NationStates Jolt Archive

I haven't been following "Into the West" all that much...but the little I have seen seems to be a fairly accurate portrayal, and I know TV shows like The Rez, and Moccasin Flats paint a fairly accurate (and not pretty) picture of urban natives. Do you feel that modern portrayals of aboriginal people are more informative? More accurate? Have you learned anything from them?

Honestly I don't see many portrayals of aboriginal people in any of the shows I watch. Even Deadwood, which is set on an illegal white settlement on Indian land hasn't had alot of Indians in the cast for anything more than an episode or so in the first couple of seasons.

I don't think portrayals of aboriginals are any more common than before. It would be nice to have more aboriginal people in non-historical or aboriginal-based programming, for sure...but the same can be said for most ethnicities. It drives me nuts that in the US, the same Latino actors are recycled in almost all the latino roles, and there aren't many Asian or Arab portrayals either in non-stereotypical roles I mean. It would be nice to have TV reflect North America's real diversity.

I don't think portrayals of aboriginals are any more common than before. It would be nice to have more aboriginal people in non-historical or aboriginal-based programming, for sure...but the same can be said for most ethnicities. It drives me nuts that in the US, the same Latino actors are recycled in almost all the latino roles, and there aren't many Asian or Arab portrayals either in non-stereotypical roles I mean. It would be nice to have TV reflect North America's real diversity.
Yeah, Danny Trejo (http://imdb.com/name/nm0001803/) is the stock Mexican guy in every movie. I can't even name an Arab actor besides Tony Shaloob.

I can't even name an Arab actor besides Tony Shaloob.

Omar Sharif.

The Sorbs get mentioned occasionally on the Berlin-Brandenburg television channel. Haven't seen anything about them in a while though...

Omar Sharif.
*slaps forehead*

I think things are swinging towards more diversity...but I suspect that non-whites have had to really fight to get their foot in the door. And to toss in a conspiracy theory...I wonder how much of the latino recycling is due to outside influence...or certain latino media moguls making sure that certain latino actors get all the choice roles instead of finding new talent?

If I watched more TV and movies, I might be able to answer this for you, Sinuhue, but frankly, what little TV 'fiction' I watch comes from the US. However, the shows I watch the most - Firefly, 6 Feet Under, The Shield, and a few others do show minorities in non-stereotypical roles. Firefly has a black woman as a 2IC, 6 Feet Under has a Latino partner in the funeral parlor business (and several gay characters as well), and The Shield has several black police officers and detectives, as well as a Latino police chief who is gunning to be the next mayor. Unfortunately none of the shows I watch has portrayed an aboriginal at all, let alone in a non-stereotypical role.

Um, the only native american characters I can think of are
Turok (http://www.halifax.it/best/turok-evolution/img/artworks/art_5.jpg) and Chakotay (http://www.trekconnection.com/pictures/Voyager/pictures/chakotay/chakotay_08.jpg).

Honestly I don't see many portrayals of aboriginal people in any of the shows I watch. Even Deadwood, which is set on an illegal white settlement on Indian land hasn't had alot of Indians in the cast for anything more than an episode or so in the first couple of seasons.

Announcer voice - today, on Deadwood
*cuts to two cowboys sitting on a fence, each holding a porno mag and focusing intensely*
Cowboy 1: Anything?
Cowboy 2: Nope.
Announcer voice - next week, on Deadwood.

Which is further reinforcement for my theory that there exists a Family guy quote for every situation.:)

As to aboriginal portrayals, I'm not sure about accurate, but at least they are a lot more... I guess you'd say sympathetic. The red man is no longer always the bad guy or a mindless savage or some such thing, but is often portrayed as a hero and/or victim, roles that used to be reserved for the cowboys and the calvary.

I don't know.

I'd have to ask the aboriginal people themselves.

An aboriginal person (Sinuhue) was asking you...

Hard to say for sure. Southeastern tribes don't get represented much on television or in movies. Maybe we should have had those ornate head dresses or worn pants or something. :D

I have absolutely no idea, because in (Northern) Ireland we don't have any aboriginal peoples. But I hope the portrayal of those in other countries are becoming more accurate.

I have heard that natives used to be seen as “the bad guys” in Westerns years ago. All I know is that most portrayals of Amerindians that I have seen perpetuate the Hollywood myth of the “noble savage”. The only film I have seen recently that I thought was at all accurate was “Last of the Mohegans.”
It showed them as people, not all good not all bad, and not above the burning of farms.

Except for the shows you've already mentioned, I see little to no protrayals of Aboriginal people on TV or in the movies. When I do see them, it shows me nothing new. I don't find the contemporary portrayal to be informative because I pretty much already know what is being protrayed, either through my study of history or my interactions with actual Native Americans (friends, co-workers, neighbours etc). For people who haven't had much dealings with Native Americans in their life, and who haven't had the chance to learn much of of (true, non-stereotype) Native history, I would say that the contemporary portrayal of Native Americans is far better than what was offered in the past.

Sadly, people of my parents generation still have many of the old negative stereotypes that were portrayed in the past. It would be much better if there were more Native characters in sitcoms and dramas. Characters, not caricatures. There really isn't all that many Natives left (relative to the rest of the north american pop.), especially not in urban society, so I guess they don't really come up on the radar when these shows get written.

I think there's a lot of room for improvement.

I saw the commercials for "Into the West," but that was a few months ago, and I haven't heard about it since.. must be on HBO, I figure, and I don't subscribe.

However, I did see "Windtalkers" on the History Channel, which turned out to be a sub-par WWII film, but at least acknowledged the Navajo code, which was cool. That's about it, though.

Also, I think Luis Guzman has the record for playing the most stock Mexican roles on t.v. and movies.. he's everywhere.. :p

The most recent programe I saw that portrayed anything about native American people was a (non-fiction) programe called 'Finding our talk'. Since it was non-fiction I presume it was accurate. We dont get a lot of portrayals of native Americans on our tv chanels and since I dont know a great deal about native Americans it would be difficult for me to judge the accuracy of any such portrayals. The most recent fictional portrayal of native Americans I saw on tv was the last programe in a really old mini series (about a woman who was murdered when she left her family home to attend a school). I have no idea how accurate the portrayal of either the aboriginal characters or the non-Aboriginal characters was though because I dont really know that much about people who live in Canada.

I have absolutely no idea, because in (Northern) Ireland we don't have any aboriginal peoples.

what about the Leprecaun? (sp?)

what about the Leprecaun? (sp?)
You actually thing that's real?