Writing an Ojibwa character and don't want to mess up...
I'm working on a YA novel set in a fictional boarding school in northern Ontario. One of the supporting characters (my MC's room-mate) is going to be Ojibwa and the last thing I want to do is play into all the stereotypes. The second-to-last thing I want to do is totally ignore her culture and pay lip service to her ancestry, while writing her as white. I'm currently reading up on Ojibwa history and culture, but am hitting a few snags. To wit:
1) One of the sites that I've visited talks about the importance of names and how naming a fictional character after a real person is disrespectful. Does that apply only to given names, or is it generally okay to take a surname that IRL is found in members of a particular Ojibwa band and slap a Western given name on it. (I'm thinking of calling the character 'Marianne Lastheels'. Lastheels is a surname I've come across in a book about the Mishkeegogamang band, but to the best of my knowledge, there is no RL Marianne Lastheels. There might be. Just like I have other characters who are not Indian named Kerri Palmer and Sharon Macklin and I can't swear that there is no live namesake out there. However, I am not intentionally naming my characters after real people.)
2) The character lives in the city (Sudbury), not on a reserve, although her paternal grandparents do live on a reserve and she's visited them from time to time. I'm not going to name the place and I'll be a bit vague on the location ("up north, not too far from _________") Many of the books I'm reading now talk about life on the reserve, history of a particular band, traditional dress, foods, etc. And I know that a lot does depend on the individual and there is as much a homogenous Indian identity as there is a homogenous Asian identity (and as much a universal Ojibwa identity as there is a homogenous American identity). Marianne (let's just say I'm calling her that for now) knows about her heritage and while she is fiercely proud of it, there are times when she wants to be just like the mainstream culture. There are other times when she wants to identify as Ojibwa. So... typical 14-year-old 'who am I and where do I belong' angst. I'm wondering how I can convey this without being too ham-handed about it. I mean, I can draw a bit on my own experiences growing up Jewish in a largely Roman Catholic Italian neighborhood for the sense of 'often belonging but often other', but I'm not sure about stuff like "What kinds of things might she conceivably bring with her to a boarding school that would show an awareness of/pride in her heritage, be believable for a 14-year-old, etc?"
3) Getting into the plot of the novel a bit, the elevator pitch is "Being the best friend of a costumed hero isn't always easy. Luckily, even if you'll always be a target, there's a place where you can go to learn how not to be a victim." The boarding school is for kids who have superpowers and are/want to be costumed heroes (Sharon), kids with friends/family members who are costumed heroes, don't have superpowers and just want to live a normal life and not worry about people who want to capture/exploit them (Kerri), kids with friends/family members who are costumed heroes, don't have superpowers want to be costumed heroes themselves (Marianne), kids with superpowers who just want to live a normal life and not worry about people who want to capture/exploit them (Other character). Now, Marianne's dad is a costumed hero. I'm wondering what kind of name he might take on. I don't want to run through a number of Ojibwa legends and have him pick a name that would come across as blasphemous, a la proud Xtian costumed hero calling themselves Jesus Christ. At the same time, I don't want to fall into the cliche of 'Just pick a fierce animal and go with that'.
Any advice?
1) One of the sites that I've visited talks about the importance of names and how naming a fictional character after a real person is disrespectful. Does that apply only to given names, or is it generally okay to take a surname that IRL is found in members of a particular Ojibwa band and slap a Western given name on it. (I'm thinking of calling the character 'Marianne Lastheels'. Lastheels is a surname I've come across in a book about the Mishkeegogamang band, but to the best of my knowledge, there is no RL Marianne Lastheels. There might be. Just like I have other characters who are not Indian named Kerri Palmer and Sharon Macklin and I can't swear that there is no live namesake out there. However, I am not intentionally naming my characters after real people.)
2) The character lives in the city (Sudbury), not on a reserve, although her paternal grandparents do live on a reserve and she's visited them from time to time. I'm not going to name the place and I'll be a bit vague on the location ("up north, not too far from _________") Many of the books I'm reading now talk about life on the reserve, history of a particular band, traditional dress, foods, etc. And I know that a lot does depend on the individual and there is as much a homogenous Indian identity as there is a homogenous Asian identity (and as much a universal Ojibwa identity as there is a homogenous American identity). Marianne (let's just say I'm calling her that for now) knows about her heritage and while she is fiercely proud of it, there are times when she wants to be just like the mainstream culture. There are other times when she wants to identify as Ojibwa. So... typical 14-year-old 'who am I and where do I belong' angst. I'm wondering how I can convey this without being too ham-handed about it. I mean, I can draw a bit on my own experiences growing up Jewish in a largely Roman Catholic Italian neighborhood for the sense of 'often belonging but often other', but I'm not sure about stuff like "What kinds of things might she conceivably bring with her to a boarding school that would show an awareness of/pride in her heritage, be believable for a 14-year-old, etc?"
3) Getting into the plot of the novel a bit, the elevator pitch is "Being the best friend of a costumed hero isn't always easy. Luckily, even if you'll always be a target, there's a place where you can go to learn how not to be a victim." The boarding school is for kids who have superpowers and are/want to be costumed heroes (Sharon), kids with friends/family members who are costumed heroes, don't have superpowers and just want to live a normal life and not worry about people who want to capture/exploit them (Kerri), kids with friends/family members who are costumed heroes, don't have superpowers want to be costumed heroes themselves (Marianne), kids with superpowers who just want to live a normal life and not worry about people who want to capture/exploit them (Other character). Now, Marianne's dad is a costumed hero. I'm wondering what kind of name he might take on. I don't want to run through a number of Ojibwa legends and have him pick a name that would come across as blasphemous, a la proud Xtian costumed hero calling themselves Jesus Christ. At the same time, I don't want to fall into the cliche of 'Just pick a fierce animal and go with that'.
Any advice?
