The Brown Girl World

About Shannon

Shannon is a 30-something Maliseet Native woman learning what it means to be Maliseet Indian. She grew up in Canada in the late 70s, wore plaid pants and weird brown printed bikini bathing suits as a girl. She lives on an Indian reservation in Canada, but was not raised on-reserve. Growing up, both Shannon and her sister were the only Native children at school and they acknowledge that there is a big difference between growing up Canadian and growing up a Native in Canada. At the tender age of fifteen, Shannon's family moved back to her Mother's reservation.

Shannon met her husband when she was almost 18 and has been glued to his side ever since. Their four children attend school on-reserve so they can learn the language and be exposed to Maliseet culture every day. Shannon likes coffee and sunrises with chickadees. She has two cats and her favorite thing in the world is the sound of laughter. An aspiring writer, student and perhaps even a politician in the making, Shannon's desire is to change the world in order to make it a better place for her family.

Life on The Rez

By Shannon Perley

I live on a reservation, a First Nation community. You know, "The Rez." The reserve lands are 6,500 acres and the community that I live in is on a small fraction of that. The original reserve lands, however, were 17,000 acres, which is more than half of the current reserve. (What a difference!!) We hunt and fish on the land and there is a beautiful place called Indian Point where our two rivers meet. Although it was over ten years ago, I have fished on the rivers with my husband and caught some nice salmon. But fish are not as plentiful as when he fished as a child. In fact, a lot of things are different and not as plentiful now.

For about seventeen years now, I have been living on-reserve, although I grew up off reserve. (And trust me, there is a big difference between the two.) Off-reserve, I had a lot of friends that came to my house, had sleep overs and all of that fun stuff. But once I moved on The Rez, all of that changed. I experienced a great deal of culture-shock. Friends weren't allowed to come to my house because I lived on a reservation. I had friends who were only allowed to be my friend at school. One of my first boyfriends asked me to not tell his parents I was Native. Wanting to impress, I went along with it until his mother found out. We broke up shortly after that.

One of the best parts about living here on reservation is harvesting berries. Depending on the time of year, we can harvest berries anywhere on The Rez (except in others yards). It's also best to steer clear of berries grown on the land where the power lines are. The power company sprayed Agent Orange in that area in the early 50's which is not good.

Like anywhere else in the world, bad things happen everywhere. In fact, some bad things happen on reserves. But I think The Rez gets a bad rep because only the bad things are remembered. Rarely do we see stories in the national news about good happenings about a First Nation community. We typically see stories about First Nation peoples when something horrific happens.

A few years ago, I was out shopping with my four children and a woman struck up a conversation with me about my children, their ages and whether I worked inside our outside of the home. She was very friendly and I enjoyed the quick talk. That is, until she asked me where I was from. When I told her that I lived on The Rez, everything changed; from the look on her face to the abrupt end to our conversation. She even backed up and walked away as if the conversation had never taken place.

If I were to see her again, I would like to invite her here to show her what I see:

Most people would look at her and wonder who she is and continue on with their business. Contrary to popular belief, she isn't going to get jumped and beat up when she steps onto The Rez.

I would show her that Natives no longer live in teepees since there is no room for this generation's modern day necessities. There are, of course, a few in the community, but they are mostly to look at.

I would show her that we are not stuck on The Rez; that we can come and go as we please. After all, it isn't the early 1900's any more and restrictions do not apply. We are free.

I would show her that we aren't all angry drunk Indians.

I would show her that we look out for one another. We look out for our kids no matter whose child it is. We grow up with our cousins and their cousins and theirs... usually for life. There is a strong sense of community; the community is our family. We have the same experiences our parents had and their parents before them. The Rez is where Our People come from. We are from the land and have been here for over ten thousand years.

After her visit, perhaps she would be able to take her new experiences home with her and pass on to her friends how much fun she had visiting The Rez. Perhaps she would be able to see that there really isn't anything to fear at all. We can all learn a lot from each other. The world doesn't need more generations of stereotyping and shame.