on beginnings
My Land Acknowledgment
My home, a place known to me as the West Kootenays; is the Ancestral and Unceded Territory of the Sinixt First Nation. It is with respect, reverence, and reciprocity I offer gratitude to the Land and her People; vowing to continuously tread lightly, live responsibly and walk with good intentions cultivating good relations.
Beginnings matters –or Beginning Matters
In his book, Beginnings: Intention and Method, Edward Said (1975) writes, “[a] beginning must be thought possible, it must be taken to be possible, before it can be [a beginning]” (p. 35).
“And most inevitably, for the writer, the historian, or the philosopher the beginning will emerge reflectively and perhaps, unhappily, already engaging him [sic] in an awareness of its difficulty” (p. 35).
I have a desire to work and live; embodying an ethic of care as I move about my world making meaning and stitching together my ideas. When I say, ‘my ideas’ it is inclusive of the knowledge of all those I carry with me –those I continue to lean on. I hold their words, ideas, and stories close; allowing them to linger, and contaminate in ways that enliven transformation.
Recently, I was introduced to Helen Knott, in her memoir In My Own Moccasins. In her introduction, Knott begins with a dedication, offering her story to those whom she identifies with, who have shared her experiences and walked with her walk.
Knott writes, “I was told that this book would be a good tool to educate people who do not understand the impacts of violence, racism, and colonialism in Indigenous women’s lives.
I was told that there will be people who gain insight from this book”.
“I did not write this book for you” (p. xv).
These words –stick, linger, penetrate.
I am a white, middle-class woman –a privileged member of a dominant culture; one that I continue to benefit from. My entire cultural landscape, that is to say my ethnicity, beliefs, values and dominate worldviews have emerged from the structure and system of this Canadian colonial project. My language, words, stories and ideas live in this colonized space. Therefore, ‘making the familiar strange’ is the first steps towards decolonization for me –to become unsettled. Following from here, is my commitment to stay with the tension/threads/knots with/in my commitment to unravelling our interpretations of identity, language, literacy, and the colonial and capitalist discourses that limit, silence and marginalize the ‘other’.
Helen Knott’s words and story illuminate how she has worked to unpack how power circulates. In this way reclaiming her culture, identity and power as an act of resistance and of activism.
Helen Knott’s story is not for my commodification. She did not publish it for my consumption, for my purposes or my benefit. No.
And yet, our stories are one way we bear witness to our shared humanity and our shared inhumanity. Through the telling and sharing of our stories, we create space for being deeply affected. Creating conditions for the unravelling of a fabric that is no longer of use to any of us. This unravelling/noticing/witnessing offers an alternate space wherein we may begin to (re)imaging and co-construct alternate stories, collaborative stories, more equitable and just stories with and in our worlds.
Autonomous Sinixt Sinixt Smum Iem (2022). The Autonomous Sinixt. https://sinixt.org/
Knott. H. (2019). In My Own Moccasins: A Memoir of Resilience. University of Regina.
Said, E. (1975). Beginnings: Intention and method. New York: Basic Books, Inc. Publishing.
photo credit: V. Maclean