I dTír na Navajó

Publication Instance Details #892

Publication Overview

Translation	Is Multilingual	Explicit Irish Context?	Ekphrasis	Has Paratext?	Reference to News, Media or Technology
No	No	Yes	No	No	No

Details

Human Rights Issues	Indigenous Rights (incl. culture & language) HR & Colonisation/Colonial Legacies Genocide
War / Genocide Referenced	Genocide: Genocide of indigenous people in USA (pre 20th century)
Irish Context	Colonization and Colonial Legacy (Ireland) Other
Languages	Irish
Genre	Short Lyric
Medium	Print Collection
Notes	Rhyming poem which details the speaker's account of his trip around the lands of the Navajo in North America. While acknowledging the suffering of the Navajo peoples, the speaker of the poem laments the negative reaction he has from Navajó peoples in America - because of his white skin. The speaker claims that although he's white, he's free from the guilt of having caused the genocide of the native peoples of North America: 'glan mo lámh is mó mhéin!' An interesting examination of the Irish conscience being 'free' from the guilt of colonialism, despite the fact that North America was settled widely by Scotch-Irish and Irish settlers. Hiram Morgan has stated that 'the Irish, whatever their experience at home, were as brutal as any other white colonizers'.