Okay, bad joke. Someone might be offended. Especially with the use of the word “India.” If not, it’s still a bad joke. I was bored and had not made a post in a while. Remind me not to make future posts with bad jokes in them.
Note to self: no more bored/joke posts. I suck at telling jokes!
No, this post isn’t about bears. It isn’t even about the melting ice caps. Although I would like it to be, but not this time.
The other day someone wrote about the “political correctness” of how various ethnic groups would like to be or preferred to be addressed. You can read Jay Menard’s post titled Finding the right steps in the White guy linguistic jig for yourselves.
Then, it had me thinking, “well how do ‘white’ people preferred to be addressed?”
I never really feel right calling someone ‘white.’ It just doesn’t seem…well, right. I mean, there are not a lot of things in life that you never really call “white” in the first place. There’s white rice, white bears, white flour, white fur… All those things “white” are just 5-minute rice, polar bears, bleached flour, and albino. So then, why do some people call “white” people, well…”white?”
I remember one day in high school I was giving a presentation in a class and there was a substitute teacher filling in that day. She was er..um..white, and I used that same term when describing the majority aka other white people. She corrected me that day, “Naomi, you use Caucasian.” What?! I never even heard that word before. I guess I wouldn’t have heard it before having gone to an ironically Catholic elementary school with mostly all native students and then a high school, hanging around with even more natives and all this after having growing up on a Reserve my whole life. I think that’s the only time I used that term because I thought it sounded worse off than “white.” In my opinion, that word is like the n-word for whites. However, little did this substitute teacher know was that the teacher she was filling in for liked to call me “Pocahontas.” Yeah, I didn’t prefer to be called out in class by such a name but hey at least it was better than “wagon burner” or “pie face.” All of which, in my opinion, are equally racist.
And even in public, I had a relative tell me when I was in elementary school to refer to “white” people as “zhagonosh” or “gitchi-mookman.” It’s just the polite thing to do.
Then as I grew older, I never really felt white right calling white people… white. I still don’t. I worry I might offend someone or at least make someone feel uncomfortable because white isn’t really a color. And wait, the bigger issue here is why are we still referring to people as the color of their skin?! Wasn’t it Martin Luther King, Jr. that said the following almost 50 years ago,
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.
In essays, I refer to “whites” as “non-Aboriginals” or “non-Natives” or “the majority” but then those terms are pretty much open to anyone else other than Aboriginal or Native or the majority and sometimes I totally miss the point I am trying to make. I guess that’s part of being “academic” and “proper” and “educated.” And even so, no matter how much I try to write about corporations or globalization or colonization, and no matter how hard I try to define them, we all know that it’s just about another white-man-patriarchy I am referring to…I just can’t say it. Or so I was told.
So what do I call those that are different than “me”?
But then again, we should really ask all of ourselves, what is all this fuss about? Proper terms. I mean, the real issue here is why are “we” both you and me, minority, majority, black, white, brown…all so concerned with classifying everything. All this classification and proper/improper terms, to me, just creates the inferior and superior or the uppers and the lowers we have in this world. It creates the colonization of you and me…not just Indigenous peoples.
I guess for some people it is about reclaiming their identity but why do we have to plaster our own identity onto the rest of those like us? I have no problem being referred to as “Indian” or “Native” or “First Nations,” but that doesn’t mean the rest of the world is left to go out and refer to everyone else with my background as such. Ask them what they prefer to be referred to as. It won’t hurt anyone. This is really an iffy-subject because some of those may agree and some of those may not, but for me, it’s not about me being a representation of an entire group or nation of people. It is about me being me.
To read another post relating to this subject check out Indians vs Natives vs
Aboriginals vs First Nations.
So I took a break from the online world and also from the real word. It was much needed.
A lot happened over the much needed short-lived break. Things like…
More posts to come before school starts! 2 weeks away! Oh-em-gee….
Well, I can’t really show you the evolution of this painting per se…but what I can share with you is the image that I first had in my mind and what the end product was. This is the sketch straight out of my sketch book (makes sense…my sketch outta my sketch book… haha okay a wee bit too geeky)
When I first started out sketching my drawing, I knew what I wanted. Well, I sort of knew. I knew that I wanted a hand in there somewhere…holding something. And the basis of the hand holding the “circle” or the “moon” with the mother and child came from the person who had asked me to paint the picture for them. You can check out the documentary site HERE.
(measurements: approx 5x8in)
It took about 12-15 sheets of sketching paper to finally come out with the final drawing/sketch. I used ink in the beginning of my sketches because that is what I like. I like to use ink/pen because I like to sketch an entire picture/image without lifting the source of ink or the pen off the page–I can do that more easily with ink than with lead (as the lead will smudge…ink smudges too but not as bad as lead). Also with ink, even if I make a mistake I just literally make that mistake part of the sketch or just as easily “scribble” over the mistake (the scribble usually ends up being a part of a shadow or another object…)
I used to have a hard time when I was younger with my artwork. I never really thought I was all that great to begin with. I never really showed anyone my art work. I did however end up taking art courses all the way to Grade 12. (I was even voted most artistic in Grade 10). I knew then people were actually paying attention to my work. I just continued to do what I liked to do and that was make art. The more I did it, the more comfortable I became. Also, I began to notice that the mistakes I made…nobody ever really noticed…not even if I pointed them out.
So I painted many portraits. My models for some of my early paintings came from advertisements in magazines or barbie dolls. Today, I can sketch an entire image from my own imagery … mind you it takes about 15-20 tries before I get what it is exactly I want but that is what art is: trying things out and even if it doesn’t work the way you wanted it to, use it anyways.
The end product turns out to be this… 
(measurements: approx 2x3ft)
You can see that not all the original details that I wanted to use in the sketch are actually in the painting. And like I said, even though it didn’t turn out how I originally planned, I just went with it.
I am definitely motivated to make some more art work.
Questions I have been asked that for some of them I wish wasn’t asked
There is something strange about this word. Rape. I never used it before. Not even after the first time. Yes, that is right. It happened more than once.
I have a hard time saying the word. Even when I just talk about it. Even when I write about it right now, I have a hard time saying it. Can’t you count how many times I used the word “it” instead of the word “rape.”
It makes me feel uncomfortable talking about it. In any setting. A personal setting. In a classroom setting like it was brought up for discussion a few times this past school year. I worry what people might think of me when I say “I was raped.” Things like, will they think I am a slut? Will they think I am easy? Will they think I am dirty? Things that I shouldn’t even have to think about.
But you know what, when a female gets raped today some have gone so far as to blame the female. They say things like “She asked for it because she dressed like a slut” or “She was easy anyways. She is probably lying” even “She is dirty, slutty AND easy, what do you expect?” You would think that I might be the one scared to be raped again, but I am not. Fortunately, I have built up a good support network today. A positive, loving support network.
Unfortunately, I am more scared of what people might say about me or how people might think of me as a person–not just a female, but a person. And that is what should be on anyone’s mind when it comes to survivors of rape: Why are we still blaming the victim?
Today, I was able to attend a traditional powwow right after the youth gathering here on Manitoulin Island. I used to come to this powwow with my family all the time as a child. Moving away, I will admit I have not been able to practice my culture every single day, but I do when I can. In this picture here, this is the women’s traditional exhibition dance. The MC announced that we must stand. I knew this.
However, there are some non-native spectators that do not know this. Some non-native spectators stand and some don’t. If I try to tell one or two that they have to stand, sometimes they do without any questions and sometimes the look around and notice one or two others not standing. So they don’t.
You can see in this picture. The Traditional adult women dancers. The couple ahead of me is standing. Standing right behind them I thought, “I am proud of my culture because here everyone is standing. Honouring the women.” Then I thought about this even more. In Canadian culture, everyone else some people stand for one or two people who have done nothing for Canada except introduce a few laws or by the mere fact that they were born into the right family. **Ahem, PM Harper & Royal Family**
By the end of the song, I was proud to be standing for the women who were out there dancing.
But then it made me wonder outside of my culture, who everyone else was standing for and why?
A video they showed today at the UCCMM True Roots Youth Gathering today! Amazing video. Let’s get/find/fight for that justice 😉
A lot of crazy things have happened in the last little while… Things like:
This post isn’t about how many times I watched the Royal wedding or how I found out about Bin Laden’s death, this post is about the NDP as the official opposition.
I know that a lot of my peers have been sort of upset with how the government has treated/is treating the Aboriginal people. Not in the past, but present.
The NDP appealed to the Aboriginals. In fact, Jack Layton himself even mentioned building on relationships with the Aboriginal people in Canada. In fact, this was a big difference in comparison in his 2008 opening speech, where he said the following:
We can build a Canada that looks after one another – that is as compassionate at home as it is competitive aboard.
Instead of a place where our first peoples live in third world conditions.
Oh and when I speak of Aboriginals I know it is politically wrong to say it but I mean Inuit, Metis, Off-reserve/on-reserve, status/non-status. I know given the minority government then and him having to share the majority with another party wasn’t ideal. But let’s hope with this majority and his official opposition, real change can happen.
The only thing I have to say to my fellow Aboriginal people, this isn’t just a sitting and waiting game anymore. This is a game of action that needs to be filled with real change. Don’t be afraid to ask for change; seek change; and especially don’t be afraid to accept anything less than mediocre!
kwetoday 