Aboriginal Literature

In the past, Native people did not document their history or traditions on paper. When the Europeans came, their traditions were disregarded because of this fact. This, and the fact that oral traditions were easily lost with the death of a particular culture or language, is the reason why Natives have lost

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If there can be so many differences in the translation of a story, there would obviously be a lot of different interpretations of the story as well. First of all, since it comes from the Southern First Nations it was obviously translated into English so that most non-Aboriginal people could read it. Since the younger generations of Natives had less interest in their oral traditions the only way to save the traditions was to write them down; and this began the trend of Native written literature. In other words, when stories are collected they are at the mercy of their collector and are often changed to suit the needs of a new culture. He says: “The abstract words so readily used by non-Indians frequently do not exist in Amerindian languages, which employ description or metaphor instead” (11-12). The scene described was partly acted; the motions of the game, the stealthy approach of the hunter, the taking aim, the shot, the cry of the animal, or the noise of its dashing away, and the pursuit, were all given as the tale went on (Clark xi). The written versions of these stories obviously cannot capture this art and so are inadequate in comparison. However, Native traditions written in text cannot meet up to the standards set by past storytellers and will never be as exciting and enjoyable.

Since this story was translated, it may also be at the mercy of being taken out of context or having an outside worldview tamper with it as was already discussed. When these stories are fully transcribed and ready to be read by outsiders, their meaning could be completely different from what was originally intended by the Native culture. John Foley talks about scholars who enter Aboriginal cultures in order to learn more about them and record some of their language.

Not only do the text versions of Native stories change the meaning but they also take away one of the most important parts of the oral tradition: the performance.

Claude Mélançon agrees with Foley in regards to the translation of Native stories into another language. An example of this comes from a story called “Marcel’s Beaver Hunt” found in Ronald Scullon’s “Context of the Informant Narrative Performance” (46-66).

Common topics in this essay:
Southern Nations, Unlike Euro-Canadian, Canadian Literature, North Country, Claude Mélançon, Scugog Island, John Foley, Narrative Performance, , oral traditions, native literature, native oral, White Dog, traditional orature, native traditions, native stories, text versions, effect native oral, effect native, story text, intended native, text versions native,

Approximate Word count = 1345
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

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