Review: Nothing Funny About the Indigenous History Comic
Author / activist Gord Hill, a member of the Kwakwaka’wakw nation, has been involved in indigenous and anti-globalization movements for more than three decades
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The Comic Book of 500 Years of Indigenous Resistance: Revised and Expanded
Gord Hill | Arsenal Pulp Press (Vancouver, 2021)
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$ 19.95 | 133pp
It is a “universally accepted truth” that history is written primarily by the victors. And certainly, the bloody tides of European contact and conquest in the Americas have been recorded primarily by historians who write from the perspective of the conquerors.
Even now, as those of us with settler ancestors wake up with concern to the fact that we are the recipients of stolen goods, the after-effects of countless massacres, displacements and acts of ethnic cleansing, the stories told from an indigenous point of view remain relatively rare.
Gord Hill, the artist / author who created an earlier version of the comic book 500 Years of Indigenous Resistance in 2010 and revised and expanded it to reflect the last decade of growing Indigenous activism, is working to correct the unbalanced and biased way the story is too often told. The scope and ambition of this work is impressive, spanning thousands of years of Indigenous history throughout the Americas.
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But Hill is both an activist and an author. A member of the Kwakwaka’wakw Nation (on what settlers call northern Vancouver Island and the adjacent mainland), he has been involved in Indigenous and anti-globalization movements for more than three decades. (Full disclosure. I got to know Hill quite a bit early in his activism in Vancouver, and I continue to respect, as I did then, his energy and integrity.)
Key to Hill’s story is his focus on resistance. While he clearly portrays the horrific damage done to Indigenous nations and individuals by colonial violence and genocide, he insists his readers recognize the valiant retaliation that so often occurred when Indigenous nations encountered colonial attack. .
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Indigenous peoples have never been mere passive victims. From Columbus to today’s resource extraction companies and their government enablers, those who come to exploit Indigenous peoples have always had a fight in their hands. Indigenous nations have fought back valiantly in many ways, from armed struggle and street protests to court appeals to blockades and occupations. (Readers interested in learning more about this story can check out The Inconvenient Indian by Thomas King and My Conversations with Canadians by Lee Maracle.)
Hill’s masterful use of a comic book format to present the history of the indigenous resistance of this people will make his years of research and reflection accessible to many readers.
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Highly recommended.
Tom Sandborn lives and writes in Vancouver. He appreciates your comments and story suggestions to [email protected]
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