Walking a Tightrope: Aboriginal People and Their Representations

Front Cover
Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press, Mar 15, 2005 - History - 377 pages

“The most we can hope for is that we are paraphrased correctly.” In this statement, Lenore Keeshig-Tobias underscores one of the main issues in the representation of Aboriginal peoples by non-Aboriginals. Non-Aboriginal people often fail to understand the sheer diversity, multiplicity, and shifting identities of Aboriginal people. As a result, Aboriginal people are often taken out of their own contexts.

Walking a Tightrope plays an important role in the dynamic historical process of ongoing change in the representation of Aboriginal peoples. It locates and examines the multiplicity and distinctiveness of Aboriginal voices and their representations, both as they portray themselves and as others have characterized them. In addition to exploring perspectives and approaches to the representation of Aboriginal peoples, it also looks at Native notions of time (history), land, cultures, identities, and literacies. Until these are understood by non-Aboriginals, Aboriginal people will continue to be misrepresented—both as individuals and as groups.

By acknowledging the complex and unique legal and historical status of Aboriginal peoples, we can begin to understand the culture of Native peoples in North America. Until then, given the strength of stereotypes, Native people have come to expect no better representation than a paraphrase.

 

Selected pages

Contents

Introduction
1
Reflections on Walking a Tightrope
19
Historical Representations
115
Literary and Cinematic Representations
281
LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS
377
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Walking a Tightrope: Aboriginal People and Their Representations
Ute Lischke
Limited preview - 2005
Walking a Tightrope: Aboriginal People and Their Representations
David T. McNab,Ute Lischke
Snippet view - 2005
Walking a Tightrope: Aboriginal People and Their Representations
Ute Lischke,David T. McNab
No preview available - 2005

Common terms and phrases

Aboriginal perspective Aboriginal voices American Indian Anishnabai Anthropology Apaches Arctic Aunt Band Belleville Beothuk Big Bear Blunden Harbour Boas British Columbia Canada Cement Canadian caribou ceremonial Christian claim Conne River context Copway Corner Brook Cree culture Curtis dance DEFA Discovery of Strangers Ecological European experience film Flat Bay footage George historians Holm Hunt Hurlburt Ibid identity images Indian Act indigenous knowledge interpretation interviews Inuit Jones Kwakwaka'wakw land Linda lived Maracle McNab Mi’gmaq Micmac Missionary Mohawk Museum narrative Nations Native Studies Newfoundland Newfoundland and Labrador non-Aboriginal non-Native North America northern Ojibwa Ontario oral history oral traditions Ottawa Peter Point Anne political potlatch present rcap relationship representations reserve role Saskatchewan scientists social stereotypical stories tell Temptations of Big tion Toronto Press treaties Tyendinaga U'mista understanding University of Toronto University Press Vancouver voices Western society Wiebe Wiebe’s wildlife

Bibliographic information

TitleWalking a Tightrope: Aboriginal People and Their Representations
Aboriginal studies series
Volume 2 of Indigenous Studies
Wilfrid Laurier Series
AuthorsDavid T. McNab, Ute Lischke
EditorsDavid T. McNab, Ute Lischke
Editionillustrated
PublisherWilfrid Laurier Univ. Press, 2005
ISBN0889204608, 9780889204607
Length377 pages
Subjects ›  ›  › 

History / Historiography
Literary Criticism / Indigenous Peoples in the Americas
Social Science / Ethnic Studies / American / Native American Studies
Social Science / Indigenous Studies
  
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