Welcome! My name is Colleen Fish and I am finishing up a BA with a major in Anthropology. I completed a BSc with a specialization in psychology many years ago, long before this online learning system was in existence. I am intrigued by the way in which we are having to do an online blog as it certainly has become a skill worth having in the 21st century. In addition, I am excited to begin to delve into the material for this course.
I am ashamed to admit that my knowledge related to specifically Canadian authors is limited except perhaps Douglas Coupland yet I haven’t read any of his novels. Unlike many of you, I am not an English Major and in fact, it is one of my weakest areas but I love to write. I do have an interest in First Nations and History in general due to my interest in Anthropology and my own personal ancestral background.
The course will focus on who’s stories we listen to, and those we do not along with the way in which stories are told in literature. In a past course I completed, Anthropology of Media, the way in which the image of a ‘savage, or ‘ Indian’ (First Nation/Native American) is manipulated to create a particular story such as the ‘Indian’ being close to nature and/or less ‘civilized’ (whatever that means). This becomes so much more apparent in popular culture after developing a deeper appreciation for the way stories are told/not told such as with the movie Pocahontas.
My expectations for this course mainly revolve around learning more about what constitutes Canadian literature especially as it relates to historical contexts, First Nations, and colonialism. I am looking forward to reading Chamberlin and King as well as learning more about these two influential writers as well as the other writers to be covered during the course.
Turns out I do know a Canadian author, Kelley Armstrong. She wrote the series Bitten which is about Werewolves, specifically a female werewolf which isn’t supposed to exist. There was a TV series created but has been now discontinued, or rather finished.
The SYFY TV Series – http://www.syfy.com/bitten
The Bitten Book Series – http://www.kelleyarmstrong.com/series/otherworld/
Citations
Armstrong, Kelley. Otherworld, http://www.kelleyarmstrong.com/series/otherworld/. Accessed 10 September 2016.
Disney Princess. “Dream Big Princess.” Found, Walt Disney Productions, 10 September 2016, princess.disney.com/pocahontas.
SYFY. Bitten, www.syfy.com/bitten. Accessed 10 September 2016.
Hi Colleen!
Your Anthropology of Media course sounds amazing. I really enjoyed reading your post, particularly the part about Pocahontas. For better or worse, she has always been my favourite Disney princess. I think the reasons that Pocahontas is problematic (historical inaccuracies, etc.) highlight why this course is important. I’m curious to hear your opinion about the movie and how First Nations people are portrayed within it. Does this movie contribute to a loss of cultural identity?
Hello Collen,
Welcome to our course of studies together – your blog looks good, and I think you are going to enjoy this course. I think Mika has asked you an interesting question, indeed. I look forward to reading your response. Thanks and enjoy.
Hi Colleen,
Similarly to mikauber, I think that course sounds really interesting–and I look forward to hearing how you respond to their question!
On another note, your mention of how indigenous peoples are often associated with/characterized as being “close to nature,” and less “civilized,” reminded me of a discussion I recently had in another course regarding the geographical displacement of peoples through the reserve system. For instance, the conscious placement of many reserves outside areas of “white settlement” and developing urban centres could have contributed to (problematic) perceptions of indigenous peoples being closer to nature, being “less civilized,” and, in some cases, not belonging in urban spaces, even though many indigenous people also live off of reserves and their traditional lands would have included these “urban regions.” (A summary of a few pieces of writing about it can be found here, on the second column of page 48, if you’re interested.) This has also contributed to a general lack of acknowledgement, or erasure, of reserves that are within more urban centres (e.g. the Musqueam Indian Reserve).
Did you discuss these concepts in your other course as well? Or was the focus more on current stories and media perceptions and generalizations?
On another note, your introduction of yourself, and your return to school for another degree, sparked my curiosity–why did you decide to go back to school to complete a degree in anthropology? (Please don’t worry about answering if you are not comfortable doing so and/or if you do not have the time to.)
I look forward to talking to you soon!
Hi Colleen,
Similarly to mikauber, I think that course sounds really interesting–and I look forward to hearing how you respond to their question!
On another note, your mention of how indigenous peoples are often associated with/characterized as being “close to nature,” and less “civilized,” reminded me of a discussion I recently had in another course regarding the geographical displacement of peoples through the reserve system. For instance, the conscious placement of many reserves outside areas of “white settlement” and developing urban centres could have contributed to (problematic) perceptions of indigenous peoples being closer to nature, being “less civilized,” and, in some cases, not belonging in urban spaces, even though many indigenous people also live off of reserves and their traditional lands would have included these “urban regions.” (A summary of a few pieces of writing about it can be found here, on the second column of page 48, if you’re interested.) This has also contributed to a general lack of acknowledgement, or erasure, of reserves that are within more urban centres (e.g. the Musqueam Indian Reserve).
Did you discuss these concepts in your other course as well? Or was the focus more on current stories and media perceptions and generalizations?
On another note, your introduction of yourself, and your return to school for another degree, sparked my curiosity–why did you decide to go back to school to complete a degree in anthropology? (Please don’t worry about answering f you are not comfortable doing so and/or if you do not have the time to.)
I look forward to talking to you soon!
Hi Mikayla,
Thanks for your comments!
I am not sure that the movie itself resulted in a loss of cultural identity as I feel that occurred long before the movie was produced. I liked the movie as well however a number of things bothered me about the movie. Firstly, of course the movie was in English and the “white man” and Pocahontas understood each other very quickly. Secondly, the way in which Pocahontas was portrayed in terms of dress, body shape, and even her beauty were not only stereotyping women but also First Nations.
In many ways, I believe that movies and TV in general are blamed for a lot of our societal problems such as violence, poverty, and sexism yet in my view, those existed long before movies and TV did. I feel it is a way of scapegoating and instead of attempting to come up with potential solutions, society wants to believe that the problems come from outside of human actions like the horrible actions taken by our ancestors (My father was born in Britain although my maternal line in Canada dates back over 10,000 years – I had my genetic ancestry tested) over the last 400 years in Canada and the affect it has had on those communities, cultures and peoples.
From Kaylie Higgs on Facebook – re-posted here to keep all comments in one spot.
Hi Colleen,
Similarly to mikauber, I think that course sounds really interesting–and I look forward to hearing how you respond to their question!
On another note, your mention of how indigenous peoples are often associated with/characterized as being “close to nature,” and less “civilized,” reminded me of a discussion I recently had in another course regarding the geographical displacement of peoples through the reserve system. For instance, the conscious placement of many reserves outside areas of “white settlement” and developing urban centres could have contributed to (problematic) perceptions of indigenous peoples being closer to nature, being “less civilized,” and, in some cases, not belonging in urban spaces, even though many indigenous people also live off of reserves and their traditional lands would have included these “urban regions.” (A summary of a few pieces of writing about it can be found here: http://ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/login…, on the second column of page 48, if you’re interested.) This has also contributed to a general lack of acknowledgement, or erasure, of reserves that are within more urban centres (e.g. the Musqueam Indian Reserve: http://www.musqueam.bc.ca).
Did you discuss these concepts in your other course as well? Or was the focus more on current stories and media perceptions and generalizations?
On another note, your introduction of yourself, and your return to school for another degree, sparked my curiosity–why did you decide to go back to school to complete a degree in anthropology? (Please don’t worry about answering f you are not comfortable doing so and/or if you do not have the time to.)
I look forward to talking to you soon!
Hi Kaylie,
In the class, we didn’t discuss these ideas but that certainly is interesting. I am not sure how much I agree as I think a lot of the ideas about Indigenous people regardless of the location (Canada, Australia) are associated with being “close to nature” as that is the opposite of being “civilized,” however, that is just my opinion. I totally could be wrong. The focus was more on where the generalizations came about through the way media portrayed “Indians” from the early movies all the way until PSA announcements through governments. It was very interesting and I certainly learned a lot.
I returned to school for another degree as honestly, I didn’t want to work in the mental health industry any longer (although I still am) and I want to get into research about how culture and psychology are dependent one each other and not isolated from one another. Or, I hope to end up researching culture within the mental health industry such as stigma, stereotypes and common misconceptions.
Thanks for your comments!
I tried to check out the link but it didn’t work (ezproxy.library.ubc.ca…).
Hi Colleen,
Thank you so much for your thoughtful reply and for reposting my comment here! (Most of my blog replies seem to be going to “spam” in dashboard’s comment section for some reason — sorry about that.) Based on my current understanding, I agree with you that some of those associations (natural, uncivilized, etc.) are probably rooted in longer and more broadly based assumptions and practices of “othering.”
However, I think it is interesting to reflect on how the geography of urban areas and reserves might have contributed to some of these ideas too, although the placement and geography itself may have also been affected by ideas and assumptions already present.
Also, thanks for answering my question about that course and your studies–what you’re wanting to do sounds like a really interesting and important topic to be getting into.
Thanks again!
-Kaylie
P.S. If you wanted to take a look at that article, it can be found online in the UBC library by searching: “Aboriginal people and Canadian geography: A review of the recent literature.” (I tried to paste a link for it before, but I gather it didn’t work and I think that might be why my messages went to the spam folder.)
Hi Colleen,
Thank you so much for your thoughtful reply and for reposting my comment here! (Most of my blog replies seem to be going to the “spam” comment section of the dashboard for some reason — sorry about that.) Based on my current understanding, I agree with you that some of those associations (natural, uncivilized, etc.) are probably rooted in longer assumptions and practices of “othering.”
I also think it is interesting to reflect on how the geography of urban areas and reserves might have contributed to some of these ideas too, although the placement and geography itself may have been affected by ideas and assumptions already present.
Thanks for answering my question about that course and your studies–what you’re wanting to do sounds like a really interesting and important topic to be getting into.
Thanks again!
-Kaylie
P.S. If you wanted to take a look at that article, it can be found online in the UBC library by searching: “Aboriginal people and Canadian geography: A review of the recent literature.” (I tried to paste a link for it before, but I gather it didn’t work and I think that might be why my messages went to the spam folder.)
Hi Kaylie,
So for some reason your posts appeared in my spam. Not sure why but I have marked them as not spam. Strange as they weren’t there when I checked last, a few days ago.
I probably have some setting set in some way for something that I can’t figure out. Haven’t really done this blog thing much before.
Cheers,
Colleen
Hi Colleen,
Thank you so much for doing that! I’m sorry about any multiple posts or inconvenience that caused. :p Technology seems to do that kind of thing to me sometimes (e.g. posts vanish) and there’s a good chance it wasn’t any of your setting. (I’m guessing that those comments took a temporary vacation, or got lost, somewhere on the internet before wandering back here.)
Anyhow, thanks again for your help and patience!
All the best,
Kaylie
Hi Colleen
I enjoyed reading your introduction 🙂 I too am not a English major student and actually think it is one of my weaker subjects but my interest in the First Nations content and focus is what drew me to this course.
I thought that choosing Pocahontas as the example of stories told and untold is a great choice because there is plenty of discourse around this film and more specifically, this story. When this story first came up in one of my college classes I honestly didn’t remember being offended by at as a child but instead that it was one of my favorite movies even though my mom did not like it (which confused me then but not anymore). So I looked into the movie again after that class and among the online presence of “pocahontas'” story I re-watched some of the Disney version https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oEWA7UglB4 After this watching this song with my peers I wondered why I never thought it was bad or wrong as I do now. Now I question my contrasting opinions again and wonder: Is this how I want my daughter to think of her culture or cultures like hers? Here are a couple more links on Pocahontas’ representation and story:
http://www.ancient-origins.net/history-famous-people/true-story-pocahontas-not-told-disney-002285
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/10/21/ubc-pocahontas-chant_n_4137570.html
Again, enjoyed your blog post 🙂
Samantha M