Kim Echlin's I, Witness

I, Witness
Year Zero was the dawn of an age in which, in extremis, there would be
no families, no sentiment, no expression of love or grief,
no medicines, no hospitals,
no schools, no books, no learning,
no holidays, no music:
only work and death.
- John Pilger -

This is the beginning of author Kim Echlin's March 2006 article - focusing on Cambodia's killing fields' survivors - for Canada's monthly publication enRoute, which captured the CBC Literary Award for creative non-fiction last year. The full article can be seen here. Kim Echlin has been a documentary-maker and editor. She completed her PhD on the translation of Ojibway trickster stories. She has worked and travelled in Europe, China, the Marshall Islands, Africa and Cambodia. She currently writes and teaches in Toronto. Her books include Elephant Winter, Dagmar’s Daughter, and Inanna.