Table Of ContentFirst Person Plural
First Person
Plural
Aboriginal Storytelling and the
Ethics of Collaborative Authorship
S O P H I E M c C A L L
© UBC Press 2011
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Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
McCall, Sophie, 1969-
First person plural : aboriginal storytelling and the ethics of collaborative
authorship / Sophie McCall.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-7748-1979-4 (bound)
ISBN 978-0-7748-1980-0 (pbk.)
1. Native peoples – Canada – Communication. 2. Intercultural communication
– Canada. 3. Authorship – Collaboration. 4. Oral tradition – Canada. I. Title.
E78.C2M127 2011 971.004’97 C2010-908005-X
e-book ISBNs: 978-0-7748-1981-7 (pdf); 978-0-7748-5993-6 (epub)
UBC Press gratefully acknowledges the financial support for our publishing program
of the Government of Canada (through the Canada Book Fund), the Canada Council
for the Arts, and the British Columbia Arts Council.
This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Canadian Federation
for the Humanities and Social Sciences, through the Aid to Scholarly Publications
Program, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research
Council of Canada, and with the help of the K.D. Srivastava Fund.
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McCall sc_cip.indd 4 14/04/2011 4:44:43 AM
Contents
Acknowledgments / vii
Introduction: Collaboration and Authorship in Told-to Narratives / 1
1 ‘Where Is the Voice Coming From?’: Appropriations and Subversions
of the ‘Native Voice’ / 17
2 Coming to Voice the North: The Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry
and the Works of Hugh Brody / 43
3 ‘There Is a Time Bomb in Canada’: The Legacy of the Oka Crisis / 76
4 ‘My Story Is a Gift’: The Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples and
the Politics of Reconciliation / 109
5 ‘What the Map Cuts Up, the Story Cuts Across’: Translating Oral
Traditions and Aboriginal Land Title / 137
6 ‘I Can Only Sing This Song to Someone Who Understands It’:
Community Filmmaking and the Politics of Partial Translation / 181
Conclusion: Collaborative Authorship and Literary Sovereignty / 205
Notes / 214
Works Cited / 230
Index / 246
Acknowledgments
First Person Plural is dedicated to the memory of Barbara Godard, whose
energy, support, and intellectual rigour helped shape this project from its
beginnings, and whose words of wisdom and guidance remain with me
to this day. I thank her for her generosity in helping me see the bigger
picture across a vast range of topics – while at the same time uncannily
recalling the smallest details.
This study began in conversation at York University with students,
professors, and life-long friends, and I hope the spirit of exchange and
dialogue continues to frequent its pages. While at York University, I was
fortunate to work with some outstanding professors, particularly Ken
Little, Arun Mukherjee, and Leslie Sanders, as well as Terry Goldie, Rinaldo
Walcott, and Ato Sekyi-Otu, the latter who became a special mentor and
friend. The legendary community of graduate students at York University
helped immeasurably through the long writing process and I would like
to mention Gamal Abdel-Shehid, Elena Basile, Gugu Hlongwane, Heather
Milne, Lori Moses, Alok Mukherjee, Candida Rifkind, Trish Salah, and
Janine Willie.
My graduate and undergraduate students at Simon Fraser University,
particularly Dave Gaertner, Keri Petschl, and Christine Lyons, as well as
my graduate students enrolled in English 804 in 2005 and my under-
graduate students in English 453 over a number of terms, helped immeas-
urably in leading stimulating discussions of many of the fundamental
questions in this study. I am grateful to the community of scholars and
viii Acknowledgments
friends in various fields who have helped me (sometimes unwittingly)
through a challenging political or intellectual entanglement, and my thanks
are due to Alessandra Capperdoni, Warren Cariou, Richard Cavell, Julie
Cruiks hank, Jeff Derksen, Peter Dickinson, Renate Eigenbrod, Kristina
Fagan, Margery Fee, Carole Gerson, Susan Gingell, Smaro Kamboureli,
Christine Kim, Larissa Lai, Sam McKegney, Roy Miki, Deanna Reder, June
Scudeler, and Rita Wong. For indispensable class visits from Aboriginal
writers I would like to thank Marie Clements, Sharron Proulx-Turner,
Richard Van Camp, Garry Gottf riedson, Gregory Scofield, Michael Nicoll
Yahgulanaas, Joanne Arnott, and Steve Sanderson, as well as the SFU
English Department, which made these visits possible. I would be remiss
if I did not also mention some very special friends and colleagues in
Toronto, Vancouver, and elsewhere, who have not only helped me articulate
many of the ideas in this book but have supported me as true friends:
Joanne Saul, Bronwen Low, Andi Curtis, Joanna Reynolds, Melina Baum
Singer, Nick Saul, Nupur and Anju Gogia, Colette Colligan, Roxanne
Panchasi, Susan Brook, Tiffany Werth, and Genevieve Fuji-Johnson.
This book underwent extensive revisions over the course of many years,
and some dedicated friends, colleagues, and scholars in the field took the
time to read over portions of the manuscript. For generously responding
to my requests for help and for offering invaluable suggestions that helped
me find that missing piece, I would like to thank Hugh Brody, Alan Cairns,
David Chariandy, Dave Gaertner, Kathy Mezei, and Roxanne Panchasi. I
am especially indebted to Nancy Earle, who went over the entire manu-
script with a fine-tooth comb at a particularly critical juncture in the re-
vision process. I would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers for the
University of British Columbia Press for their excellent suggestions. Darcy
Cullen and Ann Macklem at the Press have been model editors whose
kind and thoughtful professionalism I greatly appreciate. I would also like
to mention Sigrid Albert, Jillian Shoichet, and Laraine Coates.
This work received generous financial support from Simon Fraser
University through the President’s Research Grant and the Publications
Grant.
Very grateful thanks are due to my parents, Storrs and Ann, who have
been unflagging supports in every way, and to my parents-in-law, Rawlins
and Claudette, for taking supremely good care of my children during the
time I was writing this book. I also wish to acknowledge my extended
family, particularly my grandparents, Tony and Kitty, my brothers, Mengo
Acknowledgments ix
and Kai, and their families. To my best friend and partner, David, I owe
my immeasurable gratitude and love. My children, Maya and Skye, you
are my inspiration and my joy. Meegwetch to all!
Permissions
Permission to quote extensively from the following four texts is gratefully
acknowledged:
• Julie Cruikshank, in collaboration with Angela Sidney, Kitty Smith,
and Annie Ned, Life Lived Like a Story: Life Stories of Three Yukon Elders
(UBC Press, 1990), reprinted with the permission of the publisher;
• Harry Robinson, Write It on Your Heart: The Epic World of an Okanagan
Storyteller, edited by Wendy Wickwire (TalonBooks, 1989), reprinted
with the permission of the publisher;
• Hugh Brody, Maps and Dreams: Indians and the British Columbia Frontier
(Douglas and McIntyre, 1988), reprinted with the permission of the
publisher;
• Ila Bussidor and Üstün Bilgen-Reinart, Night Spirits: The Story of the
Relocation of the Sayisi Dene (University of Manitoba Press, 1997), re-
printed with the permission of the publisher.
I also wish to acknowledge that earlier versions of Chapters 5 and 6 were
published in Essays on Canadian Writing (80 [2003] and 83 [2005],
respectively).
