Monday, September 14, 2009

Book of the day


Alego by Ningeokuluk Teevee (Groundwood Press)

http://www.groundwoodbooks.com/gw_titles.cfm?pub_id=1374

This book came across the cataloging desk yesterday, so I will preface by saying I haven't had time to do a close reading or investigate the author. I have to admit that I had never seen a book in Inuktitut before and I'm definitely more curious about the language after reading Alego. Although the pictures aren't a style that I personally enjoy, the text captures a child's sense of curiosity about the natural world without being sentimental.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Speaking as a gringa...


I was reading about yet another white author posing as a Native writer today, and my frustration level has increased on this whole matter. The selfishness that goes into such a set of lies is so against the values they are pretending to espouse. It's the worst sort of cultural appropriation, to make up facts about another culture from the position of experience or authority. I personally get upset at the multimillion dollar publishing industry surrounding the near-annihilation of my own culture, so I can't imagine what it feels like to have one's entire culture in literature exploited.

It makes me careful with my work, certainly. I am a white person working on this project from the Eurocentric perspective of my profession, hoping to integrate American Indian worldviews into the thoughts and practices of both myself and others. We are too content to categorize, simplify, and homogenize American Indian cultures at the expense of taking the time to truly listen. We also have to be discerning in those that we choose to listen to in that process. I don't mean to be preachy as I say these things, because I am only just beginning to learn more myself.

Someone asked me the other day if this project means I will become a Native American expert. Ha! I actually worry about that....but at least in my department there's no danger of such a mistake. I am just hoping to train those from my culture about how to do better than we have done before. No one is perfect...but let's be honest with ourselves and each other so that we might gain from experience...

Another "On a Lighter Note" to balance out a quasi-rant...
Quote from The Office ("Diversity Day" episode):

Michael: I am Michael and I am part English, Irish, German and Scottish. Sort of a virtual United Nations. But what some of you might not know is that I am also part Native American Indian.
Oscar: What part Native American?
Michael: Two fifteenths.
Oscar: Two fifteenths, that fraction doesn't make any sense.
Michael: Well, you know what, it's kind of hard for me to talk about it. Their suffering. So who else? Let's get this popping. Come on. Who's going? Who's going? Let's go here!