King forces readers to cross many borders in GGRW. In the first instance, borders are crossed between Natives and non-natives. For instance, each book’s section is titled with Cherokee syllabics. This creates a border between Cherokee speaking people and those who do not know the language, including other Native Americans who have a different language. Languages are an enormous barrier when we don’t know a foreign language, and therefore, we cannot understand another culture. Thus, when we don’t know the language, we need to listen, and not put on the coat of ignorance.
Margery Fee and Jane Flick in their paper, Coyote Pedagogy: Knowing where the Borders Are in Thomas King’s Green Grass, Running Water, talks about crossing borders and the difficulty of understanding King’s work if you are not knowledgeable in the Native culture, Christian values, history, and North American literature. It is interesting how they define ‘borders.’ Fee and Flick describe “borders’ to be constructed by “what you know and don’t know. Coyote pedagogy requires training in illegal border-crossing” (131). One example they give is with the word play of Louis, Ray and Al. When you put these names together, you can come up with Metis leader Louis Riel (1844-1855), who sought to preserve Metis rights and culture. Another example is with the character Sally Jo Weyha. She can be alluded to Sacajawea (1784-1812), who was the sole woman and guide on the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1803-1806). She acted as an interpreter in the exploration of Western United States.
Because there are so many allusions in GGRW, Fee and Flick says that there are at least three distinct basic general knowledge to find these allusions: Canadians, Americans, and Native North Americans.
“Anyone who wants to understand (or teach) the novel has to be prepared to cross the political border between the two countries, the disciplinary borders between English literature, Native Studies, and Anthropology, and the literary border between Canadian and American literature. The most important border is between white ignorance and red knowledge..." (Fee and Flick, 132)
King emphasizes the importance of crossing borders between “white ignorance and red knowledge,” by telling the Coyote to “pay attention…or we’ll have to do this again” (104), and to “forget being helpful and listen” (229). When we are crossing borders to an unknown, we need to let go of our ignorance and listen just like King says. However, many times, we tend to stay within our limits and do not try to go beyond. It is the same with people. We tend to be with the people we are comfortable with. We become cautious and avoid going further of what we know. Thus, I agree with Fee and Flick that “Borders mark the edge of the expected, the edge of the known” (133).
Further, King shows in an indirect way how whites have not tried to cross the border to know the Native culture with the analogy of Babo in page 236. When Babo goes into the Canadian border post, she finds “a large picture of a woman in a formal with a tiara”(236), which as readers can immediately suppose the picture to be as Queen Elizabeth 2. However, in GGRW, the queen is described as “a woman.” Fee and Flick states that “This is, by analogy, how whites “see” Native culture: as totally decontexualized” (133).
There are many other borders that King emphasizes to be important such as crossing the border of Native spirituality (Sun Dance), literary canons, social, political and sexual norms, animal and human, and more. I cannot talk all about them because there are too many. Nevertheless, I find that the theme of ‘crossing border’ is not only important to understand in GGRW, but also in our culture and literature of Canada.
Margery Fee and Jane Flick in their paper, Coyote Pedagogy: Knowing where the Borders Are in Thomas King’s Green Grass, Running Water, talks about crossing borders and the difficulty of understanding King’s work if you are not knowledgeable in the Native culture, Christian values, history, and North American literature. It is interesting how they define ‘borders.’ Fee and Flick describe “borders’ to be constructed by “what you know and don’t know. Coyote pedagogy requires training in illegal border-crossing” (131). One example they give is with the word play of Louis, Ray and Al. When you put these names together, you can come up with Metis leader Louis Riel (1844-1855), who sought to preserve Metis rights and culture. Another example is with the character Sally Jo Weyha. She can be alluded to Sacajawea (1784-1812), who was the sole woman and guide on the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1803-1806). She acted as an interpreter in the exploration of Western United States.
Because there are so many allusions in GGRW, Fee and Flick says that there are at least three distinct basic general knowledge to find these allusions: Canadians, Americans, and Native North Americans.
“Anyone who wants to understand (or teach) the novel has to be prepared to cross the political border between the two countries, the disciplinary borders between English literature, Native Studies, and Anthropology, and the literary border between Canadian and American literature. The most important border is between white ignorance and red knowledge..." (Fee and Flick, 132)
King emphasizes the importance of crossing borders between “white ignorance and red knowledge,” by telling the Coyote to “pay attention…or we’ll have to do this again” (104), and to “forget being helpful and listen” (229). When we are crossing borders to an unknown, we need to let go of our ignorance and listen just like King says. However, many times, we tend to stay within our limits and do not try to go beyond. It is the same with people. We tend to be with the people we are comfortable with. We become cautious and avoid going further of what we know. Thus, I agree with Fee and Flick that “Borders mark the edge of the expected, the edge of the known” (133).
Further, King shows in an indirect way how whites have not tried to cross the border to know the Native culture with the analogy of Babo in page 236. When Babo goes into the Canadian border post, she finds “a large picture of a woman in a formal with a tiara”(236), which as readers can immediately suppose the picture to be as Queen Elizabeth 2. However, in GGRW, the queen is described as “a woman.” Fee and Flick states that “This is, by analogy, how whites “see” Native culture: as totally decontexualized” (133).
There are many other borders that King emphasizes to be important such as crossing the border of Native spirituality (Sun Dance), literary canons, social, political and sexual norms, animal and human, and more. I cannot talk all about them because there are too many. Nevertheless, I find that the theme of ‘crossing border’ is not only important to understand in GGRW, but also in our culture and literature of Canada.
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