Indigenous Archives | Otaku No Culture

When The Reckoner Rises, Just Who Are the Watchman?

God Flare is the latest volume in the Reckoner Rises series from best-selling author David A. Robertson.

Highwater Press

The Reckoner Rises is a graphic novel series that’s sure to turn heads. I would not advise jumping in with the latest volume, titled God Flare. I was curious because of the fantastic attention grabbing cover by Scott B. Henderson, but in order to understand what’s going on, I had to chase down the first two graphic novels. I got the feeling this work took inspiration from Alan Moore’s The Watchman, and overall, I’m not wrong!

When readers are first introduced to Cole, we find him on the verge of a breakdown and he doesn’t understand why he’s The Chosen One. He has the mutant ability which allows him to communicate with the dead, and for Eva, who has the powers of flight, they could easily become the next Alpha Flight! But when they’re living on a reserve, it seems they don’t have a lot of inspiration to go to the next level and do stuff for the good of their community. In the harsh winter world of what I assume is Northern Winnipeg, I’m sure the life there is no different from what I’ve learned in other works, like The Death Tour (documentary review link), which examines what life is like in these sleepy indigenous communities.

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Surviving The City Can Be Rough. In Volume 3: We Are the Medicine What’s Examined is Based on Real Life.

In this graphic novel series, Surviving the City, isn’t just about how one culture is dealing with colonialism, but rather with how many other lives can get affected at the same time.

HighWater Press
Spoiler Alert

Some knowledge of what the graphic novel series, Surviving the City, wants to educate is required to acknowledge what the latest instalment Volume 3: We Are Medicine, hopes to heal. Ever since the news about finding a mass grave of children near a former residential school in Kamloops broke out in 2021, there were a lot of protests and finger pointing. The world blamed people in prominent positions of power of the atrocity. Even now, the after-effects are still ongoing. Some reconciliation has happened since, but what’s presented here as fiction is coming true in the real world after reading “Chief says grave search at B.C. residential school brings things ‘full circle’” from the Kelowna Capital News.

This story by Tasha Spillett (pictured above left) makes up the backdrop where Miikwan and Dez are thinking about their futures. This author/educator/public speaker strives for a world where multiculturalism is embraced and everyone is treated with compassion. It’s basically what Gene Roddenberry envisioned for Star Trek, and everything Sisko would fight for when he travelled back in time and became part of the protests for equal rights in “Past Tense, Parts One and Two (Deep Space 9).”

In this story, these youths want to make the world a better place. They will soon graduate, and instead of figuring out what to wear for their last prom, these two indigenous teens change their plans and want to help after this news broke out. These are wonderful kids. Even Dez, the protagonist from the first two books, gets involved! After her own dealings with “The System,” how she deals with authoritarianism is important too. Continue reading “Surviving The City Can Be Rough. In Volume 3: We Are the Medicine What’s Examined is Based on Real Life.”

Aside from The Mammoth, What Else Could Be Hiding in the Pacific Northwest?

Mad Cave Studios

Paul Tobin and Arjuna Susini are the writing/artist team behind The Mammoth, a comic book about some terror who has terrorised Broke Tree Valley since the 1800s. Just what lurks here may well be the same evil that permeates Aokigahara in Japan. Although the cover paints this world as located somewhere in North America, no forest is as legendary as that! As for how huge it is depends on whom you ask, and what readers interpret from the first few pages.

The first question I had concerns where this valley is located? Is it the Appalachian Mountains or somewhere closer to Massachusetts? This inquiring mind wants to know, as life in that small town makes up most of the narrative in the first issue. I was drawn to this title because of the imposing cover, and that the beast looks like a giant-sized mummy!

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Star Light, Star Bright, Who’s the Tribal Elder That Knows the Night? Wilfred Buck, The Documentary

Everything you want to know about the travelling wilbury, Wilfred Buck, is answered here. Okay, he’s not a musician, but he might as well be given his charming personality.

Wilfred Buck Documentary Poster — Proudly sponsored by the Victoria Native Friendship Centre.

Playing at Victoria Film Festival’s F1RST: A Celebration of Indigenous Film on June 21, 2024. For tickets, please visit this link here.

The story of Wilfred Buck is familiar. Here, we see an intimate portrayal of who he is not only as an indigenous person from Northern (Central) Manitoba but also that of a scholar-bard. Whether that qualifies him as a geek, I’m sure it does!

Just why he’s special is because of what he adds to his lectures. He brings the astronomy to life because of what they represent according to his native roots. For example, the North Star has several names. It’s either known as the Keewatin, which means Going Home Star, or Ekakatchet Atchakos, which in English “It stands Still.” That’s because when anyone photographs the midnight black sky for more than five minutes, the result will consist of curved streaks, and the only star that doesn’t move at all is Polaris.

After watching this film, I’m interested in taking up astronomy again. I was a hobby stargazer once, and that’s because I loved the lore attached to it. Although they came from Greco-Roman studies, I wanted to know more about the constellation of Orion. In Egypt, the locals there believed he was Osiris. But in North America, the natives saw an animal instead, the bison!

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When Red Fever Delivers an Honest Look at Indigenous Rights, What’s Revealed is Important

In what makes Red Fever’s cinematic discourse effective is that the filmmakers are able to touch upon a lot of issues without being too preachy.

Red Fever Documentary Poster — This documentary played at Hot Docs on May 1st, 5:00pm at the Ted Rogers Cinema May 3rd, 5:30pm at the TIFF Lightbox 1 Toronto, Ontario

Coming to Theatres June 14

Catherine Bainbridge and Neil Diamond’s Red Fever is a very eye-opening documentary about why Native American culture fascinates the world. The iconography is nearly everywhere. Whether that’s with certain fashion trends or because entertainment rarely properly looks at their way of life, not everyone is happy about it.

What this film does is to show how White man has misrepresented those motifs. I’m glad what’s revealed will have an effect on those watching this presentation, and what’s special is its historic significance. Some of it can be traced to matters of spirituality, and other aspects concern lineage.

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Cody Lightning is Hey Viktor! and A Whole Lot More

Personally, I don’t think Cody Lightning was smoking anything when the idea to make Hey VIktor! came about. It’s unbashedly a self-parody of his own life!

Now playing at select theatres

Technically, fans curious about the mockumentary, Hey Viktor! does not need to see the comedy Smoke Signals to make sense out of why Cody Lightning is stuck in the past. He’s done much more since playing that kid long ago. And thankfully, off camera, this Native American actor has done better for himself than in what this movie suggests. However, I couldn’t help but wonder where the lines of reality are blurred. After the aforementioned movie’s success, most of these talents moved on to do better things.

However, for Lightning, he’s stuck in the past and he’s wondering why he’s not been receiving those royalty checks. As a result, he’s taken on jobs he’s not proud of, and when his wife finally leaves him, this guy is not sure how to forge ahead. After a proposition from Craig Boner (Colin Mochrie) who has his own success story with a reality show, “Getting Sober with Craig Boner,” this individual decides it’s time to make a sequel to that cult hit. To see him attempt to reconnect with that cast is sometimes pitiful and strangely funny.

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