Two Column Note

Brayden Smith

Observation
Jeanette Armstrong. The author of “History
Lesson” has an aboriginal background and
she is a poet.
Interpretation
She describes the history and the relationship
between the Aboriginals and the European
settlers through her eyes and describes them
through the poem “History Lesson”

“Out of the belly of Christopher’s ship” “Christopher” is referring to the famous

European explorer, Christopher Columbus.
The “ship” being referencing one of the ships
whether it is the Santa Clara, Niña or the
Pinta. “Out of the belly” refers to the
men/women on the ship exiting the ship and
stepping foot on the land.

“Pioneers and traders This statement contains verbal irony. The

bring gifts “gifts” are not actually gifts. The “gifts” are
Smallpox, Seagrams unpleasant things such as illness and guns. It
and rice krispies” mentions “Smallpox” because the settlers
brought smallpox upon the aboriginals when
they arrived in the Americas. The “rice
krispies” can allude to the sound of a gun
going off or it can allude to the settler’s
crunching the grass underneath their boots or
shoes.

“Snap crackle pop” “Snap crackle pop” is an onomatopoeia that

references the changes in the landscape for
the aboriginals. The changes being pollution,
senseless loss of human life as well as a loss
in personal property and property in general.

Punctuation: Certain lines have a breakage
and some have flowing paragraphs.
“Between the snap crackle pop
of smoke stacks
and multicoloured rivers
swelling with flower powered zee
are farmers sowing skulls and bones
and miners
pulling from gaping holes
green paper faces
of a smiling English lady” is an example of an
entire paragraph that flows pretty well.

The interaction between the Europeans and The aboriginals people were very welcoming
the Aboriginals and willing to share the land with the
 Europeans, but the Europeans took
advantage of that and took everything that
they had and did terrible things to them.

“Green paper faces of a smiling English lady”
The “green paper faces” refers to the portrait
on a dollar bill. The “green paper” refers to
the paper which the money was printed on
back in the day. It is also referencing that the
money is worthless if you don’t believe in the
system that it supports or is from, alluding to
the fact that the aboriginals did not believe in
the money system that the settlers were
trying to put in place. The money in question
is the greenback. The reference to “a smiling
English lady” is referring to the money having
an English lady on the greenback.

“Red coated knights “Red coated knights” refers to the North West
gallop across the prairie” Mounted Police that existed back when there
was a police force just like the RCMP of
today, they rode on horse and wore red
jackets. The North West Mounted Police were
the police that made room for the settlers to
settle and have space. They forced the
Aboriginals into reserves.

The poem represents a timeline The poem represents the timeline of

significant events that occurred between the
European Settlers and the Aboriginals. It
shows how they interacted with each other,
how they contributed to the land. It also
shows how the Europeans took over the
Americas and pushed the Aboriginals around.
As well as how the settlers arrived in the
Americas.

“Civilization has reached the promised land”
This refers the the Europeans that settled in
North american. They thought that they were
doing good and being civil towards the
Aboriginals and helping them but they were
not. They were ruining everything and they
were destroying pre existing civilizations in
order to create a new one.

“glimpsed in a garden An allusion to the destruction of the world that

forever closed was clean and unscaved, where the
forever lost” Aboriginals ruled the land and they were not
bothered.

“The colossi A reference to the settlers praising the

statues which they had created of the people
in which they trust that they saw as powerful and impactful.
Whilst praising the statues they destroyed
while burying forests and cleared fields that were once
untouched. There is also a reference to “steel
breathing forests and fields stand shaking fists”, which alludes to the
beneath concrete and steel settlers engaging in fights overland and it
turned fist shaking and then into all out
stand shaking fists warfare.
“Waiting to mutilate
waiting to mutilate whole civilizations
whole civilizations Ten generations at a blow”
Refers to the European settlers completely
ten generations at a blow” destroying civilizations in North America and
the Americas, thus the usage of the word
“mutilate”, “mutilate” refers to violently
destroying something. The European settlers
would also destroy said civilizations “ten
generations at a blow” meaning that the
settlers would destroy the ancient civilizations
which had been around for ten generations or
more. The ten generations of work and
worship as well as history are unrecoverable
and gone forever due to the violence of the
settlers.

Work cited

Armstrong, Jeannette C. "A History Lesson," Native Poetry in Canada: A Contemporary

Anthology, edited by Jeannette Armstrong, Lally Grauer. Peterborough, Ont.: Broadview
press, 2001.

Montgomery, Emily. “History Lesson Analysis.” UBC Blog, UBC.

http://blogs.ubc.ca/lled445/files/2017/08/Montgomery-Assignment-2.pdf
National Geographic Society. “Columbus Sets Sail.” National Geographic Society, 1 Nov.
2013, www.nationalgeographic.org/thisday/aug3/columbus-sets-sail/.

Quan, Douglas. “'Enforcers of the Colonizers': Wet'suwet'en Crisis Casts Spotlight on

Long, Difficult History between RCMP and Indigenous Peoples.” Thestar.com, The Star,
29 Feb. 2020, www.thestar.com/news/canada/2020/02/29/enforcers-of-the-colonizers-
wetsuweten-crisis-casts-spotlight-on-long-difficult-history-between-rcmp-and-indigenous-
canadians.html.