“Read at least 3 students blog short stories about ‘home’ and make a list of the common shared assumptions, values and stories that you find. Post this list on your blog with some commentary about what you discovered.” (Paterson, “Course Schedule”)
I read Cherie, Nick and Marie‘s stories of home. Thanks to the three of you for your well-written, and well-considered stories – I truly enjoyed reading them, and they added to my conceptions of the perception of home.
I decided to go a little more multimedia as well as pitch to the visual learners in the e-audience with this post, using Creatly‘s software to construct this Venn diagram:
“Home, Three Ways”
Comments:
These three stories brought to the foreground the concept of re-inscription and home. Not only re-inscription of one’s home by renewal – as Cherie experiences, with Chinese New Year acting as signifier, during her annual return to Hong Kong – but also physical re-inscription of space and home, as Nick so poignantly reflects upon as he recounts his discovery of his hometown Rec Centre’s former life as part of the Tashme Internment Camp.
This theme of reinscription is a central one to this course, with the historical reinscription of Canada as a land to be settled, a wild frontier, eclipsing the same land as home of the First Nations (before Tashme Internment Camp, Sunshine Valley was – and is – home to Stó:lo First Nation). However, in writing my own story of home, while I reflected upon the reinscription of home that occurs when one moves through space, it was a one-sided reflection. I focused on myself as reinscriptor, and did not consider that I may share the space of my home with other’s homes. Marie’s story speaks a little about this, with her recounting of her experiences living with roommates in second-year as an ex-pat in Vancouver – a double removal.
These issues of re-inscription of home have been historically important, and are now increasingly important as global population increases, along with the need for space for ‘home’. Now is a time of unprecedented urban growth which is refiguring the ‘space’ of home. It is ever more important to collect, disseminate and keep alive the stories of home of these spaces. Often, reinscription of home – especially when displacement of population occurs – is a result of social injustice. In these instances, stories of home are especially important.
Works Cited
Au, Cherie. “My Sense of Home” turquoise. WordPress. 8 Feb 2016. Web. 12 Feb 2016
Cinergix Pty. Ltd. “Creatly” Creatly. 2016. Web. 12 Feb 2016.
Follea, Marie. “My Sense of Home” Marie’s ENG470A Blog. WordPress. 9 Feb 2016. Web. 12 Feb 2016.
Grieve, M. “Home, Three Ways”. Digital Venn Diagram created using Creatly. 2016. PNG Image.
Thom, Brian. “Stó:lo Traditional Territory Map”. Map. n.d. Web. 12 Feb 2016.