Daniel Heath Justice is a professor at UBC and author of Why Indigenous Literatures Matter. I went to his book launch at the Gibson's library. He is definitely a subject matter expert with the ability to engage with complex concepts and abstract ideas.
I first read his story, The boys who became hummingbirds, years ago in its comic form in Moonshot: The Indigenous Comics Collection, Volume 2 (2017). Both the comic and the short story versions are so beautiful that they have brought me to tears more than once, for reasons which I will talk about below. It would be a fun activity in class to compare and contrast the comic version and the short story version using the inquiry question, "how does the medium impact the message?" Students could reflect on their own subjective experience of both versions, and perhaps speak to the unique strengths that each medium offers.
In the far ancient days, when the boundary between worlds was thinner, and when transformation was an everyday truth of the world, not a doubt, a strange boy lived in a dying town. Food no longer nourished the People, who sat listless and grim in the shadows, hiding from the parching sun. Unhealthy waters flowed sluggish and mute in straining colours of orange, red, and brown. Plants had long ago withered and blown away, when the People thought the drought was at its worst, before it worsened further. The only beings left to share the town were half-starved-dogs and half-mad wildcats who had no place else to go. It was a place of daily cruelty, where laughter was only mockery, where touch was meant to hurt, where beauty went to die. (Justice, 2016, p. 54)Cherokee author Daniel Heath Justice’s 2016 The boys who became hummingbirds begins and ends with the phrase “This is a teaching, and a remembrance” (p. 54, p. 59). It begins in a world where “people had turned against the world, one another, and themselves” (p. 54). There, a boy looks for beauty and tries to revive it by dancing, singing, and dyeing his clothes (p. 55). But his attempts to revive beauty are met with violence and eventually banishment (p. 56). While he is banished, a boy from town comes to meet him (p. 56). They embrace, and in doing so, become hummingbirds during the day, and return to human form at night (p. 56). They fly back to their town, and inspire others to become beautiful as well. But some people attack those who became beautiful.
Like iridescent lightening the Hummingbird boys led the way among their earthbound attackers, and where spearing beak and soft wing struck flesh, bright flowers bloomed. Rocks in clenched hands dissolved to glittering stardust, and soon the air thundered with the defiant song of a thousand bright hummingbirds, and the world came alive again in a loving beauty too long denied. (p. 58)The Hummingbird boys “had restored their world” (p. 59).
Ever after, whenever someone heard the thrilling hum of soft wings in their breast, no matter how it came to be realized, no matter whether the quickening spirit was young or old, of all genders or none, the People now gathered together in love and welcome. For they understood once again, as they had long ago, that no one was expendable. No one was forgotten. No one’s beauty would ever again be shamed. For it was beauty, and two brave, loving hearts, that had brought them back to one another. (p. 59)I really like Daniel Heath Justice's fiction. I think it's elegant and emotionally compelling.
I admire the main character in this story because he has the courage to be himself, even when it is unpopular. In the midst of unfair treatment and hardship, he retains the ability to love. And he forgives his attackers. More than that, though, he cares for his attackers by showing them that life can be beautiful. They treat him as though he doesn’t belong. Somehow, though, just by being himself, he teaches them about beauty and belonging. When they tried to define him negatively, he responded by continuing to be himself, and eventually they came to see him differently. I admire the way that he responded to adversity with kindness and care, and in doing so, transformed his community. This story is an inspiring example of how to weather hardship. I suspect that reading this story has made me a kinder person.
Works Cited
Justice, D. H. (2016). The boys who became hummingbirds. In H. Nicholson (Ed.), Love beyond body, space, & time: An Indigenous LGBT scifi anthology (pp. 54-59). Winnipeg, Manitoba: Bedside Press.
Nicholson, H. (2017). Moonshot: The Indigenous Comics Collection, Volume 2. Iqaluit, Nunavut: Inhabit Education Books.
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This is an adapted excerpt from my dissertation, Singing into the Machine, p.121-122
This blog is a sister blog to https://twinkleshappyplace.blogspot.com/
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