Journal of the Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement (JMI - York University)

Kruk, Laurie

254       volume 3, number 1
When the Canadian Pacific Railway was constructed between 1881 and 
1885 … Chinese were brought in from China to help build the railway. 
As soon as the cpr was completed, the Federal Government moved to 
restrict the immigration of Chinese to Canada. The first federal anti-
Chinese bill was passed in 1885. It took the form of a Head tax of $50 
imposed, with few exceptions, upon every person of Chinese origin enter-
ing the country. No other group was targeted in this way.
   —The Chinese Head Tax and Exclusion Act, 
Chinese Canadian National Council website 
One hundred and twenty years after,
the great-great granddaughters
of those who stayed home,
are the new princesses
of a cold foreign land
where barren royalty, aching
behind shiny castle walls  
made money, went for tests, waited, 
phoned, waited, wrote, begged, cried and waited 
some more. Wrote China, who offered a tax
for loneliness, the equivalent
of a university degree 
for this learning:  to travel half-way 
around the world
and find her, their lost daughter,
Made in China
laurie kruk
folio
 journal of the motherhood initiative       255 
in an orphanage, hiding, under a spell,
lifted into their trembling arms by witches posing as nurses 
behind photo-ready smiles, government-paid translators. A gift, 
many gifts, exchanged hands
in one turn of the planet. And the curse
suddenly seemed lifted. 
Ten days of bewilderment followed
exposing their dream to the world beyond walls  
target of other eyes, so many pointing fingers like thornbushes
to prick their new parental exuberance, mothers, fathers desperate  
to make tiny smiles their new mirrors
as they drag loaded strollers, camcorders
and diaper bags over the Great Wall 
with the other dream-families, tracked by White tourists
who want to take their picture. Then through 
the fourteen-hour “mercy flight”
to Canada, preparing bottles
in sinks of tiny toilet cubicles 
the nervous smiles, fumbled love, 
embarrassed diaper-changing laughter
of these oldest of newborns—
Two years later, at a suburb carved
out of cpr land,  a birthday party:
the princesses—now named Madison, Emily, Hanna—
reunite, aged three and four.  Their parents, bearing toys, tiny 
sweaters or shoes and cell phones, 
greet, hug and share their new wealth, proud with complaints.  
Lines on their pale faces mark their late arrival
at this crowded station.  While the girls sit in a circle 
for balloon animals made out of air
by Pickles the clown, they don’t yet know 
their good fairy’s blessing: travellers with multiple passports, 
and a complicated pedigree,
wearing Disney princess nightgowns
laurie kruk
256       volume 3, number 1
mini-ipods (made in China), 
t-shirts announcing the Year of the Rooster. 
College funds already compounding nicely,
rewarded by time, like their parents, they will be
the new royalty, perhaps fluent 
in two gazes, if not two tongues, 
the inside-out, the outside-in—
Meanwhile, the railroads bisecting bush, tundra and muskeg
laid by their great-great-great-great uncles
are pulled up 
with the new millennium, slag beds untended 
to sink back into the dark like unmarked graves.   
The National Dream of last century is now owned by bears or coyotes, 
taken over by smalltown or reserve kids riding their parents’ atvs
wasting gas, picking up pig iron, scribbling
their names or profanities
on rock cuts blasted through lives
inside-out of this country.


English

Made in China

Vandenbeld Giles, Melinda

From “Need” to “Risk”: The Neoliberal Construction of the “Bad” Mother

Contributor Notes

Miller-Schroeder, Patricia

Teaching About Women, The Environment and Mother Earth

Glass, Christy M.

Petrzelka, Peggy

Mannon, Susan E.

Mothers, Migrants and Markets: Re-Thinking the Link Between Motherhood and Work in the Global Economy

O'Neil, January Gill

284             volume 2,  number 2
I	tell	my	son	
that	the	best	poems
are	written	in	the	sand
and	washed	away	with	the	tide.
I	say,	the	moon	controls	the	waves,
uses	the	wind	to	rake	the	shore.
It	is	an	open	invitation	to	fill
the	world	with	words	
because	like	seashells	
you	can	never	have	too	many.
I	tell	him	to	wade	into	the	water.	
Start	a	conversation	with	
the	tiniest	grain	on	the	beach,
the	one	that	catches	his	eye	with	its	glint.
It	will	tell	him	everything	he	needs	to	know
about	this	moment,	about	how	to	stay	in	it
a	little	longer.	It	will	tell	him	how	to	be,	
for	an	instant,	the	thing	he	most	wants	
to	become.
Shampoo
january gill o’neil


Shampoo

Duncan, Sarah

book reviews
 journal of the motherhood initiative             301 
The Smiling Mask
Dianne Ouellett, prod. 
Regina, sk: To the Core Consulting. dvd.
Reviewed by Sarah J. Duncan
The Smiling Mask, a documentary film produced by Dianne Ouellette in as-
sociation with To the Core Consulting, offers a personal look at post-partum 
depression and its impact on young families. The To the Core Consulting 
team includes Tania Bird, Carla O’Reilly, and Elita Paterson; they are also 
the three women interviewed in the documentary about their experiences 
following the birth of their respective children. The 40-minute film gives 
these three women the opportunity to speak out about their own experiences 
and those of their spouses, while shedding light on a subject that is rarely ad-
dressed so directly, openly, and honestly.
The three couples in the film tell their respective stories, starting with their 
romance and weddings. This sets the stage for a seemingly happy narrative, 
which is initially confusing for the viewer. In fact, the documentary’s focus on 
post-partum depression should be made explicit at the outset. 
These women once shared the stereotypical dream of the happy home 
surrounded by the proverbial white picket fence, and they appeared to have 
achieved their dream up to birth of their children. Their experiences of la-
bour and delivery varied. One woman experienced extreme challenges that 
hint at the greater difficulties to come. Another woman is alone and admits 
that difficulties ended her marriage. Gradually, the picture comes into focus: 
young couples, with everything to look forward to, gradually experience the 
devastating shift in psychological health, public perception, and relationship 
stress that accompanies post-partum depression. These three families—not 
at all unique—slowly fall apart due to misdiagnoses, extreme isolation, and 
unbearable stress accompanied by fragile mental health. 
What is most striking is not the stories of the interviewed women, but the 
implied indictment of the western medical community. Though not stated 
explicitly by either the women or their spouses, it becomes acutely obvious 
that, in all three cases, these families were left largely to suffer in isolation or 
ignorance. All three women suffer needlessly as a result of inadequate assess-
ment and follow-up after the birth of their babies and, even after one spouse 
commits his wife to a mental health unit, the family continues to struggle 
alone.
It is commendable that fathers are included in this film. The Smiling Mask 
is not only for and about women who suffer post-partum depression; it is 
book reviews
302             volume 2,  number 2
also about the effect of post-partum depression on spouses. Many men are 
so deeply affected that they can no longer stay in the marriage. Others feel 
completely helpless and do not know where to find help for their wives or 
themselves. The result, which this film seeks to highlight, is a young family 
suffering silently and trying to put on a brave face for the outside world. Be-
hind closed doors, however, the family is often unraveling. 
This film is an admirable attempt to address a taboo subject. It should 
be available in women’s health care centres, midwifery clinics, hospitals, and 
public libraries where families often seek information and the support they 
need to deal with post-partum depression. More information is available on 
the website <www.thesmilingmask.com>.


The Smiling Mask

288             volume 2,  number 2
They	will	say	that	“no”	was	my	favorite	word,
more	than	stop,	or	eat,	or	love.
That	some	mornings,	I’d	rather	stay	in	bed,
laptop	on	lap,	instead	of	making	breakfast,
that	I’d	rather	write	than	speak.
They	will	say	they	have	seen	me	naked.
Front	side,	back	side—none	of	which
were	my	good	side.
They	will	say	I	breastfed	too	long.
In	the	tell-all	book	my	kids	will	write
they’ll	tell	how	I	let	them	wrinkle	like	raisins
in	the	bathtub	so	I	could	watch	Big	Papi	at	the	plate.
They’ll	talk	about	how	I	threw	out	their	artwork,
the	watercolors	and	turkey	hands,
when	I	thought	they	weren’t	looking
and	when	I	knew	they	were.
What My Kids Will Write About Me in Their 
Future Tell-All Book
january gill o’neil
folio
 journal of the motherhood initiative              289 
They’ll	say	that	my	voice	was	a	slow	torture,
that	my	singing	caused	them	permanent	hearing	loss.
In	the	tell-all	book	my	kids	will	write
as	surely	as	I	am	writing	this,	they	will	say
I	cut	them	off	mid-sentence	just	because	I	could.
They’ll	tell	you	how	I	got	down	on	my	knees,
growling	my	low,	guttural	disapproval,
how	I	grabbed	their	ears,	pinched	the	backs	of	their	arms,
yet	they	never	quite	knew	who	was	sadder	for	it.
They’ll	quote	me	in	saying	“I	cry	in	the	shower—
it’s	the	only	safe	place	I	can	go.”
They	will	say	she	was	“our	sweetest	disaster.”
They	will	say	I	loved	them	so	much	it	hurt.


What My Kids Will Write About Me in Their Future Tell-All Book

Holmes, Tabitha R.

Mangione, Heather

"To Be or Not To Be" Is Not the Question: Migrant Mothers and Hybridized, Contextualized Parenting

Crawford, Charmaine

The Continuity of Global Crossing: African-Caribbean Women and Transnational Motherhood