Saturday 17 November 2007

Can "History" in Western Canada Exist Without "Land"?

I've been a tad disappointed in not being able to get the Sweatman text across better. Not that my students' reading is entirely my responsibility, of course. What worked best were the parodies they wrote, stories (in contemporary settings) leading to a major purchase, something like the 160 acres along the Red that Alice and Peter purchase in Sweatman's story. In my students' hands, a GMC truck was the big score. An entire meal for thirty people. A ring.

Next Friday we'll all see the Joe Fafard show. I want them to consider using it as the basis for their final essay (other options: developing their parodies further, doing a walk/think/write around Wascana Lake, reading/writing "history" and "land" in various historical fictions, including Sweatman's).

Speaking of Fafard, I have to come up with some writing for the 30th. Lots of leads, including: the PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH labels--highly ironic, considering that touch is everything in Fafard's work--mounted near every work.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hey Gerry! The MacKenzie is always looking for alternative exhibition related content for our website. If you go ahead with the Fafard assignment for your students, and you/they are interested, we would love to publish the top five essays (or whatever you think) on our website. In return I could do something like give each of the chosen two comps to see Warhol... Let me know what you think...

Along the same lines, we are developing a blog that we hope to launch in January. The challenge is developing regular, engaging content. We will be putting out a call for guest bloggers sometime within the next month. If there is any way we can work together with your students to develop some of the content, I would be very interested.

Let me know what you think...