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[V-Adore]

Well this thread sure went to shit.

~Paul

I dunno, I honestly find it fairly fascinating. I'd chime in myself, but I don't have anything to share. That said... my sympathies to side-show (name intentionally botched) and others who have dealt with this.

[side_show]

I also know of Native Hawaiian artisans and Hula teachers and Language specialists who are creating a contemporary Hawaiian culture. Rooted in the past and looking toward the future of Hawaii and Hawaiians. This is something I never saw in the Native American culture on the mainland. And I realize that history dealt the Native Hawaiians a different hand then the Native Americans but the idea that there was a future for the culture and the clear efforts to build toward it really are breathtaking. The balance of Sadness about what happened with Hope is beautiful. I saw so little hope on the mainland among Native Americans, mostly anger, and tragedy in terms of health, education, and opportunity. What happened here was not good; what is happening here could, I think, lead to a true renaissance of a contemporary, true Hawaiian culture for the Native Hawaiians.

There is a thrust to establish contemporary culture with Aboriginal Canadians too.  I work amoung a great deal of artists both Aboriginal and not, and I can't deny the power of their work, but at the same time the machine of racism is very strong here because in Manitoba poverty is so high and the Aboriginal population is also much higher, so it's often frustrating, and the progress is pretty slow going.  I'm writting a play about some of these issues right now so I'm thinking a lot about it.  I think my last post sounding pretty depressing.  Thanksgiving always gets me down.  There is a great deal of hope and I'm optimistic for the future.  Sometimes the work looks like a mountain.

[slink]

Thanksgiving always gets me down.  There is a great deal of hope and I'm optimistic for the future.  Sometimes the work looks like a mountain.

For me, in a far less direct way, it doesn't matter what time of year it is, it depresses me. Most things do of course...
Looking at some of the fiction and cinema coming from Aboriginals in both the Northern US and Canada recently says a lot about the state of things.
You've got Sherman Alexie and (sorry my connections to slow to check and I can't find the book right now but) the woman who wrote Monkey Beach, and the films related to both, which show both the effects of poverty, alcohol and the government on the idigenous populations.
Matthew Coon Come referred to the blockade of a road to stop the logging, and the back lash it received. It seems that it's OK for the government to state in reports that things are going terribly wrong, and that the kinds of indignities being forced upon people need be stopped, but the moment someone who isn't white, or prefers to not speak English (or French) stands up and tried to change something, it's no longer OK. I guess the point is that if they were given any leeway then they might get ideas of grandure and try to keep on changing things for the better.


We actually get to keep fairly up to date with Canadian Aboriginal media and art since one of the departments of BACS is a group of academics working on Aboriginal studies of various sorts.
And it's one of the things I'm greatful for as well. Including meeting, and seeing Coon Come's speech. It is an area of politics I am greatly interested in now, and what with my degree happening, it may be something I try to do something about actively in the next few years. In fact, I say may be, it will be if I get a chance.
But some of the cinema and fiction, for instance, that has come from First Nations Canada, has been superb. And I'm glad to have had a chance to get it.

I'd been trying to avoid this topic, what with my connections to the subject, and with my head being in entirely the wrong frame of mind to deal with deep discussion, but, well, I failed!

[side_show]

That's so cool Slink, thanks for the input.

As for Aboriginal Film, I have to agree, there's been a lot of great stuff done.  If you've seen practiacally any Canadian Aboriginal Film you've probably seen my friend Gloria May Eshkibok - She's written a book called Cyclops Beauty, 'cause she's only got one eye.  She a big fat warm lady with a big fat warm heart.  I got to act with her in my first professional gig, along with a great big group of other Aboriginal ladies in "Rez Sisters."  She taught me about the concept of being "two spirited" which is one of the most interesting cultural attitudes toward homosexuality that I've ever heard of, and it's covered in this interview with her for those who are interested.

http:// http://www.yorku.ca/ycom/gazette/past/archive/2000/040500/issue.htm

[slink]

I think I have seen her, but not sure where. What with my memory being appalling.
As for Monkey Beach, I will plug it a little more since it was such a great book - http://www.iblist.com/book.php?id=2590 (in fact I was the one who added it to iblist!)
I'll check out that interview you posted as well. As well as scouring the York Uni page a little, since my boss just got a job there.
Might also be someone to ask to a conference. We've had a few authors across (Anita Rau Badami, Jeffrey Moore and the Winnipeg poets - Kroetsch (who was fantastically nice), Cooley and McCance) and an Inuit woman who (I forget her name and am not in the office) tours around performing traditional music, which was a remarkable piece, since all the songs contain these fantastic stories and histories.
Also, I'm headed to the Birkbeck conference in February, which is all about Canadian film, which will have a large segment on First Nations film. So that should be interesting, and if anyone wants any of the stuff I come away with, just say.

[side_show]

if anyone wants any of the stuff I come away with, just say.

Holy Crap! Yes.  Me.  I do.

[slink]

Holy Crap! Yes.  Me.  I do.

Have written myself a little note!