Hi everyone!
My name is Caitlyn Harrison and I am a 5th year English Literature and Psychology double major. This is my last semester of my undergrad and I am extremely excited (and slightly terrified) at the prospect of graduating and starting a new chapter of my life. I grew up in the small town of Campbell River on Vancouver Island and therefore find the material of this course particularly relevant and intriguing!
Although I admit that I am taking this class to fulfill a requirement for my literature degree, I am pretty thrilled to finally take a literature course that focuses on the Canadian perspective and the “intersections and departures between European and Indigenous traditions of literature and orature” (Paterson 2014). ENG 470, “Oh Canada… Our Home and Native Land?” taught by Dr. Erika Paterson, promises to be a challenging and thought-provoking course that I hope will offer me new insight into Canadian stories and what those stories mean. It appears to be a class that encourages deep and critical thinking and which may challenge our preexisting biases and expectations about the stories—both European and Aboriginal—that we encounter in Canada.
The fact that this class takes place exclusively online is both exciting and frightening and I have to say, a bit out of my comfort zone. I am sure I am not the only one with these feelings and it is reassuring to know I am facing this new experience with equally anxious peers. I think that the progressive, high-tech nature of this course, though daunting, will help me build much needed skills for the modern world.
Personally, over the last few years of my life I have developed an interest in First Nation’s culture and the colonial history of British Columbia. This mostly evolved from two summer jobs that I encountered in my hometown of Campbell River. The first was a student internship at a lovely, local museum with a strong focus on First Nation’s history (click here for a video describing the museum’s exhibits) and the second (and most influential) was a job lifeguarding at a tiny pool on the Cape Mudge reserve of the We Wai Kai Nation on Quadra Island. If you look closely at the banner image on the link you can see the adorable, little pool. This job, in which I worked extensively with the many of the children of Cape Mudge for three summers, opened my eyes to the reality of the situation that people in these communities face and the extensive racism that still exists between our cultures, as well as the magnitude of people who dedicate their time in order to instigate change. These two jobs made me appreciate how undereducated I had been about the relationship between our two major cultures in British Columbia and ever since I have been eager for more opportunities to explore these topics.
Thanks for reading, looking forward to learning with you all!
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Kashascorner, “Campbell River Museum.wmv.” Online video clip. Youtube, 4 Aug. 2010. Web. 15 May 2014.
Paterson, Erika. ENGL 470A Canadian Studies: Canadian Literary Genres. University of British Columbia, 2014. Web. 15 May 2014.
Stone, Philip. Quadra Island: Cape Mudge Village. Discovery Islands Publishing, 2013. Web. 15 May 2014.
Hi Caitlyn,
Your observations about how under-educated you felt about the relationship we have with the First Nations in Canada is something that I can identify with. I’ll be honest, I feel vastly undereducated myself. I know very little about the culture and struggles of the First Nations in Canada. In some ways, I think this under-education is a big part of why much of the racism continues to exist today. Indeed, fear of the unknown and misunderstood is evidenced repeatedly in the history books. Growing up in Winnipeg, there was a clear and fairly strong stigma surrounding First Nations people and not to mention more than a few distasteful stereotypes.
I look forward to learning more about this topic with you.
Best,
Mike
Hi Mike, I agree with your comment that the continuing silencing and erasing of the historical realities of the discriminatory, and some would say ‘genocidal,’ policies of successive Colonial and Canadian governments against Indigenous peoples has the greatest impact on the systemic racism we all suffer with today. I am pleased to see yourself, and Caitlyn and others speak up about your missing and mis-education in these early posts. Thank you.
Hi Mike,
Thanks for the comment! I believe that many people our age could identify with us in terms of feeling undereducated about this topic, which is such a shame. I really hope that future generations are not as disadvantaged as we have been in this area!!
Talk soon,
Caitlyn
Hi Caitlyn, so nice to meet you and welcome to our course of studies. I drove through Campbell river last week on my way up to visit my family in Port Hardy, which is where I am right now. Your introduction is lovely, thank you for the links and I am sure you will find this course an exciting challenge that will indeed enlarge you perspectives and encourage new insights and a lot of reflection on what you already ‘know.’ I look forward to our work together this semester – thanks and enjoy.
Thank you, I’m looking forward to it as well! Hope you are having a lovely stay on the island!
Cheers,
Caitlyn
Hi Caitlyn,
Congrats on graduating! I have one year to go, and feelings of terror/excitement are starting to become my best friends. I can also relate 100% to finding the online format of this course rather daunting-this is my first time on facebook, blogging, or an online course at UBC, so everything is just a little strange. On that note, I found your comment about the online format of this course providing real world skills rather eyeopening. Up to this point, I always thought the strongest marketable and/or relevant real world skill I would take away from my Arts degree would be the ability to think critically, and research skills. Now though, I’m finding I’ve been forced to learn several new forms of virtual communication which I’ve put off learning for years, all of which may be quite useful to me in later life(particularly in the business world of the internet). So, my question for you is this-do you think the innovative online format of this course facilitates our questioning of what we “know” about “our” own history and stories, by setting up a frame of mind which leaves us open to new ways of learning, thinking, and perceiving? Personally, I think it does. I also wonder if this course would be as eyeopening if it was being taught in a traditional classroom setting?
I know these questions aren’t really on topic with the course, but this aspect of your post is what struck me the most while reading it.
I look forward to working with you this summer.
Cheers, Breanna
Hi Breanna,
I really like your question– I hadn’t actually thought of it that way, but I love that perspective! So to answer your question, yes I do think that maybe this learning format could help facilitate the frame of mind we may need to learn this challenging material!
Thanks for the insight,
Caitlyn
Great post! I think we share a common experience– a lot of what has recently opened my eyes to the situation First Nations people face in Canada has been the job I have been working at for a year now as a receptionist at a youth homeless shelter downtown. First of all, First Nations young people make up a disproportionate percentage of homeless youth, and secondly the different obstacles and pressures they face than others in trying to get back on their feet. It has certainly been an enlightening experience (and certainly not just in regards to this one issue). I share your sentiments about feeling tragically uneducated and hope as well to learn more through this course.
Emma