Salutations to everyone,
We are about to embark on an inspiring term of learning. I’m Sarah Keller and I will be the host of this blogged adventure in Canadian literature. Before we get started though, I should tell you a bit about myself.
I’m in my last semester of a history degree which has taken me a very long eight years to complete. In that time I’ve also completed a certification in cosmetology (hair design), and I’ve gotten various marine certifications to start a water taxi and diving business which my partner and I have run from Ruxton Island in the Gulf Islands for three summers so far. Let’s just say that I wasn’t interested in a desk job when I started my degree, and it’s only now that I’ve realized that not all arts degrees lead to desk jobs. My hobbies include graphic design, comic book illustration, creative writing, and crochet. —- Ironically those are all stationary activities that take place at desks or in chairs. (The person in the self portrait is me, by the way…. I’m not the pigeon.)
My expectations for English 470 are that as a class we will use critical thinking to distinguish between the voices and cultures that make up Canadian literature. We will read books, stories, and articles with themes in Indigenous identity the other cultural identities that make up Canadian identity. We will also examine how stories have shaped the many cultures of Canada. I suppose that there will have to be some historical analysis in there somewhere too because Canadian cultures have changed over time, just like how stories change over time as they move from person to person, from generation to generation.
One of my favorite Canadian stories is from a friend of mine, Sarah Ling, who took hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ with me a few years ago. She wrote a children’s book called “Let’s Take A Walk” with help from Musqueam elder, Larry Grant, whom the story is written about. It displays Larry’s many identities because while he is a member of the Musqueam Indian band, he is also Chinese, and grew up in Canada. The multiple languages in the book show his many identities. It is a very good example of post colonial literature that is accessible to everyone, including children.
Some day soon I hope to contribute my own works to Canadian literature, although they probably will not be as deep as anything that we read in this course. The first of my many plans to do after I finish my degree is to co-write and illustrate a book with my father which we’ve been orally making stories for since I was a child. They have a great deal to do with identity, the land where one lives, and security of culture. I’m more embarrassed of my writing than my drawing so instead of linking you one of my stories, I’ll post for you a picture that I drew in 2012 that has a bit more to do with this course. It is titled “Identity”, and it has to do with the many identities of indigenous peoples in Canada.
I hope that all of you have a wonderful semester, and it will be great to read and respond to your writing.
Your fellow enthusiastic student,
Sarah Keller
Works Cited:
Elder Larry Grant, First Nations and Endangered Language Program, http://fnel.arts.ubc.ca/profiles/elder-larry-grant/ Accessed September 9, 2016.
Sarah Ling. Twitter. https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BXcHxeGCUAAdsCY.jpg:large Accessed September 9, 2016.
Sarah Keller, “Identity” . Jpeg Image. 2012.
Sarah Keller, “Me & The Pigeon”. Jpeg Image. 2012.
Hi Sarah,
Thanks for sharing so many of your interests. It really paints a clear picture of who you are, and I identify with many of the same things. I love mixing art and design with literature and especially find it effective in reference to historical storytelling. I am a really big graphic novel fan and throughout my degree (English major/History minor) I have had the pleasure of reading many of them. In the way that art can enhance literature, performance in oral storytelling can do the same. On my blog, I posted a performance by Canadian spoken word poet, Shane Koyczan, who really embodies the oral storytelling traditions. Also, a podcast called ‘The Moth’ which is professional storytellers performing their own stories, is something that may be of interest to you. Thanks for sharing your art- it’s fun to see!
-Jenny
I’m wondering if you’ve read the comic version of the History version of Louis Riel’s life? It is a particularly interesting version of his life story because it creates a villain out of John A MacDonald, who is often praised otherwise for helping unite the many places that make up Canada (minus Newfoundland.)
I’m not sure that I’d be the best performer of stories because I have a bit of a stutter and I’m rather shy, but once my book is done perhaps I’ll show “The Moth” to my father. He was a late night radio personality many years ago.
I do like the idea of gathering oral histories though. I think that it is vital for Canadian history since there are so many voices that make up Canada these days such as: Indigenous, post-colonial, racial minority, new immigrant, refugee. Everyone has a different experience of this land.
Hello Sarah,
I enjoyed reading your blog in which you seem to argue that Canadian identity would not come complete without the indigenous identity. Canadian identity involving one’s homeland and culture is also at the heart of the book you are planning to write drawing upon your own stories. I was just wondering whether you would construct the narratives of your stories look typically “Canadian” as far as the Canadian theme of the book is concerned? If this was the case, would in any way the Indigenous voices be included and made an integral part of the whole story? I am just curious to know what role the Indigenous awareness might play in terms of the literary practice in Canadian context.
Regards, Patrick
(sorry for the block of writing. When I wrote it, it was in point form.)
I’m not sure what “typically Canadian” would mean besides mainstream stereotypes.
Examples of Canadian identity in the book that I am writing at the moment are both class-based and and race-based. The characters are not put into races but animal species with lambs, badgers, wolves, pigeons, mice, and a couple of humans making up the population. The cultures of the characters are not necessarily distinctly Canadian, but have facets of Canadian identity in them. Meanwhile the made up setting represents a generalized version of Canada For instance:
-In the winter, the lambs play hockey. They make up upper class society, and generally live blissfully learning lessons and growing up. Growing fleeces is all that they have to do to be allowed to remain on the farm. The lambs are usually cream or white fleeced but two of the more written about characters are black lambs, and another is a grey lamb. (easy to understand racial identities there.)
-The wolves, who represent Indigenous people live away from the farm, are forced to the nearby mountains, and are banned from entering it by the badgers, who are authority figures…. which seems to echo some of Canadian history with Indigenous peoples not being allowed into mainstream society and being forced to live on reserves. Luckily the plot is not set in the current era until the end of the book so, and by the time the end happens the wolves have taken over what once was the farm… not by force, but by the farmer leaving. There is a Haisla saying about the colonists leaving Canada within ten generations. The idea probably came from that considering that my dad grew up in Kitimat where many Haisla live. The wolves, as discussed by a badger to some of the lambs, are equal to the lambs because “wolves have to eat too,” but that is what scares the lambs – because the wolves will take the lives that the lambs have. <----blatant metaphor. - The mice represent the working class. They watch hockey in rather large gatherings. They are written as hard workers who do not necessarily even have names. They are numbered as they are born. The two mice followed in the book are number 333 (Threepete) and number 21 (blackjack) and their part of the story follows their ascent into the upper class through luck and music, while the rest of their class works for a living collecting grain and mostly remains unnamed. I the mice represent the lower middle, and lower classes of Canada because ascent to the upper class is fairly impossible. Even a good education is not enough to help people make a decent living sometimes. The mice are unfortunately also used as comic relief. -The pigeons are nomadic, eat anything, and are generally disliked except for the idolized, "Douglas" who teaches other pigeons how to live in a good way. They are addicted to grain, but especially couscous. They represent Vancouver's population of homeless people. -Badgers, as I mentioned before, are authority figures. They enjoy perks for their authority such as cherries from the farmer's orchard. I chose to make them both positive and negative figures because although Canada's authorities help maintain peace and safety, they also can be corrupt. -The farmer represents the Prime Minister and his daughter represents the government. We hear from the farmer's daughter much more than the farmer. The setting is also certainly Canadian - with iconic places in Vancouver such as the Molson Brewery and lesser known but equally important places such as North Vancouver's massive grain elevators. BC's Gulf islands are also represented in later chapters. The main setting is however a completely made up area of BC, probably somewhere on Vancouver island, maybe a different version of Duncan from another universe. Yay, I managed to the tell you the roles of class/race in the book without actually letting out too much plot. Not much of that information is really even given out in the book. It's only alluded to.
Hello Sarah,
Welcome to our course and thank you for a great introduction – and a most interesting response to Juny’s comment! I think you are going to enjoy this course, indeed. Thanks.