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Despite the intention to create an equal society, many Canadian and American communities experience difficulties in understanding and accepting their ethnic identities. People lose their families, move from one country to another, make new achievements, and share their stories. In 1973, Maria Campbell published her autobiographical novel Halfbreed about the destiny of Métis women and the generation of Métis people, in general. She wrote that people “were not prepared to settle down to an existence of continual hardship, scratching out a scanty living from the land” (Campbell 10). However, their challenges properly determined them as “they felt shame, and with shame the loss of pride and the strength to live each day” (Campbell 10). The story represents discrimination and inequality as the main sources of Indigenous people suffering, which leads to creating a nation of solid fighters and survivors. It is not enough for the author to grumble about unfair judgments and opportunities but find solutions. Campbell’s Halfbreed is a narrative that reveals the power of poverty, discrimination, and injustice in relation to Métis families and women in particular and the way of how misery and strengths shape human life.
Poverty remains a serious social disease in a healthy society caused by reduced access to resources, and Campbell describes its pathophysiology in Halfbreed. Most Métis people did not have a chance to change their lives because they were trapped in an accursed circle of inequality and cultural and societal degradation. The author explained that “poverty is not ours alone” and that many people, regardless of their race, gender, or age, could “have it too” (Campbell 11). Poverty provokes emotional and physiological changes in people, making them selfish or rude and weak or miserable at the same time. Campbell believed that “there was no worse sin in this country than to be poor” (40). When individuals experienced troubles due to the lack of money, food, and clothes, they were ready to sell their bodies and neglect their true feelings. Prostitution was one of poverty’s outcomes that led to other negative experiences like drugs, alcoholism, and the promotion of low self-esteem. In fact, poverty has many outcomes, and the author’s purpose is to help Indigenous people recognize their problems and decide how to escape misery, relying on cooperation and accepting their identities.
Discrimination is another challenge that Campbell used to explain the reasons for constant movements and search for a place to be called their native home. It is hard to identify a true root of discrimination in Canada, but the author paid attention to school education and the conditions under which children had to learn how to live. Her experience at a residential school was associated with negative emotions when she felt “lonely and frightened” (Campbell 32). When she joined a mixed school three miles away from home, “Heaven compared to the Residential School,” she discovered other elements of discrimination (Campbell 33). The whites and Métis students sat at different classroom sides and could not play together unless it was a competition. As well as white children realized their physical weakness towards Indigenous children, the latter learned to ignore the former. In a majority of cases, discrimination based on skin tone and ethnicity was silent, and no one wanted to understand how to stop it or, at least, change something. The author understood that there was no need to neglect differences anymore but support Métis children in recognizing their natural strengths.
The position and obligations of women defined by Campbell in Halfbreed proved the presence of unjust and prejudiced attitudes towards female rights and freedoms. This novel’s strength is the author’s desire to underline the differences between women of the same community. There were Métis women like her mother, “quiet and gentle, never outgoing and noisy… busy cooking or sewing” (Campbell 13). Contrary, there were “Treaty Indian women” who did not “express their opinions,” while “Halfbreed women do” (Campbell 20). Finally, there were women “before the white people came” who could help their men in hunting and trapping and enjoyed their freedoms in some way (Campbell 30). All these descriptions and comparisons showed that many women suffered from their poorly defined and usually gender-biased responsibilities. In families, girls consider the examples of their mothers and disregard evident changes. Instead of underlying their possibilities and options in a constantly developed society, women had to oppose male power and homestead laws. Campbell was not satisfied with a low level of support an ordinary Métis woman had and found it necessary to guide communities how to deal with abuse, misery, disrespect, and social disorder.
Campbell’s Halfbreed is a story about human life between two different cultures characterized by colors, intentions, and the ways of how people see their future. Some people found powers to resist everything and “struggle for equality and justice,” even if their road was “never-ending and full of frustration and heart-break” (Campbell 10). Unfortunately, many immigrants “had nothing to offer” and were found “in the bush waiting to die” (Campbell 10). There are many examples of how Indigenous people become broken and fell into pieces because of poverty, discrimination, and injustice. However, Campbell’s goal is not to underline the inevitability of human failures and weaknesses but to demonstrate how insulted and humiliated Métis individuals resist “nameless, faceless white masses” not just by their attitudes but verbally (Campbell 99). The author informed that some people found it normal to keep silent and accept all those unequal conditions as the only thing they deserved, feeding misery and injustice. What made this novel successful and provocative in Indigenous literature is a strong recognition of human weaknesses and strengths and the desire to say out loud about the existing problems.
In conclusion, Halfbreed should not be accepted as the author’s resentment or complaint about discrimination or poverty only. This novel aims to motivate and inspire the reader to look around, detect inequality, and do something to change a situation. Although it is possible to have a normal life unless a particular challenge emerges, Indigenous writers share their unique position and the necessity to deal with either personal concerns or socially biased attitudes. The problem of Métis people is not only the differences that exist between the Natives and the whites but also the differences between the representatives of the same community. Campbell initiated the search for self-identity at a young age and had to struggle against poverty and discrimination, losing many good but weak people on her way. The problem is that many aboriginal people did not have tools to deal with discrimination and poverty, but it was not their direct fault. The author needed to stop human identity destruction and offered new sources of strengths through analyzing poverty and inequality. The novel helps other injured people understand their current statuses and take a step forward into a new world.
Work Cited
Campbell, Maria. Halfbreed. University of Nebraska Press, 1973.
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