I really
enjoyed the readings for this week. I thought the preface and introduction to
Lyons X-Marks: Native
Signatures of Assent was both
comical, balanced, and enlightening. I’m not sure why, but I often feel drawn
to those born of the liminal world; they usually seem to be better at
mediation. As the world we currently live in seems fraught with divisive
struggles of every kind, I think this is not only an important ability to have,
but I also believe masters of the art of mediation are needed as well. I’m sure
they wouldn’t think of themselves that way, as I’m sure Lyons does not think of
himself that way, but his text says otherwise. Furthermore, I realize that not
everyone becomes a master mediator due to their experience with liminality, as
many simply struggle through it, while others are driven mad by it. However, I
do think that it is possible to achieve some sort of ability to navigate that
space, and thus other spaces like it, resulting in a person who is adept at
mediating difficult circumstances and situations. For example, he displays this
skill when he writes,
Americans are no longer
pursuing removalism, and reversing our losses is now up to us; nonetheless the
gaping wounds of history are still visible and will remain so as long as the
relationship between Native and newcomer is defined by past betrayals and
present inequalities. But what of those promises made? I refer not only to the
commitments made by whites to Natives but also to the promises made by Natives
to themselves and their future heirs. (8)
It is
this kind of stance, this standing in the middle of a situation, this looking
at both sides critically and honestly, as both sides are part of the self, that
seems to define the scholars of mediation among those of the liminal subject
position. In this excerpt he accepts the present situation and states the
problem exactly. The solution may be implicit, if there even is a solution, but
the nature of the discussion is explicit.
The power
of the liminal, it seems, comes from the ability to be of multiple worlds, and
thus one can speak as part of each world; they can deal with both sides as if
it is there right, for it is! When “white” people, or European descendents,
whatever you want to call them, discuss Native Americans, they run the risk of
seeming to support the hegemony of their subject position, as many of them have
often done in the past, and many probably still do today. Whereas, when a
person of mixed ancestry speaks on the topic, it seems more acceptable. After all,
they are of Native ancestry, right? Why can’t they discuss it. And as is often
true, most people who share half European half something else almost always
identify and are identified with their non-European half first and foremost.
Because of this, on some level, they are often more non-European in culture and
closer to that of their other side, and so when they speak from that side it
makes sense; they know what they’re talking about. One of my favorite Nigerian
musicians, Nneka, has a similar background, as she is half Nigerian and half
German. Thus, through her music she is able to both claim Nigerian and Germany,
and consequently Africa and Europe, as hers. Because of this, she is then able
to criticize both organically and honestly. For instance, in one of my favorite
songs, “Africans,” the chorus resounds, “Wake up Africa, wake up and stop
blaming/ Wake up world, wake up and stop sleeping.” The background of the song
is Nneka discussing how Africa’s present state of affairs is not only the
result of European colonialism, but that Africans bare some of the
responsibility as well. But at the same time, she does not let the colonialists
get away with their crimes, as she also reminds the world of their part in the
colonization of Africa, and commands the world to wake up to this reality.
While
reading the excerpts for this week, I also couldn’t help but compare what I was
reading to what I’ve been reading in my Women in African History class. I know
there are major differences in the struggles of the African and the Native
Americans, but there are many similarities as well. For instance, when Lyons
tells of how the various Ojibwe peoples were amalgamated together into one
nation, despite their separations over time and distances, I couldn’t help but
think of the various clans and lineages, called tribes under colonialism, in
Africa that were lumped together as if they were some cohesive whole. This
phenomenon broke up pre-colonial states and dived them into different states
while at the same time taking separate peoples who had little connection at all
and combining them into these new states as well. Of course, this served the
colonialists who then played these groups off one another, as the settlers also
did, at times, to the Native Americans.
Furthermore,
in the article, “Indigenous Feminism: Theorizing the Issues,” when the authors
write that
For Indigenous women,
colonization has involved their removal from positions of power, the
replacement of traditional gender roles with Western patriarchal practices, the
exertion of colonial control over Indigenous communities through the management
of women’s bodies, and sexual violence. (1)
the
comparison between the experiences of the Indigenous women in the Americas and
the Indigenous women in Africa is practically the same. Practically everything
we learn about in Women in African History deals with some aspect of what is
said in that excerpt. In the other article on Indigenous Feminism,
“Affirmations of an Indigenous Feminist,” this same link is often made. For
example, when the author states that “our land-based societies were much more
engaged with ways of honouring and nurturing life – all life,” (82). this is
also true of many African pre-colonial societies, many of which were initially
matrilineal. Like the Native family unit, the African family unit was also the
center of life, and also like the Native American mother, the African mother
was the social unit that held everything together. However, colonialism in
Africa, like colonialism in America, would attack these family units by
attacking the mothers that held them together. Because the Europeans could not
grasp the concept of respecting women or treating them as anything close to
equals, they were appalled by the power African women had and immediately
sought to undermine it. Or, they simply just wouldn’t/ couldn’t recognize it in
their ignorance of such a respect given towards women. Thus, they only dealt
with men, and gave power to men, which left women out of the loop and created a
great imbalance within Africa that still exists today…
Lastly, I
also loved this line:
Living as we currently do in a
violent and militarized world, a world that operates on hierarchical systems
and in which women and children suffer disproportionate levels of poverty and
abuse, I am struck by the thought that we have much to learn from the systems
our ancestors created to protect themselves and Ka wee ooma aski, their
original mother, the earth. (82)
I not
only agree with this sentiment wholeheartedly, I believe that everyone in “the
west” can learn from the original family and social economic structures that
were created and mastered by Indigenous peoples living all over the
world.
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