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Freeing The Pike By Richard Wagamese: Course Analysis

800 Words4 Pages

During this course, I have learned and unlearned many important concepts. I achieved much of this learning through the stories, songs, and cultures we studied in class. Through these studies, I learned one concept that I believe is the most important out of everything that was taught to me. That concept is the fact that Indigenous nations are sovereign and independent from each other and Canada. I learned this through these nations' stories, experiences, and land defense movements. The first study material that introduced this concept to me was the stories of these nations. They often highlighted these nations' abilities to govern and rely on themselves without the interference of others, a key factor in sovereignty. A story that showed this …show more content…

These people’s experiences were present in everything we studied during this course and highlighted the differences in cultures between said nations and Canada. Having a strong sense of culture and individuality is a key point in sovereignty, and the experiences present in the texts we studied highlighted both of these points. A course material that does this extremely well is Freeing the Pike by Richard Wagamese. In this work, Richard touches on his experience as a survivor of the sixties, particularly how it affected him growing up. Despite being taken away from his family, he still carries his cultural beliefs and values with him. This is seen in the quote, “For the Indian in me, that fish was honour and respect and love. They [his non-indigenous adoptive family] would have never gotten that, either.” (Wagamese 2). This highlights the differences between his nation and Canada and how, despite being forcibly removed from his nation, the beliefs and values are still present within him. This showed me just how strong these nations' cultures are and how they stand independently from Canada, revealing to me how sovereign these nations …show more content…

A nation being able to defend itself is a key part of its sovereignty, and these nations have demonstrated this ability multiple times. Many of our course materials went over land defense movements such as standing rock. However, the course material that gave an up-close look at this aspect of their sovereignty was the documentary Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance. In this documentary, the Mohawk nation is able to arm themselves and defend their territory against the Canadian government. You even see how the warriors acknowledge that they're fighting for a nation outside of Canada. This is shown in the quote, “I follow our constitution, which was given to us by the Creator” (Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance 22:43). Through this quote, you can see how the nations have their own constitutions and consider themselves separate from Canada and other nations. The fact that they were able to go against the Canadian government and arm themselves showed me just how independent these nations were. It showed me how these nations have their own territory and constitutions. It also opened my eyes to the fact that many of the people of these nations do not consider themselves to be a part of Canada or any other nation, as seen in the quote above. All these aspects are key to a nation being sovereign, and these movements showed me that nations are not lacking in any of

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