Reflection - Atanarjuat

In her article ‘Visual Sovereignty, Indigenous Revisions of Ethnography and Atanarjuat (The Fast Runner)’ (2011), Raheja talks about the film Atanarjuat (2000) challenging mass-mediated images of the Arctic. Yet, I found it interesting to hear some comments of audience members who felt that their views of the Arctic had not been challenged by this film, due to the fact that the Inuits were living in igloos, wearing fur, eating raw meat, hunting, using dog sleds etc. - all things contribute to the stereotype that non-Inuits have of Inuit people.


I agree that these typical images of Inuits are not challenged in the film. However, after walking away from this film, my views on Inuits had changed. The film stayed in my head and I felt I had gotten to know the characters and experienced a different way of life. It is the subtleties of the culture, the different way they view the world and yet at the same time the similarities between the Inuits and every other human that challenged the stereotypes I have unknowingly built up over years of exposure to media images.


Love, jealousy, fear, competition, tenderness, humour and fun were all present in the film. These are elements of life that all humans relate to. It was set in what most people would assume is a typical Inuit setting - snow, igloos, fur, dogs, ice etc and this is also what most people can relate to. Within these familiarities though, 'Atanarjuat' shows the audience things that most non-Inuits may have not experienced before. The conversation between the grandmother and "little mother" who is her grand-daughter now but was previously the grandmother's mother, all still the same person but now just in a different body. This part of the film illustrates in a subtle way, an Inuit worldview on how matter-of-factly they speak of this concept of a type of 'reincarnation'.  


Also, when the shaman figure came to the community and evil was brought in, the attitude of the Inuits was that they did not know why but it just happened. They accepted it and moved on. This again is different to a Western view of a similar incident, where people would demand to know why it happened and do everything they could to make sure it did not happen again.


The fight scene between Atanarjuat and Oki was so controlled and disciplined, and was another image that challenged my own worldview, given that it was so different to any fight scene I have ever seen in a movie. 


All these images have contributed to opening my mind a little more as I have had a glimpse into how another race of people live. Atanarjuat has been successful in challenging my stereotypical views of Inuit people by allowing me to see into their way of life through their eyes. It is a movie that perhaps needs to be watched a few times to fully grasp all that it is portraying.


Reference

Raheja, M H 2011, ‘Visual Sovereignty, Indigenous Revisions of Ethnography and Atanarjuat (The Fast Runner)’ in Reservation Reelism:  Redfacing, Visual Sovereignty and Representations of Native Americans in Film, University of Nebraska Press, USA, pp. 190-220

 

Week 11 - Article Review - Atanarjuat

Raheja, M H 2011, ‘Visual Sovereignty, Indigenous Revisions of Ethnography and Atanarjuat (The Fast Runner)’ in Reservation Reelism:  Redfacing, Visual Sovereignty and Representations of Native Americans in Film, University of Nebraska Press, USA, pp. 190-220

This article examines Native Americans portrayed in film and how these depictions come across differently to Inuit and non-Inuit audience members.  Using the example of the film ‘Atanarjuat’ (2000) which is directed and produced by Inuits, Raheja demonstrates how such a film is able to influence both Inuit and non-Inuit audience members similarly through visual sovereignty.

Visual sovereignty in this film allows a more authentic portrayal of the Native American culture, creating a more synchronized view of the film, regardless of its audience. Stereotypes are undermined and mass-mediated images formed throughout cinematic history are challenged, at the same time as being of service to local communities through representation.

By approaching a film in this way, attention can also be focused on issues such as land rights through the eyes of the indigenous people, increasing awareness in the world among non-indigenous people. A film such as Atanarjuat, which uses visual sovereignty, helps to correct a history of films and documentaries about Native Americans that have only been seen through Western eyes. Atanarjuat stretches the boundaries of indigenous representation and allows a non-Inuit audience to see through Inuit eyes perhaps more than has been possible previously.