In this lesson, I say that our capacity for understanding or making meaningfulness from the first stories is seriously limited for numerous reasons and I briefly offer two reasons why this is so: 1) the social process of the telling is disconnected from the story and this creates obvious problems for ascribing meaningfulness, and 2) the extended time of criminal prohibitions against Indigenous peoples telling stories combined with the act of taking all the children between 5 – 15 away from their families and communities.
In Wickwire’s introduction to Living Stories, find a third reason why, according to Robinson, our abilities to make meaning from first stories and encounters is so seriously limited. To be complete, your answer should begin with a brief discussion on the two reasons I present and then proceed to introduce and explain your third reason from Wickwire’s introduction.
We have just gone through two reasons that may explain for our limited understanding and comprehension towards the meaning from the First Stories in lesson 2,2: the disconnect from the social process of telling, and the generation barrier contributed by the criminal prohibitions imposed by the European conquerors.
We have been working on the impact from the disconnection of “the social process of telling”, which is featured in our previous assignments. We have come to know and emphasize how storytelling would be significant in our understanding and comprehension towards the meanings of the stories. Different mediums of storytelling, which are through computer and through verbal language in this case, would create differences on our experience of the stories. I think stories delivered through verbal means would convey a clearer meaning of the stories as the storyteller could take control of his/her process of storytelling through intonation and emotion in order to allow the listeners to perceive the message they are supposed to receive.
Another point would be the criminal prohibitions imposed by the settling Europeans. In Unit 2.2, examples being used are the outlaw of Potlatch, which is First Nation’s form of cultural and social ceremony, and the mandatory residential school for children aged five to fifteen. These prohibitions have created a barrier for generations in passing on the stories, which further contributed to our current limited understanding towards stories told by the First Nations.
The third reason that limits our understanding towards the First Stories would be the conservative practice of anthropologists. Traditional anthropologists, like Franz Boas, have “limit[ed] themselves to a single genre: the so-called ‘legends’, ‘folk-tales’ and ‘myths’ set in the pre-historical times, (Loc. 411)” which has contributed to the barrier of misunderstanding towards the First Stories. Wickwire found out that there are numerous editing and alterations on the previous publications of First Stories in order to wipe out the cultural “impurities”, which did not acknowledge the fluidity of First Nations culture (Loc. 535).
Therefore, in this book of Harry Robinson: Living by Stories, A Journey of Landscape and Memory, Wickwire tried to incorporate a wide range of First Stories that are previously being neglected, for examples the stories told by “horsepackers, miner, cannery workers, missionary assistant, and laborers, (Loc. 412)”. In order to minimize the impact of restraining cultural fluidity, Wickwire, through this book, is trying to highlight “the cultural importance of maintaining a full range of stories (Loc. 569)”.
Works Cited
Wickwire, Wendy. Harry Robinson: Living by Stories, A Journey of Landscape and Memory. Vancouver: Talon Books, 2009. Kindle.