mediaINDIGENA

Blog

  • VIDEO: Adam Beach discusses role in upcoming blockbuster “Cowboys and Aliens”

    Next year, Adam Beach will get to share the hi-ho-silver screen with none other than Harrison Ford in the upcoming movie “Cowboys and Aliens,” described as a mix of sci-fi and western genres. It’s due to hit screens July 29, 2011.

    According to movieweb.com, “the film takes place in 1870s Arizona, where a skirmish between cowboys and Apaches is interrupted by the crash landing of a space ship.” It’s loosely based on the original graphic novel of the same name, put out in 2007 by Platinum Studios.

    Here’s what Beach had to say about his character, the “half-Apache” henchman Nat Colorado, in a recent interview at Comic-Con 2010:

    For more from Beach about the flick, check out his other interview (complete with expletive) with About.com. You can also visit the official movie site for a fuller synopsis and other goodies.

    Knowing Hollywood’s track record in the Western genre, I am frankly hoping the portrayal of the Apache or any other Aboriginal person is only moderately stereotypical in this film.

    And, given current battles over immigration in a certain southern US state, the fact that this is a movie about battling aliens in Arizona is an unintentional coincidence, I’m sure.

  • AUDIO: Discussing “The War against Aboriginal Women” on STREETZ-FM

    This installment of our weekly Tuesday sitdown on STREETZ 104.7 FM features a discussion between Rick Harp and THE WORD host Lady V about his latest post, “Does the war against Aboriginal women begin at home?”

    MI on STREETZ: Aug. 10, 2010

    [audio:https://mediaindigena.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/MI-TheWord-Aug10-10_converted.mp3|titles=MI-TheWord-Aug10-10_converted]

  • Doin’ the Oka Shuffle

    You’ve probably heard via the news media that “Oka is heating up again.” That there are “rising tensions with Mohawks on the 20th anniversary of the Oka Crisis.”  Maybe you’ve heard that “Mohawks are angry with a developer” who wants to build on land he says he bought, fair and square, but that the Mohawks say is “part of their ancestral lands” or even “sacred lands.”

    A warning sign at Kanehsatake
    Warning sign at Kanehsatake

    Newspeople put this plot “across the road from land the Mohawk claim is an ancient, sacred burial ground.” Reporters also describe it as the place where “the Mohawk barricades went up 20 years ago” and where the “armed standoff with Mohawks began,” etc., etc.

    The language is interesting. The area that the Mohawk “claim” to be an “ancient, sacred burial ground” is a fenced-in cemetery, complete with great big signs saying it’s a cemetery, and lots of headstones. But the word “cemetery” is boring. So reporters or their producers and editors insert words and phrases that connote some mysterious tribal significance, an almost religious or spiritual import to the events unfolding at Kanehsatake. They use this type of language despite charges by the Mohawk that the story is much more mundane: that it’s about a carpetbagger from Montreal seeking to flip some land and make some money. (more…)

  • Does the war against Aboriginal women begin at home?

    Events of recent weeks have repeatedly reminded me of some long-standing questions I’ve had surrounding the obligations of Aboriginal communities to their members, in particular, to their female members.

    These reminders have come as a series of three news stories, published separately but seemingly tied together by one underlying theme, one I am loath to contemplate: that the systemic disregard for the lives and lot of Aboriginal women may now exist not only within the larger Canadian society, but across far-too-many Aboriginal communities themselves.

    (more…)

  • Letter: John Duncan appointment as INAC Minister borders on “disgraceful”

    A letter to the editor in today’s Globe and Mail minces no words in assessing the appointment of MP John Duncan to the position of Indian and Northern Affairs Minister:

    It is bordering on disgraceful that the newest cabinet minister has been given the Indian Affairs portfolio … What does Stephen Harper’s appointment of a first-time cabinet minister say about his commitment to first nations [?]

    To be fair, one might acknowledge that the man did put in some time (since 2008) as Parliamentary Secretary to his Ministerial predecessor, so the specifics of the terrain are not wholly foreign to him.

    Curious to know what others think — is it contemptuous toward First Nations to assign a ‘rookie’ to the portfolio, i.e., a telling sign of how much regard Harper holds for the Ministry and those it serves?

    POST-SCRIPT: For those who do feel the ‘untested’ qualifications of Duncan make him a poor Cabinet choice, you may take some odd solace in the opinion that, according to 58% of respondents for our poll on the Ministerial shake-up (as of 5:20 pm est), Indian Affairs “policy’s the same no matter who’s Minister”…