The Birthing Tree: A Guest Post by Amanda Peters

Amanda Peters, author of The Berry Pickers, crafts a new tale of memory, tradition and loss that echoes over time. Follow one woman’s sweeping journey to protect the legacy of the past and carve out a brighter future.  Read on for an exclusive essay from Amanda Peters on writing The Birthing Tree.  

The Birthing Tree was inspired by something my grandmother told me ages ago. While she was living with dementia, I was staying with her for the weekend. I remember that was summer because I was home from university. My Nan loved to sit by the window with her cup of tea and watch the birds in her bird feeder and occasionally curse at a squirrel for stealing her seeds. On this particular day, I was laying on the couch reading a book when she turned to me and said “You know that tree down by the water?” I wasn’t sure what tree she was talking about, but I said yes. “That’s where we used to give birth.” And she turned back to the window. I sat up, intrigued. I didn’t know a lot about my Mi’kmaw culture at the time and was curious. However, Nan was gone back into her world of watching the birds and I never got any more information about the mysterious tree. But that moment has stayed with me all these years. I am almost fifty now and it’s burned into my memory. And when I started writing, the moment came back to me as inspiration. I combined the memory of my Nan by the window with my own insecurities about who I was as a Mi’kmaw woman and the story appeared. But I always thought there was more to it so when I was thinking about a second novel, it seemed like the perfect fit. There was so much more I wanted to say. I wanted to get to know Ben and Sally more, understand Aliet, give her someone like Kiju who loved her unconditionally. To talk about traditions that were temporarily lost but so important to who we are as people. To think about what it would mean to reclaim these traditions. I miss my Nan. She passed into the spirit world in 2003 but she left me with a wonderful gift, the gift of story.