Through the article “Intimate Enemies: Weetigo, Weesageechak, and the Politics of Reconciliation in Tomson Highway’s Kiss of the Fur Queen and Joseph Boyden’s Three Day Road”, McCall explains the methods in which the Weetigo and Weesageechak are represented in the two texts and to what purpose their presence serves. She does this through a study for each entity and examples from the texts of their usage in the plot. The first part of the article explains the ways of reconciliation between Indigenous people and Canadians by illustrating both methods of reconciliation and issues that arise. McCall identifies that reconciliation is to the benefit of the coloniser in most cases, that it is a form of national amnesia which allows for the settler community to forget about the harm inflicted upon …show more content…
Beginning with the Weetigo, McCall explains the benefit of indigenous storytelling and the risk of using these figures. While one can attempt to discover all they can about indigenous stories, it requires an amount of cultural fluency that is difficult to attain and representing these figures appropriately is problematic. McCall then explains how the Weetigo is used to represent the act of consumption and being consumed within the text via Gabriel. This is shown, as McCall states, through Gabriel’s sexual desires later in the text. By becoming aware of this abuse, it allows for a transformation of one’s self, as Jeremiah discovers when he realises his own abuse. McCall moves on to explain the Weesageechak figure within Kiss of the Fur Queen. The Weetigo and Weesageechak are interconnected through the characters interpretation of these figures, Jeremiah mistaking the Weesageechak for a Weetigo within his dream. As McCall states, one becomes confused as to which side the Weesageechak due to this relationship, however it allows for healing of indigenous
Canadians are just recently beginning to realize the detrimental aftermath of the years of trauma experienced by Indigenous peoples of Canada, such as the survivors of the residential school system. It is often difficult for these people to overcome the impact that follows. Undoubtedly, it requires help and support from others, but these people must make their personal healing journey themselves. The passages “Rock Bottom” by Steven Keewatin Sanderson and the “Legend of the Sugar Girl” by Joseph Boyden prove that although trauma can significantly undermine groups of people, they can overcome their difficulties. Both authors illustrate how trauma negatively affects characters, causes them to fall victim
Glen Coulthard’s “Resentment and Indigenous Politics” discusses the politics of recognition that are currently utilized within Canada’s current framework of rectifying its colonial relationship with Indigenous peoples. Coulthard continues a discussion on reconciliation between Indigenous peoples and the state that recognizes the three main methods of reconciliation: the diversity of individual and collective practices to re-establish a positive self relation, the act of restoring damaged social and political relationships and the process in which things are brought to agreement and made consistent.
Selkies are Celtic fairy-tale creatures that are half-seal and half human. Stories about these mythical creatures originate from the Orkney Islands of Scotland. A selkie becomes human once it takes off seal skin. Most stories that revolve around selkies are usually about a selkie falling in love with a human man who takes away their seal skin in which the selkie ends up marrying. Even though there are male selkies, most selkies in stories portray a woman. The film The secret of Roan Inish is a good example of displaying socio-cultural and political anxiety or conflict portraying a human hybrid. The film was directed by John Sayles starring Jeni Courtney as Fiona Coneelly and Susan Lynch as Nula the selkie wife. The film reveals the treatment of seals as if they close like if they are a part of the family and it represents an absent of a mother maternal figure. In this essay, the film The Secret of Roan Inish will be used in reference to the socio-cultural and political anxiety. The essay will look at the gender relationships, including the human-animal companionship.
The constant struggle present in the novel is the conflict between the native world and the white world. It is a struggle between community and isolation, between the natural and material. Silko uses the characters in the novel to show the positive and negative influences of the contact of cultures. Specifically, the characters Tayo, Emo, and Betonie are prime examples of the manifestation of the two worlds and the effects it has on each characters actions, dispositions and beliefs.
Living in Canada, there is a long past with the Indigenous people. The relationship between the white and First Nations community is one that is damaged because of our shameful actions in the 1800’s. Unnecessary measures were taken when the Canadian government planned to assimilate the Aboriginal people. Through the Indian Act and Residential schools the government attempted to take away their culture and “kill the Indian in the child.” The Indian Act allowed the government to take control over the people, the residential schools took away their culture and tore apart their families, and now we are left with not only a broken relationship between the First Nations people but they are trying to put back together their lives while still living with a harsh reality of their past.
In conclusion, Wiebe’s novel shows clear examples of how unjustly the Aboriginal and Metis people were treated. Through this, he sends a subtle message to the reader that all people deserve respect and to be treated equally.
Although I am a born and raised Montrealer, I did not choose to address the Indigenous community of the metropolis. The territory that was chosen for this essay is the Nitaskinan, a gigantic Atikamekw ancestral territory. This land has a special meaning to me, as I work in a summer camp called Minogami, located right next to the
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.
The Indian act, since being passed by Parliament in 1876, has been quite the validity test for Aboriginal affairs occurring in Canada. Only a minority of documents in Canadian history have bred as much dismay, anger and debate compared to the Indian Act—but the legislation continues as a central element in the management of Aboriginal affairs in Canada. Aboriginal hatred against current and historic terms of the Indian Act is powerful, but Indigenous governments and politicians stand on different sides of the fence pertaining to value and/or purpose of the legislation. This is not shocking, considering the political cultures and structures of Aboriginal communities have been distorted and created by the imposition of the Indian Act.
Thomas King uses an oral story-telling style of writing mingled with western narrative in his article “You’re Not the Indian I Had in Mind” to explain that Indians are not on the brink of extinction. Through this article in the Racism, Colonialism, and Indigeneity in Canada textbook, King also brings some focus to the topic of what it means to be “Indian” through the eyes of an actual Aboriginal versus how Aboriginals are viewed by other races of people. With his unique style of writing, King is able to bring the reader into the situations he describes because he writes about it like a story he is telling.
Across Canada and the United States there are many First Nations languages which are a part of the Algonquian language family, all of which with varying states of health. Although these languages share many characteristics of the Algonquian language family, the cultures, systems of beliefs, and geographic location of their respective Nations differentiate them. In being shaped by the landscape, cultures, and spirituality of the First Nations, the language brings the speakers closer to their land and traditions while reaffirming their identity as First Peoples. Using the Blackfoot Nation to further explore this concept, this paper will show that while language threads together First Nations culture, spirituality, traditions and land, as well as their identity, each of these essential components also maintain and revitalize the language.
Canadians view themselves as morally correct, yet the Indigenous peoples are oppressed and discriminated by Canadians. The Aboriginal peoples culture would last longer without Canada since Canada wants to control first, but not by understanding the culture and heritage. Aboriginal peoples express how they felt about the Canadian “Myth of Progress”. Some other works take a more satirical look like “Tidings of Comfort and Joy” but the points still stand. One of the points is Canadians are discriminating the Indigenous peoples to be lazy and corrupt.
In Canada, settlement question are always controversial, since European explorers came to Canada, Aboriginal people have been taken over by newcomers. “Totem” is a story that talks about how these newcomers in the art gallery treat totem poles to satirize how the outcome damaged the peaceful life of aboriginal people and how the government chose only to accept the problem but not wanted to actually solve the problem.
Introduction “We are all treaty people” Campaign. The year 1907 marked the beginning of treaty making in Canada. The British Crown claims to negotiate treaties in pursuance of peaceful relations between Aboriginal peoples and non-Aboriginals (Canada, p. 3, 2011). Treaties started as agreements for peace and military purposes but later transformed into land entitlements (Egan, 2012, p. 400).
Piper’s use of imagery in this way gives the opportunity for the reader to experience “first hand” the power of words, and inspires the reader to be free from the fear of writing.