Eden Robinson’s first novel, Monkey Beach, is an assertion of Haisla sovereignty and resistance, taking readers through the journey of intergenerational reclamation of the main character growing up in an Indigenous community and how the people in her life encourage her ancestral obligations and influences the woman she becomes.
Lisamarie (Lisa) Hill is a young Haisla woman growing up in unceded Haisla Territory. The main story, which takes place in the present, revolves around Lisa and her kinship obligation of finding her brother Jimmy, who mysteriously disappeared to the ancestral world at sea. The present is interwoven with tales from her past about significant moments in her life to show a reclamation of identity.
Lisa navigate the spiritual world of her ancestors. She is a spiritual person and can see things her family members cannot. Robinson’s writing of the interaction between the physical and spiritual world is lyrical, often depicting her visions in a dream-like state where the reader and Lisa cannot tell if she is making them up.
A recurring character known as the “little man” visits Lisa before a significant moment in her life. These visits act as the transition from the present day to a story from her past.
Lisa’s parents try to fit into a western style of life while her grandmother, ma-ma-oo, tries to get Lisa to embrace her Indigenous roots. When Lisa goes to her mom about the visions, she brushes it off as a bad dream, but ma-ma-oo tells her about how her grandfather, ba-ba-oo, had similar visions.
Robinson briefly touches the topic of residential schools, and readers can feel the trauma and pain it has left on Lisa’s family. Uncle Mick, a residential school survivor, is a significant character in Lisa’s life and he represents Indigenous resistance.
He centres his passion for justice around the assertion of Indigenous title, challenging the historical and ongoing structures of colonial expropriation that have marginalized traditional land ownership. Lisa often finds herself trapped between the two world views. This causes a lot of distress as she ages.
Robinson’s use of imagery and concrete details throughout the novel are striking. Water and land connections are vivid and descriptive, often putting the readers onto the land with the use of picturesque details. Though she welcomes the readers into the story, Robinson depicts the importance of land, highlighting how it is less as a setting and more like a family member.
Lisa is living between the physical and spiritual world, and Robinson uses land and water as representations for both. The water being equated to the spiritual side and when she is in the water, she finally comes to terms with her place in the two worlds. The land and water are characters within themselves; the land is considered a relative through its function as a holder of history, a guardian of ancestral spirits, and a source of guidance.
Monkey Beach highlights the struggles of Lisa coming to terms with her Indigenous lineage while some of her family is trying to move away from their culture and traditions. It is a beautiful story of trauma, grief and hardships while also using humour to bring light into the heavy situations.
Robinson’s use of Indigenous spiritual traditions while intertwining the effects of colonialism guide readers through the difficulties of finding where Lisa fits within her culture and identity. The prose and poetical feel to the book leaves readers in an heightened state of presence. A place where Haisla reality, along with land, water, ancestors and the living all coincide in harmony.
If readers want a close look into the persistence of Haisla culture through their lived reality, then Monkey Beach will leave them crying and questioning their whole perspective on the land and water which goes beyond scenery. The story reveals sovereign territories impacted by slavery and colonization.