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Terms
The American Indian Movement, or A.I.M., is a grassroots organization founded in 1968 to address myriad issues facing Indigenous People’s communities as the result of white settler colonialism in North America, from poverty, discrimination, and violence to treaty rights and preservation of indigenous folkways. In Monkey Beach, Uncle Mick, Barry, and Cookie were all involved in the A.I.M.; Uncle Mick experienced violence as a direct result of his activism and Cookie’s gruesome death seems to be tied to her participation in the movement as well.
A.I.M. Quotes in Monkey Beach
The Monkey Beach quotes below are all either spoken by A.I.M. or refer to A.I.M.. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 2: The Song of Your Breath
Quotes
“Cookie got kicked out of three residential schools. At the last one—guess she was fourteen then—this nun kept picking on her, trying to make her act like a lady. Cookie finally got sick of it and started shouting, ‘You honkies want women to be like cookies, all sweet and dainty and easy to eat. But I’m fry bread, bitch, and I’m proud of it.’” He laughed and shook his head “She always had to be right. When I was losing an argument and wanted to piss her off, I’d call her Cookie and it stuck.”
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Explanation and Analysis:
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A.I.M. Term Timeline in Monkey Beach
The timeline below shows where the term A.I.M. appears in Monkey Beach. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1: Love Like the Ocean
...corner of the rec center gym. Mick shows up in his fringed buckskin jacket, his A.I.M. T-shirt, and his “least-ratty” pair of jeans. Lisa sits on his lap and plays with...
(full context)
...off at Mick’s and Mick had a visitor. Barry is an old friend from Mick’s A.I.M. days, trying to convince him to join “another hopeless cause.” Mick reveals that he was...
(full context)
Chapter 2: The Song of Your Breath
Barry, Mick’s old A.I.M. friend, attends the funeral and reception. He invites Lisa to join him outside while he...
(full context)
...nun at her third residential school. Barry explains that Mick and Cookie met at an A.I.M. rally in Vancouver. Some of the men were going for a sweat, and they barred...
(full context)
