OPEN: With Her Words, Poem (fig. 1). Her Words is a poetic autoethnographic response that portray an experience I had as a student in an Alter/Native Anthropology course during my first year as a junior transfer student in the autumn of 2017 at the University of Washington. The framework of the poem is inspired by Maiana Minahal’s Poem on Trying to Love without Fear and is an example of my experimentation with poetry, as an ethnographic methodology, in my responses to assignments and my experiences of learning within the dual sites of my independent research and my anthropology course. We had been assigned to read a chapter in Patricia Leavy’s book Method Meets Art: Art-Based Research Practice that discusses the values and practices of poetry …show more content…
To be undone by another is a primary necessity, an anguish, to be sure, but also a chance-to be addressed, claimed, bound to what is not me, but also to be moved, to be prompted to act, to address myself elsewhere, and so to vacate the self-sufficient “I” as a kind of possession.”
It is this undoing and resisting my own resistance that I have chosen to remain in spaces where I work further to decolonize the construction of my “white identity” and to begin to examine in relationship with others the work that needs to be done within my own predominantly white community of Bainbridge Island. These experiences are important to include as they situate me in the present and inform the parameters that I aspire to in the research that I have done for my winter 2018 Ethnographic Field Techniques
Richard Wagamese brings to light the troubles of aboriginals living in Northern Canada in his book Indian Horse. Wagamese demonstrates the maltreatment aboriginals have faced at the hands of the Zhaunagush and their residential schools. The disgusting truth of the treatment of aboriginals in Canada is shown through recovering alcoholic, Saul Indian Horse, who recounts his life from the time he lived in the bush with his native family, the Anishinabeg, to the the time he checked into The New Dawn Treatment Centre. Seen through Saul’s eyes, the Canadian government captures and transports native children to residential schools. Not only are these children stripped from their native way of life, they are placed in an environment that eerily resembles an internment camp.
After the British and French war, Peters’s family, hundred members of the Black Guides and Pioneers evacuated from New York to Nova Scotia. However, “in Nova Scotia the dream of life, liberty, and happiness became a nightmare. Some 3,000 ex-slaves found that they were segregated in impoverished villages, given small scraps of often untillable land, desprived of rights normally extended to British subjects, and reduced to peonage by a white population whose racism was as congealed as the frozen winter soil of Nova Scotia.” (Nash 7). At this new place, African Americans were treated really badly.
Tracey Lindberg’s novel Birdie is narratively constructed in a contorting and poetic manner yet illustrates the seriousness of violence experience by Indigenous females. The novel is about a young Cree woman Bernice Meetoos (Birdie) recalling her devasting past and visionary journey to places she has lived and the search for home and family. Lindberg captures Bernice’s internal therapeutic journey to recover from childhood traumas of incest, sexual abuse, and social dysfunctions. She also presents Bernice’s self-determination to achieve a standard of good health and well-being. The narrative presents Bernice for the most part lying in bed and reflecting on her dark life in the form of dreams.
Mechan Question •Paula Mechan uses powertal imagery and evocative language to explose the private world of her family •life , as well as the public worl of ireland social affairs in Modern Paula Mechan uses powerful imagery and evocative language in her poems "Buying Winkles The Pattern " The exact moment 1 becane a Poet' and Death of a field to contrast an d explore the private world of her family life, as weil as the public world Mechan uses evocative language such as similes, alliteration , metaphors , repetition and onomatopocia to Created help emphasis powertul imagery to understand the private family life and the public world uses In Mechan's poem Buying Winkles She Dowerful imagery and appealing language to explore her private life and
The book defines stories as being multifaceted and varied, as “dangerous and wondrous” (p.9), “all we are” (p.32), as a way to create our own path (p.25), or as medicine, that can cure or injure depending on how it’s told (p.92), and so on. Through his book, King teaches the reader about Indigenous stories, as well as very personal and human stories that illustrate the very concrete notions of Indigenous issues to the reader. King’s use of personal stories has for
‘For What It’s Worth’ by Buffalo Springfield has a logical message because it is referring to the Sunset Strip Riots that took place in Hollywood during the 1960’s. People protested when they lost their civil rights due to a curfew law that was put into place. The song says, “Stop, children, what’s that sound. Everybody look- what’s going down?”
Poetry Analysis Once the poem “History Lesson” was written numerous poetry foundations celebrated it for many reasons. “History Lesson” not only makes an impact on literature today it has also impacted people also. This poem inspires people and moves them to the point to where they can find a personal connection to the poem itself and to the writer. Not only does it hold emotional value for those who were victimized and those whose family were victimized by the laws of segregation, but the poem is also celebrated for its complexity. The poem uses many techniques to appeal to the reader.
“Hate Poem” by Julie Sheehan describes how she transformed hatred to love. By looking at her pattern of thinking, it involves her own experience in the daily life that result the conflicts between her loves and hates. This poem begins with “I hate you truly. Truly I do” (1). This opening did not match the idea of a poem about hate; instead it is a poem about love.
In the short story “Blackness” by Jamaica Kincaid, the narrator’s consciousness develops through a process of realization that she does not have to choose between the culture imposed on her and her authentic heritage. First, the narrator explains the metaphor “blackness” for the colonization her country that fills her own being and eventually becomes one with it. Unaware of her own nature, in isolation she is “all purpose and industry… as if [she] were the single survivor of a species” (472). Describing the annihilation of her culture, the narrator shows how “blackness” replaced her own culture with the ideology of the colonizers.
The poem, Useless Boys,is one that portrays a feeling of indignation, rebellion and finally, understanding by two boys who grew up with bitter views of their fathers’ onerous jobs. The narrator believes that the only reason his father stays at his job is for the money. In his naivety the son does not realize that at times living selfishly is the way things have to be. Sometimes commitments are made in a self-sacrificial and cowardly manner. No matter how “wrecking” his father’s career, he stays in order to provide for his family.
Always Something More Beautiful “Always Something More Beautiful” is a poem by Stephen Dunn, born in Forest Hills, NY. I got attracted to this poem, because it reminded me when I was at the Regionals for a Cross-Country race and reflected how humans’ life can be fair or beautiful. The cluster “time, clock, finish” clarifies for a measurement that refers to a competitive race.
The Eurocentric views of whiteness being directly correlated to superiority and civilization was used a tool to exploit native peoples while legalizing entitlement to lands that have already been discovered (Miller, 2010, p.87). The process of land dispossession had a profound negative impact on Native peoples. Their identity became outlined by colonial institutions rather than from their own definition. The conflicting methods of defining identity is integral to Kauanui’s Hawaiian Blood: Colonialism and the Politics of Sovereignty and Indigeneity. In her work, she describes how indigenous Hawaiians themselves have historically determined their identity through genealogy and a system of common descent.
The poem "Kindness" by Naomi Shihab Nye speaks about how you experience kindness and what it really is. The main point in this poem is that in order to experience people's kindness you need to experience hurt, sorrow, and loneliness. The author says that when you loose everything and have no one or thing that when kindness comes along it lifts you up "and then goes with you everywhere/ like a shadow or a friend" (33-34). When portraying this message the author uses a sad but hopeful tone to send the message she wants to say. This tone helps portray the message because you can feel how sad someone is when they are lonely and they have nothing.
Joy Harjo’s poem “Perhaps the World Ends Here” implants an impression of the world as a kitchen table: “The world begins at a kitchen table. No matter what, we must eat to live.” (1). As I interpreted the poem, I perceived it as a brief analysis of life. Harjo elaborates life as one protracted feast, and our life ends when we eat the concluding bite of our meal: “Perhaps the world will end at the kitchen table, while we are laughing and crying, eating of the last sweet bite.”
“Life doesn’t frighten me” is a priceless primer on poetry,that represents and raises the voices of children, that are mostly stoped silenced by those younger ones. The poet presents the poem in a personal manner to make the reader feel her and all the children that she speaks up for, because the speaker doesn’t want to be seen as weak anymore in representing the difficulties of the life and how they (children) can face or are facing it. The poem consists of eight stanzas, using rhymes in the whole poem. Maya is the writer and chose to write the poem in the first person, perhaps reflecting the hardship that she has been through in her childhood as an African American such as childhood rape, poverty, addiction, bereavement, and