Take Us to Your Chief

Drew Hayden Taylor

Description

A forgotten Haudenosaunee social song beams into the cosmos like a homing beacon for interstellar visitors. A computer learns to feel sadness and grief from the history of atrocities committed against First Nations. A young Native man discovers the secret to time travel in ancient petroglyphs. Drawing inspiration from science fiction legends like Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov and Ray Bradbury, Drew Hayden Taylor frames classic science-fiction tropes in an Aboriginal perspective.

The nine stories in this collection span all traditional topics of science fiction--from peaceful aliens to hostile invaders; from space travel to time travel; from government conspiracies to connections across generations. Yet Taylor's First Nations perspective draws fresh parallels, likening the cultural implications of alien contact to those of the arrival of Europeans in the Americas, or highlighting the impossibility of remaining a "good Native" in such an unnatural situation as a space mission.

Infused with Native stories and variously mysterious, magical and humorous, Take Us to Your Chief is the perfect mesh of nostalgically 1950s-esque science fiction with modern First Nations discourse.

Informations

• Publié par: Douglas and McIntyre (2013) Ltd.
• Date de parution: 08 octobre 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 42
• EAN13: 9781771621328
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Take Us to You r Chief


Take Us to Your Chief
And Other Stories
Drew Hayden Taylor
Douglas & M c Intyre


Copyright © 2016 Drew Hayde n Taylor
1 2 3 4 5 — 20 19 18 17 16

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without prior permission of the publisher or, in the case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, a licence from Access Copyright, www.accesscopyright.ca , 1-800-893-5777, info @ accesscopyright.ca .

Douglas and M c Intyre ( 2013) Ltd.
PO Box 219, Madeira Park, BC , V0 N 2H0
www.douglas-mcintyre.com

Edited by Shiraros e Wilensky
Copyedited by Amand a Growe
Cover design by Anna Comfort O’Keeffe
Text design by She d Simas
Printed and bound i n Canada
Distributed in the US by Publishers Grou p West
Printed on 100% post-consumer fiber, FSC -certified, processed chlorine-free and manufactured using biogas, a local and renewable energ y source






Douglas and McIntyre (2013) Ltd. acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, which last year invested $153 million to bring the arts to Canadians throughout the country. We also gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund and from the Province of British Columbia through the BC Arts Council and the Book Publishing Ta x Credit.


Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing i n Publication
Taylor, Drew Hayden, 1962-, author
Take us to your chief : and other stories / Drew Hayde n Taylor.

Issued in print and electroni c formats.
ISBN 978 -1-77162-131-1 (paperback).-- ISBN 978 -1-77162-132-8 (html)

I. Title.

PS8589.A885T34 2016 C813'.54 C2016-904363-0
C2016-904364-9


Foreword
Welcome to the new terra nullius , or as Shakespeare referred to it so well in Hamlet , “the undiscovered country.” Or more fittingly, as stated in another classic using possibly the most famous split infinitive in history, you are about to “boldly go where no one has gon e before.”
A million years ago when I was a child, I was always fascinated by what could be. I think this was primarily because I was surrounded by what is and what was. As a Native person, I was constantly and importantly made aware of our heritage, our culture, everything from the past that made us unique and special. Also I was conscious of the fact that, technologically speaking, we were at a bit of a disadvantage compared to those who showed up one day for dinner and never left. I clearly remember the first time I saw television, played with a computer, got an electric toothbrush, etc. Darn clever, those white people. Native people constantly wonder at the clever innovations and devices the dominant culture feels the need to create—everything from vibrators to nuclea r bombs.
Admittedly, First Nations and science fiction don’t usually go together. In fact, they could be considered rather unusual topics to mention in the same sentence, much like fish and bicycles. As genre fiction goes, they are practically strangers, except for maybe the occasional parallel universe story. Many would argue that Native people are not known for their space-travelling abilities. Nor their mastery and innovation of that aforementioned modern and world-altering technology. We may have known what to do with every part of a buffalo, but how to cannibalize and utilize the parts from an Apple laptop to make a pair of moccasins… the less said th e better.
Many people’s only contact with Native sci-fi is that famous episode from the original Star Trek series called “The Paradise Syndrome,” where Kirk loses his memory and ends up living with some transplanted Indigene on a faraway planet. These Aboriginal folks came complete with black wigs, standard 1960s headbands and fringed miniskirts. More recently there was the not-so-successful mixed-genre movie Cowboys & Aliens . But in between, the pickings were and are lean and hard t o find.
I grew up reading science fiction or, as it’s sometimes called, speculative fiction (which in itself is a controversial term, since at its essence, isn’t all fiction speculative?). First it was comic books, then television, then pulp novels and finally what could be called the good stuff. My first serious sci-fi literary crush was H. G. Wells. I read and reread The Time Machine and The Invisible Man too many times to count. Discovered and devoured the first generation of masters including Jules Verne and H. P. Lovecraft (many consider him more of a horror writer, but I like to think he goes both ways) and so on up through the Golden Age of Science Fiction and into the more contemporar y contributors.
To me, sci-fi was a world of possibilities. As a fan of writing, why shouldn’t my fascination extend to such unconventional works? It was still writing, still literature in all its glory, but here they used different tools to explore the human condition, be they aliens, advanced technology or other such novel approaches. That was my intention with this collection of short stories. I wanted to take traditional (a buzzword in the Native community) science-fiction characteristics and filter them through an Aboriginal consciousness. That is what you are holding in you r hands.
Previously I dabbled a bit, sort of flirted with this concept over the decades. In my very first play, Toronto at Dreamer’s Rock , three sixteen-year-old boys from three different time periods meet at the top of a magical rock where boys have gone for thousands of years to have a vision quest. In another play, alterNatives , one of the characters is a twenty-four-year-old Ojibway man who wants to write science fiction (no relation). His partner dismisses the genre and wants him to write the great Canadian novel, and the drama (and comedy) begins.
I am an old hand at hybridizing. Perhaps it goes all the way back to my DNA —I’m half Ojibway and half… not. Combining genres of writing is a favourite hobby of mine. Over the years I’ve written Native comedies, what could be called a Native magic-realism novel, a Native vampire book and graphic novel, a Native musical, and so on… Why not Native science fiction? It seemed the time was finall y right.
This book, for me, is also part of a larger personal expedition in the world of First Nations writing. Part of my journey in this life both as a First Nations individual and as a writer is to expand the boundaries of what is considered Native literature. I have always believed that literature should reflect all the different aspects and facets of life. There is more to the Indigenous existence than negative social issues and victim narratives. Thomas King has a collection of Aboriginal murder mysteries. Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm has published an assortment of Indigenous erotica, and Daniel Heath Justice has written a trilogy of adventure novels featuring elves and other fantastic characters. Out of sheer interest and a growing sense of excitement, I wanted to go where no other (well, very few) Native writers had gone before. Collectively, we have such broad experiences and diverse interests. Let’s explore that in our literature. Driving home my point, we have many fabulous and incredibly talented writers in our community, but some critics might argue our literary perspective is a little too predictable—of a certain limited perspective. For example, a lot of Indigenous novels and plays tend to walk a narrow path specifically restricted to stories of bygone days. Or angry/dysfunctional aspects of contemporary First Nations life. Or the hangover problems resulting from centuries of colonization. All worthwhile and necessary reflections of Aboriginal life for sure. But I wonder why it can’t b e more?
Now, as we’re well into the twenty-first century, the time has come to explore the concept of Native Science Fiction, a phrase that I submit should no longer be considered a literar y oxymoron.
It’s frequently said how difficult being a writer can be. But on occasion, it is a hell of a lot of fun. Yes, so many projects are labours of love. This, I am delighted to say, was truly a labour o f fun.
Drew Hayde n Taylor
Curve Lake First Nation, Ontario
May 2016 (Stardate 6129.6)


A Culturally Inappropriate Armageddon
Part 1
C-RES Is on the Air
April 27, 1991
Emily Porter was exceptionally nervous. It was a very big day, but she seemed to be the only one who cared about its significance. Aaron Bomberry and Tracey Greene hadn’t arrived at the station yet, and they, too, were scheduled to begin their broadcasting careers in fifteen minutes, at high noon. Where the hell were they? This was her brainchild… Okay, maybe the other two had helped deal with the grants and the complex and mercurial powers that be at the band office and various levels of government, but C- RES had her blood and sweat all over it. If it had had DNA , it would have bee n hers.
The first community radio station on her reserve, one of the first of its type in this part of Canada—this was her baby. She planned to nurse it for the rest of her life. The world needed changing, she thought, and she was just the person to do it… well, at least her part of it, by providing news, weather, sports, music and talk about and for the Iroquois people of her community. Standing out on the dirt driveway, she looked up and saw the huge antenna towering above her, as if giving that distant hi