Alter-native narratives in Maria Campbell’s Halfbreed

الملخص EN

Life-writing differs from the traditional chronological narrative of autobiography and has a lot in common with the oral tradition of storytelling widespread in indigenous communities.

A close relation can be detected between women’s life-writing and the storytelling tradition embedded in most of the indigenous cultures of North America.

Since indigenous voices “had been historically silenced and excluded from the public discourse, published life stories have become an alternative site for indigenous people’s resistance to various oppressive regimes imposed by the dominant society”(Horakova 4).

Maria Campbell is one of the first Metis women to write about the injustices faced by Metis people in Halfbreed (1973), paving the way for a new generation of Metis women writers.

The Metis, one of Canada's three Aboriginal peoples, have always had to hide their identities out of the shame they were taught to feel when they attended residential schools.

Belonging to and ashamed of her Metis origin, Campbell faced racial discrimination and social injustice in her early life until she found refuge in her cultural heritage.

Halfbreed is directed towards the reinforcement of Metis cultural tradition in order to alter the Natives’ sense of shame.

Campbell succeeded in transforming the meaning of ‘half-breed’ from within.

Her pride in her Metis culture challenges the stereotypical image of the Native woman imposed by the Europeans.

Her choice of the genre of life-writing including characteristics of the oral tradition, is not only a direct challenge to the prevailing norm of autobiography but also an attempt at questioning “historical” versions of the past that were developed in the “master narratives”.

Encompassing both written and oral tradition, the genre life-writing allows Campbell to withhold her Great Grandmother’s teachings (Cheechum’s narrative) together with her own narrative in an attempt to use both narratives to alter or change Metis people’s life.

This research aims to show how Campbell’s use of the genre of life-writing with its focus on the Metis people signifies a reconciliation with her cultural heritage and a successful attempt towards an alter/Native narrative.

For its theoretical framework, the paper will draw on Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth.