| "In all my time at school,
I never was taught anything about native people of any relevance or importance"
Comments on urban experience:
I've lived my entire life off of my reserve surrounded
by people who were not Mohawk or native for that matter. As a kid it didn't
matter, I was a kid just as everyone else around me, whatever their nationality,
were just kids. As I got older, I had to deal with the same identity issues
as every adolescent does, but mine were somewhat different. I was surrounded
by non-native people, in a very low minority environment. My family was
the native influence in my life, but there were no immediate friends who
were native around me. In class, at parties, etcÖ I was the only native
person there.
Art was a way for me to explore and understand
myself as a native person. I got into art because of a picture I saw of
Chief Joseph, a man I greatly |
Click on photo to enter gallery
admired. I saw that picture and I wanted to draw
it. That gave me a great sense of pride in myself, not as an artist, but
as a native person. Because in the process of drawing these pictures, I
ended up reading a lot of books on native people, histories and stories,
contemporary and the past, as well as looking at countless photographs.
Within these people I could find aspects of myself, my own family and was
proud to be able to draw those people. Since I was growing up in
a non- native environment, it was hard sometimes to read about the past
and not feel anger over it, |
and some anger towards
the people around me. But these people were my friends and what was
done in the past to my ancestors was done by their ancestors. They didn't
do it and it didn't make sense to be angry at them for what their great-great-grandparents
did. For the most part, they didn't even know about all that, and when
they did find out they were in shock and were saddened to learn about it.
Ignorance is no excuse, but they can't learn about topics not taught to
them. In all my time at school, I never was taught anything about native
people of any relevance or importance, for most of it was stereotypical
information or trite, such as how to build a model bark wigwam. It was
not until my second year of university, 15 years into my education, that
native history and contemporary native issues were discussed.
-o-
CONTACT/PURCHASE INFO:
E-mail: garrisong@hotmail.com |
