Me ; So you visited an American Indian reserve?Where was it ?
Nanny Jenny ;Yes , in Canada . It was a plot of land which the Canadian goverment had set aside for the American Indians .
Me ; What kind of events did they hold? Ritual wise
Nanny Jenny ; Yes , when i was there . We was waiting to get the ferry and they were holding boat race . So there was lots of kanus which they race from Vancouver island to all the other islands.
Me ; Was this race a tradition ? And was there any meaning behind it ?
Nanny Jenny ; It was like their sports day . And there was Indian Women sat on the bay , and they were chewing the leather in the traditional way to make shoes and coats .
Me: They chew the leather?
Nanny Jenny ; yeah they put salt on it and chew it , they still do it .
Me ; Does doing this make it plyable ?
Nanny Jenny ; yeah so they can get the correct shape
Me ; Do you think the sports day would of represented something to do with their spirituality ?
Nanny Jenny ; It was all to do with chasing off the Europeans and other tribes , protecting their tribe .
Me ; In your opinion do you think that the American Indians were wrongly slaughtered and wrongly treated by the europeans ?
Nanny Jenny ; Of course i do , what the Europeans did to them ... Infact , what we did to them also was barbaric .
Nanny Jenny ; I actually met an American Indian Chief outside of the Reserve. Him and his family owned a shop .He was called , Cheaky Yellowhammer.
Me ;So how does he live? Does he live traditionally to his heritage or ?
Nanny Jenny; Well like i said him and his sister owned this shop in , Oakman and they make dreamcatchers and earrings and the jewerelly and they sell all that . Thats where i got my hat aswell , and he christianed me red because i'd bought the hat with the leather tassels . He was lovely he was .
Me ;I find it amazing how the Americans are still taking land off the American Indians which they had reservated for them .. it was theirs to begin with .
Dad ; well yeah , because they can get things like plattinium from their land , uranium and stuff like that .
Nanny Jenny ;there was a congress a long time ago where they fought for the right for the Indian rights .The American Indians have always believed that nobody owned the land , because they lived in harmony with the land like the Animals around them .
Me ; Here what do you think of this , ill read you a short paragraph i've just found and tell me your opinions . '' American Indians struggles still continue today . They are still being taken advantage of to this day .What little portion of their land they are permitted to inhabit by the u.s goverment is bgeing re acquired for the use of toxic waste dumping . Scientists have even come forward to comment on the affects of living near this waste as harmful.
Nanny Pamela ; Sound right to me
Dad ; not surprised at all
Nanny pam ; The land of the free is only free is you're a white American . Thats how its always been and thats how it will always be
Nanny Jenny ; They have to ask for a permit to leave their reserves you know , and also if there isnt a head of their tribe left for more than four months then the land get taken off them .
Me ; Thats horrible .
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I found alot out during these interview . I got more of an understand as so how bad the racisim actually is toward American Indians and how badly the American Indians are taken advantage of by the U.S.A still to this very day . I feel really scared for the world as the country which is most know for premoting and strengthening freedom and equal rights throughout the country neglects the rights of the peoples that were there before any of them . These interviews really made me feel strongly about portraying the affect of this in my garment . It is not only American Indians which are suffering , its their culture and their heritage . It is being washed away and slowly forgotten and faded .
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