This famous six word story is said to have been written by one of the most acknowledged storytellers in the world, Ernest Hemingway, though this claim is not supported by evidence (Nunez, 2022). This story shows us that a much bigger story lies beneath the surface. These six-word stories follow the so-called iceberg principle. When an iceberg floats in the ocean, only a fraction of it is visible above the surface. In literary terms this means that the emotions, connotations and ideas that these few words evoke in us allow us to understand the bigger picture, to imagine what is beneath the surface.
An Iceberg
«There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you»
— Maya Angelou in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
© Ann Elisabeth Stevens/Copilot (2024)
Santa Fe Indian Market (2015)
Contemporary Native American Fashion Show – Cathedral Park
(In the dropdown menu below (not available on mobile) you can remind yourself of some of the horrific examples of human rights violations that have been committed against indigenous peoples all over the world. In this task, however, please don´t focus only on the tragedies. There is a lot more to a people than that.)
The Treaty of Waitangi, Feb. 6, 1840 (CC0)
There are significant differences in the two versions of the signed document. Among others, the concepts of “sovereignty” and “governance” have been interpreted differently.
During the very first encounter, on October 8, 1769, between British explorer James Cook and the local iwi (tribes), on the banks of the Tūranganui River, ended with the British troops killing 9 of the Indigenous Māori (Katz, 2019). In 2019 Laura Clarke, British high commissioner to New Zealand expressed the British government´s regrets over what had happened:
“I acknowledge the deaths of nine of your ancestors … who were killed by the crew of the Endeavor [Cook’s ship]. It is impossible to know exactly what led to those deaths, but what is clear is that your ancestors were shot and killed by the crew of the Endeavor and others were wounded. It is deeply sad that the first encounter happened in the way that it did and, to you, as the descendants of those killed, I offer my every sympathy, for I understand the pain does not diminish over time” (ibid).
Three years later, another government official took the stage to address its wrongdoings of the past. Reporting for vox.com, Fabiola Cineas, attended a ceremony with members of Ngāti Maru, as they were waiting for New Zealand’s minister of health and minister of the Treaty of Waitangi negotiations, Andrew Little, to speak:
“The Crown acknowledges that Ngāti Maru’s relationship with the Crown has been one characterized by loss of land, of identity, and of autonomy. For Ngāti Maru, this loss has left a legacy of dislocation and dispossession. For those actions which rendered your iwi almost completely landless, severed your connection to your whenua (land), and inflicted economic hardship and suffering on generations of your people, the Crown sincerely apologizes.
This apology in and of itself cannot undo the harm that has been caused through the actions of the Crown. But I hope that it demonstrates a different Crown, one that seeks to learn from its history and commits to working alongside Ngāti Maru today and in the future” (A. Little, quoted in Cineas, 2023).
For some it is Australia Day. For some it is Invasion Day.
Invasion Day march
Melbourne, January 26, 2018.
By John Englart (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Nathan «Mudyi» Sentance is a Wiradjuri librarian and essayist. In an article published on the website of the Australian Museum he argues that the term “Genocide”, the way it has been defined and used by for example the United Nations, is an appropriate term for the invasion and the “ongoing colonization” of Australia (Sentance, 2022). In his article he builds on research and official reports to show that the “270 frontier massacres over 140 years of Australian history, as part of a state-sanctioned and organised attempt to eradicate First Nations people”, and the forced removal of First Nations children from their families to government facilities are evidence of this genocide (ibid).
He substantiates his claim that the genocide is ongoing by, among other things, pointing to the fact that “that state-sanctioned physical violence has not ended as many First Nations people still die at the hands of police or in police custody. This was highlighted by the 1991 Deaths in Custody report by the Office of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission. Today one First Nations person is killed in circumstances involving police every 28 days” (ibid).
The conclusion that Sentance draws in his article is contested and debated. Former MP of Australia, John Howard (1996 – 2007), has voiced his opposition to the term “genocide” in this context. You can read more about his position in the article above and watch a short interview with him from 2014.
On Dancing (CC0)
Duncan Campbell Scott was for a period of almost 20 years deputy superintendent of the Department of Indian Affairs, overseeing the running of the residential school system. In this letter from 1921 he urges Indian Agents to “obtain control” and “dissuade the Indians from the excessive indulgence in the practice of dancing”. The year before he also in writing, when proposing new legislation, made it clear that …
“I want to get rid of the Indian problem. I do not think as a matter of fact, that the country ought to continuously protect a class of people who are able to stand alone… Our objective is to continue until there is not a single Indian in Canada that has not been absorbed into the body politic and there is no Indian question, and no Indian Department, that is the whole object of this Bill” (Louis, 2021).
“From the 1880s to the 1990s, over 150,000 First Nations, Inuit and Métis children were torn from their families and sent to Indian residential schools, often located far from their homes. Many students suffered neglect and abuse. Thousands of children died“ (Canadian Museum for Civil Rights, 2018).
The museum has collected pictures, stories and details of the atrocities here. Below you can watch a 10-minute video they have made about the human rights violations that took place even into the 1990s.
I think a quote from Lakota Chief Red Cloud sums up an important part of the tragedy that the Native American has suffered at the hand of the white colonizers: “They made us many promises, more than I can remember, but they kept but one; they promised to take our land, and the they took it” (Brown, s. 449).
An example of one such broken promise is the tragedy suffered by the Cherokee nation on what they refer to as Nu-No-Du-Na-Tlo-Hi-Lu, the Trail Where They Cried. DeLanna Studi, Cherokee actor, writer and activist, took her father on a 6-week trip spanning the entire 900 miles that their family had taken 180-something years before. After the trip she wrote a play about it. In an interview with NPR she talks about the Treaty of New Echota, which was the document the government relied upon when forcing the Cherokee to leave. She says:
“Twenty Cherokee traders signed the Treaty of New Echota going behind the backs of Chief John Ross, his second chief George Lowery – my fourth great-grand uncle – the Cherokee National Council and basically the whole tribe, selling all of our land to the U.S. government for $5 million. This treaty is why there was a Trail of Tears, why we lost everything we knew, why we buried a fourth of our people in hostile territory, why we live in Oklahoma in tribal housing, eat commodity cheese and have diabetes. This is why my father was ripped from his family and sent to a boarding school, why he never talks about our life before we got to Oklahoma and why I feel like a traitor – because we keep betraying each other and we’re not supposed to talk about it” (Studi, 2020).
Three years prior to The Treaty of Echota was signed in 1835, the US Supreme Court had handed down its verdict in the case of Worcester v. Georgia. In it, Chief Justice John Marshall argued, “The Cherokee nation, then, is a distinct community occupying its own territory in which the laws of Georgia can have no force. The whole intercourse between the United States and this nation, is, by our constitution and laws, vested in the government of the United States” (Oyez, n.d.). Sounds clear-cut, but President Andrew Jackson soon made it also clear that “John Marshall has made his decision: –Now let him enforce it!” (Greeley, 2010, s. 106). In 1830, President Jackson had signed the “Indian Removal Act” and it was enforced gradually throughout the 1830s. In 1838 – 39 approximately 4000 members of the Cherokee nation died on their way to their new lands in Oklahoma (Library of Congress, n.d.).
Studi remarks,
“I didn’t know who I was exactly. I didn’t know where we started. You know, you grow up in Oklahoma and you hear all these stories about our creation. But none of our creation sites are in Oklahoma. They’re in North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee and Alabama, which is where the Cherokee Nation was before the removal” (Studi, 2020).
Below you can see a video (3 mins) where the Smithsonian Channel gives their brief account of this period in US history. The treaty they are referring to at the beginning is The Treaty of Washington, from February 27, 1819. A section of the treaty´s Article 5 reads: “all white people who have intruded, or may hereafter intrude, on the lands reserved for the Cherokees, shall be removed by the United States” (Kappler, 2019, p. 179). Hmm, what was that again? “They made us many promises, more than I can remember, but they kept but one; they promised to take our land, and the they took it”.
Elsa Laula Renberg, 1877 – 1931 (CC0)
Sami reindeer herder, politician and activist.
According to historian Steinar Pedersen, writing for the organization Sami Pathfinders, there reasoning behind the Norwegianization of the Sami people, beginning in the early 1800s, was linked to ideas of loyalty (Pedersen, 2019). The Sami, as the Kvens, were regarded by leading politicians as of a “foreign and hostile nationality” (ibid). Pedersen lists how a series of government initiatives were implemented in the late 1800s and the early 1900s to rid these peoples of their culture and language. Here is a link to Steinar Pedersen´s article Forsnorskingspolitikken. NRK has devoted an episode (26 mins) in the series Brennpunkt to the issue. You can watch Samisk skyteskive here.
For most indigenous cultures storytelling plays an important role and serves an important function. Firstly, stories serve to connect individuals to their culture, and provide a sense of their place in time and space. Furthermore, stories provide a way of passing down knowledge of history, nature, skills and spiritual beliefs from generation to generation (Westcoast Child Care Resource Centre, n.d.). These stories are traditionally told orally, often by elders in the community, to younger generations. The stories are alive, and because of the oral tradition, according to writer Leslie Marmon Silko “each telling is a new and unique story, even if it’s repeated word for word by the same teller sitting in the same chair” (Arnold, 2000). In the following we will first encounter three origin stories from different indigenous cultures. Then we will work with a short story written by the author quoted above, Leslie Marmon Silko, called Tony’s Story.
Leslie Marmon Silko, born in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1948, is an American writer who has published numerous novels and short stories. She has won much acclaim for her storytelling abilities, and is one of the most esteemed Native American writers of our time. She descends from a long line of storytellers, being born and raised in the Laguna Pueblo in New Mexico.
Storytelling, according to Leslie Marmon Silko, is essential in human language. Storytelling, she says, is a means of exchanging important information that will help the listeners develop survival strategies “to learn to anticipate the many threats and dangers in their world” (Silko 2012, p. XVIII). Storytelling also serves an important function in expressing dreams and spirituality, and in preserving and passing on tradition and culture. Of her own native people, the Pueblo people, she writes:
«The entire culture, all the knowledge, experience and beliefs, were kept in the human memory of the Pueblo people in the form of narratives that were told and retold from generation to generation. The people perceived themselves in the world as part of an ancient continuous story composed of innumerable bundles of other stories.»
Leslie Marmon Silko grew up hearing the old stories of the Laguna Pueblo, both the children’s stories where magical things happened, and about the history of her people and of historical events that took place in the area. During the time she grew up, the US authorities were still suppressing Indigenous American culture, language and religion. Her family members spoke English to her, to keep her
Leslie Marmon Silko grew up hearing the old stories of the Laguna Pueblo, both the children’s stories where magical things happened, and about the history of her people and of historical events that took place in the area. During the time she grew up, the US authorities were still suppressing Indigenous American culture, language and religion. Her family members spoke English to her, to keep her
from getting into trouble with the authorities, and at Laguna language. There were, however, family members such as her grandfather and aunts, who told the children stories, including parts and songs that were in the Laguna language, and these stories were very important to her; “So from the time I was five years old, the stories were my link, my lifeline with the Laguna language and culture” (Silko, 2012, p. XXIV). The stories of her childhood had a great impact not only on her own identity, but also on her own storytelling in the form of novels, short stories and poetry. Even though she is part white, the preservation of Indigenous American culture, language, tradition and belief is important to Leslie Marmon Silko, and she has a great commitment to the rights of the native people. Believing that the political and legal system would not be a sufficient tool, she decided that writing would be a better way for her to make her opinions heard. She said in an interview that “the most effective political statement I could make is in my art work” (Arnold, 2000, p. VIII).
In an interview with Per Seyersted in 1976, the same year she published her novel Ceremony, and the same year as the bicentennial of the US Constitution, she makes it clear that in her opinion, the land, the resources, everything that the great nation of the USA was built on, was stolen from the Indigenous Americans, and that the American people should be reminded of this; “As long as this fact is acknowledged, then I’ll be satisfied, and they can celebrate all they have done with this stolen land and the stolen resources and they can pat themselves on the back for the achievement” (Seyersted 2000, p. 8). These political views might seem slightly paradoxical, given her family background, though being from such a multi-cultural family might have made her especially sensitive to these issues; “Because our family was such a mixture of Indian, Mexican, and white, I was acutely aware of the inherent conflicts between Indian and white, old-time beliefs and Christianity” (Silko, 1996, p. 17).
This short story is loosely based on a true event. It is interesting because it reveals something about cultural conflict, and also because it allows us to explore literary techniques such as point of view and narrative structure. You might find you need to go back after the first reading, to rediscover clues in the text that help you understand the story.
A Road
«The sky was hot and empty. The half-grown tumbleweeds were dried up flat and brown beside the highway, and across the valley heat shimmered above wilted fields of corn. Even the mountains high beyond the pale sandrock mesas were dusty blue»
— L.M. Silko in Tony´s Story
© Ann Elisabeth Stevens/Copilot (2024)
Make notes on the following questions before discussing them in groups:
As I pointed out in the introduction, stories come in many forms. One way of telling a story is through music. In the following, we are going to explore two songs by Archie Roach, and also get to know some of his own life story.
Archie Roach, who was born in 1956 and passed away in 2022, experienced hard times in his life. When Archie was 3 or 4 years old, he was removed from his family to be raised by a white family in Melbourne (Denselow, n.d.) Roach – Indigenous Australia, n.d.) He was one of the Stolen Generation. Through music and storytelling, Archie Roach found his voice; a voice that has had a great impact on how the Australian people and government view the past and the pain that has been inflicted on the Aboriginal peoples. Archie’s most recognized song is the story of the Stolen Generation of Aboriginal children. Listen to it here, and then do the tasks underneath.
The other song we are going to hear is We Don’t Cry. In this video, he performs the song with Uncle Jack Charles, an Aboriginal Australian actor and activist, who died the same year as Archie.
Ireland is known for storytelling, and the small island with a population of only 5 million has produced some great storytellers, such as writers, musicians, and very successful actors like Cillian Murphy. Do you know the names of any?
In this section of the unit on Storytellers, we are going to do some research on what it is about the history and culture of Ireland that has made them such great storytellers. Then we are going to read a short story by one of the truly great authors, who of course happens to be Irish, James Joyce. We will also read a more recent Irish writer, Claire Keegan, who wrote a book called Foster, from which we will read an excerpt. This novella (short novel) was adapted into a film called The Quiet Girl (2022), which we will also watch.
What has influenced Irish art and storytelling?
Work in groups and divide the following points between you. Each of you will research and make notes on the point(s) you have been given, and will present what you have found to the others in the group.
James Joyce is one of Ireland’s, even the world’s most known authors. He was born in 1888, and his works include the collection of short stories Dubliners, as well as the notoriously challenging book Ulysses, A Portrait of the Artist as A Young Man, and Finnegan’s Wake. The story we are going to read is from Dubliners, published 1914.
You can listen to an audiobook version of Eveline below:
An AI-vision of historic Dublin
— James Joyce in conversation with Frank Budgen, Zurich, 1918, as told by Budgen in his book James Joyce and the Making of «Ulysses» (1934), ch. IV.
© Ann Elisabeth Stevens/Copilot (2024)
Claire Keegan is a contemporary Irish writer, who has become widely acknowledged in recent years for her short stories, novellas and novels.
At university she studied literature, and she explained to the Guardian in an interview in 2023 why she loved that: “There was no right answer all of a sudden. You could just explore the stories and what they meant
Claire Keegan is a contemporary Irish writer, who has become widely acknowledged in recent years for her short stories, novellas and novels.
At university she studied literature, and she explained to the Guardian in an interview in 2023 why she loved that: “There was no right answer all of a sudden. You could just explore the stories and what they meant
and how they reached what they reached into. It was very much up to you to decide what you saw there. I loved the freedom of that” (Cummins, 2023).
She further explains how she experiences her own storytelling, where she also seems to enjoy that kind of freedom that literature can bring: “I can’t explain my work,” she tells me. “I just write stories. I’ve never thought about a theme. I never once have. I just think about the text” (Cummins, 2023)
The Quiet Girl is an adaptation of Claire Keegan’s Foster. This film was nominated to an Oscar for best international feature film, and has won several awards. The dialogue in the film is both in English and Irish.
Can you think of any adaptations you have seen or read that you found particularly successful? What was it that made them work well, in your opinion?
Arnold, E. L. (2000). Conversations with Leslie Marmon Silko. University Press of Mississippi.
Brown, D. A. (1970). Bury my heart at Wounded Knee; an Indian history of the American West (Sixth printing. utg.). New York,: Holt, Rinehart & Winston. Hentet May 14, 2021 fra https://archive.org/details/ burymyheartatwou00brow/mode/2up
Canadian Museum for Civil Rights. (2018, September 20). Childhood denied. Retrieved April 2023 fra www.humanrights.ca: https://humanrights.ca/story/childhood-denied
Cineas, F. (2023, January 17). New Zealand’s Māori fought for reparations — and won. Retrieved April 2023 fra www.vox.com: https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/the-highlight/23518642/new-zealand-reparations-maori-settlements
Cummins, A. (2023, September 2). Claire Keegan: ‘I can’t explain my work. I just write stories.’ The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/ sep/02/claire-keegan-i-cant-explain-my-work-i-just-write-stories-so-late-in-the-day-interview
Denselow, R. (n.d.). Biography—Archibald William (Archie) Roach—Indigenous Australia. Retrieved May 12, 2024, from https://ia.anu.edu.au/biography/roach-archibald-william-archie-32682
Greeley, H. (2010). The American Conflict, Vol 1. Bibliographical Center for Research.
Hutcheon, L. & O’Flynn, S. (2013). A Theory of Adaptation. Routledge.
Joyce, J. (1982). Dubliners. Barnes & Noble.
Kappler, C. J. (2019). Indian Affairs – Laws and Treaties (1904). (V. I. 1904 – Indian Affairs – Laws and Treaties, Producer, & California State Univ California State University, Monterey Bay, US and Indian Relations. 62.) Retrieved April 2023, from https://digitalcommons.csumb.edu/cgi/ viewcontent.cgi?article=1062&context=hornbeck_usa_2_e
Katz, B. (2019, October 3). British Government ‘Expresses Regret’ for Māori Killed After James Cook’s Arrival in New Zealand. Retrieved April 2023, from www.smithsonianmag.com: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/british-government-expresses-regret-maori-killed-after-james-cooks-arrival-new-zealand-180973270/
Library of Congress. (n.d.). Indian Removal Act: Primary Documents in American History. Retrieved April 2023, from www.loc.gov: https://guides.loc.gov/indian-removal-act
National Indigenous Peoples’ Day: The power of stories and storytelling. : Westcoast Child Care Resource Centre. (n.d.). Retrieved April 27, 2024, from https://www.wstcoast.org/news-articles/articles/national-indigenous-peoples-day-power-stories-and-storytelling
Nunez, J. L. O. (2022, September 23). A Simple Analysis of Ernest Hemingway’s Shortest Story About Baby Shoes. Medium. https://writingcooperative.com/a-simple-analysis-of-ernest-hemingways-shortest-story-about-baby-shoes-1d7f5655372f
Oyez. (n.d.). Worcester v. Georgia. Retrieved April 2023, from www.oyez.org: https://www.oyez.org/cases/1789-1850/31us515
Pedersen, S. (2019, March 29). Forsnorskingspolitikken. Retrieved April 2023, from www.samiskeveivisere.no: https://samiskeveivisere.no/article/ fornorskingspolitikken/
Sentance, N. (2022, December 7). Genocide in Australia. Retrieved April 2023 fra www.australian.museum: https://australian.museum/learn/first-nations/genocide-in-australia/
Silko, L. M. (1996). Yellow Woman and a Beauty of the Spirit. Essays on Native American Life Today. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Silko, L. M. (2012). Storyteller. Penguin Books.
Studi, D. (2020, April 8). A Treacherous Choice And A Treaty Right. Code Switch. (S. M. Meraji, Interviewer)
Traditional Stories and Creation Stories | Canadian History Hall | Canadian Museum of History. (n.d.). Retrieved April 27, 2024, from https://www.historymuseum.ca/history-hall/traditional-and-creation-stories/
Arne Mjelde Sæther
47 69 59 80
arnemjeldesaether@gmail.com
Arne Mjelde Sæther
47 69 59 80
arnemjeldesaether@gmail.com
Arne Mjelde Sæther
47 69 59 80
arnemjeldesaether@gmail.com