In his novel If This Is Your Land, Where Are Your Stories: Finding common Ground, J. Edward Chamberlin brings to light many important problems that people have faced for generations (and continue to face today) regarding reality versus imagination. At the heart of this problem is the concept of belief and how our beliefs are what drive us to discount other people’s beliefs in the grand hope of finding the “truth”. Chamberlin says, “the history of many of the world’s conflicts is a history of dismissing a different belief or different behavior as unbelief or misbehaviour, and of discrediting those who believe or behave differently as infidels or savages” (78). With so much discredit being thrown around daily, it is no surprise that the concept of “home” is problematic and continues to cause conflict between Indigenous and European settlers today.
Though Chamberlin repeatedly states that “the history of settlement around the world is the history of displacing other people from their lands, of discounting their livelihoods and destroying their languages” (78), I believe that the real issue stems from what people believe to be their land, or rather, when people believe that they have the right to own land. This issue becomes increasingly problematic when land is viewed as purely property to be owned to some individuals and as “home” to others. When land is viewed as solely property for the taking, there is no emotional/psychological connection to it; it is something real in purely the physical sense of the word. But when land is viewed as a home, it possesses emotional and psychological power that overrides the physical. It becomes “who we are and where we belong” (76). I believe that the European settlers viewed Canada as purely land because they were trying to find a true spiritual home, something that they had not found yet or had taken from them. Conversely, I believe that the Indigenous people of Canada viewed Canada as a home because it was actually a homeland to them, having the spiritual connection to the land and the happiness that that connection brought with it. Chamberlin quotes anthropologist W. E. H. Stanner who says, “no English words are good enough to give a sense of the links between an aboriginal group and it’s homeland” (79). Stanner says, “when we took what we call ‘land’ we took what to them meant hearth, home, the source and locus of life, and everlastingness of spirit” (79). As a result, we have two groups of people seeing the value of land completely differently, which can only lead to conflict.
The fact that Chamerlin explains that “stories keep us sane and steady in a world in which we are always having to face loss and unhappiness” (78) and that “home–the idea as well as the reality–has something of the same power” (78), hits very close to home (no pun intended) for me. I have lived in the same house my entire life and the surrounding properties were originally (as of 60 years ago) owned by my grandfather and his brother. But because of development, the land is slowly being destroyed and being replaced by countless single family homes. Seeing the changes occur, and knowing that our house will soon be demolished as well, is absolutely devastating. It is not devastating because my grandfather owned it, but instead, it is devastating because of the memories and stories that encompass the land, as well as the connection my family has to it spiritually. Because of this, I can sense the kind of hardship that the Indigenous people of this country faced when the European settlers arrived–though they obviously felt it on a much larger scale. Yet, seeing land as not something to be owned, but rather something to protect and cherish is a belief that I share with most of the Indigenous people of this world. As a result, like the Indigenous people becoming homeless in their homeland, I can already feel the sense of homelessness kicking in within myself because I know that my home will be destroyed soon–all the cedar trees will be chopped down and be replaced with concrete.
In the end, the consequences of the meaning of land and home holding different value will continue to cause conflict if “us and them” don’t find common ground and choose to take each others beliefs seriously and not discredit them. Unless we “acknowledge the idea as well as the reality of the homelessness that afflicts us, it is going to be difficult to understand the conflicts that are shattering our world” (80). After all, we are all looking for a home, but often in the act of finding a home, we displace others from their home(s). This has been happening for thousands of years and I believe that people are becoming more concerned about finding a sense of home now more than ever because of population increases and land being cleared and altered everyday; people being one with the land and calling it it home is no longer really possible. Instead, lines are drawn and and only a section of land can be called one’s home, and often it is not enough to really feel genuinely like a home. But ultimately, I feel that we are all homeless because one way or another, almost all of us have been displaced from our homes, whether it was thousands of years ago or a hundred years ago. Yet still, we shouldn’t feel this way because the fact is, the earth is our collective home. This is were the conflict lies: the belief of having/needing a home to separate us from other people and their differing beliefs. In the end, “whatever and wherever it is, home is always border country, a place that separates and connects us, a place of possibility for both peace and perilous conflict” (3). Until we can start believing that the earth is our home, and land belongs to no one or everyone, we will continue to fight over it in an attempt to find our own “home”.
Reading J. Edward Chamberlin’s novel If This Is Your Land, Where Are Your Stories: Finding common Ground, also made me really reflect on the idea of “us” and “them” and though I didn’t get a chance to write much about this concept, I wanted to share a video that really made me hyper aware of this ridiculous concept. It is a YouTube video of comedian Hari Kondabolu on David Letterman. Watch the video (http://youtu.be/Ncv15dCVc7M) in it’s entirety or feel free to start it at about 2 mins 10 seconds and watch until the end.
Works Cited
Chamberlin, J. Edward. If This Is Your Land, Where Are Your Stories? Finding Common Ground. Toronto: Vintage Canada 2004. Print.
“David Letterman – Comedian Hari Kondabolu.” 27 Mar. 2014. YouTube. Web. 23 May 2014.
