Before I Was a Critic I Was a Human Being

by Amy Fung

In that moment, I felt closer to whiteness than not. I was completely complicit and didn?t think twice about entering a space that could cover their walls with images of contemporary Indigenous perspectives, but exclude their physical bodies from entering and experiencing. In that moment, I felt like a real Canadian.

Before I Was a Critic I Was a Human Being is the debut collection of nonfiction essays by Amy Fung. In it, Fung takes a closer examination at Canada's mythologies of multiculturalism, settler colonialism, and identity through the lens of a national art critic.

Following the tangents of a foreign-born perspective and the complexities and complicities in participating in ongoing acts of colonial violence, the book as a whole takes the form of a very long land acknowledgement. Taken individually, each essay roots itself in the learning and unlearning process of a first generation settler immigrant as she unfurls each region's sense of place and identity

Praise for Before I Was a Critic I Was a Human Being:

?The hours I've spent with this knowing and moving book about place and placelessness are among the most valuable of my reading life. Wow, thank you, Amy." —Eileen Myles

"As an Indigenous/Haudenosaunee writer and reader, I recognize that Amy Fung's book does not try to convince us that she is a native rights ally but shows us with language how to mould the term ally into a verb." —Janet Rogers, author of Totem Poles and Railroads

"In this compelling work, Amy Fung breathes life and relevance into criticality. This visitor's guide is integral reading." —Cecily Nicholson, author of Wayside Sang, winner of the Governor General's Literary Award for Poetry.

• ISBN10: 177166505X
• ISBN13: 9781771665056
• Publish Date: 7 May 2019
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: CA
• Imprint: Book*hug
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 200
• Language: English

Reviews

[clementine]

4.5 stars

Confrontational, unflinching essays on the liminality of being an immigrant and settler on unceded and Treaty territory. Fung articulates her experience as a racialized woman who is, in ways subtle and overt, made to feel unwelcome in Canada while also benefiting from the legacy of colonialism which continues to marginalize Indigenous peoples. The complexity of identity is explored convincingly; the necessity of confronting complicity in the ongoing disenfranchisement of Indigenous people is made clear. Fung writes about the Canadian art landscape and its marginalization of Indigenous artists, the way "diversity" panders to the white gaze. There were moments where I found the writing a bit clunky, taking me out of the argument, but generally it was seamless. There are a lot of big, uncomfortable ideas packed into this slim volume, and all of them felt fully explored. This is a perspective that all people living in (formerly?) colonial states should consider.