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Pahkonikewin: Skinning
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Three Day Road, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Isolation vs. Community
Racism and Assimilation
Language and Storytelling
Nature, War, and Survival
Summary
Analysis
Around midday, Niska steers the canoe to shore. She builds a fire and makes some bannock, but Xavier refuses to eat. “For now,” Niska thinks, “I will feed him another story.” Niska looks around and thinks again that she doesn’t recognize her surroundings.
Again, Niska attempts to nourish and sustain Xavier through storytelling, but it doesn’t appear to be working. Since Niska doesn’t recognize her surroundings, this suggests that Xavier is on the “three day road” towards death.
Themes
Niska’s mother, Xavier’s grandmother, died long before Xavier was born. Illness came and took her quickly, and Niska wrapped her body and placed her high in tree so “her ahcahk was free.” Afterward, Niska lived alone and heard rumors that Rabbit “was a drinker of wemistikoshiw rum and had abandoned her only son to be raised by the nuns in that residential school.”
This relies on the racist trope of Indians as alcoholics, an assumption that has had very real consequences. Studies show that Indigenous people who falsely believe they have a biological tendency for alcoholism actually have a greater chance of becoming alcoholics. Indians as alcoholics is a stereotype perpetuated by wemistikoshiw, and it has been very effective at harming the Indigenous community
Themes
That year, Niska’s “recurring fits and visions returned.” She knew that the visions were coming “by the change in the light,” and she saw images of a “metal wagon, moving of its own accord, black and shiny and noisy.” She saw “the face of a boy,” about four or five years old, and knew it was Xavier. Niska took the three-day trip to Moose Factory and stood watching the children play at the residential school. It did not take her long to figure out which child was Xavier.
Niska is seeing WWI years before it happens. She describes the new tanks introduced during the war and can even see Xavier before she knows him. Interestingly, Niska hasn’t had a vision for some time, which suggests Niska’s visions only come to her when there is something important to see, like Xavier and the war that nearly kills him.
Themes
Watching the children play, Niska made “the sound of a grouse,” and Xavier’s “ears perked.” “Nephew,” Niska said. “I am Niska. I am your Auntie.” Xavier was “bold” and seemed to know her. “I came to ask if you would prefer leaving here and going into the forest to live with me.” “Yes, Auntie,” Xavier said without hesitation. The next day, Niska waited for Xavier on the river, and when she saw him approach in a canoe with a nun, she made the call of a whiskeyjack.
Birds are again symbolic of Niska and Xavier’s connection to nature and, in this case, to each other as well. Niska makes bird calls at Xavier, and he seems to automatically know who she is. Her use of the whiskeyjack call is symbolic as well. It is connected to Elijah and is associated with the trickster; which Niska is as well—especially since she is rescuing Xavier from the residential school.
Themes
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Xavier paddled the canoe toward Niska, against the direction of the angry nun, who began yelling at Xavier to go the other way. Niska paddled toward them, letting out “a great wail, the wail of years of hurting,” and the nun, startled, fell into the river. “You paddle home,” Niska said to the nun in the few English words she knew. Niska “clipped [the nun] sharply on the head for emphasis,” and then she paddled Xavier home to the bush.
Niska’s “wail” is more than just her own. It represents the pain of all the Indigenous people who suffered years of separation, assimilation, and abuse at the hands of the wemistikoshiw and their residential schools. Over 150,000 Indigenous children were forced into Canadian residential schools during their years of operation.
Themes
