48 pages • 1 hour read
Richard WagameseKeeper'n Me
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1994A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Book 1Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Book 1: “Bih’kee’-Yan, Bih’kee’-Yan, Bih’kee’-Yan”
Book 1, Pages 1-23 Summary
Content Warning: This section of the guide describes and analyzes the source text’s treatment of racism, colonialism, and alcohol addiction. This section of the guide also quotes the source text’s use of the term “Indian” to convey the tone of the text but not as an acceptable characterization term.
Keeper begins with a prologue to the story. He explains that the young Ojibwe people are torn between traditional life and white culture. However, Keeper notes that the old ways are not gone, because people always listen to the old storytellers. The storytellers pass on the traditional Ojibwe teachings. He notes that Garnet has stories to tell about his people and his country. Keeper notes that white men have “lost touch with the rhythm of the earth” (3). He also notes that Garnet returned to the reserve not realizing that he was Anishinaabe. However, he learned a lot, and his story shows the reality of being a contemporary “Indyun.”
Garnet Raven, now 30 years old, begins his story by describing the area of White Dog, land of the Ojibwe, which feels like a different world. It is Garnet’s home, but he was away for years, “lost in the outside world” (7). The community is poor and depends on welfare, but they remain connected to each other. Garnet has been home for five years and lives with his mother in a cabin in the Ojibwe reserve, on the shore of the White Dog Lake.
Garnet’s family was still living traditionally when he was born. He was three when he was removed from his family and placed in foster homes with his siblings. A year later, he was placed alone in a different home. Garnet never felt welcome by his white foster families. He grew up in an all-white world and lost touch with his own identity. At 16, Garnet left his foster homes and wandered in Canadian cities, assuming any identity but an Indigenous one.
Book 1, Pages 24-41 Summary
Garnet meets Lonnie Flowers, a Black man, in Ontario. Lonnie is friendly and immediately understands Garnet’s Indigenous identity. Garnet tells him his real name, and the two bond. They go into a Black bar where Garnet meets Lonnie’s family and is mesmerized by the blues. Garnet explains his life story to Lonnie and his family, saying that he does not know where he is from. Lonnie tells him that all people need a family and “[a] man can’t be his own person if the man don’t know himself” (31). Garnet feels welcomed into Lonnie’s family, and Lonnie’s mother invites Garnet to stay with them. Garnet adopts a Black man’s look and attitude, styling his hair in an Afro and dressing like Lonnie. For the first time, Garnet feels that he has a home. Lonnie tells Garnet that he cannot avoid reality and must face his true identity. Garnet dismisses Lonnie’s arguments, as he does not know any Indigenous people.
Two years after moving in with Lonnie’s family, Garnet gets arrested while holding another man’s drugs. He is 22 years old and gets a five-year sentence. Lonnie and his family are devastated and keep writing to him in prison.
While imprisoned for almost three years, Garnet receives a letter from his long-lost brother, Stanley Raven. Stanley writes about the family’s history, the Ojibwe tribe, and Garnet’s other siblings, Jackie and Jane, and invites Garnet to return home upon his release. The letter also includes family photos, and Garnet becomes emotional. Later, Lonnie’s mother encourages him to return to his family. Despite his nervousness, Garnet writes back to his brother, announcing his return.
Book 1, Pages 42-65 Summary
Stanley continues writing to Garnet, explaining what happened to the family. His brothers and sister were also in foster care but managed to stay together and remain in touch with the family. Stanley says that the whole White Dog community is excited about his homecoming. He writes more about the Ojibwe life and the White Dog reserve, arousing Garnet’s interest and emotions.
Garnet is 25 years old when finally released and is excited about restarting his life. When he returns to White Dog country, it feels familiar to Garnet. However, he becomes nervous again. To boost his confidence, he resolves to teach the Ojibwe community about city life. He arrives by bus and gets a taxi to White Dog. He finds Stanley outside a store, and a crowd of people gathers to look. Everybody is stunned by Garnet’s appearance. Seeing Stanley, Garnet realizes that they look alike. The two brothers cry, reuniting after 22 years. Stanley introduces him to the community, many of whom are relatives and tease him for his Black style.
Keeper notes that the Ojibwe “lost a generation” due to the residential schools (52). He was taken away with other kids when he was five, including Garnet’s mother. The children were stripped of their culture, their hair was cut, and they were beaten for speaking their language. Keeper escaped and returned to the Ojibwe, like many others. However, the white people had “scraped off their insides” (53). The Children’s Aid Society followed the residential school system, placing Indigenous children in all-white foster homes. Keeper emphasizes that human beings must know who they are, but white people cannot accept that. They always desire to control nature while Indigenous people live attuned to it. For Keeper, Indigenous elders must pass on the traditions and teach younger people. Tradition is not only ceremonial practices but a way of living. Contemporary white culture impacts Indigenous youth and keeps them away from traditional life. For this, the Ojibwe culture must survive.
Garnet explains that humor and teasing characterize Indigenous people. In Stanley’s cabin, he meets his sister Jane, Keeper, Chief Isaac, his uncles, and his aunties. His mother and brother Jackie are missing. Stanley and Jane talk to Garnet, trying to make him feel at home. They recall their childhood together, but Garnet cannot remember. He still feels lost, but they assure him that he is welcome by the community. They want him to stay home and be happy.
Book 1, Pages 66-86 Summary
Garnet asks about his mother, who has gone to Winnipeg with Jackie. She lives in a house upon a hill. Jane explains that their mother fears that Garnet hates her for losing him, and she is scared of meeting him. She always believed that her son would return home, and she never remarried so that Garnet could keep his status as a member of the Ojibwe. Garnet is also afraid that his mother will not like him because he is not “Indian” enough. Stanley tells him that he was always Indigenous. Jane tells him more about the family’s history, saying that their parents had a traditional Ojibwe marriage and noting the significance of honor and respect and the sacred role of children in marriage. After Garnet’s abduction, his parents were devastated and developed alcohol addictions. His mother managed to recover, but his father could not accept losing his family. He was found dead on the Winnipeg river. However, Jane notes that their love as a family never stopped.
The next morning, Garnet waits for his mother and Jackie. He wants to know more about his family’s history. Stanley and Jane return with Jackie and their mother. When Jackie appears, he only nods to Garnet without speaking. His mother enters, and they stand in awkward silence, then she embraces him, sobbing. Garnet is so emotional that he finds himself crying, too. He starts feeling “relaxed and safe” (77). In his mother’s arms, he feels her heartbeat, recognizing it from some past time.
Days pass before Garnet and his mother manage to talk, not knowing what to say to each other. Once, Garnet sees her sitting outside her house on the hill and decides to go to her. She tells him a few Ojibwe words that he attempts to pronounce and says that she is sorry that Garnet was imprisoned. Garnet tells her that he does not blame her for his going to foster care. She shows him the place where the family used to camp beyond the lake.
She explains to Garnet that his father, John Mukwa, could not forgive himself for losing the children. She decided to fight her alcohol addiction after Jane found her again. His father could not heal and left home. He died three months later. She tells him that her name is Alice.
Alice sings Garnet a one-word song that she was singing especially for him for years. The word is “Bih’kee-yan” which means “come home.”
Book 1 Analysis
The narrative centers on Garnet’s quest for identity as an Indigenous man who was displaced and disconnected from his roots and culture. Garnet’s narration represents the perspective of the contemporary generation of Indigenous people while Keeper provides the perspective of the Indigenous elders. Both are first-person narrations that relate and interconnect. The story emphasizes Ojibwe history and culture and describes the historical impact of colonial policies on Indigenous people. The narrative delineates how loss impacts the characters but focuses on Indigenous cultural survival.
The story begins with Keeper’s narration that introduces The Impact of Colonialism on Indigenous Tradition. Keeper describes the contrast between white and Anishinaabe culture and emphasizes the impact of this chasm on Indigenous youth. Young people are torn inside, caught between two different worldviews and cultures and they often feel lost. As a character, Keeper emphasizes the important role of the elders in Indigenous communities. Keeper stresses that young people need a guide. He notes that, despite cultural loss due to colonialism, “the old days [are] never really gone” (1), suggesting that colonialism can degrade but not destroy.
The theme of Indigenous Healing Through Storytelling and Community emerges as Keeper explains that storytellers pass on the old traditions and teachings to youth, preserving their culture. Simultaneously, young people also have stories to tell. This reflects the aim of the novel itself, which preserves and conveys Ojibwe culture. Richard Wagamese hence counters white-dominated misrepresentation of Indigenous people and illustrates the postcolonial endeavor to reconnect with one’s own culture and identity. Storytelling shows “what it takes to be an Indyun” today and attempts to subvert cultural loss and erasure (4).
Garnet relates his story in retrospect. The theme of The Power of Connection to the Land emerges as Garnet describes his homeland in detail. The land in White Dog reserve provides the people with a “feeling of mystery and magic” (6), whereas Keeper notes that white people “lost touch with the rhythm of the earth” (3). Garnet also details the contemporary reality of the Ojibwe tribe. Their traditional sustenance depended on hunting, fishing, and trapping, but colonialism impacted their ability to sustain themselves on the land. Land is key in the tribe’s worldview. Garnet notes that there is a “magic […] born of the land” that “teaches [people] how to live with each other” (11). Wagamese sets up a dichotomy of rural and urban, since life in the reserve differs from the fast-paced city life, but Garnet finds a sense of belonging and connection to the land that makes him prefer life in the reserve.
Garnet’s childhood emphasizes the theme of The Impact of Colonialism on Indigenous Tradition as he describes his abduction by the authorities of the Canadian foster care system. Garnet notes that he and his siblings were being raised with love and with the protection of the community. Therefore, Wagamese highlights that the reasons for his removal were racial and political. Growing up in foster homes and away from his brothers and sister, Garnet lost all sense of identity and belonging and was assimilated into white society: “Growing up in all-white homes, going to all-white schools, playing with all-white kids can get a guy to thinking and reacting all-white himself after a while” (16). Wagamese’s repetition of “all-white” mimics the process of assimilation, a process of becoming similar, as the adjective is similar each time.
Wagamese also briefly explores the impacts of racism and colonialism on other communities. Garnet bonds with Lonnie, his Black friend, who is the only one encouraging Garnet to connect with his culture. Garnet’s decision to adopt the style of a Black man shows his inner frustration and his desire for a sense of identity and belonging. Lonnie’s immediate connection to Garnet indirectly highlights the way Blackness has also been oppressed in North American society. Lonnie’s family helping Garnet represents solidarity between minoritized groups.
The story reaches a turning point when Garnet receives the letter from his brother Stanley. Stanley writes that the family located Garnet, and the White Dog community expects his homecoming with excitement. Even though Garnet was lost for 22 years, his family and tribe are ready to accept and protect him. Garnet does not remember his family, but he feels a profound need to return. His brother emphasizes the communal bond: “Nobody here wants anythin’ from you. We all want lots for you but nothin’ from you” (64). This is supportive rather than extractive, representing Ojibwe values of sharing and collectivity in contrast to colonialist methods of extraction and destruction. Relatedly, Keeper asserts that Ojibwe culture is hinged on “respect, honesty, kindness and sharin’” (54), emphasizing an ideology that resists colonial practices.
Even though his family welcomes him, Garnet must endeavor to rediscover himself and reconnect with his community. Stanley and Jane talk to him about childhood, but Jackie remains distant. However, he immediately feels connected to his mother, and their relationship is crucial for his transformation. Garnet feels that he knows her heartbeat: “[S]omething somewhere deep inside me recognized that heartbeat. Recognized it from the days way before I ever slid out into this world. Recognized it from when her body kept me safe and sheltered and warm” (77-78). This description of Garnet’s early life with Alice, even before his birth, represents a precolonial state. Garnet’s family and community help him piece together the parts of himself that were lost through years of colonial policies and cultural erasure.
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