This past week I spoke at the Kingston Writer’s Festival here
in Kingston, Ontario with authors Alma Fullerton, Shyam
Selvadurai and Tim Wynne-Jones. I also attended various events, including interviews
and reading with some of my favourite authors such as Ania Szado and Joseph
Boyden. My favourite event was an interview with Thomas King and Leanne Betasamosake
Simpson on Native storytelling. I chose this event because I love Thomas King’s
stories and I’ve never heard him read, although I did meet him briefly in Eden
Mills a few years ago. As an added bonus, Simpson and King were interviewed by
Sheila Rogers of The Next Chapter.
As King and Simpson were talking about Native stories, I
remembered a collection of Native books that came across my desk at the end of last
term from my school board. The books were all about Native culture. They came
with a teaching guide suggesting Native culture be introduced across the
curriculum, including in the Core French program that I teach. Well, I took the
books home and read them to my son who is seven. We talked about our own Jewish culture with its special holidays, foods and language and then we compared it to Native culture’s traditions. I explained to my
son that Native people had been in Canada longer than any other
Canadians.
Since school began this September I haven’t looked at those books
yet. As the talk went on, I wondered why I hadn’t read them to my students. One
answer would be that I’m pretty snowed at work and September has been a whirlwind,
but the real answer is that I’m intimidated to teach about Native culture. This
is different than teaching Native history. I don’t have any Native friends and
I can’t think of anyone I know who is Native. Sure I’ve read Thomas King, Joseph
Boyden and Eden Robinson, but this isn’t the same as knowing anyone. It didn’t
help that the books were all in French, my students’ second language.
When the question period began, I stood up and asked how I
should proceed. “How would you like non-Native people to teach about your
culture in our schools?” I asked. I explained that I didn’t know any Native
people and while I liked the ideaof reading about Native culture in theory, in reality I was unsure. Leanne
Simpson suggested I should reach out, that I could probably find Native people
to come and talk to my students. If there were Native people in Kingston why I hadn’t met
them, I wondered? Why hadn’t I met them in any city I’ve lived in? As if
reading my mind, Sheila Rogers talked about the incredible segregation between
Native and non-Native Canadians. 
Meeting Aboriginal people in Kingston, as Simpson suggested, turned out to
be incredibly easy. I didn’t even have to leave the interview ballroom. When the
session ended no less than seven people came up to meet me. Some were native
people who came by to introduce themselves. One was the aboriginal educator at
Queen’s University. Another offered to introduce me to the Aboriginal
curriculum coordinator at my school board. Even two days later, a man sat next
to me at a poetry session and wrote me a note thanking me for my question. (He
also told me that he thought it was a shame Harlequin didn’t think organic
farmers were sexy – see my former blog post if you’re curious about this one!) Lastly,
I met Rick Revelle, an Algonquin. Rick’s first novel, I Am Algonquin, is being
published by Dundurn this fall. I’m going to his launch November 30th
at my favourite book store here in Kingston,
Novel Idea.
Sometimes I think I ask too many questions. Sometimes I
wonder why I want to get at that microphone, why I always have something to
say. Sometimes I wish I could listen more. And sometimes, I think, if you ask
the right questions, you’ll get good answers.
Thanks to all the Native and non-Native people for their
advice, friendliness and resources. I’m looking forward to reading some books about
aboriginal culture to my students.
