Peter Edwards is the organized-crime beat reporter for the Toronto Star and the bestselling author of seventeen non-fiction books. His works have been published in four languages. Edwards was awarded an eagle feather from the Union of Ontario Indians and a gold medal from the Centre for Human Rights.
Kevin Loring is a Governor General’s Award–winning playwright, an actor, a director, and the founding Artistic Director of Indigenous Theatre at the National Arts Centre of Canada. He comes from the Loring family from Botanie Valley and the Adams’ of Snake Flat. He is a Nlaka’pamux of Lytton First Nation.
From bestselling true-crime author Peter Edwards and Governor General’s Award-winning playwright Kevin Loring, two sons of Lytton, comes a meditation on hometown—when hometown is gone. Lytton tells the story of the town that burned to the ground during a record-breaking heat wave in June 2021, and of its people’s resilience.
Interviewed by Mike Andrew McLean
Mike Andrew McLean (MAM): Kevin, in your work Where the Blood Mixes and in the introduction to Lytton you reference the Nlaka’pamux creation story of n’Shinkayep, or The Coyote. Would you mind relaying this story and how it has influenced your relationship to the land when you were growing up on your traditional territory?
Kevin Loring (KL): There are many Coyote Spetakwl or creation stories. The one that I reference in Where the Blood Mixes is the story of Coyote’s demise. It is essentially the creation story that signals the end of the mythical era that we call the time before time, when magical beings called transformers like Coyote shaped the world we live in today. In that particular story Coyote is defeated by a powerful transformer and is torn apart and his body parts are scattered across the territory, with his heart landing in the river at the confluence of Thompson and Fraser below the present-day village of Lytton, where it lies today in the form a massive heart shaped boulder.
Like so many of these creation stories there are many layers to this story. Originally it told of the end of the mythic era. To me, in our modern context today it speaks of the end of the precontact era and the beginning of colonization in our territory, with the death of our central hero/trickster signalling the beginning of the colonial era. The end of the story speaks of a promise that Coyote will return and when he does, it will signal the beginning of a new era, and to me this return signals the resurgence of the N’lakapamux people and the reclamation of our culture and sovereignty.
MAM: One memorable anecdote that you recount, Peter, is a story that your brother told about how your father—Lytton’s sole physician for a dozen years—would occasionally scale the area’s infamous cliff faces to treat car crash victims and how he challenged segregationist norms of the times. How did your father, particularly in his role as Lytton’s primary care provider at the time, affect your relationship with the place and its community?
Peter Edwards (PE): My father made me extremely proud by his day-to-day actions. He showed me that success isn’t something that can be measured necessarily by taking from people. He also showed me being a good person isn’t just about words. He lived his beliefs, as did my mother.
I remember someone coming to our house to pay Dad in salmon. The man was very earnest and Dad was beaming when he got the large fish as payment. To this day, salmon is my favorite meal and I always think back to answering the door and seeing the man with the salmon. That memory is more than a half century old and priceless.
Dad had real respect for Indigenous stories and traditions. He was quite in awe of the Stein Valley and the stories behind it. Dad didn’t brag about his biggest accomplishments. It was long after his death that I heard about him scaling down cliffs to tend to car accident victims. It would have been a painful memory for him and he wasn’t seeking glory.
MAM: In Lytton, the penultimatechapter describes the town’s contentious connection to the global climate crisis. Due to the events of June 30th, 2021 and the subsequent displacement of its residents, Lytton seem to have become a stand-in for the fate of our world, and its people a proxy for our species as a whole. Understandably, you express complicated feelings surrounding this. Could you speak to them?
PE: I know Lytton will rebuild but so many precious places from my memories are gone forever. It’s like that village from my childhood was cremated. It’s painful to think about. I want to see some places, like our old house and the hotel across the street, but that will never be possible now. It’s only alive in my memories and hopefully, in part, in the book. That said, I would love to hear that Lytton has rebuilt.
KL: Lytton has long been known as the “Hotspot” of Canada, regularly recording the hottest temperatures in the country throughout any given summer. The extreme heat of June 30th 2021 is a terrifying milestone for all of us and a historic marker for what will likely be the trend going forward with catastrophic shifts in our climate displacing communities and stressing the ecosystems we rely on. For over a decade, we’ve been beset by extreme wildfire events across the country. I am afraid that this is just the beginning of the challenges we face as we enter the era of climate catastrophes.
MAM: The Stein Valley is one of the last remaining unlogged watersheds in southern British Columbia and the Nlaka’pamux people have an ancient and profound connection to these sacred lands. Conversely, the logging, transporting and processing of lumber has been a primary economic driver for most smaller communities here during the last century. With this in mind, how do you see us navigating the complex relationship between honouring Traditional Indigenous land rights, activist land stewardship and resource extraction.
PE: I lived briefly in the Yukon and I remember eco-tourism being a big thing there. It was a nice idea that actually worked. Why can’t this be done in Lytton? There is something magical about the Stein Valley. I cringe at the thought of saws tearing into trees there. Visiting the Stein Valley respectfully is one thing, but logging it is another. And what happens once it is logged out?
KL: First Nations have a right to be consulted on all developments that impact their territories. Historically the concerns of First Nations have been ignored and trampled on by the Federal and Provincial governments despite these rights. The sovereignty of First Nations needs to be respected by all levels of government and the corporations that wish to exploit the resources on Indigenous lands. The duty to consult with First Nations is essential as is the right of First Nations to refuse those developments if they are unwanted and threaten their lands. At the same time if First Nations want to exploit those resources on their land, they should be afforded the opportunities to do so as they see fit. At the end of the day unceded territory means that those lands are sovereign Indigenous territory and First Nations sovereignty must be respected.
MAM: In 2024, reconciliation and respecting Indigenous voice across cultural, ecological, and political grounds has come to the forefront of our public consciousness. One of the things that struck me when I first encountered your book, was that it reflected both settler and Indigenous perspectives in a single historical through-line. How did this co-authorship come about, and could it be a model for us moving forward together?
PE: I wanted to write about Lytton and preserve childhood memories but it needed to be a bigger book than just something about me and my family. The community helped make my childhood magical and I felt it had to be a community book. I had grown up with some of Kevin’s relatives as friends and classmates. I had heard he was a writer. It seemed natural to reach out to him. I’m not sure it can be a model for others. Each situation is unique but a Lytton book needed at least the two perspectives.
KL: Lytton has been home to my Indigenous family since time immemorial and for my settler family since the very early days of colonization in the west. Sharing our perspectives speaks to the complexity of our shared histories. It also speaks to the dichotomy that Lytton is, being both an ancient Indigenous Village and a colonial microcosm of the Canadian experience. I don’t know if our book is a model for us moving forward but it is an honest attempt at a shared narrative of our experiences and the history of that special place.