Calling the Red River Valley his home for his entire life, and currently living in St. Pierre Jolys, author Philippe Sabourin has released his new book "Prairie Roots and Wings: Memoirs of Growing in the Red River Valley", published by FriesenPress. The book is not only about growing up in Southern Manitoba, but also a call to action to make our planet more sustainable and beautiful for our survival.
"I'm a type of a guy that gets interested in a lot of things," shared the 75 year old. "I'm a photographer. I'm kind of a history buff. I keep things. Now that I'm fully retired, I had this idea of printing maybe a couple of pages for my grandchildren, like a little bit of my life stories, nothing spectacular. It turned out to be a book, almost 350 pages. I love photography of nature and people. I've got 150 pictures captivating pictures in this book which makes it special. I hope many of the pictures, after the words are read and they turn the page, it just becomes much clearer."
The prairie farm in the ’50s and ’60s provided a simpler way of life, being closer to nature and growing one’s food. Settled in part by Francophones and Mennonites, the Red River Valley saw the arrival of the first Sabourin's in 1891. This history of farming continued through the generations and inspired Philippe’s passion for the land, food production and sustainability. A retired professional agrologist, Sabourin has had a connection to the Earth and its people his whole life.
Every title has a story
"I think a title is very important, and definitely many thoughts came into my mind," he explained. "I definitely wanted the word 'Prairie', because I lived all my life in St. Jean Baptiste, not too far away from Altona. From early on, we (his family growing up) lived on a farm five kilometers south of St. Jean, close to the Red River of course, and we also were very close to a marsh. I've got my two feet stuck in gumbo, and I'll be stuck there all my life. My roots are very important, and so that's the reason for landing on 'Prairie Roots.'"
As for the word 'Wings', that comes from his love of travel.
"Eventually, when I started going around and flying, and said there's my other love of my life," he said. "I deeply got interested from talking to an uncle who did a lot of traveling and my brother, who back in 1969 started an around the world trip. Back then that didn't happen too often. One of my first trips, I was around 24 years old when I finally got a bit of money, was to go to South America, and that was it. It opened up my life."
From those prairie roots, Sabourin spread his wings in adventures around the world visiting four continents from the rainforests of the Amazon to the grasslands of the Serengeti. Those experiences around the world, and at home in the Red River Valley, greatly influenced how he looked at nature, the environment and our relationships with people.
"Being a farm producer, you're tied to nature, so the environment for me was always very, very important," he said. "We started talking about the environment much more in the 70s and 80s, about biodiversity, about global warming and all of that, and I kept on with that. The world is full of beauty... all these things tie into my beliefs about how nature's beautiful, and how people are nice all over the world. I slowly started thinking we're all in this together, and what we do in Brazil and in Argentina and in India influences us."
The concept of Ubuntu
"I got to realize we're very similar," said Sabourin. "We have similar aspirations, and so that brought me slowly to learning about compassion, about empathy, wearing other peoples shoes. Later in life I heard about the word Ubuntu, which is a beautiful word that everybody should say every day. Ubuntu is a Zulu word, which is our common humanity, interacting with people, embracing each other. It's about stopping all these skirmishes, and how can we kill each other and bomb each other and how bad that is. If people are living in misery for months and months and suffering, we should all feel it."
The theme of Ubuntu is woven throughout the book, showing humanity to others.
Take aways from writing book
"I'm 75 years old, and I have a life behind me, a life history, a life of experiences," he reflected. "I'm sharing, not just to my grandchildren and some of my cousins and nieces, but I'm hoping people will read the book and find it interesting. Perhaps, they'll be laughing at some of the things I did as a youth. It just came back. I had nothing written, and all these trips came back to me. It's just sharing an experience which will hopefully also lift up people. It has positive messaging."
Sabourin will be hosting a book launch event at Altona Mall for "Prairie Roots and Wings: Memoirs of Growing in the Red River Valley". It's happening Saturday, April 19th beginning at 11am.
You can listen to entire conversation with author Philippe Sabourin, below. It includes a very interesting story he discovered while researching for the book about how some of the first Mennonites and French people arrived in Southern Manitoba after a perilous journey on the Great Lakes.
