The Reason You Walk: A Book Review

The title of the book comes from an Anishinaabe travelling song used to close their gatherings in the Lake of the Woods country. It is sung from the perspective of the Creator singing to you:

“I have created you and therefore you walk, I am your motivation, I am that spark inside you call love, which animates you and allows you to live by Anishinaabe values, I am the destination at the end of your life that you are walking toward.”                        

Wab Kinew’s memoir is a tribute to his father and the effect residential life had on three generations; his grandfather, father and himself. It is also a story of reconciliation. Kinew begins his memoir with descriptions of his father’s early life. He was a happy youngster living at home with his family and relatives until that day when a man in a black robe came to the reservation to take him away to St. Mary’s Indian Residential School outside Kenora Ontario. Only after 60 years, from the vantage of old age did Wab Kinew’s father, Ndede, open up to his son about the abuse he suffered and the experience he had watching his young Indian friend being killed by a group of men, of his being raped and humiliated and being made to kneel at his father’s funeral when Indian custom dictated that he stand. These are very personal stories and knowing them makes the latter part of Ndede’s life all the more remarkable. The residential schools were a social experiment with the aim of “taking the Indian” out of the child which we now recognize as “Cultural Genocide”.

One of the worst legacies of the residentials schools was “the emotional, physical, and familial gulf confronting survivors who never learned how to parent their children.” Ndede overcame the pitfalls, surviving alcoholism, racism, a failed marriage and finally returning to his Indian roots. He was a traditional chief who married a non-Indian, Wab’s mother. In his memoir Wab relates his own struggle in his youth. He was a former rapper, immersed in alcoholism, drugs and spent time in jail. Then, finally taking responsibility for his life just as his father had, he became an academic, a hereditary chief, a journalist and a father. He worked for the CBC and has become an urban activist and has recently announced he is seeking a political life

When Ndede was diagnosed with cancer Wab left his work at the CBC to be with his father during the last months of his life. His sister also returned from Europe putting her doctoral studies on hold. During this time father and son worked on an Internet App for the Anishinaabe language. The bonding that took place between these two men is a heartwarming story. Both men worked at the university promoting courses in Indian Studies. When Ndede died there was a funeral service on the reserve and a memorial service in Winnipeg. It was attended by many dignitaries including Archbishop James Weisgerber who had been a friend, as well as many politicians, the premier, cabinet ministers, university colleagues, students, First Nations elders, and two former national chiefs. Forgiveness became Ndede’s way of finding peace. He had met Pope Benedict XVI in 2009 and was present at Kateri’s canonization in 2012 .

Both Wab and his father were Sundancers. This Indian Spiritual Ceremony had been outlawed in the USA in 1895 and in Canada in 1904. It did continue in secret and is now being recognized as a legitimate religious ceremony. Wab’s description of his own piercing on the last day of the four day ritual was fascinating to read. The memoir ends almost as a meditation on the meaning of life.

“To be hurt, yet forgive, to do wrong, but forgive yourself, to depart from this world
leaving only love. This is the reason you walk”.

This is a must read book that will help us to understand the way forward. Kinew wants us to realize that there are three groups at the conference table in Canada. The Federal, Provincial and First Nations Governments.                                                  

Guest blogger Janet Brisson

Book Review The Reason You Walk: Wab Kinew, Penquin Canada, 2015.

A Legacy of Resilience

As we witness the unfolding of the terrorist attacks in Paris this weekend, I am reminded of an excellent book I read earlier this year, The Nightingale set in France during the years of World War II. The story highlights the courage of the French people who were involved in the Resistance Movement during that time, but this is particularly the story of the courage of women – that of two sisters – who worked fearlessly, in different ways, to free or protect the citizens of France from the horror of the Nazi Regime.

The sisters, of very different temperament and ability to act, are forced to deal with the turmoil and despair of war, each with immense courage in whatever way they are able. Kristin Hannah’s writing is well researched, even to mentioning the Sisters of St. Joseph and the original six women!  (I couldn’t believe it when reading the book!). She portrays the harrowing days with clarity, but moments of light, love and kindnesses emerge through the darkness.

This well researched epic novel is set for the most part in a small town in France during the occupation but it also gives a good picture of how Paris might have been during the years following 1941 when the Germans marched into Paris, till the end of the war in 1945. The ending will surprise you - the story goes further than 1945, but I will leave you to find that out.

There are many other good historical novels about the Resistance Movement in Europe during World War II – such as Villa Triste by Lucretia Grindle set in Florence (five stars) and All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr – these can be for another day. And we can be sure that the resilience of the French people will emerge again today, as it has over the centuries in facing such injustices.

Guest Blogger: Margaret Magee

Emotional Make Up 101

Have you ever caught yourself wondering what was going on in someone else’s head? Pixar Animation Studios motion picture,’ Inside Out’ released by Walt Disney Pictures, offers the movie goer its version of emotional mindscape in 94 minutes of carefully, crafted, creative animation.

Inside Out, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May. The movie was the brainchild of Pete Doctor in collaboration with Ronnie del Carmen. This movie allows the audience to gain a privileged entrance into the lead character, Riley’s mind, where we meet the five, animated, personified, prime emotions of Anger, Disgust, Fear, Joy, and Sadness. The five emotions which dramatically surface in the movie, mirror those Pete Doctor witnessed in his pre-teen daughter and those he personally experienced in his own life resulting from his relocation from Denmark to the United States.

On the surface Inside Out is a kid’s movie but it takes an adult mind to grasp the complexity of our emotional make up. Younger members watching Inside Out will follow Riley’s attempt to return home, whereas older members will find themselves reminiscing on their own emotional journeys. Adults will grasp the reality that the five prime emotions are seldom experienced in isolation. The more mature moviegoer catches the deeper reality that emotions blend together. Our emotional intelligence helps to support our understanding of others and the developing of relationships with others. www.helpguide.org/articles/emotional.../emotional-intelligence-eq.htm

 

Christopher Haubursin, www.vox.com/2015/6/29/8860247/inside-out-emotions-graphic, has graphically illustrated the way in which the overlap of emotions creates a fuller pallet which broadens our emotional makeup. For example, joy coupled with sadness produces a feeling of melancholy and sadness and fear gives rise to anxiety as illustrated in the chart below.

For me, Christopher Haubursin chart broadens the concepts presented in the movie and stresses the mix of emotions release in encountering any situation. Hopefully, summertime will offer you and yours the leisure to enjoy Inside Out in what promises to be a thought provoking treat at the movie theatre.

Nancy Wales CSJ

A review of Atul Gawande's book "Being Mortal"

How do we live a meaningful life when facing debilitating disease or a terminal condition? Gawande takes a very realistic look at our changed social circumstances in terms of life expectancy, movement of peoples and medical technologies/treatments. Through his own reflections, dialogues with colleagues, and study he examines his approach to patients facing difficult health situations. Is he truly dong the best he can? 

When in medical school he was lectured on the differences between a patristic, knowledgeable practitioner and an information giver. Although he leaned towards the latter approach he was finding this did not seem to help his patients. Was there another approach? Perhaps guidance?

As he lives through and shares with us many patient stories, he realizes that he needs to listen and that what patients truly want is often unexpected and attainable. While families want health and safety, patients facing the reality of dying have different desires. So he becomes a guide who can offer information, discuss possible effects of treatments, and listen attentively….he learns to have the difficult conversations. The final ‘case’ he shares is the dying of his own father; his insights and new practices have a profound effect on how this passage takes place.

Hopefully he shares stories of different ways of assisting patients facing their own mortality. There are options if we are willing to creatively explore them.

Relevant to us as Canadians as we discuss the impending legislation about end-of-life, he cautions that countries who have embraced assisted end of life have not explored other options to help people with the limits that end-of-life situations find moments worth living for.

The book is readable, relevant and thought provoking with a most hopeful outlook.

Jackie Potter
CSJ Associate

The Inconvenient Indian

Thomas King, a well-known Indian author admits to his biases and takes time in the beginning to explain his choice of two words in the title; “account and inconvenient”. Even though the book is filled with names, dates, battles, treaties and facts about the ongoing relationship between Indians and Whites, King says it is not a history but rather storytelling. It is an enlightening account that should be in every school and in every library.

The book is mostly a discussion about land ownership, cultural denial, and historical Solutions to the Indian Problem. Most of the history of North American Indians has been forgotten. With his sardonic wit King tells us we can watch the movie. Hollywood has given us the image of what King has called the “Dead Indian” as opposed to the “Live Indian” and the “Legal Indian”. Behind any problem land greed is at the core. For aboriginal people the boundary between Canada and the United States was not of their making but it is a political reality that has interfered with their land and their status. They are First Nations in Canada and Native Americans in the United States. Governments now decide who is and who isn’t an Indian.

Many North Americans believe that Canada and the United States gave treaty rights to Native people as a gift, however, those familiar with the history know that Native people paid for every treaty right, and in some cases, paid more than once.

The Indian is a Steward of the Land not owners. They have a deep spiritual connection to the land, whereas the white man views Land as a commodity to bought and sold.

1823 US law: Indians had right of occupancy but they did not own the land, 1831-1832 laws: Native nations were no longer sovereign nations. Indians were reduced to the status of children and declared wards of the state. All Indian land belonged to the federal government. Canada formalized an identical relationship in the 1876 Indian Act. Indians in all of North America were property. King fears that aboriginal culture and specifically aboriginal land will continue to be taken away until there is nothing left to them at all. The issue has always been land. It will always be land, until there isn’t a square foot of land left in North America that is controlled by Native people. There will always be “Live Indians” but North American laws make it difficult to claim Indian status, to be a “Legal Indian”.  Governments past and present have always aimed for assimilation to make the problem go away. History always impacts the present. The question has always been “What do Native People want?” however the real question is “What do White People want?”

I can’t express how much I appreciate having read this book. We need to pay more attention to the laws and acts that government enacts. Native Peoples/First Nations of North America have been systematically robbed of their land, their dignity, their values, and far too often their lives because they have been inconvenient.

Thomas King took six years to write this book.  He writes as if he were in a conversation with the reader. He uses anecdotes and humorous narratives while maintaining the serious message of the book.  His underlying anger is softened by his wit and his hope.

I never realized just how many Indian tribes, bands, and nations there are in North America each with its own identity, customs, and culture.

What I especially appreciated was the accounts King relates about the “Dead Indians” and how Hollywood portrayed them and more importantly what actors played the Indian roles. Interestingly Will Rogers is one of only two Indians to get a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame yet he never played an Indian on the big screen.

King himself, having Cherokee heritage, admits that as a child playing “Cowboys and Indians” he was always the cowboy. Read the book. It is filled with history, facts, humorous stories, sad stories, wit, irony, sarcasm, anger and hope for the future relationships between Natives and Whites.

Book Review of The Inconvenient Indian: A curious Account of Native People in North America by Thomas King, Anchor Canada 2012. Our reviewer is guest blogger Janet (Cole) Brisson, Resident of Residence Symphonie West Island, Pointe-Claire, Quebec