- How has this affected Aboriginal people?
There has been generational trauma from the colonization and the way the First Nations have been treated. Languages have gone extinct due to the Residential schools, many indigenous families have been separated from their cultures. There isn’t much trust between indigenous people and settlers because of how many times the settlers have broken treaties and promises with them once they realize their reservations are on “valuable land.”
2. What ideas and emotions are compressed into this allusion?
The writer has a great understanding of history and knows how much pain colonizers caused the First Nations. The overall theme is trauma and how it effects the next generations.
3. Do the ideas contained in this allusion change or subvert (overturn the European perspective) from the mainstream view of history?
The ideas contained in the allusion provide a new perspective on the events that happened. History is written by the winners but the survivors are the ones who tell the full story.
4. Is this poem a fair and accurate depiction of North American history from 1492 to present day?
“History Lesson” by Jeannette Armstrong, in my opinion, portrays North American history in the most accurate way. History books were written by settlers and not First Nations, which I find odd because shouldn’t history books be written by people who were here longer rather than by the people who came to Canada? Unfortunately, most of these indigenous stories were lost over time due to the residential schools and the impact the colonizers had on the First Nations and their cultures. In Jeannette Armstrong’s poem, she states:
“The colossi
in which they trust
while burying
breathing forests and fields
beneath concrete and steel
stand shaking fists
waiting to mutilate
whole civilizations
ten generations at a blow.”
This stanza refers to the English as “the colossi”, showing the reader how they have grown so large in numbers that they are colossi. The settlers trust the colossi, but at the suffering of the First Nations and their land. “Burying breathing forests and fields” refers to the industrialism and loggers that destroyed the forests and colonizers who burned the fields. Overall, I believe that indigenous views should be in history and indigenous people should be given platforms where they can use their voices.