Post by Marks - the Earth's Sun on Feb 15, 2006 12:33:27 GMT -5
'End of the Spear' shoots ... and misses
Posted: February 08, 2006
by: Gina Mushynsky / Indian Country Today
Click to Enlarge
AP Photo/Tina Fineberg -- Steve Saint and Mincayani, a Waodani tribal member from Ecuador, posed together in New York Jan. 13. The pair enjoy a close father-son relationship despite the fact that 50 years ago Mincayani participated in the murder of Saint's father, Nate, and four other missionaries. The story of the killings, and the tribe's subsequent conversion to Christianity and abandonment of its traditional ways, is retold in the recently released feature film, ''End of the Spear.''
CANASTOTA, N.Y. - In January 1956, a Waodani tribal member named Mincayani led a raid which ended in the deaths of five American missionaries, including bush pilot Nate Saint, in an attempt to keep ''foreigners'' out of the dense eastern Ecuadorean rainforest they call home.
At the invitation of a Waodani woman who had renounced her tribe's tradition of killing each other, Elisabeth Elliot, widow of martyred missionary Jim Elliot, and Saint's sister, Rachel, settled with the tribe despite the potential for violence. Their Christian witness ultimately changed the lives of the Waodani.
The new feature film, ''End of the Spear,'' offers a fictionalized retelling of the real-life series of events that led to the conversion of a tribe to Christianity, inspired countless missionaries worldwide and forged Mincayani's unlikely relationship with Saint's son, Steve. It opened nationwide, with much support from Christian groups, Jan. 20.
The tribal homicide rate dropped 90 percent within a few years of Elisabeth Elliot and Rachel Saint's arrival into the tribe, according to the ''End of the Spear'' Web site: www.end
ofthespear.com/behind-the-spear.html. Their witness is credited with laying the foundation for the close father-son relationship Mincayani and Steve Saint enjoy today.
Since 1997, the two men have toured the United States to share the story of how the Waodani abandoned their violent ways.
Every Tribe Entertainment produced ''End of the Spear,'' which won the 2005 Crystal Heart Award at the Indianapolis-based Heartland Film Festival, an event that honors filmmakers whose work ''explores the human condition by artistically expressing hope and respect for the positive values of life.'' (The studio's 2004 film, ''Beyond the Gates of Splendor,'' which told the story of the missionaries' demise from the Waodani perspective, won the 2002 Crystal Heart Award.)
At first, the Waodani refused to allow ''Beyond the Gates'' to be produced. But when the killings at Columbine High School were described to tribal members, they enthusiastically encouraged its production as a way to share with the world how their tribe was able to put an end to such senseless deaths.
Not everyone has bought into the pro-assimilation message of ''End of the Spear,'' however. Its depiction of indigenous people as savage brutes parrots a familiar refrain: As an editorial in the Cornell (N.Y.) Daily Sun put it, ''From the start, the Waodani's ways are portrayed as generally wrong and those of the missionaries are generally right ... Such a patronizing view is somewhat disturbing in its efforts to make the very grey territory of cultural interaction into a black and white portrayal.''
The film's viewpoint distracts viewers from contemplating the catastrophic effects such an intrusion has had on the Waodani's land itself, according to New York Daily News movie reviewer Jami Bernard: ''In reality, the intrusion of Western ways has been disastrous to the region, where oil and logging concerns are stripping land and culture. In documentary footage played over the closing credits, the real warrior is introduced to American fast food and returns to his people too fat and sluggish to spear himself a snack, let alone a missionary.''
''End of the Spear'' avoids exploration of the negative effects of the Waodani's ''Westernization,'' focusing instead on the pacifism missionary contact brought to a tribe described by anthropologists as the most violent people ever documented (their fierceness prompted Shell Oil Co. to abandon plans to perform exploratory drilling in 1948). The tribe's struggles to reorganize its internal power structure and represent itself to the outside world in the wake of Western influence also go unexamined.
A third cinematic revisit to the Waodani's homeland, exploring such aspects of their contemporary experience, would be welcome to complement the evangelical propaganda.
Posted: February 08, 2006
by: Gina Mushynsky / Indian Country Today
Click to Enlarge
AP Photo/Tina Fineberg -- Steve Saint and Mincayani, a Waodani tribal member from Ecuador, posed together in New York Jan. 13. The pair enjoy a close father-son relationship despite the fact that 50 years ago Mincayani participated in the murder of Saint's father, Nate, and four other missionaries. The story of the killings, and the tribe's subsequent conversion to Christianity and abandonment of its traditional ways, is retold in the recently released feature film, ''End of the Spear.''
CANASTOTA, N.Y. - In January 1956, a Waodani tribal member named Mincayani led a raid which ended in the deaths of five American missionaries, including bush pilot Nate Saint, in an attempt to keep ''foreigners'' out of the dense eastern Ecuadorean rainforest they call home.
At the invitation of a Waodani woman who had renounced her tribe's tradition of killing each other, Elisabeth Elliot, widow of martyred missionary Jim Elliot, and Saint's sister, Rachel, settled with the tribe despite the potential for violence. Their Christian witness ultimately changed the lives of the Waodani.
The new feature film, ''End of the Spear,'' offers a fictionalized retelling of the real-life series of events that led to the conversion of a tribe to Christianity, inspired countless missionaries worldwide and forged Mincayani's unlikely relationship with Saint's son, Steve. It opened nationwide, with much support from Christian groups, Jan. 20.
The tribal homicide rate dropped 90 percent within a few years of Elisabeth Elliot and Rachel Saint's arrival into the tribe, according to the ''End of the Spear'' Web site: www.end
ofthespear.com/behind-the-spear.html. Their witness is credited with laying the foundation for the close father-son relationship Mincayani and Steve Saint enjoy today.
Since 1997, the two men have toured the United States to share the story of how the Waodani abandoned their violent ways.
Every Tribe Entertainment produced ''End of the Spear,'' which won the 2005 Crystal Heart Award at the Indianapolis-based Heartland Film Festival, an event that honors filmmakers whose work ''explores the human condition by artistically expressing hope and respect for the positive values of life.'' (The studio's 2004 film, ''Beyond the Gates of Splendor,'' which told the story of the missionaries' demise from the Waodani perspective, won the 2002 Crystal Heart Award.)
At first, the Waodani refused to allow ''Beyond the Gates'' to be produced. But when the killings at Columbine High School were described to tribal members, they enthusiastically encouraged its production as a way to share with the world how their tribe was able to put an end to such senseless deaths.
Not everyone has bought into the pro-assimilation message of ''End of the Spear,'' however. Its depiction of indigenous people as savage brutes parrots a familiar refrain: As an editorial in the Cornell (N.Y.) Daily Sun put it, ''From the start, the Waodani's ways are portrayed as generally wrong and those of the missionaries are generally right ... Such a patronizing view is somewhat disturbing in its efforts to make the very grey territory of cultural interaction into a black and white portrayal.''
The film's viewpoint distracts viewers from contemplating the catastrophic effects such an intrusion has had on the Waodani's land itself, according to New York Daily News movie reviewer Jami Bernard: ''In reality, the intrusion of Western ways has been disastrous to the region, where oil and logging concerns are stripping land and culture. In documentary footage played over the closing credits, the real warrior is introduced to American fast food and returns to his people too fat and sluggish to spear himself a snack, let alone a missionary.''
''End of the Spear'' avoids exploration of the negative effects of the Waodani's ''Westernization,'' focusing instead on the pacifism missionary contact brought to a tribe described by anthropologists as the most violent people ever documented (their fierceness prompted Shell Oil Co. to abandon plans to perform exploratory drilling in 1948). The tribe's struggles to reorganize its internal power structure and represent itself to the outside world in the wake of Western influence also go unexamined.
A third cinematic revisit to the Waodani's homeland, exploring such aspects of their contemporary experience, would be welcome to complement the evangelical propaganda.