Thursday, April 05, 2007

Native Youth Today


I've watched a disturbing trend show up in Native children. It's like, they're trying to compete with Europeans who have been taught a certain way forever, and it's made them into assholes!

I remember I did my first official teaching gig with Cease Wyss, and we were training some youth to make videos. And they were assholes! I know not all of them were like that, but as an entity they found the true meaning of Wanker. They did stupid shit like change the clocks on the walls so they could get out early. They ignored instruction and then got mad when they realized they didn't know something. We couldn't even get to the basic three light set up because they'd pitch a fit about watching us assemble and disassemble a red head, and then when it was their turn to do it they'd get all sullen and smart alexy. I had no idea how to find anything they liked to start them out with, because they hated everything! I mean, it was insane, they could bitch out the sun if they wanted to. And it became a crisis in the aboriginal art community at large, actually, because suddenly all these well respected artists were like "We don't want to teach youth anymore. They are assholes." It's true. And in fact the new thing is teaching elders to make videos, because honestly, the youth are way too arrogant to do anything with. And I'm talking people in their early twenties acting this way. And a lot of them were total phobes, so stupid! They coasted on assumption and it was never going to take them very far. I think afterwards some of them clued in, but fuck it was hard, because they took the lead of the major alcoholic in the group because he was a boy and he was big and he could open his mouth and make words come out.

Either way, I hate to say it but by and large the aboriginal community is abandoning it's youth, because they've turned into monsters! Not all of them, but some really assimilated ones, yeah! Which is why I hope Laurel starts writing because she's been teaching inner city kids and she's finding out how to get them to talk about things they like. And she's demanding. And she got a whole class to start saying veranda instead of porch, because they liked that word.

I didn't have a deck in high school, I had a linai.

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