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Hi there, please make sure there is no plagiarism and it is 100% written in huma
Hi there, please make sure there is no plagiarism and it is 100% written in human form. All work must be original and unique. I will be submitting this through multiple AI plagiarism checkers so please be mindful of that. Thank you.
Images of Aboriginal Peoples in Canadian Literature
The legends and songs of the aboriginal people were the first literature of Canada. The first peoples of the land constantly told stories – about their own adventures, about their ancestors, about every aspect of the land around them and about characters such as Coyote, Wee-sak-ee-chak, Nanabush, and Glooscap, that magnificent beings who roamed across the Canadian landscape. Through stories and songs, aboriginal peoples kept their history alive and passed it on to the next generations.
Aboriginal storytelling has always been a communal experience. Stories brought people together to share a past, to explain the seemingly inexplicable in creation, to instruct, to use as a vital ingredient in a healing ceremony. Stories were used to teach and even discipline children. A strong story might make a child see the consequences of foolish actions or shame the child. This was often done in a humourous way, as teasing and joking served as a more effective social mechanism than direct reproof for pointing out mistakes. Within their own cultures, all aboriginal people knew stories and could make reference to them at appropriate times.
When Europeans arrived on the shores of Turtle Island, as it was called by some aboriginal peoples, and encountered this rich oral tradition, they responded in one of two ways. Some of the early priests and traders recognized the richness of the oral culture and strove to learn their languages and adapt to the complex new forms of oral statesmanship attained by aboriginal leaders. But other newcomers considered the aboriginal cultures to be “savage” or backward because they lacked written forms of communication.
Today, the voices of aboriginal people occupy little space in mainstream Canadian literature and even less in English curricula. When Margaret Atwood wrote “Survival”, her seminal work about Canadian literature, she failed to include any aboriginal writers because she “could not find any.” Instead, she included a chapter about non-aboriginal writers using aboriginal characters and motifs. The images of aboriginal people in Canadian literature have been, until recently, shaped by non-aboriginal writers. Indeed, the “Indian” is a conventional figure in non-aboriginal Canadian literature, but not a voice. If aboriginal characters spoke, it was most often in mono-syllables like “ugh” or “how” or in the false eloquence of flowery romance. If aboriginal characters moved, they moved according to Euro-Canadian concepts of plot, either as faithful friends or savage foes, or as marginal figures the white protagonist could afford to ignore. Non-aboriginal authors simplistically portrayed Indians as displaying either “good” traits (harmony with nature, simplicity, hospitality, nobility of character, an acceptance of the white domination) or “bad” traits (violence, cruelty, following instinct with ambivalence, objects of pity who formed part of a landless dying race, who lived in poverty, or whose drunkenness was the result of corruption by whites). Even historical individuals turned from persons into symbols, Shanawdithit, the last of the Beothuk, became a tragic figure of curiosity. Pontiac and Tecumseh became noble heroes of National Causes, Big Bear was cast as a suspect foe. Native myths were re-written as European fairy tales, minimizing the social context of the stories in favour of Christian morality and a linear form of “realistic” representation. In the absence of aboriginal voices, Canadian literature made the position of aboriginal people in Canadian history contingent upon European perspectives. By treating aboriginal people as two-dimensional symbols, Canadian literature actively denied aboriginal people respect for their own history. Fortunately, over the past few decades, aboriginal writers have become more widely accepted by the literary establishment. Only now are Canadians beginning to learn about the aboriginal peoples of Canada and their stories and coming closer to understanding aboriginal experiences, aboriginal beliefs, aboriginal perspectives on human relationships, the spirit world, and nature. The emergence of creative art schools for aboriginal people. Aboriginal publishers, aboriginal bookstores, aboriginal educators, and above all, aboriginal writers, is transforming Canadian literature by making aboriginal voices available.
Questions:
After reading the article “Images of Aboriginal People in Canadian Literature,” please answer the following questions in complete original sentences unless otherwise instructed. Be sure to apply what you learned in Lesson 2 regarding integrating quotations into your responses where appropriate.
What were the first examples of literature of Canada and what were their purposes?
In what two ways did Europeans respond to the rich aboriginal oral tradition?
In Canadian literature, who has historically shaped the image of aboriginal people and why?
List the images of aboriginal people presented in non-aboriginal Canadian literature.
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