There is a special place in my heart for books that open my eyes to perspectives I’ve never seen before and make me think deeper. Without a doubt, this book is one of those.
Having grown up in the Southern US and gone to public school, I was taught the basics about Native American history, but not much more than that. There’s so much that I just don’t know, decades of history between the initial horrors that they went through to how they’re dealing with injustices even today. I want to know more. I want to learn more.
The story in There, There is told through various points of view – people from quite different situations and feelings about being Native American, and yet their lives are all intertwined. There’s good and bad, but even those labels seem too simple – because those that are “bad” are not one-dimensional caricatures. They’re truly human in the aspect that they are dynamic beings, with pasts and nature and environments impacting their character in different ways.
I think it’s easy to forget that, sometimes. Things are easier when there’s a clear right and wrong, good and bad. Certainly it’s black and white when it comes to actions, but when it comes to motivations and humans themselves… That’s where things get more complicated.
We know what we know, and we often are clueless to the things that have never entered our sphere of experience before.
It isn’t pity that I feel – Native Americans have endured and are still enduring a lot, and they don’t need me to infantilize them that way. It isn’t understanding either, because no matter how many times I read this book and others like it, I’ll never truly understand an experience that isn’t my own. Perhaps it’s an awareness. An awareness of the fact that there is so much that I don’t know, that is important for me to know. An awareness that there isn’t anything I can do or should do. But there’s still an importance in being aware, in having that knowledge.
We are all humans, shaped by our soul and environment alike.
Thank you for exploring with us! Until next time, may the pages and paths ahead of you be great.
