The big questions

[sandyosullivan]

I've got a big question for you all... When you think of contemporary representations of specific Indigenous culture/s (including, but not limited to, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures), what do you expect to see

Comments

[annissag]

Hoo boy

[canterlevi]

(except on Saint Patrick's Day when every American declares himself to be Irish).

I never cared about St. Patrick's Day. That's the trouble with generalizations, isn't it?

[annissag]

Me neither. I'm not Irish and I don't drink, but I still catch hell for not wearing green. "Everyone's Irish on St. Patrick's Day!" Uh... yeah. No.

[canterlevi]

Wordy McWord to that.

[stargazer1960]

When I went to the Native American museum outside of Sante Fe I really liked learning about the earth-mother-based religious practices. It was very enlightening for me to find that the Virgin of Guadalupe, which figures very prominantly in Central American Catholicism, is a representation of the Earth Mother from Native cultures that the Spanish conquiatadors used to entrap/ enslave/ assimilate the local cultures.

In the same way, I was interested in the installment in NY at the Met that showed how native cultures hid their religious icons in the tapestries, chalices, and religious artifacts in "Mission Churches" of the southwest.

[stargazer1960]

Sorry, having trouble seeing and spelling with this head cold today.

[sandyosullivan]

Interesting. What about your own culture?

[bas_math_girl]

In my culture I expect to see a display where it is explained how the Romans were attempted to be fought off, in an extremely sanitised way. But you already know that part. I also expect to see a display about the invading Saxons and Danes in the centuries that followed. Sadly I know next to nothing about pre-Roman Britons; I know about the geology and the bare basic human geography that explains why certain settlements existed and thrived. But the sociology has disappeared, with lingering reminders in religion, leaving us with the pretty vision of Celtic art.
As for King Caractacus (who battled with the Romans 10 minutes away from here) he is merely a character in a Rolf Harris song, whereas I know more about Julius Caesar and loads more about Claudius.

[sandyosullivan]

In your culture (and that bit of our shared culture) I do too! It worries the hell out of me that people become cast as 'pre-Roman'. It's like casting us as pre-British. And I think you're right the sociology isn't interesting enough or engaged enough to keep it moving.