Question: What are the major differences or similarities between the ethos of the creation story you are familiar with and the story King tells in The Truth About Stories ?
I grew up in a household with both Christian and Catholic influences. I remember going to Sunday school and being read to from a colourful picture book that was supposed to educate young children about an all-powerful entity named God who astoundingly was able to create our entire world in under seven days. If you as a reader are unfamiliar with the story of Genesis 1 from the bible, here is a link to a webpage that I found best described the story in simpler terms.
I was a natural sceptic, especially because of all the non-realistic elements such as God himself and the utter “magic” behind his creation air, water, trees, animals and the human race. As an adult I follow a much more atheist approach to the creation of the world. I believe in science and the scientific story of creation. However, for this blog post I will entertain my childhood story of creation and compare it to that narrated in Thomas King’s The Truth about Stories.
Similarities
There are defiantly Un-realistic/mystical elements to both creation narratives. With talking animals in Kings variation, charms pregnancy (immaculate conception), talking babies who create the world, and this character of God (a single entity powerful enough to create an entire world). What I find interesting with both creation stories is that there is no necessity of reality or credibility. It is simply assumed that these seemingly mystical elements were realistic, and that because they occurred so long ago, the evidence has disappeared. Also, similar to the Christian creation story where God creates and separates day and night to be two individual entities, so does Charm through the birth of her opposite twins, described as dark and light (day and night)
Both stories have the same theme of creating a sustainable earth to live upon: God creating “animals to fill the earth” (Fairchild) as well as the first humans, Adam and Eve. The twins also create humans and the animals wonder if they will “get along”. The fact that animals are present on the earth before humans and that they hold concern over getting along with humans ultimately reflects the respect that First Nations people had/ have towards animals. The rest/reflection on their work after creation in both stories is also similar. God leaves an entire day to reflect on his amazing creations and rest after all the work. The twins, charm, and the animals merely comment on what a beautiful world they have created and then the story ends, just as Genesis does after the seventh day (rest day).
Differences
In Genesis 1 God created the earth himself. In Kings Creation story, the water creatures were the ones to labour and build charm a piece of land, which eventually was transformed by her twin children. Charms babies are responsible for forming the earth and they are two opposite beings (day and night/ dark and light) who go about creation in entirely different manners. For example, one twin first makes the lad flat, then the other stomps about in the dirt and creates hills and valleys. The creator character in both stories being completely dissimilar is a huge difference.
The earth itself is also very different in both stories. Before creation, God begins working on an empty, dark and lifeless world, basically a blank slate. In Kings story, there is already an established “air world” which hosts Charm in the beginning, and “water world” which eventually changes itself to accommodate Charm. It is also important to note the presence of Charm herself, described by King as nosy and relentlessly curious. It is because of her and her pregnancy that there is a need for land to be formed and arguably without her character or her particular traits, “earth” may never have been created.
After this assignment I became curious to read more creation stories, I eventually stumbled across this creation story by Ojibwa named “The creation of Turtle Island”. The story has very similar elements to the story told by King and the image below reminded me of Charm sitting on the back of the turtle when she first falls from the sky.
“The Creation of Turtle Island” nativeartincanada.com
Works Cited
King, Thomas. The Truth about Stories. New York : House of Anansi Press, 2011. Print.
Fairchild, Mary. “The Creation Story-Bible Story Summay” AboutReligion.com, No Date. Web. March 3, 2015. http://christianity.about.com/od/biblestorysummaries/p/creationstory.htm
“The Creation of Turtle Island” Native Art in Canada. 2006. Web March 3, 2015. http://www.native-art-in-canada.com/turtleisland.html
Hey Leana,
Thanks for this post. I answered the same question. You raise some things about Christianity that I never really thought of. To start off, you mention how in Genesis, God is the sole creator of Earth. In King’s story, there were creatures and children involved in their creation. This sheds light on the types of groups or cultures we are dealing with. I think that these creation stories are really the foundation or onset for the type of unit they would each become. What I mean by this is that in the Christian creation story, God is superior and powerful. There is one man who is credible and that man is to be worshipped. On the other hand, in the First Nations creation story that King provides for us, the creatures and animals and human beings are all apart of the beginning of the world. I really think that this goes to show the different dynamics of each group. For Christianity, not everyone is equal. One man created earth, while the rest of us did not. Some make it to heaven and some do not. In First Nations, all are equal. Man, animals and creatures all take part. This is also somewhat demonstrative of the type of people we are dealing with in each group. In Christianity, there is not much unison. What unison there is, is based on the one man that created the earth. For First Nations, the animals, creatures and humans come together as a community, to help create something great. In some sense, this tells me how First Nations people are so community oriented; while in Christianity there is a separation and distinct line between man and God, making us unequal.
Thanks for provoking this thought!
Jess P
Hi!
Thanks for the reply 🙂 I defiantly agree with you that religion (and creation stories) do shape our perceptions of the world. Personally, I prefer the First Nations creation story and the idea of total equality, since it does not create a hierarchy between animals, plants and humans, or even within humans themselves. I wonder if this is the reason that colonizers and early explorers encountered such hostility and caused many problems wherever they went? They were simply under the impression (given to them by the creation story) that they were of higher importance then other societies and animals.