How Does Boyden Overcome Colonialism?

Colonialism is not just a thing of the past, and those who recognize its presence will fight hard against it. For as Franz Fanon put it in his book titled The Wretched of the Earth, “The need for this change exists in its crude state, impetuous and compelling, in the consciousness and in the lives of the men and women who are colonized” (35-36). The need for change that Fanon refers to is common in many forms of Indigenous expression: in song, dance, art, and storytelling. The focus of this essay is to identify colonialism and the act of decolonization in Joseph Boyden’s “Painted Tongue”. By analyzing the colonial space in which this text takes place, the form and techniques Boyden employs, as well as the forms of expression used by Painted Tongue, the essay will identify measures that Painted Tongue takes to overcome colonialism. The essay will also use Richard Nixon’s theory of slow violence defined in his book Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor to analyze "Painted Tongue". With this in mind, It is clear that “Painted Tongue” not only claims that colonization is still present today but tries to decolonize and liberate the victims of this unseen, slow violence through a reclaiming of cultural identity.
It is connected to environmental issues, like that of toxic waste dumping, but for the purpose of this essay, slow violence is the lingering effects of colonialism (Nixon 1-2). “Painted Tongue” identifies slow violence in the mindset the colonizer adopts when dealing with indigenous peoples, a mindset that dehumanizes the colonized and normalizes violence against said victim. It is important to note that the character of Painted Tongue is not necessarily a victim of this violence, but that he can identify it and has found remedies to fight back against
Painted Tongue does not feel a sense of belonging anywhere he goes, with sections of the city being off limits, and people asking him if he should go back to his reservation (Boyden 57-70). He is not even allowed into the liquor store (Boyden 71). This disconnect from the city allows Painted Tongue to become something of a polemical character, in other words, Painted Tongue’s perspective on Toronto is critical to the point of controversial. The purpose of creating a polemical character is to criticize the world that this character inhabits, for example, Toronto. Painted Tongue cannot help but notice that “everybody always seem[s] to be in a hurry” and this frustrates him. He is extremely critical of the construction of the Skydome, both critical of the workers, identifying some as lazy while others are hardworking and critical of the building itself (Boyden 57-61). Like mentioned before, the building scares him due to its capacity to shelter and feed people for extended periods of time, while entertaining them (Boyden 61). Painted Tongue is so disturbed by this building that he wishes to blow it up with “a thousand kilos of dynamite” (Boyden 61). Besides smaller encounters, like in the bar when Painted Tongue decides the people within just do not understand Painted Tongue, the only other large case of criticism Painted Tongue seems to have is towards the three men