From: "Lloyd Rang" <servetus-AT-iname.com>
Date: Mon, 8 Feb 1999 18:57:09 -0500
Subject: Re: Some More


Cheryl:

If your intention was to show that Oka has more resonances in 
some cultural locations/memories than others, then i guess my 
analogy was an apt one.  Certain historical events (Plains of 
Abraham,  Toronto in 1963) are of course going to resonate more 
deeply in some constituencies than in others.  Situating the 
ongoing discussion of native/PoCo issues against a backdrop of 
Canadian cultural amnesia strikes me as more post hoc than 
postcolonial.  In other words, the absence of awareness viz. native 
issues in the Canadian consciousness (and i think i agree that this 
is a broad and problematic construction) or even in some 
constituencies (popular press, metropolitan Canada) does not, i 
would argue, necessarily support your assumptions.  

Also, methodologically speaking, it's a problematic move to 
suggest that a lack of [something] points to the presence of 
[another something] or- if not problematic- it's at least difficult.   

While i'm inclined to agree that King's position against the postcoloniality of 
First Nations literature is limited (it's curious that his own writing shows a kind
of hybridity which situates it firmly in the PoCo, in my view) one 
needs to stake a countervailing argument on more stable ground.  
Could part of the problem be that you're interested in uprisings and 
he's looking primarily at literature?  (Not to create an 
activism/authorship binary here-  it's just a thought.)  

Lloyd Rang (UofGuelph)


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