Assignment 3.4: Thomas King’s Acts of Narrative Decolonization
Question 1: Identify and discuss two of King’s “acts of narrative decolonization.”
Thomas King’s Green Grass, Running Water calls attention to colonial legacies and narratives in a critical manner that rewrites or recontextualizes “some of the most damaging narratives of domination and conquest,” including popular culture texts such as John Wayne films and his legacy in popular culture (Cox). The novel reacts against the popular culture nostalgia of the Western, and especially how figures of popular culture have shaped sentiments about history. Joel Deshaye notes, in particular, that King suggests how the manner in which popular culture figures, such as Wayne, permeate into history, or “popular conceptions of history” gives a “false impression that modern Indigenous culture is an oxymoron; it was supposed to have died in the nineteenth century” (66).
John Wayne movies, and other popular Western films of the 20th century, portray Indigenous characters in stereotypes or prototypes. Many of the films that Wayne starred in rest on racist ideals, where America is claimed by white people and Indigenous characters are either typified as “noble savages” or “wretched Indians” (Facing History and Ourselves). Indigenous are often the “sidekick,” placed in a subservient role as a guide or translator, or viewed as a threat to the white supremacist goal of claiming rights to land that is currently “uncultivated” or “uncivilized.” Ultimately, the Western films that King is reacting against bolster white supremacy and patriarchal ideals of the “American way of life” that glorify violent stories of “revenge, retribution, and vigilantism” (Salmon). Further, the films promote the exploration and domination narrative of white settlers which justifies brutality against Indigenous threats to white dominance.
King takes the popular Western cowboy myth, that oftentimes relies on the stereotyping and dehumanization of the “Indian,” and reinterprets it in a manner that places emphasis on Indigenous agency and power. Firstly, King underscores the corruption of a culture in which Lionel yearns to be John Wayne while remaining powerless by spreading Western hero myths as a television salesman instead of becoming a hero himself. Later in Green Grass, Running Water, Lionel embodies an Indigenous John Wayne and reclaims his power when he challenges George Morningstar. Secondly, King overwrites the cowboy myth of white superiority when Portland Looking Bear and his men kill John Wayne and Richard Widmark. Through an intertextual approach, King decolonizes prominent cultural myths by destabilizing well-known narratives and casting Indigenous characters as heroes.
What is of highest importance is not necessarily Portland triumphing over John Wayne, but is in the creation of a popular culture that demonstrates Indigenous power. For, the myths carried in popular culture, especially those that shape or re-write history, permeate the psyche. By creating a Western in which Indigenous characters are triumphant, King empowers Lionel and Charlie to act as main characters. In this way, King not only revises myth in an act of narrative decolonization, as Cox writes, but recreates myth through intertextual transformation.
King deconstructs the dominant narrative that displaces Indigenous characters and cultures as invisible, hated, or subservient, and brings the issues faces by Indigenous peoples to the reader’s attention in a manner that humanizes and empowers.
This takes us back to the central theme of this course: the power of stories. As J. Edward Chamberlin stresses: stories shape our beliefs, how we create meaning in our lives and are at the core of our current conflicts. “We need to understand our stories because our lives depend on it” (Chamberlin).
Works Cited
“From ‘Noble Savage’ to ‘Wretched Indian.’” Facing History and Ourselves, www.facinghistory.org/stolen-lives-indigenous-peoples-canada-and-indian-residential-schools/chapter-2/noble-savage-wretched-indian.
Chamberlin, J. E., and Xwi7xwa Collection. If this is Your Land, Where are Your Stories?: Finding Common Ground. A.A. Knopf Canada, Toronto, 2003.
Cox, James. “All This Water Imagery Must Mean Something.” Canadian Literature 161-162 (1999). Web 4 Apr. 2013.
DePauw, Ryan. “Misrepresentation of Native Americans in Film, TV.” Medium, LakeVoice, 15 Dec. 2016, lakevoicenews.org/the-misrepresentation-of-native-americans-in-film-tv-e92118566b6b.
Deshaye, Joel. “Tom King’s John Wayne: The Western in Green Grass, Running Water.” Canadian Literature. 66-80: (2015). ProQuest. Web. 7 Mar. 2020.
Salmon, Caspar. “Should We Be Surprised by John Wayne’s Racist and Homophobic Views?” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 20 Feb. 2019, www.theguardian.com/film/2019/feb/20/john-wayne-racist-homophobic-views-1971-playboy-interview.
Hi Georgia,
What a great response to this question! I really enjoyed reading your thoughts, and it prompted me to wonder if you have found other examples of narrative decolonization in popular culture and media?
Thanks!
Indra
Hi Indra,
I’m glad you enjoyed my post!
Narrative decolonization is a huge genre and can be seen in many novels and texts labelled “post-colonial”– a label that Thomas King grapples with in “Godzilla vs. Post-Colonial.”
I think many texts that draw a critical eye to white culture as the norm and the marginalization of non-dominant perspectives and histories can be labelled as narrative decolonization. More specifically, stories that reconfigure or rewrite narratives of colonization can be seen in Harry Robinson’s work as well, as he blends Indigenous creation stories with current political events, positing Coyote as the most powerful figure. Even the modern musical, Hamilton, engages in some narrative decolonization by casting POC performers to occupy a space where they had been excluded from, and enslaved by.
You’ve encouraged me to do some more research on this, and I’ll reply with some more ideas as they come to me!
Hi Georgia,
Thank you for another great blog post. I’m interested to know what your thoughts are on Indigenous characters embodying white character tropes? I understand it as a sense of empowerment, but do you think King could have written his Indigenous heroes in a more uniquely heroic way that stood outside of a reference to white heroes of past media? In this course I have become interested in how Indigenous stories can be elevated in ways that are not in reference to colonization or settler culture, instead standing on their own as powerful and valid, and existing for their own sake instead of in a way more digestible for settlers.
Hi Jacob,
You ask an interesting question. I think that King’s method of having Indigenous characters replace white popular culture characters is an interesting way to remind readers of the Indigenous partners to these characters as well as to grant heroic and popular status to Indigenous people. However, I never considered King writing a novel that includes no reference to settler culture.
I definitely agree that Indigenous stories can exist and be powerful when separate from settler culture and without trying to appeal to settler audiences. However, with King himself being mixed-race and with Canada having such a diverse population, I feel that an incorporation of different cultural motifs and symbols playing off one another can be a beautiful way to decolonize and encourage readers to think differently and more inclusively.
So, while I agree that Indigenous works should have the opportunity to exist without reference to non-Indigenous cultures, I don’t think that King’s work would have been “elevated” per say if he were to turn a blind eye to colonial histories. Both are powerful and both serve different goals, in my opinion.
I hope I explained my thoughts well!
Hi Georgia!
I thought your closing thought on the theme of the course and Chamberlin’s quote were very prominent! My question is, how have stories shaped your beliefs? Has this course influenced those beliefs by the stories we are reading and discussing?
Cheers,
Arianne Robbins