By Michaei Becker News Editor wmichael@nsnews.com THIS roundup of stereotypes from the froatier is © defined by gender bending and systemic cultural appropriation. The images at Presentation House are fascinating. The sheer thematic weight of this collection of more than 200 antique prints of postcards, calendars, sheet music covers and photographs prompts a frank questioning of some of the pop- ular cultural assumptions many of us carry with us to this day when we think about the “taming” of the wild west. Indian Princesses and Cowgirls, shows at Presentation House Gallery through to Oct. 12. The exhibit is presented by guest curators Marilyn Burgess and Gail Guthrie Valaskakis. Burgess, a feminist scholar and filmmaker, and Valaskakis, a north- ern native communications scholar and the former dean of arts and sci- ences at Conco;dia University in Montreal, were at the gallery to open the exhibit on Sept. &. Karen Love, Presentation House director and curator, first heard abour the work of Burgess and Valaskakis when it was first presented at the Obero Gallery. in Montreal five yearsago. - “Our of that exhibition came their publication, which is a beautiful little book. The exhibition seemed very interesting to me and it was per- colating: in: the back of my mind,” said Love. Burgess called her up one day and the seed was planted for the local showing. The subject matter marries well with the Presentation House Gallery philosophy of looking “at popu- lar culcure and particularly how photography plays a role in that,”. said: Love. . * The exhibit runs the gamut from photos of rodeo cowgirls circa 1912 to 1920, famous wild west icons like Annie Oakley . and Calamity Jane, images of Pocahontas in her many guises, Emily Pauline Johnson Tekahionwake in buckskin dress, to ‘sundry. risque Indian princesses and cowgirls. : . Malaskakis. is a.member of the Lake Superior Chippewa . Indians.She was: raised'on the Lac de Flambeau reserve in ~ Wisconsin. She does not look native. That fact in part set the wheels in motion to bring: her to collect images of Indian princesses, : ce ‘Said Valaskakis, “As a child I watched tourists looking at postcard racks for images of Indians — Indians that were cov- ered in beadwork and buckskin, covered with feathers, sitting with horses. -- : - “1 found it-really difficult to make a connection between those images and my great grandmother. She lived across the road from us and I listened to her stories of our empowerment - until I was'18 and I went away to university and she died. “She was a woman who could portage her own canoe when * she was.95: She was'a woman of remarkable power. And what -the.connection. was between the postcard images I saw and “that: grandma, was very hard for me to understand,” said Valaskakis. .. She finds the real value of these images in the fact that they -are constructed identities. ”. * SIf we are in fact 3 part of those in that we al! partake in > that, ‘thea. these’ become very impurtant images in terms of “what they say and what they don’t say,” said Valaskakis. Sel ZEUSHAIR DESIGN 929-2045 Ask about our special highlight process LASTS LONGER . 3736 Mt. Seymour Pkwy, North Van. eside Mac's Mitk) OFFER EXPIRES OCTOBER 15 Joint Pain? ? GLS-500 “As Margaret Atwood says, these images of villains and vic- tims, images of the torturer and sufferer that we all have imag- ined in our social imaginary are not images of equals, not images of people who are in fact real occupants and inhabitants of 2 Jand, not images of a people who are in fact sovereign nations. That is the real lesson to be jearned in terms of these images.” Burgess began to collect images of cowgirls in 1989. “I knew nothing abour the frontier and I was at the Banff Centre. The Calgary Stampede was on and I had no idea what that was and I decided to find out about ir.” She eventually took in all-women rodeos and old-timer rodeos. “I was fascinated and I got hooked,” said Burgess. She has been combing archives ever since. She sees cowgirls and Indian princesses as “two sides of the same coin.” “If cowboys and cowgirls are possible, it’s because Europeans came out to the frontier and learned how to plav at being Indian. They learned the ways of rhe native peopie as the fron- tier moved westward and they became associated with that life.” With this perspective in mind, Calamity Jane is viewed as playing the role of a western adventur- er modeled after Indian lifestyles. Lillian Smith, a cowgirl who also performed in wild west shows as Princess Wenona, would paint her skin brown and wear long braids and a buckskin dress and do essen- tially the same tricks she was doing as a cow- girl — riding bucking horses and sharp-shooting. Said Burgess, “In order to play at being Indian one. of the things that has to happen is that real Indian: have to disappear and that’s exactly what was happening in the east at the time they were being pushed away from the emerging European socicty. “Once they’re all gone you can play at being them,” she said. Burgess said the popular- ized cowgirl surfaced in late 19tk Century adventure-rumance literature. In the 1850s and 1860s readers met the beautiful Indian princess who the white adventurer falls in Jove with. “Of course she can do things like tide astride her horse, not side saddle, and she can. hunt and she can fight in wars.” By the end of the story it’s revealed that siie’s really white. She has been kidnapped and raised by natives. “So it’s OK for the witite guy to marry her at the end. What happened in the 1870s is that the writers got more bold and said she doesn’t really need to be Indian anymore, we'll just make her a white girl who just happens to be living on the frontier,” said Burgess. . . A cowgirl swore and played at cards. She had a gun that she would use. “Then you get people like Belle Star who posed with two pistols, always one in her hand and one on her hip. Belle Star, who fabricated wanted posters of herself.” rls, Bead: a — e mine Sulfate Friday, September 92, 1997 — North Shore News — 31 Ne io BUFFALO Brewing (left) took some tiberty with native imagery, Princess Re Bird wowed the crowd at the Pendleton Roundup in'1916, above, and An Cakley (top) posed for this chot to promote Buffalo Bill's Wild West'in 1698. Rodeo cowgirls, the real-life extension of the fictional, ” intrigue Burgess. “These women really are transgressing ‘the codes of gender and are not feeling any need to account: for it.” oo ae eS On the other side of the coin, the Indian’ princesses’ Valaskakis has gathered are all white women who competed for the privilege of posing to, be Indian princesses. “In fact ‘they all look a lot like Brooke Shields. They are in great contrast to the’ Indian women we see from about the same period. There are < advertising princesses, very sexually alluring princesses and the. famous red tunic ladies of the.1920s,” Valaskakis said . The show closes on Sunday Oct. 12 with a performance * work by Rebecca Belmore: She will present Five Sisters, at 7:30 p.m., in her persona High-Tech Teepee Trauma Mama. The performance “addresses the more personal issues entailed by colonial racism and racist representations.” : bottle of triple strength Buy ; for $12.99 and receive a bottle ming Hers ‘Dre, W.' 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