{"id":49843,"date":"2017-12-11T15:07:37","date_gmt":"2017-12-11T20:07:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=49843"},"modified":"2017-12-11T15:09:24","modified_gmt":"2017-12-11T20:09:24","slug":"hot-take-local-music-teacher-sues-after-school-calls-song-racist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2017\/12\/11\/hot-take-local-music-teacher-sues-after-school-calls-song-racist\/","title":{"rendered":"HOT TAKE | Local Music Teacher Sues After Elementary School Calls Song Racist"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_49846\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-49846\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-49846\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/12\/Pauline-Johnson.jpg\" alt=\"Pauline Johnson was born in the mid 1800s in Ontario to a father who was Mohawk and a mother who was English.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1024\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/12\/Pauline-Johnson.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/12\/Pauline-Johnson-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/12\/Pauline-Johnson-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/12\/Pauline-Johnson-768x768.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-49846\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Emily\u00a0<em>Pauline Johnson<\/em> was born in the mid-1800s in Ontario to a father who was Mohawk and a mother who was English.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><em>Land of the silver birch,\u00a0<\/em><em>Home of the beaver\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The words are familiar to generations of schoolchildren, trotted out with Ian Tyson\u2019s <em>Four Strong Winds<\/em> and other Canadiana in elementary schools and summer camps across the country for decades.<\/p>\n<p>Times have changed. Violet Shearer, a music teacher at High Park Alternative Public School, included the song in a school concert in May 2016. About two weeks later, after some parents allegedly expressed concerns, the school&#8217;s principal and vice-principal sent out an email to the entire school community denouncing the song, which they called inappropriate and racist. As reported in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thestar.com\/news\/gta\/2017\/12\/07\/toronto-music-teacher-sues-for-defamation-after-principal-vp-call-folk-song-land-of-the-silver-birch-racist.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Toronto Star<\/a>, the email claimed, in part, \u201cWhile its lyrics are not overtly racist&#8230;the historical context of the song is racist.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/agzAC8Ot1fc?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<p>TDSB (Toronto District School Board) policies and procedures include broad stroke guidelines on matters of inclusion. The onus is placed largely on teachers to negotiate thorny questions such as the legacy of E. Pauline Johnson.<\/p>\n<p>Emily Pauline Johnson\u2019s father was a Mohawk chief and her mother an English immigrant. She learned Mohawk oral traditions alongside English literary classics growing up on the Six Nations reserve near Hamilton, Ontario. When her father died in 1884, she took up writing as a way of helping to support the family.<\/p>\n<p>After publishing a few poems, Johnson developed a live act incorporating poetry and song. During the first half of the show, she was dressed as a proper British young lady. For the second, she donned a Mohawk princess costume. The act was a success, and she toured Canada, the US, and England for about 17 years, publishing several volumes of poetry, along with YA adventure stories. Johnson was a working writer and performer, in other words. Did she tailor her pieces to her largely non-First Nations audiences? You bet.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s why, these days, her literary legacy is open for debate. Johnson wrote about her dual heritage in some of her poems, though critiques of her work have noted the fact she used European musical and literary forms. She\u2019s been accused of being derivative, and her authenticity as a voice of the First Nations has been put into question.<\/p>\n<p>Commentators in the <em>Star<\/em> report, including Terri Monture, a blood relative of Johnson&#8217;s from the Six Nations, agreed that the characterization of her work as racist and inappropriate is somewhat extreme.\u00a0 Are the works of an artist and entertainer who was just trying to turn a buck \u2014 and one who was trying to rep a biracial identity more than a century ago when such definitions didn\u2019t even exist \u2014 to be entirely dismissed as racist? And who gets to decide?<\/p>\n<p>Shearer is suing administrators and the school board for $75K for alleged damage to her professional reputation, a claim that the respondents deny.<\/p>\n<p>Here are the lyrics:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"tr_bq\"><p>Land of the silver birch<br \/>\nHome of the beaver<br \/>\nWhere still the mighty moose<br \/>\nWanders at will<br \/>\nBlue lake and rocky shore<br \/>\nI will return once more<br \/>\nBoom de de boom boom, boom de de boom boom<br \/>\nBoom de de boom boom, boom.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote class=\"tr_bq\"><p>Down in the forest, deep in the lowlands<br \/>\nMy heart cries out for thee, hills of the north<br \/>\nBlue lake and rocky shore, I will return once more<br \/>\nBoom de de boom boom, boom de de boom boom<br \/>\nBoom de de boom boom, boom<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote class=\"tr_bq\"><p>High on a rocky ledge, I\u2019ll build my wigwam,<br \/>\nClose to the water\u2019s edge, silent and still<br \/>\nBlue lake and rocky shore, I will return once more<br \/>\nBoom de de boom boom, boom de de boom boom<br \/>\nBoom de de boom boom, boom<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote class=\"tr_bq\"><p>Land of the silver birch home of the beaver<br \/>\nWhere still the mighty moose, wanders at will<br \/>\nBlue lake and rocky shore, I will return once more<br \/>\nBoom de de boom boom, boom de de boom boom<br \/>\nBoom de de boom boom, boom.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h3><b><i>#LUDWIGVAN<\/i><br \/>\n<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><i>Want more updates on Toronto-centric classical music news and reviews before anyone else finds out? Follow us on\u00a0<\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/LudwigVanToronto\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><u><i>Facebook<\/i><\/u><\/a><i>\u00a0or\u00a0<\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LudwigVanTO\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><u><i>Twitter<\/i><\/u><\/a><i>\u00a0for all the latest.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-48756 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/10\/LudwigVan-head-text-looking_right.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"35\" height=\"55\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/10\/LudwigVan-head-text-looking_right.jpg 833w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/10\/LudwigVan-head-text-looking_right-190x300.jpg 190w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/10\/LudwigVan-head-text-looking_right-768x1213.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/10\/LudwigVan-head-text-looking_right-648x1024.jpg 648w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 35px) 100vw, 35px\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"abh_box abh_box_down abh_box_business\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Does the popular song \u201cLand of the Silver Birch\u201d contain racist overtones? A Toronto area elementary school seems to think so, prompting a lawsuit from the music teacher who says it isn&#8217;t.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":49846,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6439,9459,31,39,3693,63],"tags":[14821,6361,14820],"yst_prominent_words":[14817,14811,14819,14810,14812,14808,14813,14807,14816,14804,14800,14799,14814,14806,14803,14809,14815,14805,14801,14802],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/12\/Pauline-Johnson.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-cXV","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49843"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49843"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49843\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49852,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49843\/revisions\/49852"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49843"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=49843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}