We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Marcie Rendon a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Marcie, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?
There is much talk in current conversations about generational or historical trauma among Native peoples. While genetic studies have proven that traumatic life events and experiences are encoded in our DNA, I am a firm believer that everything is encoded in our DNA and that includes resilience. Recent genetic studies suggest that with women, the ‘warrior gene’ is an indicator of more overall happiness. Another study in the American Journal of Medical Genetics, 2020, documents studies about gene variants of the stress response. They are working to “to develop reasonable concepts for measuring resilience, and to establish international cooperations to generate sufficiently large samples.” All that to say, I choose to put my attention on my resiliency more so than on my trauma. Sometimes when I meditate I ‘imagine’ my resiliency genes lighting up. I look for beauty in the world around me. I love to laugh. I think that anytime we are creating, which is what we writers and artists do, we cannot be destroying. Art is healing.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I am an Anishinaabe woman from the White Earth Nation. I have been making my living as a writer since the early 1990s when I decided to follow my dream of being a writer. Some would question if it is a ‘living’ – but the rent has always been paid and the lights and heat are always on. Because my goal was to make my living as a writer, this meant I took on any and all writing jobs. I write poetry, plays, songs for choral arrangements and theater pieces, short stories, and community journalism. I have written articles for non-profit year-end-reports, educational stories as work-for-hire and standardized test passages. The hustle for paying gigs has been as much a part of the work as the writing has been. The hustle has paid off. I have two published non-fiction children’s books. Four adult crime novels. Four published plays and at least twice that many produced. What I am most proud of is my decision that for every step I made forward, I would reach out to someone and try to help them accomplish their dreams. As a result of that decision I was recognized as a 50 over 50 Change-maker by AARP Minnesota and Pollen in 2018. In 2022 I was the first Native American woman to receive the McKnight Distinguished Artist of the Year Award; an award created to honor a Minnesota artist who has made significant contributions to the state’s cultural life.
In my artist statement I say: “We are kept in their mindset as “vanished peoples.” Or as workers, not creators… What does this erasing of individual identity do to us? Can you believe you exist if you look in a mirror and see no reflection? What happens when one group controls the mirror market?
As Native people, we have known that in order to survive we had to create, re-create, produce, re-produce. The effect of the denial of our existence is that many of us have become invisible…the systematic disruption of our families by the removal of our children was effective for silencing our voices.
However, not everyone can still that desire, that up-welling inside that says sing, write, draw, move, be… we can sing our hearts out, tell our stories, paint our visions…we are in a position to create a more human reality…in order to live we have to make our own mirrors.”
In 2024 I have three books that will be published:
Anishinaabe Songs for the New Millinneum-UofM Press – June 2024 – poetry and song.
Where They Last Saw Her-Penquin/RandomAug24, 2024 – a stand alone contemporary crime novel.
Stitches of Tradition-Heartdrum – November 2024 – a children’s picture book.
and in the Cash Blackbear series, Broken Fields – Soho Press – will be released Spring 2025.
My play Sweet Revenge will have a staged reading at the Jungle Theater in Minneapolis, MN, March 20, 2024 and my performance piece about #mmiw, Say Their Names, is in development with Out of Hand Theater Atlanta, Atlanta, GA.
Miigwech for hearing my story and here is to each of you to discover your own resiliency and capacity to reach your dreams.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
I am most grateful for mentors who acknowledged my work and encouraged me to continue. I think it is important that we recognize that we need help, that there is value in accepting heartfelt critique and that we push ourselves beyond our comfort zones and seek out mentorship. Be brave, be fearless when pursuing your dreams.
Scorn rejection. Fire your inner-critic. I think I made a decision early on to not take rejection of my writing personal. Some people don’t like anything I write. Some of what i write really is bad. What I offer to some people, does not fit what they are looking for. That’s ok. For writers I tell them to write, write, write. And then submit, submit, submit. Stack up those rejections.
Celebrate and honor your unique talent. No one else can do you like you can do you.
Okay, so before we go, is there anyone you’d like to shoutout for the role they’ve played in helping you develop the essential skills or overcome challenges along the way?
So many people have seen me, backed me, nurtured my talent, it is hard to acknowledge just one person who has been helpful to me. I have had a number of mentors throughout my career. Ojibwe author Jim Northrup was one of the first to encourage me to keep writing. Theater artists Buffy Sedlacheck and Djola Branner taught me about theater, writing for theater and stage performance. Performance artist and dancer Patrick Scully gave me the sage advice that ‘it isn’t really about who you know, it’s about who knows you.’ – Build that network in other words. He also offered performance art opportunities and chances to curate shows at his venue. Babs Lakey started a crime writers writing group where I finished and fine-tuned my first crime novel. My Women From the Center writers group critiques, encourages and listens well to my author jitters. The list goes on and on.
My circle is wide and ever-expanding. I sincerely hope I give back as much as I’ve been given. We live in a world that stresses limitations and scarcity. That is a lie. There are no limits and there is enough for everyone.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.marcierendon.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marcierendon/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarcieRendonMN/
- Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/m-rendon-984029294
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarcieRendon
- Other: https://substack.com/@notyourmilkandcookiesgrannie71
Image Credits
Anna Cardon Ivy Vainio Sigwan Rendon Jaida GreyEagle
