Dear Reader, Welcome to this traveller’s logs through the literary world of Canadian literature as presented in the texts viewed in English 372. A world based around the long standing tradition of storytelling, created through the representation of identity and the relationship formulated with the land.
On the topic of identity, it is perhaps in good humour to state the cliché, which serves to remind, that the topic is complex. My name is Mia Nikoo and I use the she/her/hers pronouns. I am an English Literature major, with a minor in Creative Writing. Though to be honest, I am a true thespian at heart and much like Odysseus en route to return back to a world of storytelling through performance, and art. I pen this blog from the traditional and unceded territories of the Anishinabewaki ᐊᓂᔑᓈᐯᐗᑭ peoples as an immigrant and the daughter of a single mother. Two points which have played a great role in forming my identity as a Canadian.
As my mother has often viewed Canada as it’s often presented, as a land of promise and security, of better futures, freedom and new beginnings. However what is often conveniently left out is the racist, and bloody genocide which stains the pages of the history (which are ongoing,) belonging to the land we refer to as home. the destruction and rape of cultures, rich in history, storytelling and art for the sake of pretty landscapes and colonial egos. A prominent feature in the work done by the Group of Seven, who often represented Canada as a land newly discovered and baron of people, which perhaps we now should reexamine through a more political lens.
That is the history of this country, and I believe that for there to be growth there must be acknowledgement of both the good and the ugly. I have come to understand that Canada can be both a place which has granted me the freedoms and liberties I have enjoyed since childhood as well a place of great criticism and dislike. much like many other immigrants who feel unsure of how to approach this topic. Who wish to be allies while still thankful for the opportunity to reinvent ourselves. It is my hope that through the texts we look at in this course that I may be able to understand Canada as a whole on a deeper level. To be able to experience the storytelling that has formed Canadian identity in text, further than the presentation done so in The Hatchet or Clara Callen. To experience and understand Canadian identity further through Canadian voices and to perhaps find a definition for Canadian identity.
Looking up in hopes of discovering new features of my home Province of Ontario.
Thank you for taking the time to read my first entry.
citation:
Caoimhe, David Merray. “Whose Idea of North? Lawren Harris at the AGO.” Canadian Art, 7 July 2016, canadianart.ca/reviews/lawren-harris-ago/.
StarPhoenix, Saskatoon. “New Book Explores the Relationships between Indigenous People and New Canadians.” Thestarphoenix, The Star Phoenix, 1 May 2020, thestarphoenix.com/entertainment/books/immigrants-and-reconciliation.
January 19, 2021
Hello Mia,
Thank you for your introduction, it is a real pleasure to get to know you and learn a little about your interests, I especially enjoyed following your link to the excerpts from Ali Abukar’s, Reconciliation and New Canadians in “Reconciliation in Practice: A Cross-Cultural Perspective. I am looking forward to working and learning together this semester. Thank you.
Hello Professor Paterson, I am very excited to learn and experience Canadian literature from a new and more rounded selection and perspective. Thank you for this experience.
Hi Mia,
It’s great to meet you (virtually) through your blog! As someone who was born and raised in Canada I think it can be very easy to fall into comfortable patterns and narratives into what it means to be Canadian. Our Canadian identities are easy to set aside since it’s something that we’ve been taught since elementary school, and I’ve never lived outside of my home country, so I’ve never had to question or challenge that part of my identity. I thought it was really interesting what you wrote about your mother’s experience and views of Canada. I’ve heard similar stories from my family about my Great-grandparents when they came here from Ukraine. The idealization of Canada is still very much present in my familial history even though that narrative was four generations ago. It would be interesting to know if the stories told to new immigrants about what Canada is are the same as they were when my family immigrated. Has a global spotlight changed how we’ve been perceived by the world, or are we telling the same story over and over again, even though it’s “truth” is muddled? I’m excited to hear more about your story and views throughout this semester.
Hi Holly, It’s nice to meet you as well. Thank you for sharing your families experience, I think a lot of the worlds perspective in regards to Canada arrives from American media and their depiction of Canadian identity. This in addition to the fact that Canada appears more peaceful than the countries that are being left, allows for the over looking of the mistreatment and misbehaviours, since they are always measures against the treatments of the places that are left behind. I think since we came here when I was a child, its a lot easier for me to compartmentalize the two. I am so excited to learn from your perspective and opinion through out the semester.
Hi Mia,
Nice to meet another thespian! I’ve been away from the stage for many years now but it’s in my heart and always nice to speak with others about it.
I think theatre artists really now how stories can create a reality. Theatre does that – crosses the line from imagination to reality. While reading your post, I was thinking about Chamberlin with his many conflicts of us/them, reality/imagination, and I’m kind of struck by how theatre is able to dissolve those boundaries. That’s the magic of it, maybe.
I have thought quite a bit about land acknowledgements in the past few years – how to speak them authentically, how to make the words matter, how to not just check a box, why they are important, what their purpose is, what my role/part/responsibility is as a settler…
Like theatre, maybe acknowledging the land is part of speaking a story into reality. Speaking a truth until it becomes a part of our identity.
What do you think? What is the land acknowledgement to you?
Looking forward to hearing more of your thoughts as we go.
Hi Laura,
It is nice to meet you as well. As the Bard wrote “All the world’s a stage” so I believe we carry the stage within our hearts everywhere we go. Which goes to your point of the magic of the theatre.
I have thought a lot about land acknowledgements, for a number of reasons, over the past couple weeks and the role they play in moving the country forward. I grew up in the suburbs of Toronto, and I remember distinctly how in social studies when we were learning about the history of Canada, we were never thought about the people who’s land our neighbourhoods where built on. There was this performance put on by our education system that Ontario was unclaimed, that all the mistreatment happened else where, I remember asking my mom why there were no tribes in Ontario when we knew there where hunters coming over and tradesmen practicing at the Hudsons bay. When our province was so easily accessible and offered so much. Even after the curriculum changed and people became more aware of the importance of the land we live on and acknowledging the rights of the people who have been mistreated and removed from the history of our province for a long time, our suburban government still refused to acknowledge the land rights in the first and all following meetings. So in part for me its a reminder of the privilege I have been given to live and grow and learn from the land I call home, it serves as a reminder of how lucky I am, and how it is all because of the Anishinabewaki people and all of the other tribes who have been effected by the settlers, who stole their lands, source of food and colonized people in a manner that can only be described as inhumane, as colonization often is. Speaking the land acknowledgments, is also a reminder of the history and ongoing problems of our country, which can often be lost in the noise of our neighbours to the South and the comparisons made to the other constitutional monarchies. It allows for the truth to be spoken, even for a moment, it allows for the story of the land to be told, and remembered. For the pain to be acknowledged and it allows for the me to remember how I got to this point and place in my life. The land acknowledgement often feels like people are saying fro the sake of saying it and we cant have that, it cant be performative, It has to be true, it has to be spoke like each word is more important than the other and in that aspect it reminds me of theatre. Because each one of those stories that has been told is important, they are impactful and convey emotion, history and connections and for me, personally that is what Land acknowledgments are meant to do. That is what I see them to be. They are the first step, not only for our governments and schools but also our societies to understand the history of Canada, and why it is effecting indigenous people today. Because no child should wonder why there weren’t any indigenous people in their province, when they have been and still are a part of that land. I look forward to learning and growing from your perspective and opinions through out the course.