E. Pauline Johnson: Poetry E. Pauline Johnson

Canadian literature

A 1997 survey by Hartmut Lutz of the state of Canadian Native Literature in the 1960s, pointed to the importance of this era as establishing the foundation for the new wave of Indigenous writing that surged in the 1980s and 1990s. Lutz identified "1967 as the beginning of contemporary writing by Native authors in Canada", marking the publication of George Clutesi's landmark work, Son of Raven, Son of Deer.[12] His discussion briefly mentioned Johnson but he did not acknowledge that 1961 marked the centennial of Johnson's birth; the resulting celebration nationally demonstrated the endurance of her prominence in Indigenous and Canadian literature and popular culture.[12]

As a writer and performer, Johnson was a central figure in literary and performance history of Indigenous women in Canada. Of her importance, Mohawk writer Beth Brant wrote "Pauline Johnson's physical body died in 1913, but her spirit still communicates to us who are Native women writers. She walked the writing path clearing the brush for us to follow."[12]

Johnson influence over other female Indigenous Canadian writers was expressed by their references to her throughout various decades, for example:

• 1989 - Poet Joan Crate (Metis) referred to Johnson in the title of her book of poetry Pale as Real Ladies: Poems for Pauline Johnson.
• 2000 - Jeannette Armstrong (Okanagan) opened her novel Whispering in Shadows with Johnson's poem "Moonset".
• 2002 - Poet Janet Rogers (Mohawk) published her play Pauline and Emily, Two Women, recasting Johnson as a friend and interlocutor of Canadian artist Emily Carr, who often painted Indigenous life as decayed and dying.
• 1993 - Shelley Niro (Mohawk) made a film, It Starts With a Whisper, that includes a reading of Johnson's "The Song My Paddle Sings".[7]

Broadcaster Rosanna Deerchild (Cree) remembers stumbling across "The Cattle Thief" in the public library: "I hand-copied that entire poem right then and there and carried it around with me, reading it over and over." Later she wrote a poem about Johnson entitled "she writes us alive." There are numerous other examples of contemporary Indigenous artists, women and men alike, who were inspired by Johnson, notably within Canadian literature.[7]

Canadian government

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, government policies towards Indigenous Canadians were increasingly cruel. Across the continent, Indigenous children were forcibly removed to residential schools; on the Prairies, communities such as the Dogrib, Cree and Blackfoot were confined to artificial reserves; settler attitudes towards the Dominion's original inhabitants curdled and hardened. Johnson critiqued some Canadian policies that resulted in such legalized and justified mistreatment of Indigenous peoples. For example, in her poem "A Cry From an Indian Wife", the final verse reads:

Go forth, nor bend to greed of white men's hands, By right, by birth we Indians own these lands, Though starved, crushed, plundered, lies our nation low ... Perhaps the white man's God has willed it so.[24]

Because of the Indian Act and faulty scientific blood quantum racial determinism, Johnson was often belittled by the term "halfbreed".[25][26]

Posthumous honours

• 1922: A monument was erected to Johnson at Stanley Park in the city of Vancouver, BC.[27]
• 1945: Johnson was designated a Person of National Historic Significance.[4][28]
• 1953: Chiefswood, Johnson's childhood home, constructed in 1856 in Brantford, was listed as a National Historic Site, based on both her and her father's historical significance. It has been preserved as a house museum and is the oldest Indigenous mansion surviving from before Confederation.[29]
• 1961: On the centennial of her birth, Johnson was celebrated with a commemorative stamp bearing her image; she was "the first woman (other than the Queen), the first author, and the first aboriginal Canadian to thus be honored."[14]
• 1967—: Elementary schools were named in her honour in West Vancouver, British Columbia; Scarborough, Ontario; Hamilton, Ontario; and Burlington, Ontario, and a high school, Pauline Johnson Collegiate & Vocational School in Brantford.
• 2004: An Ontario Historical Plaque was erected in front of the Chiefswood house museum by the province to commemorate Johnson's role in the region's heritage.[30]
• 2010: Canadian actor Donald Sutherland read the following quote from her poem "Autumn's Orchestra", at the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver:

Know by the thread of music woven through This fragile web of cadences I spin, That I have only caught these songs since you Voiced them upon your haunting violin.

• 2010: Composer Jeff Enns was commissioned to create a song based on Johnson's poem "At Sunset". His work was sung and recorded by the Canadian Chamber Choir under the artistic direction of Julia Davids.[31][32]
• 2014: The City Opera of Vancouver commissioned Pauline, a chamber opera dealing with her life, multicultural identity, and art. The composer is Tobin Stokes, and the libretto was written by Margaret Atwood, both Canadian. The work premiered on 23 May 2014, at the York Theatre in Vancouver. The first opera to be written about Johnson, it is set in the last week of her life.[33]
• 2015: Juno-nominated Canadian Composer Timothy Corlis was commissioned by the Electra Women's Choir through a Canada Council grant to create a piece of music for Canadian percussionist Beverly Johnston. His piece, "Songs of the White Wampum", sets to music a suite of five of Pauline Johnsons poems.
• 2016: Johnson was one of five finalists of significant women to be featured on Canadian banknotes; Viola Desmond won the contest.[34]