Land of Shadows

When I decided to pursue a teaching career, I undertook teacher training in Western Canada. During the course of my studies, many hours were spent in discussions with colleagues on the issues and concerns of First Nations peoples within educational institutions. What particularly struck me were the good intentions and intense frustrations of these teachers and administrators, many from the northern areas of the prairie provinces, who were attempting to improve the conditions of children on the reserves. What I personally witnessed was considerable poverty and deprivation, and a clash of oral and literate cultural perspectives that manifested itself throughout most of my career as a music teacher, teacher educator and educational researcher.

I did not fully understand the notion of 'person as tradition' until several years later. When training and supervising Aboriginal music teachers in northern Ontario, I experienced once again the cultural clash between literate Western and oral Aboriginal patterns of thinking. The issue that raised anxiety was my institution's emphasis on lesson plans as a key determinant of effective teaching and success in teacher education, and the reluctance of First Nations teacher-candidates to produce them. They adopted a "watch then do" approach to teaching. They explained it best when they stated that life is not a question of "What's next?" which represents our Western predilection for planning, but rather one of "What's happening?" They were concerned with living in the 'now' and not in a pre-determined future that may or may not occur. "Land of Shadows" integrates poetry, prose and Aboriginal voices in a holistic way to express my feelings and thoughts on the loss of control that the First Nations have experienced as their land, their traditions, and their way of life have been marginalized in the Canadian mosaic. This piece represents a scholastic art-form entitled Prosetry. In this work, the form combines text, verse and quotations in such a way that the parts flow together and reinforce each other to provide the reader with multiple perspectives on the content. Proestry can be read silently by an individual, or with partners in the manner of chamber music with each one reading the poetry, prose and quotations, respectively. Alternately, it can be performed on stage for an audience with one or more readers who read the different parts.
In "Land of Shadows," the poetry component recounts the frustration of coping with the bureaucracies of cities, and the stories that the elders tell of a time when nature had not yet been spoiled by Western European civilization. There is the telling of the coming of the tall ships, the rape of the forests, the indoctrination of the missionaries, the ruthlessness of the fur trade, and the terrible effect of liquor on Aboriginal peoples. And finally, there is the helplessness that has so often been misunderstood. The prose component provides information and commentary on the legal framework for multiculturalism in Canada, the First Nation's resistance to inclusion in the Canadian mosaic, the rise of self-determination as a proactive stance, the impact of Western colonization, the Aboriginal feelings of loss of control, and the failure of federal government schooling for young people on the reserves. Quotations from the literature provide explanatory power to the poetry and prose by recounting the personal experiences of First Nations individuals. Their words give credence to the heartache that we do not fully understand and that we seldom take the time to fully understand. The government's commitment to a policy of multiculturalism received the support of all political parties in 1977. This policy was subsequently embodied in Bill-93 and, on the 21 st of July, 1988, the final step in the enacting process was completed when Bill-93 received Royal Assent and the Canadian Multiculturalism Act became law. The Act recognizes religious, cultural, linguistic and racial diversity as a fundamental characteristic of Canadian society, and it acknowledges the right of minorities to use their language and cherish their heritage. Consequently, Canadians collectively enjoy the values and traditions of a multicultural population within a national bilingual framework. Aboriginal peoples, however, believe that Canada's pluralistic approach has marginalized their voices and devalued their aspirations.
In the area of Canadian history and Indian-White relations, what is taught in the Eurocolonial interpretation of this relationship. The other half of the equation is believed to be non-existent because it is not written down in history books.
Aboriginal peoples have not endorsed official multiculturalism as they argue that the policy ignores their desire for self-determination and self-government, which are the basic tenets of their collective aspirations. Further, Aborignals do not want to be designated as one of many communities within the Canadian federation as they do not consider themselves to be an ethnic group, a visible minority or immigrants. Rather, they argue that they have a historical tradition of spiritual and economic association with each other and, through Aboriginal and treaty rights, a legal stake in the land base. For these reasons, they claim to truly be the First Nations of Canada. Fetters on the mind First Nations leaders believe that self-determination is the only credible solution that will change the pattern of inequity that has caused them to remain the most oppressed and poorest segment of the Canadian mosaic. It has been their experience that their relationships with Canadian society continually leave them in an inferior position. Multiculturalism, they believe, will expound the rhetoric of equality and justice, but over time will codify the usual hierarchical patterns that reinforce their low status. Distancing themselves from such official policy and focusing on self-determination is a proactive stance, one that attempts to change the established pattern of inequity and break the cycle of dependency that has come to characterize their communities.
The ability to be objective is highly valued in the study of history, yet how can this information, when so onesided, be considered objective and therefore acceptable to the First Nations learner. The contradiction is too great: this exhibits disrespect to the knowledge that exists with First Nations culture and to the experiences of the First Nations learners who live in the culture. As First Nations then, we have to take responsibility for correcting this contradiction … my identity is reinforced and strengthened because I have to defend it against a 'value' of another culture.
Aboriginal peoples believe that they lost control of their socio-political structures through colonization of their territories. In this way, the Canadian government reduced the authority of their institutions to a state of dependency on federal largesse. It was primarily in response to this loss of control that Aboriginal writers conceptualized the notion of self-determination (used interchangeably with self-government) as a political construct to describe their relationship with Canada. Indeed, Aboriginal leaders emphasize that they never surrendered their nationhood, rather they signed treaties which established and ensured their sovereignty. The history of the First Nations peoples is a legacy of loss of control. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the educational systems that were foisted upon them. Initially, the early missionaries attempted to civilize the Aboriginal peoples through a Western European educational model which emphasized literacy, numeracy and monotheism. Successive governments promoted this approach and implemented educational policies designed to assimilate Aboriginal children into the Canadian mainstream through residential, provincial and federallyfunded reserve schools. These institutions removed children from the familial setting so that the family unit became disjointed. Consequently, helplessness and heartache became a recurring motif of successive generations of Aboriginal youth, their parents and the elders.
"Years ago when my husband and I started to get old we enjoyed going to the Sundance. We had a complete outfit, our buckskin outfit for dancing. But the strict upbringing from the priest and nuns bothered us … We never forget what we were taught in school by the nuns and priests -not to believe or join in any of the society's rituals that were connected with the Sundance." Children and youth on the reserves are much akin to young people across the country in their perceptions, yearnings, hopes and dreams. All of them have much to offer this place we call Canada. However, a pattern of dependence has been established by the Canadian government whereby Aboriginal peoples have been encouraged to remain on isolated reserves sustained by the infusion of federal grants, low-paying government jobs, and no income tax. Such a policy has resulted in Aboriginal peoples living in economically disadvantaged conditions and not integrating into modern society, despite programs to encourage young people to obtain degrees at major Canadian universities, and proposals to enable individuals to settle in more favourable areas.
And on the dark shore The modern media brings together aspects of orality, that is the myths and the visual image, with fundamental characteristics of the literate tradition, the symbolic form and symbolic systems. In contrast, traditional education socializes students from an oral perspective (i.e., the circle) towards a literate, objective point of view (i.e., the square) by developing skills of literacy, numeracy, aesthetic judgement and technology (refer to Figure 1). Today's students, however, are the electronic generation with perceptions that reflect many of the traits of oral cultures. Their simultaneous, subjective and emotional behaviours are a replay of their oral roots and represent the way many young people view the world. The multi-cultural diversity in Canadian schools merely intensifies the oral traits of the electronic field and creates a classroom environment with a more complex web of divergent beliefs about what is relevant. Consequently, tensions arise as the literate thrust of instruction clashes with the contrasting oral perceptions of the students, thereby creating tension and mistrust in educational settings.
"I was disappointed in the attitude of some of those I dealt with in administration who would rather 'deal' with me than 'relate' with me." In effect, the circle is squared by the traditional instructional program in schools. This process is especially evident on the reserves where federal government grants mandate that band schools adopt provincial curricula which promote a Eurocentric view. In contrast, however, the effects of the modern media in society have encircled the square (Figure 2). For this reason, schools are not always seen as relevant by young people. The net result is considerable conflict and misunderstandings between teachers and students in classrooms, both in terms of learning and social behaviours. This is even more pronounced on the reserves when Western conceptions of literacy are favoured. Phonemic orthography, for example, poses serious problems for students from oral cultures in part due to the very structure of such orthographies and the emphasis on grammatical correctness. Student frustration at learning in this way has resulted in a high dropout rate and lower levels of literacy than in the other areas of the country. Many of these Aboriginal students become involved in drug abuse, and many turn to violence and suicide.
"I felt I knew more about my culture first hand, but white professors trivialized my knowledge because it was not obtainable from libraries, not written." http://www.langandlit.ualberta.ca/archives/vol21papers/shadows.htm The failure of government-sponsored approaches to schooling has resulted in an unacceptable drop-out rate among Aboriginal students. These individuals are simply not adequately prepared to compete in an ever-expanding technological and highly-competitive work environment. The increase in the number of young people leaving the reserves to earn a living in urban areas, particularly in Western Canada, has created an http://www.langandlit.ualberta.ca/archives/vol21papers/shadows.htm underclass of individuals who are poor, undereducated, unemployed and underhoused. Although there are exemplary cases of those who are successful in mainstream society, it is obvious that Canadian institutions have not provided the framework to support the aspirations of Aboriginal peoples. Moreover, there is considerable resistance by the elders to any encouragement to leave the reserves as they believe such action will result in cultural annihilation.
Successive governments have always believed that assimilation was the best approach in terms of dealing with the so-called Indian question. We've all leaned that this particular policy approach has cost everyone a great deal. It hurt our people and it just doesn't work because it denied our people the right to decide for ourselves what was appropriate. The First Nations are seeking self-determination; that is ownership, in those organizations that touch their lives. Historically, they have been unfairly represented on local municipal councils and school boards. Their movement is characterized by the demand for Aboriginal-controlled schools on reserves and Aboriginalcontrolled organizations in cities. Further, there are growing demands for power-sharing on boards, commissions and municipal councils as Aboriginals seek to ensure that they are represented at all of levels of the social structure. For our part, we must learn to listen more carefully to their voices. We must recognize the rich traditions and valuable contributions of the First Nations and the role that Aboriginal peoples have a right to play within the Canadian family. We must re-consider, as a Ts''kel educator stated, "mainstream's society's values, the foundations of which are competition, individuality, materialism and nonspirituality. In order for humanity as a whole to survive, we must rid ourselves of those selfish values in favour of cooperation, community, holism and respect for all life." Learning Agency, 1990). 5 Alternating poetry and prose originated in Ancient Rome and was called "Menippean satire." It has a parallel in music with the recitative and aria of opera which developed in the seventeenth century. What is unique in this work is the use of the literature to reinforce the verse and the integration of quotations that recount the personal experiences of Aboriginals to provide descriptive and explanatory power. This approach was inspired by Laurel Richardson's writings in Fields of play: Constructing an academic life. (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1997).