This final research paper has for subject the social and political position of Indigenous women in Canada, their representation through popular culture and their representation through the art of contemporary Inuit artist Annie Pootoogook, her mother Napachie Pootoogook and Mohawk artist Shelley Niro. They are effectively numerous issues surrounding the representation of Indigenous women in popular culture, and one can observe the contrast between the popular representation and the representation made by Indigenous females artists. In this paper, I will examine in the first place what issues are Indigenous women facing, both in the social as well as the political sphere, then how are those issues represented in the popular culture, and finally
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This remodelling of traditional roles led indigenous men to be frustrated and violent against women 3. This is the beginning of the circle of violence against Indigenous women inside reservation. Alcoholism, poverty and lack of education perpetuated this violence. The Aboriginal Justice Inquiry of Manitoba noted that one in three Aboriginal women suffered abuse at the hands of her partner 4 . In addition to the colonizing and domestic violence that indigenous women suffered from, one can observe that they are underrepresented in Canadian politics. Their voices, from the beginning of the colonization, have been shut down in a male-dominated society. As one could possibly think, this does not stop with white Canadian politics: Women have had a very little space for expressing themselves even in aboriginal politics …show more content…
Moreover, their social situation is very complex as well, as their representation through mainstream and popular culture shows it: Indigenous women are idealized as Native Princesses, being over-sexualized, stereotyped and their culture being appropriated by the dominating powers. This shows the real hypocrisy that Napachie, Annie Pootoogook and Shelley Niro are fighting through there art: Indigenous people are accepted in the colonizers’ society as long as they are idealized and fit in the stereotypes. This whitewashed society refuses to see Indigenous women as contemporary and modern women, and would rather stick to the myth of the “Indian princess”. Moreover, mainstream culture refuses to address the psychological, physical and sexual violence Indigenous women face. It seems that, for white people, it is easier to wear a headdress at Coachella and wrongfully appropriate one’s culture rather than address the cultural genocide that took place in
This remodelling of traditional roles led indigenous men to be frustrated and violent against women 3. This is the beginning of the circle of violence against Indigenous women inside reservation. Alcoholism, poverty and lack of education perpetuated this violence. The Aboriginal Justice Inquiry of Manitoba noted that one in three Aboriginal women suffered abuse at the hands of her partner 4 . In addition to the colonizing and domestic violence that indigenous women suffered from, one can observe that they are underrepresented in Canadian politics. Their voices, from the beginning of the colonization, have been shut down in a male-dominated society. As one could possibly think, this does not stop with white Canadian politics: Women have had a very little space for expressing themselves even in aboriginal politics …show more content…
Moreover, their social situation is very complex as well, as their representation through mainstream and popular culture shows it: Indigenous women are idealized as Native Princesses, being over-sexualized, stereotyped and their culture being appropriated by the dominating powers. This shows the real hypocrisy that Napachie, Annie Pootoogook and Shelley Niro are fighting through there art: Indigenous people are accepted in the colonizers’ society as long as they are idealized and fit in the stereotypes. This whitewashed society refuses to see Indigenous women as contemporary and modern women, and would rather stick to the myth of the “Indian princess”. Moreover, mainstream culture refuses to address the psychological, physical and sexual violence Indigenous women face. It seems that, for white people, it is easier to wear a headdress at Coachella and wrongfully appropriate one’s culture rather than address the cultural genocide that took place in