Sky Hopinka and Entangled Indigenous Identities
On the triangular relationship between photography, time and colonialism
Abstract
Since its official inception in 1839, photography has held a complex relationship with time and colonial power. The introduction of photography in the Americas coincided with the colonisation of the Great Plains in the interior of the present-day United States. Ambitious projects to document Native peoples undertaken by photographers such as Edward S. Curtis (1868-1952) have fed the public imaginary and have led to static, stereotypical ideas of the ‘North American Indian.’ This pinpoints an issue hidden in the heart of American identity: what exactly is Native American identity, who is entitled to it and who decides in these matters.
This article explores the problematic consequences of (tribal) citizenship as devices of colonial power through the photographic series The Land Describes Itself (2019), by American photographer and filmmaker Sky Hopinka. Hopinka, a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation, reflects on his Indigenous identity in our contemporary world through photography and film. I will explore his practice of rephotographing as a post-photographic and non-representational gesture that opens up new perspectives on the triangular relationship between time, photography and colonialism. Finally, this essay argues that to decolonize or indigenize the American West, we should rethink American identity as intricately layered and entangled in both time and space, and therefore necessitates a methodological approach that supports the dissolution of boundaries.
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