Skin Like Mine

Garry Gottfriedson offers a suite of poems that peel away the skin of contemporary first nations people to reveal an inside view of their experience. He pulls no punches as he explores their challenges. He speaks of "minds full of anticipation" yet with "tongues pointing arrowheads". Telling it "like it is", he encourages readers to examine what lies inside many of today's native youth, who are "afraid to live / afraid to die / afraid of ourselves." He draws attention to the rape of the natural environment, the skin of Mother Earth, when he speaks of "forests being / eaten from the inside out". He tackles the political dysfunction within present-day band management, calling the leaders "political bullies" who "sweet-talk their way to stage management / ... then vote for themselves" to perpetuate internalised oppression. But as the collection continues, Gottfriedson's love for his land begins to emerge, and he calls on the mysterious Horsechild when he says: "I will bind the drying racks once again / with hemp to make ready / the rows for drying salmon / so that beneath your skin / the mountains will be forever abundant." Here the age-old rituals of the people and the land return, for the skin of the land provides comfort and assurance that some things will never change.