What makes an Aboriginal an Aboriginal?

Page 10

Not that long ago, I remember reading a quote in an article written by an incensed mixed blood Maori woman (who's name unfortunately escapes me) who had just been asked how much actual Maori blood she had.

"I have just as much blood as any other Maori woman," she said defiantly. Unfortunately, not everybody understands that simple concept. Today, what can be accepted as being Native and what isn't is still wrestled with.

Case in point, a Jewish-American film-maker named Marc Halberstadt has developed an interesting documentary project. His family was originally driven out of Germany just before the Second World War like thousands of others. They are currently involved in getting compensation for the house and a successful business they lost in the tragic havoc.

However, the irony of the fact is he ended up in a country where the Indigenous people are attempting much the same thing, compensation for lost land and the like. This inspired him.

For his uniquely original documentary, Halberstadt is attempting to put together a group of five Native comedians that he wants to send over to Germany with the express purpose of knocking on the doors of the house his family used to live in and the business his family once owed. The purpose? To tell the startled occupants "Hi, sorry to bother you, but evidently you owe me and some other people in America some compensation money too, so we just thought we would eliminate the middleman and you can pay us direct."

So for the last six or eight months, Halberstadt has been feverishly auditioning and interviewing Indian funny people across North America, trying to come up with that potentially dangerous mix of humor, a knowledge of guerrilla theatre and lots of chutzpa to pull this off properly. This is where the story takes a unique turn.

While scouring Canada for funny Indians, he became engaged in discussions with me and a young actor-improv artist named Ryan McMahon. Halberstadt was shocked at how fair-skinned both Ryan and I are and that, if included in the documentary, nobody would know we were Native. Was there even a point in putting us in the documentary?

Wouldn't it be more visually shocking to open your door to discover these longhaired, dark skinned, really Native looking people standing there dripping in leather? Some would argue Ryan and I look more German than Native, but after almost four decades of hearing similar comments, I've gotten used to it.

Ryan found himself in the unique position of trying to validate his existence as a mixed blood person to this American film-maker, which made him uncomfortable. Personally, I thought it added a different type of irony to the documentary concept. Something akin to "We have been colonized right down to a genetic level. You don't just owe us land claim compensation, you also owe us child support."

The issue became that of a rather vocal one, with many calls being made back and forth between Halberstadt and us on how this contentious issue should be handled. I found it odd that racial politics was getting in the way of this radically political documentary.

Eventually, Halberstaft decided that if he has three really Native looking people in the cast (the Dances with Wolves kind), he could probably get away with two or more...homogeneous Aboriginals (the Val Kilmar kind). How reassuring, we thought.

This sense of toleration, or making allowances for mixed bloods, has long been an issue of severe annoyance. But this past summer, there appeared to be a light at the end of this myopic tunnel. And this light came from Maniwaki, Que. I was there attending an event called the Gathering of All Nations. I was there shooting a documentary on William Commanda, an Algonquin Elder who hosts the gathering. It was there he made an interesting speech.

Commanda made reference to what he called the fifth race, or color of man. In most First Nations cultures, it is taught that the world has four races of man-the Red, the Yellow, te Black and the White. The medicine wheel is divided into colored quarters to represent those four important citizens of the earth. But Commanda says the fifth race needs to be included. They are the mixed he refers to as "the Blue Race", and they deserve a place in that circle.

It made an impression on me.

The documentary in Germany sounds like a fun trip, and is something potentially groundbreaking. I haven't decided yet if I want to go. I think Ryan isn't sure yet either. But it is an intriguing concept. Five Indians let loose in Germany with an expense account... might be nothing left.