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NATIVE HUMOUR AND IDENTITY CONTESTED THROUGH LITERATURE AND THE ARTS
identity by contesting these Indian stereotypes through reverence and ironic
humour.
Figure 3. Bill Powless, “Urban Indian Lost in the Woods” acrylic on canvas board,
1995, Tribal Vision, n.d. http://www.tribalvisiondance.com/p/original-artwork-by¬
bill-powless.html. By permission of artist.
The above paintings and drawings are charged with gentle wry humour, but
do we as a non-Indigenous audience understand their underlying hints? Pow¬
less remarked that those who saw his works displayed, and especially Indians’
Summer, “weren't sure whether to laugh or not. Some people just broke out [in
laughter], they couldn't help it, [...]. I could see them trying to hold it back”
(Ryan, 19).
Like Powless, Arigon Starr engages in collective memory resilience. Her
work Super Indian (2012), a comic book, activates intergenerational memory,
and the roots of genealogy go deep. The story is set on a reservation in the
United States and relates how Hubert Logan obtained his superpowers. Is he
the Indigenous version of Superman, the popular superhero? Starr elaborates,
“[wlhen I tell people Hubert got superpowers from eating tainted commodity
cheese, it usually gets a laugh, [...] Hey, it’s highly processed food! Could have
happened to anyone!” (Starr, “Super Indian”). Within her work, Starr uses
comedy, humour, and irony to explore social problems, combat racism, ste¬
reotyping and start conversations, but mostly to make people laugh. As in all
Indigenous works, comedy is a form of healing and education that strengthens
Indigenous identity. According to Starr,
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