For the past week, we’ve been following Vancouver Winter Olympics- speed skaters Apolo Ohno and Chicago’s Shani Davis, downhill skier Lindsey Vonn, and the Inukshuk. The Inukshuk is a stacked rock in human form which the Inuit people used as guideposts for direction across the vast horizons of the Canadian Arctic. The Vancouver Olympic committee chose a contemporary version of this symbol which they call Ilanaaq, the Inuktitut word for friend.
Inukshuk scupture
The exhibit “Raising the Totem: Exploring Northwest Coast Indigenous Cultures” at Evanston’s Mitchell Museum of The American Indian makes the connection between Native peoples of Northwest Coast and the Vancouver Winter Olympic games.
Besides the inukshuk sculpture, there are ceremonial cedar masks, totem pole models, flat art, baskets, rattles and other items that help illustrate Northwest Coast spirituality, history, customs, and contemporary concerns.
Of particular interest to those of us who watch the medal count is a video describing the development of the gold, silver and bronze medals for the Olympic and Paralympic games.
Corine Hunt is a a Vancouver, BC-based artist of Komoyue and Tlingit heritage. Hunt chose the orca as the motif for the Olympic medals, and the raven as the motif for the Paralympic medals.
Orca Mask
Olympic Gold Medal
“The orca is a beautiful creature that is strong but also lives within a community,” said Hunt. “I felt the Olympic (Games) are a community, too. The athletes may be training but they’re always somehow connected to their community, to their teammates, or to their country. The orca is a creature that has wonderful capabilities but can’t really survive without its pod.”
Paralympic Gold Medal
"Children of the Raven"
The raven design for the Paralympic medal has particulary meaning for Hunt whose uncle is a parapalegic. “The raven is a creature that is all things and I think Paralympic athletes have that in them. They’re sometimes given challenges and they rise above them and the raven does the same. I think the creativity of the raven gives us hope — to accept when things don’t work out and really rejoice when they do.”
As with most Olympic games, there are competing narratives about what the games represent. In the Vancouver Winter Olympics the Olympics there are alternate views of Native Peoples or first nations involvement.
“If it hadn’t been for the full support of the Four Host First Nations in our bid, we likely wouldn’t be talking about Vancouver 2010 today.” – Jack Poole, VANOC Board Chairman
The Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games are being held on the traditional and shared traditional territories of the Lil’wat, Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations – known collectively as the Four Host First Nations.
Representatives from "Four Nations"
On November 30, 2005, Vancouver 2010 and the Lil’wat, Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations signed a protocol that agrees to (among other things) : increase opportunities to showcase art, language, traditions, history and culture, build lasting social, cultural and economic opportunities and benefits and increase participation in medal ceremonies, Games Opening and Closing Ceremonies.
Olympic Tent Village
Not all Native people are as excited about the games. The group no2010 has been organizing and demonstrating with the slogan ‘No Olympics on Stolen Native Land.’ Their goals are to raise anti-colonial consciousness about the true history of British Columbia, protest the housing problems caused by the Olympics and and end discriminatory ticketing, police harassment, and all forms of criminalization of poverty.
The group has constructed an Olympic Tent Village. Since Feb 15, 2010 an Olympic Tent Village has been set up an empty lot owned by a “notorious condo developer” and currently being leased as a parking lot for the Olympics.
Can’t we all just get along? Well, we can try.
The Mitchell Museum of the American Indian at located 3001 Central Street Evanston, (847) 475-1030. The exhibit runs through June 13.
I have two prints of the Indian Baskets, of the Plains, Southeast, Northeast by Libby Mitchell, 1982, Seal Harbor, Maine and one dated 1976 with just her name. I would like to know more about her. Any suggestions. Thank you.