Content area
Full Text
Oral Conference Presentations
Indigenous research requires a context that is consciously considered and purposefully incorporated into the research by the researcher. At least this was one of the findings in my research. To contextualize my contribution to this discussion, I want to tell you two short stories about my grandfathers. The first story goes back to my first year in graduate studies. I had been teaching for quite a number of years. One day when I was reading in an anthropology section of the library, I came across an article by an anthropologist. It was a description about a Cree man, his home, his ways, his words. Like the fog that creeps over the lake on a summer evening, a sense of disbelief slowly clouded my comprehension as I came to the rather sickening realization that she was talking about my grandfather. I could feel myself moving into a place of terrible stillness. After a while I took the book, checked it out of the library, and returned to my home community for the weekend.
I read the article to my mother (who did not read in any language), discussing one particular section with her in great detail because I felt that our lives had been assaulted and violated. I wanted her reaction to the situation. She didn't get as upset as I did, at least not as visibly, and I understood that as simply an indicator of her normally calm and thoughtful response to life in general. But she was not happy about the writing either. We talked and spent the whole weekend immersed in this experience of responding to what the anthropologist had written about our family. In the end I decided that some day I was going to do something about this. Several months later, I had vision about something I was to do, a vision that has not been completely fulfilled, but is still unfolding.
The article was a description of my grandfather in his home along with a verbatim transcription of his Cree words shared in an interview with her. Then followed the translation of the Cree into English. The English was not an accurate translation or interpretation of what my grandfather had said in Cree and this was...