If Raskolnikov isn’t on your blogroll, he should be. This takedown of Colleen Simard, of the Winnipeg Free Press, (who urges every Winnipeger to get “an aboriginal friend” for 2005, then trots through the steps with helpful instructions);
So please Ms Simard, don’t go around telling non- indians to approach the indian they see at a WAG show just like they would anyone else, or to join a support group or club to meet indians. Unless that club or support group is centred on something indian, or it allows indians to rage about racism or history, the odds are there won’t be any indians around. As for indians in an art gallery? See my post here to get a glimpse into an indian mindset I have encountered all too often.
On a personal level, I would encourage all non- indians to search high and low for indians. From what I have heard and what I can see with my own two eyes, most of the indians that are easy to find and accessible are the ones on Main Street. These are the ones non-indians use as a template, Ms Simard, whether you like it or not. And if that insults you, you may want to change your own template, the one where every culturally clueless white person needs an indian friend, as well as guidance from someone like yourself on how to get close to that strange exotic indian.
As for my fellow indians, try opening your mind to other cultures. You have spent the last 50 years or so forcing our culture down the throat of everyone else, maybe it’s time you started swallowing.
And he’s just warming up…
crossposted to the Shotgun
I seach lo, low and high, for Eve eternally. Does that satisfy, aboriginally enough, to qualify?
Would it count if Raskolnikov were my friend? Assuming that the aboriginal friends that I already had are not sufficient, for the insufferably smug Ms. Simard.