Month: January 2020

We were lost, sitting in the middle of an endless string of lakes in Southern Ontario. We started our canoe trip at the local marina that morning after packing everything we thought we might need for what should have been a relatively short trip. Emergency boat kits, water, snacks and two maps but at the moment, none of that preparation was helping.

I had mapped the route out that morning with my Grandpa. He showed me the location of the marina on the map.

“This is where I’m going to drop you off” he said pointing at the map. I would later find out that the map was over twenty years old. “From there, you only have one job” he said looking me in the eye “make it to this passage here”. The passage was clear across the lake from the marina, simple enough to find. “Once you make it through the portage here, just follow the lakes and you’ll make it back”. “But, if you take this passage here” he pointed to a passage. The passage was also across the lake from the marina but to the left of our route. “Tell me where you end up” he said expectantly. I studied the map. I was fourteen years old and desperate to be the responsible guide that led my family through the trip. I also wanted to be ready to argue with my mom and Aunt when they informed me I was wrong about the direction we should be going.

“If we take that route” I said hesitantly “it looks like we would canoe North, it never links back to our destination lake”.

“Exactly” he said “I don’t know that area very well so I won’t be able to find you there”.

“Don’t worry Grandpa” I said “I’m keeping the map in my canoe”.

Of course, you already know how well that went…

If we had counted how many times we portaged we would have realized that we should only have done it three times before seeing a familiar lake not six, and counting. If we asked anyone what lake we were on when we waved at passers by, they might have told us and we may have found it on the map. If we had stopped to think for even one second during our trip we might have realized that something wasn’t right about a two hour trip turning into a four hour trip. But we didn’t because this was home. We canoed and laughed and canoed and talked and canoed and explored and portaged and portaged and portaged. We were so focused on our surroundings, the pace of our paddling and the good company that we never realized how far we had strayed.

For those that haven’t guessed yet, we took the second passage just slightly to the left of our route. We were lost from the moment we started paddling but it never felt that way. Even while lost, I had never felt more at home.

At portage number seven we hit a wall, almost literally. Normally we portaged gravel roads, rapids, trails and occasionally a crudely paved road. There was one highway on our route and we knew it like the back of our hands, this was not that road. This road was freshly paved over a bridge with hand rails lining the sides. On the other side of the bridge was the equivalent of a subdivision of cottages lining the lake side by side. It was like nothing I had ever seen. A man was parked by the side of the road with a fishing pole in his hand. I would tell you that we asked him where we were and that he told us the name of the lake which wasn’t familiar at all. I would also explain how we tried calling my Grandpa to pick us up but he didn’t know where we were either. I can’t tell you any details because I don’t remember. I was mystified at the new lake, the discovery that we had been lost from the jump and the lingering sense that I still felt at home in this new area though I couldn’t tell you where it is and I haven’t been back since.

I feel at home anywhere my family is, anywhere with water, anywhere with nature and anywhere with slippers. Home, to me, is a feeling. I have never been attached to any one location, house, etc. I have places that I am fonder of then others but for me, above all else, home is the feeling I get from the people I love most.

Work Cited

“Algonquin Park Almaguin Highlands Muskoka and Parry Sound” Ontario Canada, https://www.ontariotravel.net/en/explore/map?types=|1|2|3|4|701001&region=12&lat=45.548125&lng=-78.862169&zoom=8. Accessed 27 Jan 2020.

Callan, Kevin. “The Pain of Portaging” Paddling.com, https://paddling.com/learn/the-pain-of-portaging/. Accessed 27 Jan 2020.

The world was at war. It had been ever since Abby was born and since long before anyone lucky enough to be alive could remember. Countries no longer existed, alliances had long since fallen and no one could remember words like armistice, let alone peace. No one could remember why the war started or what the current fighting was about but Abby knew. Abby was told a story long ago about the catalyst of the endless war. Her Grandmother told her before she died and Abby had remembered ever since. Abby had made sure to remember because her Grandmother was one of the few who had lived past 20 and had first hand knowledge of the past. In fact she had made it to 50 and was seen as the keeper of history as any written records had been burned or destroyed and everyone had given up trying to remember long ago.

Grandmother’s story went like this.

Once upon a time the world was different. People were happy, they could agree and arguments did not lead to violence. Then one sunny day, a Trickster descended and he was bored. Everyone was living harmoniously and it didn’t suit him, he wanted some entertainment. Sometimes if he was bored he would throw a stone at someone and blame someone else or trip someone as they walked down the street but this amusement only lasted so long. He decided to pull out his greatest trick yet. From every person he took something special, their Understanding. He traveled the world collecting Understanding and as he did so, he watched the world slowly unravel. Without their Understanding people lost their ability to reflect on the past and appreciate differences in opinion. People misunderstood each others languages, intentions and cultures. That is how the world came to be what it is today and no one alive remembers what it was like to have Understanding.

Except Grandma, Grandma remembered because she was told by her mother who was told by her mother before her. Abby too remembered because this story had been passed down to her.

One day Abby decided to leave her home to track down the Trickster and make him give Understanding back to the world. As she traveled she told her Grandmother’s story in the hopes that the story might cause people to rethink their constant fighting but without Understanding in the world, the story had no impact. 

Years and kilometers later Abby found him, the Trickster.

“Give it back” she demanded of him “can’t you see the damage you have done, how dare you let this continue?”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about” he said, “get out of-“

“I do” she interrupted, “my Grandmother told me the story of how you took Understanding from us all those years ago.”

“She did, did she” he replied, “let me tell you the true story.”

The Trickster told her his story. How he had planned on playing his tricks on the humans but the world was already falling into chaos. What he found when he arrived is that Understanding was already gone. The humans had given up on its pursuit and so it gradually faded until their was no trace.

“In the end, I didn’t have to lift a finger to trick you, you did it yourselves.” 

“How do we get it back” she asked him desperately.

“You can only get it back if people want it back, from what I have seen, that will never happen.” “I watched you while you sought me out, you told them that Understanding is what they needed, what they were missing, didn’t you” he asked.

“Yes” she replied.

“And” he prodded “did it work?”

“No” she replied.

With the end of the Trickster’s story came the end of Abby’s hope.  

“Hope was all I had” she said. “Take it back, call that story back” (King 10).

“I would” he replied “but, of course, it [is] too late, for once a story is told it cannot be called back” (King 10).

When I told this story I was reminded of the different connections that people have with stories because of their own stories. The majority of people that I told this too couldn’t conceive of such a terrible world. They agreed that it was horrible and didn’t know what Abby would do or how she could go on but they couldn’t comprehend the horror of a world like that. Those that I told the story to who had seen and experienced war had a better understanding of Abby and her situation. Because their own stories provided them with a deeper understanding of her situation and the hopelessness and disbelief at the actions of other. Stories are even more powerful when they resonate with the listeners stories and experiences. This is why support groups are so effective. If there is no one to listen who has those stories or experiences, stories become less powerful.

 

Work Cited

King, Thomas. The Truth About Stories: A Native Narrative, House of Anansi Press Inc., 2003, Toronto.

“Native American Tricksters of Myth and Legend.” Native Languages, http://www.native-languages.org/trickster.htm. Accessed 23 Jan 2020.

“Support Groups: Make Connections, Get Help.” Mayo Clinic, https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/stress-management/in-depth/support-groups/art-20044655. Accessed 23 Jan 2020.

Linguistic relativity is described by J. Edward Chamberlin as the scientific term for the “different thoughts and feelings and even different forms of behavior” (18) created by different languages. This is the wonderful world of words, the world “that is both there and not there” (Chamberlin 132).

Words create reality by describing it, alter descriptions alter the interpretation of events creating the new reality. Settlers in North America used words to create a reality in which they felt entitled to the land that they claimed to have discovered. Chamberlin points out the absurdity of calling individuals moving to North America settlers while labeling the Indigenous people as Nomads (29-30). From the perspective of the colonizers not only were these labels correct but, in their world of words the title of Settler gave them a false sense that it was their right to take the land. They created a reality in which they believed that the Indigenous people had not claimed the land because they had not settled on it. In reality the Indigenous people had settled on the land but not the way that the colonizers defined it. Used in this way, words created a reality for the Settlers and the British Government which provided them with a feeling, not just of entitlement to the land, but a duty to use it.

The world of words can also be incredibly beautiful and beneficial. Stories are utilized to record Indigenous history i.e the world that is there. In Indigenous stories the world that is there, including where to hunt, where berries grow and when, etc., to carefully catalogue and pass on to future generations. Stories, including charms and riddles, are used to create the world that is not there. Chamberlin refers to riddles and charms as ways to understand otherwise incomprehensible elements of life, nature and the human condition. To manage the harsh questions that we are faced with, like how we all came to be on the earth, by imagining a reality where those questions are answered. Charms and riddles add otherworldly elements that provide an explanation that reality cannot. Charms in the form of songs are especially significant because they are words that are seen as having the power to alter the real world whereas most words can only interpret it, for example, a song can help cultivate water.

It also provides the Indigenous people with agency. Their oral traditions allow for their history as their ancestors witnessed it to be passed down from generation to generation. This history is recorded and interpreted with no colonial interference and without reliance on scientific techniques. This method of recording history provides more information then others because it includes elements from the world that isn’t, interpretive and spiritual elements. Rather then history that relies on physical circumstance, Indigenous history provides additional context and interpretation. Creation stories describe how the world came to be but they also describe why it came to be. The photo below is Jorden Stranger’s interpretation of the creation story of the moon. This story not only explains how the moon came to be but it also provides an explanation for why the moon and sun are rarely in the sky at the same time. In this way, words explain and provide meaning to natural occurrences that may otherwise be menacing, like the sun leaving the sky.

Being immersed in the same world of words connects generations across time and through hardship. The Indigenous people of modern time have been robbed of experiencing North America the way their elders did. However, through the world of words, the world that no longer is, is recreated and imposed on the world that is to provide solace.

 

Work Cited

Cave, Kate, McKay, Shianne. “Water Song: Indigenous Woman and Water.” The Solutions Journal, vol. 7, no. 6, 2016, https://www.thesolutionsjournal.com/article/water-song-indigenous-women-water/. Accessed 16 January 2020.

Chamberlin, J. Edward. If This is Your Land, Where are Your Stories? Finding Common Ground. Toronto, Alfred A. Knopf, 2003.

“Oral Tradition” Canadian Geographic Indigenous People Atlas of Canada, https://indigenouspeoplesatlasofcanada.ca/article/oral-tradition/. Accessed 16 January 2020.

“Storytelling” The First Nations Pedagogy Online, https://firstnationspedagogy.ca/storytelling.html. Accessed 15 January 2020.

Stranger, Jordan. Wisakedjak and the Moon., Winnipeg., http://www.our-story.ca/winners/arts/5092:wisakedjak-and-the-moon. Accessed 15 January 2020.

Hello everyone! Welcome to my page.. Blog… thingy…. 

This is my awkward way of asking for your patience. Communication through the world wide web (“www”) has never been my strong suit. An aim of this course, and one of my reasons for taking it, is to strengthen communication and navigation of the www. I invite and encourage you to start conversations with me and I look forward to our chats!

I am intrigued by English 372 because it is a unique Canadian literature course with a goal of creating a dialogue that is more complex than straightforward literary criticism. I am very excited for this course both as a Canadian citizen wanting to reflect on our history and as someone who feels that novels tell us more than one story.

I live in the Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island, home to British Columbia’s largest First Nations Community the Hul’q’umi’num people. I am privileged to have the opportunity to come into contact with the culture here and have greatly enjoyed my experiences. I am also very aware that my presence and how I chose to move in and interact with my community has a large impact. I would like to further my understanding of my impact and learn to be an effective ally in my community starting by challenging my views through this course. I am learning that my understanding concepts such as decolonization and cultural appropriation are flawed. Through this course I hope that I will be more able to recognize injustices such as cultural appropriation in novels and more broadly, in Canada. I also hope to gain a better understanding of future goals of reconciliation and decolonization from the First Nations perspective. 

I am currently in school working towards being a high school history and english teacher. I am excited by the prospect but also intimidated because I know that position comes with a responsibility to accurately convey Canada’s past. I am hopeful that this course will teach me to identify stories that need to be told as well as improve my ability to teach history from multiple perspectives. With all of your help, I am positive that it will! 

Works Cited

“Core Traditional Territory, Traditional Territory” Cowichan Tribes, https://www.cowichantribes.com/about-cowichan-tribes/land-base/traditional-territory/

“History of the Cowichan Peoples.” Cowichan Tribes, https://www.cowichantribes.com/about-cowichan-tribes/history/

“Understanding Oppression: Terminology.” Dragonfly Canada, https://dragonflycanada.ca/resources/understanding-oppression/