Analysis Of Up Ghost River By Ed Metatawabin

Teaching an entire generation that their way of life was an abomination, as Ed Metatawabin was taught in the Canadian residential school system, allowed indigenous peoples to be marginalized by the rest of Canadian society; thus creating a clear imbalance of power between cultures so that First Nations lacked the support they needed to progress as a community.

The dehumanization that the St. Anne’s residential school students were subjected to filled them with self hatred directed towards their traditional lifestyle. The St. Anne’s staff tasked themselves with killing the indian the Cree children by forcing religion, language and names upon their students. In the autobiography Up Ghost River by Edmund Metatawabin, Ed recalls how the name
Even in present day Aboriginal issues are often a mere afterthought for the majority of Canadians; during Ed’s early years it was accepted for society to scorn Canada’s indigenous peoples. In the novel, when Ed attempts to free himself from Mike Pasko, his rapist, when Ed considers informing the police he thinks, “Had I been born in a different body with a different history, I might have gone to the police…but I wasn’t wemistikoshiw. Our stories were different” (Metatawabin, 127). Ed had seen firsthand how the RCMP treated his people; he had such an apprehension about going to the authorities that he chose to stay trapped in a house with a sexual predator who abused him on a daily basis. The Canadian Government created a widely accepted dogma that indigenous peoples must be subjected to strict regulations for the betterment of Canadian society. At one point in the novel Ed informs his father of his plans to lobby against the government in order to improve the autonomy that Cree leaders would have within their own reserve. Ed’s father mentions how he had attempted to dispute the Indian Agent on housing rights regarding the reserve and he explained to Ed: “Remember when I tried to fight the Indian Agent on housing?...The Indian Agent didn’t think much of the idea. Said it wasn’t my land to begin with” (Metatawabin, 269). the Minister whose job is to supervise the government affairs with Canadian Indigenous Peoples has a lack of apathy for the well-being of those living on