Hi all!
My name is Freda Li. I’m currently in my fifth year at UBC as an English Literature major, and will be graduating in December 2015. ENGL 470 is actually the second online course I’ve ever taken so for all you newbies out there, don’t worry, you’ll get the hang of it soon enough 🙂
To be honest, when I first started at UBC, I wasn’t too intrigued by the idea of studying “Canadian” literature. It’s interesting because I am a Canadian born Chinese, born in Calgary and raised most of my life in Vancouver. My Chinese is passable at best, I can speak and understand but I never went to school so my writing and reading skills are quite lacking. I have and feel like I always will identify first and foremost as a proud Canadian, yet I have never felt drawn to the history of our nation. So when I first started my degree at UBC, I immediately dismissed “Canadian Literature” as a “requirement” I would deal with later on in my undergrad. However, as I’m sure most of my other peers who are in their final years will agree, I found that as each year passed, I grew and changed in many ways. In fact, not only as an individual but also as a student. Different classes that seemingly had nothing to do with Canadian history or literature had profound effects on the way I viewed the society around me. Through a variety of classes in sociology, gender studies, and german studies, I found my true inner critical voice that made me more intuitive to the problematic aspects of not only Canadian society’s treatment of indigenous peoples but also my own attitudes as a subsequent product of them.
The reality is that many Canadians do not feel like indigenous issues are relevant to them. Last semester, I took a CSIS450, a critical studies in sexuality class with Dr. Janice Stewart, in which we discussed the types of narratives that exist in our society, how they define the way we see history, and most importantly who profits and benefits from these narratives. Although it was a gender and sexuality studies class, we touched on the portrayal of First Nations groups and the ways in which they are erased from our country’s history in various ways that are overlooked by many people. One example is in the world renowned Canadian landscape art of the Group of Seven. It wasn’t until I took this gender studies class that I realized there was criticism surrounding their art’s reinforcement of Terra Nullius, the depiction of various Canadian regions and land as untouched and undiscovered by humans when in reality, these areas had been inhabited by indigenous groups for many years. This in and of itself reveals the problematic ways in which First Nations people have been written out of our nation’s history.
Recently, I also took ENGL 358, an english class in 18th century British Colonization literature, and found myself more fired up and interested in looking first hand into colonizing narratives and representations. It was through this exposure to all these different studies that I experienced a shift in my attitudes towards Canadian Indigenous history and literature. I came to realize the importance of understanding the significance of First nations stories, and the current lack of them in current Western literature. What are their stories and why are we not hearing them? Who decides the stories we read and hear? Why don’t more events or movements in the news that attempt to bring more attention to First Nations narratives like #ShutdownCanada receive more attention? I am interested in taking on all of these questions in ENGL 470 during this summer semester with all of you, and I hope we can help change the apathy that so many Canadians feel when it comes to First Nations issues.
Thanks for reading and please feel free to leave a comment!
^Growing up in Vancouver, BC.
Works Cited
Gough, David. “#ShutDownCanada: First Nations People Plan Nationwide Protests Friday.” Toronto Sun. N.p., 11 Feb. 2015. Web. 15 May 2015.
Varley, Christopher. “Group of Seven.” The Canadian Encyclopedia. N.p., 11 July 2013. Web. 15 May 2015.
Hi Freda,
It is interesting that you bring up the Group of Seven – last semester I took an art history class that examined the role of landscape in Canadian art the influence of the Group on a kind of psycho-geographic visual culture that is still with us today. Just look at how many people have put landscapes up on their blogs, and you get the sense that we connect this readily to our national identity. As you have pointed out – the Group of Seven represents a significant kind of erasure, one that I think is part of the foundation for this class as well.
Also: your post title sounds like both a rallying cry and a threat (I mean that in the best way possible)!
Heidi
Heidi,
Thanks for your comment! So true about the emphasis on landscapes…I would suggest that it often seems like landscapes are seen as a uninteresting “backdrop”, and often dismissed as lacking meaning. It’s the interesting criticisms around Group of Seven and their specific portrayals of Canadian landscapes that bring up new and untouched territory in discussing their significance in understanding our nation’s identity. Hope we can delve further into this later in the course.
🙂
Hi Freda, a great introduction, thank you. Janice Stewart is one of my favourite colleagues for sure; she is an amazing teacher. I am looking forward to working with you this summer, and do believe you will enjoy this course in context with your learning so far; thanks and enjoy.
Hi Freda, great blog!
I completely agree with you about certain courses having an effect on the way we view Canadian society, especially when it comes to Indigenous issues. In my third year I took a Canadian sociology class that really helped me to understand how to challenge and critique colonizing narratives. One of the most profound articles that we studied was Sherene Razack’s “Race, Space, and the Law: Gendered Racial Violence and Spatialized Justice.” Razack analyzes the case of Pamela George, an Ojibway woman in Regina who was murdered by two young white men. She argues that her identity as a prostitute and her relation to the space she occupied which was termed a “zone of violence” (supposed aboriginal degeneracy) ultimately lead to her rape and death. She emphasizes that this space is racialized and was created by Canada’s colonial history, in which “all that is not respectable is contained” (Razack 129). The supposed consent that this zone brings according to the Canadian imagination means that the two men were only charged with manslaughter. For me it was definitely eye opening to see how the past still plays such a large part in the Canadian narrative. Looking forward to reading more of your posts!
http://web.uvic.ca/~ayh/104%20Razack%20WS104.PDF
Hi Sarah!
I have taken my fair share of sociology courses too, and I find that I always come away with a new understanding of the world around me. Thank you for sharing your experiences and also linking the Razack article you mentioned, I just opened it and now Ive found myself sucked in and think I need to go do some wikipedia-ing around the story of Pamela George 🙂
Hi Freda,
I was not aware of such a concept as Terra Nullius. Thank you for informing me on this issue. I am interested in your critique (and that of others’) of the Group of Seven and the accusation that they paint a blank landscape of Canada where indigenous stories have been whitewashed. It seems to me that the Group of Seven are merely interested in the landscape this beautiful country has to offer, and in no way actively trying to submerge the stories of the indigenous people. Do artists have a responsibility to represent all facets of a place in their art, or do they have a choice to express that which appeals to them most and in the realization of its depiction, embed their subjective, often unconscious beliefs? Could we say that Renoir, by painting mostly the bourgeois life in Belle Epoque Paris, is attempting to “write out” the history of the Romans and Gauls who have inhabited the locality thousands of years before his time? Art is a visual narratives, and all narratives have a bias. Stories are inherently endowed with their biases, even if they are not justified because of ethics or conventions. Lastly, I am curious what people might say about their art if the Group of Seven did incorporate indigenous narratives or symbols in their art. Would they be condemned for disrespecting First Nations tradition (as I understand it, only Haida clans are authorized to tell stories about their clan and only the clan members have the right to produce the image of their clan spirit, and that may perhaps be true for many other groups)? Would they not be accused of exoticizing and misappropriating First Nations culture for their own interests, not unlike similar complaints heard today about Halloween costumes of American Indians and white rappers?
Hi Timothy!
Thanks for your comment! I agree you brought up many very valid points to the idea of terra nullius and its presence within Group of Seven art. I think the reality is that there is no one right way to approach a critical topic, especially one that involve very big accusations. Like you said, it is almost impossible to separate oneself completely from bias, and we must keep this in mind when delving deeper into issues surrounding First Nations literature in this course. I am excited to see where our discussions will take us!
🙂
hi Freda!
Thank you for your post, a very lovely read. I feel like I am not saying anything new here, because there are already quite a few comments on it, but I just wanted to say that you blew my mind with the Group of Seven point! It makes so much sense! And then Heidi’s additional comment on the amount of landscapes on our own blogs for this course, so true! The Canadian identity does seem to be quite rooted in this notion of this kind of raw, natural aesthetic: this kind of hanging onto of history, “back to the wilderness”. It is interesting how the typical Canadian historical lens can often be very selective in that, we have so much history that is vital to flesh out, so much history that is ignored and a lot of notions about how “our” (natural) history is quintessential to what it means to truly be Canadian. The addition of aesthetic into the history/identity mix further convolutes things: art, literature as art, or in congruence with visual art, is perhaps often seen to be more biased than “hard” history or science. Like Timothy noted, art can be/is very subjective, and where does one fall into the act of appropriation? I’m going to be a typical poli-sci student, and not answer the question, but one way to also look at is is not /only/ question why art passes when so obviously subjective, but why other frameworks for knowledge are seen to be more objective. There is a lot of work on this in the History department, where some scholars note the noticeable transition between the definitions of “historians” and those who could purvey history pre- and post-1919. From a Western perspective, this was more or less when approvable primary documents ranged from the diaries of world leaders to the grocery lists of women on the home front. And this is just the Western War Perspective that almost entirely ignores the Sino-Japanese wars, Chinese civil war and hundreds of colonial conflicts that were going on–let alone methods for studying history in these places at/before/after this specific timeline. (ALSO WHAT WAS GOING ON WITH FIRST NATIONS WOMEN ON THE HOMEFRONT?!) I guess there is this kind of really valuable hyper-subjectivity that brings the emotion back into history; because it should be an emotional thing. But what is vital about studying this (in story, visual art, “primary” documents) is navigating it and striving to always find context: what perspectives is it reacting to, ignoring, glossing over, shouting?
I also find it interesting that you identify as a proud Canadian; an identity I’ve always found hard to pin down for myself. I think one of the reasons I scoff at seeing myself as a “proud” Canadian is because it is something I take for granted, something that I thought could exist neutrally in. I am from a /very/ Quebecois family, and thus joke about my ongoing consumption of wine and maple syrup (when I moved to the West Coast, my mom thought that you couldn’t buy maple syrup here), but I always thought, ‘what is there to be proud about?’ I still struggle to connect my pride in surroundings/experiences/identity to the term “Canada”, but I don’t know why and I could stand to evolve my definition of what makes things Canadian and what things make up Canada. With this, I would love to hear about where your pride in Canadian identity comes from, what it’s made up of 🙂 What fraction of place makes up what fraction of identity. Or am I hanging on too strongly to the idea of Canada as a specifically tangible, physical “place”?
Thanks again for your post, I really look forward hearing more of your thoughts/knowledge throughout the next few weeks!
p.s. omg look at you as a lil bb!! are you dressed as a tiny business person?
Hi Jocelyn!
Thank you for well thought out comment. I love what you had to say about the Canadian historical lens and its selectivity in what it chooses to honour in our past. Like you mentioned, I truly believe its vital to pay attention to what perspectives a story, piece of art, or historical document is ignoring or privileging over others. Excited to interact in more discussions in the future!!
🙂