Mittwoch, 9. Mai 2012

"Toronto at Dreamer's Rock" pages 42 to 75

In this part of the play all three protagonists reveal the problems they have. Rusty announces that he is really unhappy with his life. Even though it hasn't been stated before, his angry and short-tempered behaviour hinted towards this fact way before this statement was made. He complains about his bad marks in school and tells the other two that he is not good at traditional native tasks like hunting. Additionally he likes a girl that doesn't even know that he exists. It seems to me that the topic of girls is one of the few topics that they can all relate to and have in common. Keesic tells the dramatic story of how he is in love with a girl called Nungohns, who belongs to the same clan and is therefore impossible to date for him. Even if he would just run off with her, they wouldn't survive because they depend on the help of the entire clan (especially during winter time). Michael is the only one with a girlfriend, but doesn't seem to be happy. His girlfriend doesn't like his spiritual side and thinks about breaking up. While Michael's as well as Rusty's problems seem to be solvable, Rusty's seems hopeless.

After Rusty reveals his problems in his particular time period, Michael tells that -unlike Rusty and Keesic think- there are a lot of problems appearing in the future. He states that his tribe has lost its culture, because it has all been explained away, forgotten or just walked away from. He claims that his tribe swapped their culture for money. Dreamer's Rock turned into a tourist attraction and doesn't seem sacred anymore. Only one field with sweetgrass is left, but the members of his tribe don't care about it and don't even know that it exists. This loss of Native American values and traditions caused especially by natives mixing their culture with that of whites seems very interesting to me. It is one of the major themes throughout the play and would need to be discussed with the students. What is more important? Is it normal that a culture changes over time? How could we preserve it? Who plays the major role in this process of change?

After Rusty heard of the big changes made he thinks aloud of leaving him a littel time capsule. Michael all of a sudden remembers why Rusty seemed so familiar. He actually did send him a time capsule adressed for 2023. Since Michael doesn't reveal what was in the time capsule, quite some creative task could arouse from this particular paragraph. What did Rusty put in the time capsule? When and where does Michael find it? Write a diary entry about it expressing their thoughts. Comparing this to the task we introduced on Tuesday, it should be much easier to take their perspective. As Friederike stated, I agree that the task we introduced wouldn't be too suitable for working with the play, because the protagonists come from a completey different cultural background and are all boys. This makes the taks we introduced extremely difficult even for university students.

Keesic also states the problems he and his tribe are facing during his particular period of time. They have hardly enough food and never know when food will be available the next time. While all of them face different problems, no one is one hundred percent happy with their life. Michael says that they have quite a bit in common and are all Odawa. Keesic highly disagrees to this statement and starts a fight. In his opinion neither Rusty nor Michael should be allowed to call themselves Odawa, because they brought dishonor to the tribe. Michael explains that every culture has to progress. He and Rusty tell Keesic about the treaties the natives have signed. Michael tries to explain that the Odawas have changed, but that at least they still exist. Again the topic of change and lost of native traditions seem to be the overall theme.

At this point I think it would be a good task to discuss the reason(s) for the meeting. "Toronto" means a place where important meeting take place. What happened at this meeting? Why did the great power bring them togehter at particularly this place and time?

Towards the end of the play Michael reveals what Rusty gave him. It was a newspaper article dated 2023 stating that he will become Grand Chief of the Aboriginal Goverment. What made him reveal the secret? Afterwards the meeting (Toronto) comes to an end. While Rusty starts singing in Indian about hearing the voice of the people the other two disappear. When he stops, he find a crow feather under his knapsack which seems to stand for a sign from above. Before leaving the rock he respectfully places his hand on the rock and says thank you in the language of his tribe. At this point I think it would be interesting to discuss the changes Rusty went through. They seem very visible at this point.  He seems to finally be proud of being native and thinks of himself as being worth something.

Altogether I really liked the play and think it would be suitable for students. Comparing it to Drew Hayden Taylor's play "The Berlin Blues" I would probably prefer "The Berlin Blues", because it discusses German and Native stereotypes alike and I would assume that students could better relate to it.

Montag, 7. Mai 2012

"Toronto at Dreamer's Rock" - pages 23 to 42

In this next passage Keesic's interest for the new development of his tribe sticks out most to me at the beginning. Keesic doesn't understand what the difference between a mountain and a cement factory is and can't understand why people don't just live with what they have. This made me think because I often just take our manmade products for granted. Furthermore it is hilarious when Keesic asks about the lines which are roads and speculates that hunting must be very good to make people fat enough to need a path that wide. I really enjoyed this joke and think it is interesting to imagin that things like roads are unfamiliar to some people. It reminded me of my time in Ghana where one of my students tried to get rid of the freckles in my face, because he thought it was dirt and another one told me that his biggest wish in life was to see a traffic light once in his life. Both things seemed so normal to me that I didn't even pay attention to them anymore. It was interesting for me to find out that I transferred the concept on to other cultures and didn't just stick to the present/past concept.

In the middle of the passage Keesic reveals that he has been at the rock before when he was little. He spend five days there without food. While being there he had a vision that told him to follow the path of medicine. Unfortunately he says that he ist not strong enough to fullfil the vision. Now that he is back at the place that helped him once, he hopes for a sign from above again. Rusty tells Keesic that dream quest and visions have died out since no one believes in them anymore. To me this seems like a further point to add to the list of changed/lost values and beliefs of this particular tribe.

Towards the end of the passage the thirt protagonist, Michael from the future, all of a sudden appears. It is funny how suddenly Rusty, who seemed so modern to me, appears outdated because of Michael's appearance and his reactions towards Rusty. It is stated that he comes from May 2095 and it seems very surprising to me that Rusty's face and name are familiar to him. It must mean that he is famous for something and this is hard to believe, given the way Rusty has been portrayed by Drew Hayden Taylor. I don't feel to sympathetic towards him, because he seems very uninterested and short-tempered.

It seems very inappropriate to me when Michael states his fascination about Keesic coming from such a long time ago by calling him "subject matter". I was unsure, if I understood it right, so I looked up the word to make sure that I understood it correctly. Doing so my thoughts were ratified since it means something like "Gegenstand", "Angelegenheit" or "Thematik". Therefore Michael doesn't refer to Keesic as a human being but rather as a thing.

All three protagonists speculate about the reason for being at Dreamer's Rock. Michael speculates that the power of Dreamer's Rock brought them there. He thinks that it might be similar to the Poltergeist phenomenon that is common in Germany. It is intersting that Drew Hayden Taylor refers to Germany here. Comparing this play to his play "'The Berlin Blues" it almost seems like Germans truly fascinate Drew Hayden Taylor and appear in a series of his plays. Additionally Michael guesses that they came together to defend Dreamer's Rock from the "alcoholic era". It would be intersting to find out more about this and discuss it with students.

The cawing of the crow, which seemed strange to me at the beginning (because it was highly emphasized) is referred back to in this paragraph. According to Keesic crows are messangers of the creator. He cannot believe that Rusty didn't even try to listen to what he was trying to say. Rusty just thought of the noise as being  very annoying, which fits to his indifferent attitude.

Additionally the first part of the title "Toronto" is explained. It isn't only the place in Canada but also means places in general where important things happen. Therefore it will be intersting to see what significant events  will follow on the next pages......

Sonntag, 6. Mai 2012

"Toronto at Dreamer's Rock" - pages 9 to 22


The play takes place at Dreamer's Rock, which is a large outcropping of rock overlooking a scenic valley, near the Whitefish River in Ontario in 1989. The first twenty pages deal with the meeting of Rusty, a boy from the present, and Keesic, a boy from the past on the top of Dreamer's Rock. 

The reader doesn't find out that all the protagonists are Native Americans until page fourteen, where the word Indian appears for the first time. While Keesic probably seems like a "real" Native American to students, Rusty doesn't seem very Indian. He climbs up Dreamer’s Rock, listening to his Walk-man and singing heavy metal tunes, drinks beer, speaks English and wears Levi jeans. Keesic on the other hand only speaks the language of his tribe at the beginning and is dressed in a buckskin breech. It becomes very clear that he lives in the past when he compares everything to nature: beer with water in a swamp, Levi must come from an animal in his opinion and when he asks if he can hunt a Chinese restaurant. This aspect makes the first twenty pages very enjoyable to read. It seems to be particular suitable for students because according to a study I have just read for a paper I had to write, Native Americans still live in the past in the minds of most German students. Throughout Lutz entire survey (1977/1978) the majority of children constantly referred to Native Americans of the past. Lutz showed that German children imagine Native Americans as male wearing fringed and decorated cloth, which only applies to Keesic in this case (cf. Lutz (1985), p. 448f.). It would be interesting to discuss this aspect with students and have them reflect upon their own knowledge on Native Americans.

Furthermore I like the way Drew Hayden Taylor addresses the problem of Native Americans and alcohol (my family would like to shower in it, if they could) as well as the change of values and traditions. While Rusty is ashamed of his middle name Mukwa, which actually stands for being very strong, he rather prefers being called Rusty, which derives from his rusty gold colored hair. Taylor also introduces the topic of tourism, which often signals change in my opinion, when Rusty says that Keesic shouldn’t throw up, because it would make the rock appear less sacred for tourists. It doesn't seem like it would bother him, he is only concerned about the tourists. 

Altogether  the storyline and language is easy to understand and the first twenty pages only take place on the top of the rock. I really like the solution Drew Hayden Taylor chose so that the reader is confronted with the language of the native tribe but also understands what is meant by it by translating it at the beginning and switching languages trough magic later on in the play. Altogether I really enjoyed reading the first pages of the play and look forward to what is coming next. 

Freitag, 27. April 2012

"Toronto at Dreamer's Rock" - Choice of book


There are several reasons, why I chose the play “Toronto at Dreamer’s Rock” for the multimedia reading journal task. 

First of all I chose it, because I had the pleasure of meeting the author Drew Hayden Taylor twice during my studies at the Leuphana University and really liked his lectures and witty anecdotes. Additionally I already read his funny and satirical play “The Berlin Blues” and enjoyed how Drew Hayden Talyor addressed German stereotypes about Native Americans and Native American stereotypes about Germans alike. 

Given that Drew Hayden Taylor grew up on a native reserve in central Ontario most of his works deal with the life of native people. Since German students know a lot about and are interested in Native Americans his books in general seem highly suitable and amusable as well as extremely motivating for kids.

Concluding, I chose the play “Toronto at Dreamer’s Rock” because I hope that it can be enjoyed by students and teachers in equal measure. 

The title might hint towards the setting of the play. I would guess that "Dreamer's Rock" is a sacred place for a certain tribe. It will be interesting to find out!