Indigenous C e l e b r i t y Indigenous Celebrity ENTANGLEMENTS WITH FAME Edited by Jennifer Adese and Robert Alexander Innes Indigenous Celebrity: Entanglements with Fame © The Authors 2021 25 24 23 22 21 1 2 3 4 5 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database and retrieval system in Canada, without the prior written permission of the publisher, or, in the case of photocopying or any other reprographic copying, a licence from Access Copyright, www.accesscopyright.ca, 1-800-893-5777. University of Manitoba Press Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada Treaty 1 Territory uofmpress.ca Cataloguing data available from Library and Archives Canada isbn 978-0-88755-906-8 (paper) isbn 978-0-88755-922-8 (pdf) isbn 978-0-88755-921-1 (epub) isbn 978-0-88755-923-5 (bound) Cover image by Steven Paul Judd, Two Loves (2015) Cover Design by David Drummond  Interior design by Jess Koroscil Printed in Canada This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, through the Awards to Scholarly Publications Program, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. The University of Manitoba Press acknowledges the financial support for its publication program provided by the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Manitoba Department of Sport, Culture, and Heritage, the Manitoba Arts Council, and the Manitoba Book Publishing Tax Credit. CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1 Indigeneity, Celebrity, and Fame: Accounting for Colonialism Jennifer Adese and Robert Alexander Innes CHAPTER 1 33 Mino-Waawiindaganeziwin: What Does Indigenous Celebrity Mean within Anishinaabeg Contexts? Renée E. Mazinegiizhigoo-kwe Bédard CHAPTER 2 56 Empowering Voices from the Past: The Playing Experiences of Retired Pasifika Rugby League Athletes in Australia David Lakisa, Katerina Teaiwa, Daryl Adair, and Tracy Taylor CHAPTER 3 80 My Mom, the “Military Mohawk Princess”: kahntinetha Horn through the Lens of Indigenous Female Celebrity Kahente Horn-Miller CHAPTER 4 102 Indigenous Activism and Celebrity: Negotiating Access, Inclusion, and the Politics of Humility Jonathan G. Hill and Virginia McLaurin CHAPTER 5 126 Rags-to-Riches and Other Fairytales: Indigenous Celebrity in Australia 1950–80 Karen Fox CHAPTER 6 146 “Pretty Boy” Trudeau Versus the “Algonquin Agitator”: Hitting the Ropes of Canadian Colonialist Masculinities Kim Anderson and Brendan Hokowhitu CHAPTER 7 163 Famous “Last” Speakers: Celebrity and Erasure in Media Coverage of Indigenous Language Endangerment Jenny L. Davis CHAPTER 8 177 Celebrity in Absentia: Situating the Indigenous People of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Indian Social Imaginary Aadita Chaudhury CHAPTER 9 202 Marvin Rainwater and “The Pale Faced Indian”: How Cover Songs Appropriated a Story of Cultural Appropriation Christina Giacona CHAPTER 10 221 Collectivity as Indigenous Anti-Celebrity: Global Indigeneity and the Indigenous Rights Movement Sheryl Lightfoot CHAPTER 11 243 Makings, Meanings, and Recognitions: The Stuff of Anishinaabe Stars w. C. Sy Acknowledgements 263 Selected Bibliography 265 Contributors 289 Index 295 INTRODUCTION Indigeneity, Celebrity, and Fame: Accounting for Colonialism Jennifer Adese and Robert Alexander Innes In late 2016, Canadian literary celebrity Joseph Boyden came under intense scrutiny regarding his identity claims by both Indigenous and mainstream news media; in some cases, journalists seemed to think that his status as part of the broader Canadian literary scene meant that Boyden was immune to critical questioning. A number of journalists derided questions raised about his identity claims, suggesting that they were little more than petty attacks.1 Indigenous news outlet Aboriginal Peoples Television Network, on the other hand, and journalist Jorge Barrera in particular, published inves- tigative pieces digging into Boyden’s identity claims. They also examined accusations of plagiarism launched against Boyden in the wake of his being “opened up” to critical public scrutiny.2 It became clear, at the outset, that a number of individuals had begun to take note of the shifting character of Boyden’s claims and of the disturbing similarity between his work and that of the late Anishinaabe author Ron Geyshick. Yet many people hesi- tated to raise their concerns publicly. Why did it seem to some that Boyden was off-limits? Why did some hesitate to consider—or avoid discussing al- together—the accusations made against him? Something undergirded this reluctance and at the same time stoked fierce counter critiques intended to preserve Boyden and his legacy. 2 Indigenous Celebrity It is this something that the authors of this volume are interested in. In the context of this volume, that something is celebrity and the power, influence, and recognition that come with being construed as an “Indigenous celebrity.” Boyden’s status as an Indigenous-identified and -identifying literary celeb- rity, and the social, cultural, economic, and other forms of capitalism that came with his Indigeneity and celebrity status, cast a dark shadow over those concerned about what they framed as inconsistencies in his public narrativiza- tion of his Indigenous identity. To many, Boyden was “too big to fail” in that as the darling of the Canadian literary scene—and the voice on Indigenous issues in media in the early part of the 2010s—he was above reproach. At a key juncture in the history of Canada, that of intensive global attention to the legacies of its residential school system, Boyden emerged as a kind of “great hope”—a self-identifying Métis person in the ways that John Ralston Saul likens as a go-between of Indigenous and Canadian—that reached out and promised a bridge between two seemingly disparate worlds.3 Eric Andrew- Gee writes that, “in an age of reconciliation, this mixed background was an asset: Boyden came to be seen as a ‘shining bridge,’ as one Indigenous scholar called him, able to mediate between white and Indigenous, at a time when the task seemed more urgent than ever.”4 Boyden’s purported mixedness was a healing salve for the gaping wounds ripped open by Canada’s long overdue reckoning with its devastatingly violent residential school system. As Toni Bruce and Christopher Hallinan write in their book chapter on Aboriginal Australian runner Cathy Freeman, who won a gold medal in track and field for her victory in the 400-metre race at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, when unable to avoid confronting their horrific treatment of Indigenous people, settler colonial nations such as Australia tend to seek out symbols of national reconciliation.5 Much like how Canadian literary circles, the media, and the government positioned Boyden as a beacon of reconciliation, Freeman’s athletic accomplishments and indeed her very visage were upheld to demonstrate “powerfully and visually . . . the joining of two key parts of Australia’s psyche: the first inhabitants and the white settlers/ invaders.”6 Even after the 1994 Commonwealth Games, as Freeman began to speak more publicly about the discrimination that she had faced, white Australians constructed her as a symbol of national reconciliation: first, when she was selected to light the Olympic flame at the opening ceremony of the 2000 Summer Olympic Games in Sydney; second, following her win in the Introduction 3 400-metre race, when during her victory lap she “carried both the Australian and [the] Aboriginal flags—a true symbol of reconciliation and pride of her Aboriginal cultural heritage.”7 Although Freeman was depicted in the media as reluctant to use her new-found celebrity to speak on “political causes,” she nevertheless soundly critiqued Australian Prime Minister John Howard’s refusal to issue a formal apology to Aboriginal people, in particular the stolen generations appre- hended from their families under government policy.8 In the case of Freeman, however, the intense public attention that accompanied her impressive win, and actively perpetuated the image of her as an icon of reconciliation, led her to gradually withdraw from the spotlight.9 Whereas she appeared to reject attempts to make her into an Indigenous “reconciliation celebrity,” Boyden, in contrast, leaned into the attention that his literary celebrity garnered, under- taking speaking engagements, appearing on panels and in/on the news, and writing op-eds, all on the subject of reconciliation. His words repeatedly reinforced the promise that, despite the horrific violence that Canada had perpetrated on Indigenous children, the country might yet arrive at a place of unity with Indigenous people: “We are at that crossroads in our country, the one where we face the decision of whether we strive for true reconcilia- tion or whether we remain a country in denial. There is no more room for the politics of divisiveness. Now is the time where we must all come together as a nation not to just accept but begin to reconcile with what is our darkest stain.”10 So, again, whereas Freeman was placed in the role of reconciliation celebrity and took steps to remove herself from it, Boyden actively worked to take on such a role in the public consciousness, without any evidence, unlike Freeman, that he had actually experienced any racism or other oppression as a result of his supposed Indigeneity. In spite of this lack of demonstrable lived experience, Boyden became what Elizabeth DiEmanuele calls a “Post-TRC Indigenous celebrity,” defined as “a figure in constant negotiation between ‘legitimizing’ their position for the public, demonstrating their political utility, and modeling what a nation- to-nation relationship could look like. The Indigenous celebrity-diplomat is Canada’s educator who resists oppression but who also compromises to make space for an Indigenous future in a settler-landscape that has done everything to suppress it.”11 For some, Boyden’s name became synonymous with recon- ciliation, but it was this very thing—his willingness and comfort in speaking