{"id":1,"date":"2015-05-14T00:28:59","date_gmt":"2015-05-14T00:28:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/centresofmass\/?p=1"},"modified":"2015-05-15T07:49:38","modified_gmt":"2015-05-15T14:49:38","slug":"hello-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/centresofmass\/2015\/05\/14\/hello-world\/","title":{"rendered":"1:1 – Introduction"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hello, reader!<\/p>\n

I’m Mattias Martens, a student of English 470A, Canadian Literary Genres. I was born to a first-generation German mother and a Mennonite father whose ancestors had fled to Canada<\/a> for fear of the Bolshevik Revolution, and I now study topics of interest at UBC with a nominal major in Computer Science. In this course, I intend to learn about significant works of Canadian literature and how\u00a0the stories they present are intertwined with the colonial history of this country.<\/p>\n

Though I was born in Swift Current on the Saskatchewan prairie,\u00a0in many ways I feel myself to be a newcomer.\u00a0When I was younger, on a trip to my mother’s hometown, it struck me how much one could feel\u00a0a sense of history there. The castles, town, and cobblestone roads had been there for centuries, some even for millennia. They stood as if one with\u00a0the earth. Canada, by contrast, was a land of tin shanties and log cabins – it had scant\u00a0history.\u00a0Slowly I have come to understand that this sense of infancy hangs\u00a0on the erasure of a vast pre-existing legacy, an erasure demanded by colonialism, and that it is this alone that makes our country appear an orphan of history.<\/p>\n

I hope to learn more about this legacy and its tragedies under the colonial hegemony, as well as the new voices emerging from a Canadian consciousness\u00a0that is more deeply and equitably aware of its past. In particular, I look forward to reading more Thomas King – I loved Green Grass, Running Water when I read it a few years ago. Where I grew up in Yukon Territory, there was a museum dedicated to a story I found particularly inspiring: George Johnston<\/a>, the Tlingit man who had a car shipped into his village before there were roads, and who bought a camera to capture\u00a0the life and traditions of his community.<\/p>\n

\"George<\/a>

George Johnston.<\/p><\/div>\n

I feel that George’s life demonstrates beautifully that for the indigenous peoples of Canada, the sometimes-constructed dichotomy\u00a0between heritage and change\u00a0is a false one. It also shows the power\u00a0that technology and culture have to complement each other.<\/p>\n

Cheers, and I look forward to learning with you all!<\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

Works Cited<\/strong><\/p>\n

Anderson, Alan. “Mennonite Settlements.”\u00a0The Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan.<\/em> Canadian Plains Research Center, University of Regina. n.d. Web. May 14, 2015. <http:\/\/esask.uregina.ca\/entry\/mennonite_settlements.html>.<\/p>\n

“George Johnston.”\u00a0George Johnston Museum.\u00a0<\/em>George Johnston Museum. n.d. Web. May 14, 2015. <http:\/\/www.gjmuseum.yk.net\/gjohnston.html>.<\/p>\n

Picturing a People: George Johnston, Tlingit Photographer.\u00a0<\/em>Dir. Carol Geddes. Nutaaq Media, 1997. DVD.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hello, reader! I’m Mattias Martens, a student of English 470A, Canadian Literary Genres. I was born to a first-generation German mother and a Mennonite father whose ancestors had fled to Canada for fear of the Bolshevik Revolution, and I now study topics of interest at UBC with a nominal major in Computer Science. In this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31769,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/centresofmass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/centresofmass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/centresofmass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/centresofmass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31769"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/centresofmass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/centresofmass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/centresofmass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions\/7"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/centresofmass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/centresofmass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/centresofmass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}