Canadian Literature: Native Writers and Canadian Writings

Bert Almon is a professor of English at the University of Alberta and
author of Calling Texas.

This special issue of Canadian Literature on Native Writers and Canadian
Writings is essential for anyone with an interest in the subject. It
provides a wide range of critical commentary, some of it by Native
writers. The materials include Robin McGrath’s illuminating
introduction to Inuit poetry; Robert Bringhurst’s fine essay on Haida
oral narratives; and important essays dealing with such contemporaries
as Maria Campbell, Jeanette Armstrong, Lee Maracle, Beatrice Culleton,
Tomson Highway, and Thomas King. Literary history is not neglected:
D.M.R. Bentley looks at images of Natives in early Canadian narrative
poems, while Mary Lu MacDonald discusses Native and European
interactions in early nineteenth-century novels, both French and
English. The issue includes original work by Natives: there is a lengthy
selection of poems by Indian and Inuit poets, and an important personal
essay by Maracle. One regrettable oversight: no biographical notes are
provided. It would be useful to have the tribe or community identified
for each poet, along with some bibliographical information.

This issue will certainly encourage further reading. There is a
tremendous literary ferment in the Native community, which is evoked
very well in these pages. The non-Native critics are generally uneasy
about speaking for Natives, sometimes absurdly so, but such scrupulosity
shows an important change in attitudes. The days when Europeans could
glibly speak for Natives—or pretend to be them—have gone.