More Anonymous Student Blog Contributions

In response to Shapes of Native Non-Fiction:

In the reading, "To The Man Who Gave Me Cancer" she talks about her struggles of having HPV and how it affects her physically and spiritually. I read the significance the surgery had on her and the sacrifice it was to the medical gods and how she kept her feelings inside when she wanted to express her distress to the doctor. Personally, I don't have much experience with dealing with a loss relative to hers but I have dealt through loss in other ways that allowed me to see why this was so frustrating. In the reading, “Women in the Fracklands: On Water, Land, Bodies, and Standing Rock" I was able to read the pain this family went through and how the mother's mental health was affecting her child. I feel like this reading was able to make the audience see the importance of mental health (depression and such) and go into how that can affect the people around you such as feeling alone or really just confused about everything surrounding your concerns. I was able to connect with how scary Elliott believed of demonic possession to be and how much more scarier it can be if that person whos going through it is close to you. It talks about where depression can come from, "trauma, racism, sexism, colonialism...etc.) and how we aren't speaking up about that. These readings centered in on the importance of acknowledging important subjects that we need to talk about in order to make more people aware of it.

The story starts by telling the reader how the book is going to be set up. The authors’ starts by relating the order of the essays to the basket weaving done by Native Americans. When it comes to technique, coiling and plaiting; that's what determines its purpose of use. Those requirements also go towards this book. I liked that they were able to make that connection because knowing that helps me see that Native Americans are progressing in a good way and to not simply see it as statistics and facts that happened a long time ago. One story, by Bojan Louis, that spoke to me was the abuse Native Americans went through and how one who doesn't understand (never being colonized) their struggles. Colonizers continued to spread violence and hate and carry on with it when they have a quality life that continues to progress for themselves and their group of people (SNN, 10). That opened a bundle of questions as to why it continued for so long and what made the English men believe they were superior compared to the Native Americans. Another piece I noticed was the sacrifices Native Americans had to make to create a future. The essay “Spider Woman's Granddaughter” taught me that some women didn't get to live the life they wanted. They had to divide responsibilities whether it was bearing children or staying home. But, because of that sacrifice, they were able to protect their future and from there I was able to understand the ultimates they had to go through.

When reading an interview with Theresa Warburton and Elissa Washuta I learned that decolonization is not something that can merely come along and happen right away. The author brings up writer Eve Tuck and K. Wayne Yang, in which they say" decolonization specifically requires the repatriation of Indigenous land and life" to describe how important it is for Native Americans to go back home and find the culture and tradition that was once there. Indigenous American poetry had not been published since 1988 and for that because of the recent progress of more books being made they refer to these books as new. It showed me why it's so important that the Native Americans needed to get their home back so they can fulfill the blank spots that they have about their land and to build progress to decolonization.

The introduction to Shapes of Native Nonfiction heavily emphasized the use of form as an important manner for literary communication. Shapes of Native Nonfiction, edited [by] Elissa Washuta and Theresa Warburton, is a thoughtfully constructed collection of work from various Indigenous authors. Using basket weaving as an example of how different topics, examples, sources, personal experiences, etc. are weaved together to form a strong literary piece. The components that create these forms seem never-ending. The basket is used to show how all parts of the creation have creation within themselves. The creation of the materials used to construct the physical item to the methods used to the person performing the act of creating has larger narratives of their own. Viewing the literature in this manner grants the necessary depth to understand the significance of what is being communicated.

The use of nonfiction as a form in SNN to demonstrate the breadth that native works have as a means to resist erasure. As noted in Shapes of Native Nonfiction, “…they also confront the prolific undercurrent of the interpretation and discussion of Native nonfiction writing: the expectation that Native peoples remain as subjects spoken about rather than as subjects speaking.” (SNN 13). The use of nonfiction to push back on the “presumed centrality of the genre” (SNN 14), to push against the way historical events are written about in that they deny the emotional, cultural, and spiritual experience of the people involved, places the power of the narrative into the possession of the native writers. Similar comments are stated about erasement in New Poets of Native Nations, where it is remarked how Native American poets are “…obscured by poets who are not Native to any indigenous nation” (NP xiv). The struggle to be recognized and reach a wide audience contributes to the erasure with the numerous systemic barriers also contributing.

In Contemporary Creative Writing and Ancient Oral Tradition by Ernestine Hayes in SNN, the author focuses on the use of stories that “reveal the values and norms of the ages and cultures from which they spring” (SNN 29). The author notes this after reciting a narrative by Suzie James that shows how the sacrifice the maternal grandmother is done with the mindset of the wellbeing of future generations. Many stories in modern cinema and television centering around an anti-hero, prominent examples being Don Draper from Mad Men, Taylor Durden from Fight Club, and Rick from Rick and Morty. The prevalence brings questions about what values are being told, highlighted as common, uncovered, or possibly normalized when the point of the anti-hero character is to be the opposite of a ‘good’ and is beloved by viewers. While the form intends for the character to be seen as a ‘bad example’, often the cultural response is love and emulation.

In response to "The Great Quake and the Great Drowning" by Ann Finkbeiner:

The Great Quake and the Great Drowning by Ann Finkbeiner, a freelance science writer, was a reflecting read covering the oral history from the local Indigenous communities as well as the scientific evidence behind a massive earthquake and tsunami that occurred before colonialization. The earthquake(s) that happened long ago were extremely destructive, but the people remained despite the risks and fears of another occurring. Warnings were passed on in stories to future generations. While it may seem like the best course of action would be to simply not return and instead find a new home, it follows why they wouldn’t leave. The most obvious reason being it is their home, their land. It’s the land they know and know how to live with. But reflecting on this, to move to a new home or new land would bring its own difficulties. Namely, to leave would mean potentially displacing/removing another group from their lands. It also brings questions of if the current settler state that exists on these earthquake-prone lands is in denial about it. The stories from indigenous peoples in the area combined with geology and other sciences have determined that this is an earthquake-prone area and its nearly a guarantee that a catastrophic earthquake will happen in the next 100 years or so. Yet, minuscule preparations are taking place. Many older buildings exist that will collapse, many bridges are in critical condition in Seattle and around the state, these are a few cases that demonstrate the denial by the current state about what it means to live here. All articles mention stories as a form of fact, decolonization, and resistance. The multidisciplinary nature of stories in indigenous cultures takes on a different point of view, namely that “Developing an ethical research relationship is more important than how the data is collected” (Innes 2010: 6)” as stated in Indigenous Studies: An Appeal for Methodological Promiscuity by Chris Andersen and Jean M. O’Brien. This is a point of reflection for many of us presently in or entering STEM fields which often seek the inverse of this, prioritizing data collection over developing an ethical research relationship. An example of the ends of this relationship inversion being the genetic modification of plants to be resistant to Round-Up. Changing the plants biology to suit a capitalist desire to be able to spray more pesticides and herbicides creating more problems. With less destructive options being available, it remains to be considered how much of an ethical relationship is forged with all involved. Not just within a board room or between a handful of regulators. Stories and the flexibility of oral storytelling tradition has allowed for power to be built and remain outside the colonial sphere of influence. “stories as Indigenous knowledge work to not only regenerate Indigenous traditions and knowledge production but also work against the colonial epistemic frame to subvert and recreate possibilities and spaces for resistance” (Speaking Truth to Power 3). In response to The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline

The Marrow Thieves is a young adult novel set in a dystopian future where Indigenous peoples are hunted for their bone marrow. The colonizers have lost their ability to dream and use the marrow to dream again. The author, Cherie Dimaline, is a member of the Georgian Bay Métis Nation. She has won many awards for her work.

Pages 1-55 of The Marrow Thieves focused heavily on aspects of survival, relatives, and storytelling. The survival aspect is not only a physical one, surviving an ongoing genocide that has continued into this future universe of the speculative fiction work, but also a cultural survival. The Native peoples who have come together act as good relatives to each other, the stories they tell pass on warnings and knowledge of the world around them. In addition, the communal passing of skillsets is not limited to just the person learning from the expert in the group but is also passed on from one student to another. The author's use of senses in the book for similes was new to me and was engaging. Referring to the “smell” of tension was a more grounded communication of the sensation than I have read in the past.

The book heavily critiques capitalism, industrialism, as well as the settler colonial states of North America, namely Canada and the United States. The undercurrent of the attitudes expressed about the treaties is one that views them as a constant potential broken promise. When the water was viewed as necessary, the old treaty was broken and a new one was created. A repetition of history. The sectioning off entire areas of the globe due to pollution spawned from industrialist attitudes to the change in how the lakes behaved and looked all reflect a [disdain] for industrialism. The book is expertly crafted with layers, foreshadowing, and commentary weaved into the very being of it.

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These contributions were made by a collection of anonymous students in the class.