The Métis, Current World Scenarios, and Mesoamerican Storytelling Worldview’s

Topics such as the Métis and Canada’s origin, etic and emic perspectives in current world scenarios, and Mesoamerican storytelling are all subjects that generate many important points and questions pertaining to worldviews.

While discussing “The Metis-ization of Canada”, several group members agreed upon a connection that was made between this article and the idea of illusion in totalitarian systems that is explained in the documentary “American Psychosis”. The idea agreed upon stated that incomprehension of the reality of Canada’s past due to illusion and modification proves to result in an erasure of our past and damage to our Indigenous peoples. Furthermore, a general conclusion that was agreed upon amongst all group members was that open, honest, and uncomfortable conversations must be had between Canadians and Indigenous peoples to avoid erasure of the past, as ignorance and mitigation of the true history of our country damages the progression to a more unified future.

Current world scenarios that involve clashing of etic and emic perspectives were also brought up by members of the group. The specific situations that were analyzed included the different perspectives and assumptions made about Witches in the Witchcraft community, certain Christian groups’ beliefs on medical care, the beliefs in certain Gods and religions, and the cow being a sacred animal in the Hindu religion.

The bulk of the weeks’ discussion stemmed from questions proposed about language in regard to the oral tradition of Indigenous storytelling. One point of view that emerged from this conversation explained that modern Indigenous groups may be losing a full understanding of stories relayed orally due to the decreased practice of their native language. Another group member stated that interpretations of mythological stories may differ due to the various beliefs of cultures and groups of people. Another point was made that we cannot fully understand Mesoamerican mythological stories due to the inability to grasp the ‘true’ intentions of myths from a time and culture that is not our own, although it can be possible to learn the importance of these stories to modern indigenous groups today.

Personally, I think the way mythological stories are structured so that the main elements and teaching moments of the story are easy revealed, so even though interpretation of certain aspects of these stories may be changed from generation to generation due to language constantly changing, the core values meant to be taught and instilled in their culture will never become lost in translation.

One real-world example comes from a YouTube video from The Nature Conservancy, called “Modern Science, Native Knowledge”. This video interviews the people of the Heiltsuk Indigenous group as they describe their culture’s core values, beliefs, and traditions living in the Great Bear Rainforest.

The Heiltsuk Tribal Logo

Source: Heiltsuk Tribal Council, HIRMD.ca

One teaching that I think is extremely valuable in Indigenous culture is part of the creation story explaining that everything existing the world is connected and needs to be shared, as well as “should be preserved for the benefit of future generations” (University of Saskatchewan, 2015).  The Heiltsuk community are seen as leaders in this area, as their ancestors preached that one should never take any more than what they need from the land to preserve it for their future generations.

A quote that I love which also describes this concept of preservation comes from one women of the group when she says “What makes us cohesive as a people and as a culture is not that our practices have been the same for the last 10 thousand years, but that our values have been the same – and we’ve interacted with the landscape based on much the same principles for all that time”(The Nature Conservancy, 2015).

In closing,  I think this quote perfectly demonstrates the point that even though practices and language may change over time, these differences cannot break down the passing of a cultures’ core values from generation to generation.

References:

University of Saskatchewan (2015). History and Future of the Book. words.usask.ca/historyofthebook2018/2018/09/22/the-power-of-indigenous-storytelling/.

Modern Science, Native Knowledge (2015). The Nature Conservancy. YouTube,      m.youtube.com/?persist_app=1&app=m.

Heiltsuk Tribal Council (2020) HIRMD.ca, www.hirmd.ca/heiltsuk-tribal-council.html.