Pauline Johnson

Pauline Johnson, an astonishing writer and poet who expresses her pride for her Native European heritage through writing, is one of Vancouver’s most acknowledged authors. She was born on the Six Nation Indian Reserve in Ontario, and was the youngest daughter of four to G.H. Johnson, a Chief Mohawk and Emily Susanna Howells, an English woman.

Johnson first began writing poetry on Native themes after the death of her father. After settling in Vancouver, a Squamish Chief by the name of Joe Capilano inspired her to write stories in which she incorporates his legends in “The Two Sisters” and “The Siwash Rock.” In “The Two Sisters,” the tall twin peaks which are referred to as “The Lions” to many Canadian’s living in Vancouver, is not the name recognized to many Indian tribes. Instead, the Indian tribes refer to the tall twin peaks as “The Two Sisters,” because of an ancient tale about cultural traditions. A similar idea is approached in “The Siwash Rock,” where the central idea is about the principles and standards of having an unsoiled fatherhood to enter an infant into the world. Johnson includes the legends and myths she learned in the past from family members and acquaintances into her poems and short stories she wrote as an adult.

Johnson’s passion for her Native and European background is written for a non-Native audience, which is expressed in English based on Native themes about First Nations legends and cultural values. She died in Vancouver in 1913, and is remembered for her writing that illustrates her aboriginal heritage.