O’Brien, Susie. “‘Please Eunice, Don’t Be Ignorant’: The White Reader As Trickster In Lee Maracle’s Fiction.” Canadian Literature 144.(1995): 82-96. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 8 Aug. 2015.

In her article, O’Brien uses Lee Maracle‘s cannon or work to elucidate the changing perception of native writing in contemporary discourse, and to articulate the place in which Metis authors locate themselves, or are located, within this frame. She draws from tropes and elements such as the Trickster, as well as engages in other author analysis of the nature of the value of native writing on a national scale. O’Brien notes a salient fixture of native writing comes in the form of the Trickster, and Maracle is not immune to that- “ Maracle undermines the freedom to the reader to ‘become the trickster’ by emphasizing the reality of a world so rigidly and unequally divided” (82). Unequally divided. Sound familiar?

Maracle also plays with the idea the Trickster himself is ..” often tricked, usually through an attempt to overreach capabilities” (83). We can therefore use the trickster as a metaphor for the European, or white ethnocentric lens that literature, even world literature (in most cases, especially) is viewed, and how native writers are not ignorant to that. One strategy we see used in a lot of native writing is postmodernism. Gerald Vizenor claims that this literary culture can help First Nation literature as it “ liberates imagination and widens the audience for tribal literatures”. Indeed, by breaking works down into story, therefore stripping back the anthropology readers preconceive “ frees up a much needed space for compelling narratives” (87). In this way, native writing can become more digestible, and act as a catalyst for the movement of native writing for public consumption and credibility. It is said that the writer “ trust [the audience] will draw useful lesson from this story” (88) and, native writers are no different. As the title of the article suggests, the fact the Maracle puts the average white reader in a trickster position is indicative of an attempt at social didacticism. Usually, Tricksters are led to demise through “…their own image and reflection the see and love” (87). This can suggest the negative aspects of a history of colonialism, xenophobia and appropriation, and “ may be seen as a metonymic of the subsumption of native culture into European..literary theory” (88).

I found this article particularly applicable to our topic as it showcases strategies used by Metis writers to get their voices heard, not just for them, but for First Nation artists and other artists that challenge to white washed libraries the still prevail today. By blending magical realism, postmodernism and gumption, Maracle is able to locate herself in a domain overpowered by many Tricksters. I’ll leave you with this quote, that I think O’Brien uses to perfectly highlight Maracle’s intention: “ In order to become empowered by Maracle’s writing, the reader, too, has the relinquish the comforts of safety” (94).

Works Cited

“Gerald Vizenor.” Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation. Web. 8 Aug. 2015.

Gruber, Eva.”Humor in Contemporary Native North American Literature.” Google Books. Web. 9 Aug. 2015.

Hancock, Brendan. “An Interview with Lee Maracle.” CWILA Canadian Women In The Literary Arts. 23 Mar. 2015. Web. 8 Aug. 2015.

Lavoie-Mathieu, Genevieve. “CANADA’S FIRST NATIONS: A HISTORY OF INEQUALITY.” The Media Co-op: Independent Local News. Web. 8 Aug. 2015

“Poem | Lee Maracle | Aboriginal Apology | Residential Schools.” YouTube. YouTube, 11 Apr. 2014. Web. 9 Aug. 2015.

Fagan, Kristina. “‘Well Done Old Half Breed Woman’: Lydia Campbell And The Labrador Literary Tradition.” Papers Of The Bibliographical Society Of Canada/Cahiers De La Société Bibliographique Du Canada 48.1 (2010): 49-76. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 8 Aug. 2015.

This essay is taken out of a larger anthology called The Papers Of The Bibliographical Society of Canada, which deals with the history, description and transmission of texts in all media throughout the country. Fagan chronicles the life of maritime writer Lydia Campbell, and her rise to posterity in her home province. What is of particular interest though, is that while well known and influential in Labrador, Campbell is virtually unknown throughout the other provinces. Fagan describes Campbell’s stories as becoming “founding stories that define what it is to be Metis “ (72), and instrumental in many individual’s upbringing in her community. Mostly a celebration of her life and career, Fagan also converses with the many people Campbell has influenced, whether they be writers or not, to represent how an artist can touch the lives of anyone. This is particularly important when talking about diaspora and the denial of importance in a community: here we have evidence of community wide influence, “a long time and profound impact in terms of local identity, sense of history and practices of reading and writing “ (50) but we don’t see evidence of that on a larger scale due to the failure to comply with the majority’s idea of commendable, significant literature.

Of course, today many Metis authors who would have been considered esoteric are making their mark on international literary consciousness, Joseph Boyden being one of them. Yet we still have a long way to go in terms of striking he balance between what voices are considered to matter. This essay reminds us of the many native writers in the past, and today, who are making strides but still struggling to find their voice amidst oppression and attempts at making them invisible.

Works Cited

Bibliographical Society of Canada. Web. 9 Aug. 2015.

Bland, Jared. “Joseph Boyden Tackles Native Torture, Colonial Amnesia and Ongoing Racism.” The Globe and Mail. Web. 9 Aug. 2015.

“Lydia Campbell.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web. 8 Aug. 2015.

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

IDI Nationwide,. Lee Maracle, Award Winning Author. 2014. Web. 11 Aug. 2015.

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

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.

Welsh, Christine. “Voices of the Grandmothers: Reclaiming a Métis Heritage.” Canadian Literature 131.131 (1991): 15.

“Voices of the Grandmothers: Reclaiming a Métis Heritage.” is an article written by Christine Welsh about her acceptance of her Métis background through the oral stories and histories she compiled while researching Métis heritage. Christine Welsh is an Associate Professor at the University of Victoria and a Métis documentary filmmaker and writer. Welsh’s article in Canadian Literature is about the importance of native oral history “as an ancient yet viable form of human discourse that encompasses the entire story of a people, both past and present”.

“Voices of the Grandmothers: Reclaiming a Métis Heritage.” is extremely evocative of the importance of oral traditions. The article is based on Welsh’s discovery of her own appreciation for her heritage and the culmination in a lifetime of work geared towards spreading Métis voices. Welsh brings up the idea that what we would define as myths are in fact “the embodiment of history as native people perceive it”  an important revelation that helps us understand the importance of stories for Métis peoples. Story-telling leads to story-writing as we strive to put our narratives and history into writing. Welsh’s article looks at her research into her own ancestry and by understanding her own background she begins to learn about others. Welsh looks at how loss of language, due to children being removed from their families to be “educated”, and how these children were thus unable to understand their stories, and their heritage. Welsh outlines the need to “record and preserve this tradition” in order to help children and descendants understand these stories and myths. Welsh uses the example of her ancestor, Margaret Taylor, as an example of how her voice was lost because she left no written record and Welsh was thus left to rely on secondary sources and records in order to find out about her life. It is stories, learnt from others, from books, and from family members which help us learn about our heritage.

Welsh’s article is extremely important in looking at both the importance of oral traditions and the importance of writing these down in order to preserve them so that others can learn and remember them. According to Welsh native women are “engaged in creating a new history, our history, using our own voices and experiences. And as we raise our voices — as we write, sing, teach, make films — we do so with the certainty that we are speaking not only for ourselves but for those who came before us whom history has made mute” (Welsh 24).

Works Cited

LaRoque, Emma. “The Métis in English Canadian Literature.” The Canadian Journal of Native Studies 3.1 (1983): 85.

McGonegal, Julie. “Reimagining Canada: An Interview with Joseph Boyden on Metis Identity, Storytelling, and Public History.” Postcolonial Text 7.2 (2012): 8.

Brown, Jennifer S. H. “Métis.” The Canadian Encyclopedia. Ed. Adam Gaudry. Historica Canada, 01 July 2009. Web. 10 Aug. 2015.

Jennifer S. H. Brown’s article for the Canadian Encyclopedia, titled simply “Métis” is a starting point for our investigations into Métis stories and writing. The Canadian Encyclopedia is an encyclopedia which allows everyone to learn about Canada, its people, and its history. Jennifer S. H. Brown is a Professor of History at the University of Winnipeg and was the Canada Research Chair for Aboriginal Peoples and Histories in 2004. The articles was revised by Adam Gaudry, an Assistant Professor at the University of Sasatchewan who is also Métis. Due to the unique pairing of Brown and Gaudry this article is not only indicative of Métis history and identity from the perception of a non-Métis individual, but also that of a Métis individual.

While Brown begins by defining Métis as “people of mixed European and Indigenous ancestry” the article shows us more than simple definitions by going systematically through history. Brown and Gaudry look at different Métis communities, for example the Great Lakes Communities and the Western Métis and their individual histories. The article emphasizes that “Métis identity is not simply the result of a dual heritage, but rather a matter of possessing a singular cultural heritage of dual origins”. Thus highlighting that there is no single definition of Métis, that it is a more “fluid” (Peressini 87) definition depending on one’s history and identity. To be Métis means to have “Métis heritage” even if one is of Cree and French-Canadian descent. In order to look at Métis stories it is important to understand this kind of information especially for someone who may not have previous knowledge of the Métis community and its history. The article not only outlines Métis history but draws the reader into the present with the Daniels v. Canada case – an appeal by Métis leader, Harry Daniels – and its potential far reaching consequences with regards to modern day Métis organizations. The historical narrative provided by this article

This article is integral to beginning research about Métis writings by giving the reader a summarized but descriptive overview of Métis history. It also helps one realize that Métis history and identity is complex and intricate and, as evidenced by the comments, cannot be defined in one way. It helps one to understand the idea of “belonging in more than one place, time, memory, and body” (McCall 38) by showing the many aspects of Canada. As communities move, disperse, and change so do peoples’ experiences and this article allows us a view of different Métis communities. The addition of comments at the bottom of the article also allow the reader to see the differences in Métis identity and its definition. In order to understand where stories and writings come from it is important to first understand the history and identity of the people who write them.

Works Cited

Chartrand, Larry N., Tricia E. Logan, and Judy D. Daniels. Métis History and Experience and Residential Schools in Canada. Ottawa: Aboriginal Healing Foundation, 2006. Print.

Peressini, Sabrina. “From ‘Great Lakes Metis’ to ‘Aboriginal People of Canada’: The Changing Identity of Canadian Metis During the Eighteenth, Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries.” The Canadian Student Journal of Anthropology 14.1 (2000): 87-107. Print.

Vowel, Chelsea. “You’re Métis? So Which of Your Parents Is an Indian?” Web log post. âpihtawikosisân. WordPress, 20 Dec. 2011. Web. 10 Aug. 2015.

This blog post encapsulates the idea of Métis identity through the eyes of a Métis person. Her blog post answers questions – that people have asked her and that she has answered herself – about the complexities of Métis identity and the distinctions between different perceptions of Métis which allow us a clearer idea of what it means to be Métis. 

Lundgren, Jodi. ‘Being A Half-Breed” Discourses Of Race And Cultural Syncreticity In The Works Of Three Metis Women Writers’. Canlit. N.p., 2015. Web. 7 Aug. 2015.

In her article Lundgren uses three texts written by Metis women. One of the women Maria Campbell who wrote the famous novel Halfbreeds, offers particular insight into the struggle of growing up between two cultures. The article also exemplifies Lee Maracle, who wrote I am woman as well as Beatrice Culleton, who wrote April Raintree. Similarities are drawn between the three different texts as all the women struggle to choose which culture to identify with. There is an emphasis on outward appearance, of the three women some are fairer skinned than others. Some are taught by adults that if they are fair skinned, they should deny their First Nations heritage, this was a similarity found within all three novels. “Either become the drunken Indian or assimilate” (Lundgren,63). The article closes with the need to combine both cultures.

As we are examining the cultural divide or rather cohesion within Metis culture, this article emphasizes that at the beginning of these three women’s cultural journeys they felt they had to pick whether to assimilate or fulfill the stereotype of the First Nations people post residential schools. These women shed light on the knowledge gap between First Nations and Metis people, as well as the lack of community and political recognition, which metis people receive. What I find interesting about this article is that it begins by removing skin tone from ethnicity. Lundgren begins the article by placing race and ethnicity on separate plains, she emphasizes removing labels to try and avoid race superiority and internalised discrimination, or rather the avoidance of such. The idea of “white versus non-native”(67) is a major theme presented in from all three novelists.

Bibliography

APTN Digital Nations,. Maria Campbell. 2009. Web. 7 Aug. 2015.

Egan, Susanna. ‘The Book Ofjessica: The Healing Circle Of A Woman’s Autobiography’. Canlit. N.p., 2015. Web. 8 Aug. 2015.

Heikkilä, Verna. ‘Blankets Of Shame: Emotional Representation In Maria Campbell’S Half-Breed – Verna Heikkilä – Helsinki English Studies: Electronic Journal’. Blogs.helsinki.fi. N.p., 2015. Web. 10 Aug. 2015.

Hulan, Renee. ‘Book Review | In Search Of April Raintree. Critical Edition. By Beatrice Culleton Mosionier And Cheryl Suzack | Canadian Literature’. Canlit.ca. N.p., 2015. Web. 8 Aug. 2015.

Brown, Jennifer. ‘Métis’. The Canadian Encyclopedia. N.p., 2001. Web. 12 Aug. 2015.

âpihtawikosisân,. ‘Got Status? Indian Status In Canada, Sort Of Explained.’. N.p., 2011. Web. 12 Aug. 2015.