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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 transculturalism. 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 individuals 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. + 291 +
