The Imagery of Velma Wallis’ childhood
Wallis recalls, “Our life as children in Fort Yukon moved as slowly and steadily as the seasons. We knew winter would bring school, rabbit snaring, sledging, and hauling in wood. In the spring we expected our muskrat tails cooked on top of the woodstove, and our beaver meat boiling in big pots, enough to feed the whole family. In the summer we knew that we would stay up late playing with our neighbourhood friends. And when fall came, we would do the same things we had done the previous year. My father hauled in wood and killed a moose, and my older brothers cut the dried grass we call goose grass from along the lakes to serve as bedding for our sled dogs.” Wallis’ portrayals depict her childhood as standard. The seasons command the accomplishments which the families partake; hence, the engagements for each season are foreseeable. Furthermore, the family ties are sturdy based on the partnership in that is apparent in the accomplishment of the routine errands.
The Imagery of Grandmother Martha
Wallis expounds, “Itchoo was always an enigma. She didn’t speak fluent English, and her values differed greatly from ours. To us she was simply an odd little grandmother who dominated the lives of adults around us. She intimidated us younger ones with her blue glass eye and Gwich’ in tongue. She seemed like a foreigner to me.” Grandmother’s generation espouses the Native values more than the children. Her mannerisms are considered anomalous by the children since they have been exposed to ‘white civilization.’ The emblematic foreigner indicates that Wallis never wholly apprehended her grandmother due to generational dissimilarities.
