Stereotypes In 'Patriots' By Emma Lee Warrior

By addressing the West’s outlook on Indigenous people, Emma Lee Warrior’s short story Compatriots dismantles the dominant view on Indigenous people, illustrating the ignorance of the West’s stereotypes. She creates characters which challenge the traditional archetypes of Indigenous people, demonstrates the apathy of the west, and highlights the troubles that fame brings Indigenous people. To begin, Lee Warrior breaks out of stereotypical archetypes of Indigenous people created from the westerners’ perspective. For instance, addressing the diversity within the Indigenous groups. Hilda boldly assumes Lucy has done sun-dances before, simply because she is Indigenous. However, Lucy tells her that there are “different groups who all quarrel over

The fact that these traits people are considering a trend is something that people have died for. Hilda does not realise how insulting it is for someone of European descent to dress in traditional Indigenous attire then get praised for it, while Indigenous people have been bombarded with hundreds of challenges trying to erase their culture. Hilda’s actions to learn about Indigenous culture lack empathy and proper research which reflects on how Western culture’s own arrogant actions by not taking action to learn and properly educate its citizens. Moreover, the recent popularity of the Indigenous culture further disconnects the Indigenous community from the western society. The dislike of Helmut by the Indigenous people compared to what the media is saying illustrates that Indigenous people still do not have a voice. People like Hilda assume that Helmut is “accepted into [Indigenous] religion” (50), however most Indigenous people think that he is “a phony” (53). Lucy withholds this information from Hilda to not kill her curiosity. Even when they are supposed to be represented, their image is the face of their coloniser dressed up in their