TV's electronic smoke signals

Page 6

It has been said that the three most amazing things ever invented by the white culture are the air conditioner, the push-up bra, and television. However, many of those same people (and quite a few others) would argue that television has done almost as much, if not more, to damage Native culture than residential schools and country music combined.

It's no secret that in many First Nation communities, pop culture has replaced Native culture to a terrifying degree. The television has become omnipotent. Take a personal poll of your friends and ask how many of them know by heart the words to Gilligan's Island or the Brady Bunch? And then, ask how many of them know a traditional Ojibway/Cree/Iroquois/etc. song, or even a traditional story. Proportionally, I'd think you'd have a better chance of winning a bingo.

As further proof, all across this country that used to be ours (including the U.S.), you cannot go to a village or town, however isolated, where a hefty percentage of the children and adults do not wear wrestling T-shirts, or other clothing inspired by the the broadcast media.

But try and find a Cooking With The Wolfman sweat pants and you'll get my meaning. Caucasian broadcasting has ruled our communities for almost 50 years. I remember growing up on the reserve watching television at my grandparents'. My first impression of the "outside world" consisted of watching Mr. Dressup and the Three Stooges. Those were early role models till my mother warned me about older men with "tickle trunks."

As a result, television has also been accused of lending a helping hand in destroying the fragile hold of Aboriginal languages in our communities. Generations of little children watching Oscar the Grouch, and Bert and Ernie, speak English, with a little French occasionally thrown in, when traditionally, they should have been out on the land, hunting down the relatives of Big Bird. One bird the size of him could keep a community like Saugeen fed for a week.

But I don't believe this dominance of the airwaves has to continue this way. Like anything, television can have both a negative and positive influence. As the wise old Japanese Elder from the Karate Kid says (which I confess I did see recently on television) "no such thing as a bad student, only a bad teacher."

Television is what you make it.

With the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network now telling our stories our way, could there be an Indigenous light at the end of the cultural tunnel?

With organizations like the Centre for Aboriginal Media calling the shots these days, not to mention the success of the APTN, the winds are definitely shifting. It's been more than a year since APTN signed on the air and we're all sitting in front of the television waiting in eager anticipation of the ground-breaking film, video and television to tell our stories our way.

Instead of Gilligan's Island, it could be Wapole Island, Lennox Island, Georgina Island, Christian Island, or all of Manitoulin Island for that matter. Casting the large Skipper wouldn't be that difficult. And is it only me or can you hear this television theme song on APTN? "Here's the story, of a man named Beardy..."