Truth Telling - Michelle Good

 My mom loaned me a bunch of books and this was one of them. 

This is a collection of seven essays. I read about half of them. 

The introduction begins with some comments around the phrase truth before reconciliation, and she asserts that it is an anthem of sort that has lost its meaning. Within the first few pages she says "We must step away from the window dressing of reconciliation."  She says these are not academic essays, they are her personal take, and "these essays examine the brutal intentions of colonialism that continue to harm us..."

Based on the introduction's emphasis on non-Indigenous Canadians becoming aware of Indigenous history, I get the strong impression that this book was written primarily with a non-Indigenous audience in mind. 

"The rise and resistance of Indigenous literature" is the chapter which I appreciated the most. She does a great job outlining the chronology of publishing Indigenous literature in Canada, including outlining how Indigenous movers and shakers created structures in which Indigenous authors could thrive. Then, that lead to more mainstream acceptance and demand. It's a well organized chapter which points the reader to a lot of other great readings. I also like the way that she grounded discussion of Indigenous literature within the larger policy context. If I were still teaching, I could see myself using parts of this chapter or the whole thing, depending on the context and level. It's probably also good background reading for anyone who is teaching Indigenous literature and would like to do some accessible background reading on Indigenous literature in Canada. 

The chapter on the sixties scoop ($13.69) is a good introduction to the topic which uses her personal experience to help the reader understand the devastating impact of separating children from their families. 

There were intriguing details about her career throughout. For example, one of her first jobs was a writing contract for UBCIC and she mentions advocacy on behalf of First Nations organizations and residential school survivors, but doesn't go into a lot of detail. She used to be a lawyer. She specialized in residentials school settlements. The book itself focuses mostly on her personal life and her opinions about Canadian public policy (aka colonialism), but doesn't include a lot of detail around her career as an advocate and lawyer. I was very curious about that, so I dug a little bit online. 

First, I read this Canadian Lawyer Magazine article. In the article, she talks about how it was her career in advocacy that led her to eventually go into law as a mature student. She talks about racism that she faced as an Indigenous lawyer. And she talks about how she recovered from her constructive dismissal at the Department of Justice. I think that it would be very interesting to read more about the constructive dismissal, but I would not be surprised if she were not allowed to say much about it. But it would still be nice to hear any advice that she has for Indigenous professionals working in the public sector. 

As she is a lawyer, I plugged her name into CanLii. She self-represented herself against the Department of Justice in 2006. Here are some of the facts:

[6]               The plaintiff is a lawyer in Vancouver.  On the 30th of August 2002, the plaintiff began employment with the Federal Department of Justice office, working as a lawyer on Indian residential school claims and resolutions.  She alleges that her contract-based employment with the defendant was partly in writing and orally, and was for an indefinite duration. 

[7]               The plaintiff states that it was an implied term of her contract that the contract would not be terminated by the defendant for anything but just cause and upon provision of reasonable notice and severance pay in lieu thereof. 

[8]               Approximately two years after her employment began, the defendant gave the plaintiff a performance evaluation which was highly critical of the plaintiff’s interpersonal skills.  The plaintiff filed a grievance under the provisions of the Public Service Relations Act.  The plaintiff alleges that in response to the filing of this grievance on the 23rd of August 2004, the defendant directed that the plaintiff no longer work on any substantive matter and removed the plaintiff from all activities involving prosecution, negotiations, and resolution of residential school claims save and except for work on one file. 

[9]               Additionally, it was alleged that the defendant removed the plaintiff from her working groups email list such that she received no information pertaining to the prosecution, negotiation, and resolution of residential school claims in the office generally.  She further alleges that the defendant forbade her from working with other members of the team in resolution of the residential school claims. 

[10]           It is the plaintiff’s position that the actions of the defendant as noted above were actions in retaliation for the plaintiff exercising her statutory right to file a grievance. 

[11]           On the 8th of September 2004, the plaintiff elected to treat the conduct of the defendant as a repudiation of the contract and to treat the contract as being terminated.  The plaintiff alleges that she was constructively dismissed by the defendant and the dismissal was without just cause and without reasonable or any notice and that it constituted an arbitrary and wilful breach of contract. 

[12]           Additionally, the plaintiff alleges that the defendant has falsely and maliciously defamed her.  A memorandum was generated in June 2004 in regards to the plaintiff.  The memorandum, without repeating the allegations, suggests that a number of cases that the plaintiff was working on were settled for what appears to be too high a dollar figure.  The memorandum also questions whether or not there is any way the plaintiff could have benefited personally from overpaying lawyers who settled claims on behalf of clients.  This memorandum appears to have had limited, if any, circulation.  It was essentially placed in her employment file which was disclosed in these proceedings. 

I can't imagine how difficult it must have been to go through all of that. I think it was brave of her to stand up for herself. The matter was resolved through an out of court settlement. Sometimes I hear non-Indigenous people tell Indigenous professionals that maybe they can work for the government and change things from the inside. That's a really nice idea, but sometimes it doesn't really work out like that, even within processes specifically created in order to further justice for Indigenous people. Colonialism is a powerful force. The Canadian Lawyer Magazine article explains how she was able to overcome this experience, work for another law firm, and eventually begin her own practice. 

I also read the judicial review around an election appeal that she was pursuing, which was also an interesting read. 

Read, Listen, Tell & Learn, Teach, Challenge

 Read, Listen, Tell: Indigenous Stories from Turtle Island is an anthology of Indigenous stories as well as accompanying critical essays to go with the stories. It's published by Wilfred Laurier Press. It's a great exploration of Indigenous literature across time. I read selections of it, with a focus on the section on Indigenous fantasy and science fiction. I found that it contained a lot of authors who were familiar to me as well as many new-to-me authors. I'll probably return to it at another time. 

Learn, Teach, Challenge: Approaching Indigenous Literatures is it's non-fiction counterpart, also published by Wilfred Laurier. Also published, Deanna Reder and Linda M. Morra. The book is huge, almost 600 pages, and contains essays from Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars. It's an excellent curation of ongoing conversations in Indigenous literary studies. For example there is an essay by Sam McKegney on ethical engagement, and then there is a response to the essay by Robert Appleford. 

Several of the essays look at the question of how to engage with Indigenous literature, including how to do ethical engagement and ethical criticism. There is also an entire section on classroom considerations, presenting various viewpoints on how to responsibly teach Indigenous literature and pedagogy specific to Indigenous literature. 

I think that in the future, when I blog creative works, I am going to try some of these approaches to ethical criticism and ethical engagement. 

I wish that I had both of these books prior to teaching English First Peoples 12 because the essays provide a lot of food for thought. 

The books are part of an Indigenous Studies Series, and Jo-ann Archibald is one of the series editors. 

Indigenous Literature Books

 So, this is the last book pile that I am blogging. I read a handful of books about Indigenous literature. I was not trying to veer into literary studies. I get kind of lost inside of literary studies because postmodernism is like its own little universe. There is no beginning and no end, just infinite concepts. Anyhow, in spite of trying not to veer into literary studies, I did want to revisit some old favourites and so I re-read them. And there were two new books that came out which I could not resist. 

The first book that I re-read was Iskwewak Kah' Ki Yaw Ni Wahkomamkanak: Neither Indian Princess nor Easy Squaws, second edition, by the late Dr. Janice Acoose-Miswonigeesikokwe. It was her masters thesis. The first edition was published in 1995 and the second edition was published in 2016. It stands the test of time. The first time that I read it, I don't think I realized how significant it was. I used a few quotes from it. More than anything, though, I feel like the book reinvigorated my commitment to the idea that Indigenous literature is important, not only in terms of pedagogy, but also in terms of shaping the political landscape of our society. And so I celebrate Acoose. 

The second book that I re-read was Taking Back Our Spirits: Indigenous Literature, Public Policy, and Healing by the late Jo-Ann Episkenew (2009). This one is also a rallying cry to recognize the significance and transformative potential of Indigenous literature. Specifically, she says that Indigenous literature plays a socio-pedagogical function (p.110) which is critical in addressing colonial creation myths (p.109). When I read her work, I feel invigorated. I also like that her work builds on Acoose. For example, they both discuss Maria Campbell's Halfbreed. And then Episkenew goes on to discuss newer texts like Richard Wagamese's Keeper N Me. 

One of the new books that I read and enjoyed was Self-Determining Stories: The Indigenous Reinvention of Young Adult Literature by Mandy Suhr-Sytsma. It's cool that there is so much Indigenous Young Adult literature that one can write an entire book about it. The book is published by Michigan State and I think the author's work and education is in the states, but she discusses many books by Indigenous people from Canada, including Jeanette Armstrong and Drew Hayden Taylor. 

Another new book that I read and enjoyed was Tiffany Lethbo King, Jenell Navarro, and Andrea Smith's anthology Otherwise Worlds: Against Settler Colonialism and Anti-Blackness. Just so people know... I read the book before the New York Times article was published, and I want to take a minute here to say that I do not support identity fraud. In the future, I will be more discriminating about purchasing Andrea Smith's work. That being said, she was not the only person who worked on this project, and I would never want to punish the co-editors or contributors for her wrongs. With that caveat in mind, I did find the introduction to be extremely helpful in understanding how Black and Indigenous people can support each other's efforts to achieve justice, even if it may appear that they do not have identical goals in mind. Within the book, the chapter which made the biggest impression on me was Lindsay Nixon's Visual Cultures of Indigenous Futurism. Lindsay Nixon also wrote a memoir (and you can find their book here). Visual Cultures of Indigenous Futurism is an essay which outlines some foundational concepts around the future imaginary and discusses artwork within that genre.