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Eeh-nis-kim.  Drawing 1832

I really like a certain type of order.  I went through the library catologue recently and made a list of all the books related to first nations people that I wanted to read.  I am now working my way throught this list and it has given me a lot to think about.  In particular, I am working through "A Recognition of Being" by Kim Anderson which has blown my mind and I will writeabout it once I have thought it through.  It is kind of overwhelming at the moment.

Picture of an Upper Thompson worman with Child. 1913
Note the photographer is  named, but the woman and child are not.

Yestersday I flipped through "Trade Ornament Usage Among the Native Peoples of Canada" by Karlis Karklins.  While this book is only from 1992 it seems really old fashion.  While the writer(s) is aware that indians are not all savages there is some ambiguity about them - they are not quite real people.  While that may be a quirk of anthropology it makes the book a little bit uncomfortable in some places especially where they are trying to describe some of the adornments that the writer(s) find a bit much for their "refined" tastes.

Ju-ah-kis-gaw, a Chippewa woman. 
1835 Painting

There is also an early note in the introduction section that "some sources are more reliable than others.  Observations made by experienced anthropoligist are obviously more reliable than those made by the average traveller."  Cause obviously the white male anthropologist would be completely unbiased and have no motivation to set the indian in a larger narrative of progress or redemption or anything.  They are just pretty great.  That said, the book has a lot of full colour pictures and close ups of clothing details that are interesting as inspiration when viewed with a bit of sceptisism.

 

What really struck me about this book though was how it challenged my steriotypes.  I guess I still have Pochahontas stuck in there deep cause I kinda thought these women would be reedy and slender.  Weren't all the Indians starving and barely getting by in their traditional lifestyles?  Wasn't that why the government and the church needed to "save" them?  As I looked through these pictures, there was a range of body types and recognizing that women who were painted may have diproportionately been "better off" or choosen as subject for other reasons, there were a noticible number of sturdy women.  It also struck me how these women look like my aunties.  It also provided me with another picture of beauty outside of the skinny white girls.