The term "First Nation Narratives" is intended to serve as a collective heading to recognize some formal similarity among the creative expression of people of M?ori, Polynesian, Aboriginal, Canadian Indian (including Métis), and Inuit descent, all representatives of pre-European contact populations who now find themselves in minority in their own regions and who in many cases are dispossessed of their lands and their cultures. At the same time it recognizes this similarity it also celebrates the differences among each individual tradition. For the peoples of the First Nations, the concepts of nation and nationalism that are enshrined in the majority culture have little to recommend them as such concepts serve as a reminder of their current reduced condition, "Third Word Nations in the first World." Yet the last decades in particular have seen an upsurge in what is now being called "ethnonationalism" among these communities, M?oritanga in New Zealand, "Aboriginality" in Australia, and various First Nation movements in Canada. These ethnonationalisms have a role to play in the development of the multicultural societies that are painfully coming into being in these countries. The narratives of the First Nations of all three countries address similar cultural concerns in addition to the economic and social difficulties facing all minority communities, in particular the decline and disappearance of indigenous languages, the deculturation of urban populations, and the continual erosion of control over remaining land.
This course will attempt to negotiate between the claims made for ethnonationalism as a means toward the cultural empowerment of peoples who as the result of Empire find themselves a minority in their own land and the danger implicit in the concept of what Gilroy has termed "ethnic absolutism."

T 11/01 Issues at Stake.

Th 13/01 Introduction to M?ori Writers.

T 18/01 The Bone People

Th 20/01 The Bone People

T 25/01 Once Were Warriors

Th 27/01 Once were Warriors

T 01/02 Potiki

Th 03/02 Potiki

T 08/02 Introduction to Samoan Writers

Th 10/02 Leaves of the Banyan Tree

T 15/02 Leaves of the Banyan Tree

Th 17/02 They Who Do Not Grieve

T 22/02 They who do Not Grieve

Th 24/02 Introduction Native Canadian Writers

T 01/03 Keeper 'n Me

Th 03/03 Keeper 'n Me

T 08/03 Daughters are Forever

Th 10/03 Daughters are Forever

M 14/03-S 19/03 Spring Break

T 22/03 In Search of April Raintree

Th 24/03 In Search of April Raintree

T 29/03 Introduction to Inuit Writers

Th 31/03 Harpoon of the Hunter

T 05/04 Introduction to Aboriginal Writers

Th 07/04 Doctor Wooredy's Prescription

T 12/04 Doctor Wooredy's Prescription

Th 14/04 My Place

T 19/04 My Place

Th 21/04 Home

T 26/04 Home

Th 28/04 Wrap up

M 02/05-S 07/05 Finals Week

Textbooks:

Keri Hulme, The Bone People. Penguin, 1986.
Alan Duff. Once Were Warriors. Vintage, 1995.
Patricia Grace. Potiki. University of Hawai'i Press, 1995.
Albert Wendt. Leaves of the Banyan Tree. University of Hawai'i Press, 1994.
Sia Figiel. They Who Do Not Grieve. Kaya Production, 2001.
Richard Wagamese. The Keeper 'n Me. Doubleday Publishing. 1994.
Lee Maracle Daughters are Forever. Raincoat Book Distribution, 2002.
Beatrice Culleton Mosionier In Search of April Raintree: Critical Edition. Portage & Main Press, 1999.
Markoosie. Harpoon of the Hunter. McGill-Queens University Press, 1974.
*Mudrooroo. Doctor Wooreddy's Prescription for Enduring the Ending of the World. South
Melbourne: Hyland House, 1996.
*Sally Morgan. My Place. Illustrated Edition. Fremantle: Fremantle Arts Centre P, 1999.
*Larissa Behrendt. Home. UQP Black Australian Writers. St. Lucia: U of Queensland P, 2004.

*These books will have to be ordered from Australia. If we do it as a group we save a lot on postage and handling.