Runaway By Rosanna Deerchild

Nature to Indigenous peoples is very sacred. Indigenous are known to be one with the natural world. To them, Mother Earth is the center of life, as she is the basis of who Indigenous peoples are as real humans (Smithsonian Institution, 2023). In traditional knowledge, animals are used to tell the values and spiritual beliefs of communities. In the poems from “calling down the sky,” the author, Rosanna Deerchild references nature as an approach to relate her writing to the hidden truths of her culture.

The poem “Runaway” by Rosanna Deerchild, is a disheartening memory of a child from a residential school being pulverised for trying to run away. Rosanna makes a reference to otters, saying that the priest and nuns were like otters in a sense

In traditional ways, animals were used as scales of strength and intelligence of a person. The bear symbolizes healing and the protection of the ways of traditional life (Native Hope, 2020). In the poem the bear is quoted as the sun, concluding to mother nature being their healer. Rosanna talks about the children being sly foxes when coming in for supper. The fox is known to be a trickster (Native Languages of the Americas website, 2020). They are a clan animal, meaning that they stay with their group, this is similar to the children having their groups of friends. Rosanna’s mother was in a clan with Marie-Rose and Harriet. Before supper, the clan sneaks out into the bush. While in the bush with nature, they pick berries, dip their toes in the cold lake, and watch the sunset. The girls are reconnecting with their spirits and culture while away from reality. In the poem the Nuns are referred to as old crows who see everything. Crows are known to symbolize the coming of death. During supper, a fight breaks out between a nun and Rosanna’s mother. The nun had cut her braid that resembled strength. This poem can relate to the bible’s “Last supper” story. In the bible, Jesus breaks bread and pours wine for his disciples. The bread represents Jesus’s body, and the wine represents his blood. In a way this can relate to the children having to give their bodies and blood away to the Residential school system. The system was designed to break and empty indigenous children and fill them up with “the right way of life.” This poem displays the significance of the natural world to indigenous