Indigenous Representation

 “I believe that myths are actually truths about culture and conventional views of history that have both been deeply influenced by the stories of our country that we have been told in school.” (Donald, 2009).

            Many times, as a child when sharing with other classmates or peers that I was part Native Indian, MAJORITY of the times It would follow up with they would make a stereotypical Indian cry with their hand tapping their mouth as they say “uhuhuh” in a higher pitch. As a child, I assumed that was their way to distinguish my ethnicity. As I grew older, this question stopped and people began asking more appropriate identifying questions in regard to where the native side of my family was from.

            The information I received in school and movies, was the information that I contributed to my own native identity because my family couldn’t tell me anymore or any less. During my undergraduate degree, I was able to use my education to do some self-identifying. My indigenous studies degree allowed me to explore more about my Mi’kmaq heritage and I was able to answer the questions about my ethnicity a little more honest and diminish those stereotypical views based on myself and other Indigenous People.

            For instance, the Disney Pocahontas movie portrays Pochahontas as a young woman helping John Smith, while also showing them fall in-love. As a child, I absolutely loved this movie, knowing that I was part Mi’kmaq I felt that having this movie was important in describing who I was because my family knew very little about our own culture and traditions, but I was wrong.

            Many indigenous cultures and stories have been embellished to appear to a larger and more mainstream audience, the true history and meaning behind these traditional stories and celebrations are often lost. At some of the pow-wows that I’ve been to, I have seen non-indigenous people only attend for ‘souvenirs’, they would be more concerned on visiting vendors and looking for handmade items, and then asking for a deal.

            Looking at the vendors is not a huge deal, but asking for the price of a handmade item that represents a culture to be cut in half is an example on how the indigenous culture can be taken advantage of. What Donald touches upon in the article is the colonial representation of stories about Indigenous People that is still continuing today (2009). Removing the colonial views on indigenous history and culture requires work, but it’s work that is necessary to ensure that what’s being taught appropriately reflects Indigenous People, their history and their culture.

Reference

Donald, D.T. (2009). Introduction: Forts as mythic symbols of colonialism in Canada. First Nations Perspectives, 2(1), 1-24