7 - Is This the Indian You Had in Mind? The Reception of Thomas King

Summary

I'm not the Indian you had in mind.

I've seen him,

I've seen him ride

a rush of wind,

a darkening tide,

with wolf and eagle by his side

but, I'm not the Indian you had in mind.

…

I'm that other Indian

The one who lives just down the street

The one you're disinclined to meet

The Oka guy, remember me?

Ipperwash? Wounded Knee?

That other one …

I 'm Not the Indian You Had in Mind (2007), a short film that was written and directed by Thomas King, captures recurring themes in his critical and creative work. The film begins with King wheeling a carved wooden cigar-store Indian into the shot of a trendy urban loft, looking directly at the camera, and as he speaks the camera cuts away to the image of an oversized lens projecting images onto a silver screen. The poem is interspersed with footage from Hollywood westerns showing mounted Indians riding hard across the prairie, howling war cries and brandishing tomahawks. In both the film's credits and the audio interview with Liz Janzen (Director of Programming at the National Screen Institute) that accompanies the film, King jokes that the poem was written for his son, Benjamin Hoy, who had asked him to write a poem that rhymed (before he died!), but the film's message is an indictment of stereotypes in popular culture and everyday life. In The Truth about Stories, the published version of his 2003 Massey Lectures, King recalls the incident that provided the title of the film.