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INDIGENOUS HUMOR AND TRANSCULTURAL IDENTITY SHIFTS AND MIX-UPS...
As the present article considers specific aspects of Canadian minorities, the
focus will be on Canadian Indigenous identities and the concept of trans¬
culturalism. The interconnectedness and continuous movement between
cultures reflects the multicultural mosaic-like patterns in which each mosaic
represents cultural elements. “Hence, what is common in transcultural indivi¬
duals is that their identity is a ‘patchwork’ of different cultural elements.”®
To what extent this is true and how this relates to the Indigenous Peoples
of North America, specifically Canada, is one perspective that the article
proposes to investigate through the concept of Native humor, a complex
theme that contradicts the stereotypical images still existing today within the
non-Native consciousness. Humor and its representation in Native literature
is best played-out in the dramatic writing of Native playwrights like Tomson
Highway, Monique Mojica, Drew Hayden Taylor, Daniel David Moses, etc.
In order to understand the underlying humor portrayed within these works
it is relevant to circumscribe their meaning and highlight the stereotypical
concepts that have long prevailed in our common understanding.
NATIVE HUMOR AND ITS PROBLEMATICS
Generally, when we consider the Native Peoples of North America it is the
silent, grave and stoic Indian as a stereotypical figure that pops into one’s
mind. Why? This is due to the historical image that has come down to us in
which the Indian never laughs. This is the image that Stephen Leacock, the
foremost literary humorist of the early twentieth century, reinforces when he
mentions the Indians in his book on humor:
Here on the spot was the Indian, probably the least humorous character recorded
in history. He took his pleasure seriously with a tomahawk. Scientists tell us that
humor and laughter had their beginnings in the dawn of history in the exultation
of the savage over his fallen foe. The North American Indian apparently never got
beyond the start. To crack his enemies’ skull with a hatchet was about the limit of
the sense of fun of a Seneca or a Pottawottomie.?
To what extent does this image reflect reality? Unfortunately, this has nothing to
do with realistic representation since this is pure stereotypical imaging, which
sadly still prevails in the twenty-first century. Leacock is not the only writer
who reflected on this aspect of the subdued Native. Margaret Atwood also
observed it, when she commented on white ignorance regarding Native humor:
8 Ibid., 16-17.
° Stephen Leacock, The Greatest Pages of American Humor, New York, The Sun Dial, 1942, 9.
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