Assignment 3.7: Decoding King 

For this assignment, I will decode the first 10 pages of Green Grass Running Water. I used an online version so page numbers might be different, but it is the first 10 pages of the story.  I liked discussing different creation stories in this course, so there is no better place to start than at the beginning of this story. I decided to focus on characters and on symbols in the story and the things they can reference. 

Prologue (Pages 1-2)

“So. In the beginning, there was nothing. Just the water” (1). In the prologue, it is Coyote’s dream where Dog mistakes himself as GOD.  In the first line King already referenced creation stories by talking about what was there at the “beginning”. The water in the very beginning is important too because water is one of the most important symbols in indigenous culture. Water is the base of life and Indigenous cultures see water as sacred. King says there was “nothing. Just the water” at the start and this is a “contrary” (see Flick,144) because water is not seen as useless for Indigenous people. Water is connected to women in Indigenous culture, because they give birth like mother nature gives water. Later in GGRW, the characters are connected to female characters from indigenous traditions. “There is water everywhere”, “so there is” maybe is referencing indigenous movements where women want to get involved in the governance and protection of water as a material and spiritual resource. 

King calls the Dream “silly”, “loud” and “noisy” in contrast to Coyote who calls himself “smart”, “important” and has things “under control” (2). This is to satirize erasure of Indigenous spiritual ways of knowing and stories, because it is actually Coyote who becomes confused and gets things “backwards” (2), alluding to colonialism dismissing stories and dreams as invalid. Dreams and imagination are famous parts of many cultures. Flick says in her reading notes, dreams are an important part of indigenous culture and spirituality, and are used to determine where best to hunt and to make predictions of the future (143). Setting up the story in a dream sequence resists the western way of understanding the world that is dependent on empirical knowing by introducing spirituality and dreams as lenses through which our perspective of reality is created. This reminds me of the importance of imagination in my own culture’s creation story of Nu Wa, and an important text Dream of the Red Chamber that includes NuWa. 

The capitalisation changes several times (dream→ Dream; Dream eyes→ Dream Eyes; coyote→ Coyote; Coyote’s dream→ Coyote Dream; etc.(1,2)), challenging the assumption that reality can be captured objectively by language/spelling. Resisting capitalization rules resists colonial projects such as Residential Schools, that stripped Indigenous children of their right to learn and maintain their native languages, cultures, beliefs, worldviews and religions. 

Part 1 

Page 4

In the beginning of Part 1, we are introduced to the characters Lionel and Norma. Norma choosing her carpet colour is important. The two colours are connected to the Earth and carpet is what humans put on the floor. Lionel, who Norma accuses of being “white” and “sounding just like those politicians in Edmonton. Always telling us what we can’t do”, and saying a carpet mistake “you got to live with it for a long time” (4). Here, King references land treaties between the government and First Nations (telling them what they can’t do/can’t own) and lots of disputes between the government and Indigenous people, about environmental and land concerns with oil sands in Alberta. Indigenous knowledge is often not prioritised in large economic projects like oil sands. 

Pages 4-9

The four characters are fighting to tell the story right. Lone Ranger restarts many times, the others say that he should not tell the “wrong” story. King is satirizing western emphasis on truth and fact, and disrupting western narrative traditions where the story should be written smoothly. Disrupting western traditions of storytelling reminded me of when we discussed “The Truth About Stories”. We are reminded of the importance of listening and learning from Indigenous ways of knowing. 

Alberta is teaching about the US government project in 1874. No one is really listening. Alberta’s character is a clear allusion to the province, to the land of Alberta. Alberta is teaching about historical injustices toward indigenous people and most of the students are not paying attention. King is referencing how in Canada the government and people continue to ignore or push aside Indigenous issues. Also, Alberta’s last name is Frank, so she is always frank (Flick, 144), and so what she is teaching is important and true, even if it is dismissed by the others. 

Pages 9-12

Sergeant Cereno is questioning Babo. Outside Babo notices there is water. The sergeant insists on calling Babo by her last name, Ms. Jones, while the narrator keeps using Babo. The Sergeant insists on linear storytelling with facts, and gets frustrated when Babo’s story is not linear and when she adds details and other thoughts. Babo is connected to slavery and ships, so it is another symbol of resistance to colonisation (Flick, 145). The more she resists this western storytelling way that Cereno wants, the more the water comes up outside. As I mentioned, water is sacred in Indigenous culture, and connected to women and their importance in Indigenous society. The water rises as Babo resists Cereno’s insistence on telling her story his way, and as he finally accepts the way she is telling it. This can be a symbol for Indigenous women’s movements to regain governance rights of water resources. 

King makes so many references and allusions in GGRW. All the connections in GGRW remind us that Indigenous history, culture and storytelling is important and should be heard in Canada. 

 

References

Cave, Kate and Shianne McKay. “Water Song: Indigenous Women and Water”. The Solutions Journal. Volume 6, Issue 6. 64-73. November 2016. Web. Retrieved from https://www.thesolutionsjournal.com/article/water-song-indigenous-women-water/

“Dream of the Red Chamber”. Wikipedia. Nd. Web. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dream_of_the_Red_Chamber#Plot_summary

Flick, Jane. “Reading Notes for Thomas King’s Green Grass, Running Water.” Canadian Literature 161/162 (1999). Web. April 4th 2013.

Hanson, Erin. “The Residential School System”. Indigenous Foundations UBC. 2009. Webpage. Retrieved from https://indigenousfoundations.arts.ubc.ca/the_residential_school_system/

Hussey, Ian, Nicole Hill and Angele Alook. “Ten things to know about Indigenous people and resource extraction in Alberta”. Parkland Institute. June 21 2017. Blog post. Retrieved from https://www.parklandinstitute.ca/ten_things_to_know_about_indigenous_people_and_resource_extraction_in_alberta

King, Thomas. Green Grass Running Water. (1993). Toronto: Harper Collins, 1994. 

“The Fort Marion Prisoners”. Native American Netroots. February 24 2012. Web. Retrieved from http://nativeamericannetroots.net/diary/1269

“Treaty No. 6 Recognition Day”. City of Edmonton. 2019. Webpage. Retrieved from https://www.edmonton.ca/attractions_events/schedule_festivals_events/treaty-six-recognition-day.aspx