Understanding Joshua Whitehead’s Jonny Appleseed
What We Can Learn About Intersectionality, National Engagement, and Cultural Voice from a Work that has Re-Enfranchised FMNI Communities in Canada – Through Colonizing the Colonizer and the Strength of Indigenous Kinship
***Originally submitted 15 April 2020 to Dr Rain Prud’homme-Cranford, in part for credit, for ENGL 376: Indigenous Literatures I at the University of Calgary***
***Not only is this essay subject to copyright, but any unauthorized use without citation is considered academic misconduct (plagiarism). You are welcome to consult this paper if you provide the appropriate citation(s)***
Jonny Appleseed’s titular character is a young 2SQ person– two-Spirit, queer indigenous – who allows for the emanation of Whitehead's voice and experiences to shine. This is achieved through Jonny’s raw, powerful, and free-spirited voice throughout Whitehead’s first-person narrative. Within this paper, I will analyze the use of first-person narratives as a medium for Indigenous voices to re-enfranchise the cultural voice of First Nations-Metis-Native-Innuit (FMNI) peoples of Turtle Island. I argue that intersectionality is most effective through this medium when paired with the raw unadulterated voices of FMNI writers – ultimately targeting the reader’s subconscious. To support this, I will describe how the ‘bridging’ and ‘dilution’ of FMNI experiences through re-contextualization is both adverse to reader response and inimical to the intersectionality and engagement of indigenous issue. First, I will provide a reader-response analysis to Joshua Whitehead’s Jonny Appleseed and “mihkokwaniy”, as well as Carolyn Dunn and Rain Prud’homme-Cranford’s “Grandma’s Zydeco Stomp Dance: A Patchwork Poem”. I will then demonstrate their implications through indigenous versus western ways of knowing, as well as ramifications for FMNI law and policy. Ultimately, I will demonstrate how cultural works that are presented in a ‘general’ manner are – intentionally or unintentionally – ‘watered down’. Thereby propagating FMNI issues further through ineffective intersectionality due to misaligned stimulus on a reader’s psyche. I believe a more nuanced approach stimulates the reader’s psyche in innovative ways – subconsciously and consciously – thereby immersing instead of intersecting the reader, which is more effective.
Despite the authentic voice of “Grandma’s Zydeco Stomp Dance: A Patchwork Poem”, the form of the work is stuck in a ‘para-colonial cage of voice appropriation’. This ‘para-colonial cage’ is reflected in Hurley’s video essay. She states that “[Knowing black people] doesn’t make you black […]. It’s commonly known that identifying as Aboriginal […] is complex […]. It’s a lived experience” (8:21:00 – 8:58:00). In reader-response – the primary ‘means of reading for the masses’ – this sentiment of ‘equating a part to the sum’ holds. There are two consequences of this phenomenon. Firstly, the ‘bridging’ of narratives ‘dilute’ the issues into easily understood, and false parallels. Or, as Fachinger describes, how “[…] the resolution of the question of the Jewish State has led to an internationally satisfactory conclusion to centuries of anti-Semitism, if not universally, certainly collectively in the mainstream…[Thus] despite [its effectiveness in providing] parallel narratives to North American Indigenous communities, it likewise suggests that these issues are resolved, even if only on a subconscious level" (84). Secondly, the reader's response also becomes diminished. Literary forms inform the narrative just as, if not more than, the explicit themes themselves. Thus, it is paramount that while the narrative becomes a lived experience for the reader, so too does the narrative's presentation. I refer here to the use of indigenous language, folklore, and culture – which must be complemented by radically resistant, innovative and subversive forms of literature.
While I find “Grandma’s Zydeco Stomp Dance: A Patchwork Poem” to be more enjoyable than either of Whitehead’s works due to its approachability and sense of familiarity –due to the division of the stanzas and the conversational enjambed free verse – it is also through this familiarity that the poem falls short of Whitehead’s works. Jonny Appleseed’s unprocessed first-person narrative employs a journal-like form, with line breaks and punctuation (or lack thereof) which is uncharacteristic for a novel. Yet it remains true to the other vital novel conventions – including chapter numbering, time breaks, and a contained narrative. Though it reads like a journal, Whitehead is careful not to fully commit to – or perhaps, it is better to say, overextend – the form beyond recognition. For many readers, the lewd and explicit coming-of-age story, combined with Jonny’s identification as a 2SQ, is an unfamiliar prospect that they have not experienced. Therefore, Whitehead must balance the unfamiliarity of narrative with the unfamiliar form, such that they complement and do not overpower each other – a balance he has struck flawlessly. Similarly, in “mihkokwaniy”, Whitehead frequently uses odd or unique characters including ampersands, vertical lines, concinnated words, strikethroughs, internet slang, and frequent use of Oji-Cree vocabulary. This is in contrast to the more regular, traditional techniques employed by Dunn and Prud’homme-Cranford. Whitehead also uses unrhymed verses, without regular capitalization – another distinction from his counterparts. The meter employed in “mihkowaniy” is also disjointed and irregular, fuelled by the unique use of punctuation and short, broken lines. Whitehead’s use of unfamiliarity causes the reader to stumble through the narrative as a ‘lived experience’. Further, this ‘stumbling’ impresses a feeling of discomfort upon the reader, which foregrounds the psyche with the trauma being discussed in the text. It is this use of form that further enriches the narrative into a more authentic and 'real' understanding, as the reader must also experience – albeit to an astronomically smaller scale – the radical alienation, discomfort, and ‘the unknown’ that FMNI communities encountered during colonization and frequently still experience today. In doing so, Whitehead goes beyond intersectionality with active readers. Instead, all readers in the audience will have their psyche 'colonized': in what Freud termed the id. When stimulating the id through Whitehead’s formal techniques, the ego will – as biologists' term – call upon the super-ego’s sympathetic response when reconciling these evoked feelings and emotions in the ego. Ergo, the rational and conscious part of the brain is stimulated into action by the subconscious. In other words, Whitehead’s subconscious stimulations ultimately encourage everyone – from passive readers to academic scholars – to further their critical ideas, personal relation, and understanding of these narratives – regardless of their active desire to do so. It is this effect that is created by Whitehead’s works that are so critical and unique, and what I believe is the distinctive factor in the future of minority literature: immersing the reader into the narrative, instead of intersecting with it.
I can attest to this effect from my own reader’s response. I entered this class with a relatively strong understanding of indigenous issues – having spent half my life in the border town of Lloydminster. Throughout grade school, I had frequent encounters and engagement with various Nations – in person, virtually, through pen-pals. I had participated in sweat lodges, heard first-hand accounts from victims of Residential Schools, participated in a smattering of traditional ceremonies – and yet I still felt that I lacked a sense of 'real' understanding – what I can now describe as a lack of lived experience. When I began my undergraduate journey in the fall of 2017, I had been introduced to "mihkokwaniy" in Dr Mason's class and struggled to explicate the poem in any meaningful way. I stumbled, and I struggled. Through my years of study with the English Department, and upon gaining insight through the various lectures, discussions, and texts of this class, I now feel I can sufficiently unpack Whitehead's work. That is, that I can accept that I may never truly understand the poem in its entirety – without a lived experienced or ‘true and authentic’ indigenous kinship, I have no place within the narrative. I realize now that I had been trying to appropriate the voice of the poem to suit my analyses and my western-canonical literary mind. I understand now that I am to let the voice stand on its own, and that even in analyses, the Canonical English Literature discipline risks para-colonializing its FMNI members. With this anagnorisis, perhaps the colonizer in me has now become colonized.
Beyond my epiphany, there are two other significant consequences of this effect I would like to address. Firstly, the dissonance between indigenous and western ways of knowing, and secondly, the externalities on FMNI law and policy. Simpson offers insight into indigenous ways of learning in her ninth chapter of As We Have Always Done: “Land as Pedagogy”. Simpson describes a cyclical intimacy between life, land, animal, and man and how this is embedded in learning from and paying tribute to, all living things. This learning through legends of animals, through their history and their story, is central to FMNI pedagogy – leading to invaluable knowledge. The panel of Richler, Decter, Tregebov, Scheier, and Joseph further remark on the impact of indigenous oral tradition: with emphasis on the dichotomy between mainstream writers describing cultural struggles, versus minority writers displaying their work on “the fringe”. They describe the dilution and appropriation of voice as adapting works into "something palatable for everyday people" (18:05:00 –18:08:00) versus the traditional oral traditions of FMNI writers, which “lay outside major-mainstream cultural ecosystems that are often required to reach a wider audience” (19:10:00 – 19:23:00).
Whitehead’s unique form further reinforces the authenticity of voice, which is essential for readers to gain an indigenous perspective of the issues. This works in conjunction with the aforementioned psychological effects on the subconscious and brings indigenous ways of knowing to the table, in nuanced and accessible means. Furthermore, this form encourages the continued development of indigenous creative identities, which are both unparalleled and powerful. Jonny Appleseed’s nominations and accolades include: finalist for the Dayne Ogilvie Prize for Canadian LGBTQ writers, a long-listed nominee for the 2018 Scotiabank Giller Prize, a shortlisted finalist for the 2018 Governor General's Award for English-language fiction and 2019 Amazon.ca First Novel Award, and winning the award for Gay Fiction at the 31st Lambda Literary Awards (CBC). This shows Whitehead's mainstream success with this style, demonstrating the potential for FMNI writers to seize the spotlight to carve out a popularly celebrated legacy in Canadian Literature. This also demonstrates this forms’ ability to significantly impact non-FMNI groups in Canada, arguably to greater effect than other FMNI writers – an ability I prescribe to the form Whitehead uses.
Additionally, there are two notable consequences of these literary forms on FNMI law and policy. The trickle-down gained from grassroots activism and community ally-ship should not be undervalued, as partnerships between non-indigenous and FMNI groups must exist to impact lasting change. Further, the reaffirmation of this FMNI identity continues the healing of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and continues to call attention to current issues – such as Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. Utilizing these narratives and the nuance of these forms when advocating, campaigning, and calling for action, will result in the same aforementioned effects on the psyche: acting as a powerful tool for FMNI groups and their allies. This powerful cultural weapon can be used to ‘colonize the colonizer’, to radically resist the horrid legislation found in documents such as the Gradual Civilization Act and the Indian Act, and to unite FMNI communities with a greater sense of indigenous kinship.
To understand contentious cultural issues means we must find the balance between the sentiment of “some discourse is better than no discourse” versus settling for diluted depictions of culture. I believe the preservation of the purity and authenticity of culture is paramount and that all discourse is not good discourse. Ergo, ‘shortcut’ discourses are inherently destructive and can lead to long-term dissonance in the form of paradigm shifts: a narrative, once unleashed upon the world becomes the proverbial 'genie from the bottle'. Therefore, first-person narratives from FNMI authors must be underscored, while voice-appropriation must not be tolerated under any circumstance. Further, FNMI authors should actively modify or otherwise adulterate their works in search of non-indigenous engagement, rather, the burden falls on society to bring the authentic FNMI works to the mainstream, where they can be widely engaged – an event that has become more frequent in the second decade of the twenty-first century. It is on this premise that authors, now embarked in writing in this new and third decade – lead in part by Whitehead’s charge forward – must be vindicated. I should note here that I do not consider Dunn’s and Prud’homme-Cranford’s work to be inferior, a ‘shortcut’, or detrimental to discourse in any way. Rather, I refuse to offer the spotlight to a voice-appropriated work – where my argument becomes indigenous versus ‘fraud’. Instead, I have chosen to analyze and juxtapose the work of Whitehead, Dunn, and Prud’homme-Cranford to further understand the nuanced ways in which intersectionality can be achieved by true FNMI writers. Ideally, all engagement would come from FNMI-rooted forms, which I believe Whitehead has been able to develop and hybridize. However, in practicality, it is negligent to disregard the positive intersectionality that more-accessible works such as “Grandma’s Zydeco Stomp Dance: A Patchwork Poem” brings. The benefit of Dunn’s and Prud’homme-Cranford's work should not be understated but instead lauded, as they and countless others have contributed significantly in shifting society to its current state. I find that Whitehead offers a more unique and innovative approach to this intersectionality – and one that leads to cultural immersion. Despite its impracticalities and utopian-founded-fantasies, I argue that the time for intersectionality is now past. In the modern era of the enlightened cultural revolution, with a decline in the proliferation of educational racism, and an increasing membership in activist groups – this is the time for unconditional cultural immersion, in the style of Whitehead and his contemporaries. Is society ready for this new wave of unapologetically raw and unequivocally passionate FNMI writers – and by extension, has the crusade of cultural equality and minority voice successfully made these radical forms of cultural output convincingly popular and sufficiently profitable? Only time can answer this question, and the greatest question of all – will our society ever reach true truth and reconciliation?
Works Cited
Dunn, Carolyn M. and Prud’homme-Cranford, Rain. “Grandma’s Zydeco Stomp Dance: A Patchwork Poem.” World Literature Today. May 2017. https://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/2017/may/grandmas-zydeco-stomp-dance-patchwork-poem-rain-prudhomme-cranford-carolyn-m-dunn
Fachinger, Petra. “Intersections of Diaspora and Indigeneity: The Standoff at Kahnesatake in Lee Maracle's Sundogs and Tessa McWatt's Out of My Skin.” Canadian Literature, no. 220, 2014, pp. 74–91,203.
Hurley, Angelina, “Indigenous cultural appropriation: what not to do.” The Conversation. 28 November 2017. https://theconversation.com/indigenous-cultural-appropriation-what-not-to-do-86679
Kacirk, Jeffrey. Forgotten English. New York, William Morrow & Co. 1997. ISBN 0-688-15018-7.
Simpson, Leanne, and ProQuest. As We Have Always Done: Indigenous Freedom through Radical Resistance. 2017.
Udy Vanessa, “The Appropriation of Aboriginal Cultural Heritage: Examining the Uses and Pitfalls of the Canadian Intellectual Property Regime.” IPinCH: Intellectual Property Issues in Canadian Heritage: Theory, Practice, Policy, Ethics. Simon Fraser University. 19 November 2015. https://www.sfu.ca/ipinch/outputs/blog/canadian-intellectual-property-regime/
“Voice and Appropriation: A panel discussion hosted by Daniel Richler about cultural appropriation in literature. The panel features Ann Decter, Rhea Tregebov, Libby Scheier and Clifton Joseph.” TVO.org, 1 July 1991. https://www.tvo.org/video/archive/voice-and-appropriation.
Whitehead, Joshua. “mihkokwaniy”. CBC Radio, 17 July 2017. https://www.cbc.ca/radio/newfire/opening-up-about-indigenous-intimacy-1.4181758/read-mihkokwaniy-by-poet-joshua-whitehead-1.4201873
Whitehead, Joshua. Jonny Appleseed. Arsenal Pulp Press, 2018. ISBN 978-1-55152-726-0.
