Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Whispering in Shadows by Jeannette Armstrong Whispering in Shadows by Jeannette Armstrong. Our systems have detected unusual traffic activity from your network. Please complete this reCAPTCHA to demonstrate that it's you making the requests and not a robot. If you are having trouble seeing or completing this challenge, this page may help. If you continue to experience issues, you can contact JSTOR support. Block Reference: #615b9ed0-cf80-11eb-8ca5-1fc2b1a7e9a7 VID: #(null) IP: 116.202.236.252 Date and time: Thu, 17 Jun 2021 15:26:26 GMT. ARMSTRONG, Jeannette. Nationality: Canadian (Okanagan). Born: Penticton (Okanagan) Indian Reservation, British Columbia, Canada, 1948. Education: Okanagan College; University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, B.F.A. Career: Since 1989 director, En'owkin School of International Writing, Okanagan, British Columbia. Publications. Novels. Slash. Penticton, British Columbia, Theytus, 1987; revised edition, 1998. Whispering in Shadows. Penticton, British Columbia, Theytus Books, 1999. Poetry. Breathtracks. Penticton, British Columbia, Theytus, 1991. Other. Enwhisteetkwa; Walk in Water (for children). Penticton, BritishColumbia, Theytus, 1982. Neekna and Chemai (for children), illustrated by Barbara Marchand. Penticton, British Columbia, Theytus, 1984. The Native Creative Process: A Collaborative Discourse , with Douglas Cardinal. Penticton, British Columbia, Theytus, 1992. We Get Our Living Like Milk from the Land: Okanagan Tribal History Book. Penticton, British Columbia, Theytus, 1993. Contributor, Speaking for the Generations: Native Writers on Writing , edited by Simon J. Ortiz. Tucson, University of Arizona Press, 1998. Contributor, Native North America: Critical and Cultural Perspectives: Essays , edited by Patricia Monture-Angus and Renee Hulan. Chicago, LPC Group, 1999. Critical Studies: Momaday, Vizenor, Armstrong: Conversations on American Indian Writing by Hartwig Isernhagen. Norman, University of Oklahoma Press, 1999. Following in the footsteps of her great aunt, Hum-Ishu-Ma (Mourning Dove/Christine Quintasket, 1888-1936), author of Cogewea, The Half- Blood (1927) and Coyote Stories (1933), Jeannette Armstrong published the first novel by a First Nations woman in 1985. With the publication of the novel, Slash , Armstrong established a place for writing by contemporary Native Canadian women along with Beth Brant's Mohawk Trail , Maria Campbell's Halfbreed, Beatrice Culleton's In Search of April Raintree , and Ruby Slipperjack's Honour the Sun. Now in its eight printing, Slash is an important novel that traces out a young Native Canadian man's struggles with colonialism, racism, and a self-identity that doesn't fit easily into "assimilated," "traditional," or "Pan-Indian" categories. In addition to her work as a novelist, Armstrong is also a political activist, sculptor, writer of children's books, and educator. Born on the Penticton Indian Reserve in British Columbia, she maintains strong links to her Okanagan community, which is reflected in the novel Slash. Armstrong's novel foregrounds key issues in the political, cultural, and linguistic struggles of Native Americans in both Canada and the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s, such as the birth of the American Indian Movement, changes in the Canadian Indian Act, the takeover of Department of Indian Affairs (DIA) and Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) offices, and the Wounded Knee occupation. Set primarily in British Columbia, Armstrong's title character, Thomas Kelasket, who is nicknamed "Slash" while serving time in prison, demonstrates how these events are linked, although geographically and culturally distant and distinct. Armstrong wants to examine how Native Americans, particularly young people, can confront what she calls their "postcolonial" situation, the double bind resulting from existence under the dominant white culture, on the one hand, and a desire to preserve important aspects of their own aboriginal communities, on the other. Armstrong's novel is a bildungsroman, a fictional autobiography tracing the growth of a single main protagonist as he struggles with social and psychological pressures to maintain a positive sense of identity and community in a rapidly changing world. The novel is framed by two poems, one entitled "For Tony," which describes a man much like Slash, and an untitled concluding poem, as well as a "Prologue" in which Slash reminisces about his own progress from childhood innocence, through a self-destructive adolescence, to a mature state of understanding and an "Epilogue" in which Slash reflects on his adulthood and his reasons for relating his story, namely to assist young people like his son. The novel's four long chapters begin with "The Awakening," in which a 14-year-old Slash first comes to realize that being Indian in Canada means either occupying a space which is entirely antithetical to white Canadian values or adopting an "assimilated" identity and becoming what Homi Bhabha has called "almost white but not quite." Interestingly, Armstrong is able to convey a sense of the young adolescent's inner struggles by using dialogue a teenager of the 1960s and 70s might employ. For example, Slash and his friends use terms such as "chicks," "Mary Jane," and "Bro." In the second and third chapters, "Trying It On" and "Mixing It Up," the protagonist recounts his various experiences as a drug dealer, convict, activist, vagrant, and prodigal son. Slash tries on various roles and identities, shifting restlessly from place to place, focusing on his own inability to come to terms with what it means to be an Native person in North America. The final chapter, "We Are a People," draws the loose threads of Slash's life together as he struggles to make sense of his identity as an Okanagan community member and activist in many Native struggles, as well as his new roles of father, husband, and widower. In so doing, Armstrong elucidates complex notions of sovereignty, self-recognition, and treaty rights. The three names he uses throughout the novel suggest these kinetic and multiple senses of self. "Thomas/Tommy," his Anglo-Celtic Christian birth name, indicates both his relationship to his family — his parents and siblings call him Tommy — and the assimilative force of the dominant Canadian culture; "Slash," a nickname he's given by his first love, Mardi, after a drug-related bar brawl in Vancouver, represents the angry, cynical warrior self; and an undis-closed Okanagan name, which, according to Slash, is given ceremonially to tribal members after birth, suggests his relationship to the larger Okanagan community in British Columbia and the close ties he maintains with individuals living on his own reserve. In addition to being a bildungsroman, the novel follows another popular literary form, the picaresque, or traveler's tale, since its narrative consists of a loosely knit series of events involving numerous characters, many of whom do not recur in the rest of the text. For most of the narrative, Slash wanders from place to place — his reserve to Vancouver, Ottawa to Toronto, the Pine Ridge Reservation to Washington, D.C. — although he returns periodically to visit with his family in British Columbia. In moving through these cycles of relocation, Slash better understands his place in the world as an activist struggling for Native rights in general as well as his role as a member of a specific Native community. These connections are very important, especially when his father, who is suffering from medical problems, is healed by a visit from a medicine person from another tribe, although the Kelasket family typically doesn't trust outsiders. Slash is somewhat polemical in its style; that is, Armstrong (who, as director of the En'owkin Centre in Penticton, is deeply involved in Native Canadian education) wants to employ her fiction to make clear, strong political statements about the contemporary state of Native Canada. And despite the fact that the main protagonist is a young man, the novel is also profoundly feminist. Slash is respectful of the women in his life and at one point proclaims, "It's really the women who keep things smooth … We learned early from our mothers and grandmothers that it is women who are the strength of the people." Slash confronts the personal and social issues that young First Nations people face and offers hope for improvement through education and self- discovery. The text moves forward from frustration and anger through activism to self-and communal-affirmation, but this path is not so neatly drawn or simple. Slash engages the welter of events and ideologies in contemporary history and projects a vital, current role for First Nations people in that history, a role played out in the narrative by the title character himself. This novel may prove to be one of the most important twentieth-century works of fiction by a Canadian author, as it addresses the historical origins of racism and colonialism and its contemporary manifestations in First Nations communities, as well as elucidating Native Canadians' struggle for the recognition of sovereignty with a rich and distinct First Nations' voice. Whispering in Shadows. Best known for the novel Slash and the poetry collection Breath Tracks , Okanagan writer Jeannette Armstrong combines genres in her new novel to bring readers into the world of Penny Jackson, a painter, activist, and mother of three. Whispering in Shadows weaves traditional oral literature, poetry, and prose into longer episodic passages that reveal Penny’s artistic mind and inner turmoil as she journeys from youth to middle age. Armstrong has some brilliant ideas about the human condition, native life in Canada, and the relationship between the sexes, but she pays little attention to story, so the book is often derailed by her tendency to lecture. Penny is an explain-it-all narrative device rather than a nuanced character: her diary entries, letters, internal narratives, and conversations present questions and answers in neat little packages. Armstrong moves Penny around – to a job, to university, to a logging protest, to a Mayan community in Chiapas – but as soon as readers are drawn into a scene, the author stops the action and resorts to essay-form explication. This speechifying is sometimes insightful, but Whispering in Shadows doesn’t make for engaging fiction because it does not present a world, just ideas in the abstract. Which doesn’t mean that it’s a complete failure. Despite her tell-all-and-show-nothing style, Armstrong captures the necessary but excruciating aloneness of the artist, and she does a good job of bringing readers into the creative mind (describing how Penny sees light and shadow and form, for example). The author also aptly conveys the relationship between artist and art. But like much literature from aboriginal houses – where editing is equated with oppression – the text is riddled with plurals punctuated as possessives (and vice versa), spelling errors, non-parallelisms, and all manner of annoying errors. This inattention to detail will try the patience of readers, as will the lecturing. Those who read around those flaws will discover a textured and affecting profile of the artistic temperament. Awardee: Jeannette Armstrong. "Today we human beings face the biggest of obstacles, and so the greatest of challenges to our creativity and responsibility. Let us begin with courage and without limitation, and we will come up with surprising solutions." —Jeannette Armstrong. Jeannette Armstrong is honored as the recipient of the 2003 Ecotrust Indigenous Leadership Award for her work as a community leader, educator and indigenous rights activist. She is a member of the Okanagan Nation and currently resides in Penticton, British Columbia, Canada. Armstrong plans to use the fellowship to restore the land surrounding the En'owkin Centre through the replanting of native and traditional medicine plants. Armstrong currently serves as Executive Director of the En'owkin Centre, located in the Penticton Reserve. This indigenous cultural, educational, ecological and creative arts post-secondary institution practices and implements indigenous knowledge and systems. The school is affiliated with the University of Victoria. Armstrong also serves as consultant to the Center for Ecoliteracy in Berkley, California. This foundation fosters education that leads to sustainable patterns of living. She has served as a consultant to other environmental and social change organizations including the Esalen Institute, Omega Institute, Center for Creative Change and World Institute for Humanities at Salado. As an indigenous rights activist, Armstrong serves as an international observer to the Continental Coordinating Commission of Indigenous Peoples and Organizations. She was also appointed one of seven Indigenous Judges to the First Nations Court of Justice called by the Chiefs of Ontario and to the Council of Listeners in the International Testimonials on Violations of Indigenous Sovereignty for the United Nations. Armstrong has served on various international councils and working groups on a wide variety of issues. She has addressed conferences and assemblies at universities in Japan, Moscow, Switzerland, Germany, New Zealand as well as the USA and Canada. Armstrong is also currently serving on the Canadian Commission for UNESCO and recently served as a representative to the Third World Water Forum in Kyoto, Japan. She is also a visual artist and author of a number of books, scripts and a collection of poetry. Armstrong's books include Slash, Native Creative Process, Breathtracks and Whispering in Shadows. She has also published numerous articles on the impacts of globalization. Her work includes a local storytelling TV mini-series and a Vision TV talk show, Arts Express. Armstrong received a Bachelors of Fine Arts from the University of Victoria in 1978 and recently received an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from St. Thomas University, Fredericton. She is a fluent speaker of the Okanagan language and has studied traditional teachings for many years under the direction of the Okanagan elders. The People and the Text. Jeannette Armstrong was born and raised on the Penticton Indian Reserve, one of eight Syilx (Okanagan) reserves located in both Canada and the United States. She is a fluent speaker of the Syilx language, Nsyilxcn, and is a knowledge keeper of plant medicines, Syilx traditions, and cultural protocols. She is a writer, poet, teacher, and artist, and is a strong voice in Indigenous environmental ethics. In 1986, Armstrong became the executive director of the En’owkin Centre, a title she still holds, and in 1989 she helped found the En’owkin School of International Writing, the first credit-giving creative writing program in Canada managed solely by and for Indigenous people, where she also works as director and instructor. The En’owkin Centre is a post-secondary institution which focuses on cultural, educational, and ecological arts and creative arts, and is operated solely by the six Syilx Canadian bands in partnership with the University of Victoria, the University of British Columbia Okanagan, and the Nicola Valley Institute of Technology. Armstrong has been writing since she was fifteen years old and has had many of her short stories and poems published in journals and anthologies. In 1986, Armstrong published her first novel, Slash – a story about a young Okanagan man finding his culture after a life of racism and violence. In 1991, Armstrong published a book of poetry titled Breath Tracks. She published her second novel, Whispering in Shadows, in 2000 – a story about an Okanagan woman navigating her cultural knowledges through colonial surroundings while also engaging in environmental activism across the continent. Armstrong holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Victoria and a PhD from the University of Greifswald, Germany. She also has been granted honorary doctorates from St. Thomas University in New Brunswick, and the University of British Columbia Okanagan. Currently, she is working as an Assistant Professor of Indigenous Studies with the Irving K. Barber School of Arts and Sciences at UBC Okanagan. In 2013 she was appointed a Canada Research Chair in Okanagan Indigenous Philosophy to research, document, categorize and analyze Okanagan Syilx oral literature in Nsyilxcn. Selected Readings: Armstrong, Jeannette. Slash. Theytus, 1987; revised edition, 1998. ---. Whispering in Shadows . Theytus Books, 1999. ---. Breathtracks. Theytus, 1991. ---. Enwhisteetkwa; Walk in Water (for children). Theytus, 1982. ---. Neekna and Chemai (for children), illustrated by Barbara Marchand. Theytus, 1984. --- and Douglas Cardinal. The Native Creative Process: A Collaborative Discourse . Theytus, 1992. ---, Lee Maracle, Greg Young-ing, Delphine Derickson. We Get Our Living Like Milk from the Land: Okanagan Tribal History Book. Penticton, British Columbia, Theytus, 1993. Jeannette Armstrong entry by Alexa Manuel, September 2018. Alexa Manuel (Silyx) is a PhD student at the University of British Columbia. She works as a research assistant for The People and the Text, located in the Department of First Nations Studies at SFU. Entry edits by Margery Fee, September 2018. Margery Fee is Professor Emerita at UBC in the Department of English.