Stories Contestation and
ModernityFNAT 101- Arts One
Lecture
November, 2009
Uniting a Mixed Collection of Readings that question that master narrative
The role of aboriginal people in the fur trade (Ray)
The role of aboriginal women in trade (White)
The Real Riel (Bourgeault or Flanagan)
What was agreed to in Treaty (Saskatchewan Treaty Commission)
Who are our ancestors (McNab)
Modern Indians (Newhouse)
Where are your Stories? Home is a border country, a place
that separates and connects us [Stories] tell us where we come
from, why we are here, how to live and die
A way to believe & ceremonies to sustain
We commemorate to remember Give communities a sense both of
obligation and entitlement Changing stories has powerful implications
Complimentary stories always develop in ways that ensure their contradiction & thus their hold on us
The Importance of Stories Connerton (1989)
Collective Memories of a people Experience of the present depends of the
knowledge of the past Stories legitimate a social order
Said (1994) “nations are stories” The power to narrate is central to a culture
McNab (2005) “Sometimes fear is stronger than truth” The long term effects of denial The first ‘white’ person
King (2003) “The truth about stories is that that’s all we are”
Multiple Stories/ Contested Terrain Stories locate the boundaries of our
identities/ which we believe and locate ourselves amidst
These boundaries can overlap and lead to conflict
Examples: Gitksan and British Columbia Nisga’a and Gitanyow Afrikaners and Zulus Irish and the British Pound/Wente and Charles Mann
The history of all cultures and thus their stories is a history of cultural borrowing
Contested Minds
Often stories are the first place attacked in a campaign to control land and a people
Target story holders and transmittal Potlatch ban Residential schools
Not unique to aboriginal peoples 1618 Czech takeover by Austria Nazi Germany
Control of stories and memories = power
Stories and Resistance “One of the first tasks of a
culture of resistance was to reclaim, rename and re-inhabit the land” (Said,1994)
A search for authenticity…a more congenial origin than that provided by the colonial story
Authenticity crucial as we search for/construct identity in stories of our people & families (my paper at CINSA, 2000)
McLeod’s (2004) “discursive authority” as the subjects & creators of our own narratives
Legitimacy of voice
Tribal to Modern
Seeks to challenge the story that we are unable to modernize
Newhouse’s thesis (2003) that post-1969 We have increased sense of
power Assertive & desirous of a new
world Distinctive parallel developments
in the Arts, Education, Health Increasing influence of mainstream
thoughts and institutions Modern = blended
Modern or Post-Modern?
Modern“ The ability to construct an
identity for the self, either as an individual or as a collective, lies at the heart of modernity” Newhouse (2003)
“ a syncretic, dynamic, adaptive identity in contemporary [Canada]” Weaver (1997)
“ a social convergence in which all societies resemble one another” Max Weber
Post-Modern Hybridity and marginality “ a new experience of orientation
and disorientation, with senses of placed and displaced identity, new relations in space and place, fixity and mobility, centre and periphery, real and virtual space, frontier and territory” Gough (2000)
“Natives define their identity in terms of community and relate to ultimate reality through that community” Weaver (1997)
‘Self in society’ rather than ‘Self and society’ Fixico (2000)
Factors influencing Change (Newhouse, 2003, p. 402)
1. Urbanization• Growth even with declining in-migration
2. Institutionalization• Increased reliance rather than on kin
3. Cultural Identity re-enforcement• Deliberate/culturally specific
4. Retraditionalization• Return of values, customs & worldview
5. Textual transformation• Written English predominant/common
language6. Self-governance
• Asserted control over everyday life
How do we nurture this modern aboriginal identity?
Recognize that ties to community are often weakened
Recognize that diversity of cultures is an issue, with accompanying divisions
Utilize those urban institutions that do bind us e.g. friendship centres; neighbourhoods
Define citizenship in confederacies rather than 600 first ‘nations’ (Lawrence, 2004)
Create more ‘space’ where we self-govern
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