美国国家公共电台 NPR A Sailor Meets A Fisherman In 1534: It's An 'Encounter,' Not A Discovery

 

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

"Encounter" is the story of two men, Fisher and Sailor, on one day in 1534.

BRITTANY LUBY: It's a day we know Jacques Cartier, a French explorer, let his crew go to shore. And I wanted to imagine what happened when an ordinary gent bumped into a Stadaconan fisherman who had been using those waters for generations.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: It's written by Brittany Luby, drawing from notes kept by Jacques Cartier on his first expedition to what is now North America. But in "Encounter," Luby tells the story of the peaceful, friendly meeting that could have been from an indigenous¹ perspective.

LUBY: I'm of Anishinaabe descent. I was born and raised in northwestern Ontario. And growing up, I would hear about, you know, our peoples being discovered. And it was really confusing when I would go home and my parents would tell me, that's not actually how things happened.

So I wanted to tell a story that showed that the Stadaconans were already here and that they had knowledge that was valued and valuable in this space. So it's Fisher who knows how to eat the sunflower seed, and it's Fisher who knows where to swim. And I really just wanted to showcase that indigenous presence and cultural vitality².

GARCIA-NAVARRO: We've been asking authors and illustrators how they work together or separately to bring stories to life. Luby worked with illustrator Michaela Goade, who is of Tlingit descent. They both say their pairing was a blessing³.

MICHAELA GOADE: I think sometimes there's a sensitivity there when you're both from a shared experience. And even though I don't quite know at the beginning the details or the specifics of, you know, Anishinaabe or Ojibwa cultures or Metis or Cree or Upper Skagit, throughout the course of these books, I learned so much. And I formed these relationships and these bonds, and that's really something. And I'm very proud to be involved in these books.

LUBY: One thing that I really appreciated about working with Michaela and, I think, a sensitivity she brought to her reading of the text is that whenever there was a question, she would take a moment of pause to go back and do some research. So when Fisher needed a pocket, we were like, OK, did the Stadaconans have pockets? And in 1534, the Stadaconans were present on the territory. And when Samuel de Champlain, a later French explorer and colonist⁴, came in the 1600s, the Stadaconan people were gone.

And so we turned to later Jesuit texts to get a sense of what other Iroquoian people would have dressed like. And we started looking at, you know, museum online image databases. And we're like, OK, he might not have had a pocket, but he might have worn a pouch⁵. You know, Michaela didn't make assumptions.

GOADE: So I work primarily in watercolor. My style sort of lends itself more towards, you know, imaginative, more magical landscapes. And I'm really deeply inspired by the natural world. And any time that I can help, you know, sort of elevate the role of Mother Nature or, you know, feed my spirit or the spirit of others through my work is just a really big treat.

So you know, I spend a lot of time on building up the landscape. And this is on the eastern coast of Canada. And so actually, to my surprise, the landscape wasn't dramatically different from what I know in southeast Alaska and the Pacific Northwest. There's lots of sweeping⁶ cliffs and coastal⁷ vistas⁸, deep, rich forests, lots of jewel tones. The book follows a day. And so the sun tracks left through right throughout the story. And so it's just, you know, sunrise through sunset. And it's just a very rich, I hope, magical world.

LUBY: One of the things that I really love about Michaela's illustrations is they have this dreamlike quality, and they're very calming. The color palette is so inviting⁹ and so beautiful. And for me, it was important that we didn't have an ominous¹⁰, scary story because, in 1534, Fisher and Sailor didn't know what we know today. They didn't know what was coming - that France would eventually use knowledge extracted from North America to colonize¹¹ indigenous lands. Fisher and Sailor didn't know that Samuel de Champlain would build a French settlement in the territory in the 1600s. And I wanted to imagine what might have unfolded if two people thought perhaps they were just spending this moment in time together.

But the other thing that I really wanted to do was to highlight that, you know, Fisher and Sailor had a choice in how they interacted. And we have a choice in how we choose to interact today.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: That was author Brittany Luby and illustrator Michaela Goade talking about their new book "Encounter."

1 indigenous   

adj.土产的，土生土长的，本地的

参考例句：

• Each country has its own indigenous cultural tradition.每个国家都有自己本土的文化传统。
• Indians were the indigenous inhabitants of America.印第安人是美洲的土著居民。

2 vitality   

n.活力，生命力，效力

参考例句：

• He came back from his holiday bursting with vitality and good health.他度假归来之后，身强体壮，充满活力。
• He is an ambitious young man full of enthusiasm and vitality.他是个充满热情与活力的有远大抱负的青年。

3 blessing   

n.祈神赐福；祷告；祝福，祝愿

参考例句：

• The blessing was said in Hebrew.祷告用了希伯来语。
• A double blessing has descended upon the house.双喜临门。

4 colonist   

n.殖民者，移民

参考例句：

• The indians often attacked the settlements of the colonist.印地安人经常袭击殖民者的定居点。
• In the seventeenth century, the colonist here thatched their roofs with reeds and straw,just as they did in england.在17世纪，殖民者在这里用茅草盖屋，就像他们在英国做的一样。

5 pouch   

n.小袋，小包，囊状袋；vt.装...入袋中，用袋运输；vi.用袋送信件

参考例句：

• He was going to make a tobacco pouch out of them. 他要用它们缝制一个烟草袋。
• The old man is always carrying a tobacco pouch with him.这老汉总是随身带着烟袋。

6 sweeping   

adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的

参考例句：

• The citizens voted for sweeping reforms.公民投票支持全面的改革。
• Can you hear the wind sweeping through the branches?你能听到风掠过树枝的声音吗？

7 coastal   

adj.海岸的，沿海的，沿岸的

参考例句：

• The ocean waves are slowly eating away the coastal rocks.大海的波浪慢慢地侵蚀着岸边的岩石。
• This country will fortify the coastal areas.该国将加强沿海地区的防御。

8 vistas   

长条形景色( vista的名词复数 )； 回顾； 展望； （未来可能发生的）一系列情景

参考例句：

• This new job could open up whole new vistas for her. 这项新工作可能给她开辟全新的前景。
• The picture is small but It'shows broad vistas. 画幅虽然不大，所表现的天地却十分广阔。

9 inviting   

adj.诱人的，引人注目的

参考例句：

• An inviting smell of coffee wafted into the room.一股诱人的咖啡香味飘进了房间。
• The kitchen smelled warm and inviting and blessedly familiar.这间厨房的味道温暖诱人，使人感到亲切温馨。

10 ominous   

adj.不祥的，不吉的，预兆的，预示的

参考例句：

• Those black clouds look ominous for our picnic.那些乌云对我们的野餐来说是个不祥之兆。
• There was an ominous silence at the other end of the phone.电话那头出现了不祥的沉默。

11 colonize   

v.建立殖民地，拓殖；定居，居于

参考例句：

• Around 700 Arabs began to colonize East Africa.公元700年阿拉伯人开始把东非变为殖民地。
• Japan used to colonize many countries in Asia.日本曾经殖民过许多亚洲国家。