Monday, February 05, 2007
heritage...or identity
First of all, I have to mention my friend Dr. Ari Berk in my blog. Ari is a wonderful artist, wrtier, and professor of Myth and Folklore in the department of English at Central Michigan University. His wife, Dr. Kris McDermott, is a terrific scholar and writer and I look forward to seeing them at the Native American Literature Symposium at the Soaring Eagle next month. Ari and I are coauthoring a YA book Coyote Speaks, which should be out next year from Abrams.
I visited Ari and Kris and their son Robin in October when I performed at the Michigan STory Festival in and around Mt. Pleasant. They were, as always, wonderful hosts and I found that I loved it there. I also got to visit with the incredible Choctaw storyteller Tim Tingle, and we had a great time telling stories (the kind that don't always end up being performed on stage!). I was interviewed by the local PBS station for their local show Inside Central. As a journalist, I was struck as I watched the show (and also thought to myself, jeez I have gained a lot of weight!!) at how when you're a Native American storyteller viewed by the outside world, then you're "proud of your heritage", which strikes me as quite the opposite of those of us who have the luxury of having a heritage as opposed to an identity.
Oh, isn't it cute that we native writers and performers have such a wonderful heritage that we can be proud of? Would the same thing be said of an African storyteller or a Japanese American storyteller talking about genocide and holocaust? What is the chasm that is developed between "heritage" and "identity"? Once again, it strikes me within the language. When I perform I sing specific songs from specific tribes, mostly Choctaw or Creek songs and I am very clear in acknowledging that each of these songs is from a deifferent, if culturally related, tribe. I am very clear on recognizing for audiences that there are over 500 different nations and languages and that the term "Native American" is a created label for created identity. Yet I get labled as a "Native American storyteller...proud of her Native American heritage." Never midn the fact that I live in a Choctaw-Creek-Cherokee-Seminole family and that our very existence is testament to our survival in this diaspora called California. Identity is who we are and there is no choice given in that matter. While the romantics are happy to wax nostalgic about us and our pride, our stoicism, our closeness to the earth and oneness with nature, we still have to live in a world that is a constant reminder of our colonization. It's time to take the stories to the next level.
Heritage is a luxury. Identity is survival.
I visited Ari and Kris and their son Robin in October when I performed at the Michigan STory Festival in and around Mt. Pleasant. They were, as always, wonderful hosts and I found that I loved it there. I also got to visit with the incredible Choctaw storyteller Tim Tingle, and we had a great time telling stories (the kind that don't always end up being performed on stage!). I was interviewed by the local PBS station for their local show Inside Central. As a journalist, I was struck as I watched the show (and also thought to myself, jeez I have gained a lot of weight!!) at how when you're a Native American storyteller viewed by the outside world, then you're "proud of your heritage", which strikes me as quite the opposite of those of us who have the luxury of having a heritage as opposed to an identity.
Oh, isn't it cute that we native writers and performers have such a wonderful heritage that we can be proud of? Would the same thing be said of an African storyteller or a Japanese American storyteller talking about genocide and holocaust? What is the chasm that is developed between "heritage" and "identity"? Once again, it strikes me within the language. When I perform I sing specific songs from specific tribes, mostly Choctaw or Creek songs and I am very clear in acknowledging that each of these songs is from a deifferent, if culturally related, tribe. I am very clear on recognizing for audiences that there are over 500 different nations and languages and that the term "Native American" is a created label for created identity. Yet I get labled as a "Native American storyteller...proud of her Native American heritage." Never midn the fact that I live in a Choctaw-Creek-Cherokee-Seminole family and that our very existence is testament to our survival in this diaspora called California. Identity is who we are and there is no choice given in that matter. While the romantics are happy to wax nostalgic about us and our pride, our stoicism, our closeness to the earth and oneness with nature, we still have to live in a world that is a constant reminder of our colonization. It's time to take the stories to the next level.
Heritage is a luxury. Identity is survival.
