Culjak, Toni A. ‘Searching For A Place In Between: The Autobiographies Of Three Canadian Métis Women’. American Review of Canadian Studies 31.1-2 (2001): 137-157. Web.

 

In her article, The Autobiographies of Three Canadian Metis Women, Toni Culjak focuses on Maria Campbell’s Halfbreed, Lee Maracle’s Bobbi Lee: Indian Rebel and Jane Willis’s Geniesh: An Indian Girlhood. The three novels are autobiographical stories of three young women discovering their identity as Métis people in Canada. Each of these authors grew up in different circumstances: Campbell was part of a Métis community, Maracle grew up in urban Vancouver across from a reserve and Willis grew up surrounded by First Nations people in the fur trade. This article summarizes each autobiography using elements which are common among the novels, but also elements which are emphasized by the girl’s upbringing. Culjak begins with describing their parents, their schools, and then their search for identity away from home.

Although the three women come from very different backgrounds, Culiak is able to find similarities in their experiences of racism, loneliness, and the search to find a place in which community belonging is possible. Culjak’s analysis demonstrates how the women’s upbringing influenced their journey to discover their identity as First Nations people, and what each of these stories has in common, despite their differences. For Campbell, who was raised in a traditional Métis community, finding her identity was about discovering a sense of solidarity with her people.  Lee Maracle, who did not associate herself with First Nations culture as a child found a greater purpose later in life by becoming involved in sixties radical politics and joining the Native Alliance for Red Power.  Jane Willis, who was raised within First Nations culture, went to an Anglican boarding school which, like all residential schools, tried to rid her of her identity, embedding her with a hate for White superiority.  Over time, a part of her discovering her Métis heritage was partially accepting her Scottish heritage as well.  This relates to our topic because it represents the dispersion of Metis culture,  for some  finding the in-between state was about accepting one culture or the other in a world internalized with racism (for both cultures) to find the in-between state.These women’s stories represent the difficulties of the forceful and abrupt system in which the government labels its citizens as “Indian” or “White” and what it is to travel between both worlds.

Culiak emphasizes elements of the text from each autobiography, to help us as readers understand how Métis culture is underrepresented within Canadian society. A theme which is presented in all three texts is the dichotomy of having to choose whether to assimilate to “White” culture or to become “Indian” (I say this lightly as some of the authors identify themselves as Indian after they discover what it mean to identify as a Métis person, others identify as strictly Métis). These narratives emphasize the sense of being stuck in a place of “in-between”, of being neither here nor there.  In Willis’s autobiography, we are able to see how the Indian Act has a crucial effect on women: how the social acceptance of the Indian Act also influences social expectations of how one should look or act as an “Indian”. The location, or rather re-location, of all three women’s different upbringing had an impact on how they viewed themselves and as to whether they identified more with their First Nations culture or whether they tried to assimilate to the culture surrounding them.  Culjak highlights these three autobiographies that present a raw experience of a Metis woman in Canadian society, all three autobiographies are a huge asset to the Metis literary community.

 

Bibliography

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McGuire, Patricia D. “Wiisaakodewikwe Anishinaabekwe Diabaajimotaw Nipigon Zaaga’Igan: Lake Nipigon Ojibway Metis Stories about Women.” Canadian Woman Studies 26.3 (2008): 217-22. ProQuest. 10 Aug. 2015 .

Rymhs, Deena. From The Iron House. Waterloo, Ont.: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2008. Print.

Canadian-writers.athabascau.ca,. ‘Maria Campbell : Canadian Writers : Faculty Of Humanities & Social Sciences : Athabasca University – Focused On The Future Of Learning’. N.p., 2015. Web. 9 Aug. 2015.

Bonikowsky, Laura. ‘Lee Maracle’. The Canadian Encyclopedia. N.p., 2001. Web. 9 Aug. 2015.

Socialisthistory.ca,. ‘Red Power In Canada’. N.p., 2015. Web. 9 Aug. 2015.

Metisnation.ca,. ‘Citizenship | Métis National Council’. N.p., 2015. Web. 9 Aug. 2015.