whose story is it to tell

“to raise the question of ‘authenticity’ is to challenge not only the narrative but also the ‘truth’ behind salish ways of knowing“ (carlson 59). explain why this is so according to carlson, and explain why it is important to recognize this point.

– assignment given by erika paterson

Paramount. The Vanishing American. 1925.

carlson’s article, “orality about literacy” touches on the important concept of narratives made for and by oneself, and narratives that are made for oneself by others. he references brian dippie’s comparison between nazi germany’s normalization of the slaughter of millions of jews and “american policy makers’ justification of the physical, social, and economic marginalization of aboriginal people” (58). the first people of canada were written off as a “vanishing race” because the narrative that was being produced about them inferred that they were “inferior and incapable of advancement. once they had been classified as a historically vanishing people, policies were enacted that actually promoted their political, economic, and cultural disappearance” (58). a self-fulfilling prophecy was created to both justify the damage being done and to perpetuate it so that it became an even greater manifestation. where diverse methods of record keeping, such as oral histories, or histories including content that could be perceived as fantastical occurrences, have had their authenticity questioned, carlson makes the point that the oral histories of the salish have always had their own code of authenticity and verification in a tribal and social context, just the same as any written history. people were kept accountable by the others around them, even if the stories were not written down (59).

transformation stories hold an important place in the currently studied salish oral histories. they document important powerful beings and influencers of the salish history who change back and forth form animal and human form. carlson discusses how the transformation stories of the salish people are just “as much, if not more, about creating permanency or stability as they are about documenting the change from one state to another”. transformation means more than just changing forms. the salish root word of the name for the transformers means not just transform, but “‘marking’. – the transformers leave their mark on the world through transformations that in turn are then understood and known through the stories describing that act” (61). even language is a tool that can take or give power to others’ narratives. relying solely on one simple english translation of the salish roots of a word, one misses out on the complexity of meaning behind the salish created words that embody their culture. that a word could mean both “transformation” and “marking” seems paradoxical in our english language and limits the narrative of the salish people that is more complex and diverse then the ability of a different culture to perceive.

the danger of relying on methods and language of documentation that modern america has become accustomed to is that even in trying to study the first people and rectify the wrongs that have occurred over the years, white america still continues to try and maintain being the authority on the the american aboriginal narrative. thomas king writes in his article “godzilla vs. post-colonial” – “i cannot let post-colonial stand – particularly as a term- for, at its heart, it is an act of imagination and and act of imperialism that demands that i imagine myself as something i did not choose to be, as something i would not choose to become” (190).

how many ways do we daily define others according to our own understanding of what it means to be human? how many hundreds of thousands of experiences do we miss out on because we experience life in the way we have learned to understand it? more importantly, how do we challenge our own understanding and open ourselves up to greater depth in our comprehension of human experience?

 

works cited

Carlson, Keith Thor. “Orality and Literacy: The ‘Black and White’ of Salish History.” Orality & Literacy: Reflections Across Disciplines. Ed. Carlson, Kristina Fagna, & Natalia Khamemko-Frieson. Toronto: Uof Toronto P, 2011. Print. 43-72.

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

Paterson, Erika. “Lesson 2.3”. ENGL 4710 Canadian Literary Genres: Canadian Studies. University of British Columbia. Nov. 2013. blogs.ubc.ca/courseblogsis_ubc_engl_470a_99c_2014wc_44216-sis_ubc_engl_470a_99c_2014wc_44216_2517104_1/unit-2/lesson-2-3. Accessed 18 Oct. 2016.

“Vanishing American”. 1925. Paramount. Dr. Macro`s High Quality Movie Scans. www.doctormacro.com/Movie%20Summaries/V/Vanishing%20American,%20The%20%281925%29.htm. Accessed 18 Oct. 2016.

paper thin

“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? 

– assignment given by erika paterson.

ProfessorArthur Edward Waite. The High Priestess. The Rider-Waite Tarot Deck.

my first consideration is to wonder what the written piece of paper means or symbolizes. is it symbolic of the white people stealing the skill of being able to write and keeping it to themselves? does this mean the document was valuable, or evil, or both, like how the forbidden fruit adam and eve eat in the garden gives them the “skill” to judge between evil and good but the action is considered evil overall because god hates them for it and it creates a rift between them.

did the white people choose the path of the written story (literature) leaving the first people the path of the oral story? the paper document represents permanence and law for the white people. but what does it represent for the first people of canada? it more than likely represents greed and trickery and inaccessibility after their first experiences with important community written documents written on paper.

if this was in fact the way written works were viewed, perhaps they were not perceived as something that could contain the power and vibrancy of stories, the way in which the oral traditions were perceived. perhaps they were perceived as something more akin to insanity or greed. something very anti-social and damaging. i don’t think that the first people would have found many, if any, positive examples of white people using paper documents in the first contact years.

 

works cited

“Indian Land“ First Nations – Land Rights and Environmentalism in British Columbia. www.firstnations.de/indian_land.ht. Accessed 7 Oct. 2016.

Paterson, Erika. “Lesson 2:2”. ENGL 4710 Canadian Literary Genres: Canadian Studies. University of British Columbia. Nov. 2013. blogs.ubc.ca/courseblogsis_ubc_engl_470a_99c_2014wc_44216-sis_ubc_engl_470a_99c_2014wc_44216_2517104_1/unit-2/lesson-2-2/ Accessed 7 Oct. 2016.

Robinson, Harry. Living by Stories: a Journey of Landscape and Memory. Compiled and edited by Wendy Wickwire. Vancouver: Talon Books 2005. Print. (1-30)

Waite, Arthur Edward. “The High Priestess“. Trusted Tarot. 2010. www.trustedtarot.com/cards/the-high-priestess/. Accessed 7 Oct. 2016.

if there is evil in the world, this is how it came into it

take the story about how evil comes into the world, the story king tells about the witches’ convention in chapter one of the truth about stories, and change it any way you want, except the ending. your story must have the same moral – it must tell us how evil came into the world and how once a story is told, it cannot be taken back. learn your story by heart, and then tell the story to your friends and family. after you have told the story a few times,  post a blog with your version of the story and some commentary on what you discovered about story telling.

– question posed by erika paterson.

 

"moloch" by stephanie lines
“moloch” by stephanie lines. 2014. inspired by allen ginsberg’s “howl”.

a long time ago there were two children. they were wandering together and scouring the earth in search of wondrous things. they swam through lakes so clear and blue that they shone in the sun like glass. they climbed through the deep cool trees of forests that smelled rich like wet earth and rotting wood. they wandered into cold caves that dripped damp and grew slick, towering rock spires. and they kept on looking for more wondrous things because that’s what the human heart desires above all else – to search for more. so they climbed mountains and gazed on breathtaking views, and visited dry deserts where the earth spread out in miles of dry earth and shimmering sand. and still they kept on searching.

one day one of the children noticed a bright shiny object in the ground. the children circled around it and began to dig to uncover the object. they kept digging and digging and they found that the more they dug, the more of the object was uncovered. it was so shiny and hard, it was unlike any of the other rocks they had seen before. the children began to get very excited as they realized how deep they could dig with their own hands. they began to uproot plants nearby in order to uncover more of the brilliant rock below. they began to chase animals away in order to focus undisturbed on their digging. they started working late into the night and lost concern for the other things going on in the land around them. when other children wandered across them, the digging children hid their holes and shiny rock treasure. the other children did not understand, but this was the beginning of evil in the world.

soon the digging children became old and yet they still dug away at the earth searching for more. the land around them was bare and dead and empty. one of the children, now old, lied down and died because he was too tired to dig anymore.

the other child, now also old, spoke aloud to the empty land around him. “i have dug the greatest hole in the world,” he said.

i’m not sure if he knew it, but once a story has been told, it can never be taken it back.

 

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – — – – – – – – – – –

 

Yuxweluptun, Lawrence Paul. “Fucking Creeps They’re Environmental Terrorists”, 2013, Acrylic on canvas, 84” x 72”.

this a story i formulated over a few days, mostly with my boyfriend as a listener. we both found it hard to pin “evilness” as being something human or created by humans. the idea of evil brings up ideas surrounding religious morality immediately. after much thought however, i realized i did see a great destructive evil in greed and money. my boyfriend and i both agreed on this and i began to formulate the story of how our human innocence of searching and living can very quickly and easily get caught into greed and selfishness that is harmful to others and the world. sharing the story with people around me meant that i got a lot of input and encouragement, and also inspiration. it wasn’t a story that i wrote. it was a story that i was a part of,  just as much as my professor was a part of for giving me the assignment, and the writer thomas king was a part of it for sharing his version of how evil came into the world, and my boyfriend was a part of it for getting excited with me about our ideas and giving me input into his version of what goes wrong in the world.

 

works cited

Busby, Brian John. “Thomas King”. The Canadian Enyclopedia. April 2008. www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/thomas-king. Accessed 25 Sept 2016.

King, Thomas. The Truth about Stories. New York : House of Anansi Press, 2011. Print.

Lines, Stephanie. Molech. 2014.

Paterson, Erika. “Lesson 1.3 – Introduction to Thomas King and Story”. ENGL 4710 Canadian Literary Genres: Canadian Studies. University of British Columbia. Nov. 2013. blogs.ubc.ca/courseblogsis_ubc_engl_470a_99c_2014wc_44216-sis_ubc_engl_470a_99c_2014wc_44216_2517104_1/unit-1/lesson-13/. 25. Accessed 25 Sept. 2016.

Yuxweluptun, Lawrence Paul. Fucking Creeps They’re Environmental Terrorists. 2013. Mcauley and Co. Fine Art. mfineart.ca/macaulay-co-fine-art/artists/lawrence-paul-yuxweluptun/. Accessed 25 Sept. 2016.

missing pieces

there are many holes in the most well known narratives of canadian identity, many voices that are not being heard because they have been stifled through violence and barriers of poverty, genocide and trauma that most people in canada have not had to face to such staggering degrees. amnesty international reports that there are hundreds of first nation women missing. cbc news and reports for the canadian government reveal that there are people living in extreme poverty, hunger and daily danger, suggesting that their voices have been disregarded and treated with contempt. in both canada and the states we persecute first people who attempt to use their voices, as highlighted by lawrence o’donnell in this news story on the standing rock protests against the pipeline in dakota.

(credit unknown)

my name is stephanie lines and i am a white english-canadian 30year old mental health worker who has spent the last ten years exploring inclusivity and human rights for vulnerable populations in the unceded first nation territories called british columbia. i am a part-time creative writing and psychology student.

this blog is a personal exploration and study into canadian peoples whose voices have been silenced. it is also a commentary on erika paterson’s ubc course canadian literary genres: an interactive online study of canadian literature made up of four units over a four month period. rather than simply studying prevalent canadian literature, it is a critical study into the missing voices of the first people of canada through the general western-centric understanding of what canadian history and literature is.

one key part of voice is the oral traditions that have been overlooked for centuries due to the empirical colonial powers that value written documents and white voice over other alternative methods, styles and voices of story-telling and documentation, as noted in the essay “listening for change: the courts and oral tradition” by john burrows.

Yuxweluptun, Lawrence Paul. Indian World My Home and Native Land, 2012, Acrylic, 10’ x 7’

i expect that this course will require immense self reflection as well as thoughtful consideration into the material we engage with. neo-colonial racism is ingrained within us all. we white forget and take for granted the comforts that we are afforded. the safety that we expect out of our lives.

i want to in this first post acknowledge the racism that i am a part of by being a white english-canadian. i am privileged to be able to write a blog on canadian literature studies, and i acknowledge fully that i am a white voice. my voice has value, but truly we are at a time when we need to grow quieter and stand behind our canadian first nations and people of color and listen better to their voices that have been silenced for far too long.

 

works cited

Amnesty International. “Missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls: Understanding the numbers”. Amnesty International Canada. n.d. www.amnesty.ca/blog/missing-and-murdered-indigenous-women-and-girls-understanding-the-numbers. Accessed 12 Sept. 2016.

Borrows, John. “Listening for Change: The Courts and Oral Tradition”. Centre For First Nations Governance. n.d. fngovernance.org/ncfng_research/oralhistory.pdf. Accessed 12 Sept. 2016.

Canada. Department of Justice. Victims of Crime Research Digest No.3. By Kathie Scrim. Ottawa: Department of Justice. Apr. 2010. www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/cj-jp/victim/rd3-rr3/p3.html. Accessed 12 Sept. 2016.

Kirkup, Kristy. “60% of First Nation children on reserve live in poverty, institute says”. CBC News: Aboriginal. CBC News, 17 May. 2016. www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/institute-says-60-percent-fn-children-on-reserve-live-in-poverty-1.3585105. Accessed 12 Sept. 2016.

Metta, John. “I, Racist”. Huffington Post: USA. Huffington Post, 10 July. 2015. www.huffingtonpost.com/john-metta/i-racist_b_7770652.html. Accessed 12 Sept. 2016.

Paterson, Erika. “Welcome”. ENGL 4710 Canadian Literary Genres: Canadian Studies. University of British Columbia. Nov. 2013. blogs.ubc.ca/courseblogsis_ubc_engl_470a_99c_2014wc_44216-sis_ubc_engl_470a_99c_2014wc_44216_2517104_1/welcome/. Accessed 12 Sept. 2016.

Stefanovich, Olivia. “‘How can people afford this?’ James Bay communities struggle to eat healthily”. CBC News: Sudbury. CBC News, 12 Sept. 2016. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/james-bay-coast-high-food-prices-study-1.3756824?cmp=rss. Accessed 12 Sept. 2016.

“Rewrite: The Protests At Standing Rock”. by Lawrence O’Donnell. MSNBC. Aug. 25.2016. Youtube. www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5uNRqtjdrM. Accessed 12 Sept. 2016.

Yuxweluptun, Lawrence Paul. Indian World My Home And Native Land. 2012. Mcauley and Co. Fine Art. mfineart.ca/macaulay-co-fine-art/artists/lawrence-paul-yuxweluptun. Accessed 12 Sept. 2016.

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