Rachel Hudyma Ms. Prieto NBE 3 U June 10, 2024 Indigenous Resilience Portrayed Through Relationality and Positionality. Indigenous positionality and relationality are not terms people are typically familiar with. At NBE3U, we explored many pieces of literature and media that have portrayed the meaning of relationality and positionality and how these are interlinked with Indigenous culture and wellbeing. In this essay, I will examine the theme of resilience within Indigenous communities by comparing the approaches depicted in texts we have examined throughout the course. By analyzing these works, I aim to highlight how Indigenous relationality and positionality contribute to the strength and perseverance of these communities in the face …show more content…
Buffy Sainte-Marie is a renowned Canadian American singer-songwriter who is a social activist for Indigenous rights. However, the issue is that for her entire career, she had fooled people into believing she was Indigenous herself. In the documentary Investigating Buffy Sainte-Marie’s claims to Indigenous ancestry by The Fifth Estate, we get a deeper understanding of who Buffy is as a person, and why she genuinely believes she is an Indigenous woman. Although the two texts are drastically different from one another, they both demonstrate cases of Indigenous resilience. If I Go Missing is a powerful and important call to action that not only brings awareness to the issue, but brings people together in challenging times. It magnifies the resilience of FNMI women and their strength. The documentary on Buffy Sainte-Marie displays the resilience of FMNI people, but in a more underground way. The text was about exposing the alleged Indigenous singer-songwriter, and never talked directly about the impacts this had on the FMNI community. However, I believe you can get an understanding of how Indigenous people persevered after this shocking discovery was made. There have been many people in the past who have claimed Indigenous identity to hurt or mock the communities, or pretend for their personal gain, such as Buffy, however, FNMI people have shown resilience when it comes to issues like these and, have no trouble standing up for themselves and calling them out. Despite these two media being unique, they both display the importance of positionality and