The Massey Lectures Series

1 The Massey Lectures Series The Massey Lectures are co-sponsored by cbc Radio, House of Anansi Press, and Massey College, in the University of Toronto. The Series was created in honour of the Right Honourable Vincent Massey , former governor general of Canada, and was inaugurated in 1961 to provide a forum on radio where major contemporary thinkers could address important issues of our time. This book comprises the 2003 Massey Lectures , The Truth About Stories, broadcast in November 2003 as part of cbc Radio's Ideas Series . The producer of the Series was Philip Coulter;. the executive producer was Bernie Lucht. Thomas King Thomas King holds a in English/American Studies from the University of Utah and has taught Native Studies at Utah, Minnesota, and Alberta for the past twenty-five years. He is cur- rently Professor of English (teaching Native Literature and Creative Writing) at the University of Guelph.

2 His widely acclaimed novels include Medicine River, Green Grass, Running Water, and Truth and Bright Water, and he has been nominated for the Governor General's Award as well as the Commonwealth Writers' Prize. King has also written the short-story collection A Short History of Indians in Canada. He is the editor of All My Relations: An Anthology of Contemporary Canadian Native Fiction, and co-editor of The Native in Literature: Canadian and Comparative Perspectives. He also has a popular cbc Radio Series , The Dead Dog Caf Comedy Hour. His father was Cherokee, his mother is Greek, and King is the first Massey lecturer of Native descent. From The Truth About Stories 2003 Written by Thomas King Published by House of Anansi Press Downloaded from Also by Thomas King the truth Fiction about stories A Native Narrative Medicine River Green Grass, Running Water One Good Story, That One thomas king Truth and Bright Water A Short History of Indians in Canada For Children A Coyote Columbus Story Coyote Sings to the Moon Coyote's New Suit A Coyote Solstice Tale As Editor All My Relations: An Anthology of Contemporary Canadian Native Fiction The Native in Literature.

3 Canadian and Comparative Perspectives First Voices, First Words From The Truth About Stories 2003 Written by Thomas King From The Truth About Stories 2003 Written by Thomas King Published by House of Anansi Press Downloaded from Published by House of Anansi Press Downloaded from Copyright 2003 Dead Dog Caf Productions Inc. and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation For Helen, who has heard these stories before All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Published in 2003 by Distributed in Canada by House of Anansi Press Inc. HarperCollins Canada Ltd. 110 Spadina Avenue, Suite 801 1995 Markham Road Toronto, on, m5v 2k4 Scarborough, on, m1b 5m8.

4 Tel. 416-363-4343 Toll free tel. 1-800-387-0117. Fax 416-363-1017. cbc and Massey College logos used with permission The publisher gratefully acknowledges kind permission to reprint excerpts from the following: (pp. 44, 93, and 95) I Hear the Train: Reflections, Inventions, Refractions by Louis Owens, 2001 University of Oklahoma Press. Used by permission. (p. 62) The Halfbreed Blues by Andrea Menard, words and music 2000 Andrea Menard, socan. Used by permission. House of Anansi Press is committed to protecting our natural environment. As part of our efforts, this book is printed on paper that contains 100% post-consumer recycled fibres, is acid-free, and is processed chlorine-free. 13 12 11 10 09 9 10 11 12 13. library and archives canada cataloguing in publication data King, Thomas, 1943 . The truth about stories : a native narrative / Thomas King.

5 (cbc Massey Lectures Series ). isbn 978-0-88784-696-0. I. Title. II. Series . 2003 C813'.54 C2003-904921-3. Cover design: Bill Douglas at The Bang Cover photo: Thomas King Typesetting: Brian Panhuyzen We acknowledge for their financial support of our publishing program the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, and the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP). Printed and bound in Canada From The Truth About Stories 2003 Written by Thomas King From The Truth About Stories 2003 Written by Thomas King Published by House of Anansi Press Downloaded from Published by House of Anansi Press Downloaded from Contents i You'll Never Believe What Happened Is Always a Great Way to Start 1. ii You're Not the Indian I Had in Mind 31. iii Let Me Entertain You 61.

6 Iv A Million Porcupines Crying in the Dark 91. v What Is It About Us That You Don't Like? 121. Afterwords: Private Stories 153. Notes 169. From The Truth About Stories 2003 Written by Thomas King From The Truth About Stories 2003 Written by Thomas King Published by House of Anansi Press Downloaded from Published by House of Anansi Press Downloaded from I. YOU'LL NEVER BELIEVE. W H AT H A P P E N E D . I S A L WAY S A G R E A T WAY. T O S TA RT. There is a story I know. It's about the earth and how it floats in space on the back of a turtle. I've heard this story many times, and each time someone tells the story, it changes. Sometimes the change is simply in the voice of the storyteller. Sometimes the change is in the details. Sometimes in the order of events. Other times it's the dia- logue or the response of the audience.

7 But in all the tellings of all the tellers, the world never leaves the tur- tle's back. And the turtle never swims away. One time, it was in Prince Rupert I think, a young girl in the audience asked about the turtle and the earth. If the earth was on the back of a turtle, what was below the turtle? Another turtle, the storyteller told her. And below that turtle? Another turtle. And below that? Another turtle. The girl began to laugh, enjoying the game, I imagine. So how many turtles are there? she wanted to know. The From The Truth About Stories 2003 Written by Thomas King From The Truth About Stories 2003 Written by Thomas King Published by House of Anansi Press Downloaded from Published by House of Anansi Press Downloaded from 2 the truth about stories You'll Never Believe What Happened 3. storyteller shrugged.

8 No one knows for sure, he told her, having misplaced her man, or more properly having had but it's turtles all the way down. him misplace himself, she had no such luxury and was caught between what she was supposed to be invisible The truth about stories is that that's all we are. The and female and what circumstances dictated she Okanagan storyteller Jeannette Armstrong tells us that become visible and, well, not male. Self-supporting Through my language I understand I am being spoken perhaps. That was it. Visible and self-supporting. to, I'm not the one speaking. The words are coming from As a child and as a young man, I watched her make her many tongues and mouths of Okanagan people and the way from doing hair in a converted garage to designing land around them. I am a listener to the language's sto- tools for the aerospace industry.

9 It was a long, slow jour- ries, and when my words form I am merely retelling the ney. At Aerojet in California, she began as a filing clerk. By same stories in different patterns. 1 the end of the first year, she was doing drafting work, When I was a kid, I was partial to stories about other though she was still classified and paid as a filing clerk. worlds and interplanetary travel. I used to imagine that I By the end of the second year, with night school stuffed could just gaze off into space and be whisked to another into the cracks, she was doing numerical-control engineer- planet, much like John Carter in Edgar Rice Burroughs's ing and was still classified and paid as a filing clerk. Mars Series . I'd like to tell you that I was interested in It was, after all, a man's world, and each step she took outer space or that the stars fascinated me or that I was had to be made as quietly as possible, each movement curious about the shape and nature of the universe.

10 Fact camouflaged against complaint. For over thirty years, she of the matter was I just wanted to get out of town. Wanted held to the shadows, stayed in the shade. to get as far away from where I was as I could. At fifteen, I knew the men she worked with. They were our pluto looked good. Tiny, cold, lonely. As far from the sun neighbours and our friends. I listened to their stories as you could get. about work and play, about their dreams and their disap- I'm sure part of it was teenage angst, and part of it was pointments. Your mother, they liked to tell me, is just one being poor in a rich country, and part of it was knowing of the boys. But she wasn't. I knew it. She knew it better. that white was more than just a colour. And part of it was In 1963, my mother and five of her colleagues were seeing the world through my mother's eyes.