ago. “Ceremonies, Elder’s teaching circles and reconciliation circles are an important part of my entire family’s life,” she says. In 2009, she completed her PhD in Human Ecology, focusing on Aboriginal Family Resilience, which she describes as an extension of this way of learning. When she pitched the idea of using her PhD work as the basis or a graphic novel, “Everyone — and I mean everyone — was really enthusiastic,” she says.
To portray the characters and the settings accurately, Mellings met with residential school survivors, Elders, and people living in northern communities, and participated in smudge and sweat lodge ceremonies. “Many of the Elders I met had similar stories to those in the book, and faced similar hardships,” says Mellings. “Touring a residential school with survivors, having them describe their experience as we were in the rooms they were in, and them yelling at us as we walked up the stairs as they had been yelled at was emotionally effecting.”
LaBoucane-Benson says she wants the story to engage young people, men and women on their own healing journeys, front-line service providers, and Canadians who may not be aware of this country’s colonial past what its policies have done to generations of Aboriginal people and families.
She says the prevailing principle in telling this story was TAPWE, a Cree language term that means “the truth.”
“Throughout the creation of the graphic novel, I wanted to tell the truth,” she says. “If a former gang member in Edmonton reads this book, I want him or her to feel that I’ve told the truth. If a ceremonialist reads the book, I want him or her to feel connected to the way that ceremony and the extremely difficult work of healing is portrayed.
“If a front line service provider reads this book, I want them to feel that there is truth in every character.”
The Outside Circle
Written by Patti LaBoucane-Benson
Illustrated by Kelly Mellings
House of Anansi Press
128 pages
ISBN: 9781770899377
Originally published in Prairie Books Now.
