THE REPRESENTATION OF THE INDIGENE by Terry Goldie

• White people have both an to the British empire.

ambivalent view of the indigene, and
a unified view of the indigene, but at
its core, all they really do is play a
chess game using only the white
squares—pun intended—to move
around. They refuse to delve deeper
and say something authentic about
the indigene.
• Once upon a time, the Orient was
widely accepted because it wasn’t
European, but eventually it was also
seen as under-humanized, backward,
and barbaric. They’re two sides of the
same coin, depending on where you
look; hence, the ambivalent and
unified views.
• The Indian, Maori, and Aborigine are
Other and Not-Self, but the must also
be Self.
o They are only important when
they are of benefit to the
imperialists.
o There’s always something for
someone—and the someone is
usually the white people.
o For example: India is
important because it belongs
Canadians see India as
“Other,” so it should be alien.
But since India is indigenous,
it can’t be considered alien; so
Canada is the one who’s alien.
It’s the ultimate UNO reverse
card situation.
• White culture always attempts to
incorporate or mimic the Other, but
they’ll never succeed because of their
White-ness, which is why they reject
it instead. It’s a constant love-hate
relationship.
• INDIGENIZATION: White people
need to be indigenous to satisfy their
greedy cravings, but it’s an
impossible dream. So to indigenize,
they instead write about the
indigenous people, but they still fail
because they barely look at these
people, let alone fully incorporate
them into their stories; and that’s how
the ambivalence/unification problem
begins.
• The ambivalence/unification
problem can be explained by saying
they have a common thinking about
 it, BUT their thinking is limited. As • Prehistoric: The past is in the past.
they reach their limit, they start to The indigene are reminders of the
devolve into these different past, and they should stay there.
inaccurate depictions. People can look back on them, but
• This thinking could have developed they will never be our present nor our
when a white person moved to a new future.
place and saw that the Other was • The commodities are like a criteria
better settled; so they tried to become that writers base their indigene
that Other. writings on. As long as they exist,
• Sex & Violence: anything exotic has people will always be limited in their
the opportunity to be seen as sexy, way of thinking and understanding
but may easily become violent. They the indigene.
are poles of attraction and repulsion.
A “bad” Other is a negative
stereotype set upon the indigene,
while a “good” Other is a positive
stereotype.
• Orality: White writers think the
indigene think differently than they
do, especially when it comes to
religions and rituals.
• Mysticism: The indigene becomes a
sign of oracular power with the
chance to become malevolent or
beneficient. It’s the same way how
Spaniards thought about killing the
babaylans first because the
priestesses were mysterious, and
could sway the crowd in their favor.