Analysis of Carol Geddes’ Growing Up Native

Growing up native, Carol Geddes faces several hardships that she resiliently pushes through; from fearing forced assimilation into Euro-Canadian society to pursuing her dreams while still being in touch with her culture. Carol Geddes’ Growing Up Native illustrates the experiences and hardships of Indigenous people, with a focus on Geddes’ life; starting from her memorable childhood to the excitement she felt getting accepted into university. During this timeframe, Geddes experiences an abundance of setbacks including racism, working menial jobs as a teenager, and the struggles of being Indigenous in a predominantly white community. Geddes highlights that Indigenous people should be treated equally in society and there are no limits to what they can accomplish. 

While reading this essay, I was able to make various connections.“It didn’t matter who was carrying me—there was security in every pair of arms” (1). The reliance on extended family is common among many families, including mine. Similar to Geddes, I had an upbringing centered around family. Without my elders’ wisdom, I would be out of touch with my heritage and culture, which Geddes discusses the importance of. Next, in some aspects, this story reminds me of Maternal Ties, a poem by Sable Sweetgrass. Both texts delve into the importance of preserving heritage and culture. In both pieces, the narrator overcomes obstacles and acknowledges that the sky's the limit; Geddes with pursuing post-secondary education at a young age and Sweetgrass with walking across her graduation stage in traditional attire, which was prohibited. Furthermore, in both texts, the narrators pursue post-secondary education and use that knowledge to make a change in Indigenous communities; Geddes with her interest in Indigenous filmmaking and Sweetgrass with her degree in International Indigenous Studies and Film. Lastly, adoption and foster care tends to strip many children from their culture, which Geddes mentions in the essay. In Growing Up Native, Geddes says, “Social workers were scooping up native children and adopting them to white families in the south” (7), which reminds me of the inadequate foster care system, where social workers send children to homes that are not suitable for them (culturally, socially, etc). Some families foster/adopt children from backgrounds they are not familiar with, sometimes resulting in issues such as physical, mental, and sexual abuse. These systems need to be reformed, taking some of the most vulnerable children into consideration (Indigenous, Black, and other minorities). In summation, many connections can be made with this essay, even with non-Indigenous ideas; these connections underline the importance of culture and the inequality minorities face in what we claim is an “equal” society.  

Analyzing the essay, Geddes uses a number of stylistic features to get her point across. Her use of idioms makes the writing more evocative and conveys a deep message in an understandable and concise way. Two meaningful idioms I analyzed were, “That was the beginning of the end of the Teslin Tlingit people’s way of life,” (4) and “I was hungry for experiences,” (9). In the first idiom, Geddes talks about how the construction of the Alaska Highway was the beginning of an end for their way of life, that everything they have always grown to know would be changed. Their sacred land was being destroyed before their eyes, which is unjust, tying into the inequality they face. The second idiom conveys the excitement Geddes felt when she moved to Whitehorse; she was ready to experience new things in a large town that was more connected with the outside world. These experiences tie into the idea seen in the essay of Indigenous people venturing out and achieving their goals. Another stylistic feature that makes the essay more effective is the structure of Geddes’ writing. She follows the beginning, middle, and end structure but unlike a traditional essay, there are paragraphs in which she backtracks to her childhood or fast tracks to the present day. This was evident in phrases such as, “But I’m getting ahead of myself” (3), and “Let me tell you a story” (10). I found this to be an entertaining stylistic choice because it made the essay less formal, essentially making it more casual and story-like. Overall, these two stylistic features evoked powerful feelings and made the essay engaging. 

Carol Geddes’ Growing Up Native should be studied in school because it teaches people the importance of equality and overcoming obstacles that stop them from achieving their goals, like Geddes and other Indigenous people.