Interpretative Dance
for Franz Boas
Listen
(ethnographer of
bifurrrrrrrrrrrrrcate tongue)
listen nicely
& I will tell you
a tale
so that you may know
of me
& my particular line
for a split-
second crawling
through loop-
hole in
intellectual
properties
Two hundred Indians are used for processing the salmon, and Chinese solder the
cans. It is quite interesting to watch the processing of the salmon. At the first table
women cut them open; at the next table heads and tails are removed. Then they are
drawn and thrown into
a bath
where they are washed
then put into a machine
cuts them into seven parts
and throws them into a
trough
I will tell you of the first
place
where lived the Liǥwildaʼx̱w
in a village known as
Tilted Ground
where lived
the old healer
& there is a myth
(do you know
what we did
not)
the one best equipped to guard
the tree of life
must take the life of its present
guard
& thereby become
its prisoner
until, until
the younger
healer
turned seagreen
with envy
to be
stuffed into cans. The lids are placed on top at another table and then in a soldering
machine which fastens the lids. They are then placed on a large iron
frame. soldering
is not checked in any way. The entire frame is then placed
into boiling water for
twenty minutes and then cooled. Finally the cans
are packed
into boxes
blindly threw
sharpened bark
into salalberry bush
The next day, there was
nothing for it. Seagull eggs
were of less interest
than a length of kelp
reaching to the
bottom
of the water
The young
healer
shinnied
down
the kelp
Sister, do not despair. Look for me
every day along the beach. I ache to
explore the deepest part of the water
What began as a series of manual processes –
fishboats were rowed; nets were hauled
by hand; cans were cut individually; workers on the line butchered
the fish one
by one and stuffed the pieces into the tins – quickly became a
mechanized
assembly line.
The steam retort, a large pressure cooker, replaced the ordinary kettles
cooking the cans. Soldering machines replaced hand soldering, and the
automatic can-making machine was introduced to mass produce the tins
The young
healer
made his
descent
& it took longer
than a very long
work day
until he was dancing upon the roof
of a house at the bottom of the water
Who the hell is rustling my roof-boards
is not an exact translation but close
Inside, the healers could not heal the Chief. Some-
body had wounded him with a sharpened bit of bark
when he was larking about in a salalberry bush, which
goes to show, stay away from nature if you can, yeah
but the young healer sidestepped the whole shame-
culture thing, thinking Richard Dawkins is right, part
of my urge to heal and give is to dominate, like birds
with their generosity with seeds, before post-Marxists
could get their mitts on what I know & usurp potlatch
theory for their own sad economic agenda, so in other
words it is my ancestral right, atavistically speaking, to
sing & flood the space with poems & stuff & maybe to
do a good turn here not only as a means of rectification
but as a means to gaining blood & glory in a showy way
Multi-bladed gang knives cut up several fish at once
into uniform sized pieces. Then, in 1906, the Smith
Butchering Machine was introduced. Also
no one could see the sharpened bit of bark because the
Chief was rather fat. Although in the interim since time
immemorial, First Nations' diet has changed. Education
abounds on the subject. Notwithstanding, four times the
young healer sucked mightily, claiming he was sucking out
all the sickness
known as the "Iron Chink" because it displaced
so many Chinese workers, it cleaned
and butchered several fish
at once, sixty to seventy-five
per minute
With sleight of hand, the
bit of sharpened bark was
removed
& the chief had
his appetite back
Young healer, I have clout
with all the creatures of the sea
now you will hold sway over all
of Supernatural BC
(in those days
he would rather
have spat than
said Salish Sea)
The young healer
yawned
& figured
he better get going, since
he had a long climb
ahead of him
The fishery also mechanized. Gillnetters began adding small
gas engines
by 1913 more than eighty percent of the Fraser River fleet
was motorized
by the mid-1920s, gas engines became the norm north of Cape
Caution
The next morning, he was not
moving. Upon grey beach, his sister prodded
his deadness with a stick. Hey, people grieve in
different ways, eh. It was when she
touched him
the canning industry
shifted from manual production
to mechanized production, with resulting increases in
productivity. The number of
plants
fluctuated
from year
to year
Alive! Sure beats the
alternative. The people
in the village
were pretty
impressed
except for
that old
healer
who thought this magic
was a trick, when it was a trick
that had earned the young healer
this magic
The cannery work
force lived close to the plants in neighbourhoods
racially segregated
as any big city ghetto. The Chinese occupied
"China houses"
wooden dormitories
provided by the company
The way to test
his mettle
was to fake
being sick—
that would sure
fix
that enchanted
braggart
sleeping, eating, gambling, playing, making
bootleg liquor, and tending to
pigs and chickens. Chinese workers used to make
kites
which they flew in their
spare time. As the years passed, Japanese
fishers joined Aboriginal boat crews, though the Japanese seldom
took
inside jobs. They lived in
their own
part of town
The young healer
had more than a
hunch
the old healer
was feigning his complaint, in fact
he knew
for certain (same
way he knew
just about
everything)
Supervisors
were always Euro-Canadians, who lived
in large houses
away from the clamour of the waterfront. The
result was a heady mixture of cultures and languages that was
every bit as
"multicultural"
as Canada is today
so
the young healer
ripped out
the old
healer's
heart,
liver,
intestines
& lungs
& yanked them
right out of
his ass
"What a motley crew
you will find on one
of these British Columbia
wharves!
What colouring,
what a
Babel of tongues –
Tlingits from Alaska, Haidas
from the Queen Charlotte Islands, Tsimshians
from the Skeena,
Kwatiutls [sic]
from Vancouver, Chinamen,
Japanese, Greeks, Scandinavians, Englishmen and Yankees; men,
women, children, dogs, and from two to six
wooly bear cubs."
I was more
in the mood
for a morality
play
about pride
before
a fall
one of those
involving
Raven
& a comical
comeuppance
This is more like one of those early sagas
before the intervention of religious dogma
where stuff keeps happening, like in life
almost for no particular reason
These
were almost
the last words of
the old healer
before he noticed
his internal
lack of internals...
As for the
young healer
he had eliminated
the competition
& was now footloose
& fancy free
to heal
(operating within
stringent guidelines
of the
Kwakwaka'wakw
health plan)
& so he
became a great
healer
taking the name
Ḵateʼna̱ts
& becoming
the ancestor
of many people
who would
dance their dances
with ferocity
& sing their songs
with wild
brashness
& paint
everything
beyond überbrightness
until the day
beyond
tepid storytelling
&
trembling
voices
when our relations
will no longer
leave blanks
in our writings
I mean, for
things we do not
intuit
& that time
is gaining
on us
but I am afraid
that is another
story
Cloak
In a glance
I half-
unfasten the black
button blanket
about her
shoulders
Snapper-red
buttons
tenderly
decorate
her back
unsnapped.
Her cloak
leaps across
the heated
rocks
flaps
impishly in the Nimpkish
wind
Finally
she
unwinds
her long dark locks
& offers salal lips
& the promise
of a purple conch
A look
in her eyes
& the sensation
along her cold thighs
all candlefish
& slippery
light
Yet in the fire
& sand & sweat & heat
the tree of life
excitedly
stretches
its limbs
