Write a blog that hyper-links your research on the characters in GGRW using at least 10 pages of the text of your choice.

Pages 57-64, 68-72 of Green Grass, Running Water by Thomas King 

I find King’s use of naming and references in Green Grass, Running Water to be both enriching and a challenge for my reading experience. It’s almost like starting a movie from halfway through and constantly needing to pause ask the people around you what it all means. The effect of this is that we are not simply granted access to these other worlds King creates but invited to learn about them. We could choose to read the words on the page or we could choose to undergo a deep, complex, and confusing history lesson that challenges what we think we know. These histories, as King shows us, are not just events of the past but are ongoing and have an impact on the daily lives of Indigenous peoples. His interweaving of creation stories and more present-day stories that are loaded with references reveal the significant role that religion and colonization to this day. 

Wooden Knee 

Lionel goes to Salt Lake City to help out his supervisor, Duncan Scott, give a paper at a conference on Indian Education. When Lionel is in Salt Lake City, “The occupation of Wooden Knee was in its second month […]” (King 55). I assumed Wooden Knee was a reference to either a place or event, however, I did not know the details of it. I looked up “Wooden Knee” on google and learned that it is referring to the Wooden Knee Massacre of 1890 where 150-300 Native Americans were murdered by U.S. army troops in South Dakota. This massacre attempted to shut down organized resistance against assimilation and reservation life, however, in 1973, American Indian activists reoccupied the site. After reading about the Wooden Knee Massacre, I now understand King means American Indian activists have been reoccupying this site for two months. With this reference, King is asking us to recognize both the history of the massacre and the present-day resistance. 

George Morningstar 

The name George Morningstar comes up in a conversation between Lionel and Norma about Lionel finding work: “Look at your sister. She makes her own luck. What about George Morning Star? […] What about George Morningstar, he used to beat the hell out of her” (King 57). According to Jane Flick’s reading guide, this name refers to “Custer,” the “Son of Morning Star” or “Child of the Stars” that was “the name given to George Armstrong Custer by the Arikaras in Dakota territory” (146). Flick explains that King wants us to recognize the importance of this name, as “Latisha even liked his name. It sounded slightly Indian, though George was American. Best of all, he did not look like a cowboy or an Indian” (King 131-32). Still a bit unsure of the meaning of the name George Morningstar, I looked it up on google. I didn’t find anything besides various people’s obituaries. Once I looked up Son of Morning Star instead, I learned that this is the name of a television show based on Evan S Connell’s bestseller about events leading up to the battle of Little Bighorn. King’s references are thus not always straightforward but multilayered. He wants us to do the work of looking up multiple names and events and grasp a fuller understanding of history.

Dead Dog Cafe

Although I have never heard the stereotype that Indigenous peoples eat dogs, I was able to pick up on King’s reference to tourists’ desire to consume the exotic other. King plays with this stereotype by showing how Indigenous peoples can take advantage of it for financial gain. At the Dead Dog Cafe, Latisha “sells hamburger and tells everyone it’s dog meat” (King 57). Flick says that it “Also refers to starving Indians having to eat their dogs” and is “Possibly a play on Nietzsche’s assertion that “God is Dead” (149). When searching “Dead Dog Cafe” on google, I learned that this became a radio show that was “irreverent, political and sometimes breathtakingly politically incorrect. And funny. Very funny”. The show apparently had several segments, for instance, “Gracie’s Authentic Traditional Aboriginal Recipes, including puppy stew, fried bologna, and Kraft Dinners,” or “The Authentic Indian Name generator, featuring three wheels that could automatically create names like Stewart Coffee Armadillo or Rosemarie Clever Tuna”. It is interesting to see how King’s stories and names play out beyond the novel. 

Apples and Fry Bread 

King’s references to food are rich with stories and history. Apples, as we know, point to Genesis, while fry bread, according to Smithsonian magazine, “links generation with generation and also connects the present to the painful narrative of Native American history” (Miller). Frybread is made out of cheap ingredients given to Native Americans by the United States government when forced to walk 300 miles from Arizona to New Mexico. Today it is seen by some as a powerful symbol of “Native pride and unity” (Miller). In Green Grass, Running Water, First Woman says “there’s plenty of good stuff here. We can share it” (King 69). King is pointing to the significance of frybread in some Indigenous cultures and how it is a food that can represent sharing and unity. 

I hope you all find this information helpful for your experience of reading Green Grass, Running Water, and I’m excited to learn from your posts! 

Works Cited

“The Dead Dog Café Comedy Hour.” Academic Dictionaries and Encyclopedias, 2010, enacademic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/950771.

“Home | Rewind with Michael Enright | CBC Radio.” CBCnews, CBC/Radio Canada, www.cbc.ca/radio/rewind/dead-dog-cafe-comedy-hour-1.2801276).

Flick, Jane. “Reading Notes for Thomas King’s Green Grass Running Water.” Canadian Literature 161-162. (1999). Web. April 04/2013.

Hudson, Myles. “Wounded Knee Massacre.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 17 Jan. 2020, www.britannica.com/event/Wounded-Knee-Massacre.

Julius. “Dead Dog Cafe – Socialist Action – Canada.” Socialist Action – Canada, 30 Jan. 2014, socialistaction.ca/tag/dead-dog-cafe/.

King, Thomas. Green Grass Running Water. Toronto: Harper Collins, 1993. Print.

Miller, Jen. “Frybread.” Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, 1 July 2008, www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/frybread-79191/.

“Son of the Morning Star.” IMDb, IMDb.com, 3 Feb. 1991, www.imdb.com/title/tt0102962/.

Q: Identify and discuss two of King’s “acts of narrative decolonization.”

Thomas King in the novel Green Grass, Running Water participates in acts of narrative decolonization through his complex portrayal of Indigenous characters who are impacted by colonialism. Two ways these portrayals are acts of decolonization is the way they invite us to rethink what it means to be Indigenous beyond stereotypical Western representations and ultimately reclaim typically pathologized narratives. Some chapters are more fantastical stories, for they portray talking animals and land thousands of years ago, while other chapters reflect more realistic contemporary characters. The impact of this variation is that King wants us to recognize how myths have real effects on Indigenous peoples’ lives today. He takes this a step further by interweaving Indigenous stories and traditions with European American origin stories and myths. In the King’s statement of his short film, “I’m Not the Indian You Had in Mind,” he shares that the film “offers an insight of how First Nations people today are changing old ideas and empowering themselves in the greater community”. I think this statement can also be applied to Green Grass, Running Water, as the novel works with traditional stories and contemporary Indigenous lives to resist stereotypical portrayals of Indigenous peoples and reclaim their role in the world today. 

In a story starting on page 94 of the novel, King exemplifies the way creation stories and national myths are interwoven into casual conversation. There is a conversation between Sergeant Cereno and Dr. Hovaugh where Cereno is asking Dr. Havaugh to “describe Indians” (King 94). According to Jane Flick’s “Reading Notes for Thomas King’s Green Grass, Running Water,” Sergeant Cereno is a reference to a character in Herman Melville’s story about a Spanish slave ship “Benito Cereno” (145). The significance of this reference is that “Benito Cereno” is known for its unreliable narrator. Unreliable narration is a key part of many of the stories in Green Grass, Running Water because it reminds us to question the truth of the stories the characters are telling. Dr. Hovaugh, on the other hand, is a play on the name Jehova, a Hebrew name of God (Flick 144). Jehova, according to this site is a name that has sometimes been omitted from the Bible and teachings because the original pronunciation is unknown. I understand the naming of Dr. Hovaugh as a play on the authority of God. Dr. Hovaugh says that “Doctors don’t like to guess,” suggesting the factual nature of what doctors say and perhaps referencing that God also does not like to guess. Just with the names of the characters, before even getting to the story, King wants us to think about unreliable narrators and the authority of God. 

Cereno wants Dr. Hovnaugh not to relay facts about Indians but “impressions” and “observations”, for example, he asks “was one of the Indians more or less their leader? How did they like to dress? What did they like to eat? Who were there friends? Did anyone come to visit them…?” (King 94). Dr. Hovnaugh answers with a story and says “in the beginning all this was land. Empty land” (King 95). The addition of the line “empty land” refers to a colonial myth, (Terra Nullius), that North America was empty and thus free to be colonized. Dr. Hovnaugh continues that his “great-grandfather came out here from the Old World. He was what you might call an evangelist” (King 95). His Great-Grandfather “bought this land from the Indians” a  “local tribe” that is extinct now “I believe” (King 96). Dr. Hovnaugh’s story is a glorified colonization myth that we still often believe today. It is significant that Hovnaugh uses the word “bought” rather than “stole” and that he says the tribe is probably extinct now. King is calling out how these falsehoods erase Indigenous identity in the past, present, and future. 

Just in a three-page story of this novel King participates in an act of narrative decolonization through his references to an unreliable narrator, God, and false European/North American myths. I’m curious how you interpreted King’s references to “Benito Cereno” and Jehova. 

Works Cited

“Canada Was Never Terra Nullius – Public International Law Blog.” Craig Forcese, June 2014, craigforcese.squarespace.com/public-international-law-blog/2014/6/30/canada-was-never-terra-nullius.html.

Darren. “Benito Cereno (1855).” Long Pauses, Jan. 2002, www.longpauses.com/benito-cereno/.

Flick, Jane. “Reading Notes for Thomas King’s Green Grass Running Water.” Canadian Literature 161-162. (1999). Web. April 04/2013.

King, Thomas. Green Grass Running Water. Toronto: Harper Collins, 1993. Print.

King, Thomas. “I’m not the Indian You had in Mind.” Video. Producer Laura J. Milliken. National Screen Institute. 2007. Web. April 04/2013. http://www.nsi-canada.ca/2012/03/im-not-the-indian-you-had-in-mind/

“The Divine Name​—Its Use and Its Meaning.” Jehova’s Witness, www.jw.org/en/library/books/bible-teach/jehovah-meaning-of-gods-name/.

Prompt: For this blog assignment I would like you to make some comparisons between Harry Robson’s writing style in “Coyote Makes a Deal with the King Of England” and King’s style in Green Grass, Running Water. What similarities can you find between the two story-telling voices? Coyote and God are present in both texts, how do they compare in character and voice across the stories?

Veneta Georgieva Petkova in the article “How Thomas King Uses Coyote in his Novel Green Grass, Running Water” argues that both Thomas King and Harry Robinson want
“to preserve the unique culture of the indigenous population in North America” through storytelling. “Canada needs to give Indigenous stories the platform they deserve” by Jesse Wente similarily argues the importance of Indigenous storytelling and how storytelling resists colonialism and reclaims power. Wente explains that up until the 20th century, many Indigenous stories were and are still lost. He asserts that “one of the great acts of decolonization is to create. Make art. Tell stories” (Wente). King and Robinson write complex stories that change the way we think about history and the future. 

The most prominent similarities I came across between Thomas King’s writing and Harry Robinson’s oral stories is that both authors have embedded loads of historical references, are rethinking traditional Western stories, rewriting history, and employ a similar mix of narration and dialogue. King’s recreation of Genesis on page 68 references the beginning of time whereas Robinson’s story, “Coyote Makes a Deal with the King of England” reflects histories of colonization. Both stories, however, incorporate processes of colonization using traditional characters and tropes, sometimes explicitly and other times more abstractly. King, for example, in the recreation of “Genesis” writes “just then, some soldiers come along, and before First Woman can put on her ranger mask, those soldiers grab First Woman and Ahdamn. You are under arrest, says those soldiers. What’s the charge, says First Woman. Being Indian, says those soldiers” (72). While these character voices are presented as singular, they reflect the greater colonial history of Canada where Indigenous peoples were criminalized simply for existing in space settlers desired to cultivate. The conflict between First Woman, Ahdamn, and the soldiers thus recreates the first encounter stories we were previously discussing. Robinson, in the story “Coyote Makes a Deal with the King of England” also uses fictional characters to reenact history. For example, Robinson writes “Once you say we not going to fight, we can make out a paper and sign” (73). Robinson is referencing a complex history around treaties and war. The effect of King and Robinson’s incorporation of histories of colonialism is to teach their readers about it in a non-authoritative manner. Contrary to Western history that tends to lean towards facts, these stories show rather than tell us what happened. 

Another significant similarity between King and Robinson is the way their stories reflect oral traditions. As I discuss in my previous blog, “Coyote Makes a Deal with the King of England” uses language that is similar to day to day dialogue as opposed to formal writing. This brings us into the story and allows us to feel as though we are apart of the character’s conversations. 

Two characters both King and Robinson are Coyote and God. Veneta Georgieva Petkova explains that “the image of Coyote takes a central place in [Native American] culture, because of his never-ending desire to start the next story for the creation of the world and to have everything right in it” (5). In Robinson’s story, Coyote is “called on by God” and acts as an agent. He is passive in tone, for instance, he says “whatever he says I will” (Robinson 67). In Green Grass Running Water, Coyote is a trickster “with kind intentions to help fixing up the world” (Petkova). King’s version of Coyote confidently asserts that they are “very smart” (2). The effect of these different portrayals of Coyote show that while Coyote is a well-known figure, Coyote is also malleable and unrestricted to particular characteristics. This page of the online Canadian Encyclopedia explains that “a number of Indigenous artists formed the Committee to Re-establish the Trickster in the 1980s as a means of emphasizing the trickster’s role in Indigenous literature, while also offsetting stereotypical representations of Indigenous peoples in mainstream Canadian literature”. 

I’m curious about what you all think about the different portrayals of Coyote.

Works Cited

“Coyote Makes a Deal with the King of England.” Living by Stories: a Journey of Landscape and Memory, by Harry Robinson and Wendy C. Wickwire, Talonbooks, 2005, pp. 64–85.

King, Thomas. Green Grass, Running Water. Harper Perennial Canada , 1993.

Petkova, Veneta Georgieva. “How Thomas King Uses Coyote in His Novel Green Grass, Running Water.” Canadian Literature, 2011, pp. 1–35.

“Trickster.” The Canadian Encyclopedia, www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/trickster.

Wente, Jesse. “Canada Needs to Give Indigenous Stories the Platform They Deserve.” The Globe and Mail, 14 Apr. 2017, www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/film/canada-needs-to-give-indigenous-stories-the-platform-they-deserve/article34046186/.

Hello everyone! It is crazy to think we are halfway through the semester.

I would like to recap three of my favourite blog posts from the semester so far.

“Home is a Construct”– This post explores Chamberlin’s complex ideas around ‘home’ and the role of immigration, slavery, and colonization in constructing ‘home’. Home, especially Canada’s definition of it, glorifies colonialism and erases Indigenous history. Canada as a nation builds itself to be home to some and hostile towards others.

“Where did evil come from?”– This is a short story I wrote based on Thomas King’s story about evil in The Truth About Stories. I use certain elements from King’s story, for example, both the introduction of evil in a seemingly perfect setting and the notion that once evil is uncovered its presence can never be forgotten. My story reflects the beauty of Vancouver and how it covers up the ‘evil’ embedded in the housing crisis that allows some to well off whereas others are homeless.

“The Convolution of Stories and Truth“- This post looks at the dichotomy Thomas King poses between two creation stories, the biblical story of “Genesis” and “The Earth Diver”.  I argue that King wants us to recognize the power of stories and their material impacts. I also examine what these stories reflect on our cultures.

I’m excited to continue exploring these ideas over the next 6 weeks.

To explore the role of oral syntax in shaping the meaning of Harry Robinson’s short story, “Coyote Makes a Deal with King of England” I first read it silently, then read it out loud, then recorded/ listened to myself reading it out loud. The story was ultimately different each time I read it. The biggest lesson I learned from this experience is that it is one thing to simply look at words on a page, but it is another thing to immerse yourself in a story by reading it out loud. When I read “Coyote Makes a Deal with King of England” silently, I missed most of the story. By this, I mean that I had an objective understanding of what the words meant (king, coyote, book, boat, etc) but did not understand either the context nor the deeper meaning. I couldn’t make much of the language, the order felt awkward, and I felt confused as to what was going on. It was hard to read the words as they don’t flow in a way I am used to and this led me to often lose focus. When reading the story out loud, however, it had an entirely different pace. Some parts I read very fast and inflow (almost like a poem) and during other parts I had to pause, repeat it out loud, or go back because I missed a bit. This encouraged me to really read the story rather than simply gloss over it. For example, the lines: “There is a man standing there. Funny-looking man. He says he was a king. He’s coming to see you. He wanted to talk to you” have an entirely different meaning when read out loud (Robinson 69). Silently, I read these lines quickly and ignored the pacing. Outloud, however, the lines had a particular flow that demanded more attention. The lines came to life. To me, the words read as though I was having a conversation with the narrator as opposed to the distance I felt when reading the story silently. Check out Seth Fairchild’s Ted Talk, “Native American Oral Story Telling & History”, if you are interested in the role of facial expressions and tone in storytelling and how these make the storytelling/ listening experience unique. 

I also recognized how the language of the story more accurately reflects casual conversation than ‘formal’ writing. As King notes in his article “Godzilla vs. Post-Colonial” we are highly encouraged to read oral stories out loud, for this recreates the storyteller and the performance” (King 186). The effect of listening to the story reveals how it is not a simple story but one that is complex and layered with historical references. 

The Indigenous Foundations of UBC explains that “throughout history, Aboriginal societies in North America have relied on the oral transmission of stories, histories, lessons and other knowledge to maintain a historical record and sustain their cultures and identities” According to this site, Western discourse often did not understand the importance of oral tradition and prioritized written word in knowledge building. Indigenous Foundations UBC also talks about the re-telling of stories and how “narrators may adjust a story to place it in context, to emphasize particular aspects of the story or to present a lesson in a new light, among other reasons”. I did not purposefully change the story when re-reading it, however, I did read it in different voices, spoke in various paces, and messed up some of the words thus altering its meaning. 

Though I will never be able to fully understand “Coyote Makes a Deal with King of England”, I do not think that is the point. King argues that literature has the ability to provide a limited and particular access to a native world “without being encouraged to be a part of it” (188). This allows us to learn from another perspective that is not trying to appropriate an experience but rather learn about it through a limited scope.

Works Cited

“Coyote Makes a Deal with the King of England.” Living by Stories: a Journey of Landscape and Memory, by Harry Robinson and Wendy C. Wickwire, Talonbooks, 2005, pp. 64–85.

King, Thomas. “Godzilla vs. Post-Colonial.” Unhomely States: Theorizing English-Canadian Postcolonialism. Mississauga, ON: Broadview, 2004. 183- 190.

“Native American Oral Storytelling & History.” Performance by Seth Fairchild, TEDxSMU, TedxTalks, 3 Nov. 2015, Native American Oral Storytelling & History.

“Oral Traditions.” Indigenousfoundations, indigenousfoundations.arts.ubc.ca/oral_traditions/.

Question 1: First stories tell us how the world was created. In The Truth about Stories, King tells us two creation stories; one about how Charm falls from the sky pregnant with twins and creates the world out of a bit of mud with the help of all the water animals, and another about God creating heaven and earth with his words, and then Adam and Eve and the Garden. King provides us with a neat analysis of how each story reflects a distinct worldview. “The Earth Diver” story reflects a world created through collaboration, the “Genesis” story reflects a world created through a single will and an imposed hierarchical order of things: God, man, animals, plants. The differences all seem to come down to co-operation or competition — a nice clean-cut satisfying dichotomy. However, a choice must be made: you can only believe ONE of the stories is the true story of creation – right? That’s the thing about creation stories; only one can be sacred and the others are just stories. Strangely, this analysis reflects the kind of binary thinking that Chamberlin, and so many others, including King himself, would caution us to stop and examine. So, why does King create dichotomies for us to examine these two creation stories? Why does he emphasize the believability of one story over the other — as he says, he purposefully tells us the “Genesis” story with an authoritative voice, and “The Earth Diver” story with a storyteller’s voice. Why does King give us this analysis that depends on pairing up oppositions into a tidy row of dichotomies? What is he trying to show us?

King’s presentation of the story “The Earth Diver” paired with “Genesis” points out that stories are a construction yet they are powerful and have material impacts. Binaries, he suggests, are problematic because they assume these are the only two options and that one of these must be true. The effect of King’s storytelling in these different ways emphasizes the way history often is believed as the truth. Using an authoritative voice for the telling of “Genesis” reflects the ways Western religions have been a means of assimilation and justification of violence. King tells us he will use an authoritative voice when retelling “Genesis” to establishes a sense of veracity (23). He is pointing at a loaded history around Christian storytelling and how it is told as the truth. Stories, as Lutz reminds us, have currency when people believe them (4). King’s commenting on the authority of “Genesis” works to undermine it. Now that we are aware of the intended authoritative voice, we are more likely to question it. In opposition to this storytelling strategy of “Genesis” King shares that Basil Johnston, an Anishnabe storyteller highlights the importance of laughter and not taking stories too seriously (23). Whether a story is told in a comical or serious way, however, does not according to King have an impact on the sophistication of the story. King is trying to tell us that the ‘seriousness’ associated with Christian stories in opposition to the more casual nature of certain Indigenous tribal stories does not make Christian stories anymore true. It is important, therefore, to be critical of stories and whether they need us to believe something. 

America’s creation story, this article examines, covers up the genocide associated with the construction of America as a settler nation. It is also these Christian stories that justified Canadian Residential Schools. King thus wants to remind us that stories are not always just stories, they have real impacts on policies, practices, and lives. 

Another important point King brings up with the presentation of “The Earth Diver” and “Genesis” is that one story depicts creation as a shared activity while the latter depicts creation as solitary. The problem with “Genesis” is that it establishes a hierarchy of beings. As we understand now, it is this superiority humans feel that is destroying the earth. If humans see themselves as above animals and plants and land, it is no wonder we are okay with depleting the earth. Dichotomies, King reminds us, are a beloved part of Western society (25). This reflects the greater us vs. them dichotomy of settlers and Indigenous peoples first encounter stories from Western perspectives rely on. King is urging us to be cautious of dichotomies and to understand that nothing is simple.

Works Cited

Dunbar-Ortiz, Roxanne. “America’s Founding Myths.” Jacobin, 24 Nov. 2014, www.jacobinmag.com/2014/11/americas-founding-myths/.

King, Thomas. The Truth About Stories: a Native Narrative. House of Anansi Press Inc., 2003.

Lutz, John. “Myth Understandings: First Contact, Over and Over Again.” Myth and Memory: Rethinking Stories of Indigenous-European Contact, University of British Columbia Press, 2007, pp. 1–15.

“The Role of the Churches.” Facing History and Ourselves, www.facinghistory.org/stolen-lives-indigenous-peoples-canada-and-indian-residential-schools/chapter-3/role-churches.

This post will look at the stories told by Arianne, Emilia, Georgia, Gaby, Chino, and Sarah. Thank you for sharing your wonderful and heartfelt stories about how you define home. 

Here is a list of the similarities I came across in these six stories:

-Routines

-Being surrounded by loved ones

-Family history 

-Vancouver as a second home

-Home as a place where you feel loved and accepted

-Recognizing elements of home in other places

-Smells, tastes, sounds

-Physical home not always feeling like home

-Food 

-Activities

-Love

Of this list, the values that stand out to me most are routines, loved ones, and family history. I noticed how most people’s sense of home is evoked by recalling particular routines. Arianne feels at home when drinking a cup of tea made just right. Georgia describes home as telling stories about your day with loved ones. Chino describes playing sports with his brother and eating Chinese food for a family member’s birthday. Similarly, I describe my routine of going to ballet-class with my best friend and how this makes me feel at home. There is something about routine that establishes a sense of purpose and belonging, especially when these routines involve loved ones. My greater realization from this is that it is not always our physical home that feels like home but being around our loved ones. These routines not only connect us to our family and friends but are the things we seem to remember most. According to this webpage, routines are essential to creating a sense of place. 

Another interesting commonality I found was the role of family history in one’s sense of home. Emilia at the beginning of her story talks about her ancestors and where they come from. I talk about my grandmother and her journey from Hungary to Canada to the United States. These stories of our ancestors have the ability to connect us to places, even if we have never been there before. It also makes us think of our own stories about where we live and are going in life. 

On a similar note regarding family, Arianne and Sarah share how it is possible not to feel at home when you are at home. Arianne expresses that she feels a deep connection to England because of her family history and that Vancouver has never felt quite like home. (If you’re interested in learning more about the reasons why the homelands of our ancestors feel so familiar, check out this article). The narrator of Sarah’s story discovers that home is not any particular place at all but being with her mom and feeling close to her father. 

I really enjoyed reading these stories and learning all the different ways in which people define home. I’m more confused than ever about what home really means, but I think that is a good thing. 

Works Cited

Afful, Sarah. “Dressed by My Mother.” SARAHAFFUL, 28 Jan. 2019, blogs.ubc.ca/afful/2020/01/28/dressed-by-my-mother/.

Brandoli, Emilia. “Assignment 2:2: Home.” ENGL 372: OH CANADA, 28 Jan. 2019, blogs.ubc.ca/emiliabrandoli/2020/01/29/assignment-22-home/.

Kehoe, Jacqueline. “Why Visiting Your Ancestral Home Feels so Familiar: It’s Literally in Your Bones.” Matador Network, 27 Apr. 2018, matadornetwork.com/read/visiting-ancestral-home-feels-familiar-literally-bones/.

Masaki, Georgia. “Assignment 2.1: Home.” OH CANADA, 28 Jan. 2019, blogs.ubc.ca/georgiamasaki/2020/01/27/assignment-2-1-home/.

Mincemoyer, Claudia C. “Creating a Sense of Place: Considering Routine, Ritual, and Belonging (Better Kid Care).” Better Kid Care (Penn State Extension), The Pennsylvania  State University, 2016, extension.psu.edu/programs/betterkidcare/early-care/tip-pages/all/creating-a-sense-of-place-considering-routine-ritual-and-belonging.

Reinhart, Gabrielle. “The Story of Home.” Explorer Gaby’s Blog, 28 Jan. 2019, blogs.ubc.ca/gabyliteratureexplorer/2020/01/28/the-story-of-home/.

Robins, Arianne. “Assignment 2:2.” Ari’s Canadian Literature Blog, 28 Jan. 2019, blogs.ubc.ca/ariannerobbins/2020/01/28/assignment-22/.

Rodriguez, Chino Angelo. “ENGL 372: CANADIAN LITERATURE.” ENGL 372: CANADIAN LITERATURE, 28 Jan. 2019, blogs.ubc.ca/crodriguezengl372/2020/01/28/assignment-2-2-home/.

Home. A tiny piece of land across from Seattle in Washington in the United States named Bainbridge Island. A big yellow house in the forest. My bedroom and its view of the driveway and trees. The place I lived from birth to the age of 18. The place I took my first steps, experienced my first heartbreak, and grew into the person I am today.

Before we get to Bainbridge Island, let’s go back to the year 1937 in Hungary. It was right before World War II. My Grandma, Lilly, a part of a Jewish family was seven years old and had to pack up what she could and leave the country. Lilly and her family desperately tried to board a ship in order to escape the impending Nazi regime. The crew was not letting any more people board, however, through a connection of Lilly’s father one of the crew members allowed their family on. There were three ships headed out of Hungary. Two were bombed, one survived. Given that I am here and alive now, my Grandma was fortunate to be on the one ship that survived. This ship ended up in Quebec, Canada. From here my Grandma grew up on a farm with her family, eventually got married, had two children, and moved to Los Angeles, California. That’s where my parents came in. Right before my twin brother and I were born, they set out for Bainbridge Island.

Within this story, however, are the smaller stories my Grandma likes to tell that really embodies what home means to her. She shares a story of when she was four years old playing at a river by her house and falls in. A stranger saved her life. This river, therefore, is an important symbol of not only my Grandma’s life but her sense of home. She taught me that home isn’t always a place, rather it is the stories that make up our lives.

Though I speak with my Grandma often about her life and the places she considers home, it is interesting to think about all my relatives before her and their stories. Thinking about my family and their stories makes me think about all the stories I would tell my future children about my sense of home. 

I’ll begin by sharing a story about my childhood that symbolizes home. 

Every day after school as a kid my friend Hannah and I would be picked up by her mom in her green minivan and attend ballet class. After class, we would go to a bagel shop and then a place called Battlepoint park. I don’t really remember what games we played or what jokes we told, but when I go back to these places now I’m reminded of the warm feeling I used to get when I spent time with my friend Hannah after ballet class. I’m also reminded of the deep sadness I felt and the tears I shed when she wasn’t at school in the morning, worried that we wouldn’t be able to go to dance class together that afternoon. Now and then I think of these places and the memories they bare and I feel as though I am home. Hannah passed away many years ago, but my memory of her is home. 

Home is where my brothers and I fight about who has to sit in the middle seat in the car. 

Home is also physical, though it does not have to be in the same physical space. Evergreen trees, for example, will always remind me of home. Heavy rainstorms, kayaking in cold water or eating ice cream. I am home. 

Things are different now that I do not live with my family on Bainbridge Island anymore. There is a bright side: I am learning that it is possible to have many homes, as I now consider Vancouver one of them. 

I have a great story to tell you.

The other day I was walking on the street for hours and hours. I had left home, ready for a fresh start. I had one bag with a bottle of water, one granola bar, and my favourite stuffed toy. I wasn’t prepared for the rainy weather, but that didn’t matter to me. I just wanted to get away and find somewhere good. 

I came upon a beautiful skyline situated by tall beautiful mountains, vast evergreen forest, and deep blue water. I had never seen any place so that was so perfect. 

As I approached the city, I met lovely people, pet cute dogs, and found plenty of delicious food. 

While on the beach, I met a friend who invited me to their home. It was huge and had everything I could ever dream of. A kitchen overflowing with food, heat, and many blankets. 

I believed as though I was in paradise. It seemed like living in a home like that in a city as beautiful as this one would never have to worry. However, once I left my friend’s house I realized that most homes did not look like my friend’s home. Some people didn’t even have a home. 

How could certain places have so much wealth and beauty not share with those who have nothing? 

I then realized, for beauty to exist, others must live without it. 

The next time I visited my friend’s home, I told them of my discovery. That while this city may seem perfect, there is much evil that exists beneath the beauty. 

Then I began to wonder: Is beauty simply evil in disguise? 

I could never look at beauty the same.

Now remember, once you have told a story, you can never take it back. So, be careful of the stories you tell, AND, the stories you listen to.

Reflection:

My process of telling this story was unique, for I thought of it/ wrote it while I was babysitting a two-year-old and six-year-old kid. I wanted to tell a story that was relevant to me, but also a story that would be interesting for children. I realized that this story has very different meanings depending on one’s own experiences. When I told it to the children I was watching, for example, they enjoyed the descriptions of Vancouver that accentuate the natural beauty. They were born in Vancouver thus they feel a close connection to the city. I, on the other hand, coming to Vancouver as a student, view the city from a different perspective. After telling the story to the children from memory, I tried to simplify the language and plot to make it easier for them to understand. Though the children did grasp the meaning of my story, it was fun to practice storytelling and retelling.

Similar to King’s story, once my narrator discovers evil she cannot look at the world the same. My story is inspired by my move to Vancouver where I was astonished by how beautiful Vancouver was. Everyone was friendly, the scenery was beautiful, and UBC was extremely welcoming. What I did not realize was that UBC is on stolen land. A place that represents diversity, education, discovery, exists because Indigenous were forced to give up their home. Beauty, therefore, is not what it seems. This also brings up the question of whether beauty is possible in a place built upon so much evil.

This story also represents the greater Vancouver area where some are living in beautiful homes with an abundance of resources whereas others have been kicked out of their homes are live on the streets. Housing prices have skyrocketed and neighborhoods are continuously being gentrified. This is not an individual issue but a systematic one.

Works Cited:

Lindeman, Tracey. “What Will It Take to Cool Vancouver’s Red-Hot Rental Market?” CityLab, 25 June 2019, www.citylab.com/design/2019/05/vancouver-affordable-rent-housing-home-prices-zoning-density/588916/.

Shantz, Jeff. “There Is No Justice on Stolen Indigenous Land in Canada.” The Georgia Straight, 12 Mar. 2018, www.straight.com/news/1042826/jeff-shantz-there-no-justice-stolen-indigenous-land-canada.

Home, according to Chamberlin, is not a physical place but a conceptual one. As Professor Patterson notes in the lecture, home is imaginary while land is real. This means that where one lives is not necessarily one’s home. To illustrate this point, Chamberlin discusses the way Indigenous peoples were displaced from their land, thus complicating the notion of home because their ‘home’ no longer belongs to them. Home, as a result, is something of the imagination for many. People can be homeless in their homeland or call a place home that isn’t theirs. He argues that home “may be the place we came from, five or fifty or five hundred years ago, or the place we are going to when our time is done” (Chamberlin 87). To apply these complicated ideas to figuring out Canada, the place we call home, is to uncover various histories of those Indigenous peoples who were and are still being displaced, the immigrants of color who were brought in from around the world for cheap labour, and the slaves who were dislocated from their homelands to build the land. Chamberlin argues that there are similarities across various examples of groups of people being displaced or dislocated from land whether that be through colonialism, anti-semitism, or slavery. While it is highly problematic to assume these experiences are the same, especially considering the way they are deeply racialized and continue to have very different impacts on the lives of people, Chamberlin wants to point out that they all have in common the “history of dismissing a different belief or different behaviour as unbelief or misbehaviour, and of discrediting those who believe or behave differently as infidels or savages” (78). 

Chamberlin offers “the sad fact” of the “history of settlement around the word” so that we recognize these histories when figuring out what home means (78). For example, to question and critique colonial myths such as the ‘discovery’ of Canada by settlers that erase Indigenous history. This myth not only relies on the notion that the land of Canada was empty but represents Indigenous peoples as savages who either needed to disappear or assimilate. Today, the nation asks that we be patriotic and celebrate national holidays such as Canada Day and thanksgiving. These holidays, however, perpetuate colonial myths that celebrate Canada rather than expose the racial and cultural violence that the nation is built on. This article, for example, critiques Canada day and the way it excludes Indigenous peoples and their history. 

A few years ago I visited Israel for a few weeks. I traveled with a group of other Jewish young adults. Throughout this trip, we often learned about the horrors of the Holocaust and how Israel was established as a safe space for Jewish people after the war. We were told that Israel is our home, the land our ancestors dreamed we would eventually walk on. What we did not talk about were the horrific and violent ways in which Israel displaces Palestinians in order to maintain Israel as a Zionist nation. While I cannot fully go into the Israel Palestine conflict, it reflects the complicated ways in which a nation tries to sell itself as ‘home’ to particular communities while displacing the original inhabitants and erasing history. If you’re interested in learning more about Israel, check out this video that discusses how the declaration of Israel as a Jewish homeland to some is a victory, while to most is considered cruel.

With all of this said, the most important thing I have learned from Chamberlin is to be extremely critical of what Canada as a home means and to recognize the various processes of colonialism, slavery, and imperialism that have created the nation today.

Works Cited

Chamberlin, J. Edward. If This Is Your Land, Where Are Your Stories? Vintage Canada, 2004.

Neylan, Susan. “Canada’s Dark Side: Indigenous Peoples and Canadian Heritage.” Origins, June 2018, origins.osu.edu/article/canada-s-dark-side-indigenous-peoples-and-canada-s-150th-celebration.

“‘This Is Our Country. This Is Our Language’: Controversial Law Deems Israel Homeland of the Jewish People.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, 19 July 2018, www.pbs.org/newshour/show/this-is-our-country-this-is-our-language-controversial-law-deems-israel-homeland-of-the-jewish-people.