Take 7: Indigenous Cinema

AFTERIMAGES

CONCORDIA’S UNDERGRADUATE FILM MAGAZINE

TAKE 7: INDIGENOUS CINEMA

COVER DESIGN BY AMANDA IBARRA GRAPHIC DESIGN BY AMANDA IBARRA EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: KAMERYN WHYTE FRENCH COPY EDITOR: TINA LE ENGLISH COPY EDITORS: ERIC MENDOZA SHARMAYNE WHYTE AFTERIMAGES FEATURE WRITERS: PAULINA DOMÍNGUEZ ALLISON FIGUEROA ROJAS STEVEN LEE FALLON DIBLASIO ZOÉ DION-VAN ROYEN CONCORDIA STUDENT WRITERS: LA HARRIS TYSON BURGER AFTERIMAGES EVENTS COORDINATOR: JAZMINE DARRAGH AFTERIMAGES FINANCE COORDINATORS: EMILY SPOONER AND MARIO SAMAN AFTERIMAGES COMMUNICATIONS COORDINATOR: TINA LE AFTERIMAGES PHOTOGRAPHER: REBECA ELÍAS THE DESIGN OF THIS MAGAZINE HAS BEEN CREATED AS A CLEAR CONTINUATION OF THE DESIGN AND ARTISTIC DIRECTION ESTABLISHED BY HANNAH MATERNE. THIS MAGAZINE WAS FOUNDED BY JENNIFER SIN AND NINA PATTERSON. THE PRINTING OF THIS MAGAZINE WAS MADE POSSIBLE WITH THE SUPPORT OF:

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TABLE OF C 68 Voices: A Celebration of Indigenous Languages

The Caretakers

BY PAULINA DOMÍNGUEZ

BY STEVEN LEE

8 - 11

12 - 13

14 - 16

16 - 19

Moose River Crossing

BY LA HARRIS

What Goes Around Comes Around: Light and Circularity in Souleymane Cissé’s, Yeelen

BY TYSON BURGER

F CONTENTS Indigenous Peoples of Jamaica/ Xaymaca

Perceptions of Indigenous Culture and Colonialism in Modern Society

BY KAMERYN WHYTE

BY FALLON DIBLASIO

20 - 22

23 - 24

25 - 28

29 - 37

De Google et l’Accessibilité : altérité et si on ne pouvait trouver manière d’exister que par l’Autre

BY ZOÉ DION-VAN ROYEN

Land as Pedagogy: Memoria y Resistencia Mapuche en Chile

BY ALLISON FIGUEROA ROJAS

MOT DE L’ÉDITRICE J’aimerais commencer par reconnaître que l'Université Concordia est située en territoire autochtone, lequel n’a jamais été cédé. Nous reconnaissons la nation Kanien'kehá: ka comme gardienne des terres et des eaux sur lesquelles nous nous réunissons aujourd'hui. Tiohtiá: ke/Montréal est historiquement connu comme un lieu de rassemblement pour de nombreuses Premières Nations, et aujourd'hui, une population autochtone diversifiée, ainsi que d'autres peuples, y résident. C’est dans le respect des liens avec le passé, le présent et l'avenir que nous reconnaissons les relations continues entre les Peuples Autochtones et autres personnes de la communauté montréalaise.

Pour le magazine Afterimages de cette année, nous avons decidé que notre thème serait : Cinéma Indigène. Notre thème est vague afin qu’il puisse inclure des films et d’autres formes de médias numériques provenant des peuples indigènes partout dans le monde et portant sur eux. Pour beaucoup de nos écrivains et membres de notre club, nous voulions faire des recherches et écrire à propos des films qui exploraient nos héritages. Nous voulions nous assurer que nous ne parlions pas pour les autres, mais plutôt que nous éclairions les problèmes déjà soulevées par les peuples indigènes. Nous nous sommes efforcés de nous assurer que nous adressions à chaque groupe indigène avec respect et avec la terminologie appropriée, et nous espérons que cela se voit dans nos écrits. Je crois que les films sont un moyen puissant qui permet aux cinéastes de partager leurs histoires avec un public plus grand. Les films que nous avons choisis pour nos articles ont partagé leurs histoires avec nous, et nous espérons continuer à partager et à discuter ces histoires avec vous.

J’espère que vous allez aimer lire notre magazine, Kameryn Whyte

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EDITOR'S NOTE I would like to begin by acknowledging that Concordia University is located on unceded Indigenous lands. The Kanien’kehá:ka Nation is recognized as the custodians of the lands and waters on which we gather today. Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal is historically known as a gathering place for many First Nations.

Today, it is home to a diverse population of Indigenous and other peoples. We respect the continued connections with the past, present and future in our ongoing relationships with Indigenous and other peoples within the Montreal community.

For this year’s issue of Afterimages, we decided that our theme would be: Indigenous Cinema. Our theme is broad so that it can include films and other forms of digital media from and about Indigenous peoples all around the globe. For many of our writers and club members, we wanted to research and write about films that explored our heritages. We wanted to make sure that we were not speaking for others, but rather bringing light to issues that have already been raised by Indigenous peoples. We tried very hard to make sure that we addressed each indigenous group with respect and the appropriate terminology, and we hope that this shows in our writing. I believe that film is a powerful medium that allows filmmakers to share their stories with a larger audience. The films that we have chosen for our articles have shared their stories with us, and we hope to continue sharing and discussing these stories with you.

I hope you enjoy reading our magazine, Kameryn Whyte

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THE ORIGIN OF THE RARÁMURI AND THE CHABOCHI (2016), DIRECTED BY COMBO

68 VOICES: A CELEBRATION OF INDIGENOUS LANGUAGES

BY PAULINA DOMÍNGUEZ

COPY-EDITED BY KAMERYN WHYTE

As globalization unfolds and barriers between cultures continue to crumble down, a silent war between languages emerges. But while some languages fight for dominance and relevance in a world yielding to the necessity of cultural assimilation, others fight for survival. As a Mexican immigrant, it amazes me the vast number of indigenous languages that can be found in the country I grew up in. Mexico can seem like a tower of Babel when considering that it’s home to no less than 364 linguistic variations conjoined into 68 linguistic groups.1 This linguistic diversity,

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however, is clouded, rendered almost invisible by a post-colonial landscape where only the dominant European languages have been able to stand the test of time. According to the National Institute for Indigenous Languages in Mexico (Inali), 60% of the country’s indigenous languages are now in danger of disappearing.2 Fortunately, this is where film and animation can come in. Sesenta y Ocho Voces, Sesenta y Ocho Corazones (also known as 68 voices) is a series of animated indigenous stories told in their original tongue. The project was created by Gabriela Badillo in 2013 as a new initiative from Mexico’s government Fund for the Culture and Arts (FONCA), aiming to inspire pride amongst indigenous communities, fight indigenous discrimination, and promote the premise that “nadie puede amar lo que no conoce” (no one can love what they don’t know.)3 So why should these voices be heard? The answer can perhaps be found in this fantastic collection of animated shorts.

Whether it’s their unique phonetics or the rich cultures they reflect, no two indigenous languages (or any languages for that matter) are the same. 68 voices encourages us to embrace this linguistic diversity. Ranging from two to four minutes, each of the 23 films that have been produced for the project so far focus on one particular indigenous language, giving it a creative platform to tell a story, myth or poem to a large audience. Throughout these 23 short films, one can find dialects of the Ayapaneco, Ch’ol, Huasteco, Huichol, Maya, Mayo, Matlatzinca, Mazateco, Mixteco, Náhuatl, Otomí, Pai Pai, Purépecha, Seri, Tarahumara, Tlahuica, Tojolabal, Tojono, Totonaco, Tseltal, Tsotsil Yaqui and Zapoteco languages, all of which are accompanied by Spanish and English subtitles in order to be accessible to people across Mexico and around the globe.4 Echoing the wide range of sounds and colours that can still be found in the country’s cultural and linguistic landscapes, each film furthermore employs a different creative director and animation team.

From a black-and-white, pencil-drawn film highlighting the Mixteco language from the coast

THE FIRST DAWN (2016), DIRECTED BY COMBO

of Oaxaca, to a multi-coloured, digitally-painted one that puts a spotlight on the Mayo language from Salitral, Sonora State, the films empower artistic and therefore cultural and linguistic diversity. The wide range of colour palettes, textures, illustration techniques and animation styles suggest an appreciation of the nuances of individual languages, allowing viewers to see the diversity that the indigenous community generates not as a social and/or political inconvenience, but on the contrary, as a treasure of human civilization.

While aesthetic differences allow each short (and thus the indigenous language it promotes) to have its own idiosyncratic voice, thematic similarities allow these voices to come together and speak as one, revealing both the beauty and the struggle of the indigenous experience as a whole. The films cover a wide range of subjects. Amongst these, one can find reflections on love, family, and myths about the forces of the universe. The themes of life and death are particularly brought to light again and again. The films Death, My Face Dies and When a Tongue Dies (Badillo, 2013), from the Mixteco, Totonaco and Náuatl languages, depict death through a philosophical and ideological lens, as well as a cultural and linguistic one. When a Tongue Dies even comes to explicitly address the consequences of linguistic extinction, using both oral and visual poetry to tackle an important issue when discussing language preservation: when a language dies, a unique worldview dies

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with it, and consequently, as the poem puts it, “humankind is impoverished”. These reflections on death reveal not only the project’s goal to raise social awareness and responsibility, but also the indigenous community’s acknowledgement of the obstacles that their languages have faced over the years. The films The Sorcerer Cricket (Badillo, 2013) and The Origin of the Rarámuri and the Chabochi (COMBO, 2016), from the Yaqui and Tarahumara languages, portray the threats of early European colonialism, associating the arrival of “white men” with either fire and destruction, or the personification of evil.

Whether colonialism is still relevant today or not, 68 voices urges us, as its films do, to reflect on death and how it continues to manifest itself amongst the cultures and languages around us.

Knowledge about ourselves and the universe that surrounds us is encoded in the languages we speak. Behind every indigenous language, there are years of wisdom and experience: years of life. While the theme of death raises awareness on linguistic extinction and its social and cultural implications, the theme of life reminds us about the richness found in 68 indigenous voices. Considering the unique perspectives that myths offer, it is no surprise that most of the 23 films explore the origins of either life itself or the forces of nature that affect it. Films such as How Did the Rabbit Get to the Moon (Badillo, 2013), The Origin of Fire, The Origin of Life, and The Wind (COMBO, 2016), from the Huasteco, Mayo, Ch’ol, and Ayapaneco languages, reveal early interpretations of nature, imaginatively answering questions about the world: Why is there a rabbit-shaped shadow on

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the moon? Why do we experience earthquakes?

Why does the wind seem to wander around as it pleases? On the other hand, films such as The Origin of the Sun and the Moon, The First Sunrise and The Origin of Jealousy (COMBO, 2016), from the Tseltal, Huichol, and Pai Pai languages, interweave these forces of nature with knowledge about relationships within the family and the community, turning the moon and the sun into a mother and her son, or two stars into rivals, fighting out of jealousy. Regardless of the unfamiliar sounds brought forward by these tongues, the films also speak a universal language, building bonds of empathy between the viewers and the communities that are finally being heard.

As old generations leave us and new ones become culturally, socially and linguistically assimilated, the stories, poems and myths of the indigenous community start to be forgotten.

Like any other language, indigenous languages contain an accumulated body of knowledge, culture and history, all of which provide new perspectives on the human experience and how we interpret the world around us. This gorgeous collection of animated shorts is a first step forward towards the recognition and empowerment of Mexico’s indigenous people, who are largely responsible for the country’s rich multiculturalism. The films in 68 voices might be short in length, but their unique animation styles and imaginative reflections on life and death THE FIRST DAWN (2016), DIRECTED BY COMBO

highlight the idiosyncrasies of indigenous languages and the years of wisdom that stand behind them.

Now that a creative platform exists for these 23 (soon to be 68) voices to be heard, what we need to do is listen.

ENDNOTES IWGIA. “Indigenous peoples in Mexico.” IWGIA, https://www.iwgia.org/en/mexico.

Notimex. “60 por ciento de lenguas indígenas en México están en peligro de extinción.”

Vanguardia, Febuary 21, 2018, https://www.vanguardia.com.mx/articulo/60-por-ciento-delenguas-indigenas-en-mexico-estan-en-peligro-de-extincion.

Sesenta y ocho voices sesenta y ocho corazones. ¿Cómo nace 68 voces – 68 corazones? 2013, http://68voces.mx/acerca-de .

Sesenta y ocho voices sesenta y ocho corazones. 68 voces. 2013, http://68voces.mx/projects.

BIBLIOGRAPHY IWGIA. “Indigenous peoples in Mexico.” IWGIA, https://www.iwgia.org/en/mexico.

Notimex. “60 por ciento de lenguas indígenas en México están en peligro de extinción.”

Vanguardia, Febuary 21, 2018, https://www.vanguardia.com.mx/articulo/60-por-ciento-delenguas-indigenas-en-mexico-estan-en-peligro-de-extincion.

Sesenta y ocho voices sesenta y ocho corazones. 68 voces. 2013, http://68voces.mx/projects Vargas, Andrew. “These Gorgeous Animated Shorts Celebrate 11 of Mexico’s Indigenous Languages.” Remezcal, 2016, http://remezcla.com/lists/film/68-voces-animated-short-filmsmexico-indigenous-languages/ Zimmerman, Michael. “The Importance of Preserving and Promoting Languages: A liberal Arts Perspective.” Huffington Post, September 19, 2016, https://www.huffingtonpost.com/michaelzimmerman/the-importance-of-preserv_b_12088728.html

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COURTESY OF STEVEN LEE (2018).

THE CARETAKERS

BY STEVEN LEE

COPY-EDITED BY KAMERYN WHYTE

On February 12th, Cinema Politica held the Montreal premiere of the documentary short film titled The Caretakers (Goldberg, 2017). The screening was hosted by a Listuguj Mi’gmaq student named Travis Wysote, and it was also a co-presentation from the Council of Canadians.1 Directed by David Goldberg, it chronicles the events that happened in the year of 2014; involving a group of protesters trying to stop the anti-Kinder Morgan blockade from happening in Burnaby Mountain.2 One group in particular called “The Caretakers” takes the viewers on a journey showing what they had to do in order to survive and unite as human beings against their oppressors. Many students came out to support this screening, and ultimately learned the truth of what happened during those hard and painful times.

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Realistically focused on the themes of colonization and environment, The Caretakers is not an easy watch for sure. It’s executed in a way that will still make us care about the people wanting to make a difference and stand up for themselves. It shows both sides from the activists and the police officers points of view, which might give viewers some complexity and dilemma after watching it.

It’s fascinating that it makes you understand both sides of the story. It wants you to soak it in, and also heavily asks you to pay attention.

David Goldberg doesn’t hold back on the intensity and brutality of the event especially with scenes involving the police. Storytelling is key in a film like this, and it takes the documentary genre to a whole new level by portraying the harsh reality of what these

people had to go through. He does a great job showing that the land they’re protecting isn’t just some random part in Canada, because it’s their home. Seeing what these protesters are fighting for is not only heart-breaking, but it’s also heavy since we’re able to see everything that’s happening onscreen. In response to the question of “what is it like to make a documentary short”, Goldberg stated: When you say that history is written by the winners, documentary gets to be a critical voice of the story as it’s happening. And with education systems broadening into nothing but multiple-choice questions, critical thought or storytelling in any form is needed, in documentary or narrative film.3 He implies that with the help of cinema, documentaries are nice ways to tell a story and to show evidence that the filmmaker wants to convey to the audience, in order to prove his case.

Overall, The Caretakers is a fantastic and unique story about people uniting and fighting for what’s right. As both a storyteller and a filmmaker, director David Goldberg should be highly praised for giving the viewers not only an intriguing documentary, but also contributing something to Indigenous Cinema. It might have been a huge risk making this film, but it totally paid off in the end. It’s great that Cinema Politica did everything they could to raise awareness of The Caretakers, and hopefully teaching everyone to stand up for what’s right.4

END NOTES 1

“The Caretakers & Water Warriors.” Cinema Politica, www. cinemapolitica.org/screening/concordia/caretakers-waterwarriors.

2

Goldberg, David . “The Caretakers (Trailer).” Vimeo, 4 Mar. 2018, www.vimeo.com/202167705.

3

Mack, Adrian . “Mischief makers and rabble-Rousers lead the charge at Vancouver's DOXA Documentary Film Festival.”

Georgia Straight Vancouver's News & Entertainment Weekly, The Georgia Straight, 26 Apr. 2017, www.straight.com/ movies/899996/mischief-makers-and-rabble-rousers-leadcharge-vancouvers-doxa-documentary-film.

4

“The Caretakers & Water Warriors.” Cinema Politica, www. cinemapolitica.org/screening/concordia/caretakers-waterwarriors.

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MOOSE RIVER CROSSING

BY LA HARRIS

COPY-EDITED BY KAMERYN WHYTE

Award winning Indigenous Canadian filmmaker, playwright, visual artist, and actress Shirley Cheechoo’s film, Moose River Crossing explores the lives of 6 former residential students who are heading to a 1976 residential school reunion and find themselves delayed at a train station in a reunion of their own.

The film infuses cinema and theater, creating a tableau of minimal distraction that impacts the storytelling to a very unique level. It showcases how past trauma remains at the forefront of our present day until it is fully exhaled. Shirley Cheechoo explores this through color and her extraordinary miseen-scène usage of the train station and the window.

The film opens in a black and white sequence where former residential student Harriet, on her way to the reunion, is running along the same train tracks that ripped her and scores of Aboriginal children away from their families to residential schools.

The trains and tracks are reminiscent of the Holocaust footage we’ve all been privy to; depicting Jewish families torn apart and packed like sardines in trains heading to the work camps, only later to be extinguished. Here, we bear witness, once again, to the horror of cultural genocide and its impact. Identity is stripped and void of color. The film’s former

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residential student, Margaret, states it well, “We all went numb. We all fell asleep from that day forward to an unforgiving place as if nothing happened.” (Moose River Crossing)

The cinematic format gives way to the theatrical as the former residential students enter the stark interior of the train station one by one. Along with the residential school flashback photos, they are always filmed in black and white when speaking together inside or outside the train station. This effectively binds them in a shared experience as one. The past is their present.

The train station, windows, and wooden benches resemble a church ambiance without the paraphernalia of religious symbols.

However, when Debbie and Margaret fight and tumble between two benches that face each other, we see two embossed crosses at the end of each bench-a haunting presence at the forefront of their struggle.

The stripped down barren station foretells the peeling away of labels and wounds imposed on them and towards each other. Throughout the film, the 6 former residential students solely inhabit the interior of the train station. This lends itself as a sort of holy ground to unveil their stories without the intrusion of the other.

The window serves as a confessional booth overlooking the sky, obliterating the convoluted residential religious traditions and hypocrisy of the past. Throughout the film, each character steps up to the window several times deepening the telling of their stories until the whole is exhaled. The light streaming through the window becomes the unconditional listener, as the other 5 former residential students recoil in a backdrop of shadows, creating a theatrical tableau effect. A testimony to how wounds and shadows lurking in the background in silence and truth affect the whole.

Flashbacks and window confessionals are always shot in a cinematic format of color and movement.

It boldly illustrates how the color of their soul and life continue to be tainted and overshadowed by their past wounds and traumas. The repetitive image of the abandoned white leather baby shoe, washed ashore and then floating in the waters, is a haunting reminder of the lost innocence and youth. Rows of white crosses in a cemetery symbolize the cause of physical and spiritual death; the imposing attempts to make Indigenous people white and conform to their religious beliefs.

As each window confessional deepens, they return to the interior of the station and begin to bring their wounds to each other, sitting in pairs and threesomes inviting the human witness. Finally, all are sitting opposite each other on two benches resembling a unified circle of sharing, listening, and compassion.

MOOSE RIVER CROSSING (2013) DIRECTED BY SHIRLEY CHEECHOO. PICTURED: HARRIET (BRIGITTE YANG)

They soon forgo the station window confessional and become a window of truth, strength, and support to each other, breeding a healing ground where forgiveness trumps revenge. Together, they agree to abandon the reunion and instead share a meal. As they head out, the narrator speaks, “Sometimes you have to come together to be released to the spirit world, that is true reconciliation.�(Moose River Crossing)

A masterful storyteller, Shirley Cheechoo blends an extraordinary fusion

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of theater and cinema tackling the pain and depth of one of Canada’s darkest hours.

Moose River Crossing opens a window to the light and power of truthful dialogue. Like Harriet and Margaret sitting on the bench at the train station, taking turns knitting; Shirley Cheechoo also weaves a new story through the intricate timing of stillness, movement, and the backdrop of colour.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Moose River Crossing. Dir. Shirley Cheechoo. Weengushk Film Institute, 2013.

WHAT GOE COMES AR CIRCULAR SOULEYMA YEELEN

BY TYSON BURGER

COPY-EDITED BY ERIC MENDOZA

Yeelen, or Brightness (1987), directed

by Souleymane Cissé, is a film based on Bambara mythology, and is set in Mali in the 13th Century. The film’s central protagonist, Niankoro, belongs to a magic-wielding family with a dark side. Like his uncle, Djigui, Niankoro wants to use his magical powers to benefit mankind, but his father and uncle wish to kill him to maintain complete power over their magic. The plot follows Niankoro as he undergoes a quest to find and confront his evil father. Cissé represents the themes of brightness and rebirth as one entity that works to explain the film’s philosophy about time and the nature of life. The film’s careful weaving of narrative and visual elements, its use of a quest-based narrative structure and its poetic

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OES AROUND AROUND: LIGHT AND ARITY IN MANE CISSÉ’S, dialogue all push the audience towards an epiphany just as Niankoro is pushed towards the end of his quest.

from its own perspective without European influence, rather than a description from a secondary source.

The magic in Yeelen is represented by two artifacts. The first is the Koré wing, which is initially in the possession of Djigui and later given to Niankoro to use to challenge his father. The second is a magic pylon called the Kolonkalani, which is in the possession of Niankoro’s evil uncle and father. These cultural artifacts inform the audience of the culture of the Bambara people, who are renowned for their mastery of spiritual technology. Yeelen displays the Bambara culture through a lens that is completely self-contained. The film acts as a window directly into the Bambara culture

The film uses a quest narrative structure, which serves the purpose of representing the theme of the circularity of time. In her book, Africa Shoots Back: Alternative Perspectives in Sub-Saharan African Film, Melissa Thackway says: “Like all quest tales, Niankoro’s fulfillment of his challenges brings him the necessary understanding and knowledge to challenge...his father”.

Thackway’s claim that Yeelen is “like all quest tales” is in itself circular, and so the film’s form mirrors its theme. Circularity is also represented by the repetition of the beginning

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YEELEN (1987) DIRECTED BY SOULEYMANE CISSÉ. PICTURED: NIANKORO (ISSIAKA KANE).

scenes at the end of the movie. The first scene of the movie features a rising sun, and the very last scene features a setting sun. Another scene at the start of the movie is of a child tying a goat to a statue that holds the Koré wing, which is also repeated at the end. Cissé uses these visual signifiers to show that time operates circularly in the film.

In the beginning of the movie it seems like the young boy with the goat is the protagonist, Niankoro, as a child. At the end of the movie the scene is repeated just before we see Niankoro’s son for the first time, which creates the possibility that the boy in the scene is him. This open-endedness works to cloud the audience’s notion of time as linear, and focuses on the repetitive, circularity of rebirth.

Niankoro’s uncle, Djigui, comments on this circularity when he says: “If I were to die today, and you [Niankoro] were too, our family would not perish. Your wife is pregnant. The child will shine.” Djigui is unbothered by individual death and cares only about the continuation of the cycle of life, which is maintained through

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rebirth. The child’s ‘shining’ is also important here. Brightness is the visual representation of the maintenance of circular time in the film.

The motif of light doesn’t represent good or evil, but rather a continual interaction between all things, which is the circle of life.

This is clear in the scene where a prophetic ape in a tree tells Niankoro: “your future is grand, your life, radiant, your death, luminous.”

The idea that light is attached to both life and death paints it as something that is unchanging. For Cissé, light represents life— the continued survival of the Bambara people and their culture.

Yeelen is a crucial film for African cinema for its representation of the circular time philosophy of the Bambara people before European influence. It represents their culture untouched, just before contact with colonizers.

Djigui prophesied of a threat to Bambara people when he said “your descendants will undergo a great change. They’ll be slaves, and deny their race and faith. All upheavals are full

of hope. The woes I saw in my dream will be turned to the Bambaras’ advantage. I also see that many peoples will covet our country.” His prophecy is a clear reference to the colonialist endeavors that are rapidly approaching. In the same speech, Djigui says “I think one can die without ceasing to exist. Life and death are like scales, laid upon one another.” It is significant that Cissé aligns a warning of European colonialism and the Bambara people ‘denying their race and faith’ with Djigui’s philosophy of circularity, in that he believes ‘one can die without ceasing to exist.’ Cissé makes the connection that European Colonialism (which holds a linear view of time rather than circular) will threaten the Bambara people and their cultural beliefs. Yeelen thus acts as an important telling of a pre-colonized history in Mali, so that we can understand the precise ways in which it was affected by colonialism.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Yeelen. Dir. Souleymane Cissé, Les Films Cissé, 1987.

Thackway, Melissa. Africa Shoots Back: Alternative Perspectives in Sub-Saharan Francophone African Film. Indiana University Press, 2007.

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INDIGENOUS PEOPL JAMAICA/XAYMACA

BY KAMERYN WHYTE

COPY EDITED BY SHARMAYNE WHYTE

As a mixed race person and a second generation Canadian1, I have been constantly made aware of a multiplicity of racial and national identities that exist for me. I lived in small towns and attended schools where I was among the minority of POC (people/person of colour) in the area, and as a result I was always asked the question, “What are you?” While I disagree with the notion forced upon me that somehow POC are not Canadian, and that ourselves or our parents must have immigrated here, forcing us to identify from said place of origin instead. (Newsflash: Unless your ancestors were indigenous to Canada then your family immigrated here too, so if I’m somehow not considered Canadian, then what does that make you?) I do acknowledge that this controversial upbringing has caused me to look further into my heritage, in search of my ancestors’ origins. I am a Canadian, whose parents are Jamaican and Irish. However, for the purposes of this article, I will be focusing on my Jamaican ancestry as the motivation for my research. (The existence of an Irish Studies program at my university has alleviated the need for me to conduct my own personal research into my Irish heritage.) What I found in my research is that there are literally no films that have been made about the indigenous peoples of Jamaica. I know this is a film magazine, thus I am writing this article to give historical background on a narrative that is not available for viewing on film yet, with the open suggestion that this story should be told through

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a filmic medium as soon as possible.

The first inhabitants of Jamaica were descendants of the Arawak, known as the Taíno.

They migrated from northeastern South America and arrived on the island by A.D. 650.2 The original name of the island was Xaymaca, which is Taíno-Arawak for “isle of springs”.3 It is only in recent years that attempts have been made to discover the origins of the island. In fact, it

THE FIRST DAY THE YAM CUSTOM AS DEPICTED IN THOMAS EDWARD BOWDICH'S MISSION FROM CAPE COAST CASTLE TO ASHANTEE: WITH A STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THAT KINGDOM AND GEOGRAPHICAL NOTICES OF OTHER PARTS OF THE INTERIOR OF AFRICA. LONDON: JOHN MURRAY, 1819. COURTESY OF KINGS’S COLLEGE LONDON.

PLES OF CA AN ILLUSTRATION OF TAÍNO PEOPLE IN THE CARIBBEAN. COURTESY THE JAMAICA OBSERVER.

is widely believed that the Taíno population is extinct, but there are numerous people on the island that claim to have Taíno ancestry. Jamaica was first colonized by the Spanish in the 1500s, they turned Africans from the Gold Coast (now: Ghana) into slaves for their sugar plantations.

Although there is no physical proof (yet) as to which specific tribe(s) was(were) the initial group that was brought over to Jamaica, it is believed they were members of the Asante tribe. There are similarities between Jamaican and Asante culture and folklore, even sharing a sacred burial custom.4 Thus, it is the common popular belief among the Jamaican community that our ancestors derived from the Asante tribe in West Africa.

However, in the 1600s the British invaded Jamaica and expelled the Spanish. During this time, many of the former slaves escaped and fled to the mountains and united with the Taíno people, forming a new group called the Maroons. The Maroons were a resilient group of people that resisted against slavery, they created settlements that still exist to this day. Their settlements became sanctuaries for runaway ‘slaves’ and they managed to successfully fend off numerous attacks by the British army.5 In the end, slavery was abolished in Jamaica in 1833 and modern-day Jamaica is very multicultural,

comprising of inhabitants from African, Chinese, Spanish, British, Irish, Indian, and Arawak backgrounds.

Due to limited resources pertaining to this subject, I found it hard to come to any sort of conclusion as to what my heritage is exactly. I know that at least three generations of my family were born in Jamaica, but there is no knowledge within my family of any other ancestral roots other than simply being Jamaican. Historically speaking, I know that we must be African since Africans were not actually indigenous to the island, but were forcibly taken to the island during the slave trade. But, the Africans were enslaved with the Taíno, and those who escaped joined together and formed the Maroons.

So, do I have Taíno ancestry, do I have Asante ancestry? I have no conclusive answer, nor does anyone else. Although, there is recent genetic evidence that descendants of the Taínos still live in Jamaica to this day.6 I strongly believe that films are one of the most powerful mediums for relaying narratives to a larger audience. Thus, I hope that this article will convince someone to make a documentary on this complex and largely unknown history. If no one volunteers, I will volunteer as tribute and dedicate years of my life to researching this history so I can make a film that will relieve my mind of all these unanswered

21

questions one day. All this, so that one day when someone asks me again, “what are you?”, I’ll have an answer so thoroughly researched that it will hopefully lead to an end of that tormenting question in my life forever.

A PHOTOGRAPH OF MAROON PEOPLE IN ACCOMPONG, JAMAICA. COURTESY OF MYSTIC BOWIE CULTURAL CENTER.

ENDNOTES 1

“Classification of Generation Status.” Statistics Canada, September 16, 2016, http://www23.

statcan.gc.ca/imdb/ p3VD. 2

Smith, KC. “Travel: Jamaica’s Enduring Heritage.” Archaeology, Vol. 45, No. 1, (1992): 73.

3

”Jamaica.” World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples, http://minorityrights.org/

country/jamaica/.

4

American Folklore Society. “Ashanti Influence in Jamaica.” The Journal of American Folklore, Vol.

47, No. 186, (1934): 393-394.

5

”Jamaica.” World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples, http://minorityrights.org/

country/jamaica/.

6

“Study identifies traces of ‘Taino’ in present day Caribbean populations.” Jamaica Observer,

February 20, 2018, http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/latestnews/Study_identifies_traces_of_ Taino_in_present_day_Caribbean_populations?profile=0.

22

PERCEPTIONS OF INDIGENOUS CULTURE AND COLONIALISM IN MODERN SOCIETY

BY FALLON DIBLASIO

EDITED BY KAMERYN WHYTE

The article “Condolence Tropes and Haudenosaunee Visuality: It Starts with a Whisper and Mohawk Girls,” by Penelope Myrtle Kelsey brings up very interesting points on colonialism and life for an indigenous girl. One part of the article that resonates with me is when she is describing Mohawk Girls (Deer, 2005) and brings up the story of Lauren who is a target of racism in the Kanien’kehá: ka community since her father is of African American descent.

In addition, it also mentions another girl who is a survivor of sexual assault and keeps it a

secret. These scenarios remind me of the recent film Wind River (Taylor Sheridan, 2017) which dissects the indigenous reservation of Wind River and a recent murder and rape that occurs in the community.

The reason I bring up Wind River in comparison with Kelsey’s analysis of Mohawk Girls is because both mention similar issues.

Although many people assume there is only an inherent divide between white people and indigenous communities, these two examples

23

WIND RIVER (2017) DIRECTED BY TAYLOR SHERIDAN. PICTURED (FROM LEFT TO RIGHT): CORY LAMBERT (JEREMY RENNER) AND MARTIN HANSON (GIL BIRMINGHAM).

prove that there are even problems of racism that develop within the communities. For example, in the film Cory Lambert (Jeremy Renner) is a white man who has a son that is half native and half white.

Although he is mostly respected in the community, one character slurs at him, “You’re still a cracker.”

As stated before, this is similar to the fact that Lauren in Mohawk Girls is still not accepted even though she has been a part of the community since she was a young child. In addition, both discuss issues of sexual assault in the indigenous communities. At the end of Wind River, a statistic is actually brought up on screen that claims most sexual assaults in the indigenous community go unreported, and because of this there is no way of knowing how often it occurs. In both cases, they discuss that a lack of recognition towards indigenous women being silenced after sexual assault has occurred. I find it interesting that the film Wind River is able to accurately pick up on these issues that are discussed in the documentary.

Next, I will discuss the article entitled “Skawennati’s TimeTraveller: Deconstructing the colonial matrix in virtual reality” by Treva Michelle Pullen. The article talks about Second Life, created by Skawennati, that allows viewers to identify as indigenous and travel through time to see history through a lens that is usually told through a colonial perspective. I feel this is a great way for young indigenous people to explore their roots and heritage, to be represented in a virtual way, and to interact with other indigenous youth.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Myrtle Kelsey, Penelope. “Condolence Tropes and Haudenosaunee Visuality: It Starts with a Whisper and Mohawk Girls,” Visualities, ed. Cummings, Denise K. Michigan State UP, 2011: 119-130.

Pullen, Treva. “Skawennati’s TimeTraveller: Deconstructing the colonial matrix in virtual reality,” AlterNative. 12.3, 2016; 236249.

24

Taylor Sheridan. Wind River. Acacia Filmed Entertainment, 2017.

DE GOOGLE ET L’ACCESSIBILITÉ : ALTÉRITÉ ET SI ON NE POUVAIT TROUVER MANIÈRE D’EXISTER QUE PAR L’AUTRE PAR ZOÉ DION-VAN ROYEN RÉVISÉ PAR TINA LE 25

En commençant à écrire cet article, j’ai bêtement (dans le sens consciemment bête du terme) recherché « documentaire sur les Autochtones » sur Google. Le moteur de recherche m’a menée à une multitude de films : Reportage Thalassa sur les Inuits1, Les grandes traversées - les peuples du Grand Nord2 ou encore À la rencontre de l’Arctique - La vie des Inuits à Qikiqtarjuaq3, pour n’en nommer que quelques-uns.

Toutes ces productions sont françaises ou américaines et empreintes, pour la majorité, une perspective à sens unique d’occidentaux à intérêts touristiques ou voyeurs. Tous les titres qui m’étaient proposés montrent leur sujet comme on montre un lion dans la savane ou un combat de serpents en Australie : des sujets qui pêchent, chassent, ont un accès restreint à la technologie et une philosophie de vie ‘arriérée’, comparativement à l’évolution du mode de vie occidental. À la manière des orientalistes du XIXe siècle, la caméra de ces réalisateurs est comme l’œil d’un explorateur et dresse un portrait générique de peuples qui semblent n’exister que depuis l’arrivée du Blanc sur son territoire. Pourtant, ils étaient là bien avant la caméra et bien avant que les Blancs ne les découvrent. En étudiant ces films et surtout l’accessibilité restreinte qu’ils représentent, force est de constater les conséquences aliénantes de la conception occidentale de l’Autochtone sur sa place dans la société blanche.

Dans The Politics of Vision, l’historienne de l’art Linda Nochlin introduit l’idée d’orientalisation qui traduit la fabrication de l’Orient par l’imagination occidentale. Plusieurs problématiques que l’auteure soulève dans le chapitre « The Imaginary Orient » quant à l’Orientalisme sont aisément reconnaissables dans ces documentaires. À commencer par le réalisme auquel les réalisateurs aspirent, c’est-à-dire qu’ils cherchent à montrer un vrai.

Seulement, cette réalité n’est non seulement compréhensible que du point de vue du Blanc, mais elle n’est aussi pertinente que pour luimême et ne fait que rendre compte d’un point

de vue occidental, d’une comparaison d’un moi à ce qui devient nécessairement l’altérité, l’étranger. Ce moi, par contre, est invisible à l’écran. C’est ce qui rend dangereux la représentation documentaire de cette identité autre, puisque le regardeur est berné face à une fausse objectivité. Nochlin le souligne déjà par rapport au mouvement des orientalistes :

It might be said that one of the defining features of Orientalist painting is its dependence for its very existence on a presence that is always an absence: the Western colonial or touristic presence. The White man, the Westerner, is of course always present […], is necessarily the controlling gaze, the gaze which brings the Oriental world into being, the gaze for which it is ultimately intended. And this leads to still another absence. Part of the strategy of an Orientalist painter like [Jean-Léon] Gérôme is to make his viewers forget that there was any ‘bringing into being’ at all, to convince them that works like these were simply “reflections , scientific in their exactitude, of a preexisting Oriental reality.”4

Nochlin parle aussi d’un pseudoréalisme qui finit par mener à une mystification du sujet. Ce que ces représentations engendrent, c’est aussi la réduction de l’identité autochtone à n’être qu’autochtone.

Ce qui finit par monter un « project of the imagination, a fantasy space or screen onto which strong desires - erotic, sadistic or both could be projected with impunity »5 aussi bien qu’à une volonté de confirmer son identité par la fabrication de celui qu’on considère l’Autre.

Ainsi, on pourrait conclure que ce que le réalisateur occidental cherche à confirmer, ce n’est pas l’existence ni l’identité des Premières Nations dans le Nord, mais son propre rapport à ces territoires et ses propriétaires.

En continuant ma recherche, j’ai aussi remarqué que les sources populaires sur le cinéma autochtone sont presque inexistantes.

Bien que la page Wikipédia « Cinéma Inuit »

À LA RENCONTRE DE L'ARCTIQUE : LA VIE DES INUITS À OIKIQTARJUAQ (2016) RÉALISÉ PAR KATIA CHAPOUTIER ET DAMIEN AUGEYROLLES.

aborde sommairement celui-ci, rien n’est assez complet pour accéder à une vue d'ensemble sur la situation actuelle de ce cinéma. La perspective contraire, c’est-à-dire une caméra native, n’est donc pas accessible au premier coup de clavier dans le monde virtuel. Il faut savoir où chercher, avoir accès à soit des banques de films payantes ou bien fréquenter des lieux intellectuels ou universitaires, où l’effort est mis au bénéfice d’une représentation juste. Cette absence renforce l’idée que la culture autochtone n’existe que par l’entremise de la culture blanche et qu’elle n’existe, dans notre bagage culturel, que sous notre caméra. Alors comment réajuster ces représentations objectifiantes et biaisées d’un peuple qu’on a essayé d’éteindre mais qui, qu’on le veuille ou non, entretient une identité collective contemporaine active et bien vivante? D’autant plus que Google s’empresse, dès la saisie de nos recherches, de nous en suggérer d’autres : « la vie des Esquimaux au pôle Nord » ou encore « nourriture des Esquimaux » et même « comment vivent les Indiens ». Ces propositions sont l’orientalisation même; une manière implicite mais tranchante d’ancrer la perception de l’identité des Premières Nations dans les stéréotypes et préconceptions blanches et contraignent encore une fois l’identité autochtone à n’être rien d’autre qu’un peuple découvert par les Blancs.

C’est finalement sur le site de l’ONF (Office National du Film) que je suis tombée

sur Qallunaat! Why White People Are Funny. Écrit et réalisé par Zebedee Nungak et Mark Sandiford en 2006, le film propose un regard parodié sur les Qallunaat, le groupe de ceux qui ne sont pas Inuits - les Blancs. La caméra, cette fois-ci, est tournée vers ceux qui sont d’habitude derrière : les chercheurs du Qallunaat Studies Institute (QSI) examinent le Blanc comme les Inuits l’ont été par la caméra occidentale depuis le XIXe siècle. Comme si l’Histoire se réécrivait dans le sens inverse, le film permet une réflexion sur la formation même de l’idée de l’Autre qui, linguistiquement, n’existe qu’approximativement dans les langues inuites6. Clara Mongeon-Bourbonnais consacre son mémoire de maîtrise à la figure du Qallunaat et rappelle qu’en Inuktikut, « la reconnaissance de l’autre précède la différenciation : d’une part l’homme véritable (le soi), d’autre part l’homme (l’autre) »7.

Elle cite Jean-Jacques Simard, sociologue québécois et militant pour l’autonomie gouvernementale autochtone, et sa suggestion qu’« il n’y a pas d’Inuit sans Qallunaat et [que] l’altérité du Blanc est une des composantes de l’identité inuit »8. L’auteur évoque que l’inuicité s’est constituée par l’entremise du Blanc et que « l’identité de l’un renvoie immédiatement à l’altérité de l’autre comme dans un jeu de miroirs »9. Qallunaat! Why White People Are Funny reprend ce principe en créant et soutenant un discours inuit sur les Qallunaat.

En parodiant les Blancs et leurs stigmates de représentations, le film accuse l’altération et

27

l’exotisation des Premières Nations, autant qu’il active, pour la première fois, une éventuelle identification du Blanc comme étant l’Autre.

C’est cette possibilité qui manque à l’information populaire et aux deux premières pages de recherche sur Google. Comme le Blanc n’apparait jamais comme l’Autre et parce qu’on consomme des documentaires sur « la vie des Esquimaux au pôle Nord » ou « la vie des Inuits », on perpétue une identité autochtone qui n’existe que d’un point de vue occidental et on contribue à l’enfouissement de sa réalité en anéantissant sa voie. Un peu plus loin dans son livre, Simard conclut : « il est certain que dans le milieu Inuit, le Blanc représente autre chose qu’un super-

groupe ethnique. Il représente le Capitalisme, le Colonisateur, l’État, la Bourgeoisie, la Technobureaucratie. »10 En ce sens, Google devient aussi la machine à altériser les Premières Nations et représente le capitalisme blanc qui ne tend qu’à entretenir son pouvoir et ses privilèges, sa visibilité et son identité. Par contre, parce que la multinationale est confortablement installée dans nos salons et dans nos poches et qu’elle est la plus accessible, c’est aussi par elle que nous pouvons tenter de rééquilibrer nos sources : soit en cherchant plus loin que les premières pages de résultats qu’elle nous suggère ou en l’utilisant pour trouver de nouvelles bases de données qui nous guideront vers une plus grande diversité plutôt que de chercher des produits directement.

ENDNOTES 1

Pascal Sutra Fourcade, Thalassa : Inuits, Chasseurs de l’Arctique, France : France 3, 2005.

2

Alain Dayan, Les peuples du Grand Nord, France : Cultures Infos, 2010.

3

Katia Chapoutier et Damien Augeyrolles, À la Rencontre de l’Arctique - La vie des Inuits à Qikiqtarjuaq, France : Tf1, 2016.

4

Linda Nochlin, The Politics of Vision, New York : Harper & Row, p.36-7

5

Ibid., p.41

6

Clara Mongeon-Bourbonnais, « La Figure du Qallunaat. Zebedee Nungak et la prise de parole inuit », p.25-26, Montréal : Université du Québec à Montréal, 2014

7

Michel Therrien, Le corps inuit, Paris, SELAF/PUB, 1987, p.148.

8

Jean-Jacques Simard, «Par-delà le Blanc et le mal: rapports identitaires et colonialisme au pays des Inuit», Les presses de l’université de Montréal : Enjeux ethniques : Productions de nouveaux rapports sociaux, vol. 15, no 2, 1983, p. 56.

9

Ibid., p.56

10

28

Ibid., p.70

LAND AS PEDAGOGY: MEMORIA Y RESISTENCIA MAPUCHE EN CHILE

BY ALLISON FIGUEROA ROJAS COPY-EDITED BY KAMERYN WHYTE

“

We are a people because we have a territory, which has been usurped and invaded. We are a people because we have our language, beliefs, and religion. We are people because we have our own economic system and organizational structure.

”

1

29

The notion that “we are a people” is a relatively recent articulation, gathering momentum in the last twenty years or so.

Mapuche resurgence and the rebuilding of Indigenous nations according to their own political, intellectual and cultural traditions means that there needs to be an urgency to re-establish the context for creating a society of Mapuche—a need to recreate a society of individuals that can think and live inside the multiplicity of their culture and intelligence.

The term Mapuche means: “people of the land,” and is the combination of the Mapudungun words Mapu, which means land, and Che, which means people.2 Geographically and historically the Mapuche nation is situated in what is known as the Southern Cone of South America, in the area now occupied by Chile and Argentina. In Chile, the Mapuche live mainly in the provinces of Bio-Bio, Arauco, Malleco, Cautin, Valdivia, Osborno, Llanquihue, and Chiloe.

In 2011, documentary filmmakers Vanessa Perez Gordillo and Raul Garcia Sanchez, graduates in Philosophy & Photography and Anthropology & Documentary, launched Voces En Lucha // Voices in Struggle. Which is a site, initiative, and space for social and cultural communication that focuses on social justice and resistance in Latin America from Chile to the Caribbean. “ We need to decolonize thought and show diversity without homogenizing it. ”3 – Voces en Lucha

In 2015, they released a documentary under the name Malla Malla Pewenche, Memoria y Resistencia Mapuche (Perez Gordillo and Garcia Sanchez, 2015), that focuses on the land claim of the Malla Malla land region and the Pewenche Mapuche community of Cajon de Queuco in Alto Bio-Bio.

30

Situating the Mapuche nation within the history of Chile may not be a familiar point of reference for many; reason being that so much has been written about the violence in Chile during the periods of dictatorship starting in the 18th century, and its effects and legacies on Chilean society as well as the socioeconomic conditions. That for these reasons, academically little discourse has been openly discussed in the past regarding the Mapuche conflict in Chile.

Historically, Chile has denied its ethnic and cultural diversity, the country’s ruling class has internalized the minds of people with the idea that it is a racially homogenous society, in other words, of European origin.

This is a major issue that still persists today and problematizes national acceptance of Indigenous Mapuche identity and rights.

However, despite the assimilation efforts of the dominant elite Chilean society, the Mapuche people have fought long to preserve their traditional language of Mapudungun, religion, and socio-political structures. If we begin in 1641 with the treaty of Quillin~Killin, it marks the Spanish Crown’s recognition of the territorial autonomy of the Mapuche nation and its rights of self-determination. This very important event in the history of Indigenous peoples of South America is a crucial moment, in which the Spanish crown failed to defeat the Mapuche nation in battle. This marked the Mapuche nation to stand out in the history of Indigenous people in South America for the very reason that they have been the first and only indigenous nation on the continent whose sovereignty and autonomy was legally recognized.

Later in 1810-1818, in the final phases on the Chilean war of Independence, Supreme Director Bernardo O’Higgins signed the Chilean Declaration of Independence from the Spanish Crown. Finally, free from Spanish rule, new laws and policies came into act, however, that actually prevented any development for the Mapuche in terms of land recuperation,

independence, and political organization.

In 1881, Chile brought upon the ‘Pacification of Araucania,’ that prioritized the development of Chilean agriculture and trade in the Mapuche territory of Araucania.

The appropriation of the Mapuche territory through military agreements overlooked the relationship with the Indigenous Mapuche groups, forcing them to live in reserves and handing over land holding to European settlers for economic purposes.4

In 1972 with the socialist government of Salvador Allende, that brought ‘La Patria y Libertad’ (Homeland and Freedom) to the Chilean state and the restructure of Mapuche land situation, it provided a consolidation and increased the size of the Mapuche land holdings and confirmation of communal ownership.5 However, a year later in 1973, a military coup led by Agusto Pinochet and aided by the Nixon Government of the United States overthrew Allende in a plebiscite (referendum)—which is a type of vote to change the constitution or government of a country–due to fears of Chile becoming a communist country. Land ownership reverted to the larger ‘land owners’ and brought great loss to Mapuche communities with no recourse to the ‘justice system.’ The exploitation and injustice of the land granted large forestry and power plant companies Mapuche reservation land in southern central Chile. As a result, state oppression on

Mapuche communities and land territories causes a threat to both the biodiversity of the region and to cultural survival of the Indigenous Mapuche nation.

In 1988, Pinochet lost the national referendum and in 1990 the transition into democracy was restored again. After 1990, Chile was entering a period of democratization and a shift towards neo-liberalism that served as a starting point for the development of indigenous movements, and the inclusion of these struggles into the dominant national discourse.6

One of the first changes to take place was an attempt to restore justice for the Mapuche, a constitution that favored the Indigenous people. However, the Mapuche were described in the constitution as ‘ethnic minorities’ which again reinforces and problematizes the conflict around recognizing the Mapuche as independent people with land and political sovereignty.

31

Still to date, Chile has not sanctioned this resolution, which binds all signatory states to guarantee equal rights to indigenous people.7 Moreover, as more and more research enters the realms of academic and artistic discourse, Indigenous filmmakers and artist alike have joined community based initiatives and festival circuits in attempts to make the conflict, violence, and systematic oppression towards Indigenous identity visible in a global and even transnational context-that may bring an expansion of meaning that goes beyond borders.

Therefore, what the project Voces en Lucha aimed to do by being able to showcase with the help of CLACPI– (Coordinadora Latino Americana de Cine y Comunicacion de los Pueblos Indigenas) both a festival and a community based organization that aims to promote media based projects and video productions preserving and enhancing indigenous cultures from their own point of view. Since 1985 they have organized

the International Film and Video Festival of Indigenous Peoples, which rotates through Latin American countries every two years– is to demonstrate that resistance will continue and will be made visible. Through the organizers at CLACPI, Malla Malla Pewenche was selected and nominated along with two other short documentaries; Pilmaiken Williche. Memoria y Resistencia Mapuche (2015) and Callaqui Pewenche. Memoria y Resistencia Mapuche (2015). They were all finalists at the Festival Internacional de Cine Wallmapu (FICWALLMAPU) // International Film Festival of Wallmapu and were awarded Best Documentary.

“

We are a festival of indigenous film and video of an international nature organized jointly by different social organizations, collectives, groups, academics, students, and communication professionals, Mapuche and non-Mapuche linked to the world of cinema, photography and communications.

”

8

FICWALLMAPU encourages a space that upholds intercultural discourse and open discussion through social and cultural

32

processes that are significant to the territory and the development, production, creation of media arts and cinema around indigenous themes. It also creates identity-based demands for political autonomy and territorial sovereignty raised by indigenous communities and in this case the Mapuche individuals, activists, and organizations seeking to be viewed as part of a larger process of changing visibility, demands, and identity.

“In this year 2015, one feels proud to be Mapuche, because of the topic of reclaiming and the movements that have surfaced and become finally visible, not just to us but within the state of Chile and to those who are not Mapuche, and people who know the fight, not being Mapuche still stands with us and knowing the wars/resistance we’ve fought.”9 Malla Malla

Festivals like these are made visible to North American spectatorship and even mass media through community organizations like ImagineNATIVE, which also functions as a Film and Media Arts Festival. It is one of the largest

contact zones for showcasing and presenting Indigenous content on a visual-media platform.

The festival aims to connect communities from a local, national, and international positionality through film and contemporary media arts. The festival promotes Canadian and international indigenous filmmakers, producers, and media artists that are socially understood as being part of marginal ethnic communities. This allows for the exposure of films and media content made from a broad range of spaces that depart from a sole North American circuit.

What ImagineNATIVE, CLACPI, FICWALLMAPU, and Voces en Lucha demonstrate is that it is fundamental to understand that you don’t have to be a part of this inheritance to accept the historical imposition of the types of injustices that systematic oppression has caused. If we want to bring change to the treatment of these issues and conflicts that are still

33

prevalent today we must succeed in awareness and recognition of the experiences that have accumulated through such battles and resistance.

It is also a way to view the medium of cinema and media arts as a tool that is a crucial part of the expansion of the transnational movement in Indigenous and Latin American culture and film.

What the Mapuche seek to protect the most today is to defend their land, because it is their “history, their energy, and their worldview.”10 A defense of culture, language, traditions, and most of all history.

“

What we need to defend the most today is our land, because here is our history, our energy, our worldview

”

- Malla Malla

In addition to the research conducted for this article I was able to reach out to Vanessa and Raul from Voces en Lucha and speak to them regarding their filming process, experience, and why they decided to do go to the community Malla Malla in the mountain range of the Queuco River, Chile. What follows is part of the interview I had the pleasure of having with them. The original document is in Spanish and has been translated to English by me.

Malla Malla Pewenche: Memoria y Resistencia Mapuche A documentary by Voces en Lucha - Interview A: Describe what Voces en Lucha is and the idea behind this initiative?

V & R: It is a space of social and autonomous communication, that seeks to document voices that are in struggle for dignity and social justice in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The team is composed of Raul Garcia Sanchez, professor, anthropologist and documentarist and Vanessa Perez Gordillo, philosopher and photographer.

Voces en Lucha grew as a communication space at the start of a two-year journey through Latin America and the Caribbean with the objective to identify, document, spread, and articulate aboriginal, working class, in struggle, feminists, and rural voices that strive for a dignified life.

In that way, we’ve learnt to look with different eyes, to feel wholeheartedly and to be humble.

We also get angry and upset at seeing how human rights get violated every day.

34

Our journey was weaved through coexisting with the voices of the communities that opened up their doors and welcomed us as part of their process, to share our voices and to learn

together. Our approach of learning to document those social processes has to do with our immersion into them. Which is why we value coexistence so much within those spaces and social dynamics that we aim to document.

Where we went, we have a family that awaits our return with open arms. So, in that way Voces en Lucha is so much more. It is a space where a handful of voices converge and are articulated as a network, a network that aims to make the world more livable and happier.

A: Why Chile, why Malla Malla in Alto-Bio-Bio? Ideas, time, filming?

V & R: When we arrived in Chile, we had the interest to specially document three social movements: students, pobladores11, and the Mapuche people. All of this took us five months.

With respect to the Mapuche people, a colleague and indigenous leader with whom we were able to share time with and conversations was someone who taught us a lot and we were able to learn from. We were put in touch with the Lonko12 Suarez from the community Malla Malla in the mountain range of the Queuco River. A geographical region that is still virgin.

A region that has not been impacted by any implementation of hydroelectric plants, mining or logging, which in other areas has greatly damaged the Mapuche people. Very close to the edge of the Bio-Bio River, we found small centers of hydroelectric plants much like the large-scale ones in Pangue and Ralco, famous for the natural and human disaster it caused years ago, despite the opposition of the Quintreman sisters. Their opposition helped spread internationally the Mapuche struggle against the Chilean state and large transnational. There are struggles against mines and hydroelectric projects in the naturally virgin area of Cajon del Queuco, and they have been led by the locals as presented in the documentary Malla Malla.

It was something very strange for us, we were two outsiders on a bus full of Mapuche. They

treated us with seriousness, but at the same time always with respect. We traveled five hours on dirt roads together to the river channel of the Queuco River, and we arrived at the community.

At arriving to the home of the Lonko and his wife they gave us a human rights document that related to their history. We read it with attention and care, it got us very excited and we got organized to begin documenting this story. Every day in Malla Malla was a world of its own and time was an eternity. There was time to work, time for family, time for reflection, time to listen to the waters of the Queuco, time to learn and to unlearn. We unlearnt many things during the first fifteen days there. When we left we knew that in every aspect we were not the same.

After speaking to the families and the community members, and establishing a level of trust via different channels of sharing, we began filming, always with an immense respect. There were many things that we did not film because that was a sign of our respect towards them.

We first lived with them, laughed with them, cried with them, we spoke to them and we observed, the last thing we did was take our cameras out and begin interviews with them.

Always with the idea: it is their voices, they are the protagonists that narrate their history and stories.

Later, in the city of Concepcion, we went through a creative and working process solely dedicated

35

to the footage and stories that would make the documentary.

Finally, after almost three months, we returned to the community to say our goodbyes and to give them the finished work. When we took the bus once more, everyone greeted us and we weren’t those outsiders that one day came and left, we noticed that the return we made marked a significant difference.

We shared the documentary with everyone in the community, the protagonist of the story and they liked it! They proposed we present the documentary in Ralco, accompanied by an official reading of the Charter of Human Rights, and that’s exactly what we did. The visual experience told through their voices was a very emotional moment. It was a gift for us which also strengthened the ties between us and the families there.

A: What was the process of incorporating the documentary in CLACPI and winning Best Documentary in FICWALLMAPU? V & R: Once we posted the documentary on our website free to the public, one day we received a message that was inviting us to present at the FICWALLMAPU festival 2015. We were abroad in Argentina at the time doing field work but we managed to fill out the application to participate and to let them know we were abroad and would have some difficulties sending them the highest quality version of the documentary. They didn’t care that it wasn’t the best quality because they were in the early stages of receiving submissions.

They just congratulated us. Once it was selected we sent the best quality version. A surprise to us, the documentary was a finalist and received an award for Best Documentary.

Since that moment CLACPI gained interest. The truth is, and everything has to be said, they actually never got in touch with us, until the end of 2017. They came to Spain, showcasing Indigenous cinema, Malla Malla, Pewenche: Memoria y Resistencia Mapuche. When we realized and saw that they were screening our documentary in our home town where our

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families lived we were thrilled however, by not knowing this was happening ahead of time we were unable to attend. At that point, we got in touch with them since they were in our home country and they responded very positively and apologized for not letting us know. We await their collaboration for future occasions.

Pobladores; is a term used to describe farmers, villagers, and local residents.

ENDNOTES

11

Haughney, Diane. Neoliberal Economic, Democratic Transition, and Mapuche Demands for Rights in Chile. 2006. Pp. 73.

12

1

Ray, Leslie. Language of the Land: The Mapuche in Argentina and Chile. 2007 pp.10.

Lonko; A tribal Chief/leader of the Mapuche.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

2

3

VocesEnLucha; Proyecto. WEB.

Mapuche “The people of the Land: United with the Mapuche Resistance: Statement of Kamina Libre, Chilean Anarchist Prisoner collective, High Security Prison, Santiago. 2002. pp. 26

Ficwallmapu.cl. “Festival Internacional De Cine y Video|Chile.” FICWALLMAPU | Festival Internacional De Cine y Video, www.ficwallmapu. cl/historia.php.

4

Mapuche “The people of the Land: United with the Mapuche Resistance: Statement of Kamina Libre, Chilean Anarchist Prisoner collective, High Security Prison, Santiago. 2002. pp. 26

Hernandez, Isabel. Autonomía o Cuidadanía Incompleta: el Pueblo Mapuche en Chile y Argentina. Santiago, Chile: ECLAC-United Nations/Pehuén, 2003.

5

Mapuche “The people of the Land: United with the Mapuche Resistance: Repression, Resistance, Repression, Attack! Pp. 21 6

Newbold, Jane. Economic Consideration and the rights of indigenous people. pp 178

Malla Malla Pewuenche. Memoria y Resistencia Mapuche. Directed by Vanessa Perez and Raul Garcia Sanchez.Voces En Lucha. 2015.

Newbold, Jane. Balancing economic considerations and the rights of indigenous people. The Mapuche people of Chile. 2004.

Vol.12: pp. 175–182.

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8

FICWALLMAPU; Historia. Web.

Ray, Leslie. Language of the Land: The Mapuche in Argentina and Chile. Copenhagen International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs. 2007.

Voces en Lucha. Malla Malla Pewenche.

Memoria y Resistencia Mapuche. 2015

Various Authors. Mapuche “The people of the Land.” Active Distribution. London UK. 2010

Voces en Lucha. Malla Malla Pewenche.

Memoria y Resistencia Mapuche. 2015

IMAGES

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10

Malla Malla Pewenche, Memoria y Resistencia Mapuche (2015), Directed by Perez Gordillo and Garcia Sanchez.

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" So much history can be lost if no one tells the story -- so that's what I do. I tell the stories.

This is my way of fighting for social change. " – Alanis Obomsawin