‘I was writing to you and your generation’ Mi’kmaw author says
Review of Elder Calvin White’s One Man’s Journey from ABT #98 fall 2023
By Shannon Webb-Campbell
Reading Elder Calvin White’s One Man’s Journey: The Mi’kmaw Revival in Ktaqmkuk is a homecoming. White’s journey begins in Epwikek/Flat Bay, which is a Mi’kmaq community on the coast of southwestern Newfoundland, where he first learned how to hunt, fish, and gather. White shares stories of his mentors, and the Mi’kmaq families he grew up with on the land. Relations like the Benoits, Sheppards, Legges, Mitchells, Cormiers, Kings, Youngs, and my family, the Webbs, many of whom are still fighting to be recognized by the provincial and federal government.
Instead of focusing on the politics, White focuses on the Mi’kmaq movement through history, responsibility, philosophy and its people. White writes: “Flat Bay East, locally known as Muddy Hole, received its name from the nearby estuary with a muddy bottom that played host to eels in late fall and winter. Less than a mile west of Muddy Hole in Birchy Brook, also called ‘the Webb’s’ in the late 1800s up to the turn of the century due to John Webb’s family occupying the area.”
As he situates readers in place, and offers a map of the territory for us to locate via the Eurocentric understanding of land, White argues: “These families occupied Flat Bay with strong Mi’kmaw roots and would self-identify as French Indians or English Indians in various census reports throughout the years. Their identification was based on the language they spoke and could me more accurately be labelled as French/ English-speaking Indians rather than just French/English Indians.”
To read about my Webb family, and the Mi’kmaq history of Epwikek/Flat Bay in a book published by Memorial University Press, is profound. I felt seen and recognized. Not just as a writer, or scholar, but as kin. My father Kevin Webb was born and reared in Flat Bay not far from White, and faced similar prejudice and discrimination.
“I didn’t grow up with drums, rattles and feather. I grew up in the woods, learning how to catch eels, go hunting, fishing, and boil lobsters on the beach. Everyone else in Flat Bay grew up the same way,” says White. “I worked with your grandfather in the woods. I know what kind of worker he was. It wasn’t about drums and rattles and dreamcatchers. It was about a way of life, a very important way of life.”
White has spent over 50 years advocating for Indigenous recognition and rights, and has been recognized by the Order of Canada and of Newfoundland and Labrador, as well as an honorary doctorate. White’s One Man’s Journey focuses on the reclamation and restoration of pride in Mi’kmaw culture in Newfoundland.
White shares stories of my great-great grandmother Mary Webb, who was a well-respected midwife and healer in Flat Bay. He writes: “All the Elders I heard stories about, such as Mary Webb and Mattie Mitchell, were more than legends to me, they were connections to the past. My association with my grandfather, his grandfather Mitchell White and Mattie Mitchell empowered me to become an advocate for Indigenous justice.”
In fact, while talking with Elder White about my great-great grandmother Mary Webb, White tells me that they just broke ground at the Flat Bay First Nation band office where they are erecting the Mary Francis Webb Gathering Place in 2024, a culture hub that will host events, serve as a healing and wellness centre, and teaching space for the Mi’kmaq language in Flat Bay.
“I was writing to you and your generation. People with an education,” says White. “I want young people like you to realize that you don’t have to come from the rich and the powerful in society to make a change. All you need to have the truth, and the courage to face that truth.”
Shannon Webb-Campbell is of Mi’kmaq and settler heritage. Her books include: the forthcoming Re: Wild Her (Book*hug 2025), Lunar Tides (2022), I Am a Body of Land (2019), and Still No Word (2015), which was the recipient of Egale Canada’s Out in Print Award. Shannon is a PhD candidate at the University of New Brunswick, and the editor of Visual Arts News Magazine.
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