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View all search resultsBrando, Wayne and our indigenous peoples
The UN says there are about 370 million indigenous people in 90 countries.
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This undated handout photo obtained April 19, 2018 courtesy of Melissa Ilardo shows a Bajau diver hunting fish underwater using a traditional spear off the islands of Indonesia. (AFP/Melissa Ilardo)
M
arlon Brando (1924-2004) and John Wayne (1907-1979) were two of Hollywood’s biggest legends starring in many iconic films.However, politically they were polar opposites.
Wayne was a conservative Republican, Brando a Democrat, at least officially. His interest was not really in party politics but was more of an activist in race and equality-related issues. In 1973, Brando famously rejected an Oscar awarded for his epic performance in The Godfather. He used the platform to protest the way Native American Indians, the indigenous inhabitants of the United States, were portrayed in films, and even more so the way they were treated in real life.
In his speech, he wrote, “We were the most rapacious, aggressive, destructive, torturing, monstrous, people who swept from one coast to the other murdering and causing mayhem among the Indians […] we don’t like that image of ourselves […] we like to see ourselves, perhaps as John Wayne sees us”.
Wayne, basically the Trump of Hollywood,who routinely slaughtered American Indians in his movies, believed in white supremacy. He said, ““I don’t feel we did wrong in taking this great country away from them. There were great numbers of people who needed new land […] and the Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves.” Keeping land that belonged to your ancestors for 15,000 years is selfish? Right!
