Not exactly sure how one of the most bizarre conversations I've had this week got here, but it's a topic that SHOULD be normal to discuss, and yet somehow wasn't. My last post discussed how we've been supporting and helping developing writers, some who are disabled, some who are minorities, and all who bring a unique and different perspective but great creativity. To do this, and to provide a space more than one has described as "safe," means we have to bring informed support.
We had one such writer venture into our Book Island office several months ago, before our Grand Opening official launch party. She came for support to develop a story she was working on. Without knowing anything about it, she introduced it as delving into 'indigenous' folklore, so my natural question, which seemed innocent and normal was "do you have an indiginous background?" She avoided the question - five times, before giving any response of any kind. I believe she is in the United States midwest region, and she delivered a story she was working on about time travelling Yeti. My line of questioning was only based on her description, and until today I had no idea if Yeti were indigenous Folklore, so this is where our story begins.
Over the summer she took some creative breaks, but we exchanged numbers, and periodically I would just text her to say hello. I was nothing but friendly to her over these months, and my role in all of this was only to support her developping this story. However, for me, and for my co-editor, that means bringing informed conversation about how the story is developed. In this case it would be discussing how to treat indiginous folklore respectfully and to avoid colonizing their stories. However, we were never able to reach any kind of discussion on that topic with this writer.
In the past month, she was around more, telling me she was working on a new idea. I have three or four of these developing writers, and others have similar disabilities that slow down their productivity, so I just express excitement about their creativity and desire to see what they have in mind and what direction they are going. One of our disabled writers in Finland has been most productive with concrete hands on support in a session where we sat and waited for her to put something down on paper with encouragement for every doubt she voiced. We are happy to continue providing that level of support if it helps her overcome her illness which makes it hard to move forward on her own. To me, this North American writer was not saying anything different to me. However, this week, her conversation took a turn, and returned to that initial discussion.
She asked me if I remembered "that conversation" and then misrepresented something about this topic that wasn't related to what I said. Of course I remembered the conversation where she avoided my question five times, but did not recognize what she was talking about. Her descriptions of her own feelings - just about my normal natural question about her ethnicity - were "frustrated" "put off" "pissed off" - THAT I EVEN ASKED? At this point, I had no idea how to handle her discomfort about this topic which I feel like she should be able to talk about maturely. Especially in order to get to the question, if she wanted, how to support her story development in a way that was respectful of the native culture folklore. I used the example when I wrote my horror story about the dog from Romania - Romanians HATE talking about Dracula, which is colonized versions of their folklore that has nothing to do with their own stories. I did my research into the actual folklore, and then I had a Romanian friend review my folklore to check that it was represented authnetically instead of a colonized viewpoint. Ironically, a lot of British and American readers can't handle the Romanian male character that is so true to Romanian culture, because he doesn't fit their norms.
At first she seemed to respond normally and thank me for clarifying what I had meant originally. Then, again, she used these descriptions about being "put off" or "pissed off" that I asked her the question. My co-editor Joe and I talk ALL THE TIME about our own indiginous influences, and he has written several articles on the treatment of primitivism in art. I should perhaps add that both Joe and I come from cultures which have been colonized and fight for authentic representation. We had another writer influenced by her African spiritual heritage, and finding that inspiration for her creativity to be rich. She and I talked about approaching other cultures with curiosity, instead of "arrogance." For someone to be confrontational with me about this making her so uncomfortable was beyond my bandwidth, frankly, to comprehend. Particularly since I had only been there to support the development of her story, as I communicated to her, would be informed by an understanding of how indigenous content should be treated respectfully. That was the point she went off in a huff. She told me she wouldn't be giving us her story, and I honestly felt like she was a bitch to me for spending my time and effort supporting her writing and investing in these discussions to help develop it.
Of course, my co-editor Joe reviewed our conversation (all by text chat logs) and agreed I had done right here in treating this topic with respect. I did not understand why she was being so confrontational with me, since it wasn't a matter of my opinion. I was just the messanger communicating to her "this is how we need to be informed about your story in developing it." She was literally shooting the messanger.
Since we never got beyond her offense that I asked her about her ethnic background to discuss the content of the story, I went to answer my own question today. This only started because of her own description of the themes as indigenous. When she was getting upset with me for I do not know why, she said "my yetis are furry beings." I kept asking her "are yeti considered inigenous folklore? You are the one who introduced them that way." I honestly did not even know the answer to that question or whether she was making such a big deal out of nothing. In all honesty, I have no idea why she was making such a big deal at all about something as so minor as asking her what ethnic background she had.
I went looking for the answer to that quesiton, and to examine, how would I approach her story based on the kind of research I would have asked her to do to be respectful to any folklore themes. My co-editor Joe observed "look at these themes in her story, they are about hiding away in case people hate you." He thought perhaps that was a reflection on her own internal psyche. In her story, her Yeti were discussing their own tradition of hiding from humans who would hate or hunt them. Let me return to the first question, which is what if any indiginous folklore do they originate from? What if any cultural values would need to be treated respectfully? I found my answers. I was at first confused, that Yeti are folklore from the Himilayans, and thought well perhaps any North American influence would just be localized versions of that folklore. However, my co-editor said no in North America they would be Sasuatch, so then without much effort, I found the answer to my question, what indiginous beliefs held about them. https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20220720-the-true-origin-of-sasquatch#
One sentense answered my question outright: "The creature is considered sacred to West Coast First Nations, particularly the Sts'ailes"
My writer was trying to obscure and create obstacles to my questions from the first one, innocently and naturally asking if this was her background. I had my answer, that yes, this was folklore that belonged to a native group, and it would be respectful to present that and develop any story in a way that respected its original meaning. Next I found a statement (again without much effort) what this folklore meant in the cultural context it originated: Other displays explain the Sts'ailes belief in Sasquatch as a caretaker of the land and totem for their nation While this writer was apparently SO OFFENDED that I felt I would always approach this type of content with respectful, informed discussion, that she blocked me, I found the answers which I would have used if we had been able to proceed to a productive discussion in which no one was getting upset or making things a big deal for no reason. It struck me that if they were seen as caretakers, looking out for the people, that would be in contrast to this idea that they were hiding from fear of being hated. This is the kind of example I would have encouraged her to reconicile, through deeper research, and perhaps soliciting assistance from the native culture members, to have them review her representation of her folklore as being authentic and respectful rather than a colonized one. This writer ran away from the challenge to improve her writing standards and quality. We have extended an open invitation to her should she chose to participate in any assistance from us to help her with those improvements. We hope that all writers will accept this challenge instead of running away from this topic where present in their writing.
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