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.