Kim Anderson "A Recognition of Being"

Sometimes books are so profound I can't even look at them straight for some time.  Kim Anderson's "A Recognition of Being" was like that.  It has been a couple of months now and I can finally work through it a bit.  I think this book hurt so much as it perfectly answered questions I struggled with for the past few years.  Her answers are so eloquent compared to where I came to, but there was also such a peace in seeing someone else's journey to answer those same questions about identity as a metis woman. 

Anderson starts the book by talking about herself and the importance of this self description in the aboriginal method of contextualizing knowledge.  She tells her story of struggling with identity, what makes us indian/metis and how do we push through the shame and social pressures that encourage assimilation and the continuation of steriotypes that cause a gap between us and identity.  What if you don't "look" indian/metis?  What if you did not grow up on the rez?  What if you did not have access to your language and culture?  What if you have lived a life of privalage and have not experiences overt racism?  What if it would be easy to just assimilate?  What if assimilation is what your grandparents/parents tried to do?

I worked through all these questions myself over the past few years.  Some of this I have already shared here with you.  Anderson provides such wise answers to these questions and so openly shares her journey that it feels like a blessing to understand that we are not alone in that journey.  I can't take her answers for myself, but finding that we come to similar places, to have someone articulate it all so clearly is a sort of gentle benediction at the end of my own explorations.  It gives me a little more courage in naming myself and articulating my reasons for reclaiming my metis identity to myself and for my children.

I will further explore this book in other posts.  The whole book is great and provides a lot of material to work through, but this first section was a revelation for me.

""Someone says we need an anthem."  I tell them to keep banging on the hand drum." Shibastik Hand Drum