Besprechungen/Reviews/Comptes rendus - Gesellschaft für ...
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
Besprechungen/Reviews/Comptes rendus
Colin M. Coates/Graeme Wynn (eds.), The Nature of Canada, Vancouver/Toronto: On Point Press,
2019 (Ludger Basten)
J. I. Little, At the Wilderness Edge. The Rise of the Antidevelopment Movement on Canada’s West Coast,
Montreal & Kingston/London/Chicago: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2019 (Ludger Basten)
Colin R. Anderson/Jennifer Brady/ Charles Z. Levkoe (eds.), Conversations in Food Studies, Winnipeg:
University of Manitoba Press, 2016 (Carmen Birkle)
John S. Milloy, A National Crime: The Canadian Government and the Residential School System, 1879
to 1986, Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 2017 (Carmen Birkle)
Camil Girard/Carl Brisson, Reconnaissance et exclusion des peuples autochtones au Québec. Du traité
d’alliance de 1603 à nos jours, Québec: Presses de l’Université Laval, 2018 (Helga Bories-Sawala)
Louis Lesage/Jean-François Richard/ Alexandra Bédard-Daigle/Neha Gupta (dir.), Études multidisci-
plinaires sur les liens entre Hurons-Wendat et Iroquoiens du Saint-Laurent, Québec: Presses de
l’Université Laval, 2018 (Helga Bories-Sawala)
Weronika Suchacka, “Za Hranetsiu” – “Beyond the Border”: Constructions of Identities in Ukrainian-
Canadian Literature, Augsburg: Wißner-Verlag, 2019 (Dagmara Drewniak)
Daniel O’Quinn/Alexis Tadié (eds.), Sporting Cultures, 1650–1850, Toronto: University of Toronto
Press, 2018 (Florian Freitag)
Nele Sawallisch, Fugitive Borders: Black Canadian Cross-Border Literature at Mid-Nineteenth Century,
Bielefeld: transcript, 2019 (Alexandra Ganser)
Jenna Butler, Magnetic North: Sea Voyage to Svalbard, Edmonton: The University of Alberta Press,
2018 (Brigitte Johanna Glaser)
Joan Sangster, One Hundred Years of Struggle – The History of Women and the Vote in Canada, Van-
couver: UBC Press, 2018 (Sophie Freiin von Ketteler)
Patrick Coleman, Equivocal City. French and English Novels of Postwar Montreal, Montreal & King-
ston/London/Chicago: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2018; Jutta Ernst/Brigitte Glaser (eds.),
The Canadian Mosaic in the Age of Transnationalism, Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag Winter,
2010; Melanie Schrage-Lang/Martina Hörnicke. Intertextual Transitions in Contemporary Cana-
dian Literature: Atwood, MacDonald, van Herk, Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier, 2013
(Katalin Kürtösi)
Adina Balint/Daniel Castillo Durante (dir.), Transculture, société et savoirs dans les Amériques, Frank-
furt/Main : Peter Lang Éditions, 2017 (Yves Laberge)
Julie Barlow/Jean-Benoît Nadeau, Ainsi parlent les Français : codes, tabous et mystères de la conversa-
tion à la française, Paris : Éditions Robert Laffont, 2018 (Yves Laberge)
Laurier Turgeon (dir.), Les Entre-lieux de la culture, Québec : Presses de l'Université Laval et L'Har-
mattan, 1998 (Yves Laberge)
Rainier Grutman, Des langues qui résonnent. Hétérolinguisme et lettres québécoises, Paris: Classiques
Garnier, 2019 (Hans-Jürgen Lüsebrink)
Sophie Dubois, Refus global. Histoire d’une réception partielle, Montréal : Presses de l’Université de
Montréal, 2017 (Ursula Mathis-Moser)
Sarah Wylie Krotz, Mapping with Words. Anglo-Canadian Literary Cartographies, 1789–1916, Toronto:
University of Toronto Press, 2018 (Caroline Rosenthal)
John Borrows/Michael Coyle (eds.), The Right Relationship. Reimagining the Implementation of
Historical Treaties, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2017 (Katja Sarkowsky)
Michelle J. Smith/Kristine Moruzi/Clare Bradford, From Colonial to Modern. Transnational Girlhood
in Canadian Australian, and New Zealand Children’s Literature, 1840–1940, Toronto/Buffalo/
London: Toronto University Press, 2018 (Stefanie Schäfer)
Zeitschrift für Kanada-Studien 40 (2020) 215-266216 Besprechungen/Reviews/Comptes rendus
Matthew Hayday/Raymond B. Blake (eds.), Celebrating Canada. Volume I: Holidays, National Days,
and the Crafting of Identities, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2016 (Don Sparling)
Lothar A. Beck/Ulrich Vogel (Hg.), Teaching Canadian Ecologies, Baden-Baden: Tectum, 2018 (Lena
Starkl)
Isabelle St-Amand, Stories of Oka: Land, Film, and Literature, Winnipeg: University of Manitoba
Press, 2018 (Christoph Straub)
Colin M. Coates/Graeme Wynn (eds.), on the way Canadians have engaged and
The Nature of Canada, Vancouver/To- interacted with nature, changing it and
being changed by it in the process. The
ronto: On Point Press, 2019 (376 pp.; essays reflect upon the way in which Cana-
ISBN 978-0-7748-9036-6; CAD 29.95) dians and the peoples of Canada have, over
Many Canadians (and many Canadian the course of history, thought about and
Studies scholars) have long used and per- imagined nature, shaped, changed and
petuated the notion that the natural envi- used nature, and how some have benefited
ronment has shaped Canadian identity and while others’ ways of life have been threat-
“the Canadian psyche” (and its literature ened in due course. The contributors to the
and art) in a particular way. In 1943 volume are historians and historical geog-
Northrop Frye identified nature as a threat raphers who have shaped and configured
to human existence in Canada. And in the the field of environmental history in Cana-
early 1970s, Margaret Atwood, one of many da, initially coming together through and in
intellectuals trying to find something the Network in Canadian History and Envi-
uniquely Canadian in the country’s culture ronment project. While differing in ap-
(to counteract the growing influence of proach and style, the contributions gath-
American culture), saw “survival as the ered in this volume are essays rather than
central symbol of Canadianness” and under- analytical pieces. They present innovative
lined that “Canadian heroes almost invaria- ideas and provoke thought, provide new
bly died or failed.” Arguably, the theme is and sometimes unusual perspectives. And
alive and well even today, as popular Cana- they draw in the readers and call for their
dian “mythology” often refers to Jacques engagement through both the intellectual
Cartier describing the north shore of the topic as well as the actual “problems” sur-
Gulf of St. Lawrence as “the land God gave rounding Canadians’ approaches to and
to Cain”. And yet, this is not and has never uses of nature. While ideas and subject
been the only way to view, envisage and matter of the essays vary widely, making it
experience nature in Canada. For early impossible to discuss the merits of each of
European settler colonialists nature provid- them, the generally crisp and fresh writing
ed resources to be harvested, leading Har- makes for a highly stimulating book – not
old Innis to state that Canada “emerged as a just for historians and historical or environ-
nation not in spite of geography but be- mental geographers but for Canadian
cause of it.” And of course, native peoples Studies scholars in general.
had long developed succinctly different Many of the essays consider very “physi-
relations with and views of Canadian natu- cal” topics. In “Nature and Nation”, for exam-
ral environments. Developing a more plural- ple, Graeme Wynn explores the geology
istic and questioning perspective of the (“deep time”) of Canada, in “Nature We
natural environments of Canada is one of Cannot See” he looks at the “too small to be
the overarching themes uniting the contri- visible” parts of nature: pathogenes, and
butions in this volume. how they have shaped “natural” Canadian
The Nature of Canada is a selection of landscapes. Other essays reflect upon clear-
16 essays on, well, the nature of Canada andBesprechungen/Reviews/Comptes rendus 217
ly human-impacted or human-designed reveals how even “the climate” is, of course,
physical landscapes, be they farming (Colin an intellectual construct, and how this
Coates’ “Back to the Land”) or urban land- impacts on the way we reflect upon and
scapes (Michèle Dagenais’ “Imagining the deal with (or not, as the case may be) cli-
City”) or the bits and pieces that link them: mate change.
communication lines and infrastructures Towards the end the book turns to cli-
(Ken Cruikshank’s “Every Creeping Thing”). mate change as arguably the most thought
Physical resources are another – obvious – (and emotion) provoking environmental
theme to consider when exploring human- process of our times with its huge, yet still
nature relations in Canada. In “Eldorado ill-understood consequences for all “natural”
North” Graeme Wynn and Stephen J. Horns- environments in Canada. The last essay,
by explain how different approaches to “Time Chased Me Down and I Stopped
nature configured European resource ex- Looking Away”, is Heather E. McGregor’s
ploitation with regard to the fur trade and deeply personal reflection of climate
the cod fisheries. Arn Keeling and John change and its implications, while face to
Sandlos’ “Never Just a Hole in the Ground” face with some of the most breathtaking
looks at the exploitation of mineral re- “northern” nature Canada has to offer.
sources, while in “The Power of Canada” All these essays can – and should – be
Steve Penfold focusses on the energy re- read as individual pieces and in any order
sources whose exploitation has changed (the discussion above does not correspond
some Canadian landscapes in unprece- to the order in the book). And yet, as a well-
dented form. edited and nicely illustrated collection they
Two essays turn to actors behind the dis- develop a special potency. This is a thought-
courses on (post-)modern conservationism: ful and thought-provoking book, tremen-
Joanna Dean’s “A Gendered Sense of Nature” dously reflective – especially when it comes
highlights the role of women in the coun- to epistemologies of what we consider
tercultural emergence of environmentalism knowledge (“scientific” or otherwise) – yet
in the 1960s, while Graeme Wynn and Jen- unashamedly intellectual and “activist” at
nifer Bonnell’s “Advocates and Activists” the same time, believing that the insights
charts the later emergence of David Suzuki offered may “help meet[ing] the challenge
as a preeminent voice of Canadian envi- of living more sustainable lives in Canada”
ronmentalism. and that “changes for the better remain
Other essays speak primarily of episte- possible”.
mologies, ideas and the configurations of Ludger Basten
concepts and perspectives. In “Painting the
Map Red” again Graeme Wynn interprets
three very different maps to explore how J. I. Little, At the Wilderness Edge. The
different approaches to pictorial represen- Rise of the Antidevelopment Movement
tation shape human views of nature. Julie
Cruikshank’s “Listening for Different Stories”
on Canada’s West Coast, Montreal &
pleads for western scientists to open up to Kingston/London/Chicago: McGill-
indigenous peoples’ epistemologies and to Queen’s University Press, 2019 (200 pp.;
listen for (not to) their stories of nature. ISBN 978-0-7735-5640-9; CAD 29.95)
Claire E. Campbell explores the concept of While Canadian culture knows a long tra-
wilderness and its use in Canadian public dition of seeing nature and wilderness as
discourses, Tina Loo, looks at the im- vaguely or acutely threatening – see the
portance of scale in the conceptualization review of Coates & Wynn’s The Nature of
of nature-transforming action, especially in Canada in this volume –, roughly from the
plans and projects of the high-modernist 1960s onwards, a different attitude towards
era. And Liza Piper’s “Climate of our Times” nature started to gain recognition. Not only,218 Besprechungen/Reviews/Comptes rendus
but also in Vancouver and its surrounding partly reflecting the complexities involved
region, many people in general and “urban and the time needed to resolve the issue (or
dwellers” in particular increasingly began to to simply let it peter out). In each chapter
look upon the natural or quasi-natural Little essentially introduces the issue, then,
environment as a place for active recreation in largely chronological fashion, he charts
and (at least holiday or weekend) dwellings the emergence of a more or less organized
that offered a respite from, or even an alter- form of protest or resistance by introducing
native to increasingly hectic modern urban the central actors involved, and describes
lifestyles. There are various “movements” the arenas in which the conflict emerges
that can, with some justification, be traced and takes shape.
back to these times and developments. As Little admits at the outset, the book
Movements are, after all, primarily mental does not “present a comprehensive over-
constructs or simply denominations for view of the resistance to large-scale devel-
particular aspects of rather complex and opment in Vancouver”, and the selection of
variegated social, political and cultural case studies only covers a certain (north-
transformations. In Vancouver at the time, western) sector of the Vancouver region. As
various countercultural, (proto-) environ- a result, the constellations of issues and
mental and progressive local political re- actors in these particular case studies tend
form movements came together and to (over-?) emphasize the concerns, atti-
changed the way “things” were being done tudes and powers of the upper middle
in the political arena. classes which have tended to predomi-
In this relatively slender study (the actual nantly occupy and use these parts of the
text only spans 131 pages, the rest being Vancouver metropolitan area and its close-
taken up by copious notes, bibliography by hinterland. Meanwhile, other land devel-
and index), J. I. Little focusses on the chang- opment conflicts on the (predominantly
ing politics and practice of land develop- lower middle and working class) east side of
ment in and around Vancouver. Framed by a the city as well as in its southern and east-
short introduction and conclusion, he ern suburbs remain unexplored. While this
essentially charts the “rise of the antidevel- can partly be justified, since anti-
opment movement” through five case development and arguably environmental
studies of land development conflicts in the movements emerged first and foremost
city and its region since the 1960s. The five among those upper and middle classes, a
cases deal with different kinds of such wider look and deliberate selection of case
conflicts: how to use an inner-city parcel of studies might have broadened our under-
land sandwiched between downtown and standing of how these diverse strands of
the protected wilderness of Stanley Park protest came together (or not).
(ch. 1), how to develop (or not) the Holly- Hence, the strengths and weaknesses of
burn mountain ridge on the north shore for the book form two sides of the same coin.
recreational skiing (ch. 2), whether to open The very local case studies tend to be rich in
up Bowen Island, in commuting distance to idiographic detail, yet the book remains
the city, to larger suburban style develop- somewhat short on synthesis. While offer-
ment (ch. 3), whether to develop a deep- ing brief summaries regarding the most
water coal port over environmental con- important actors and factors in each case
cerns in Squamish, a small town one hour study, the five-page overall conclusion to
north of Vancouver (ch. 4), and whether to the book offers rather little in generalizing
allow a heavy impact mining development insight. Yes, all cases tended to be dominat-
on secluded Gambier Island vis-à-vis the ed by middle class protest and not be very
increasing recreational interests in Howe “countercultural” in character; yes, women
Sound (ch. 5). The five chapters are of differ- were a central force in virtually all of them,
ent length (18 to 35 pages) and depth, while factors of race and Indigenous rightsBesprechungen/Reviews/Comptes rendus 219
did hardly figure anywhere; and yes, these offers readers a helpful first definition of
protests were not environmentalist in our what food studies is and how it operates:
current, sustainability-driven understanding “Food studies seeks to examine the com-
of the term, but really only (?) resisting plex web of practices, processes, structures,
rather rough modernist developmental and institutions in which we humans en-
impulses. gage with one another and with nature in
However, to me the subtitle still seems a defining and transforming part of that
bit of a misnomer, since a true antidevel- nature into food. This is a complex process
opment movement does not really take involving not only certain tasks and proce-
shape between these pages. Rather, the five dures such as production, distribution and
case studies are presented as singular and consumption but also cultural codes, ideo-
oddly disconnected events. There is little logies, and politics” (viii). Thus, Koç empha-
discussion of what ties them together, how sizes both the material aspect and the
they possibly informed one another, how heavily laden cultural and symbolic implica-
activists influenced and aided one another, tions in Food Studies. The foundation of the
learned from previous struggles and strug- Canadian Association for Food Studies /
gles elsewhere (in Canada or even further L’Association canadienne des études sur
afield). How out of these very localized l’alimentation (CAFS/ACÉA) and some of the
concerns and experiences, together with volumes published as early as in the 1970s
other, much less local and more progressive and 1980s indicate the rising relevance of
concerns and initiatives, eventually some- Food Studies (not just) in Canada.
thing larger emerged, which truly could be The collection is divided into four main
called a transformative movement, seems parts with a total of thirteen essays and the
another and longer (hi)story still waiting to additional foreword, introduction, acknowl-
be written. edgments, and contributors. A commentary
Ludger Basten concludes each section. Part I on “Re-
presenting Disciplinary Praxis” introduces
the volume with four essays on the repre-
Colin R. Anderson/Jennifer Brady/ sentation of food in different contexts and
Charles Z. Levkoe (eds.), Conversations how knowledge about food is created in
in Food Studies, Winnipeg: University of texts but also in new media such as, for
example, social media. One article discusses
Manitoba Press, 2016 (ix + 358 pp.;
visualizations, one the performativity of
ISBN 978-0-88755-787-3; CAD 31.95) foodways and their blurring boundaries,
Conversations in Food Studies (2016) is a one literature on the study of milk, and
Canadian contribution to the booming field finally one on the debates about food in
of Food Studies that is interdisciplinary in agriculture. Part II on “Who, What, and How:
approach, methods, and content and has, Governing Food Systems” zooms in on “the
over recent decades, enriched our insights informal and formal governance of food
into and understanding of the ways in and food systems” (9), as the editors show,
which food – its ingredients, its forms of in three essays on the distribution of power
preparation, and eating and consumption in foodways, for example, in fisheries in
rituals – expresses and also shapes cultural local food systems across China, Canada,
characteristics and relationships. As the and Ireland and the restaurants in Montreal
author of the foreword to this volume of with a “Bring Your Own Wine” policy and the
thirteen original essays argues, Food Stud- concomitant regulation of alcohol as
ies is a relatively “new field of inquiry” (Koç, “shaped by the motivations of different
viii) in Canada and is “characterized by its stakeholders” (10). The final essay in this
interdisciplinary focus, systemic perspec- section deals with public health in British
tive, and dedicated commitment to change”
(viii). He also, on these very first pages,220 Besprechungen/Reviews/Comptes rendus Columbia and the public policy of food While all of this is certainly (mostly) true, safety and security. these critical issues do not seem to be Part III on “‘Un-doing’ Food Studies: A Case enough to explain why interdisciplinarity is for Flexible Fencing” and its four essays not practiced more often. Rather, what is disrupt traditional disciplinary boundaries often neglected – and it seems to be true so that new approaches and ideas are for this volume as well – is, first, the fre- possible in order to find solutions to prob- quent unwillingness of scholars to step out lems related to food. One contribution of their disciplinary boundaries and open warns of “alternative food networks when up to the methods, theories, and questions framed as market-based governance” (11) of other disciplines, and, second, the fact because they tend to “reproduce the logics that interdisciplinary and collaborative and practices of neoliberal food economics” research is hard work and can, potentially, (11). Another essay looks at sustainable diet, also fail and produce no results. Rather than still another one at food waste, and the final lamenting the obvious, we as scholars one at how scholarship on alternative food should perhaps be ready to acknowledge networks (AFN) has developed. Finally, Part that interdisciplinary work can only be done IV on “Scaling Learning in Agri-food Sys- with a strong disciplinary basis and often tems” and its two contributions focus on comes as an extra to what we usually do. It critical food pedagogy and how transforma- is then that “working the boundaries” (5) tive learning is essential for “stronger, might actually yield the desired insights. healthier, and more resilient food systems” Finally, however laudable the editors’ self- (12) and should also find access into educa- attributed mission of Food Studies as seri- tional and community institutions and ously “building more socially just food organizations. systems” (17) is, this can only be one of the As the editors themselves admit, all con- many goals of the field. What seems to be tributors work in the social sciences and almost completely forgotten is the cultural humanities. Economists, agriculture scien- relevance of foodways, which tell us about tists, cultural (and literary) theorists, histori- cultures other than our own, which allow ans, and philosophers, and others, still need for inclusion in or exclusion from communi- to be recruited for such important interdis- ties, which give migrants and refugees ciplinary work. Similarly, different knowl- cultural memories and, thus, something to edge systems, as produced by academia hold on to. Although the editors come from and community-based practitioners, still different fields, their discipline is the one of have to be reconciled and recognized. This social science and precisely not the humani- also holds true for the necessary inclusion ties – neither literary nor cultural studies – of “historically marginalized and racialized so that broadening the editors’ perspective groups” (14) such as, for example, Indige- (in the introduction) could be fruitful in nous peoples, migrants, and refugees, who offering further potential areas of research. are not addressed in this volume. The edi- Yet, it seems that they are aware of this tors are almost overzealous in their intro- necessity since they conclude by pointing duction when they point out the flaws of out their introduction’s imperfections: “This their own publication, such as the largely book exemplifies a deliberate process of missing exploration of one’s own privileges working the boundaries as an imperfect, and biases as scholars as well as the lack of iterative, contested, and partial process at politically directed investigations. They also the heart of a vibrant, interdisciplinary, and launch the usual complaints about seem- critical future for food studies” (18). These ingly increasing neoliberal academia that lines show that more such projects are does not offer room for interdisciplinary necessary because interdisciplinarity is a work and the precarious job situation of (never ending) process that needs to be young academics.
Besprechungen/Reviews/Comptes rendus 221 practiced and explored in order to yield domesticity, hospitality, and commensality; results. (2) the role of commodities, consumption, Let me just pick one example out of the and distinction; and (3) the part played by thirteen rich and detailed essays. This BYOWs in the processes of gentrification” choice can only be random and subjective, (159). and yet illustrative of the many implications In their study, they look at the relation- in the theories of Food Studies and their ship between customers, restaurant owners, practical application. Essay 6, entitled “The and governance and draw some interesting Bottle at the Centre of a Changing Food- conclusions. They maintain that customers scape: ‘Bring Your Own Wine’ in the Plateau- control their own public drinking because Mont-Royal, Montreal” (150–69) and written the restaurant offers a more domestic space by Anaïs Détolle, Robert Jennings, and Alan with the BYOW policy (162); that customers Nash, looks at the “Bring Your Own Wine” reduce the costs of eating out by bringing (BYOW) politics in restaurants in Montreal. cheaper wine (163); that, consequently, The authors, who acknowledge their own more people are able to eat out because disciplinary backgrounds in anthropology, food in these restaurants becomes more human geography, and urban studies, affordable (163). Overall, BYOWs create “new discuss the political, social, and economic spaces of consumption” (166) and, as the aspects of this practice, such as the com- authors conclude, “have challenged existing modification of alcohol, the spaces of con- social norms of behavior in public spaces” sumption, the distinction of customers, and (167). Groups of people interact and trans- the areas’ gentrification. As they argue, the gress traditional roles and, ultimately, have BYOW philosophy has changed the restau- changed the nature of food commodities, rant owners’ attitude toward wine as a com- consumption, and public space. The authors modity, that is, they are no longer interest- of this essay have vividly portrayed how ed in it as a commodity, while their custom- even a minor interference into food pro- ers bring their private drinking habits into cesses can lead to new relationships be- the public space of a restaurant. tween people, new consumption behaviors, This restaurant space has become, as the changing semiotics of public and private authors argue, “a new type of hybrid or spaces, and new drinking habits. This mi- liminal space” that “shares the characteris- crocosm of socio-cultural community life tics of both public and private space” (154). does, of course, also reach out to larger BYOW, then, contributes to the “domestica- areas of human life. tion of drinking in public and its incorpora- What the present volume undoubtedly tion into the foodscape” and offers a new shows is that foodways and also food sys- hybrid space where “the once-questionable tems are manifold and furthermore include act of drinking outside the home now pre-intake, while-intake, and post-intake becomes sanctioned by a more domestical- features that all have to be explored and set ly oriented setting more reminiscent of the in relationship to each other and revealed world of the home and of non- as being contingent on their surroundings. commodified exchange” (155). The scholars As a consequence, different (textual and treat the “wine object”, according to Arjun visual) means of representation are used to Appadurai, as a commodity that is in con- communicate key concepts of Food Studies stant flux (157) and explain their methods to allow for a transgression of disciplinary rooted in case studies in Canadian newspa- boundaries. The Canadianness in an other- pers and fifteen interviews in English, wise non-national volume is located in the French, and Arabic in eleven BYOW restau- case studies, statistics, regional references, rants in the Plateau-Mont-Royal borough and actual collaborative work that has been (158). They subsequently connect the histo- and is being done. These case-specific ry of BYOW in Montreal to “(1) issues of examples give voice to a multiplicity of
222 Besprechungen/Reviews/Comptes rendus
perspectives, experiences, and knowledges they were institutions of enforced assimila-
that need to be considered in Food Studies tion to practically become Canadians or U.S.
and emphasize the idea that food is part of Americans or Australians respectively –
a larger performance, which also includes ignoring the irony that Indigenous people
practices of food waste, sustainable diets, actually were indigenous, thus native to the
alternative food networks, situated and land.
transformative learning, and significant McCallum’s foreword reveals how Milloy –
struggles for ecologically and socially just whose research for the study began in 1991
societies. As part of cultural systems, food- for the Royal Commission on Aboriginal
ways are constantly on the move; they are Peoples (RCAP) – pieces together oral histo-
flexible and unstable; they cross cultural, ries, written documents, first-hand testimo-
ethnic, and national boundaries and can nies as well as government employees’
connect as well as separate communities statements and “puts into words the ideo-
and individuals from each other. Food logies that guided the department’s [De-
knowledge, as the editors of and contribu- partment of Indian Affairs] decision making
tors to this volume would say, is a way of and arms us with insider knowledge of the
knowing and understanding the world. workings of the state” and “peels back a foil
Carmen Birkle of obscurity from a central mechanism of
oppression in our lives” (xiii).
In contrast to the individual work done
John S. Milloy, A National Crime: The before Milloy, he focuses on activities of the
Canadian Government and the Residen- state and government and not on the role
of the churches and individual oral testi-
tial School System, 1879 to 1986, Winni- monies. As Milloy shows, Indian residential
peg: University of Manitoba Press, 2017 schools in Canada were the outcome of the
(ix–xliii + 409 pp.; ISBN 978-0-88755- failed Gradual Civilization Act of 1857,
789-7; CAD 26.95) which offered adult Indigenous people
John S. Milloy’s seminal study A National citizenship rights and a piece of land on the
Crime was first published in 1999 and since reserve for private ownership. This act failed
then frequently with the most recent edi- because no Native person acted upon it,
tion in 2017 and with a foreword by Mary not wanting to be an outsider in one’s own
Jane Logan McCallum. While the book’s tribe and on reserve territory. Subsequently,
main title remains deliberately vague but the Canadian government turned its atten-
sensational by addressing national crime, its tion toward children with the slogan “kill
subtitle more specifically names the topic: the Indian in the child” (xvi) and decided
The Canadian Government and the Residen- that this was the best way to assimilate and
tial School System, 1879 to 1986. Although it educate them. They did receive education
is a study of Canadian history and its severe but frequently also experienced violence,
repercussions for Canadian indigenous abuse, injuries, neglect, etc., which the
people, Canada’s southern neighbor, the government often knew about but did not
United States of America, has the same do anything to help these children. For
phenomenon to come to terms with. The McCallum, this attitude shifts her thinking
national crime that John S. Milloy exposes about individual stories “to a meta-analysis
in his historical study transgressed national of the schools as part of a large-scale, inten-
borders and emerged even in far-away tional, and long-standing system” (xviii),
Australia as a means to deal with intercul- funded by churches and state. The curricu-
tural encounters – to put it more positively lum was minimal; there was “no nationwide
– or simply each country’s own colonial and policy for discipline” (xix) before 1953; no
colonizing history. Residential schools for one cared about the children’s physical or
Indigenous people were not just schools; psychological ill health after having beenBesprechungen/Reviews/Comptes rendus 223 separated from their families and tribes, Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR). Moreover, having had to give away their own clothes, as McCallum argues, apart from museums receiving a new haircut that was against and archives, an important way to pass on tribal policies, and living in cold brick build- cultural memory is teaching it. Milloy him- ings rather than around the warmth of the self taught at the University of Winnipeg family fire (xx). from 1977 to 1981 (xxix), where McCallum For Milloy, as McCallum agrees, this form teaches as well. Publishing houses can serve of education is a phenomenon of the effect similar functions, and the University of of colonization “at a critical moment in Manitoba Press has taken this task seriously Canada’s history, when the new nation and published Milloy’s A National Crime in needed to assert its authority and dominion its Critical Studies in Native History Series over a vast territory”; it is part of “the expan- (xxix). sion of the Canadian nation-state” (xxi). Milloy’s study begins with an introduc- Furthermore, the school houses children tion (“Suffer the Children”) that uses a 1939 whose parents are in prison or seemingly pamphlet published by the Anglican unable to educate their offspring and also Church (“Indian and Eskimo Residential functions as orphanage. Schools”) to show the conflicting percep- The work that Milloy accomplished as tions of these schools: one celebratory and one of the “non-Indigenous professional idealizing, one devastating and destructive. historians” was inaugurated “in the late In 1939, there were “seventy-nine residential 1970s and 1980s” (xxii) and had to fight schools” in Canada with 9.027 children stereotypical Hollywood images of Natives (xxxvi), run by the Canadian government transported, among others, in John Wayne and churches (Anglican, Catholic, Presbyter- movies. In the 2010s, critics would immedi- ian, United Churches) (xxxvi). From 1879 ately take offense with Milloy’s work as a until their official closing in 1986, the Cana- non-Native scholar, but his pioneer work dian government and the Department of then paved the way for Indigenous people Indian Affairs justified these residential to study their own history. Milloy was aware schools with the “self-imposed” ‘responsibil- of the danger of advocacy, but McCallum ity’ for Aboriginal people set out in Section points out what Milloy must have realized 91:24 of the British North America Act of during his archival work in Quebec and at 1867” (xxxvii). While the government initiat- the Library and Archives in Ottawa, Canada: ed the programs, the churches in most “[…] it became clear to him that this system cases ran the educational facilities, which, was conceived, designed, and managed by as Milloy states, “have been, arguably, the non-Indigenous people. That was a story he most damaging of the many elements of could tell. This claiming of a stake by a non- Canada’s colonization of this land’s original Indigenous historian in understanding a peoples and, as their consequences still colonizing, assimilating, intolerant system affect the lives of Aboriginal people today, was significant, requiring as it did that he they remain so” (xxxviii) – long beyond their make one story of what had long been closure. In spite of his own “misgiving” and understood to be two: the dispossession of “feelings of trespassing Aboriginal experi- Indigenous people and the making of ence” (xlii), Milloy claims that “[i]t is our Canada” (xxiii). McCallum shares her own history, our shaping of the ‘new world’; it is experience with archival work in Ottawa, our swallowing of the land and its First realizing that the documents she research- Nations peoples and spitting them out as es, although produced by those who want- cities and farms and hydroelectric projects ed to silence Native voices, is, nevertheless, and as strangers in their own land and part of Indigenous history and, therefore, communities” (xlii). Not writing about this needs to be unearthed (xxv) and, further- history would, for Milloy, be another form of more, collected at the National Centre for marginalization of Aboriginal people.
224 Besprechungen/Reviews/Comptes rendus Milloy divides his study into three chron- goals” (xxxix). These devastating conse- ologically arranged main sections: Part 1 – quences resulted in part from a lack of Vision: The Circle of Civilized Conditions; adequate funding, which then led to poor Part 2 – Reality: The System at Work, 1879 to health care, almost non-existent medical 1946; Part 3 – Integration and Guardianship, services, and the inadequate maintenance 1946 to 1986. Part 1 discusses the origins of of buildings with “drainage and water sys- what Milloy calls “assimilative ideology of tems that were threatening the pupils’ civilization” (xxxviii) that is visible in the first health” (85), and hunger, tuberculosis, and chapter in two images of the young Indige- scabies as frequent guests. Add exhausting nous boy Thomas Moore of the Regina labor, long school and work days, and over- Industrial School “‘before and after tuition’” all abuse, and it does not surprise that (3). While the original idea was for Aborigi- criticism slowly but steadily infiltrated the nals to “achieve self-sufficiency on the basis government so that, in 1946, reviews of of a modern economy” (11), this idea “Indian affairs” (189) were finally initiated. changed with the 1857 Act to Encourage Part 3 depicts the Canadian government’s the Gradual Civilization of the Indian Tribes attempt to gradually close all residential in the Province to the “assimilation of the schools for Indigenous children, which, individual” (19) and, finally resulted in “a however, took exactly 40 years. The main detailed strategy for re-socializing Aborigi- reasons were children who could not, as nal children within residential schools” (23) officials believed, be returned to their “ne- that included the children’s separation from glectful homes” (xl), and who waited for their families. As Milloy shows, the govern- foster care and adoption into non- ment considered Native people ignorant, Aboriginal families. Simultaneously, resi- superstitious, savage, and helpless (25) and, dential schools in the northern and arctic therefore, believed it had to liberate them regions revived their efforts for Native through assimilation. But only children were assimilation rather than integration. Overall, felt to be assimilable; adults were seen as “a underfunding, neglect, and – physical and hindrance to the civilizing process” (26). sexual – abuse continued. As Milloy shows, Consequently, the school was turned into none of the functions of these schools, as “an all-encompassing environment of reso- originally envisioned, had actually worked – cialization. The curriculum was not simply neither pedagogics nor child care nor inte- an academic schedule or practical trades gration or assimilation. What they did man- training but comprised the whole life of the age was to break apart Indigenous families child in the school. One culture was to be and tribes, to disorient their children, to replaced by another through the work of steal from them their heritage and cultural- the surrogate parent, the teacher” (33). One collective memory, and, as a consequence, can easily see that the teacher was crucial in to make them prone to drug and alcohol this re-socialization process, which also abuse, unemployment, and poverty rather included the exclusive use of the English than offering safety and stability. The official language. letters written by inspectors of the schools Part 2 goes into more details about the to the authorities reveal the persistence of actual living conditions at the schools and broken sewage systems, dangerous fire shows that those exhibited stark contrasts traps, tubercular infection and scabies, to the official vision of the schools offering a inadequate heat and ventilation, a disre- home and care. In the chapters of this part, gard for clothing or dietary standards, Milloy discusses disease and death, neglect beatings, and deaths. and abuse, the poor quality and quantity of Milloy’s epilogue then traces the activi- food and clothing, the building and man- ties from 1992 to 1998, looking at govern- agement of the system, and the schools’ mental and Indigenous documents. In 1992, actual failure “to reach their educational a statement by B.C. First Nations Chiefs and
Besprechungen/Reviews/Comptes rendus 225
Leaders demands that both the govern- the country’s heritage, this history is by no
ment and the churches “‘must be held means unique to Canada, as the U.S.-
accountable for the pain inflicted upon our American and Australian histories show.
people. We are hurt, devastated and out- Ultimately, Milloy’s study is also a reminder
raged. The effect of the Indian residential of the devastating effects of any country’s
school system is like a disease ripping colonialism and colonization on the respec-
through our communities” (295). What for tive Indigenous population.
Milloy is the actual reason for a discontinua- Carmen Birkle
tion of the schools is an issue almost entire-
ly erased from public documents – “the
pervasive sexual abuse of the children” Camil Girard/Carl Brisson, Reconnais-
(296). While all of these facts were out in the sance et exclusion des peuples autochto-
open in the 1990s, Milloy makes very clear
that still departmental files were made
nes au Québec. Du traité d’alliance de
unavailable for further research (302). It was 1603 à nos jours, Québec: Presses de
not until 1998 that the then Minister of l’Université Laval, 2018 (278 S., ISBN
Indian Affairs, Jane Stewart, officially pro- 978-2-7637-3369-2, CAD 40)
claimed a “Statement of Reconciliation” Dass ungeklärte Landrechte zu den strit-
(304), entitled Gathering Strength: Canada’s tigen Themen zwischen indigenen und
Aboriginal Action Plan, acknowledged the nicht-indigenen Kanadiern gehören, auch
government’s role in the history of the wenn sie in den vergangenen Jahren hinter
residential schools, and proposed a joint Internatsskandalen und verschwundenen
“‘healing strategy’” (304). For Milloy, this, indigenen Frauen weniger Aufmerksamkeit
however, is not enough. For him, the history beanspruchen konnten, ist den meisten
of the residential schools has to become an wohl geläufig, die sich für Kanada interes-
acknowledged part of Canadian history and sieren, nicht aber, wie es sich damit genau
identity. It is for this reason that he worked verhält und ob bzw. wie sich die Dinge in
in the archives and put together A National Québec von denen im übrigen Kanada
Crime, which unfolds the incredible extent unterscheiden. Und wie konstituieren sich
to which those schools had an impact on Indigene am immer noch gültigen Indian
the Indigenous population nationwide. Act/Loi sur les Indiens vorbei eigentlich als
Milloy’s bibliography of unpublished Verhandlungspartner?
primary sources and published primary and Der vorliegende mit einer Reihe von Kar-
secondary sources offers a wealth of mate- ten und einer ausführlichen Bibliographie
rial for further research. It is above all his ausgestattete Band des Historikers Camil
archival work that not only reveals some of Girard und des Geographen Carl Brisson
the hitherto unknown phenomena of the schafft hier Abhilfe und erlaubt eine gute
history and legacies of these schools, but erste Orientierung.
also the urgent need for further work and In ihrem historischen Überblick heben
public discussion in this respect. In his die Autoren vor allem die entscheidende
acknowledgments added to the 2017 edi- Zäsur hervor, die der Indian Act/Loi sur les
tion and in the preface to the 1999 edition, Indiens von 1867 für die Beziehungen zwi-
Milloy explains that his book originated as a schen Indigenen und Euro-Kanadiern be-
report to the Royal Commission on Aborigi- deutete. Jenseits der mehr oder weniger
nal Peoples in 1996 in spite of the fact that erfolgreichen Missionierungs- und „Zivilisa-
the Royal Commission granted access to tions“-Versuche der Europäer waren die
some files still closed to general researchers Beziehungen zu den Indigenen in Neu-
after long negotiations. While the history of frankreich, sowohl vor als auch in den ers-
residential schools should certainly be ten Jahrzehnten nach der britischen Erobe-
taught in Canadian schools today as part of rung, von allen Beteiligten auf der Grundla-226 Besprechungen/Reviews/Comptes rendus ge von Bündnissen zwischen Nationen und schen Auswirkungen auf die Indigenen im gegenseitigen Respekt gestaltet worden. hatte, die dort lebten. Die Autoren nennen hier vor allem die Zwischen 1783 und 1812 wurden unter Allianz von 1603 und den Großen Frieden dem Druck der Zuwanderung der königs- von Montréal von 1701, an dem 1300 Abge- treuen Loyalisten 15 Verträge über Land- sandte von ca. 40 Nationen teilnahmen, käufe abgeschlossen, zwischen 1815 und sowie die Anerkennung indigener Rechte in 1860 dann alles Land in Oberkanada ver- der Königlichen Proklamation von 1763. Vor kauft. In Unterkanada gab es solche Verkäu- allem das Verhältnis von Indigenen und fe nicht, da die landwirtschaftlich genutzten Franzosen war lange Zeit von ausgegliche- Flächen schon als abgetreten galten. Die nen Kräfteverhältnissen geprägt; letztere königliche Domäne stand weiter den Indi- erschienen durchaus auch als Bittsteller und genen zu. Allerdings hatte man schon 1797 beugten sich indigenen protokollarischen auch innerhalb dieses bisher geschützten Gepflogenheiten. Donnacona galt Jacques Territoriums ohne Rücksicht auf eventuelle Cartier als „König Kanadas“ und auch seine indigene Landrechte Kantone zugunsten symbolische „Landnahme“ änderte nichts der Loyalisten eingerichtet. daran, dass die indigenen Nationen sich Als die Briten nach dem kanadisch- weiterhin frei auf dem weiten Land beweg- amerikanischen Krieg von 1812 nicht mehr ten und es nach ihren Vorstellungen nutz- auf die Indigenen als alliierte Bündnis- ten. So wurden um 1660 von den 55.000 partner angewiesen waren, begann mit der französischen Siedlern nur 0,87 % des Lan- Einrichtung der ersten Reservate ab 1840 des (1745: 14%) für Siedlungen oder Land- und dem Erlass diskriminierender Gesetze wirtschaft genutzt, der Rest blieb, unter in den 1850-er Jahren, gegen deren vielfäl- ausdrücklichem Schutz der Krone, den tigen Widerstand, die territoriale Verdrän- indigenen Nationen uneingeschränkt vor- gung der Indigenen, ihre erzwungene behalten. Diese betrachteten sich weder als Sesshaftmachung, die Entrechtung unter „erobert“ noch stand je eine Übertragung dem Mantel des „Schutzes“ und staatlicher ihrer – nach indigener Lesart ohnehin un- „Betreuung“ durch die Bundesregierung, veräußerlichen – Souveränitätsrechte in die Assimilation mit dem Ziel ihres Ver- Rede, wie die Royal Commission on Aborigi- schwindens als eigenständige Gruppe. Die nal Peoples/Commission royale sur les peuples kanadische Föderation wurde an ihnen autochtones (1996) bestätigte. vorbei gegründet, der Indian Act/Loi sur les Auch bedurfte es vor der Mitte des Indiens von 1867 erlassen, der in Teilen 19. Jahrhunderts keiner Definition ihrer später noch verschärft werden sollte (1885: „Identität“ oder nationaler Zugehörigkeit. Verbot von traditionellen Feiern; 1920: Fatale Auswirkungen hatten dagegen von Internatspflicht; 1927: de facto Verbot von den Europäern eingeschleppte Infektions- Rechtsmitteln). Das Gesetz besiegelte das krankheiten sowie die Intensivierung krie- Ende der Anerkennung der Indigenen als gerischer Auseinandersetzungen, auf die freie Nationen, der Staat bestimmte nun der Band indes nur am Rande eingeht. darüber, wer als „Indianer“ galt und wo er zu Nach 1763 erkannten zunächst auch die leben hatte. Indigene außerhalb von Reser- neuen britischen Herren die Indigenen als vaten hatten seit der Einführung eines Nationen und potentielle Bündnispartner Registers (1951) keine Rechte, und Noma- mit eigenen Landrechten an. Das Land, den wurde das Recht auf Landbesitz gene- einschließlich der königlichen Domäne in rell abgesprochen. Québec, galt aber nun als verkäuflich. 1774 Allerdings gab es Gebiete, in denen die annektierte der Quebec Act/Acte de Québec Indigenen de facto unbehelligt blieben, wie einen Teil des indigenen Territoriums, ohne das ehemalige Rupert‘s Land, das nach dem dass das Land verkauft oder aufgegeben Kauf durch die Krone 1870 in Kanada inte- worden wäre, was zunächst keine prakti- griert und dessen südlicher Teil 1898 der
Besprechungen/Reviews/Comptes rendus 227
Provinz Québec zugeschlagen wurde, ohne versammlung. Im gleichen Jahr erreichten
die dort lebenden Cree überhaupt zu er- die Indigenen auf Bundesebene Nachbes-
wähnen. Im Süden der Provinz entstanden serungen in der Verfassung von 1982, ins-
zusätzlich zu den bereits in Neufrankreich besondere für mit Nicht-Indigenen verhei-
gegründeten indigenen Siedlungen neue ratete Frauen. Erst der Beschluss des Obers-
Reservate unter Zuständigkeit der Bundes- ten Gerichts vom 14.4.2016 zwang auch die
regierung. Anders als in den Prärien (Revol- kanadische Regierung zur Anerkennung der
ten in Manitoba und Saskatchewan) wur- nicht registrierten Indigenen und der Métis,
den in Québec auch danach die nördlichen wie die Autoren abschließend feststellen.
Territorien lange Zeit nicht von Siedlern Für deren Rechte setzt sich seit 1972 u.a.
beansprucht, dieses Land blieb im tatsächli- die Alliance autochthone du Québec ein, ein
chen Besitz den Indigenen, was für ihre Verband von ca. 20.000 Mitgliedern, der im
heutigen Rechte von Belang ist: 1975 bestä- 4. Kapitel des Buchs vorgestellt wird. Da der
tigte das „Malouf-Urteil“, dass ihre Gebiets- ganze Band ursprünglich als wissen-
ansprüche nie erloschen sind. Dieses Urteil schaftliches Gutachten für die Anwälte
wurde in der Auseinandersetzung um die erstellt wurde, die Alliance autochthone du
Wasserkraftwerke in der Jamésie erstritten, Québec beim obersten Gerichtshof gegen
die mit den Interessen der dort lebenden die Regierung Québec und das kanadische
Cree, Naskapi und Inuit kollidierte. Ministerium für indigene Fragen vertreten,
Das in der Folge mit der Regierung stehen juristische Aspekte im Vordergrund
Québecs geschlossene Baie-James-Abkom- der Darstellung. Um auch die politischen
men von 1975 und weitere ähnliche Verträ- und sozialen Zusammenhänge hinreichend
ge sind auch insofern von Bedeutung, wie zu erfassen, wären – insbesondere für den
die Autoren betonen, als sie de facto den europäischen Leser – einige sozialhistori-
Indian Act/Loi sur les Indiens unterlaufen, sche Ergänzungen willkommen; das Buch
indem sie zum Prinzip von Verträgen unter ist jedoch als Einstieg in die Thematik
unabhängigen und freien Nationen zurück- durchaus empfehlenswert.
kehren. Gleichzeitig umfasst der Vertrag alle Helga Bories-Sawala
Indigenen, die auf dem Gebiet (63,6% des
Territoriums der Provinz) leben, auch die
nicht-registrierten Indigenen und die Inuit, Louis Lesage/Jean-François Richard/
die nie unter den Indian Act/Loi sur les Indi- Alexandra Bédard-Daigle/Neha Gupta
ens fielen – letztere optieren für eine Ge-
meindeverfassung nach Québecer Vorbild,
(dir.), Études multidisciplinaires sur les
ohne jede ethnische Komponente. liens entre Hurons-Wendat et Iroquoiens
Auch ein Treffen zwischen der Québecer du Saint-Laurent, Québec: Presses de
Regierung mit den Vertretern der Indige- l’Université Laval, 2018 (150 S., ISBN
nen, die in den 1970er Jahren im Zuge der 978-2-7637-3837-6, CAD 20,00)
Ablehnung der Pläne der Trudeau-Regie- Als eines der prominentesten ungelösten
rung, den Indian Act/Loi sur les Indiens er- Rätsel der Geschichte Kanadas gilt das
satzlos zu streichen, verstärkt Interessen- „Verschwinden“ der „Sankt-Lorenz-Irokesen“
verbände gründeten, unterlief 1978 de innerhalb des kurzen Zeitraums von sechzig
facto dieses Gesetz und mündete (erstmals Jahren, die zwischen den Beschreibungen
seit dem Großen Frieden von Montréal von von Jacques Cartier aus der Mitte des
1701) in die Anerkennung weitgehender 16. Jahrhunderts und dem Eintreffen von
Souveränitätsrechte der Indigenen (in Champlain zu Beginn des 17. Jahrhunderts
15 Punkten). 1985 erfolgte dann die Aner- liegen. Insbesondere von Hochelaga, das
kennung von 11 Nationen (1989 auch die Cartier als recht ansehnliche Siedlung mit
Malecite) und ihrer Autonomierechte auf fünfzig Langhäusern und rund 1500 Ein-
dem Gebiet Québecs durch die National- wohnern beschrieben hatte, war 1603 keine228 Besprechungen/Reviews/Comptes rendus
Spur mehr zu finden, nicht einmal der archäologische Blick auf die materielle
genaue Standort – vermutlich in der Nähe Kultur anhand von Jagdwaffen und Keramik
des Mont Royal in Montréal – ist bisher (Christian Gates St-Pierre; Timothy Abel;
geklärt. Was hatte dazu geführt, dass das William Engelbrecht/Bruce Jameson; Ronald
Dorf aufgegeben wurde? Und was war aus F. Williamson; Peter Ramsden) gibt – bei
den Bewohnern geworden? Die landläufi- aller Vorläufigkeit der vorliegenden Ergeb-
gen Thesen, von der bisher keine als zwei- nisse – Hinweise auf die Eigenständigkeit
felsfrei erwiesen gilt, reichen von klimati- der „Sankt-Lorenz-Irokesen“, aber auch ihre
schen Veränderungen (Kaltzeit) über Epi- komplexen Verbindungen zu den Huron-
demien durch von Europäern einge- Wyandot über sehr lange Zeiträume, lange
schleppte Krankheitskeime, gegen die die vor der Ankunft der europäischen Siedler.
Indigenen keine Immunabwehr besaßen, Wie Gary Warrick und Louis Lesage zusam-
bis zu kriegerischen Auseinandersetzungen menfassend feststellen, sind die „Sankt-
mit anderen indigenen Nationen. Lorenz-Irokesen“ also keineswegs „ver-
Die Beiträge des Sammelbandes, die auf schwunden“, sondern haben sich plausib-
ein von der Nation der Huron-Wyandot lerweise in die Gruppe der Huron-Wyandot
organisiertes gemeinsames Symposium der integriert. Das Verschwinden ihrer Dörfer, so
Ontario Archaeological Society und der die Autoren, könne auch keineswegs als
Eastern States Archeological Federation von Aufgabe des Siedlungsraums am Sankt-
2015 zurückgehen, nähern sich dem Prob- Lorenz betrachtet werden – diese Territori-
lem aus mehreren fachwissenschaftlichen en sind vermutlich durchaus weiter zum
Perspektiven, einschließlich einer Berück- Jagen und Sammeln sowie für den Pelz-
sichtigung der indigenen mündlichen Über- handel genutzt worden.
lieferung (Jean-François Richard). Für die Warum Hochelaga verschwand, ist damit
Huron-Wyandot, so der erstaunliche Be- immer noch nicht geklärt; das „Rätsel“
fund, besteht das Rätsel gar nicht, da sie die erscheint aber in einem anderen und weit-
„Sankt-Lorenz-Irokesen“ immer als Ange- aus weniger dramatischen Licht.
hörige der eigenen Nation betrachtet ha- Helga Bories-Sawala
ben, die sich, als aus verschiedenen Grün-
den die Lebensumstände ungünstig ge-
worden waren, zu ihren Verwandten, den Weronika Suchacka, “Za Hranetsiu” –
Huron-Wyandot, begeben haben. Die Diffe- “Beyond the Border”: Constructions of
renzen zwischen dieser Überlieferung, wie
sie der indigene Historiker Georges Sioui
Identities in Ukrainian-Canadian Litera-
vertritt, und der vorherrschenden Auffas- ture, Augsburg: Wißner-Verlag, 2019
sung in der Archäologie, die von zwei eth- (440 pp., ISBN 978-3-95786-184-9, EUR
nisch unterschiedlichen Gruppen ausgeht, 32,80)
können laut Mariane Gaudreau und Louis The problem of identity in Canadian liter-
Lesage durch die Diskussion von Ethnizität ature has been widely discussed in the last
als sozialer Konstruktion deutlich verringert decades. There are still, however, certain
werden. Aus sprachwissenschaftlicher Sicht unexplored areas within the body of litera-
belegen laut John Steckley spezifische ture devoted to the quandary of identity
Elemente der Sprache der „Sankt-Lorenz- formation and migration processes.
Irokesen“ ihre Präsenz bei den Huron- Weronika Suchacka in her book titled “Za
Wyandot in den 1620er Jahren. Demnach Hranetsiu” – “Beyond the Border”: Construc-
sind sie keineswegs physisch vernichtet tions of Identities in Ukrainian-Canadian
worden, sondern lediglich migriert, wie Literature (2017), concentrates on multiple
auch der Beitrag von Jennifer Birch über identities in Ukrainian-Canadian literature
komplexe Integrations-, Anpassungs- und of the post-WWII period, and thus, aims at
Wanderungsprozesse nahelegt. Auch der filling in this gap. The book is divided intoYou can also read
