Welcome readers and contributors. I am pleased you will be here from the beginning: this is my first time blogging. My name is Nadya and I study English Language at UBC. Although required, I would rather say “inspired,” to be on this platform for my summer 2015 distance education course, ENGL 470: Canadian Studies.
As with most theoretical english courses, this one contains a rich syllabus with objectives and fascinating terms such as colonization and canonization. But there is also narrative and storytelling. This is where I will mark my starting point and get more personal; with a story:
At 9 years old I had been in Canada for almost a year, attending an elementary school in North Vancouver with an ESL program. My parents decided to move to (the more affordable) Fraser Valley where they became home owners for the first time. Somewhere along the house hunting and moving process to Chilliwack, I learned this: Chilliwack has Indians. Perhaps it was the conversations my parents had with one another, or with their friends, but somehow this became a fact to me. Indians in my mind were dark, wild, naked, with bows and arrows, loud…
This particular memory is of my first day going to elementary school in Chilliwack. I remember walking towards the building, holding my mom’s hand. I remember feeling afraid. I was afraid of going to school with boys who wear loincloths and girls with dark skin and long dark hair. I clearly recall the immense feeling of relief when we walked through the door, passed the office window on the right, and I saw my first child: white, clothed, normal…like me.
This childhood memory became the pivot point of my confusion surrounding “being Canadian”. Yes, I can say I grew up in Canada, went to Canadian schools, and am a Canadian Citizen. This is simple for me to write but impossible to comprehend emotionally.
Now I am equipped with the intellectual terms used to describe Canada, such as multiculturalism, melting pot, or mosaic. A metaphor I seem to like is the one of a quilt. A construction of various parts from various origins, each with a personal story.
In a previous course on American Modernist Poetry, I was introduced to the poem “The Book of the Dead” by Muriel Rukeyser. It’s a collection of poetic segments about a historical mining conspiracy that form a narrative. This is where I would like to leave my first blog posting:
The water they would bring had dust in it, our drinking
water, …
we always had
the dust. …
As dark as I am, when I came out at morning after the
tunnel at night,
with a white man, nobody could have told which man was
white.
The dust had covered us both, and the dust was white.
WORKS CITED
Kymlicka, Will. “Being Canadian.” Government and Opposition 38.3 (2003): 357-85. Web. 15 May 2015.
“room12declairers.” wikispaces. Tangient LLC, 2015. Web. 15 May 2015.
Rukeyser, Muriel. “The Book of the Dead.” Muriel Rukeyser: A Living Archive. Elisabeth Däumer, 2012. Web. 15 May 2015.
Hi Nadya,
Your blog/image reminds me of a Pierre Trudeau quote about multiculturalism, something to the effect that it is like a tapestry: all knots and tangled threads on one side, but beautifully woven together and coherent on the other. Trudeau’s point was that Canadians liked to focus on the knotty side, without stepping around to appreciate the whole image. Certainly, the various metaphors we use for the cultural make-up of our country don’t always tell the whole story – your anecdote of starting elementary school in Chilliwack, as well as many other classmate’s blogs, reflects the sense that we all feel a kind of anxiety about being Canadian, our identity, what we know and don’t know about the First Peoples of our country, etc.
Thanks for the thoughtful entry – the poem really works to contextualize a kind of experience or embodiment that I think is good to remember when doing this kind of thinking.
……..and nice to (virtually) meet you!
Heidi
Hello Heidi!
First of all, I am sorry for the late response. I don’t know about you, but getting used to the blogging platform and navigation has been overwhelming. I hope now I can get the prioritizing and flow in order for myself! I guess it will get easier as we go along… And perhaps a mix of anxiety and excitement is appropriate for our course content.
Thank you for your comment. Personally, I don’t know enough about Trudeau but in my experience, most people recall his name and face with a warm, nostalgic, smile. And you’re right, we can –and do– use so many metaphors to speak about Canada and Canadian identity, but sometimes this gets away from the “knotty” side and creates further confusion about the “real” underlying issues.
Actually, the reason I added the “quilt” term was because I recently came across a children’s history book, “Coming to Canada,” which is part of a larger collection of similar books. In the introductory pages, this quilt metaphor was used and stood out to me because, of course, it was meant as a guiding message for the rest of the book. I can’t help but be intrigued by the language used in books that address Canadian history, especially those meant to be read by children.
I look forward to reading your work and inputs, as well.
Thanks, Nadya