TRICK STARS AND PRETENDIANS
- John Hawke
- 1 day ago
- 10 min read
Updated: 1 day ago
EDITORIAL- By Johnny Hawk
If you're a "neechi" it be hard not to notice Influencer, Activist, Filmmaker and Public Figure, Sarain Carson-Fox taking up space in our social media feed the past two weeks where voices online have been digging roots on her family tree including individuals from the very same families and communities she lays claim to. I'm not going to play genealogist and add my two cents in the matter but want to share my interactions I had with her family in my attempt at a career in media where the socio-economic dynamics I've experienced play a significant role in regards to "Trick-Stars" and "Pretendians."
In the fall of 2005, while completing the joint FNTI–Humber College Print and Broadcast Journalism Program, I interned at Rogers Television in Barrie. I worked on the evening news and an Indigenous Culture and Arts show called NISH. During this placement, I worked with Shannon Sokolsky, the assistant producer for NISH and the hosts; Raven Kanatakta and Shoshona Kish members of the musical group Digging Roots. Shoshona Kish is also Shannon Sokolsky’s older sister.
As a second year journalism student I thought NISH would be perfect opportunity thart would allow me to gain experience and a credit as an associate producer. Shannon and I were the same age and although she wasn’t in a college journalism diploma program she was in a paid placement through an Indigenous Organization in Barrie, that her sister was also connected with.
Despite having prior experience working in other production environments, I found myself consistently under-utilized. Rather than being assigned tasks that matched my training and skill set, I was relegated to fetching coffees for the hosts, interviewees, carrying the heavy equipment, and performing tasks that did not reflect the level of education and experience I brought to the internship. Even when I contributed ideas, research support, and interview questions, my work was not acknowledged in the production credits. I didn't even get an opportunity to be a camera operator. I was made to feel like a "dumb tonto rez-indian"only useful as a grunt.
One particular shoot involved visiting Spirit Magazine in Wasauksing First Nation. During that assignment before we left the station in a Rogers vehicle, Shannon introduced me to her younger sister Sarain. Shannon told me Sarain was tagging along to take some professional photos of her to the publishers of SPIRIT for them to consider for a cover in their upcoming issue. Shannon and Sarain’s, older sister Shoshona, the host of NISH was on a previous cover with her husband Raven for SPIRIT. The tagalong was successful as Sarain managed to be featured on the cover of this National magazine and for such a risque' pose even for being seventeen at the time. For me I felt out of place to people who were supposed to be Anishinabek. I felt I was intruding in a circle of close friends which felt very much bourgeoise. That moment, combined with the broader dynamics I witnessed, contributed to a growing realization that in many Indigenous entertainment, media, arts spaces, access to opportunity often appeared shaped less by merit and more by networks, social positioning, and personal connections.
Yes people are talented and skilled but just like Band Office and Rez Politics, that "n" word that rhymes with "pessimism" seems to always play a role with our people of who seem to always get all the opportunities.
This experience was discouraging and disillusioning. I encountered the same kinds of cliques, gatekeeping, and nepotism that I associated with how things ran like at home. These patterns—“it’s who you know,” proximity to influential circles, and social favouritism—seemed to influence opportunities, visibility, and career pathways also within the Indigenous arts, media, and entertainment.
Knowing I should've informed my Program Coordinators at FNTI and the folks at Rogers to how I felt, despite this and feeling like I'd be looked down upon by Sarain and her Sister for causing an issue I quit the internship placement. I felt I was just a "rez indian" and lacky among what I felt were Indigenous elitists. I did graduate and received my diploma yet this experience was a huge factor of not wanting to progress in any professional industry. This is why I choose to remain within the grassroots. Unfortunately I found that the very same dynamics are at play within our grassroots circles.
I'm sharing this experience as an example of what is felt by many Indigenous people—especially grassroots workers, community-based storytellers, and those without family ties in the industry that face barriers within our own institutions and creative and cultural spaces. These challenges influence whose voices are amplified, whose careers grow, and who feels welcome or pushed out.
In relation to having my experience participating as a professional in "the real world" I feel we are shifting much of our culture to replicate this dominant mainstream society which is based on competition and the individual. This is very reflective in grants, funding, whose struggles are supported over others and whose voices are more prominent. Our culture which teaches us to elevate each other is now centred on the individual and competition for opportunities.
The efforts of Canada's Truth and Reconciliation initiative merged with government and other industries mandates of diversity, equity and inclusion has provided a tsunami of funding and opportunities where just being Indigenous has become a career, profitable and a huge industry for those that know how to work these systems.
Our healing, culture and even resistance has become and industry. This combined with the explosion of how social media influences everything we do in society where we are seeing issues of narcissistic behaviours corrupting our cultural spaces that advocate humility. Because we want to see ourselves represented in mainstream institutions, we ourselves become celebrity obsessed and are adopting mainstream values of a very exploitative, materialistic, individualistic society and where many want to live like and be seen as celebrities we idolize. This is appealing for the "Pretendian." The "Trickstars" however are our own People using cultural identity and other positions of privilege to fool others for opportunities to engage in their own selfish needs and are at most times predators and toxic narcissists.
Today, the Indigenous entertainment Industry and activism often navigate a complicated landscape where red carpets, social branding, and public personas coexist with teachings about humility, community responsibility, and reciprocity. It is important that we continue to examine how these dynamics affect our movements.
Are we only replicating institutions of the colonizers; indigenizing, or “red-washing” the very same hierarchal, misogynist, exploitive, institutions we claim to be against and are not ready to really resist? Are we only downloading and assimilating into Mainstream Culture which is contradictory to much of our values and what we claim to resist?
Resistance Movements are now Incorporated, the Revolution is Monopolized, Resistance is Fashionable. The Seven Grandfather Teachings themselves even now have now become Award Show Events in our communities. We denounce misogyny and male dominant culture of our oppressor but continue to champion our hero's in Hip-Hop who made careers off of misogyny, exploiting women, promoting brown on brown violence and gang culture, which is American Culture, Culture of the Colonizer. We applaud those who made it in beauty pagents, pedowood and the just-us system. We fool ourselves that "making it" and seeing ourselves represented and reflected in such institutions of the dominant war mongering eurocentric male society is progress.
I encourage we reflect on how we create space for all Indigenous voices—especially those who are not part of elite circles—and how we ensure that our institutions, creative industries, and advocacy networks remain grounded in integrity, accountability, and respect for all our people.
These “pretendians” and even our own Peoples have becomes very skilled by using our own teachings to deflect their toxic behaviours which can be seen in some of these rebuttals from such Peoples being questioned. Community members have described situations where cultural teachings, healing-language, and trauma-informed rhetoric were invoked in ways that shut down legitimate concerns, deflected accountability, or reframed valid critique as “violence” or “lateral violence.” Such dynamics can cause real harm, especially when those raising concerns are met with dismissal, pathologization, or moral framing rather than open dialogue.
It is important to acknowledge that the misuse of cultural teachings—whether intentional or not—can create an unhealthy power imbalance. When community-based language is woven together with therapeutic jargon, status, social capital, or institutional recognition, it can be used to silence, invalidate, or intimidate those with less access to platforms. This is especially true for Indigenous women and gender-diverse people whose experiences and voices are already made vulnerable by colonial structures.
These issues point to a larger conversation our communities must continue to have about:
Accountability for those in positions of influence, regardless of lineage, status, or professional role.
The responsible use of cultural knowledge, ensuring teachings are not weaponized or used to deflect criticism.
Upholding ethical and community-based standards in public-facing roles within the arts, media, and advocacy sectors.
Creating safer pathways for community members to raise concerns without fear of retaliation, character attacks, or spiritualized blame.
Challenging elitism and ensuring representation does not become concentrated among small social or professional networks.
It is ironic but in the tradition of the long forgotten art of “backwards medicine” we can learn a lot on how to be more of our authentic selves from “Pretendians.” These Pretendians are holding up a mirror on our communities and show us what we’ve allowed to enter in our communities and hearts and what we’ve become.
In 2020 in an interview with APTN, actress Rosanne Supernault spoke on the toxicity that exists in the Indigenous Entertainment World in relation to rejecting the sexual advancements of Ian Campeau formerly of A Tribe Called Rez.
Supernault said Campeau “made me feel guilty for not having sex with him. I felt scared, I felt like if I didn’t have sex with him it was going to affect my career.”
“ I felt alienated and at the time this is the hottest Indigenous music group on the planet, and I felt like a loser.
“I do feel like in a lot of ways it affected my career because I just started to feel more and more alienated not just from him but by other people in those circles.” “I know a lot of other people were responsible for slandering me and for edging me out and ruining my reputation and spreading lies about me,” she said in an interview.
“Fame, it goes to people’s heads. It’s the illusion of power. And I think that a lot of our people are getting lost in it,” she told APTN News.
We have adopted much of our colonizers institutions, arts, culture and even psychology.
Western Psychology has also infiltrated our teachings and corrupted some of our own forms of psychology which were developed over generations and which were in place to help protect ourselves and our people from inviting in dark energies, behaviours and dark spirits into our communities, hearts and minds. A type of example of this is how we adopted “political correctness.” We’ve adopted this mainstream ideology in recent years and become so obsessed with not offending anyone that this is one main factor in how “pretendians” have come to be an issue. We've made it a protocol out of being kind and respectful to not be offensive in making sure who we allow in our community.
Many of our Nations shared a common society, the contrary peoples. These people are said to be those who struggled with what western society would call “learning disabilities” and where they did not do what they were told, struggled with adapting to social norms and following instruction. Elder’s referred them as “thunderbeings” and came up with a way to solve this issue and gave them purpose. These type of peoples were allowed to offend. In Anishinabe Society they we called the Windigokaan, they were “fakes”, pretending to be Windigo, to chase away real Windigo’s and mock such behaviour so we wouldn't become possessed with excess and over consumption like these cannibals.
Nowadays most of our Peoples forgotten this society and these relatives and shunned for the medicine they share which can be offensive as they help to mock the many things we've accepted that are throwing us of balance.
Jesuits, Freesmasons have first infiltrated our Medicine Societies to influence our teachings. Our so called Warrior Societies nowadays also have been compromised and infiltrated and are being directed by energies that are not our own. Now the last remaining protectors are forgotten and demonized because their medicine if considered inappropriate or offensive for the important role they play because at times by those cultural gatekeepers, they are chased away and leave our communities to be taken over by such dark spirits and where we are becoming something we are not.
Thomas King a celebrated author, recently was discovered to not have any Indigenous lineage. He was considered an academic and and leading voice that represented our people. He was a celebrity, a gatekeeper of indigenous voices enjoying platforms of privilege. Sarain Carson Fox is someone that can be seen also as a influencer, gatekeeper and someone who is always in the spotlight, taking up space where other Indigenous Womens voices are not as prominent and who are just as taleneted and deserving. Sarain's mentor Michelle Latimer was ousted a pretendian shortly after they won an award for Best Documentary Award Program for RISE at the Canadian Screen Awards in 2018.
RISE which premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival was a series widely recognized for its powerful coverage of Indigenous resistance movements. In one of the episodes that stood out for me, Sarain was heavily critical on Savage Family, a radical hip-hop group that spoke hards truths and promoted Warrior Culture. Sarain's voice in criticizing the group and her own questionable lived experience and where she is seen by Canada as an amplified voice of Indigenous Peoples only helped to pacify authentic voices that exists. Thomas King and his platform for years was considered a voice as well, these people take space where they become gatekeepers and the go to people for our own communities and settler society and shape our reality. They in turn are a pacification of our voices and realities and seen as safe "indians" for settlers to use and celebrate whose own backgrounds are in question if not out ousted as not "indigenous" and reflective of real communities and struggles.
There are even our own people who are profiting from opportunities to be seen as the settler friendly well behaved "Indian." They are operating government and NGO funded culture camps under the guise of sovereignty and resistance which in turn pacify authentic resistance camps, voices and movements. These individuals have become also a type of celebrity and cultural gatekeeper. The point I am sharing again the socio-economic factors I experience where such dynamics play a significant role to the very existence of "Trick-Stars" and "Pretendians. They see the opportunities which only play to watering down who we really are as we become downloads of mainstream culture. And because our People are obsessed with Celebrity they become mesmerized by such individuals.
Maybe we can learn from these "Pretendians" and "Trick Stars" who are only just a reflection of who’ve we become and what we allow into our community and lodges.
It is said Nanaboozho and his Nookmiis left the People long ago as the People started to only see him as a Trickster and a Fool stopped calling on for him and began to listen to new Hero’s and accepted new ways of being.
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