UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DE SANTA CATARINA POS-GRADUAÇÃO EM LETRAS/ INGLÊS E LITERATURA CORRESPONDENTE THE ART OF BEING ABORIGINAL: FILMS AND ABORIGINAL CULTURES IN CANADA por NEIDE GARCIA PINHEIRO Tese submetida a Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina em cumprimento parcial dos requisitos para obtenção do grau de DOUTOR EM LETRAS NOVEMBRO /2011 ii iii To Alexandre, Eduardo, Leonardo, Ravilso, Irene, and Mabiana. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS During all these years of hard work, I learned important lessons and one of them is about the “Sacred Tree”, which is one of the most relevant symbols for most of the indigenous cultures in the Americas. Trees symbolize shelters under which we may be protected. Trees nurture us with their fruits, which symbolize lessons to be learned along the path. Trees nurture us with their falling leaves, which symbolize the lessons many people leave behind as they pass away (Bopp et al, 2004). Thus, symbolically trees may be all the people that during our life provide us shelter, nurture us with teachings, and support us with love, friendship and compassion. We must be grateful to all these trees. Thanks to my parents because they „sheltered‟ me under their branches for many years and nurtured me with important lessons. Although they are not here anymore, I will always remember them, especially in important moments like this. Thanks to my family for being patient during this long journey. I am especially grateful to Professors Anelise and Maria Lucia not only for their important academic support, but also for their friendship. I am thankful to Professor Mail, for being part of this and many other important moments in my academic life. I am grateful to all the other members of the examining committee, Professors Alessandra, Sandra, Jean Paul and Jose Roberto for their readings and suggestions for improvement of this dissertation. I also would like to thank the PPGI staff, João and Sirlei for always being supportive to all my requirements. I am also grateful to my colleagues at UNICENTRO. I am indebted to the Canadian Government for providing me a Doctoral Study Research Award, which allowed me to do research in Canada and meet wonderful people who contributed a lot to the accomplishment of this dissertation. Thanks to Professor Ricardo Sternberg for his friendship during my stay in Toronto. Thanks to the staff of the Aboriginal Studies and First Nations House at the University of Toronto for welcoming me. A special thanks to Professor Jean Paul Restoule for his kindness and for introducing to me the lessons of the „Sacred Tree.‟ v ABSTRACT THE ART OF BEING ABORIGINAL: FILM AND ABORIGINAL CULTURES IN CANADA NEIDE GARCIA PINHEIRO UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DE SANTA CATARINA 2011 Advisor: Prof. PHD Anelise Reich Corseuil This dissertation analyses four films produced by Aboriginal filmmakers in Canada: Alanis Obomsawin‟s Waban-aki: People from Where the Sun Rises (2007); Neil Diamond‟s Reel Injun (2009); Igloolik Isuma Corporation‟s Atanarjuat: the Fast Runner (2000) and The Journals of Knud Rasmussen (2007). These productions illustrate how cinema has become an important space for Aboriginal people to (re) imagine their histories and (re) create meanings of aboriginality from current perspectives. While the articulation of a discussion of identity and culture is at the core of Aboriginal films, this dissertation, through textual analysis, also takes into account how they may be moving, effective, beautiful works of art, which bring into light the „art‟ of being Aboriginal in current times. Number of Pages: 152 Number of Words: 45421 vi RESUMO A ARTE DE SER ABORÍGENE: FILMES E CULTURAS ABORÍGENES NO CANADÁ NEIDE GARCIA PINHEIRO UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DE SANTA CATARINA 2011 Orientadora : Prof. PhD Anelise Reich Corseuil Esta tese analisa quatro filmes produzidos por cineastas aborígenes canadenses: People from Where the Sun Rises de Alanis Obomsawin‟s;Reel Injun de Neil Diamond; Atanarjuat: the Fast Runner and The Journals of Knud Rasmussen produzidos pela Igloolik Isuma Productions. Esses quatro filmes ilustram como o cinema tornou-se um importante espaço para que cineastas aborígenes reimaginem suas histórias e recriem sentidos de aboriginalidade a partir de uma perspectiva atual. Enquanto as discussoes sobre identidade e cultura sao um elemento central nesses filmes, esta dissertação, com grande enfoque em análise textual, também os apresenta como emocionantes, efetivas e poderosas manifestações artísticas, que fazem emergir na tela a „arte‟ de ser aborígene na atualidade. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION Statement of problem and goals:..................................................... 01 (Aboriginal) identity: a working (in)definition............................... 07 Aboriginal cultural engagements: the historical contingency......... 13 Representation................................................................................. 16 Aboriginal people in mainstream films........................................... 19 The development of Aboriginal cinema.......................................... 23 Aboriginal film: an approach......................................................... 27 CHAPTER I: Aboriginal documentaries and the poetics of resistance....................................................................................... 36 1. The Art of „Weaving‟ Culture: Alanis Obomsawin‟s Waban-aki: People from Where the Sun Rises................................ ............................................................................... 38 ................ 2. Aboriginality in Transit: a Perspective about Hollywood‟s Indians in Neil Diamond‟s Reel Injun...................... 60 CHAPTER II: Rebuilding culture with „ice and fire‟: Igloolik Isuma‟s films........................................................................ 86 1. Atanarjuat: the Fast Runner (2001): the Power of Film as Art ................................................................................ 94 2. The Journals of Knud Rasmussen (2007): Inuit Histories from Inuit ................................................................ 114 FINAL REMARKS............................................................................. 130 REFERENCES.................................................................................... 139 viii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Fig.1: Wabanaki People from Where the Sun Rises opening sequence: Sacred Tree. Fig.2: Wabanaki People from Where the Sun Rises opening sequence: shimmering water. Fig.3: Wabanaki People from Where the Sun Rises opening sequence: the sound of the drum. Fig.4: Wabanaki People from Where the Sun Rises opening sequence: Obomsawin sings. Fig.5: Wabanaki People from Where the Sun Rises opening sequence: Birds that return for a new season are suggestive of new beginnings. Fig.6: Wabanaki People from Where the Sun Rises opening sequence: Odanak on the banks of Saint Francis River Fig.7: Wabanaki People from Where the Sun Rises opening credits sequence: the tree as raw material for baskets. Fig.8: Painting by the visual artists Catherine Meyers. The painting stresses the symbolic dimensions of trees for Abenaki people. One of the important meanings is that trees are symbols of shelters. Fig.9: Waban-aki People from Where the Sun Rises. Victorian houses. Fig.10: Waban-aki People from Where the Sun Rises Waban-aki baskets for Victorian taste. Fig.11: Wabanaki People from Where the Sun Rises. An old Abenaki canoe for repairing. Fig.12: Wabanaki People from Where the Sun Rises: Removing the bark in a traditional way, but with current technologies. Fig.13: Wabanaki People from Where the Sun Rises: a superimposition of images conveys the ancestors‟ memories „flow‟ continuously from generation to generation, crossing borderlands. ix Fig.14: Wabanaki People from Where the Sun Rises: Aaron floats in the rebuilt canoe. Subtitling corroborates the meanings of the image. It is time for rebuilding communities. Fig.15: Wabanaki People from Where the Sun Rises: A close shot of a drum emphasises that the pine tree‟s needles are back to the center. People are reunited. Fig.16: Reel Injun: counting down to the screening in the church basement. Fig.17: Reel Injun: An affective-shot stresses the power of visual culture. Fig.18: Reel Injun: The audience is framed within the diegetic film‟s colonial discourse. Fig.19: Reel Injun: Natives cheer for the cowboys. Fig.20: Reel Injun: an interpolation of a shot from the Atanarjuat: the Fast Runner highlights the recent „battles‟ of Aboriginal cinema for gaining authority over representation. Fig.21: Reel Injun: In the context of Diamond‟s documentary, a shot from the Silent Enemy (1927) has new meanings. “He laughs best who laughs last.” Fig.22: Reel Injun: Diamond travels from Waskaganish to the South. Fig.23: Reel Injun: a shot from Smoke Signals. Diamond looks back to the path of indigenous film. Fig.24: Reel Injun: the Reservation Injun‟s „vehicle of choice.‟ One must overcome inequalities. Fig.25: Reel Injun: the reservation Injun‟s „vehicle of choice‟ barely works. Yet, one must keep moving. Fig.26: John Ford‟s Country: Monument Valley- the setting for classic Westerns by Ford. Ford‟s iconography is very clear that the American Plains are empty and ready for possession by the White settlers. Fig.27: Reel Injun: subtitling leaves no doubt about who the „owners‟ of the most American scenery are. x Fig.28: Reel Injun: Earlier Archival footage: the buffalo is contained within the film‟s frame. In Reel Injun, the old footage may be symbolic of the „confinement‟ of Natives