Native stereotypes

Several years ago I went to a dinner with some friends in Vancouver, all of them Caucasian. This wasn't an issue with me or them, they new I was First Nations but it's never been a topic of conversation with them or me... we were filmmakers.

Only this time it was different as one of my friends brought along his new girlfriend and I ended up seated across the table from her. Our conversation started as I asked her date for directions to a show up the road and she asked if I wasn't from Vancouver.

I explained that I was from a Reserve two hours away... not realizing at that moment that I forgot that I should've said 'live on a farm two hours away.'

It's something I've conditioned myself to say when I'm in a group where I don't know someone; I usually end up with one of two reactions when I mention being Native. The first of which is a lengthy reaction of how we're draining the system.

Or my friends girlfriends reaction.

"Can I have you look at my side, it's been killing me for a month and I don't know what it is?"

Ok no, the second reaction is usually about dreams and spirality. It's very rarely that someone would ask me for medical advice.

It actually took me by surprise and I questioned my friend about it only to have him say it was alright; I should mention that my question to him was about why she thinks I'm a doctor.

We didn't get too deep into why she thought that I'd be able to fix her, but I did explain to her that she should probably seek out a medical doctor cause the side she was pointing to was where her appendix was.

This is why how Natives are presented in the media is important, people see a way of life on television or the movies and assume that's how it is.

Graham Green has played some wise, spiritual Natives in films buts that's a character, a part and not who he is in real life.

Don't get me wrong, that's not taking away from legitimate natives that work in the medical field; there are First Nations doctors and nurses that have the medical knowledge to have advised her. I'm just not one of them.

It does bring up Natives that take advantage of this stereotype. I met a man a few years ago that you can actually see on posters for integrity. Thanks to movies about spiritual natives, he explained to me, he's dressing a part and making money off people's belief system.

He was very open about an immoral and unethical way to make money if people blinded by what they wanted to see, based solely on their love of something presented by media.

Which does make one wonder about who's to blame for his actions, he's a bonafide jerk for making money off the gullibility of others; but he wouldn't have that opportunity if films or books portrayed accuracy in First Nations.

Photo from Wikipedia