Natives concerned over representation in Olympic imagery

As Canada gears up for the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, indigenous people throughout North America and this university have questioned their role and representation in the February games.
Olympic organizers have touted the involvement of the First Nations — an ethnic term for the indigenous people of Canada, excluding the Arctic Inuit and mixed ancestry people — by devoting part of the Vancouver 2010 Web site to “Aboriginal Participation,” including the assistance from the four host First Nations, on whose land the Olympics will be held, in securing a bid for the city.
“The 2010 Games present us with a significant opportunity to build new or enhance existing relationships, establish partnerships and showcase our diverse and extraordinary culture to the world,” Musqueam Nation Chief Ernest Campbell said on the Web site.
But many Aboriginal Canadians have expressed unhappiness with the Olympics, specifically their marketing.
Ilanaaq, the Vancouver Olympics’ official emblem, is a “contemporary interpretation” of the inukshuk, a traditional Inuit stone marker that signifies safety and friendship and is meant to represent the vast nation of Canada.
Though some Aboriginal leaders supported the design, others criticized the multicolored, five-piece, person-like figure, saying it should not be called an inukshuk.
“Inuit never build Inukshuk with head, legs and arms,” Peter Inriq, a former Nunavut Nation commissioner, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in April 2005. “Inukshuk is like survival. … What we think about Inukshuk is what we think about the Canadian flag. It is that important.”
The Olympics’ mascots also have an Aboriginal influence. Miga is a “sea bear,” an animal inspired by the legends of the Pacific Northwest First Nations, which tell of orca whales transforming into bears. Quatchi is a sasquatch, another animal from First Nations myth more commonly known as Bigfoot. Paralympic mascot Sumi is a guardian spirit reminiscent of a totem pole whose name derives from an Aboriginal word.
“[The Vancouver Organizing Committee] know that’s the way that it’s going to make money,” Kanahus Pelkey, of the Secwepemc and Ktunaxa First Nations, told The Dominion, an alternative Canadian weekly, in March 2008. “People want to come from all over the world, ‘Oh, Native American, oh, what are the Native Americans doing?’ But we want them to know we’re protesting.”
American Indian Student Union President Erin Deriso expressed her outrage toward the Olympics’ use of native peoples’ symbols and history, saying her viewing of the Vancouver Olympics will be altered.
During Native Solidarity Week in November, the AISU conducted “Why Mascoting Is Wrong,” a seminar about the “issue of a people being used as a mascot.”
“As a native person, I am wholly opposed to any kind of native symbol as a logo or mascot,” Deriso said. “It’s not an honor. It’s this government that treated [native people] badly and oppressed them, and, to put salt in the wounds, used their symbols.”
Other students were not so harsh. “I think it’s not appropriate that they did that, but at this point, there’s nothing they can do except maybe issue an apology,” said sophomore marketing major Alexandra Dalo.