Cross-Cultural Encounter

I come from a culture where, traditionally, fair skin is prized. As a child, whenever I became deeply tanned from playing outside during the summer in southern Ontario, my parents would tell me that I looked like a Siwashee. I never understood what they meant, but I knew that it was uncomplimentary. It was only in later life that I realized that Siwashee was actually a mispronunciation of the word Salish.

It seems that creating a social pecking order in which you always have some other group to look down upon is a universal human trait, and it certainly applies to the Chinese community in Canada. This gives me an interesting perspective from which to view a book like Edmund Metatawabin’s Up Ghost River, a harrowing memoir of his experiences at a Native residential school and beyond. I may not carry the full baggage of white guilt regarding this troubling chapter of Canadian history, but I carry baggage nevertheless.

The first chapter...