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ENGLISH WENJACK CREATIVE RESPONSE (2) Flipbook PDF
ENGLISH WENJACK CREATIVE RESPONSE (2)
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Wenjack is simple to the eye, yet a read that may change your view on life. The main focus is the railroad, for that is what kept Chanie going, it was his way home. The simplicity signifies how small and simple the book seems, but the dark shading represents the depth of the book. -
Hannah L
Published in 2020 by MASE Publishing Co. 3496 Mons Drive, Vancouver, British Columbia V5M 3E6 www.masepublishing.ca First published in December 2020 Text copyright Ⓒ 2020 by English Studies 12 Students Cover illustration copyright Ⓒ 2020 by Hannah Li Interior illustration copyright Ⓒ 2020 by English 12 Students All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be copied, reproduced, transmitted or stored in any form or by any means, without permissions from the copyright owners and the publishers Printed and bound in Vancouver Christian School.
Dedicated to: For those who endure the lasting effects of residential schools and our Vancouver Christian School community.
Table of Contents 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.
Title Page: Hannah L Inside Title Page: Victoria L Sucker Fish: Max M Crow: Daniel S Hummingbird: AJ Y Owl: Julia B Mouse Skull: Ethan K Pike: Brandon W Spider: Jaden M
10. Wood Tick: Marissa B 11. Beaver: Osmar W 12. Snow Goose: Eunice L 13. Rabbit: Marissa W 14. Lynx: Aleena A 15. Chanie Story: Nathaniel W 16. Author: Ryan I 17. Grade 12: Ethan H 18. Back Title Page: Shinyi K
Victoria L
I chose to draw Chanie in the forest, with all of the animals from each chapter somewhere on the title page. I chose for him to wear a red jacket as that colour symbolizes all of the missing and murdered Indigenous women, and as well an orange shirt to represent an orange shirt day, which remembers residential schools. -
Victoria L
Max M
“We have a secret path, but maybe it's not so secret anymore. The Fish Bellies are good at catching Indian children. One day I will run. One day they won't hurt me anymore.”(2) This picture shows Chanie’s desire to run away from the residential school to get home. The chapter Suckerfish foreshadows Chanie’s impulsive choice to run away with two other Indigenous boys later on in the book.
Daniel S
“We watch them. We, those who chose to, took the form of crows and followed them…” (8-9) Chanie, in the cold damp forest of Ontario, is running away from the place that gave him nightmares. Spirits take the form of crows, watching Chanie and the brothers as they travel through the woods. They didn't plan before they made their escape, they saw the opportunity when no one was watching them. They just grabbed their windbreakers and took off to the “secret path.” My picture depicts a manitous in the form of a crow, watching Chanie from above on a branch; Chanie is staring back at the crow. I think this image is significant because Chanie recognizes the existence of the manitous, and he knows he is not alone though even the manitous doubt that he will make it out alive.
AJ Y
“The older brother reaches into his other pocket and pulls out what looks like a little stick . . . It’s a match, but even in this little bit of light I see that the blue head of it misses its red tip.” (13-14) The image I chose to write about is the blue match without the red phosphorus tip, produced by one of the brothers early in Chanie’s escape from Cecilia Jeffrey Indian Residential School. Matches appear a few times throughout Wenjack, but this particular appearance is from Chapter 3: Hummingbird. I believe that this match represents all that is about to happen to Chanie during his journey. Without the red phosphorus tip, the match is all but useless, and it is doomed never to light on its own, no matter what is done with it. In a tragically premonitory fashion, Chanie’s plan to walk home is ill-fated and is doomed never to succeed if he is to partake in the journey completely alone. Without the proper knowledge, preparation, or planning for the journey, without the red phosphorus ignition tip, the plan will never come to fruition, and the match will never light. Another haunting parallel between Chanie and the match is the number of attempts at ignition before abject failure. The match is struck three times before it snaps under the stress. And Chanie, at the end of the story, falls and ascends to his feet three times before finally succumbing to exposure and starvation, never to rise again.
Julia B
“We stare down upon what they can and must live through...When they awake, though, they feel the shame of having touched one another, even if just for warmth.” (22) The owls observe the three boys as they struggle to keep warm and sleep. As the boys hold onto each other for warmth, the owls know when they awake they will feel ashamed. The Presbyterian Residential School disciplined them the practice that touching one another was forbidden. Affection was forbidden. Therefore, the boys will wake up with an undeserved feeling of guilt. I drew this scene through the eyes of the owls that were watching from above. The boys’ faces are scribbled out as their identity is now replaced with the words I described above. The words are all in their traditional Ojibwe language with the English translation below. “In pain”, “broken”, etc. are all words to describe their leftover feelings the school had left them with as they attempted their journey home.
Ethan K
“Waawaabigonoojii mouse winks at me. Today is okay. Today there will be no school.” (30) The mouse skull is a symbol of hope for Chanie as he continues on his difficult trek home. The skull gave him something to hold on to. Something to enjoy, something to give him comfort. This gift from the owls doesn’t seem like a lot to many, but to him it meant everything. To him it was special.
Brandon W
“We move closer with a swish of tail so that we may watch him fall to his knees by river’s edge, his face above a shiver in his dry world.” (34) Chanie and the two brothers have arrived at the river. They approach it to quench their thirst, while the pike in the river observe them. Chanie plunges his head into the water, forgetting his father’s lesson to always drink with cupped hands. While his head is in the water, he sees the pike fish looking at him in the water. This part of the chapter is a major turning point in the story, as Chanie is about to meet the two brothers’ uncle. They hesitate to accept him as they barely have enough resources to feed their own family. After observing Chanie’s brokenness, both physically and mentally, they decide to reject him and send him back to the school.
Jaden M
“He sees she stares at him but she won’t move her eyes. She dares him with her dark eyes to tell her why he hurts.” (55) In this chapter, we are introduced through the perspective of the Spider. The Spider plays a significant role as it gives us a more inside look at the Uncle and his family and what they can do for Chanie as he continues on his journey.
Marissa B
“Someone broke something in him.” (54) Chanie on his knees, crying alone at the edge of the forest; one of the most impactful scenes of Wenjack because of Chanie’s predicament. Chanie was essentially abandoned, left to finish his journey home alone. The chapter, “Wood Tick”, is an important turning point in “Wenjack.”. Up until that point, Chanie was never alone. This is clearly the peak of Chanie’s story, just by assuming the ending, you know that nothing beyond this point of the story will go right for Chanie.
Osmar W
“He smells like the colour called brown.” (73) Although I was quick to choose this chapter, I forgot this chapter was going to be about rape. I was excited to draw a beaver, but then I realized there was a more important moment within the story. His moment was a memory of when Chanie was sexually abused, while he is walking along the rail lines. The image is very messy to represent how dirty the scene was. Yellow and brown were used in the context of the environment, as “He smells like the colour called brown” (73).
Eunice L
“He will awake soon and will experience the most miserable night of his young existence, near frozen to death by a beaver pond…” (76) Out of all the chapters in Wenjack, Snow Goose vividly describes the last night of Chanie’s life in the forest. The details within the chapter were undoubtedly the most unforgettable, as it narrated the evident struggles that Chanie faced while he froze in the cold temperature. It was not easy to visualize Chanie’s near-death experience that night and how the first time, he had a distinct understanding of the meaning of mortality. As a reader, it was uncomfortable to learn that Chanie suffered alone and that the snow geese foreshadowed that he would be unable to get through another night. Although the snow geese were accompanying Chanie, he ultimately fought the harsh surroundings by himself. The image depicts Chanie alone, awaking to the extinguished fire near the beaver pond and the railroad tracks. Throughout the picture, cutouts from old magazines are used to showcase the memoirs that are written about Chanie’s life after he passed away. Furthermore, the rough and jagged edges are a symbol of his mistreatment in the Residential School and the discrimination Indigenous children faced. The story of Chanie’s death was a melancholic event, yet it allows students across Canada to discover a new perspective and a better understanding of Residential Schools.
Marissa W
“Above me the clouds tear open to the moon. It’s almost full.” (87) My artwork depicts the scene of Chanie’s final breaths. This image is important because it demonstrates Chanie’s perseverance when it came to staying alive. I drew matches along the side of the train tracks leading to where Chanie’s body lies. I think the matches were a metaphor for hope and life, so as Chanie used up the matches it brought him closer to death. Nearing his final breath, Chanie says, “Above me the clouds tear open to the moon. It’s almost full” (87). I drew this because Chanie watched the moon to distract himself from the pain he was feeling. To fight death, Chanie also spoke words in Ojibwe, his native tongue, as a subtle reminder of home, but in the end, the cold was too much for such a young boy.
Mother Lynx I could feel the frost through my fur, I knew the first snow was coming As we follow Chanie, I see his steps slow He starts to stumble, his legs grow to weak and he falls on the tracks ever so low I can see his last strengths begin to fade and I know that his time is incoming I see the hare, this means that soon Chanie will be ready I watch intently as his breath slows, he shivers and with a kick he is gone I move fast because I know the actor will soon call when the night is drawn I approach the boy, his body cold, I lick his cheek, ears, forehead and eyes while he head lies steady The snow begins to fall and I wrap the cold, thin boy in my paws tightly I take Chanie’s body away from the tracks, I want him to be warm As the sun begins to come up and the authorities take Chanie away They find the matches, and the sticks he chewed every so slightly As Chanie and I stand an oval of the creatures form I watch as Chanie smiles, eats and dances, finally a place for him be safe and stay
Aleena A
“We watch the boy warm in our watch. We watch the boy warm in our presence, watch him dance, and eat and share his shy smile, his dark eyes turned darker and sparkling” (97). This Petrarchan Sonnet* articulates the main points that seem to be the most important image of the final chapter in Wenjack. I chose to use the perspective of the Mother lynx since her final moments with Chanie held so much significance and tied the story together. As Chanie layed near the tracks dying, mother lynx wrapped him in her paws to keep him warm and he licked him to show her love and care for Chanie. Throughout the story Chanie was fighting for the feeling of being safe for and died trying. When there was no one there for Chanie, nature took over and sent the creatures. I think the quote that ended the book captures the true meaning of how all the creatures contributed to Chanie’s journey. *A Petrarchan Sonnet is a 14 line poem that originates from Italy.
Nathaniel W
Story of Chanie Wenjack Chanie Wenjack was born in 1954 in Ogoki Post, Ontario. When he died in 1966, he was survived by his two sisters, Pearl and Daisy, as well as his mother Agnes, and his father (unnamed in any publication). Many of Chanie’s relatives, most notably his sisters and niece Harriet, are doing their best to carry on his legacy and attempt to bring justice for his death, in the peaceful form of promoting cultural understanding between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples. They attempt to bring reconciliation and understanding, in the hopes that atrocities like this will not occur again. The extended Wenjack family now encompasses over 200 people.
Ryan I
About Joseph Boyden Joseph Boyden, a Canadian author that formed this book together. He’s known for writing novels and stories on the First Nations and Indigenous cultures. He’s from a big family, and is the sixth of eight full siblings whom he loves dearly. His father, Raymond Wilfrid Boyden, was born in November 1897. He was a front-line combat physician in the Second World War and became, according to the stories of Joseph's family, one of the British Empire’s most highly decorated medical officers in that conflict. He was mentioned for the Victoria Cross numerous times in dispatches, and King George himself pinned the Distinguished Service Order on him at Buckingham Palace in 1945. My specific section didn’t contain a special image, however, it did talk about the author of the book, Joseph Boyden. His work on this book was just only one of many other Indigenous themed stories that he has written. In the book, it mentioned how he actually created the character Chanie from a real person. In his own words, he said that Chanie later returned “two years later in a casket” (99). Boyden is definitely an author that shouldn’t be overlooked.
Ethan H
English Studies 12 As the 2021 grade 12 term 2 English class read through Wenjack by Joseph Boyden, we are learning about the importance of community as we read as a community. This allows us to understand the experiences of people in the book as they go through residential school. As a class, we can compare how we go through school today, allowing us to reflect on how easy we have it at school.
Works Cited Achneepineskum, Pearl. “Chanie Wenjack,” The Canadian Encyclopedia, 1 Nov. 2016, www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/charlie-wenjack#. Accessed 15 Jan. 2021. Boyden, Joseph. Wenjack. Penguin Books, 2016. Harasymchuk, Dan. “Joseph Boyden at the Eden Mills Writers’ Festival,” Wikimedia Commons, 15 Sept. 2013, commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Joseph_Boyden_-_Eden_Mills_Writers_Festival_-_2013_(DanH2116).jpg. Accessed 15 Jan. 2021.
“One day I will run. One day they won’t hurt me anymore.” In response to Wenjack, I decided to create an art piece of train tracks and forest around Chanie while he was taking his final breaths. I chose the train tracks as a representation of the diligence and dedication it took for Chanie to have gotten the life he lived. A significant part of his life occurred near the tracks, as his community was located near them. This allowed him to have memories of his family while he was walking home in the dark. An important symbol of his flashbacks with his family was from the chapter “Beaver” where Chanie explains that “Dark will come fast now and so I look for places to sleep as I leap from wood to wood, the smell of it making me dream hot summer and playing with my two nimiseyag near the tracks and the big shining water where I live”(67). Furthermore, I added black watercolour for the sky effect as a symbol of the gloomy days Chanie faced in the Residential School and the cold nights he lived during his escape. The empty forest on both sides of the track exemplifies the loneliness Chanie felt while he fell asleep close to a pond. As the representation of the ending, I chose not to include an image of Chanie’s body near the tracks because I felt that the spirit animals around him were taking the pain away from Chanie. By having the spirit animals removing his pain, this meant that having his body near the tracks would be unethical. Instead, at the end of the track, I added a lighter area from where the dark sky rises, showing that Chanie’s spirits are in the light, without pain, while he is being watched over by the spirits, dancing, eating, smiling, and having a warm presence.
Shinyi K