I Can Make This Promise

On an immediate level, Edie lacks a connection to earlier generations of her family. On a broader level, she also lacks a meaningful connection to Indigenous culture and history as a whole. She does not know what tribes she comes from and has never lived on tribal lands. She has never eaten fry bread, nor does she know of other traditional Indigenous foods. Edie has known that she is different since kindergarten, but that difference has never felt positive or meaningful to her. Her parents have kept her from knowing the more difficult details of Indigenous history, current events, and her family’s history, worried that she might get hurt.

In the absence of good resources for learning about her culture, Edie turns to whatever resources she can find. She asks her mother to take her to see a film about an Indigenous woman because she thinks it will provide her with some kind of valuable insight. Lisa resists seeing the film, but she doesn’t initially explain her reasons to Edie, which leads her to assume her mother is resistant to exploring her heritage. However, Lisa ultimately points out that the film cast a white woman to play an Indigenous character; her discomfort with the film doesn’t reflect a lack of interest in her origins but a rejection of its appropriation of Indigenous culture and of an Indigenous actor who could have played the role.

When Lisa finally starts to open up to Edie about her past, she shares important information about Indigenous history and culture. Edie learns which tribes she comes from, and she visits a park that has long been significant in Indigenous culture. She learns the names of local tribes and begins to participate in events that celebrate her heritage. Edie comes to understand that her culture is rich, vibrant, and alive. She sees her differences from her classmates as positive aspects of her identity that make her who she is and connect her to her roots.

By the story’s end, Edie is integrated into her culture instead of separated from it. She meets Roger again, this time with full knowledge of who she is. The two of them seem likely to become friends, giving Edie a connection to other Indigenous people around her own age. For Edie, family history and cultural history are closely connected. When she learns about her grandmother, she opens herself up to learning about many different elements of Indigenous culture and history as well. Some of those elements, such as the history of the forced adoption of Indigenous children, are painful aspects of generational trauma that directly shaped her life. Others, like the celebration on the beach, are joyful and freeing. Fusing these pieces of her cultural heritage and identity helps Edie feel anchored to something beyond her small group of family and friends.

I Can Make This Promise is a coming-of-age story. As a 12-year-old, Edie is just on the cusp of adolescence. Her life and her internal experiences are starting to get more complicated. Friendships that were once straightforward and happy have become strained. As a first-person narrator, Edie reveals her moods and behaviors without always being aware of their impact on others or of what they reveal about her. She often pushes her parents away, not wanting to confide in them about what she is going through. The distance between Edie and her parents is compounded by her growing mistrust of them when she realizes they have been lying to her.

Edie is at stage of life in which a lot of problems are arising at once. She has to get braces, which are painful and prevent her from eating. Her parents are lying to her about her name and her family history. Her friend Amelia is behaving strangely and is uncooperative when discussing the short film. When her friend Serenity goes camping and Uncle Phil refuses to talk to her about Edith Graham, Edie has no one to turn to. For a while, she bottles up her feelings, reading Edith’s letters alone at night and hiding the box in her room, because she doesn’t believe her parents will give her the answers she needs.

Some of Edie’s problems resolve themselves with time. For instance, her braces stop hurting, allowing her to eat normally again. Other problems, such as her changing friendships, are more complex. Rather than resolving her differences with Amelia, Edie decides that the friendship has to end. This decision requires emotional intelligence and assertiveness: After her repeated rudeness and dismissal of her feelings, Edie recognizes that Amelia is not going to treat her with the respect that she deserves, and she chooses not to remain in the relationship. Resolving her biggest problem, the question of her parents’ dishonesty, requires Edie to be honest with them about what she knows.

When Edie tells her parents that she knows about Edith Graham, her honesty is rewarded. Her parents tell her the truth and accept that she is ready to handle difficult information. Edie’s decision to be honest with her parents and to listen to them without getting frustrated marks significant personal growth. Once she has heard her mother’s story, Edie is able to understand her perspective, even if she doesn’t agree with all of her decisions. Her thinking becomes less binary, and she realizes that her parents’ behaviors were rooted in a desire to protect her, not in malevolence.