October 09, 2009

Aha Moment: A Bridge Between Cultures

Chie Sakakibara grew up in Japan but became fascinated with North American Indians after seeing them in the movie "Dances with Wolves." Her interest brought her to Alaska, as a student of cultural geography, where she continues to find connections between Inuit culture and her own. Produced by Studio 360’s Jenny Lawton.

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[1]
Posted by: Katie
October 12, 2009 - 11:19PM
Kodiak

Cama'i

I love this show, but this segment seems a little colonial, to me. First, there is a difference between the systems

of racial hierarchy that were established during the enlightenment with that of aboriginal peoples.Just like that of a semitic person, an aboriginal person can "look" anyway they are born. Aboriginality is about history and family, your episode suggests that they are merely a "race" in the multiculture of America. I know that pop culture suggests otherwise but can't you dig a little deeper?

Also, to suggest that the the Beringa is a truth really undermines Native Americans, Aleuts/Alutiiq, and SIberian Natives. Vine Deloria, Jr. ( a person who would be a subject on inquiry to your essayist) in fact in Red Earth, White Lies researches this idea and discovers that it is nothing more than the yet another way deny that Native Americans are more than just a skin color and a language but a people.

The spaces of the North Pacific and Bering region are

a cultural hub that is much older than that of the Atlantic. People did not merely move across it, people are from it and people live there. Americans put Aleuts in prison camps during WWII. And before that Americans arrange their marriages, and forced them to work. That is the history you should cover, one about the truth, not this neocolonial stuff,

thanks for you time

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