In Search of Gudrun Goodman: Reflections on Gender, 'Doing History' and Memory
- In Search of Gudrun Goodman:Reflections on Gender, 'Doing History' and Memory
Gudrun Goodman was an Icelandic midwife who practised in the Quill Lakes district in Saskatchewan at the turn of the twentieth century. Although little is known about her, she has been celebrated through commemorative practices and artifacts in vernacular culture (an obituary, a gravestone, a descendant's recounting of the past, and a family photograph). Central to the stories generated about Gudrun Goodman is the symbol of the pioneer, which is mediated by narratives of immigration, settlement, and colonization constituted by and constitutive of vernacular and official cultural expressions. This paper reflects on our journey to uncover the inflected meanings of these stories. Presented with the challenge of not having an archive, this study explores the gendered nature of commemorative practices and the importance of vernacular culture to doing women's history.
Gudrun Goodman était une sage-femme islandaise qui pratiquait dans le district de Quill Lakes, en Saskatchewan, au tournant du XXe siècle. Bien que l'on en sache peu sur Gudrun Goodman, elle a fait l'objet de nombreuses célébrations dans le cadre de diverses pratiques commémoratives et au moyen d'artéfacts de la culture vernaculaire (une rubrique nécrologique, une pierre tombale, une histoire racontée par un descendant et une photo de famille). Le symbole de la pionnière, qui est propagé par des récits portant sur des questions d'immigration, d'établissement et de colonisation que l'on retrouve dans des expressions culturelles officielles et vernaculaires, constitue un élément central des histoires créées au sujet de Gudrun Goodman. Cet article fait état de notre tentative visant à découvrir la signification véhiculée par ces histoires. Cette étude, que nous avons choisi de présenter bien que l'absence d'archives constitue un défi, aborde la nature sexuée des pratiques commémoratives ainsi que l'importance de la culturelle vernaculaire dans l'histoire des femmes.
It is a typical hot July day in Saskatchewan. Cumulus clouds billow across the deep blue sky and the wind hurtles across the fields. Fields of canola, flax, oats, and wheat race by, leaving a blur of lemon-yellow, lavender, and gold. I am driving with Stella Stephanson, whom I affectionately refer to as my surrogate mum, along Highway 16 toward Leslie, SK, in search of the grave site of Gudrun Goodman.
Gudrun Goodman1 was a midwife who practised from 1887 to 1922 in what is known as the Vatnabyggd (Lake Settlement) area in Saskatchewan. I first learned about Gudrun Goodman from A Harvest Yet To Reap.2 In the section on childbirth, the authors excerpt a passage from Walter Lindal's Saskatchewan Icelanders, in which he praises the contributions of Icelandic midwives to the early pioneer communities in Saskatchewan, but he singled out Gudrun Goodman:
All the Icelandic midwives deserve special mention but one of them, Gudrun Goodman, had one experience, while still a young woman, which stands out as the finest example of courage and initiative in an emergency. A young woman was with child, expecting in about a week. She was pumping water for a team of oxen who were drinking out of a low trough. Both the oxen had long sharp [End Page 293] horns. One of them suddenly raised its head and one of the horns caught the woman in the side and ripped it open. Gudrun Goodman was immediately summoned. She saw that she could not save the woman but was determined to save the child. She administered an anesthetic, choloroform, operated and got the child while still alive. She brought it up – Gudbjorg Eyjolfson, who later became Mrs Thomas Halldorson, of Leslie, Saskatchewan.3
Lindal was right. Goodman does deserve special attention, since performing a Cesarean section at the turn of the twentieth century was a remarkable feat. That the baby lived was nothing short of a miracle; that Goodman raised the baby as her own was testament to extraordinary kindness and compassion. When I first encountered this story, I was struck by the tragedy of this unnamed woman...
