"Ms. Musgrave takes her readers from the strawberry fields of England to the West Coast of Vancouver Island and shows a rare capacity for myth-making. The British Columbia coast has its own mythology but Ms. Musgrave has chosen to take only a hint of it as her basis for construction. She has invented an Indian poet Moses Bruce to speak for her and in this way allows herself a brand new voice to express concepts that might not otherwise have been allowed to surface." -- Bill Thomas, The Martlet, November 9, 1973
While researching my as-yet-unfinished book review of Heather Jessup's This Is Not a Hoax: Unsettling Truth in Canadian Culture (Waterloo: WLP, 2019), I went looking for more information on some of the hoaxes I have carried with me since my undergrad days at UVic (anthropology).
Among these hoaxes is "Moses Bruce," an Indigenous man and resident of Kiskatinaw, whom Susan Musgrave and Seán Virgo conjured in 1972. As if to justify their magic, Musgrave and Virgo granted "Bruce" authorship of Kiskatinaw Songs. For his part, Virgo included some of "Bruce"'s poems in his book Deathwatch on Skidegate Narrows and other poems (Victoria: Sono Nis Press, 1979).
Something I could not find (online) is any mention of Musgrave and Virgo speaking on their "Bruce" project. I wonder how they might talk about "Moses Bruce" today?
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