The CAP (Coordinated Arts Program) Conference today was anything but dull. Incorporating the various streams into one conference offered up different approaches to many of the presentations. However, the presentations I watched all had several things in common. They either touched upon a social issue, a political debate or a public perception that needs to be changed. One presentation that I found particularly striking was Helen Wagner’s, who’s topic was ‘National Geographic and the Photographic Gaze: Commodification of Indigenous Peoples in Consumer Culture’. Her presentation focused on the January 2014 issue of the National Geographic, which featured a face close-up of a Brazilian Kapayo Tribe woman on the cover, photographed by Martin Schoeller.

What Helen argued is that National Geographic may be one of the most prominent sources  and windows to the Indigenous world in the Western World. In fact, without the magazine, we might not have knowledge about the lives and cultures of Indigenous people. However, a thought crossed my mind whilst listening to Helen’s presentation. I am a white, European, privileged young woman, who delves into any National Geographic magazine whenever I get the chance. I absolutely love reading it and particularly enjoy the photographs. Although I thoroughly enjoy the wilderness and landscape aspects of the magazine, I am admittedly always drawn to articles featuring previously unknown groups of Indigenous people, or tribes in remote parts of the earth. But why? Because I see it as exotic, as something I may only ever get to see in photos, so therefore I make the most of it when I have access to those images. I find it fascinating because it is so different to what I know and encounter in my everyday life. It almost dehumanises such groups, because they are seen as rare and different by consumers, particularly to the typical white person who may have a monthly subscription just because it’s a “cool” magazine to have on the coffee table.

So is the “exotic” nature of the subjects of many National Geographic magazines what makes it sell so well? Is this a marketing ploy for the consumerist Western world, or does the magazine truly wish to educate the world and feed our curiosity? Whatever its purposes are, the stereotypes associated with Indigenous people, should not be a feature, and the way the magazine represents them and the way we see them should also change.

In September our class took time to focus on the issue of residential schools in Canada and the TRC. What had marked me the most was the Belkin Gallery (at UBC), which incorporated art and history, creating a poignant combination of works that held significant meaning. The exhibition ‘Witnesses’ was held to “honour this request to show works that might point to healing and the future while still telling some of the stories that needed telling about the schools” (Watson, 5). In many ways, it did just that, but the trauma and bitterness associated with many of the artworks left me feeling like the road to reconciliation was still very long.

Revisiting the issue of the TRC brought to light a new perspective. The MOA’s exhibition, on the same subject, displayed quotes, photos, and official statements of apology. The collection made me question the significance of audience and the purpose of displaying the work. The apologies, including one from the Pope (CTV news, 2009) and other figures of religious or legal authority evoked a sense of regret on behalf of their establishments. Were the apologies to only those affected by the trauma of residential schools? Perhaps not. Maybe the apologies were aimed at a much larger community, and many reflected the regret of the establishments as a whole rather than those only involved in causing the harm to those in residential schools.

Another thing that struck me was the varying opinions in the quotes about people’s experiences in residential schools. I noticed that there were extremes in terms of experiences- some hold positive memories of their childhood, and others describe only horrific stories. Why were some schools worse than others? How do those who were not greatly affected feel now about the residential schools? Fortunate, most likely, but it would be interesting and informative to learn more about the balance of those who faced struggle and trauma, and those who did not.

Everyone creates their own personal archive throughout their lives, whether it be through photographs, letters, childhood drawings, or diaries. But why is it that we want to keep things that, after  a considerable amount of time passes, may no longer seem relevant? During the first archives workshop in class this week, we were introduced to several types of archival materials. What I found most interesting was the Chung collection’s bundle of exercise books from the early 1899. They were written by children of the Yip Song Family, and consisted of copied out letters to improve handwriting in English. As I was flicking through the pages of letters, typically addressed to very British names and finishing in the same way, I questioned the purpose of keeping these exercise books in the archives. Aren’t they a waste of space? They don’t tell us anything about the people who wrote the letters out, so why do the archivists keeping them see them as valuable?

At first these kinds of collections may seem irrelevant, but I later realised they were so because they reflected the influence that “whites” had on other incoming (namely the Chinese) groups of people in Canada at the time. It was particularly interesting to see how the writing style was written to perfection, yet on many pages there were Chinese characters in the margins, as though the students did not fully understand the meaning of some words and so noted the translation in Chinese. This made me think about the pressure to assimilate into Canadian culture, which at the time was predominantly of British influence. Perhaps the letters were chosen as a form of education, or re-education, so that children of Chinese background would become more “Canadian”.

This may be the reason for keeping these exercise books, which do not reveal specific information about the students who copied out the letters, but instead about other areas of interest, such as the education system at the time, the possible brain-washing the occurred, and the encouragement to learn English correctly to gain citizenship. Perhaps many archival materials seem futile at first glance, but I have realised that they are all valuable, and today, give us so much information about the past that would not be obtainable without the preservation of such materials.

Anne Marie Nakagawa’s documentary on people of mixed backgrounds and various cultural identities provoked some serious soul-searching on my part. Being half French, half Northern Irish, but born and brought up in Hong Kong, I can absolutely relate to the people whose stories were shared for the film. Now I am studying in Canada, having to explain where I am from constantly, as well as the reason as to why I have an accent (or no distinct one at all?). People like me are, as one person in the film said, “resident aliens living in the hyphen”. We belong to more than one nation or race, and yet we will never truly fit in to where we might call home.

Whilst watching the documentary I noted several patterns from a number of the people who shared their stories. The first was that they longed to be something other than what they were, especially in the teenage years. However, in childhood, many did not notice the difference until a significant moment in there lives when they realised they were not the same as most other children. In my own memory, I don’t remember any moment in my childhood where I felt out of place. However, I do remember being on a crowded train in Hong Kong a months ago and the thought occurred to me that I was the only white person on the train. Perhaps the normality of this in a previously British colony made this fact go unnoticed to me for so many years. And whilst watching the film I realised that I will never really fit in.

From the film I picked up two abstractions that provoked a lot of thought: racial purity inauthenticity. Is someone not “pure” if they identify as being of more than one nationality or ethnicity? Am I not telling the truth if I tell a stranger that I am simply French, whilst omitting the other two very important aspects of my identity? As one speaker mentioned, being questioned actually “revokes ones identity”, which in part I agree with. I do believe however that although the film highlighted many aspects of being of multiple nationalities, it did not touch upon the beauty of being mixed. I found that it victimised the speakers rather than embracing their backgrounds and exciting stories. This may have been the purpose of the film, but in an increasingly multicultural world, I believe that racial “purity” should no longer be regarded as superior, and that those of mixed origins should not feel inferior. It should be seen not as a problem but as a positive result of how our world is changing. I think that although the film focuses on Canada, this phenomenon of mixed races is ever-growing in many parts of the world and should be embraced more, especially by those who are of mixed backgrounds.

For the last few classes we have been studying the graphic novel Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, as well as Hilary Chute’s The Texture of Retracing in Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis, which provides insight into the text. I have found the graphic novel/narrative to be the most interesting text we have looked at so far, because it is so different to what I have ever studied in the past. My previous ideas about comics or graphic narratives where that they were childish and simplistic. This was until I read Persepolis. Satrapi’s depiction of her childhood in Iran is not only poignant but it is also an accessible way for many to people of all ages to read her story. Chute would agree with this, as she quotes the New York Times Magazine which states that “comic books are what novels used to be- an accessible, vernacular form with mass appeal”.

What is interesting about Persepolis is that is is not only the story of a child’s life during conflict in Iran, but it is also a feminist expression of how comics should not be reserved solely for men. It not only shows the struggles of a young girl who tries to rebel against the regime, but also her own inner conflicts as she matures. The idea of the veil are very predominant in Persepolis, which also illustrates the struggle against the oppression in Iran. I have found Perspolis an eye-opener to the conflict and horrors in Iran, as well as a powerful way to tell a story. I believe that Satrapi’s way of illustrating Marji’s life (her own childhood) so effective that I cannot imagine the story written as anything other than a graphic narrative. Emotions and actions are expressed in a way that we can understand, and that is why I found Persepolis so interesting.