Introduction
‘Half-breed’ is the term used by the whites in Canada to denote the natives who are born out of the native blood line; eg:The Metis are descendants of the marriage between the French, Amerindians and the natives of Canada. The word ‘metis’ means ‘mixing up’. The various indigenous tribes in Canada were homogenized by the European colonizers under the process of conversion to Christianity. The whites imposed their tradition and culture onto the aboriginals who had diverse and varied rituals, customs and traditions. Even the judicial system in Canada had been a biased one and enforced different laws for the natives and the whites. The native cannot enjoy their rituals, cannot drink and spend their time in merry-making; if they are found so, they are subjected to punishment whereas a non-native is not. The Residential schools are another threat to the natives. The children of the natives are forcefully admitted to these schools run by missionaries on the pretext of imparting education and refining them of their native-ness and transforming them into better humans. Ironically this social purification, agenda propounded by ‘white man’s burden’ acts as a pretext behind the brutal exploitation of the natives of their ethnicity as well as moral well-being; some are made subjects to the sexual gratification of the authorities of the schools. The parents who lose their children to such civilizing agencies fall into the dark pits of alienation and hopelessness taking refuge in alcohol and drugs. The women are molested and driven to prostitution. The native writers voice these issues through their work of literature and art that evince a strong sense of regaining their native tongue/language that has been seized from them:
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The rhetor for this text is Luther Standing Bear. He was born in 1868 on the Pine Ridge Reservation. He was raised as a Native American until the age on eleven when he was taken to Carlisle Indian Industrial School: an Indian boarding school. After graduating from the boarding school, he returned to his reservation and now realized the terrible conditions under which they were living. Standing Bear was then elected as chief of his tribe and it became his responsibility to induce change (Luther Standing Bear). The boarding schools, like the one he went to, were not a fair place to be. The Native American children were forced to go there and they were not taught how to live as a European American; they were taught low level jobs like how to mop and take out trash. Also, these school were very brutal with punishment and how the kids were treated. In the passage he states, “More than one tragedy has resulted when a young boy or girl has returned home again almost an utter stranger. I have seen these happenings with my own eyes and I know they can cause naught but suffering.” (Standing Bear 276). Standing Bear is fighting for the Indians to be taught by Indians. He does not want their young to lose the culture taught to them from the elders. Standing Bear also states, “The old people do not speak English and never will be English-speaking.” (Standing Bear 276). He is reinforcing the point that he believes that they
Literary text sheds light on different erasures through which a dominant Canadian national narrative of benevolence and tolerance emerges. In What We All Long For by Dionne Brand., this tolerance becomes more specific as readers are able to see a struggle in race, generational difference and identity. However, these concepts lead to the creation space negotiation in order to establish Toronto as a home. Through this negotiation there are two kinds of erasures that emerge: fictional and historical. The fictional erasures work to create an unconscious space for the characters. This means that the characters navigate spaces in an intangible manner where they face issues that are not directly impacting to them. It is brought on or is created by the issues they ‘actually’ face. The ‘actual’ issues that these characters face are then transposed into a greater erasure that presents itself as a historical erasure. The fictional erasure becomes a mirror of the historical erasure as it sheds light on how the text manoeuvre through space and time in the text. Though Brand addresses the issues of tolerance while enabling a dominant national Canadian narrative, the novel reveals the generational differences as the vehicle to the negotiation of space. The negotiation of space draws attention to the fictional and historical erasures that show white hegemony as Brand illuminate the issues of immigration, blackness and generational gaps.
David Garneau’s article on “Imaginary Spaces of Conciliation and Reconciliation” offers a refreshing outlook on the term and implantation of reconciliation in post-colonial culture. He argues that conciliation would evoke an individual transformation of the settler if Aboriginal history was accepted as independent yet in union with the history of Canada. Garneau’s vison of conciliation is centered on this idea of an imaginary space between the settlers and Aboriginals and, within this space, settlers are separated from Aboriginals to naturally reflect on the Aboriginal’s experiences of colonialism. However, the implications of this space also created a void in society because the residential schools are the imaginary spaces in which settlers are reconciling. The direction of Garneau’s article is insightful to understanding how reconciliation has failed in countries and how it’s practice, in accordance with religious connotations, has created an underlying tone of “charity” and “pardon” opposed to restorative justice (35).
“Walk on, little Charlie Walk on through the snow. Heading down the railway line, Trying to make it home. Well, he’s made it 40 miles, Six hundred left to go”(Dunn, 1972).The inspiration for the novella Wenjack (2016) by Joseph Boyden was ‘little Charlie”, whose real name was Chanie, a young Ojibwe (Anishinaabe) boy who froze to death by the railway tracks after his desperate attempt to escape the Cecilia Jeffrey Indian Residential School in Kenora. His tragic death in 1966 sparked an inquest into the Canadian residential school system (Adams, 1967) .What is striking about this novella is that it is written from an alternating perspective of Chanie and Anishinaabe spirits called Manitous, which followed Chanie on his lonely journey. The author
Fleras, Augie. “Aboriginal Peoples in Canada: Repairing the Relationship.” Chapter 7 of Unequal Relations: An Introduction to Race, Ethnic and Aboriginal Dynamics in Canada. 6th ed. Toronto: Pearson, 2010. 162-210. Print.
Students will partake in a seven week and seven lesson series on marginalized groups in America, these groups include- Mexican Americans, Asian Americans, African Americans, Native Americans, Women, Arab Americans, and Children. Lessons will take place the last two months of school, once we reach the 1960’s in American history. This is in an effort to have students realize that there is not merely one group that has seen racism, discrimination, and a near destruction of their culture. The following lesson will be on Native American portion of the unit. The goal of this lesson is for students to understand that each period from colonization to self- determination had causes of historical context and can still be felt today by many Native Americans.
The creation of the Residential Schools is now looked upon to be a regretful part of Canada’s past. The objective: to assimilate and to isolate First Nations and Aboriginal children so that they could be educated and integrated into Canadian society. However, under the image of morality, present day society views this assimilation as a deliberate form of cultural genocide. From the first school built in 1830 to the last one closed in 1996, Residential Schools were mandatory for First Nations or Aboriginal children and it was illegal for such children to attend any other educational institution. If there was any disobedience on the part of the parents, there would be monetary fines or in the worst case scenario, trouble with Indian Affairs.
Canada likes to paint an image of peace, justice and equality for all, when, in reality, the treatment of Aboriginal peoples in our country has been anything but. Laden with incomprehensible assimilation and destruction, the history of Canada is a shameful story of dismantlement of Indian rights, of blatant lies and mistrust, and of complete lack of interest in the well-being of First Nations peoples. Though some breakthroughs were made over the years, the overall arching story fits into Cardinal’s description exactly. “Clearly something must be done,” states Murray Sinclair (p. 184, 1994). And that ‘something’ he refers to is drastic change. It is evident, therefore, that Harold Cardinal’s statement is an accurate summarization of the Indigenous/non-Indigenous relationship in
Present day Canada encourages multiculturalism -- but that has not always been the case. In the late 1800s and early 1900s residential schools were prevalent in most parts of Canada. People of Aboriginal descent were stripped of their language, cultural identity, freedom and traditions. Upon analysis of the excerpt from Thomas Highway’s novel, Kiss of the Fur Queen, one can conclude that there are many symbolic interactionist concepts within the excerpt. This short paper will concentrate on the symbolic interactionist concepts of social conventions, role-taking, and nonconformity that are demonstrated in Highway’s excerpt Kiss of the Fur Queen.
In her poem "Myth," Natasha Trethewey uses mythology, a unique structure, rhyme pattern, and punctuation to make form and content inseparable. Each of these elements serves to share the stages of grief one goes through one feels at the death of a loved one as well as the feelings of deep loss and longing.
The books intent is to challenge written histories and to reinterpret early Mi’kmaq-French relations, particularly religious history among the Mi’kmaq. Using both Mi’kmaq and Euro history/knowledge to do so. Through the revitalization of Mi’kmaq histories, culture, and spirituality the text both bridges non-Aboriginal peoples to new understandings of Canadian history, as well as bridging Mi’kmaq youth to their elders and culture (11).
Sherman Alexie’s novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, peruses the life on the “rez” and the inner conflict of a Native American boy’s decision to break free from the constraints put on Native Americans and live a fulfilling life far expected of a kid on the reservation, by conforming to a “white culture”(Alexie Pg. 42). Throughout the novel, Alexie emphasizes Native American life to be a culture based off of addiction, poverty, and death. (Alexie Pg. 43) Although the novel contains the harsh reality of reservation life, Junior is the one ray of hope that proves despite all social expectation heavily set on the Native Americans, it can all be disbanded and proven there is still some hope and joy awaiting if you are willing
What is more, Garneau structures his deductive discussion in a way that moves his reader from abstract ideas (his art) to tangible suggestion for healing the traumas inflicted on First Nations people in residential school. He suggests that the space of healing is bridged by means of "conciliation," rather than "reconciliation" (35), in the form of readdressing the past though art and oral communication. Garneau's pragmatic approach to addressing the travesties of residential school and the colonialist takeover of land and culture loops back to his introduction, where he devises a space within his paper that embodies Indigeneity; it feels as though his paper is being spoken directly to an audience, which makes sense, given the history of oral communication within First nations cultures. As an example of this direct address, he uses the word "folks" frequently throughout his argument to refer to FMI peoples, which creates a sense of conversation. Finally, Garneau underpins his argument by analysing the ways in which cultural spaces are encountered, in the best-case scenario, if one is looking through a colonialist
The article ‘Barbaric Cultural Practices’ bill to criminalize forced marriage, tackle ‘honour killings’ passes final vote, communicates information about Bill S-7. A bill that will criminalize the cultural practices mentioned above, additionally, this article shows the different perspectives of individuals (advocates, staff lawyer, and immigrant minister) have about the bill. Nationalism can be subtle or it can be noticeable idea when it’s embedded into a variety of institutions such as media, politics, and education – to name a few. Canadian nationalism/identity/culture is represented with Bill S-7 by the boundaries placed to unify the ideal of Canadian nationhood with the exclusion of practices that do not align the common shared Canadian
The inner desire of any immigrant is to be able to leave his or her country without having to leave home. The thought of leaving behind all that was close and of meaning to me arose feelings of discomfort within me. Change is many things; it is scary, it is good, it is necessary for growth but most importantly it is inevitable. So on October eleventh two thousand and eight when my father announced to my family and I the date on which we were to depart on our journey to the culture mosaic society of Canada, change seemed to have landed on our door step. This was the most important day of my life. Immigrating abroad meant changes, many of them, the feelings I recall which were of most relevance to me at the time were anxiousness and excitement. I was excited for a new beginning and anxious about how I would integrate into a whole new world. It was a bittersweet journey to the airport, knowing that these Indian surroundings; the noisy roads, the smell of savoury street food, and the