Green argues that the prevalence of violence within Aboriginal women is an example of the residual effects of colonization, where “low valuation of women and women’s work has been laid over Aboriginal values” (Green 333). The violence experienced by Adelaine highlights the effects of colonial attitudes towards Aboriginal woman. The active questioning of this cycle of violence, and eventually her speaking out against it, is textual proof of Adelaine’s ability to fight back against colonial attitudes. Paragraph: Beyond the “Talking Cure”: The Practical Joke as Testimony for Intergenerational Trauma in Eden Robinson’s “Queen of the North” Certain literary critics question whether narrating traumatic events serve to transform pathogenic memories …show more content…
Jimmy, her boyfriend, is deeply connected to his family and community and he declares in the novel that he would "never leave the village" (Robinson 153). This representation can be seen as a kind of connectedness that Adelaine longs and does not want to lose. Moreover, she does not want to stay in Vancouver, where she is safe from her uncle’s abuse, she does not want to be away from her boyfriend and home, but neither does she want to stay in a situation where her own mother can not defend and protect her: "I knew that she knew. I thought she’d say something then, but we ate breakfast in silence" (Robinson 154). Fagan states that Adelaine is able to utilize humour as a means to communicate without directly speaking about her abuse and manipulate an impossible …show more content…
The reader comprehends this from learning her symptoms of nausea and heavy vaginal bleeding, When she reaches her aunt’s house, the reception that she receives is very different from the cold, void interactions between herself and her mother. “She [Aunt Erma] stared at me, puzzled. Then she spread opens her arms. ‘Adelaine, baby! I wasn’t expecting you! Hey, come on in and say hi to your cousins. Pepsi! Cola! Look who came by for your birthday!’ She gave me a tight bear hug and I wanted to cry” (Robinson 202). The aunt welcomes Adelaine with open arms representative of a warm familial bond and this physical demonstration of love almost brings Adelaine to tears. Her decision to stay at her aunts forms as a recovery period and serves as an opportunity for her to experience a positive family dynamic. Her aunt and cousins genuine caring demeanor towards Adelaine is a striking contrast to her relationship with her family at home. In this process, she works towards a stronger sense of self, moving closers to breaking her
Jiwani and Young's argument also causes me to consider Audra Simpson's talk, "The Chief's Two Bodies," in which she discusses both how and why the eradication of Aboriginal women was necessary to the development of patriarchal colonialist society. In short, Simpson acknowledges that through the creation "status," an arbitrary blood relationship to one's Aboriginal lineage, marriage, and scrip colonialist were able to remove land "ownership" from Aboriginal women, by essentially making them invisible. In effect, Jiwani and Young reinforce and provide evidence to suggest that ideologically, the concept of Aboriginal women being invisible or contrarily "hypervisable" (899), in that they are the antithesis of the "good" Christian women (the mother, the sister, the wife, the virgin) creates a binary. These apposing ideological women cause a "moral and racialized economy of representation [that] works to privilege dominate societal norms" (Jiwani and Young, 904). What is interesting about these discursive modes is the fact that news reporting itself is a colonialist practice rooted in economic stability. These modes maintains the cycle of violence and marginalization and only counter media rooted in art, such as the "Red Dress Campaign," or the "Walking with Our Sister's Campaign" which, bring awareness to the Aboriginal perspective can act as a retaliation to standard media
Colonization, the Indian Act, Enfranchisement, and Residential Schools, are all examples of the oppressions Aboriginal individuals have and continue to face. As a result of these injustices, moreover the introduction of Bill C-45, Aboriginal individuals began an attempt to educate their people on the impeding changes. Essentially, these revisions sought to once again violate Aboriginal Treaty rights, in addition, threatened the safety and conservancy of their Creation – Mother Earth. One might wonder how much more abuse and exploitation Aboriginals could possibly endure. It could be argued that the introduction of Bill C-45 was the final indignity. It seemed apparent that in order to make a difference, what was required was a solid plan, in which Aboriginals could once again have a voice, more importantly, have their voices heard (Caven, 2013). With this in mind, on November 10th, 2012, four ingenious women began a movement that, once ignited, began to spread like wildfire. Appropriately, they dubbed this movement Idle no More. As such, this writer intends to explore the potential impacts of Bill C-45, the basis of the Idle No More movement and the outcome.
In this proposal our team seeks to explore the injustices within the Indian Act. To achieve this our proposed research will examine the target population being the aboriginal woman. The paper will further explore the oppressions faced by the aboriginal women within the Indian Act. In conclusion, this proposal will sum up the negative impact that the Indian Act had on aboriginal women and how it continues to oppress this population within the Canadian National discourse.
Louise, the unfortunate spouse of Brently Mallard dies of a supposed “heart disease.” Upon the doctor’s diagnosis, it is the death of a “joy that kills.” This is a paradox of happiness resulting into a dreadful ending. Nevertheless, in reality it is actually the other way around. Of which, is the irony of Louise dying due to her suffering from a massive amount of depression knowing her husband is not dead, but alive. This is the prime example to show how women are unfairly treated. If it is logical enough for a wife to be this jovial about her husband’s mournful state of life then she must be in a marriage of never-ending nightmares. This shows how terribly the wife is being exploited due her gender in the relationship. As a result of a female being treated or perceived in such a manner, she will often times lose herself like the “girl
As European domination began, the way in which the European’s chose to deal with the Aborigines was through the policy of segregation. This policy included the establishment of a reserve system. The government reserves were set up to take aboriginals out of their known habitat and culture, while in turn, encouraging them to adapt the European way of life. The Aboriginal Protection Act of 1909 established strict controls for aborigines living on the reserves . In exchange for food, shelter and a little education, aborigines were subjected to the discipline of police and reserve managers. They had to follow the rules of the reserve and tolerate searchers of their homes and themselves. Their children could be taken away at any time and ‘apprenticed” out as cheap labour for Europeans. “The old ways of the Aborigines were attacked by regimented efforts to make them European” . Their identities were threatened by giving them European names and clothes, and by removing them from their tra...
Reynolds, H. (1976). The Other Side of The Frontier: Aboriginal resistance to the European invasion of Australia. Queensland, Australia: James Cook University
In “To Set Our House in Order” Margaret Laurence, it conveys the message that alienation is self-inflicted on the character “Grandmother MacLeod” as a result of a tragic event. In this case alienation is used as a coping mechanism for the Grandmother who lost her son Roderick in the battle of Somme. In the story she tells Vanessa, “When your Uncle Roderick got killed, I thought I would die. But I didn’t die” (Laurence 94). This shows how she now avoids affection and emotion in fear of becoming vulnerable. In consequence the Grandmother is in a state of emotional withdrawal which is shown where it states, “For she did not believe in the existence of fear, or if she did she never let on” (93). By doing so she decides she is better off trying to feel no emotion which supports the fact her alienation is self-inflicted.
Feminism and Indigenous women activism is two separate topics although they sound very similar. In indigenous women’s eyes feminism is bashing men, although Indigenous women respect their men and do not want to be a part of a women’s culture who bring their men down. Feminism is defined as “The advocacy of women 's rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes.” In theory feminism sounds delightful despite the approaches most feminists use such as wrong-full speaking of the opposite gender. Supposedly, feminism is not needed as a result of Indigenous women being treated with respect prior to colonization. Thus, any Native woman who calls herself a feminist is often condemned as being “white”. This essay argues that Indigenous women may
When one faces a traumatic experience, his or true nature often reveals itself. Trauma forces its sufferers to cope. How one copes is directly linked to his or her personality. Some will push any painful feelings away, while others will hold onto pleasant memories. Both of these coping mechanisms can be observed in Katherine Anne Porter’s “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” and William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily.” In “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” and “A Rose for Emily,” the two protagonists’ prominent characteristics distinctly affect the way they cope with trauma and influence the short stories’ outcomes.To begin, Granny Weatherall is a prideful control freak. In contrast, Miss Emily is delusional and stubborn.
The history of Canada’s Aboriginal people is a rich but tumultuous one, rife with conflict, but also full of valuable information we can emulate in our lives. Aboriginal people is the name for the original inhabitants of North America and their descendants. Though it’s unfortunate that Aboriginals, mostly those living on reservations, are seen as drunkards. Able to satisfy all of their material and spiritual needs through resources of the natural world around them. White privilege has negatively impacted Aboriginal peoples living on reservations through oppression, marginalization, and degradation.
Many schools of both post-colonial and feminist thought recognize the integral relationship between the two concepts. Post-colonial novelist Thomas King’s female characters often remove themselves from positions of subservience, maintaining the autonomy and equality also hoped for but oft denied in First Nation’s relations with colonizing forces. This paper will explore depictions of marriage in Thomas King’s novel Green Grass, Running Water and how rejections of hierarchical male-female relationships, specifically by female characters, parallel and aid rejections of cultural oppression of First Nations, establishing a new basis for equality. Particularly, Alberta and Latisha each
Her book focuses on the myriads of issues and struggles that Indigenous men and women have faced and will continue to face because of colonialism. During her speech, Palmater addressed the grave effects of the cultural assimilation that permeated in Indigenous communities, particularly the Indian Residential School System and the Indian Act, which has been extensively discussed in both lectures and readings. Such policies were created by European settlers to institutionalize colonialism and maintain the social and cultural hierarchy that established Aboriginals as the inferior group. Palmater also discussed that according to news reports, an Aboriginal baby from Manitoba is taken away every single day by the government and is put in social care (CTVNews.ca Staff, 2015). This echoes Andrea Smith’s argument in “Heteropatriarchy and the Three Pillars of White Supremacy: Rethinking Women of Color Organizing” that colonialism continues to affect Aboriginals through genocide (2006, p. 68). Although such actions by the government are not physical acts of genocide, where 90% of Aboriginal population was annihilated, it is this modern day cultural assimilation that succeeded the Indigenous Residential School System and the Indian Act embodies colonialism and genocide (Larkin, November 4,
A non-guilty verdict in the murder trial of Bradley Barton accused of killing Cree mother of three Cindy Gladue who bled to death from an eleven centimetre internal laceration argues that the wound was the result of rough sex. Gladue known in Edmonton as a sex worker spent two night with Barton in an Edmonton hotel room in June 2011. This essay will argue the appeal that was warranted through looking firstly at feminist analyses of sexual assault and legal consent, secondly, the contexts of intersectional power relations/ interlocking oppressions such as Gladue being a women from a Cree nationality who works as a sex worker, thirdly the problematic notion of Gladue being the bearer
Kelm, Mary, and Lorna Townsend. In the days of our grandmothers: a reader in Aboriginal women's history in Canada. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2006.
Her family life is depicted with contradictions of order and chaos, love and animosity, conventionality and avant-garde. Although the underlying story of her father’s dark secret was troubling, it lends itself to a better understanding of the family dynamics and what was normal for her family. The author doesn’t seem to suggest that her father’s behavior was acceptable or even tolerable. However, the ending of this excerpt leaves the reader with an undeniable sense that the author felt a connection to her father even if it wasn’t one that was desirable. This is best understood with her reaction to his suicide when she states, “But his absence resonated retroactively, echoing back through all the time I knew him. Maybe it was the converse of the way amputees feel pain in a missing limb.” (pg. 399)