2.2 the stolen paper

“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.

———————————-

My first thoughts after reading the story was it made sense…

See I once heard of a story of how Australia came to be. The story was that the prisons in England were overflowing and they had so many criminals in England that they had to find more space for them. So one day, someone decided to bring all these prisoners to Australia and leave them there. Then England would be safe.

Then. I once knew of a man who believed in the existence of aliens (other worldly beings). He believed that Earthlings once came from a different planet and that somehow our ancestors did something wrong and were banished to Earth. Hence sightings of UFO’s can be explained by our “supervisors” or “guardians” checking up on us and that as soon as we are on good behavior, we would be able to travel back home.

So when I heard this story of how Europeans were the descendants of the banished twin, I thought, well I suppose that it could be true. I was not there. I do not know if the story of how Australia came to be is true. I suppose I could find out, but I would only be finding out someone’s version of how it came to be. But I definitely do not know if we are descendants of an alien species. Not to offend or dismiss any story to be more true than the other, and in the same spirit as Chamberlin, why can’t they all be true?

In the same way that this story fit into the stories that I had already come into contact with, this story of how the “Indian” was the first and how is it that the descendants of the younger twin came back after all this time to try and get back what perhaps he thought he should have. This particular creation story puts the pieces together of why the descendants of the younger twin left; why they came back after all; why they behaved they way they did; why they placed so much importance on the power of the written word. I suppose then that I am emphasizing the need we have to fit the foreign into the familiar – the need to find patterns. In the context of my response, I was quick to accept the story, unquestioning the authority or validity of the story, because of what I already know about the Aboriginal culture and other stories of creation… because there is a narrative in my head and that is that the Aboriginal culture is most often misunderstood and that not a lot of people know about the stories within the Aboriginal culture, and hence whatever stories I hear that are Aboriginal are undoubtedly Aboriginal and must not be questioned. Which is also interesting now that I think about it because I should always be critical…

Then my second thought was, well what about the people on the other side of the ocean? What about the Asian people? Where did I come from? How do I fit into this story? Was I a descendant of the Coyote? Was I a descendant of the younger twin? Now that’s a story for another time.