2006_11_15_archive

Joseph A. Dandurand's Please Do Not Touch the Indians

[Note: This review used by permission of its author. It may not be

published elsewhere without written permission of the author.]

-----------------------------------------------

Dandurand, Joseph A. (Kwantlen), Please Do Not Touch the Indians.

Renegade Planets, 2004. 55 pages, grades 7-up

There's a moment between sleeping and wakefulness that we've all

experienced: a moment of transformation that may manifest itself as a

falling tree, or a visit from a long-dead relative, or rain on the

roof, or a memory too horrible to speak of; a moment of transformation

in which time is timeless and reality is surreal.

Wooden Indian Man and Wooden Indian Woman sit on a bench in front of

Hank Williams Sr.'s Bait and Gift Shop. Visited by Sister Coyote,

Brother Raven and Mr. Wolf, Wooden Indian Man and Wooden Indian Woman

exchange stories that weave forward, back and around, the way good

stories do. Stories about a kind-hearted woman who wouldn't hurt a fly

and a two-headed baby in a jar, a boat full of fish and a salmon who

seeks to seduce a raven, a grandma besieged by prankster grandchildren

and a life bet for one ugly horse. And the Tourists who think that

Wooden Indian Man and Wooden Indian Woman are as they appear to be.

As Tourist transforms into a movie director shouting orders--"Let's

get some close-ups of those bleeding scalps. I want them to drip and

drip...I want to see the children and the women screaming and

crying."-- Wooden Indian Man and Wooden Indian Woman tell the lives of

Indian people, speak their truths to power. Bitter, painful memories

of all the indignities, large and small, heaped upon the people over

the generations. And the children, slaughtered on the "battlefield,"

the survivors raped and abused at residential school, left to the

ravages of alcoholism and suicide. Now the children--Sister Coyote,

Brother Raven and Mr. Wolf--jump and transform themselves into the

sacred Beings they are. And Wooden Indian Man comforts Wooden Indian

Woman:

Rest now. We will come back tomorrow and see what spirits come to

visit us. Go to sleep, my love. Sleep and dream of days like this.

Days filled with wonderful and alive spirits that play and sing,