Promotion Fest: First Nations

[dark_administrator]

The First Nations was the third group to show the most underrepresentation in wistfuljane's pie charts showing the breakdown by region of nominated fandoms qualifying for Chromatic Yuletide 2010. While First Nations is a term that is commonly applied to indigenous peoples in North and South America, for the purposes of this fest, we would like to expand the category to include other indigenous groups as well, such as Australian Aborigines, the Māori, and Native Hawaiians, to name a few examples.

Wikipedia defines indigenous peoples as "ethnic groups who are native to a land or region, especially before the arrival and intrusion of a foreign and possibly dominating culture." The unspoken corollary is that the First Nations have faced genocide by the invaders, and this systematic destruction continues to this day in the form of reservations, destruction of culturally important sites, assimilation, erasure, and appropriation of their traditions and heritage by the colonizing culture. We hope that the members of the community take these issues into account when exploring works by creators belonging to the First Nations and other indigenous peoples and that Kaleidoscope will provide an opportunity to bring more attention to these fandoms.

Starting Points

• Oyate
  
• American Indians in Children's Literature
  
• Conquest by Andrea Smith
  
• Native Appropriations
  
• First Nations Urban Survival
  
• Indigenous Peoples Issues & Resources
  
• Indigenous Peoples Literature

Brainstorming

Here are some First Nations sources that we think will make great fandom nominations for Kaleidoscope:

• Sherman Alexie (Spokane): young adult fiction, literary fiction, poetry, screenplays
  
• Drew Hayden Taylor (Ojibwa): plays, anthologies, SF/F fiction
  
• Louise Erdrich (Métis): literary fiction, poetry, children's fiction
  
• Witi Ihimaera (Māori): literary fiction
  
• Israel Kamakawiwo'ole (Native Hawaiian): music
  
• Yothu Yindi (Yolngu): music
  
• Atarnajuat | The Fast Runner (Inuit): film

Suggestions from commenters:

• sanguinity recommends Stephen Graham Jones (Blackfeet): speculative fiction, especially The Bird is Gone
  
• sanguinity recommends Cynthia Leitich Smith (Muskogee): children's fiction, YA fiction, speculative fiction, especially the Tantalize series
  
• sanguinity recommends Joseph Bruchac (Abenaki): speculative fiction, historical fiction
  
• sanguinity and thingswithwings recommend Thomas King (Cherokee): literary fiction, children's fiction, especially Medicine River, short stories, A Coyote Columbus Story and Green Grass, Running Water
  
• anenko mentions Rabbit Fall (Métis): Canadian TV series
  
• anenko recommends Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (Canada): broadcast network
  
• thingswithwings recommends Tomson Highway (Cree): plays, literary fiction, especially The Rez Sisters, Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing and Kiss of the Fur Queen
  
• thingswithwings recommends Eden Robinson (Haisla): literary fiction, especially Monkey Beach

Also check out the First Nations source fandoms mentioned in the comments to Chromatic fandom collecting!

Share your squee for these fandoms or give other fandom suggestions in the comments below!

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Comments

[sanguinity]

Stephen Graham Jones, The Bird is Gone. Alt future/history specfic in which the Dakotas have been returned to Indian control. I fricking ADORE the worldbuilding in here. The worldbuilding shown within the main narrative makes me howl with laughter -- when I finally caught on to what "pinkeye being all the rage" is about, I laughed and laughed and laughed. But! And! There is also a glossary in the back, the entries of which contain lots of references to the alt-history that became this alt-future: I would so, so, so adore to see some of these stories fleshed out in fic! Pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease.

(Should I be rec'ing Cynthia Leitich Smith's Tantalize/Eternal/Blessed series here? YA vampire/goth/werewolves. Muscogee author, some of the main characters are POC, but the content is not explicitly First Nations.)

Joseph Bruchac! Fantasy and horror and historical fiction, most for YA and MG audiences.

And Thomas King! Thomaskingthomaskingthomasing! There's the Medicine River series of novels (Yay, Harlen Bigbear!), plus marvelously surrealistic short stories (some of which are fandomy themselves!), plus the children's books (Coyote Columbus Story!).

[dark_administrator]

Thanks so much for all these recs! We've added them to the post.

[anenko]

There's Rabbit Fall: "Métis cop Tara Wheaton is determined to uncover the truth behind the violent crimes and unexplained events that plague the remote northern town of Rabbit Fall. Her quest brings her face-to-face with her own chilling connection to the supernatural forces at work."

It's interesting, but a bit slow. I don't know that I'd rec it, since I was so irritated by a romantic development that I dropped the show.

Or, check out the programming available through APTN.

[dark_administrator]

Thanks for the suggestions! They've been added to our brainstorming list.

[boundbooks]

"Atarnajuat | The Fast Runner (Inuit): film"

Totally epic film! I highly recommend it to, well, pretty much everyone, ever. XD

[thingswithwings]

A few other potential authors for fandom suggetions (I nominated some of these last year for Yuletide):

-Tomson Highway, a Cree playwright most famous for The Rez Sisters and Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing. He's also a novelist, and his novel Kiss of the Fur Queen is really rich and great and could use some fic.

-Eden Robinson, whose novel Monkey Beach is a fabulous sort of rural-gothic mystery. (Robinson identifies as Haisla).

-Thomas King is already on the list, but personally I always want fic for his novel Green Grass, Running Water

And a movie/tv show:

-Dance Me Outside and The Rez (The Rez is the series they made based on Dance Me Outside, which is in turn based on a novel by the same name. The book and movie and show were written and directed by non-Aboriginal creators, but the movie and tv show starred an all-Aboriginal cast, and had some great characters who I'd love to see fic for.)

[dark_administrator]

We've added Tomson Highway and Eden Robinson to the list.

Sources must have at least one chromatic creator in order to qualify for Kaleidoscope. Do you know whether the creators (i.e. directors or writers) for Dance Me Outside and The Rez identify as PoC even if they are not Aboriginal?

[thingswithwings]

Yes, I believe Jordan Wheeler, who is First Nations, was involved in the writing team (just checked imdb: he wrote 6 of 12 episodes). So definitely put in The Rez (tv show), but take out Dance Me Outside.