Anne
Cameron, author of the book
‘Daughters of Copper Woman’ |
A
special history and a special book ‘Daughters of Copper
Woman’,
a sweet, poignant, and haunting book by Anne Cameron, came
to my attention 17 years ago
when I stumbled upon a 1981
first edition in a bookstore in
Seattle. I read it in one gulp.
It fascinated me.
Shortly
afterwards I was unexpectedly
asked to teach a course in
mythology at the college where
I worked. My field of instruction
was Philosophy. I hadn’t taught
any literature classes, but the
territory of mythology had
always intrigued me, so I agreed.
I was given a few pointers
by those ‘in the know’ who
suggested Greek and Roman
myths as a good way to go.
I added Gilgamesh (national
epos of the abylonians, ed.)
to the list,as well as stories from
Norse Mythology, and then thought to myself, why not
use Daughters of Copper Woman?
An
intriguing account of Pacific Northwest American tribes, specifically
the
Nuu-chah-nulth
Nation living on Vancouver Island, it would be
perfect. I began to get more excited about the
course. However, figuring no-one in the department
would have heard of this unusual, independently
published book, I was also a little
uneasy. It mixed so-called ‘myth’ with so-called ‘
history’ in a very unorthodox way, treating
them equally as ‘truth’. I knew the cold winds
of a standard rationality-based educational system would blow across
the face of it in
chilly disapproval, looking for cracks and
crevices. Despite this background worry, I put
the book on my list and placed the order.
The
course went well, largely because of the many kind-minded students
who had decided
to take it. The curious thing was that, in the
student evaluations filled out at the end of
the course, almost everyone in that class let
it be known with great feeling that of all the
readings ‘Copper Woman’ was their favourite.
Some
made a point of thanking me verbally, saying it had changed
their lives! This was particularly
true of the women, but also the
case with many of the men.
What was it about this collection
of stories which had so moved
many of them? - at times to tears
in the middle of discussion!
I believed then and now that
Ms. Cameron was bringing to
surface core truths about our
history and condition as women,
and that she was delivering it
with genuine care, warmth,
and understanding about the
difficulties of being human
whatever your gender.
After the
class was over, I gave my copy of ‘Daughters of Copper
Woman’ to a friend. Once in
awhile I would see a used copy
in a bookstore but less and less
over the years. Eventually I figured
it had gone out of print. At the
end of last year, I was surprised
and pleased to run across a new
edition (published in 2000, ed.) with new
material. I bought it, re-read it, and found
myself again delighted with this insightful
and moving book.
Top
I
feel certain that the timing of this 2nd edition is no accident.
Everywhere
women are waking up, shaking their
'old’ selves off, and coming into new
realizations about what it means to be
female, about what women are needed
for, and about how precious this gender
is to the unfolding of planetary events.
Anne Cameron is telling stories, which
give foundation and support to this fact.
As noted in
the Preface to this new edition, the creation stories about ‘First Mother’ which
Ms. Cameron lovingly records, were told to her by long time neighbors
and
friends on Vancouver Island, part of a‘
secret society’ of elder native women.
These women have kept alive their oral
traditions for centuries, never speaking of
them outside the small circle of women
directly involved. They went underground
generations ago, out of fear. The men of
their own tribe had forgotten the old ways,
in part because of the influence of the
Spanish priesthood and other white
European settlers who overran the area
in the 16th and 17th centuries. The native
women felt under assault. Over many
intervening generations - in the face of
destructive forces from the outside - they worked hard to remember
what they knew
to be their heritage. And they worked
equally hard to maintain an attitude of
strength and forgiveness, reminding themselves
and others that the trouble, which
had hit hard, came out of ignorance and
foolishness, not malicious wrongdoing.
For reasons
left unsaid, the present day women of this tribe recognized that,
after
years of silence, the time had come for their‘
story’ to be told. Anne Cameron, their
neighbor and friend, with a deep natural
interest in their tales, myths, poetry, and
history, became the vehicle for transmission
of an oral tradition into written form, something
which had never been allowed before.
As she says:
“ ...they
instructed me to put the stories on paper and have them published,
for all of our
children and grandchildren, but especially for
the ones who have been deprived of some
of the healing aspects of their grandmothers’ culture”.
So listen
and write she did, and that first edition which I’d discovered by ‘accident’ became
an underground classic, quickly selling more than 200,000 copies
in different
languages. Following my recent discovery of
this 2nd edition, I hunted the internet for
more about it, and came across the following
short online review: “‘Daughters of Copper Woman’ is
Anne Cameron’s
re-telling of Northwest Coast
Indian myths shared with her by
a few loving Native women of
Vancouver Island. This is her
best-loved book, the one most
praised for its marvelous storytelling
and most treasured for
its shining vision of the social
and spiritual power of women”.
Top
The myth of Copper
Woman
The
book reveals something of its portent in the way it
is structured. The writer, Anne
Cameron, is a woman of many
seasons. She is telling the story
via the mouthpiece of KiKi, a
coming-of-age young native
woman who has been learning
about her grandmother’s tribal
tradition. It is through KiKi’s eyes
that we see the grandmother
as principal carrier of the old
ways. She tells KiKi and others
the myth of Copper Woman, the
first planetary being. She describes
Copper Woman’s daughters, the greeneyed
carriers of tradition through the ages.
She explains that their tribal society has
always known the beauty of women, the
strength of women, the wisdom of women.
It
is the women who hold things together and direct the men in the
best way to live.
There are warrior women who protect the
tribe in times of danger. And there is an
inner secret society of women who meet to
work out what is needed. They take care of
the tribe, acting as leaders of both the men
and women. They instruct the children,
teaching the young girls all they need to
become strong and true to themselves,
and the boys to know and respect this.
As readers, we get the story coming
through a young girl/woman, a mature
woman writer, and a grandmother lady
of wisdom. These three voices are woven
together in a complex and fertile tapestry,
revealing much about feminine growth
and spiritual development.
As
the story unfolds, what comes into view are deep understandings
and connections
shared among the tribal women about life
and love, moral honor and deep spiritual
connection. Across long stretches of time,
the women know they directly inherit from
their Old Mother, Copper Woman, the
capability gained from her early appearance
and long time experience on the planet, as
well as the wisdom gained from being in contact with unseen spirits
who come to
help. They know they will live and reincarnate
for as long as it takes to become old
ones, at which point they will move on
to other realms. The book begins with a
mythical picture of the woman who knows
what and who she is, both her Self and the
body she inhabits. It moves from there into
layer upon layer of history. The complexities
build as the stories continue, mixing myth
and history, forging a partnership of unseen
and seen forces... and courageously telling
the ‘other side’ of the story. It is a warm,
tender and tough account.
After Copper
Woman - at the dawn of time - has solved the problem of being
alone, after coming together with the first
man (in a strange and comic way - you must
read this for yourself!), after giving birth to
many daughters and sons, after she has
lived and learned all that she can, she
decides it’s her time to leave this plane
forever, to become part of the spirit world.
This is how it goes:
“
Then she left her meat in her bag of skin,
and took her bones with her, and became a
spirit, became more than she had ever before
been, more than any of us can ever be.
She became Old Woman. She turned her
bones into a broom and a loom”.
And she leaves the following message for
all her daughters to know in their hearts:
“ With
the loom she weaves the pattern of destiny.
With her broom she sweeps clean the beach
and the minds of all women
who call on her.
She became part of fog mist and night wind
she became part of sea spray and waves
she became part of rain and storm
she became part of sunshine and clear sky.
She became part of night and part of day
she became part of winter and part of
summer
she became part of spring and part of fall
she became part of all creation.
With her loom and with her broom
with her love and with her patience
she weaves the pattern of destiny
and sweeps beaches and minds
she weaves the pattern of reality
and tidies shorelines and souls.
She will never abandon you”.
Top
The training to become a woman
Following this early time, with the memory
of Copper Woman strong and clear, the
women taught each other many things, for
instance that the time of one’s period, whenone is in special
connection with the Mother
(earth, ed.), is a sacred time. Also, that a girl
must work hard to enter her womanhood in
a strong and intact way. It is a training and a
long term effort, sponsored and supervised
by the tribal society of women who knew
that this must be undertaken to keep the
person and the group sound and intact.
In the present, while sitting in their warm
kitchen, KiKi’s grandmother tells her about
what it means to be a woman and something
about the training she herself had to
go through physically to step over the line
from girlhood to womanhood:
“
Then I had to start all over again, learnin’ how to run. You had to learn or you weren’t
a woman. It isn’t easy becomin’ a woman,
it’s not somethin’ that just happens because
you’ve been standin’ around in one place for
a long time, or because your body’s started
doin’ certain things. A woman has to know
patience, and a woman has to know how to
stick it out, and a woman has to know all
kinds of things that don’t just come to you
like a gift. There was always a reason for the
things we hadda learn, and sometimes you’d
been a woman for a long time before you
found out for yourself what the reason was.
But if you hadn’t learned, you couldn’t get
married or have children, because you just
weren’t ready, you didn’t know what needed
to be known to do it right”.
The
influence of the white colonists The details and depth of this
training are
described as the book unfolds, often against
a tragic background, a time when the world
has turned upside down, with the arrival
of strangers coming in from the sea.
Part of what KiKi’s grandmother holds is
the mythology of Copper Woman and part
of it is the history of the arrival of the
Spanish, and later of other white settlers,
on Vancouver Island, the ‘other side’ of the
history, not usually told. The entry of these
foreign born-and-bred men is like the entry
of brutal fire. Women, even very young
girls, are raped. Fatal diseases are spread.
A
whole way of life is interrupted, never even seen, except as
something to be
ended. The women fight, side by side with
their men, to keep the foreign cruelty out.
But fate washes over them like a tidal wave.
Not only is there lust, disease, and battles
to cope with, there is the priesthood arriving
to tell them their way of life is against God.
Their children are taken from them, and
educated elsewhere. Their men are turned
against them, taught to believe that women
are lesser and should follow and obey the
men and not be allowed to consider the
idea of equality, certainly never to think
about leadership.
With these
new influences, tribal ways are violently and irrevocably changed.
It gets
harder, more chaotic, worse and worse,
as generations come and go. More is
forgotten. Much is lost forever.
Eventually, to save what little is left, the
women go underground, they go secret.
As KiKi’s grandmother puts it:
The secret women’s warrior society - “We
knew we couldn’t stay out in the open with
bein’ wiped out. It was a time, a time
of change, a time to wait and do nothin’ until we could see what needed doin’.
So the women’s warrior society went secret,
as secret as the society of women. Only the
women in the warrior society knew who the
others were. It was the only way to keep the
secret safe. And for four generations it’s
been a secret. Only the most trusted of the
sisterhood knew that some of us wore a
band for more than to just hold our hair
off our faces, or be a decoration. And sometimes
women without the right would wear
what we called princess headbands, but the
warrior women always knew who was and
who wasn’t entitled to wear the mark.
And it helped keep the secret. If people
thought it was just fashion like lipstick or
brassieres or pointy-toed shoes, there was
less chance of the truth bein’ found out”.
As
the years go by, the society of women holds up, but in more and
more ragged
condition, as their daughters die of disease,
or early pregnancy, or suicide, or a foreign
schooling, which takes away their memory
and their connection with their tribal sisters.
It is only with this connection, and the
training which naturally occurs within its
warm embrace, that the young girls can
grow up to be proud of who they are,
proud of their gender, clear about the
difference between real wisdom and cultural
get-by. Part of this real wisdom is what the
unseen worlds or ‘magic women’ originally
communicated to Copper Woman at a time,
after the flood, when they came to see if
she was all right. They took her with them
to another place to instruct her about
eternal matters:
“
When they first got here, there were no
rocks. Just sea and beach and a big empty
field with grass and flowers. In the sand on
the beach they drew a big circle and told her
the secrets about it, and about how it’s the
link to the real home, and when she was able
to understand, they taught her how to do
what they could do, lift up off the ground
like dust in the wind, and when she could
lift herself and float where she wanted, they
showed her how to leave her meat and
bones in her sack of skin and just send her
Self someplace else...When she could do
that, they told her how some bodies in the
sky never change, and others do. And when
she understood all that, and could find the
ones that never, not ever, change, they did
their magic and they cut the rocks from the
mountain and shaped them the way they
wanted them, and then, the same way they
moved themselves, they moved the stones
and set them in place and marked them,
and set the rock that’s missin’ now in its
place and put magic marks on it, and taught
her about measurin’ and how to use the
measures and the rocks to figure out distance
and time... And with the rocks and the stars
and the measurements... we always knew
where we were and how much was ours”.
Top
A deep feeling of responsibility
for the earth
KiKi’s grandmother goes on to explain that
part of knowing where we were and what
was ‘ours’ involved a deep sense of responsibility
for the earth and what grows and
lives on the earth. It is not about personal or
private possession. To own something, to
belong to it and it to you, meant that you
and your family were chosen to look after
and care for it. You had some rights thereby,
a kind of claim, but not the right to hoard
or hog or be selfish about it. As I read this
part of the book, I thought about the critical
importance of this old wisdom, now when
it was crucial to the healing of a world
gone crazy with greed, possession, and
power-mongering.
Time of Change
The
tales and stories about Copper Woman, along with the painful
telling of the history
from the point of view of the conquered - it
is all about the re-establishment of a claim,
an old truth and a new responsibility, for the women of this
planet now. As KiKi’s grandmother
tells her and others:
“
Now it’s a time of change again. Time to
change. Women are recognizing the enemy.
Women are lookin’ for truth. Speakin’ to young
women, tellin’ them that rape isn’t anythin’ at
all to do with love or even with lust, tellin’ them it’s just another way for some people to
convince themselves they’ve got power, any
old kind of power. Women are learnin’ to use
their bodies again, learnin’ to defend themselves
again, and speakin’ the truth about
alcohol and pills and body shame. Lookin’ for truth, lookin’ for
support, and love, and a circle to join”.
The
circle... the planet... the inner core... To join these means
to become connected in
sisterhood, in strength, love, humility, courage,
and also to reach a hand to the men. We need
to ask, who is Copper Woman? And who are
her daughters? Who carries on the traditions
of the women of power, the women of wisdom,
the women who gather to help and heal
each other and - out from the core of their
care - the earth on which we live. Are we
Copper Woman’s daughters? Are we her
green-eyed girls? Is it time we all told our
stories with courage and humility, honor and
pride, wistfulness and wisdom? Having the
opportunity of tapping into this expressive and
healing Native American Northwest tradition,
via Anne Cameron’s account, it makes me wonder anew about
the ‘gems and jewels’,
which are part of our history and world
today. This particular gem has been lovingly
held and tended for hundreds of years by
many women who refused to give up a set
of beliefs about who and what they were.
Thank goodness. The act itself reminds me
that only a human being can be such a
haven. And the content, kept safe and then
revealed, by women, about women, for
women, is a rare and significant gift.
‘Daughters of Copper Woman’ by
Anne Cameron, HarbourPublishing (Canada),
ISBN number 1-55017-245-X.
The most recent edition appeared in
March 2002.
Top
Liz Lyell
 Liz
Lyell, writer of this article, is acting
(volunteer) director of Feminenza in
Northwest America and presents courses and workshops to women in
this area.
She has a Masters Degree in Philosophy
and Teaching and has taught philosophy to
both adults and children for many years.
Currently she is working - next to her activities for Feminenza
- with people of
65 years and older, teaching Ethics and
American Philosophy (in connection with
what happened on September 11, 2001).
“ I
am deeply concerned with understanding more about the feminine
gender, and
opening up possibilities ith other women
to come into a more real sense of who
and what we are, and how we can help.
The more I explore, the more I realize that
women have been living behind a veil,
literally (to some degree or other) and
figuratively, for centuries. Until this veil is
fully lifted, in significant and genuine ways,
and until women develop beyond the
expectations of the culture they find themselves
in, the human race and the planet
itself will be out of balance. My belief and
hope is that we can make a difference, at
a critical time, by developing a new and
more integrated sense of ourselves as
women, and also by finding ways to work
more effectively with men”. |
