The reading provided this week, After Authenticity: A Post Mortem On the Racialized Indian Body by Richard William Hill gives a thoughtful insight and analysis to the issues surrounding self- identification within the Native art world. Hill focuses on how postcolonial thought dictates a Native person's self-identity through romanticism of the American Indian population and how the idea of the Noble Savage keeps Native Americans oppressed.
Hill’s first example is that from the very beginning of the colonialism process. Hill theorizes that the white settlers needed to justify their conquering so badly, they created a narrative that the Indians needed civilization and the colonialists were the white saviours bringing civilization to them. This
