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NATIVE HUMOUR AND IDENTITY CONTESTED THROUGH LITERATURE AND THE ARTS
more profoundly with Indigenous culture, as this is essentially what ensures
the survival of Indigenous cultural identity. In this sense, survival gains resil¬
ience, which allows for a greater dimension and an optimistic outlook. Thomas
King’s stories, according to Atwood, “ambush the reader. They get the knife
in, not by whacking you over the head with their moral righteousness, but by
being funny” (244). King, however, does not “romanticise the slaughtered
Indians”; in The Inconvenient Indian he simply “deals with history in the same
practical, unselfconscious way he blows his nose. He lays the actions out and
lets them speak for themselves” (Atwood 246).
Drew Hayden Taylor has spent over twenty years researching and writing
humour. Taylor states that “Native humour comes from five hundred years of
colonisation, of oppression, of being kept prisoners in our own country” (Me
Funny 69). But he adds that “humour kept us sane. It gave us power. It gave us
privacy. Whenever two First Nations people got together, something magical
was sure to happen: there would be laughter” (Me Funny 69). The documentary,
Redskins, Tricksters and Puppy Stew (2000) directed by Drew Hayden Taylor
endeavours to define and explain how Native humour can be understood. The
film features well-known Native stand-up comedians who have become well¬
known names in the past two decades. Personalities like Don Kelly, who uses
comedy to connect the stereotypes of the “apathetic Indian”; Thomas King,
novelist, creator, and host of CBC-Radio’s Dead Dog Café features satirical
stories of Native issues, personalities and customs; Don Burnstick, a comedian
whose humour comes from years of street life and whose words “laughter is
good medicine” has become a catch phrase (Cultural Diversity); Herbie Barnes,
actor and co-founder of a sketch comedy troupe; Sharon Shorty and Jackie
Bear, a Whitehorse duo who portray Sarah and Susie — two elderly Native
ladies who discuss their daily activities, love of bingo and Kentucky Fried
Chicken. The film is a wonderful example of how the conventional image, or
the stereotype of the stoic Indian may be contested to shed light on the heal¬
ing powers of Native humour.
NATIVE HUMOUR AND NATIVE ARTS
Native humour, however, is not limited to Indigenous writings and the theatre.
There are many outstanding artists at work in the field, but for the sake of the
article the scope has been narrowed to view one particular Indigenous artist.
Bill Powless is a self-taught visual artist, though he has taken a graphic and
commercial art course at Mohawk College. He was born and raised on the Six
Nations of the Grand River Reserve, near Brantford, Ontario. Powless draws
and paints using a “realistic style”, and portrays images and “scenes from eve¬
ryday life, both the serious and the funny” (Tribal Vision). Powless uses
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