Good Monday 470;

It has been a great week of reading for me; one of the pleasures of this course is coming to see the material we read and the ideas we share from different perspectives; all interesting and insightful.

Following are some responses to my question about Lutz’s and his “assumptions’ ; the following excerpts from your responses illuminate different perspectives and approaches to the question, and to Lutz; an interesting read indeed.

Through this chapter Lutz weaves interesting examples of first encounters, such as, the two Gitrhala fishermen who tried to protect themselves from ghosts as European explorers approached or an exchange of music that occurred between the Aboriginals and the Europeans while on a ship where the music was described as “a song that was by no means unpleasant to the ear.” A disease starts to develop as these stories are told with the realization that they are from the European point of view and as the European interpretation of these first experiences. These stories were written in journals and diaries and have since been published as fascinating histories and insights but are solely of a European point of view. As I read on, I was relieved to see an account of Squamish Andrew Paull’s account of when Captain Vancouver arrived and the Aboriginal belief that every seven years brought bad luck so they had to brace themselves from this visitor a story that must of been told and not written. But even this story is told to an audience that is assumed to be of European descent. This book, Myth and Memory: Rethinking Stories of Indigenous-European Contact, was published in 2007 by UBC Press and written by John Lutz a University of Victoria professor. Is it possible that style of writing within the discourse of university can create this limited scope and an assumption of audience? It should not be the case considering the culturally diverse student body but is a disturbing realization that this may be the case.   2:4 FIRST STORIES

Lutz’s assumption that Indigenous peoples understand performances of people of European descent better than vice versa is fair, but not completely thought out. The reason that Lutz gives is that the mythical identity of ‘the European’ in Indigenous cultures was force-ably shifted over a long period of time due to the implementation of European superiority over other cultures in Christian European spirituality. Meanwhile it is that same idea of superiority over other cultures that has kept those of European descent from understanding Indigenous spirituality and mythical performance such as contact zones fully.  The part of the his assumption that is not thought out is that he states that ALL people of European descent could not understand Indigenous performance fully. As people of European descent read his essay and understand it, they either begin or continue the process of decolonizing their outlooks. These outlooks make up part of their mythic identity as people whose ancestors were colonizers, and those mythic identities are shifted. Lutz undermines his own argument. Assumptions and Differences

Following is a great example of a most interesting ‘aside’ with excellent hyperlinks:

This brought to my mind a group of Canadian Indigenous artists who incorporate hiphop, electronic and traditional singing and drumming into their music, and who are becoming very popular: Tribe Called Red. One of their videos tells the story of how they collaborated with Black Bear (traditional drummer) to create the single “Stadium Pow Wow”. In the mini documentary, one of the members of TCR alludes to the Hopi prophecy that one day all of the tribes of Turtle Island (the americas) will be connected through a giant spider web (read: the internet!). This group encourages storytelling from the people who are the story, not from outsiders – they encourage pride in Indigenous roots, and they are catching on quickly. I see this music/video as a really powerful storytelling tool that combines old tradition with accessible modern day music through the internet – accessible for the youth, who need empowering role models they actually connect with. Zionism in Rastafarianism acknowledges connection between all displaced peoples

And, this is an insightful comment on how important the full range of stories are to understanding Robinson – and, of course, Coyote:

What fascinated me about the story of Coyote and the Paper was how it was introduced in different magnitudes of Robinson telling many versions and twists of other stories as well. Wickwire talked about how Robinson “wanted to show the cultural importance of maintaining a full range of stories” (29). And while there are storytellers, there are those who did not represent their stories well because they filtered a certain theme. Robinson included stories involving contemporary political issues as well, stories that showed that “Harry’s forebears were not strictly ‘mythtellers’ locked in their prehistorical past” (25). The story places the ancestor of the colonizers as the trickster who steals the paper, and of Coyote as the obedient twin. This paper would represent how the ‘evil’ twin’s descendants, “true to their original character” (10), would take advantage of their God-given blessing and law in colonizing and claiming the land as theirs.  A Stolen Piece of Paper

During Wickwire’s introduction, we feel how much power Robinson assigned to his stories. As he alludes, ‘whites’ will always miss the true meaning behind First Stories, as we need to organise these accounts and describe them on paper. As Robinson says, ‘For Indians, power was located in their hearts and heads; for whites, it was located on paper” (16). Due to this difference, we are unable to comprehend the total meaning of First Stories.  Assignment 2.4 – Question 2

Following is an insightful explanation of ways King tells the two creation stories:

King has spent this particular chapter of the book discussing the power and effect of stories, and this dichotomy between the authoritative Genesis and the more casual Earth Diver exemplifies the purchase that the mode of storytelling can have. As King says, “As for stories such as the Woman Who Fell from the Sky, well, we listen to them and then we forget them, for amidst the thunder of Christian monologues, they have neither purchase nor place” (21). The Christian creation story is almost invariably told with the same rigid tone that brooks no argument, while any Indigenous creation myth isn’t taken seriously outside of the tribe it is important to, as King quotes Basil Johnston (23). The way we tell a story almost always mirrors the values within the story itself. King contrasts and dichotomizes these two creation myths to show, rather than tell, the reader this lesson, while also subtly hinting at the subject of the next chapter, wherein he discusses the White Man’s Indian. The relationship here is in the absolute conviction in his beliefs, to the point of stupidity, of the white or European man. The Genesis tale and the Ideal Indian are both stories created and unwaveringly accepted by White Men, as both fictions uphold their sense of superiority and hierarchy, their place as close to the top as they can reach. 2:4 CREATIONS AND HIERARCHIES

Enjoy.