I’m also rounding out this semi-intentionally excellent double feature with Paying the Land by Joe Sacco.
Beaton wrote about her time in the oil sands in a way where indigenous people are conspicuously almost entirely excised from the whole narrative; that was on purpose, and given context, and it’s amazing how and why she executed on that, but, never mind, I don’t want to spoil why and how she did that, because it’s one of the best parts of Ducks.
Sacco, who also isn’t indigenous, wrote on a similar subject, but the perfect mirror image inverse in terms of indigenous perspective. It’s all based on interviews with the entire breadth of Dene society, and gives such a rich and complex and human voice to this community.
It’s also page after page after page after page after page after page after page of these representational-yet-stylized spreads with all of this rich expressive detail. This 2 page spread is not really all that remarkable, pretty much every page is like this:
So, just imagine how good the art has to be where this isn’t a remarkable pair of pages. The character and emotion in people’s faces is especially captivating.
Despite Sacco not being indigenous, the way he has captured the humanity and perspectives of his subjects feels more like talking to them but with all of these sumptuous curated illustrations of what they are talking about. It feels like, to use the word with reverence, storytelling.
Truly, I would urge anyone who feels they don’t know enough about indigenous communities, our more recent history, and our contemporary present, to give this a read. I haven’t finished it yet but it’s so good that I went over to the library to pick up Palestine (1993) by Sacco (I suppose there is some precedent for Sacco being tuned in with indigenous issues…).