A Dead Culture

All cultures continue to change and grow. Many Deaf have drawn comparisons between the death of Native American culture and Deaf culture of today. I do not deny the parallels.


Jim's article reminded me of the great whale hunt Native Americans had in Washington state back in 1999. http://jimspoliticalthoughts.blogspot.com/2008/04/accepting-changing-of-deaf-culture-like.html


From the beginning it's been written into the Makah Treaty Rights they could hunt whales off the coast near Neah Bay, Washington. However gray whales fell under protection in the 1920s after they had been hunted to near extinction. The Makah were disallowed their whale hunting rights. In 1999, the Makah fought hard to win back their hunting rights.






As you can see the Makah didn't hunt their whale like they used to in canoes made from carved tree trunks or with bone spears. They used fiberglass canoes with back-up motor boats. They wore Helly Hanson rain gear, and they killed with high-powered metal harpoons. Large round floats kept the whale from diving under or sinking after the first hit. Cell phones helped the Makah to locate and track the whale. The coast guard was dispatched to hover nearby ensuring safety in case someone fell out of a boat.


The Makah left most of their whale carcass rotting on the beach.
You see--- the Makah don't live in huts made with whale bone and skin anymore. They live in heated homes. The Makah don't eat whale blubber. They're used to a steady diet of pepperoni pizza, hamburgers and coke like most Americans, and they buy most their food at supermarkets. When the Makah party, they don't wear stinky paint made with whale blubber. The women wear Revlon eye-shadow from RiteAid or Clinique foundation from Nordstroms. The Makah all wash with deodorized Irish Spring instead of soap made from whale blubber. The Makah don't make spears with whale bone, or carve bowls or cups with it. They don't have time because they're busy working, so they buy their tableware from Macys or Sears or wherever.

That's why the carcass rotted.




Later its bones were donated to their Makah museum.





NOW the Makah want to hunt whale again because it's their "cultural right." After the last whale hunt, many people were appalled. Even some Makah were appalled. Several admitted they hated the taste of whale blubber when they tried it in 1999. Activists protested Makah whale hunting on the basis that it's senseless to kill such a magnificent creature over "cultural rights" especially considering the (still) low population count of whales, and that very little of the whale was used by the Makah in 1999. So far, the Makah haven't been granted the right to hunt another whale since. They do not need another set of bones for the museum. In September of 2007, some Makahs hunted a whale illegally. It's their ancient Treaty RIGHT!!!

You can see the Makah motor boats in the background, the harpoon sticking out of whale with floats attached.

Is this modernization of Makah culture the "white man's" fault?

Yes, in a way it is. Long ago in the 1920s, Makah children were torn from their parents, shipped off to boarding schools and forced to learn English and a trade. Later, White people invented technology for them to use while hunting. White people established grocery stores and restaurants near Makah reservations. White people visited Makah businesses and casinos which gave them extra money to spend on all the same things White people enjoyed. White people gave them help with education, so they could become lawyers, doctors, businessmen, museum curators, school teachers and librarians.

The Makah culture is essentially gone because of White people. Still. . .putting it in perspective White culture has changed since the early 1900s too.

Or has it?

When should cultural rights supersede national values and laws? These are very tough questions that could face Deaf culture soon.

(The very top picture is a Makah whale hunter taken in 1909.)

Are We That Different?

Lately, I've been thinking about cultures and communities. I like being American. I like that we're a country of blended cultures.

We have many, many cultural festivals.

In Seattle, one fun celebration is the Scottish Highland Games.

There's also the Chinese New Year.











Some celebrate Norwegian Independence Day.















Others celebrate their Muckleshoot roots.









But what's great about America is you don't have to be Scottish to join in the Highland games.






You don't have to be Chinese to be in the Chinese New Year parade.










You can be a Viking on Norwegian Independence Day, even if you're really a Muckleshoot;










And you're welcome to go on Muckleshoot tribal journeys, even if you're more of a Viking.







Some families have blended backgrounds. In America you can be a Chinese, Viking, Scottish, Muckleshoot. You can join in all the parades.

Celebrating our differences unites us. We celebrate each other. Because we know that

in our hearts, we're all the same. We're just people

who help each other when times are hard.

Are deaf, Deaf and hard-of-hearing really THAT different?











Peace.

Uzi Buzgalo

Recently I read a blog where two people argued whether deaf culture really existed. One person made the statement that the deaf don’t have their own form of art. The other person listed off some deaf artists and mentioned deaf view/image art called De‘VIA, which can be found at Deaf Art.

I’ve been looking at this site for awhile and I love it. If there’s one argument FOR deaf culture it is art. Deaf artists view and express themselves in space through vivid imagery. An emphasis on hands, eyes, lips and color in addition to common themes of repression pop up over and over, both validating and defining deaf culture. When artists create, they project their experiences and feelings into whatever they’re forming. I know this on a personal level because my mother is an artist.

I often tell the story how as a child I came home to my mom painting at an easel day after day. I used to love watching her drawings come to life on the canvas as she mixed and blended colors, them brushed them ever so lightly or scraped across the canvas to create just a certain texture. It was magical. Like most kids I‘d have a snack and talk to my mom after school before running off to play. Not until I became an adult did I realize she used me as a model in so many of her works. The children in her paintings all had my face.

This week I decided to write about a deaf artist. There are so many. I found a great book called, Deaf Artists in America: Colonial to Contemporary by Deborah M. Sonnenstrahl. Not all of the artists in this book adhere to De’VIA‘s manifesto, but there have been many, many talented deaf artists in America and all over the world.

I‘ve chosen to write about Uzi Buzgalo because I just really LOVE his work. His colors are whimsical, and his message is fun, and his art makes me smile. (This one to the left looks like a telephone with hands popping out of it. In the background is a television set with flower hands or some such thing. It's hard to tell. I wish this picture were bigger. If one of you out there knows, please explain this!)

He was born in Israel in 1956. Deaf from birth, he went to the Jerusalem School for the Deaf where he learned Israeli Sign Language. He showed an interest and talent in art from an early age and began studying art seriously from about age eleven. Additionally, he loved to dance. As a young adult he joined a professional dance company made up of deaf and hearing dancers, Kol Demama meaning “Sound-Silence,” and he enjoyed traveling all over the world with them. His experiences with professional dance influenced his art style, which has been described as color waves and dots. His agent explains the impression of the dots as “deaf eyes that see in constant motion.” Like many other deaf artists, hands figure prominently in his work.

One of Buzgalo's paintings in the book that caught my eye was called Only Lives In Water. I couldn’t find this on-line. (Too bad!) I’ll describe it. The top portion had a huge fish. The lower third was obviously water. So the fish was OUT of the water. Under the water were so many, many people with arms and hands flailing about. Buzgalo explained this painting. I’ll quote directly from "Deaf Artists In America." When he was a small boy, “he watched his grandmother lay a fish on the kitchen table and the fish’s mouth was still moving. He asked his grandmother whether the fish was speaking. His grandmother told him that it does not say anything and ’it has no voice’ like him.”

Eventually Buzgalo's travels took him to the United States, and he became a US citizen in 1995.