April's Journey In 'My People, Our People'

April s journey starts later on in life to get back to her roots. She seems to be able to slip by unnoticed which she seems to enjoy most of the time. Most of the time she feels comfortable with fitting in with the white people. It is not till the end that she seems to be inclined to pursue her native heritage. April at the end of the novel, I believe is just starting to find her identity and probably has a long journey ahead of her “MY PEOPLE, OUR PEOPLE”. The denial had been lifted from my spirit. It was tragic that it had taken Cheryl’s death to accept my identity”. Page 207 lines 28-32. She may have been accepting it, but she did not understand it yet. April seemed to have a rougher time going through the foster system and after being signalled out for being native on several occasions. April learns to hide her native

Since they were both taken at young ages. Cheryl believes in her heritage but has to find her parents to confirm her identity and when she does find her dad I think she is very distraught. Cheryl finds herself in turmoil over her family, and turns to the bottle. She took it into her own hands and now has the information to process and now she sees how her aboriginal ancestry fits in. Cheryl took the hard road to finding her identity. The hard road is most often the best way, seeing as a person has to invest so much more time, energy an emotion. It makes the cause more worthwhile and fulfilling. Painful I would summarize Cheryl’s journey as. Living on the street with strange people, doing strange, dangerous things to survive. Cheryl still found time to help people even though she didn’t have much. “Sometimes when we needed money, Cheryl would give it to us. She never made it feel liked we owed her, you know.” Page 191 line 14-20. That quote speaks volumes about Cheryl’s heart, and is a testament of her identity. I believe Cheryl has found her identity and she kills herself to escape