My Name Is Seepeetza By Shirley Sterling: A Theme Of Stereotypes About Indigenous Peoples
A novel called My name is Seepeetza, written by Shirley Sterling sheds light on the oppression associated with residential schools. Society believed that Indigenous children would be better fit in our culture after undergoing a complete reformation while attending a colonial school system.
One of the main themes of the novel is the various stereotypes about Indigenous peoples. They were perceived in society through the lens of stereotypes and this determined how they were treated within our culture. Indigenous people were viewed by white colonials as uneducated, uncivilized savages that lacked religion. Seepeetza is unaware of the impact of these stereotypes. She in her innocence, crushes these stereotypes and brings out the truth about her people. Indigenous children were wiped of their identity and sent to residential schools to learn “white” European culture. Seepeetza is stripped of her individuality and given a white name, Martha Stone, while thrown into a residential school called Kalamak. The government did not want any children to keep their Indigenous names. Society figured that children would have better educational advantages having attended a residential school following their strict cultural guidelines. Seepeetza in her naiveness was being victim to this. A savage is defined as an individual being primitive and uncivilized. Seepeetza mentions that these stereotypes of Indigenous peoples does not portray reality, “The Indians in the movies are not like anyone I know. Real Indians are just people like anyone else except they love the mountains”.
Not even Seepeetza understood the stereotypes being depicted of Indigenous people. Seepeetza, during her stay at Kalamak was forbidden to speak her native language and write letters to her family. Her mother did not want her children to learn their language based on her experience at Kalamak. Seepeetza discloses: My mum only went to grade three. She went to Kalamak too. The nuns strapped her all the time for speaking Indian, because she couldn’t speak English. She said just when the welts on her hands and arms healed, she got it again. That’s why she didn’t want us to learn Indian. They made the children get “haircuts, take baths, put on smocks, bloomers and underskirts, all exactly alike”. Along with appearance they also imposed roman catholic religion onto the young students. Seepeetza reveals that, “Sister Maura taught us how to pray on our knees with our hands folded. Then she told us about devils”. They were enforcing white colonial culture onto Indigenous children. Seepeetza was placed in a “white” mold that entirely lacked individuality. Despite all the stereotypes of Indigenous peoples, Seepeetza doesn’t necessarily fit the criteria. She has red hair and blue eyes and eventually even the stereotypes start to alter the way in which Seepeetza is perceiving her environment. She states, ‘It’s the Irish in me that gets so mad, just like Dad. His grandfather was Irish. I know it’s not the Indian in me that’s mean because Yay-yah is kind and gentle, like Nun. She has no white in her”. She is identifying Irish as being mad and Indigenous as being kind and gentle. During school Seepeetza is ridiculed by other students on her appearance, “You blue eyes, ” She sneered. “You dirty shamah. How does it feel to look like a white?”’.
Seepeetza is probably feeling confused at this time because she identifies as Indigenous she doesn’t necessarily look the part. Her home life is no different from any other child at Kalamak but they view her as being “white”. Therefore, if she perceives “white” as being bad then it must be confusing and upsetting to her to hear her being ridiculed about her appearance from her peers.
In conclusion, stereotypes contribute to a major theme in Shirley Sterling’s book, My name is Seepeetza. The book explains the implications from a child’s view of how the government tried to rid those stereotypes and annihilate the whole culture through cultural genocide. The novel demonstrates that not even children were exempt from the ramifications of these stereotypical constructs. Seepeetza in her own innocence and naiveness describes events of times that stereotypes were often used throughout her stay at Kalamak.
