Readers of Canadian literature are bombarded with stereotypes and misrepresentations of indigenous women in works by white writers. The images are often unrealistic and perpetuate derogatory ideas that cultivate racism and prejudice.

Janice Acoose, in her book Iskekwak outlines the dangers that exist when white writers choose to write about native characters:

It is dangerous for non-Indigenous writers to move into other cultures, particularly the Native Canadian culture which theirs has oppressed and exploited, because without careful thought, they are likely to perpetuate stereotypicaland one dimensional views of that culture. Acoose 71

It is important ot expose these white writers and their literature in order to bring into consciousness those images that are damaging to native women. Here is a look at some of the works of literature that treat the Native Woman in a derogatory way and the effect it may have on the reader.

Piquette Tonerre- Young Aboriginal Girl

Vanessa MacLeod- Narrator: She is a young christian middle-class girl whose voice mirrors the racist/patriarchal society in which she live.

• Piquette had "failed several grades because her attendence had been sporadic and her interest in school negligable" (Laurence 193)
  
  
• Piquette's Aboriginality makes her function as an exotic creature who evolkes a sort of "daughter of the forest stereotype" (Acoose 81) Vanessa imagines that she "sprang from the the Big-Bear and Poundmaker, of Tacumseh and of the Iriquois who had eaten Father Brebeuf's heart" Laurence 195
  
  
• Piquette's death is the ultimate act of reducing the Native Woman to a helpless victim. She is no longer able to function in the confines of her marginal role. But Vanessa's mom says she is "a victim of her own vices", denying comletely the pressures that the white, christian, eurocanadian patriarchal society had placed on her.

These contructed negative images effect the reader in their vision of Aboriginal women. Piquette has no redeeming qualities and thiswould also have an effect on the esteem of the Female Aboriginal reader.

Elsa- Inuit Woman

Jimmy- Elsa's illegitamite mixed-blood son who is conceived in a rape by an American GI.

• Roy refers to the Inuit people as "Eskimos"
  
  
• Elsa is raped by an American Soldier who is stationed at a nearby native village. Her reaction to the rape is disturbing as she "could not keep from laughing" at the GI's antics. When he "presses a few dollars into her hand" she interprets it as a "friendly gersture" (Roy 9)
  
  
• Jimmy's whiteness puts him in a place of priviledge in his community and he has a total direspect for his mother's culture. he feels the need to be around other white people: "he had enough of being with those broad faces" (Roy 123). He eventually "escapes" his culture to live happily in white-land and never makes contact with his mother again.
  

This novel is a completely unrealistic tale. Firstly, it legitimizes rape and violence. Further, it completely devalues the Inuit culture by presenting it as undesireable and lowly.








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Works Cited

Acoose, Janice.Iskekwak. Toronto: Women's Press, 1997.


Laurence, Margarette. "The Loons", The Norton Introduction to Literature. ED. Carl E Bain. New York: WW Norton & Co. 1991


Roy, Gabrielle. Windflower Toronto: McClelland & Stewart Inc, 1991





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