Film: If Only I were an Indian

Wednesday, April  7  at 7:30 pm

If Only I were an Indian

By John Paskievich

This interesting Canadian documentary examines the fascination Europeans hold for Native American culture by having three representatives from the Canadian tribes of Cree and Ojibwa visit a Czech and Slovak retreat where the guests faithfully recreate the cultures and life styles of Indian people.  Interviews with both the Indians and the “White Wampum” Eastern Europeans follow. The Europeans maintain a deep interest in North American Native cultures, and live deep in the forests of central Europe;  the several hundred members of the Canadian tribes live in teepees and dress in loincloths, feathers, and moccasins.  Diverse issues are brought out in this melancholy experiment:  radical environmentalism, cultural appropriation, colonialism, and over-identification with the Other, subverting accepted wisdoms of tradition versus modernity. 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.

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

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Culture, Environment, EVENTS, film, politics, PROGRAMS, spiritual Canadian, colonialism, Cree, Czech, environmentalism, If Only I were an Indian, Indians, John Paskievich, Native American, ocean, Ojibwa, Slovak, teepees