Laurel, the narrator of ZZ Packer’s short story “Brownies”, experiences different complexities of relations between whites and blacks during her fourth grade Brownie Troop’s camping trip at Camp Crescendo. Through the idea of groupthink, Packer reaches the revelation of dehumanizing and the perpetuation of marginalization of all racial groups. Gaining acceptance and belonging expresses the true meaning behind groupthink or tribalism; however, conforming to these groups leads to losing one’s own individualism and compromising their personal beliefs. One tends to follow this trend also due to one’s fears of challenging the social norm. In the Brownies situation it is their deep rooted southern traditions; however, this teaching of protect
This power that the nuns and priests had effected the Indians greatly, some of them paying with their lives. As stated by Mary Crow Dog, “I know of an eleven-year-old on another reservation who hanged herself, and in our school, while I was there, a girl jumped out of the window, trying to kill herself to escape an unbearable situation” (351). The Christian religion was sometimes strict and intolerable to outside beliefs. This inadaptability to foreign concepts creates a barrier against compassion and compromise of Mary Crow Dog and other Indians. The use of Catholicism and flawed human nature created a self-righteousness of the
“Civilize Them with a Stick” Mary Crow Dog is a Native American writer who captured her struggles as a student at a boarding school run by Bureau of Indian Affairs. A traditional education at mission school St. Francis became a challenge for the children of an Indian culture. The attitudes towards Native Americans were not held to that of the middle-class white students. Punishments were severe following the Church orders by extreme methods. Two sisters experienced this struggle at separate stages, which has been experienced by their mothers,’ mother.
She was an unwanted, unloved, and abused child. Her mother looked for ways to remove her from the family. Then, in 1953, her mother sent an application for Muir to be institutionalised at the Provincial Training School for Mental Defectives in Red Deer, Alberta. Emily Murphy magistrate of British Empire was very strongly in support of sterilization. Muir’s sterilization is part of a progression towards forced sterilization and eugenics that began in the 19th century.
6 Swan Street Perth W A 3000 26th November 1935 The Director Aboriginal Protection Board 50 Richmond Street FREEMANTLE W A 3009 Dear Sir I'm writing this letter to inform you three half caste girl have escaped from Moore River Settlement around 6 o’clock last night. Molly Craig and Daisy Kadibill are sisters while a Gracie field is their cousin. After the girls escaped, I sent Moodo, our black tracker to find them but unfortunately he couldn’t find them along the rabbit proof fence. There always have been many conflicts with our Indigenous population since white settlement come in to Australia. It is our race responsibility to ensure if there not many of them breed and to ensure they feel safe, as they feel safe we
This postcolonial idea is emphasised when the indigenous people are considered sub-human and among the wildlife (“Government of Western Australia, Fisheries, Forestry, wildlife and Aborigines”). This categorisation of the Aboriginal people by the British settlers highlights their inner belief that they are the superior race. In addition to this, the Europeans assumed that the Aboriginals were unclean and uncivilised human beings which is seen when Mr Neville states “I was a little concerned to see so many dirty little noses” and forces them out of their homes to Moore River as a result of a false scabies epidemic. The irony in this movement is that the majority of Aboriginals were healthy and, through the colonising power handed over to the settlers, they also reduced the rations of soap given to the Aboriginals. The first Australians were labelled savages, less than human, by the colonising British settlers who forcibly took over
Good morning/afternoon ladies and gentlemen of the Board, I’m here to serve the purpose of informing you about Message Stick’s Program ‘Henry and Bee’ written by Bee King. The program is about a young Aboriginal woman who was removed from her mother at birth. As a teenager, brought up in a white family, she began to feel isolated and out of place as she grew a sense of not belonging therefore she set out to locate and reconnect with her birth parents. It was no easy search and eventually she tracked down her mother and father. Just to give you a brief outline of the production, Message stick is an aboriginal program; it is a constructed pro-aboriginal program.
When she was in captivity by the Indians, she could tell they weren’t Christians, which frightened her because she was used to always being around other English Christians. The relationship between the English and French is a different story. For many years in Europe they had fought each other, and that just carried over into the New World with them. The Seven Years War was just between the French and English, and the only reason the Iroquois got involved was because they wanted to save “their” Ohio, and believed the British had the best chance of taking over
Two of the schools created during this time were the Fort Totten and Fort Yates schools. The Catholic sisters operating these schools implemented a selective acculturation which allowed students go between the White and Indians worlds which gained acceptance from the Sioux community. (Carroll, 2000). In 1893 it became law for parents to send their children to school, and if they refused they would have to suffer severe consequences such as annuities or rations being withheld or being sent to jail (Ketteringham, 2007). Students who tried running away from school were also severely punished, and were often whipped or bound and left out in the hall for the rest of the students to see them (Ketteringham, 2007).
According to Paul Tennant (1991) “the importance of potlatches to the Aboriginal peoples was that it served to legitimize political rank and authority, that is, to validate the rightful possession of prestige and the use of chiefly power and influence”. (p. 7). Potlatches were a critically important institution within all coastal tribal groups. Tenant (1991) also stated that “economically, potlatches ensured a circulation of wealth; the prestige and rank of the chiefs was maintained by giving away wealth rather than by accumulating it” (p.8). The Canadian Government outlawed the potlatch because they believed that it was an obstacle in assimilation policies and agendas.