Colonial Serpents
Humberto Ak’abal’s poem “Paradise” references the Biblical book of Genesis and the story of the garden of Eden. When I read this poem, I interpreted the serpents as colonizers and colonial entities. Ak’abal writes that “there was no forbidden fruit/the snakes were mute” (3-4). Before the colonizers, life was paradise. The “fruit” could be interpreted as traditional indigenous cultural practices. Therefore, once the serpents spoke, they “forbade the fruit and divided paradise among themselves” (10-12) can be understood as the banning of indigenous culture in favour of assimilation. No longer does the land belong to the indigenous people, it was forcefully taken by colonial forces who gave little thought to the rightful owners of the land. This reminded me of the Canadian government and Catholic Church’s program of residential schools in Canada. The purpose was to “kill the Indian within the child”, and to assimilate into so-called “civilized” white society. Ak’abal seems to be lamenting the interventionist practices of colonial settlers, and reminiscing over times when the land belonged to the Indigenous peoples, who treated it with respect. Land is more than just a “resource”, it is also a family member in many Indigenous cultures. Paradise can only last as long as it is not infected by colonial greed.