An agonizing TALE of two Metis foster children

Page 11

Review

In Search of April Raintree

By Beatrice Culleton

Pemmican Publications

Winnipeg, Manitoba

The heart-rending pain and tragedy of BEING an adopted child, specifically a Native child, has never been painted as vividly as it has in Beatrice Culleton's work of fiction IN Search of April Raintree.

People can read news reports, watch television documentaries or listen to radio features on the often tragic lives of adopted Native children, but the tragedies aren't as clearly illustrated as they are in Culleton's work.

An emotional juggernaut that runs over its readers, In Search of April Raintree is an agonizing tale of two Metis foster children - sisters taken away from their parents when they were young. The stories recount beatings, ostrasization, rape and frustrations of dealing with an insensitive bureaucracy, all more or less on the account of having dark hair and skin.

The older sister April carries the memories of her alcoholic family into a new family that fosters her spirit and well-being, where she gets a taste of what she characterizes as white middle-class life, clean sheets, a large bed, good clothes, lots of friends and acceptance from white children before she enters a Cinderella-like existence with a rural non-Native family, the dreaded DeRosiers.

The mother and daughter of this family are stock characters - essentially evil, racist and absolutely merciless - yet they play an important role in driving April to think Native people are "gutter creatures". The mother and daughter treat April with disdain and hate, taunting her about her people- which she is made to think consists of dirty drunks and thieves and of Indian girls who invariably drop out of school, get pregnant and then turn into prostitutes and alcoholics. She must endure the negative indoctrination that Metis and Indian people are hopeless races doomed forever to a mysterious place called skid row.

Meanwhile, her rebellious and brilliant younger sister Cheryl, who was too young to have any memories of the troubled family life, is raised in a non-Native family that gives her all their support and love and fosters her interest in her Metis heritage.

The two correspond and Cheryl revels in her Metis identity, sending her big sister school essays of the buffalo hunts and the bravery and courage of Metis rebels.

April is both happy and bemused by her sister's intense interest in her legacy happy because Cheryl enjoys being a Metis, bemused because there is a stigma attached to being a half-breed" since Native people are forever destined to be "gutter creatures". Nevertheless, Cheryl becomes a bastion April draws on for strength and encouragement.

The book's pace proceeds like a roller coaster and Culleton's simple language offers brutal explanations and narration's throat. She captures the stereotype of the imperceptive social worker easily led to believe the charades and lies the DeRosiers put her through - the mother who is charming and considerate to April while the worker is present, but venomous when the worker is gone.

April lives uneasily with her identity, finally getting rescued from the DeRosiers and entering a girl's academy, graduating, discovering the freedom of Adulthood and then going through a marriage with a rich Toronto man and living off the divorce proceeds. Cheryl goes on to university and works for a friendship center helping the surrounding people.

After her graduation April's search for her parents finally confirms her attitude Native people are destined for the poorhouse. The addresses she's been given in search of her parents are not exactly uptown and she is appalled at the conditions the people live in. The squalor, the flies, the stench and the smell of liquor on the breath of an old lady in the morning do nothing to dispel her sister's thought that the Metis and the Indians were once a strong proud race and could be again with a little help. April gives up, fearing her parents will be all she thinksher people are.

It is young idealistic Cheryl who takes up the search and makes that discovery. Never having known her parents, she kept an immaculate, powerful, noble image of her father and mother. It's shattered when she finally meets him and finds our, forebodingly, her mother jumped to her death off Winnipeg's Louise Bridge.

Cheryl falls apart and April in her role of being a big sister becomes stronger, trying to support her sister, giving her money, food and a place to live. Cheryl doesn't want what she perceives as charity nor does she want April's mentality around her anymore. Their relationship deteriorates.

Only at the end does April realize her mistake of trying to become a white person and taking a passive role in the destruction of her people.

The book lacks revelations, but makes up for it with poignancy. It elicits pity and perhaps guilt from a non-Native perspective, but it also incites feelings of resentment, anger and sorrow from the Native reader.

The book illustrates the social mores of Canadian society, from passive uncaring ignorance to outright discrimination, and may be a shocking read, but in the end gives a hopeful message of tolerance and self-help, at the same time warning everyone is vulnerable to losing hope and giving in to the hazards and stereotypes of street life, no matter their education or background.