An amazing group of guests, including Molly Swain and Chelsea Vowel (Métis In Space), professor and author Sierra Adare-Tasiwoopa Api, and David Holquinn (Trekradio) join us to talk about Indigenous representation in Trek, from “The Paradise Syndrome” to Chakotay.
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Host: Jarrah
Guests:
- Sierra Adare-Tasiwoopa Api, author
- David Holquinn, Trek Radio DJ, @DeyvID_KDF
- Molly Swain, co-host of the Métis In Space podcast
- Chelsea Vowel, co-host of the Métis In Space podcast and blogger at apihtawikosisan.com, @apihtawikosisan
Editor: Jarrah
Transcription: Rebecca – @carolinalady
Download transcript: PDF or Word
Notes and References:
- “Indian” Stereotypes in TV Science Fiction: First Nations Voices Speak Out by Sierra S. Adare, University of Texas Press (2005)
- Film: Reel Injun (2009)
- “‘A Cuchi Moya!’ – Star Trek’s Native Americans” by Katja Kanzler, American Studies Journal Number 49 (2007)
- IMDB bio for Robert Beltran
- Indigenous Writes by Chelsea Vowel, Portage & Main Press (2016).
- “Star Trek Bachelor Party” at Trek Radio.
Wow Jarah. I think this is my favourite episode so far. Thank you to you and your guests for an amazing thoughtful show. (The Métis in Space podcast is on its own website now. That’s a dead link.)
Thanks for catching that – the link is now fixed.
What an wonderful and interesting episode, it opened my mind to so many different views. When they mentioned the Hollywood trope of the indigenous woman always dying, I suddenly remembered poor Silver Fox -in all honesty, I had to Google “Wolverine’s girlfriend”, because that was her role in the movie: to die as a plot devise for him. Then I remembered the dead wife in The Revenant, who doesn’t even have a name!! -but “Hugh Glass’ wife” and I am pretty sure there are many more I can’t think of now, but this discussion was so interesting: invisible indigenous women as plot devises. The other point that caught my attention was when they talked about indigenous pre-existing technology, and I wanted to share that when I was an interpreter during the University of Utah Native Language Summit (where I interpreted from Spanish-English because some of the panelist spoke Spanish as their second language, their first language being either Nahuatl, Quechua or Kichwa) There, I heard that one of the language challenges the panelists face is to update their languages in order to describe new technologies: computers, twitter, etc, one example given was “thinking iron” for computer. While listening to the guests of this episode, to hear them say they already had technology made me realize that the challenge of updating their languages comes from the need to describe technology that was created by ‘others’, and not necessarily the lack of words for technology as such, a wonderful thought and again, a wonderful episode. Thanks.