Reel Injun and Marwin Begaye "Under Pressure" at CCA

I recently went to the Center for Contemporary Arts (CCA) in Santa Fe to watch the film Reel Injun. It was a whirlwind, portraying chronologically the depictions of Native peoples in North American film, primarily looking at how Native men were presented. Cree filmmaker Neil Diamond travels across the USA, stopping at historical sites of significance and looking at the tropes that Hollywood has created around Native peoples. Using humour and commentary from film producers and critics, the film explores tropes such as "the noble savage." The film tried to cover a lot of ground, but it did not examine how Native women have been portrayed in film and media. It would have been interesting to see how women such as Molly Spotted Elk negotiated their identities as Native women acting in Hollywood throughout the 20th century.

After the film, i viewed the powerful and challenging works of Marwin Begaye, a Navajo graphic designer, artist and activist. Last year at the New Sun Conference at Carleton University, Begaye gave a brief talk about how he was using art to bring greater awareness to Native communities about health issues such as diabetes, fast food and alochol abuse, so I was glad to see his works again. Art becomes a tool of mediation, change and awareness when it presents these issues that are difficult to talk about. At the CCA in the gallery space, there were about 20 prints on the walls. One particular work that really struck me was a black and white print of a skull with an Plains-type Indian headdress, below the skull were two buffalo. At second glance, the headdress was actually composed of syringes, used for insulin. Radiating in the four corners of the work were images of canned food, fried hamburgers, icecream and alcohol, all items that are posing major health risks to people across the world and Native peoples in particular. The two buffalo below the skull's neck, made of syringe bottles, reminds us of the need to incorporate healthy foods back into our diet such as free-range buffalo meat. Begaye's works are twenty-first century memento mori, reminding us of the dire consequences of diabetes, alcoholism and yet they also present us with choices. As humans, we need to continue to make conscious decisions to eat healthy foods, exercise and live a balanced life to combat these diseases.