Treasa Levasseur revisits Leanne Betasamosake Simpson's Islands of Decolonial Love

Treasa Levasseur is a musician and The Next Chapter columnist whose column takes a book and looks at the music it inspired.

Levasseur spoke to Shelagh Rogers about Islands of Decolonial Love, the album and debut short story collection by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson. 

Unique perspective

"In Islands of Decolonial Love, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson is looking at herself and her lived experience. The collection of short stories spiral outward and upward. The further into the book you go, the more you see the author in the context of the people that surround her.

It feels like a bird alighting from the earth, circling higher and higher to see more and more of the picture.- Treasa Levasseur

"It looks at the land that she lives on, the people who are gazing at her and the ancestors in a wide and circular vision. It's really quite a feat. It feels like a bird alighting from the earth, circling higher and higher to see more and more of the picture."

Impressionistic sounds

"The songs are as impressionistic as the book. She speaks the words of the text so her voice is centred in these pieces. The instrumentation is different for each piece. Some of them have guitar with loops — there's a lot of looping in many of the pieces. 

The songs are as impressionistic as the book.- Treasa Levasseur

"There's some looping of her voice and it's this beautiful piece about her grandmother and Toronto's Dufferin Grove Park. It then transitions to another realm... having this very spiritual experience.

Treasa Levasseur's comments have been edited for length and clarity.