A Mind Spread Out on the Ground

Elliott’s child is not named in the book, nor are pronouns used to denote the gender of the child. However, the child plays a significant role in Elliott’s life as she became pregnant by her boyfriend, Mike, in high school. Elliott cites her child as a motivating force in her life to get through the weight of motherhood, and she explores her relationship with race and ethnicity through her child, who is only a quarter Indigenous.

Elliott’s grandmother provides a place of temporary relief for Elliott and her family when they fall on hard times and don’t have a place to go. Her grandmother houses the large family on multiple occasions, but at one point throws the children out because they have lice. However, she keeps Elliott’s 100% white half sister, Teena, ultimately winning full custody of her.

Elliott’s mother is written about most out of all the figures in the book, besides Elliott herself. Elliott’s mother suffers from bipolar disorder and is debilitated by her mental illness. Her mood swings between vibrant mania and completely insensible depression, and Elliott’s father forces her into mental hospitals on a nearly biannual basis. Although Elliott deeply loves and admires her mother, she struggles under the burden of that mental illness and the secrecy her family upholds surrounding it. Additionally, Elliott struggles with her mother’s racism and staunch Catholicism, as her mother is white and fears her husband and children’s connections to their Indigenous roots.

Elliott’s father Wes is spoken about in passing throughout the collection of essays but then completely focused on in the final essay, implying the weight of his presence in Elliott’s life. He is portrayed as loving and supportive, but also physically and emotionally abusive toward his family. He is Elliott’s Indigenous parent, and so he is her link to her Haudenosaunee roots and the bearer of the intergenerational trauma First Nations people live with.

Jon is Elliott’s younger brother, who is scarred in an incident with hot tar at her maternal grandmother’s house when her mother has an altercation with Elliott’s drug-addicted uncle Jerry. Elliott feels prompted to call the police, and her family is furious with her for putting them in jeopardy by disclosing “family secrets.” This incident illustrates to the reader the relationship of Elliott’s family with the criminal justice system and the emphasis on keeping family matters private.

Mike was Elliott’s boyfriend during high school, before becoming her husband later in life. He is the father of the child they had in their teens and is a recurring character as she considers the way he was treated as a young parent compared to her. He also serves as a way for her to reflect on the relationships between Indigenous people and settlers, as he is a white Canadian. Mike represents a healthy relationship in Elliott’s life, and he also suffers from intense bouts of depression, which prompts her to learn about healthy ways to support someone other than forcing them into a mental hospital like her father did to her mother, and ultimately she learns to accept her own mental illness.

Mikey is Elliott’s youngest sibling, who is featured in “The Same Space” when he follows in Elliott’s footsteps to school in Toronto, and in “Scratch” when he is born in the midst of Elliott’s parents’ violent marital troubles. Mikey prompts Elliott to reflect on her time in the same neighborhood that he is moving into, and how that space is no longer the same now that it is undergoing gentrification.

Elliott’s younger sister, Missy is featured in “Dark Matters” when the pair is caught shoplifting at a convenience store.