INAATE/SE/ (it shines in a certain way. to a certain place./it flies. falls./)

• Main Author: Khalil, Zachary Nehro
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: Bard Digital Commons 2014
• Subjects: Anishinaabe Native American Oral History Seven Fires; Indigenous Studies; Interdisciplinary Arts and Media; Oral History; Other Film and Media Studies; Other History; anishina*
• Online Access: https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/senproj_s2014/285; https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1269&context=senproj_s2014

INAATE/SE/ it shines in a certain way. to a certain place./it flies. falls./ "Throughout time, a dibaajimowin (a ‘true story’ based on historical, often personal experience) would sometimes lose its dimension of time and place and - depending on the context - turn into an aawechigan or even an aadizookaan; respectively a parable with a moral undertone and a sacred story with a supernatural theme. This way, narratives became midewaajimowinan (traditional teachings) that stressed essence rather than historical detail; wrapped in metaphors and symbolism they served to educate the young about their culture and the history of their People." -Zhaawano Giizhik INAATE/SE/ is a multimedia video installation that documents not only the history of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, but also the means to accessing that history, whether it be local or federal archives and museums, or my tribes own oral traditions and historical archival practice. The formal structure of the installation draws a distinction between a colonial history rooted in the salvage paradigm that is first and foremost concerned with the fetishistic worship of objects which supposedly connect the researcher to a mysterious and unknowable past, and our own history which does not exist statically in objects, but moves dynamically though people, through an oral tradition, and more recently though my tribes attempts to document our history through books, video, and new media. The fundamental dilemma facing Native American communities is how do we move our worldview into the future in a way that honors and perpetuates our traditional ways of thought, but also reflects our contemporary realities. INNATE/SE/ is my attempt to do just that. It is a contemporary reimagining of an ancient Anishinaabe story using a new medium. The Seven Fires Prophecy is what guides the structure of the installation. It is a prophecy from my tribe which is over 600 years old and has been passed down through the generations though pictographs etched into birch bark ...