From Far and Wide

2. Coyote Pedagogy is a term sometimes used to describe King’s writing strategies (Margery Fee and Jane Flick). Discuss your understanding of the role of Coyote in the novel.

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The character of the Coyote in Thomas King’s novel Green Grass, Running Water isn’t what one thinks of when they imagine the role of a teacher. He is mischievous, energetic, constantly rushing from one tale to the next, like a frustrated child who is done with the current lesson and wants to move on to the next. Yet, King adds Coyote into the novel not only as a companion to us, who are also learning, but as a guide. Coyote teaching is a method of teaching intended to “spark curiosity and create a self-directed learning experience that teaches the student how to seek answers on their own versus becoming dependent on a teacher” (Children of the Earth Foundation).

His duel personality, between teacher and student, is mirrored in a major theme of the novel: borders. King himself crosses many borders, being a Native story teller of German, Greek, and Cherokee descent. His novel is a hodgepodge of Native creation stories and European characters, and styles of writing. The entire book is infused with the idea of crossing borders, blurring lines, and mixing cultures while maintaining the elements that are fundamental to each. The Native trickster acts as a bridge for King, connecting the mythical creation stories to contemporary tales.

While I did think of Wile E. Coyote, as Dr. Patterson mentioned happens to be a common connection between the two characters, I associated the Coyote more with the Norse God of Loki. Like Coyote, Loki is a trickster God, and a transformer of shape, species, and gender. Like Loki, Coyote’s gender is a bit ambiguous, and his childish mannerisms are one only way in which he shape shifts. He is a teacher, a leader, walking us through these stories, but only hinting at where we should look, and never telling us. He wants us to find our own way, and so directs us as if he is learning the way himself.

While I tried to stay away from the comparisons of Wile E. Coyote to the Native trickster God, I couldn’t help but see the similarities between the way the two repeat a story, over and over again, each time with a slightly different twist. Wile E. does the same, repeating his task of catching the Road Runner, each time devising a new and different approach. This cyclical repetition of the story is represented in the Medicine Wheel as well. Life doesn’t end so much as it cycles around, changing slightly as it reaches different spokes on the wheel.

Works Cited

“Coyote Teaching”. Children of the Earth Foundation. Web. 11 March, 2015. http://www.cotef.org/about-us/coyote-teaching

King, Thomas. Green Grass, Running Water. Toronto: HarperPerennial Canada, 1999. Print.

“Loki.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 5 March, 2015. Web. 11 March, 2015. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loki

2] In this lesson I say that it should be clear that the discourse on nationalism is also about ethnicity and ideologies of “race.” If you trace the historical overview of nationalism in Canada in the CanLit guide, you will find many examples of state legislation and policies that excluded and discriminated against certain peoples based on ideas about racial inferiority and capacities to assimilate. – and in turn, state legislation and policies that worked to try to rectify early policies of exclusion and racial discrimination. As the guide points out, the nation is an imagined community, whereas the state is a “governed group of people.” For this blog assignment, I would like you to research and summarize one of the state or governing activities, such as The Royal Proclamation 1763, the Indian Act 1876, Immigration Act 1910, or the Multiculturalism Act 1989 – you choose the legislation or policy or commission you find most interesting. Write a blog about your findings and in your conclusion comment on whether or not your findings support Coleman’s argument about the project of white civility.

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The Immigration Act, 1910 in Canada was an extension of the Immigration Act, 1906 to allow for any governor-in-council to “arbitrarily prohibit the landing of any immigrant deemed unsuited to the climate or requirements of Canada.” (Canadian Museum of Immigration). The new provisions of the act allowed stricter regulation on who was allowed into Canada, and what restrictions were placed upon them once admitted.

The Act established the status of a domicile, or permanent resident, as well. Before being considered for this status, immigrating persons had to wait three years in which they were at risk of being deported if a judge ruled them “undesirable”. Undesirable immigrants included prostitutes, pimps, vagrants and inmates of jails, hospitals and insane asylums. Any persons found guilty of attempting public disorder, or political dissidents advocating an overthrow of the government were also subject to deportation.

In this way David Coleman who wrote White Civility: The Literary Project of English Canada was right in his argument about the project of white civility. Canada did not want to take on any immigrants who would weaken their idea of a proper, contributing member of society. Those who were not of “stable mind” were not allowed through the borders, and a fee of $25 was placed upon both men and women upon arrival in order to ensure financial stability. This fee was raised to $200 for men and women of Asiatic origin. The blatant discrimination was a racial control of the population by the government, further backing up Coleman’s claim that such literary personifications of Canadian Nationality “mediated and gradually reified the privileged, normative status of British whiteness in English Canada” (Coleman 6-7, quoted by Dr. Paterson). When these notions are expressed, especially in the country’s laws, the mentality of descrimination is normalized and considered “natural”, based on the ethnic majority of Causation immigrants. Coleman is justified in his argument that the idea of nation is fictionalized in this sense, and that Canadians need to “be reminded of the brutal histories that our fictive ethnicity would disavow” (Coleman 9, quoted by Dr. Paterson).

Works Cited

Coleman, David. White Civility: The Literary Project of English Canada. University of Toronto Press, 2006. Web. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/ubc/detail.action?docID=10218812

“Immigration Act, 1910.” Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21. Web. 28 Feb, 2105. http://www.pier21.ca/research/immigration-history/immigration-act-1910

Paterson, Erika. “Lesson 3.1”. English 470A Canadian Studies: Canadian Literary Genres.  UBC Blogs. Web. 28 Feb, 2015. https://blogs.ubc.ca/courseblogsis_ubc_engl_470a_99c_2014wc_44216-sis_ubc_engl_470a_99c_2014wc_44216_2517104_1/unit-3/lesson-3-1/

3) In order to address this question you will need to refer to Sparke’s article, “A Map that Roared and an Original Atlas: Canada, Cartography, and the Narration of Nation.” You can easily find this article online. Read the section titled: “Contrapuntal Cartographies” (468 – 470). Write a blog that explains Sparke’s analysis of what Judge McEachern might have meant by this statement: “We’ll call this the map that roared.”

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In 1987 the case of “Delgamuukw vs. B.C” went to trial regarding the “legitimacy” of the land claims made by two First Nations groups. The Gitxsan and Wet’suwet’en brought the case to court hoping for recognition of their native sovereignty. A map was brought forward in order to appeal to the traditions of those who would be ultimately in charge of the final decision, or as Sparke wrote in his article, to “outline their own sovereignty in a way the Canadian court might understand”(Sparke 468).

There is a confusion when one culture’s legal system is used to determine the legitimacy of another culture. Can there ever be enough sufficient evidence to gain a full understanding of ownership from the perspective of another culture? Although McEachern eventually ruled against the First Nations claims, Ken Muldoe, the Gitxsan chief, voiced that it would not change the minds of the First Nations people and their connection to the land. “We do not seek a decision as to whether or our system might continue or not. It will continue” (Sparke 463, as quoted in Monet and Skanu’u).

McEachern had called the map presented to him as “the map that roared”, possibly a play on words of the novel “The Mouse that Roared”, a satirical book and movie that launched questions on modern politics and worldly situations. Chief Justice McEachern did not perhaps entirely understand the map, and could not possibly comprehend the traditions, stories, and history connected to it by the Gitxsan and Wet’suet’en, however I think he understood the impact that the map would have. He realized that this map would raise important discussions between the First Nations and the Canadian Government, causing the much needed awareness to the policies involving the two groups. In referring to the map as a “paper tiger” he “evoked the resistance to the First Nations’ remapping of the land” (Sparke 468).

Work Cited

Sparke, Matthew. “A Map that Roared and an Original Atlas: Canada, Cartography, and the Narration of Nation.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 09/1998, Volume 88, Issue 3. 15 Feb, 2015. Web. http://www.uky.edu/~tmute2/geography_methods/readingPDFs/sparke-narration.pdf

Delgamuukw vs. B.C. 1997. SCC. The Canadian Legal Information Institute. 21 Feb, 2015. Web. http://www.canlii.org/en/ca/scc/doc/1997/1997canlii302/1997canlii302.pdf

1. First stories tell us how the world was created. In The Truth about Stories, King tells us two creation stories; one about how Charm falls from the sky pregnant with twins and creates the world out of a bit of mud with the help of all the water animals, and another about God creating heaven and earth with his words, and then Adam and Eve and the Garden. King provides us with a neat analysis of how each story reflects a distinct worldview. “The Earth Diver” story reflects a world created through collaboration, the “Genesis” story reflects a world created through a single will and an imposed hierarchical order of things: God, man, animals, plants. The differences all seem to come down to co-operation or competition — a nice clean-cut satisfying dichotomy. However, a choice must be made: you can only believe ONE of the stories is the true story of creation – right? That’s the thing about creation stories; only one can be sacred and the others are just stories. Strangely, this analysis reflects the kind of binary thinking that Chamberlin, and so many others, including King himself, would caution us to stop and examine. So, why does King create dichotomies for us to examine these two creation stories? Why does he emphasize the believability of one story over the other — as he says, he purposefully tells us the “Genesis” story with an authoritative voice, and “The Earth Diver” story with a storyteller’s voice. Why does King give us this analysis that depends on pairing up oppositions into a tidy row of dichotomies? What is he trying to show us?

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I am not very well versed in the subject of Philosophy, so perhaps some students who have a background in this could extend my examples, or correct any of my misconceptions. King’s use of the dichotomy of the two stories reminded me of the philosophical idea that concepts only exist in opposition to another; we only know “up” because there is a “down”, and we know “dark” because we have “light”. The theory of Unity of Opposites is credited to Heraclitus, who suggested that opposites are, by virtue, the same thing in a changing form. We are asleep until we are awake; the two are entirely connected, yet stand in opposition to one another.

This theory even appeared in some of our stories about the creation of evil in the world. For example, in Susie’s story the creation of evil came from the need of opposites: “My sisters gifts are all good, I do not know how to add to them other then to give the gift of knowledge. May man only know each one of these things by knowing what the opposite of it is” (Carter, Blog Three). Perhaps the idea of creation through opposites is what King was trying to suggest. There are oral traditions as well as written ones, monotheistic religions as well as creation through collaboration. He warns us against believing one and ignoring the other, because it is at the intersection of these binary visions that we come to an understanding.

It is interesting to note that even in these two completely different stories we have the idea of dichotomy. In the “Water World” creation story there are twins, one black, one white, when one builds something, the other breaks it down to give it character. It is in the opposite views of these two twins that something is created. There is a similar dichotomy in the “Genesis” story. Even though there is one Creator, the only way he knows how to create is in binary form. This is good, this is evil. This is allowed, this is forbidden. I suppose the difference between the two stories is that by adding the morality in the “Genesis” story readers are taught to believe that a choice must be made. We are never asked to choose between the twins, but we must choose between good and evil in “Genesis”.

By using a different tone to tell the “Genesis” story, King attempts to make it appear as fact, rather than fiction. He attempts to make us choose which we believe is “right” and which is “wrong”. He then warns us against this choice, reminding us that we should be aware of making such a black and white judgement. After all, creation is made in the intersection of visions.

Works Cited

Carter, Susie. “Blog Three: The Stories We Tell (U1:L3)”. I’m all aboot those books. UBC Blogs. 26 Jan 2015. Web. 6 Feb 2015. <https://blogs.ubc.ca/susiecarterenglblog/2015/01/26/blog-three-the-stories-we-tell-u1-l3/>

Graham, Daniel W. “Heraclitus”. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2011 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.) <http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/heraclitus/#UniOpp>

I loved everyone’s story about home, I ended up reading nearly half of them, and will probably continue to read the rest later. I noticed a few similarities between my reflection of home, and the reflections of other students. There were a few different styles of writing, some (like myself) told mostly stories, while others analysed their experiences to understand how they related to home. However, there were a number of similar themes throughout each blog.

Family. Everyone seemed to connect our families and those who we grew up with, and raised us to be our sense of home. Parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents. All of these important people in our lives were talked about in detail in each story.

Environment. Whether it was the BC backyard, filled with images of lakes, farms, beaches, and mountains, or in another country, learning to find home in another land, or simply balancing first impressions of what home means, people seem to be able to find a sense of it where ever we go.

Pets. Our pets are our family. They are loyal to the end, and make up so many of the stories that we remember when we are older. I remember the absolute fear I felt when my dog wasn’t beside me in the middle of the night, and the guilt that I still feel, 15 years later, for having left her behind. I also remember, like others, the hilarious stories, such as finding my other dog on the roof one day, having chased our cat out the window, and another student told of her golden retriever stealing an entire chicken off the stove. I missed my dogs with an incomparable ache when I was away, and realized that they make up such a huge part of what home is to me.

House. There is a difference between our home and our house, but for many of us, the house we grew up in is still our home. Like many, while my sense of home is so much more complicated than a a physical structure, the house is what I picture when I think of home; its smells, colour, dents, and little idiosyncrasies.

Traditions. Many of us hold memories of habits, rituals, or traditions that our families had or still have when we described our sense of home. My stories are filled with traditions, and even if some of these traditions are changing, I still connect them to home.

There were a few words that were either included, or referred to in many of our recollections and tales: security, comfort, warmth, dependency, laughter, peace, journey, pain and healing, acceptance, and of course love.

Works Cited

Lemon, Leana. “How to Save Your House”. English 470 Canadian Studies. UBC Blogs. Jan 30 2015. Web. 1 Feb 2015. <https://blogs.ubc.ca/leanacanadianstudies/>

Ng, Florence. “2.1 Home is a pie chart and a couple of memories”. Maple Trees and Beaver Tails. UBC Blogs. 31 Jan 2015. Web. 1 Feb 2015. <https://blogs.ubc.ca/florenceng/>

Smith, Christie. “Home”. A Journey into Canadian Literature. 29 Jan 2015. UBC Blogs. Web. 1 Feb 2015. <https://blogs.ubc.ca/canadianjourney/>

My parents lifted us, still in our pajamas, cocooned in the warm embrace of our blankets towards the car. They buckled us in – all five – still bleary-eyed, clutching our pillows, stuffed monkey, dog, or dragon to our chests with our little hands. We would make our way to the ferry in the early morning light, my mother prepared with packed grapes, muffins, and juice for breakfast. Denman Island was where I spent the summers of my childhood. The sweet smell of wheat bleaching in the sun, mixed with the salty hints that defines the air of an island filled my little lungs, while the acres of swampy streams and gravel roads callused my small feet. The decaying barns provided an ideal jumping ground into piles of hay, and a bruised elbow or a few wasp bites soon were forgotten among the excitement of following a garter snake through the fields, watching it weave in and out of sight.

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My sister and I both woke up. It was the middle of the night and we were shaken awake by a mutual fear. I remember seeing her eyes shine in the dark room, our siblings and cousins still asleep in the beds next to us, completely unaware. Where’s Genny?

Our white standard poodle had hopped in one of the cars with us as we had, earlier, made our way to Graham Lake for a late afternoon swim. When we were all sufficiently waterlogged we piled back into the vans, our parents fretting over what to feed seven young children while we fought over seat space and prime dry-towel real estate.

My sister and I jumped out of bed. Genny? Genevieve? My dad emerged from his room. Girls? By a way of answer we both ask Where’s Genny? We call out, grabbing flashlights, throwing on shoes, stumbling out the door. The rest in the house have woken, too. Who saw her last? Did anyone see her at dinner? Whose car did she come back in? In the chaos that followed the afternoon swim, no one realized that both cars had driven away from the lake assuming that the other had the dog. My dad grabbed his keys. I sat in the back seat, whimpering and begging my dad to confirm we would find her. I don’t know, Charlie. I hope so.

It was a ten minute walk through a narrow path in the woods to get to the lake. We found her halfway down. Her eyes reflected the light off the flashlight, and she came running to us, jumping between trees. I held onto her collar the whole walk back to the car, knowing that she would never run off, but needing to have her close.

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Every summer, on the last week of August my mother’s side of the family goes to Cox Bay, Tofino, for a family reunion. She has been going since she was nine years old. Next summer will be the fiftieth summer there. She has a sister and three brother. On that side of the family there are sixteen cousins. We ran wild for a week every summer.

For those who don’t know Tofino, it can be defined by fog. There are beautiful sunny days to be sure, but my favourites were the days where we would need to dawn the resort’s oversized yellow jackets, before stomping barefoot into the shallow surf. My grandparents had a unit with a hot tub, and we would all pile in. He would belt out at the top of his lungs I’m the fattest man in Siam, yes I am! I’m the fattest man in Siam, yes I am. I’m the fattest man in Siam, there’s no fatter man than I am, I’m the fattest man in Siam, yes I am! I, to this day, do not know if this is a real song, or one he invented, but we would all join in giggling at these silly lyrics, positive that there was no greater man than our grandfather.

Long Beach. Tofino. Cox Bay. Pacific Sands. These are all names I know this place by. I know it by the smell of the mist, I know it by the sound of the waves, I know it by the rocks I used to climb when my mother wasn’t looking. When a foggy day falls on Vancouver I close my eyes, take a deep breath, and I am temporarily taken back there.

Last summer was my grandpa’s last trip to Cox Bay. We took his ashes into the water, the same spot we took my grandma years before. The grandkids sang on the way back to our units.

I’m the fattest man in Siam, yes I am ...

Coincidentally, it was also the first year that my cousin’s baby made the trip. He is the first of the next generation.

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Christmas had a routine at my house. On Christmas Eve we would have a grand feast with all of my aunts, uncles, and cousins, popping Christmas crackers and filling our bellies with turkey and chocolate. Once everyone had gone home, my mom would hand each of us a present: always a pair of new pajamas. We would try them on for my mom to compliment, then hurry off to bed, leaving ginger cookies on a plate by the fire. In the morning we would gather in my parents bedroom, and my dad would go downstairs to see if Santa had brought us anything. Every year he shouted from the bottom of the stairs “Santa didn’t come!” and every year he would climb back up, clutching five overflowing stockings, grinning ear to ear. After we had thoroughly investigated our spoils, we would gather for a picture on the stairs; our two unhappy cats held in arms, and our confused poodle at our feet. While our parents finished breakfast we played with the toys Santa had left for the family. A new doll house, or a race track, or a new guitar.

Breakfast was spectacular. My dad was the breakfast-king, and my mom was a magician in the kitchen. We would stuff ourselves with waffles, cinnamon buns, bacon, smoothies, and so much more. After we ate we would open the presents that we had bought for each other. My youngest brother would always start, handing his gifts out to the older children and our mom and dad, then it would be me, my sister, my brother, and my eldest sister last. In the afternoon we would head across the street to where my grandparents lived. They would have buns, cheese, and cold cuts set out for a light lunch while we tormented our cousin, an only child, who visited every year from Toronto. The evening would be quiet, reading new books, playing games, or just enjoying the fire and the lights on the tree.

Christmas is different now. We don’t get new pajamas, and we don’t go to my grandparents house across the street. It has been sold, and I look across every once in a while to see when the new owners are going to bring the machines that will tear it down. My siblings still come home every year for Christmas – my sister from Boston or Germany, my brother from Australia – and my dad still claims that Santa won’t come. The first year it changed, it hurt. I knew these traditions like a friend. But, I am over the hurt now. I get excited to pick my sister up from the airport, or watch our dogs cry with happiness when my brother comes home after a year away.

I have a thousand more stories I could pull up, all piecing together the mosaic that I call home. These are permanent. These are mine to keep long after this house is gone.

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Smile! On the ferry. My eldest sister far above this juvenile behaviour.

Racing cars on Christmas morning

My grandpa and his brood

Works Cited

Discover Tofino BC Canada. MyTofino.com. Web. 30 Jan 2015. <http://mytofino.com/>

“Nanimo to Denman Island”. Map. Google Maps. Google. 30 Jan 2015. Web. 30 Jan 2015. <https://www.google.ca/maps/dir/Denman+Island,+BC/Nanaimo,+BC/@49.3616062,-124.9501318,9z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m13!4m12!1m5!1m1!1s0x54886f38345fcba5:0xdf41db21a3f99369!2m2!1d-124.7981005!2d49.5629711!1m5!1m1!1s0x5488a15e20ac1c5b:0x50135152a7b0fd0!2m2!1d-123.9400647!2d49.1658836>