Tyson Stewart is the author of the new novel The Return of the Nish. He is an associate professor at Nipissing University in North Bay, Ontario, and he is Anishinaabe of the Teme Augama Anishnabai.
Q: What inspired you to write The Return of the Nish, and how did you create your characters Gerry Smith and Dale King?
A: I started writing the novel during the Covid lockdowns. I was walking around a bay (Wabi Bay in New Liskeard) near our house at the time. Much of the early draft was written in the context of a closeness to nature and reminiscing about my own childhood.
I wanted to write something that would allow me to explore facets of my own life, how I reconnected with my Anishinaabe relatives as an adult, while also blending that significant personal experience with something more…well, thrilling and suspenseful, like the kinds of films and literature that really excited me as a teenager.
Ultimately, I wrote this novel for my 18-year-old self. I thought, if I could impress that guy with something totally unexpected and fun, I’ve done my job.
The recent explosion of Indigenous creativity, especially Anishinaabe stories and films by Waubgeshig Rice, Lyle Mitchell Corbine Jr., Darlene Naponse, and Karen McBride gave me the extra push I needed to “tell my story.” I’m also a big fan of the late Jeff Barnaby. I think his no-holds-barred approach to dialogue and dramatizing conflict is as influential as anything else.
I wanted to put my protagonist Gerry Smith through an unforgettable experience, like Luke’s journey in the original Star Wars trilogy or even the slightly naïve victim of an elaborate con in David Mamet’s The Spanish Prisoner.
Just because I was writing about something serious and emotionally true to me, I felt a duty to always entertain myself and the reader. This isn’t a documentary, it’s genre fiction. And I wanted to excel at the kind of art that I personally admire the most.
Dale King was the most fun to write. I just imagined an older Anishinaabe man who was dealing with failure and a large ego and mounting responsibilities. Someone who went down the wrong path at some point and never self-corrected.
It was liberating, and a tad scary, to contemplate this character’s motivations and actions. But I would rather write interesting, flawed Indigenous characters than censor my imagination in any way.
Q: How would you describe the relationship between Dale and his son, Gerry?
A: Ultimately, I think it’s good that they had this experience together. The troubling events at the heart of the story are retold three times throughout the novel: first, in the courtroom scene, then through Gerry’s eyes, and finally, in the last section focusing on Dale’s origin story.
One reader observed that it was fascinating to witness their budding relationship with the backdrop of crime and desperation. I suppose I wanted to put their relationship to the test and see what happened.
I think what becomes clear fairly early on is Gerry’s desire to have a normal relationship with his father. In other words, a relationship of some kind where both the son and father could learn about each other and enjoy each other’s company.
Gerry clings onto that hope way past the point of reason. But that’s what makes it a perfect con: of course, the son will believe and help his father with his predicament when the rest of the family has been so loving and welcoming to Gerry. Despite everything, the son wants to get to know his dad. Who can blame him?
Q: How was the book’s title chosen, and what does it signify for you?
A: As you can imagine, The Return of the Nish was not the original title of the novel. There were several others, which I will not mention.
The title was inspired by a painting that my cousin Blake Angeconeb made a few years ago. It’s an image of Darth Vader in a Woodlands-esque style complete with striking thought bubbles that, for me, represent all the different facets of the character, the bad, the good, and the spiritual.
Star Wars was such a big inspiration for the basic storyline that I’m still surprised the current title wasn’t the title from the get-go. I suppose I wanted to invite comparisons between the Nish and the Jedi, but it’s really the figure of Vader that I had in mind.
I think it signifies many things, but for sure something about returning home, returning to n’Daki Menan, after being away, and letting it transform you. For me, it’s about feeling less disconnected from family and the land.
I must give credit where credit is due. My wife Megan came up with the title while we were both looking at Blake’s painting. So, a family effort.
Q: Did you know how the novel would end before you started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?
A: Tarantino has said somewhere that he just tries to get the characters talking to each other and then follows them down whatever path they choose or feels most organic. That’s a great idea for a novel, because it really forces you to get to know your characters and what makes them different from each other.
While the overall structure was always at the back of my mind, I tried not to sacrifice true-to-life experiences and spontaneity as I connected the dots and cranked up the tension of the story.
While there is a kind of fatalism to it all, I did not know exactly where all the chips would fall by the end. There were several different versions of the ending written along the way, but this one felt like the most impactful and inevitable.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I’m currently working on two books. The first is a history of film noir told through an Indigenous lens.
Covering an 80-year timespan, The World is Upside Down: Truth, Reconciliation, and Noir will explore classic noir's references to Indigeneity in Ride the Pink Horse (Montgomery, 1947), Key Largo (Huston, 1948), Devil's Doorway (Mann, 1950), and Ace in the Hole (Wilder, 1951), and the eventual and timely incorporation (or reappropriation) of noir themes and stylistics (e.g. non-linearity, alienation, and resentment) by contemporary Indigenous filmmakers in Rhymes for Young Ghouls (Barnaby, 2013), Falls Around Her (Naponse, 2018), Night Raiders (Goulet, 2021), Wild Indian (Corbine Jr., 2021), A Red Girl's Reasoning (Tailfeathers, 2012), and Biidaaban (The Dawn Comes, Strong, 2018).
The other is another novel, a stark thriller centered on Anishinaabekwe twins from Temagami. I can’t say too much about it yet, but I will say it is a metaphor for how this country (Canada) has treated Indigenous women throughout the years.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: The Return of the Nish will be available on June 6 wherever books are sold.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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