Exceeding Beringia Theme

Imagine your home. A place where you belong. Now imagine it moves to another state. It keeps moving and moving. Imagine struggling to survive in the very place you call home, but you still love it and you still chase it, attempting to settle each time no matter what happens. It’s not easy to imagine the full implications of this struggle and suffering, but once you read the poem “Exceeding Beringia” you understand the lives of indigenous Alaskans who went through the very same thing. Joan Kane incorporates the theme of displacement which is juxtaposed with belonging in “Exceeding Beringia” by connecting feeling to the ever-changing nature native to Alaska, which serves as a symbol of these themes. First, Displacement is the most prominent
“Exceeding Beringia” however, is a special case because the two main themes of this poem clash, creating juxtaposition. Belonging and displacement become nearly polar opposites in the context of this poem. While belonging for the indigenous people is remaining in one place, being accepted, and settling, Kane has displacement which is being moved around by someone in a place where you don’t belong. For example the two symbols of the cooking pot belonging in an unexpected, but the bird not belonging in its expected nest. These symbols have a contrasting effect which conveys a meaning in itself. What Naviyuk Kane is expressing is that indigenous people belong to the land which they first encountered, yet the experience forced displacement which puts them in a different setting than they are used to. Joan adds the main message into the entire structure of the poem, but very subtly so because of nature. Nature’s role should not go unnoticed in this poem because essentially it helps to develop a complex piece of poetry, creating symbols which disguise the two contrasting themes that encompass the larger message. Displacement. Belonging. Two vastly different themes that come together to show how someone who does belong is being treated like someone who doesn’t in “Exceeding Beringia” where the author takes advantage of Alaskan beauty and gives it a meaning. Joan Nuviyak Kane’s literary genius makes a pot and a bird mean something that matters, she uses parts of nature as a representation of the themes throughout the poem. These themes are very distinct, and juxtapose one another. It is this juxtaposition that helps to tie the whole poem as one and transmit the focal message of the moving of those who