Indigeneity and the Decolonizing Gaze

Book excerpt: Against the long historical backdrop of 1492, Columbus, and the Conquest, Robert Stam's wide-ranging study traces a trajectory from the representation of indigenous peoples by others to self-representation by indigenous peoples, often as a form of resistance and rebellion to colonialist or neoliberal capitalism, across an eclectic range of forms of media, arts, and social philosophy. Spanning national and transnational media in countries including the US, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, and Italy, Stam orchestrates a dialogue between the western mediated gaze on the 'Indian' and the indigenous gaze itself, especially as incarnated in the burgeoning movement of “indigenous media,” that is, the use of audio-visual-digital media for the social and cultural purposes of indigenous peoples themselves. Drawing on examples from cinema, literature, music, video, painting and stand-up comedy, Stam shows how indigenous artists, intellectuals and activists are responding to the multiple crises - climatological, economic, political, racial, and cultural - confronting the world. Significant attention is paid to the role of arts-based activism in supporting the struggle of indigenous artistic activism, of the Yanomami people specifically, to save the Amazon forest and the planet.