Bawating May'winzha: a long time ago, at the place of fast rushing waters

Abstract

The thesis that follows is a work of historical fiction, depicting a time and place four hundred years ago. It was written with a point of breaking down social barriers, classifications, and stereotypes. Although binary classifications may be useful for their simplicity, the exclusionary paradigm is unfit to handle the complexity of history, of life. The very nature of the paradigm chafes against relational principles – which are fundamentally grounded upon the notion that everything and everyone is intimately related – and held as truth by many Indigenous nations. In this project, it was a goal to eliminate these categorical distinctions by telling a story with dynamic characters that challenge standard conceptions of ‘good or bad’ and ‘right or wrong’, and that interact closely with the historical record.