Assignment 2.4: Reading Harry Robinson
If Europeans were not from the land of the dead, or the sky, alternative explanations which were consistent with indigenous cosmologies quickly developed” (“First Contact” 43). Robinson gives us one of those alternative explanations in his stories about how Coyote’s twin brother stole the “written document” and when he denied stealing the paper, he was “banished to a distant land across a large body of water” (9). We are going to return to this story, but for now – what is your first response to this story? In context with our course theme of investigating intersections where story and literature meet, what do you make of this stolen piece of paper? This is an open-ended question and you should feel free to explore your first thoughts.
Harry Robison’s story of the twins, as shared by Wendy Wickwire, opens the door to new insights and a greater understanding of contact stories.
Upon reading the story, I grappled with many different thoughts.
Immediately I was struck with the numerous levels of oral and written story-telling at play here, and by the number of voices involved in the story-telling process. At its core, this story is an oral tale told by Harry Robinson, but belonging to his larger group and culture, and to their collective heritage. At the next level, this oral story has been changed and told through the literary tone of Wickwire in order to be preserved in written language. Further, the story becomes more complex upon recognizing the oral and written forms intersecting within it, through the written document, or “paper,” featured in the tale. This highlights Edward Chamberlin’s argument that “speech and writing are so entangled with each other in our various forms and performance of language that we are like Penelope, weaving them together during the day and unweaving them at night” (151).
I then turned my attention to the “paper” in the story. I had never encountered a First Nations story like this one, which so explicitly references documents or papers as potentially dangerous artifacts that, according to an ancient agreement, ought to be revealed to the Indigenous people of this land. This called attention to the long legal history of settler-colonialists deceiving and cheating Indigenous people out of their home and land. The “paper,” which can be read as encoded laws and treaties, gave white settlers authority, under the eyes of their own governments, to strip power from Indigenous people. I found the association of the “paper” with the destruction of Indigenous people extremely moving—especially when the stories of settler-colonial powers utilizing or navigating written law to undermine and displace Natives have never gone away, and remain shamefully present to this day.
Foremost, I was captivated by how the story united mythology and reality, disrupting the divide between truth and fiction. As John Lutz comments, “first contact and the imaginary are, as it turns out, closely linked” (2). Indigenous stories are so strange to our Euro-centuries literary understanding because they blend truth and fiction so that they become wholly combined. And, as is especially seen in this tale, “they flow over time and across space” (Lutz 7). This space of discomfort for non-Indigenous readers or listeners, somewhere between now and when the world was young and somewhere between legend and history, is a space we must navigate. As settler bodies in so-called British Columbia, the contact story is a chance to look beyond our own cultures and close-mindedness. In Lutz’s words: “The contact zone is a place of hope” (15).
Works Cited
Benz, Michael. “high-angle photo of sea with waves.” Unsplash, 14 Jan. 2017, https://unsplash.com/@michaelbenz.
Chamberlin, J. Edward. “A New History of Reading: Hunting, Tracking, and Reading.” Geography of a Soul: Emerging Perspectives on Kamau Brathwaite, edited by Timothy J. Reiss, Africa World Press, 2001, pp. 145-164.
Lutz, John. “Contact Over and Over Again.” Myth and Memory: Rethinking Stories of Indigenous- European Contact. Ed. Lutz. Vancouver: U of British Columbia P, 2007. 1-15. Print.
“Native American Coyote Mythology.” Native American Indian Coyote Legends, Meaning and Symbolism from the Myths of Many Tribes, www.native-languages.org/legends-coyote.htm.
Wet’suwet’en, Office of the. Office of the Wet’suwet’en, www.wetsuweten.com/territory/pipelines.
Hi Georgia,
I really enjoyed reading this post, you summarized and analyzed the story well. I also really appreciated how you connected it to a current event (Wet’suwet’en), I think it is very important for all of us to remember that these topics we are discussing are not old and “dealt with”, they are happening today and reconciliation is a long process which, in some ways, has yet to even begin.
You mentioned, accurately, that settlers often struggle to grapple with the mixing of fact and fiction in storytelling. I’m wondering if, from anything you’ve learned in this course so far (or others), you have any thoughts on how we can help settlers to grapple with this? How can we open people’s eyes to help move towards reconciliation through this process of believing stories?
Thanks!
Katarina
Hi Katarina,
Thank you for your thoughtful response.
You ask a difficult question! How can settlers grapple with the mixing of fact and fiction and come to better understand Indigenous stories and histories?
Well, Edward Chamberlin sums it up really concisely in If This is Your Land, Where are Your Stories? when he says: “Believe it, and not.” We need to be able to assume a sort of double-think in believing the stories for the essence of their meanings, without compromising our own sense of truth and reality.
I think the only way we can reach such a position is through exposure. Take classes on Indigenous justice, read Indigenous literature, listen to Indigenous stories. We cannot learn and understand if we do not take that first step.
I’m sorry if I can’t perfectly answer your question because it’s one I am still working through myself. But this is where I currently stand.
Hope this helps!
Hi Georgia,
Thanks for your answer – I didn’t expect you to have a complete answer at all. I imagine many of us are taking this course in an effort to answer a question like this.
You make a great point about being open to exposing ourselves to these stories. Thank you as well for quoting Chamberlin, you’re so right that it may help people to understand that we can both believe stories meanings without moving away from our own sense of truth. I think as well that remembering this may help people to focus on the moral of stories rather than the details and realize that the morals in both Indigenous and euro-centric stories can be similar and can be universally understood.
Thanks 🙂