Keeper'n Me

Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses racism, colonialism, and alcoholism and includes prejudicial terminology for Indigenous people. The study guide uses the term “Indian” only in quotation to convey the tone of the text and not as an acceptable characterization term.

“Funny thing is, like I told the boy, the old days never really gone. Not for us. The outside world goes crazy all the time, findin’ new ways to do old things, forget the teachin’s their own old ones taught. But us we listen all the time. To old guys like me. Always talkin’ anyway, might as well listen, eh? Heh, heh, heh. What I mean is, us we always had our storytellers.”

Richard Wagamese counters the narrative of cultural erasure from the beginning of the novel. Keeper explains that storytellers are guardians of cultural heritage and preserve the Anishinaabe tradition. The tribe relies on the elders as keepers of wisdom and knowledge to pass on the traditional teachings and educate the younger generation. Storytelling is crucial in battling loss and colonial trauma.

“Most of our history’s about fishing, hunting and trapping on accounta that’s what we do. Or at least that’s what we did before “the settlement of North America” as the books say. Nowadays there’s still a lotta that happening but no one’s making a living off it anymore. Most of the time there’s just welfare. Every once in a while the government will surprise the hell outta everyone and give us work cutting scrub timber or something. […] You get to know each other pretty good when all you got is each other for entertainment. Guess that’s the strongest point about this reserve and the people here. Even though we’re poor we still got spirit and heart and we look out for each other. Lotsa other places can’t say that.”

The passage describes the origins of the Ojibwe tribe and its contemporary condition. The Ojibwe are part of the Anishinaabe group and depended on hunting, trapping, and fishing for their survival. Wagamese illustrates how colonialism changed the land and the ability of the tribe to sustain itself. The tribe depends on governmental support for jobs, while poverty dominates in the reserve. Despite cultural loss, the community shares a strong bond that colonialism could not eliminate.

“By the time I made it back here I was lost. At twenty-five years old I never figured on bein’ no Indian. I didn’t remember a thing about my earlier life and when I disappeared alone into the foster homes I disappeared completely from the Indian world.”

As the Canadian government was following policies of assimilation toward Indigenous people, Garnet was forcibly removed from his family and placed into all-white foster homes. Garnet grew up completely disconnected from his culture, without any knowledge of his Anishinaabe identity. Wagamese repeats the word “disappeared” to convey Garnet’s diminished sense of self, since he is both figuratively absent from the foster homes and literally absent from his home.