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If Only I Were an Indian

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Mo:
http://www.umanitoba.ca/cm/vol2/no4/indian.html

i came across this while looking for another movie and it caught my eye. just thought i would put it out there if anyone cared to comment. i'd like to see it ..just because.

"A group of Czechs and Slovaks, disenchanted with both communism and its aftermath, gathers in a field to build and live in teepees, create and smoke peace pipes -- to get in touch with the North American aboriginal way of life and live it. When three aboriginal elders from Manitoba go to visit them, a film crew documents the trip and thus If Only I Were an Indian is born.


At the start of the film (which kicks off its commercial distribution with a launch at the Winnipeg Art Gallery November 10th), the sight of 150 pale, pasty Eastern Europeans -- clad only in thongs, whooping and dancing around in a pastoral valley -- is amusing to say the least. But director John Paskievich's sensitive handling of the situation turns it from a joke to a deeply touching tribute to aboriginal culture. "

He begins the film from the perspective of a Cree couple and an Ojibway woman, all from Manitoba. They are, naturally, shocked by the sight of these Europeans mimicking their culture. But, focussing on the teepees (and not the Europeans) that dot the hillsides, the man remarks on how real the setting appears.
 

Paskievich quickly takes us to a series of up-close interviews with the Czechs. They discuss, without irony, how Russian communism left them lacking any sense of community, able to trust no one but their immediate family. One man describes how the "Indian" way of life has given him trusted friends and taught him that "human beings exist as part of a larger whole and only then does life have meaning." As the film moves along, their clothing and near-nakedness become less and less absurd.

Paskievich gives some historical perspective to their situation: well known throughout Europe are the novels of Karl Mays, which portray a cowboy hero who is helped by aboriginal peoples. And even more popular are the works of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century naturalist Ernest Thompson Seton (many of whose stories were set in Manitoba's Carberry Hills, where he once lived). Seton predicted ecological disaster if Westerners did not adopt a harmonic acceptance of nature, and he even encouraged children to attend camps teaching aboriginal ways of life. One of the Czech "Indians" delivers a touching speech:
As a child, I didn't want to be an astronaut . . . but neither did I want to be a world record breaking potato sorter . . . we had no role models except from the Indians of those stories.
 

By the end of the film, when Paskievich returns to the perspective of the aboriginals, the humour of the movie becomes touching rather than mocking: the Czechs demonstrate their version of aboriginal dance for one of the elders but it is so sloppy and a-rhythmic that he can't join in. But he doesn't laugh. Instead he says, "it must be hard to learn traditional dances from a book . . . you need a teacher. That's not something these people have access to." He even discusses raising funds so he can fly some of the Czechs to his reserve in Manitoba to teach them. His comments reveal the film's greatest irony -- that the Europeans who once crossed the ocean to conquer a culture, now see that same culture as their only salvation.

Copyright © 1995 the Manitoba Library Association. Reproduction for personal use is permitted only if this copyright notice is maintained. Any other reproduction is prohibited without permission.

Published by
The Manitoba Library Association
ISSN 1201-9364

frederica:
I wonder. I know little of European politics, but I think I have to hear what Ingeborg has to say about something like this. Aside from the ideology of Communism it sounds more of a situtation here. frerderica

Ingeborg:

--- Quote from: Mo on February 09, 2007, 08:23:50 pm ---Paskievich quickly takes us to a series of up-close interviews with the Czechs. They discuss, without irony, how Russian communism left them lacking any sense of community, able to trust no one but their immediate family. One man describes how the "Indian" way of life has given him trusted friends and taught him that "human beings exist as part of a larger whole and only then does life have meaning."
--- End quote ---

I'd put that down as a not very successful attempt of a justification, probably said this way because these people knew that they were talking to persons from 'America'. In fact, from what I heard in discussions with people who lived in former GDR, there was more of a community in those times. Many people will tell you there was more solidarity between people, families stuck together more than they do now, people were much more prepared to help each other. Another point is that the planned economy in the East relied on collectives ('brigades') in the workplace, so there was not only the community in private life, but also a formal structure of community in a sense.

I don't think the situation differed that much between GDR and Czechia. Of course they may have the impression that this way of life has given them trusted friends, but then again any other fad would have done the same for them.

frederica:
Thanks. Aside from the ideology it sounded much like the reasoning here in some of the social groups or clubs. Some here do have heritage, but other do not. I guess a fad is a fad whereever you go. frederica

A.R.:
"His comments reveal the film's greatest irony -- that the Europeans who once crossed the ocean to conquer a culture, now see that same culture as their only salvation".

Would like to see this film too.

Don't know.  Maybe these Europeans are now, after all this time, finally starting to wonder just "who" these people were/are exactly, that they conquered or tried to conquer ....

But will "possessing knowledge" about Native Americans and Native American beliefs (and then mimicking them), - bring this understanding any closer ?

Would this understanding be better achieved by these Europeans, if they came to an insightful understanding of the colonial mind and attitudes first ?
As far as I can see, times have changed, but in general the same colonial attitudes persist, they have now only become more covert and sometimes  "well meaning" even.

There is this book called "Edge of The Sacred" by David J. Tacey, a book which deals with relationships between black and white Australians.   
Even though the book has been written for white Australians and from the white European (descendant) perspective, still to me what he says in it rings valid, and shows rare understanding. 
Maybe it relates to Americas as well ?

Quote:
"What is needed is spiritual revolution in Euro Australian consciousness.   We cannot merely tack on Aboriginal spirituality to our own overly-rational consciousness, but must change our consciousness from within by burrowing down into our feared and previously walled-in unconscious in order to find, or create an answering image to Aboriginal spirituality.    The direction we need to take is downward, into our own depths, to see what could be happening there, rather than remain the same and move sideways appropriating another culture's dreaming.    Jung wrote that "People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own souls".    It is far easier, he said, to take on spirituality of a foreign cosmology, than it is to face the apparent poverty of our own souls and to begin a real dialogue with unconscious inner life of which we are at present oblivious".

A.R.

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