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Waneek Horn-Miller is a former olympian for the Canadian water polo team, as well as an advocate for healthy living. She states that sports have been a part of her growing up, as influenced by her mother. Horn-Miller describes her mother as first nations activist, and that she wanted all of her kids to be in sports to maintain their fitness, and more importantly build perseverance and reaching their full potential. From a young age, Horn-Miller was taught to never give up on her goals and that being lazy is showing disrespect to yourself. This mindset allowed her to achieve her dreams of becoming an Olympian, even with setbacks that had occurred along the way. She was injured on the Oka Front Lines at the age of 14, and she had suffered from PTSD due to this horrible experience. Her dedication to her sport allowed her to overcome this obstacle, and come back as strong as ever.

Horn-Miller was the only Aboriginal to be on the Olympic water polo team, and she noticed that majority of the teams were either white or middle-class people, therefore not representing Canada as a whole. She understood that being in sports was financially difficult for some, not allowing as many people to have the dream of becoming an olympian. Also, she was on the cover of the magazine TIME, and they did not care for her Aboriginal heritage except for accentuating it in the picture, with putting a feather in her hair. They had no care for what her perspectives were as an Aboriginal person, and just used her differences as an advertising point. From growing up as an Aboriginal she has learned why her heritage is so important to be remembered in Canada. Many see Aboriginals as irrelevant in Canada, and only causing more problems. However, Horn-Miller has recognized that her culture has knowledge, culture and strength, and they can teach this to many other people.

I think that Horn-Miller’s participation on the Canadian Olympic team will turn into a big inspiration for young first nations athletes. Majority of young athletes look up to olympians as idols, and the fact that Horn-Miller represents the First Nations shows that it is a possibility for young First Nations athletes as well.  The fact that Horn-Miller is a First Nation woman on the olympic team, is abused by publicists, as seen on the cover from TIME magazine. The magazine sexualized her culture by having her pose naked with a feather on her hair on the cover. The magazine company knows that a naked woman who is of First Nation heritage will attract more viewers and will sell more copies of the magazine. This sends misconceptions about her culture, and this is how stereotypes are created. Her pose is like an imitation of Pocahontas, and this creates an even larger misinterpretation about the first nations culture. This message being shown to young First Nations could feel degrading in the way that they would only be used for their heritage and bodies to aid in a magazine company making a larger profit. Not only it is abusing her culture, it is also abusing all women who are put on magazine covers. A lot of successful female athletes are sexualized on magazine covers. Majority are either naked or dressed in a skimpy bikini, and this is how our society appreciates female athletes. Their accomplishments are seen as nothing compared to how they look as an object. Another example of this kind of this is Serena Williams on the cover of SELF magazine. She is posed on a beach in a bikini, and the photo has nothing to do with tennis. She is shown as just a female figure who has an athletes body. It has nothing to do with her accomplishments, and because of her athleticism is why she has a muscular athletes build.

Horn-Miller's injury from the Oka attack is recognized in the Olympics because she overcame a huge obstacle in her athletic career, and it is also a reminder about the event. The more we remember and analyze incidents like this, the more we can move forward with better intentions, and to ensure it does not happen again. It is interesting how the same person is treated so differently under different spotlights. When she was protesting for her culture, she was suppressed, abused and seen as weak. The perspective she was seen in was from a negative point of view. However, a few years later, she is seen competing for our country, and all of a sudden she is appreciated and given constant praise. Olympians are not seen as weak, they are seen as the best of the best. She is the same person in both scenarios, and it is the same people judging, but how can she be seen in two drastically different ways?  Horn-Miller has been injured by the government, but is seen fighting for our country in the Olympics. It is an interesting relationship between the two, and how she is portrayed based on the scenario told.

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In this text, it speaks to the effect of the Disney movie, “Pocahontas” had on the lives of Native women from three different bands. The movie Pocahontas is about an Native American woman who falls in love with a white man, and convinces him to change his ways. To this day, Pocahontas is a public representation of all Native American women. Charlotte Logan from the Akwesasne Mohawk band states that when she was in high school, she was constantly compared to Pocahontas. She knew that the references were out of ignorance of other people, but still irritating to constantly hear it. Pocahontas was the only representation of Native Americans in the USA, and everything they knew about the culture was inferred from the movie. No Native American history is spoken of in American history, therefore they are uninformed to what their culture really is. Another woman, Alida Kinnie Starr from the Mixed Blood Mohawk band states that she never thought much of Pocahontas, other than a Disney character who had persuaded Europeans to come to America. However, she did find that stereotyping of Native American women in general affected her everyday life. When going out in public, she felt that if she did not wear the stereotypical accessories, that she would be accused of “not being a real Indian”. The third woman Kelli Clifton, states that Pocahontas was the only good representation of Native American women in the media. All of the women on the news were depicted poorly, whereas Pocahontas could sing, talk to animals, and was a confident dark skinned woman. These various effects that Pocahontas had on these women give a small glimpse as to its overall significance in the native community.

The three different opinions all have in common that stereotyping Native American people affects everyone in the community, directly or indirectly. All three women state that some form of stereotyping has affected them in their lives. The fictional character Pocahontas creates more stereotypes for their people as her character is very well known within pop culture. It is the only source of information on Native Americans that is easily accessible for most Americans. The lack of knowledge about them is due to the absence of their history spoken of in American history. People will then make assumptions, and listen to the stereotypes out there, and stand by them. To avoid these stereotypes, I think that more people need to be educated on the history of the Native Americans. They had a difficult past to overcome, and much more than convincing a white man to change his beliefs as seen in Pocahontas. The main goal of this text is to show how much stereotyping hurts the Native Americans. As a world we make enough stereotypes about them already, and Pocahontas on top of this just adds fuel to the already existing fire.

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Indigenous ideas and techniques have been appearing in the fashion industry more and more lately. The most recent act of this was seen at the Milan Fashion week, which is a big event for those in the industry. A Canadian design team created a fashion line using drawing inspiration from indigenous techniques, and there has been controversy over the integrity and motifs behind the usage of it. Dorothy Grant, a fashion designer in the 80's, popularized the use of indigenous fashion, and she states that the difference between her and designers using it for cultural statements, is aesthetics and ethics. Designers are now using it to make a cultural statement, and for the aesthetics of their clothing. Whereas Grant has the proper integrity and respect towards the techniques.

I think that it is a step forwards in our society such that indigenous people are being recognized for their traditions in a light that everyone can see. It creates an awareness towards their people, and reminds us who they are and what they stand for. However, the downside is that they are not necessarily represented ethically correct. The designers do not know about the various techniques associated with the indigenous culture, and how to use them in their clothing appropriately.

A new initiative has been started by designer Sage Paul, and she calls it the fashion incubator. The goal is to learn and teach people about the culture through the use of clothing. I believe that this initiative will create a lot of awareness for the indigenous culture, and it may inspire some to want to learn more about it. It is important that they are represented accurately in the culture appropriations made, and this is one way to ensure this. Another designer, Trip Charbs states that “I want to take our traditional fashion beyond the powwow ground but maintain the respect”. This statement shows that she is wanting to share the indigenous fashions and ideas, but the respect for them must be maintained. The designs are not simply something that can be copied and shared, merely based off of their looks.

The traditions of these patterns go back into the indigenous history of their elders. Their techniques must still be used to make the clothing items, or else the respect for it has been lost. The patterns represent much more than looking aesthetically pleasing to the indigenous people, and if they are continually to be used, the respect of them must be sustained. Moving forward, I think it is a great idea to represent the indigenous people to remember what they have done, and what was done to them, however if their culture is not represented appropriately and respectfully it is inappropriate to continue to draw inspiration from their culture.