DOXA program | fri may 24

Community Sponsors: Indigenous Media Arts Group (IMAG) & Redwire Native Youth Media

This program investigates the commodification of Indian people and how our images have been usurped to satisfy hungry consumers, public and government tourism policies and issues of ownership. What links the work together is the reality of how identities are constructed and how identities can be dismantled, reworked, claimed or reclaimed.

I am interested in how popular culture and mass media create images of Indian people and how these images shape non-Indian national Canadian identity. If we consider how the state, church and educational communities have contributed to the subjugation of Indian people and our images, we must question how Canadian identities have been informed by way of an oppressed ancient people and their homeland. How do non-aboriginal communities benefit from our losses? Has history taught contempt for aboriginal people? Is disdain for aboriginal people inherent in Canadian national identity?

The critical intent of this program is for viewers to ruminate and enter a place of self-reflexivity concerning their connection or disconnection to the ancient people of this land. With the hope of bringing some lucidity to the tenuous relationship between us and to celebrate any connectedness we have, this program honours aboriginal cultural autonomy and invites you to have a clear mind and open heart.

I am grateful to have curated this program. Wopila Pilamaya yello - I give thanks.

Dana Claxton
Salish Territory, March 27, 2002

Suggested readings:
Playing Indian by Philip J. Deloria (Yale University 1989 ISBN 0-300-0711-6)
Celluloid Indians, Native Americans and Film by Jacquelyn Kilpatrick (University of Nebraska Press 1999 ISBN 0-8032-7790-3)

The Indian Dialogue
Director: David Hughes (Canada, 1967, 28 min, 16 mm film)

This self-reflective documentary consists of a vocal group of Indians talking about community, self and the impact of non-native governments and values upon aboriginal autonomy. Duke Redbird questions the loss of spirituality in non-native communities and considers how Indians, as people of the land, might teach those who want to listen.

From Another Time Comes One
Director: Zachary Longboy (Canada, 1990, 10 min, video)

Do you own an Indian airport dolly? This experimental documentary roams the urban landscape, exposing the commodification of Indian people and how it has shaped Canadian identity among both aboriginal and non-aboriginal communities.

What Was Taken...And What We Sell
Director: Nora Naranjo-Morse (Canada, 1994, 11 min, video)

A short visual narrative that investigates the commercialization of Southwest Indian culture and how, through systems of exploitation, some tribal groups have sold their culture to the tourist markets as a result of external economic pressures. What is the value of buying Indian stuff? Is it related to ownership issues, power issues, or are we just simply decoration?

In Whose Honor
Director: Jay Rosenstein (USA, 1997, 46 min, video)

The Cleveland Indians. Washington Redskins. The Cleveland Whitemen. Washington Whiteskins. How does language influence thought and make meaning? This documentary follows Native American mother Charlene Teters, who is deeply committed to protecting cultural symbols and her identity. It investigates America's continued devaluation and dehumanization of Native American people and their culture, and the lengths that some will go to in order to own and perpetuate derogatory names.

Natalie of Wood
Director: Shawn Chappelle (Canada, 2001, 2 min, video)

A remix of old Hollywood images comments on the film industry's notorious and persistent appetite to stereotype Indian people. Who is speaking for whom in this short work, and what is being said? Are the old images just re-presented or is the artist critically looking at self in the context of whiteness and the subjugation of Indian people?

Real Indian
Director: Malinda Maynot (USA, 1996, 7.5 min, 16 mm film)

What do Indians look like to you? Stereotypes can be pervasive and hard to dismantle. A light-skinned, curly-haired Lumbee woman tells her story about not fitting into fixed ideas and perceptions of what an Indian should look like.

2510037901
Director: Steven Loft (Canada, 2000, 1 min, video)

An examination of codification and demarcation inflicted on Native people. As a reflection on the artist's mixed Native and Jewish heritage, he makes his Indian status card number into a tattoo.

Curator & directors in attendance.

Running time: 105 minutes

Dana Claxton is an interdisciplinary artist who works in film, video, installation and performance art. Her artwork has been shown internationally and her installation work is held in the permanent collections of the Vancouver Art Gallery, MacKenzie Art Gallery and the Winnipeg Art Gallery, as well as in many university libraries.

Dana's work has been broadcast nationally and her installation works have been shown at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Walker Art Centre in Minneapolis. She has won numerous awards and nominations and in 2001 she was honoured with the prestigious VIVA Award for commitment to contemporary art in Vancouver.

Dana is an active member in the visual and media arts community and has participated in panel discussions, and on juries and advisory committees. She has curated national visual and media arts exhibitions and screenings and has directed projects for NFB, CBC, VTV, as well as several of her own independent productions.

Dana is a founding director the Indigenous Media Arts Group - a collective committed to the production and dissemination of aboriginal independent media. Her early training in arts administration was through Spirit Song - the Native Indian Theatre Company.

She currently teaches at Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in the Critical Studies and Visual Arts Departments and is writing a Masters Thesis. Dana was born in Yorkton Saskatchewan and is a member of the Hunkpapa Lakota Nation - her family reservation is Woodmountain, Saskatchewan. She resides in Vancouver.

Graphic Design by Jacqueline Verkley. Web Design + Graphics Adaptation by Terra Poirier › lineargirl media