Indigenous Content Creator Project
Tracey Penelope Tekahentakwa Deer
Screenwriter and film director of the 2020 movie, Beans
Biography
Early Life
Tracey Penelope Tekahentakwa Deer was born on February 28, 1978 in Kahnawake, Quebec, Canada and part of the Kanienʼkehá꞉ka (Mohawks). Deer studied at Karonhianonhnha School Elementary, and attended Queen of Angels Academy for high school. Ever since a young age, films became an integral part of her identity. Growing up, her family could not afford a VHS player, so her father rented one, alongside dozens of movies. After the Oka Crisis, which Deer experienced first-hand, films became a place where she could take a break from her surrounding situation. Movies soon became like a teacher to her, teaching her what to do in various situations.
Biography
The Call to Film Making
When Tracey was 12, the Oka Crisis occurred. This event greatly impacted Deer's mental health as she began to harbor a hatred towards all that was happening, the mistreatment and the lack of understanding towards those who were involved. In an interview with CBC, she describes her as "really dark", and "was consumed by rage, anger, sadness"(Schneller). Fueled by anger, fear and frustration from the event, she used film as a medium to channel those emotions and create an understanding between Indigenous and non-Indigenous. Deer was told by many that "It'll never happen, our people don't do this, it's stupid."(Schneller). To Deer, Beans is considered a dream movie as she wanted her people’s story to be seen, heard, and understood. Many scenes in the movie was inspired by her own life, including the infamous scene of a racist mob throwing rocks at her mom’s car.
Tracey Deer on the set of Beans
Reflection
First Peoples perspectives, values, beliefs and points of view
The Oka Crisis was a protest that lasted 78 days, from July 11, 1990, to September 26th, 1990, aimed to halt a golf course being built on a sacred burial ground. Tracey Deer uses this event as a backdrop for a coming-of-age story and portrayed the Oka Crisis through a unique Indigenous lens, and its significance in terms of Indigenous values and beliefs.
In one of the movie's first scenes, we see Tekehentahkhwa, the protagonist, alongside her mother and younger sister, make their way to Oka to support the ongoing protest. Tracey Deer portrays a strong sense of community and its value and importance in various Indigenous communities. Another aspect in which the movie Beans portray Indiginous values and beliefs is through the storytelling method. Deer utilizes the “Receive or Empathize” narrative structure. As the director, Deer asks us the viewers, to understand the situation of the Oka Crisis from an Indigenous viewpoint. She furthermore uses the narrative by connecting our emotions from our youth to the protagonist, Tekehentahkhwa, also known as Beans. The director, Tracey Deer, tells us through the medium of a movie to receive the story without judgment and to see the stories of the Kanienʼkehá꞉ka (Mohawk) during the Oka Crisis.
Personal Reflection
Why did I chose this form of media to explore?
There are several reasons as to why I chose this media to explore the life of Tracy Deer. For me, it is a completely new media, which I am not familiar with. I also wanted to try to make a website that was interactive and held all the information necessary, but was simple enough to navigate, henceforth why I chose carrd.co. Since it is quite beginner friendly, with many videos and templates to teach to build your own website with your own features, I found the perfect opportunity to use this project to try it out!
Personal Reflection
Challenges and Learnings in the digital tool I chose
One major challenge would be that unlike Canva or Google Slides, you manually have to input various commands to do basic features like bold italics, or underline a simple piece of text. This can be quite bothersome, as sometimes it takes more than just a simple click of a button to bold and un-bold a text. Same goes with the font, its color, size, and other features. Although this can be quite troublesome, one advantage that I enjoy is the amount of resources to help you build your own website with your features, making it unique to you and what the website is for.