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Cree Poetic Discourse By Neal Mcleod

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The Power of Evolution
In the essay “Cree Poetic Discourse”, the author Neal McLeod addresses an intellectual problem that the western academic writing approach harms the indigenous Cree narratives. According to McLeod, the Cree narrative process, which involves poetic thinking, embraces new possibilities and keeps changing (9). This evolution process not only depends on various occasions of speaking but also depends on different storytellers and audiences who absorb stories, thus allowing Cree poetic discourse to possess dynamic feature (McLeod 9). Such dynamic narrative approach compresses space, like Neal McLeod, said, “Like the colors and shapes in the sky, like the folds and contours of water and lakes. (14) ” In order to fully …show more content…

The scholar McLeod himself, being a living example, uses Cree narratives to write English poetry, “Even though the stone is gone, the story lives on. Old stories give our bodies shape, and guide the path of sound, like trees guiding the wind. (13) ” Mastering two or even more languages enables knowledge to carry on and pass down to others who are from different cultural backgrounds; this process of transmitting old culture through languages in a new form enhance one’s original culture to evolve. In the field of academics, the power of evolution, to a certain degree, influences the lifespan of an existing idea. Knowledge of a language can be a power to change the atmosphere of indigenous academia. For the Cree, maintaining traditional cultural connections while absorbing western education empowers them to solve “narrative violence” in western academia. For instance, a well-educated Cree can become a scholar and write articles in English to address the intellectual problem of Cree culture. And if this person feels a lack of empathy engaging in poetic narration he or she still have access to consult the old Cree people. Besides, western scholars are open to new thoughts and incorporate creative space into indigenous scholarly writing system.
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