Indigenous comedian Don Burnstick.Supplied
On Monday evening, after Pope Francis apologized to residential-school survivors in Maskwacis, Alta., and had a traditional Prairie nation headdress placed on his head, stunning many Indigenous people, Cree comedian Don Burnstick felt he had to help bring people together to process the raw emotions they were experiencing.
Rather than his usual comedy show he’s become known for across the country, Mr. Burnstick met with survivors and others in the powwow arbor at Alexis Stoney Nakota Nation at the request of Chief Tony Alexis. Not far from the grounds where hundreds of survivors had witnessed Francis’s apology, it was clear a space was needed for anyone wanting a break. A survivor himself, Mr. Burnstick has gone through his own healing and understood.
“We just sat there and we took care of each other,” he said. “We just like laughed and I told some stories and it was very gentle. I didn’t talk about the Pope, I didn’t talk about the headdress, I didn’t talk about triggering stuff. I just talked about how laughter is an important part of who we are and what we do.”
The historic week-long papal visit ignited flames of emotions. As this was expected, there were 300 cultural support workers present in Alberta to help survivors and their families navigate the intensity of what was happening on the ground.
Humour can be a healing tool too, and Indigenous comedians like Mr. Burnstick want to help people process the Pope’s reconciliation tour by cutting the tension with laughter.
“If you take a look at our ceremonies, our families, our homes, even in our wakes and funerals, there’s always laughter a part of it.”
Mr. Burnstick himself is still processing the week. Monday in Maskwacis began with the Pope praying in the Ermineskin cemetery where children are buried. He was then met by local chiefs who led a grand entry to open the event with drummers and dancers ahead of Francis delivering his apology. The pontiff returned pairs of moccasins to the survivor and elder who had lent the items to him in Rome last spring.
“The first part was awesome,” Mr. Burnstick said about last Monday.
What caught many off guard and drew immediate condemnation by many who were in Maskwacis or witnessing the event online and on television was when Chief Wilton Littlechild, a commissioner with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, bestowed a sacred headdress to Pope Francis.
“Then it kind of went sideways,” Mr. Burnstick said. “That just triggered the dysfunction of our people,” he said about the backlash he saw on social media afterward, adding that he doesn’t believe Chief Littlechild deserves the attacks he’s received over it. Chief Littlechild is a survivor of the former Ermineskin Indian Residential School.
Tim Fontaine, the Anishinaabe editor-in-chief of Walking Eagle News, an Indigenous satire news outlet, watched the papal events closely. He didn’t agree with the presentation of the headdress, saying the strength of survivors to stand with the head of the organization that caused so much harm in communities should’ve been enough to demonstrate their grace. But his approach is to never make Indigenous people the punchline and he didn’t want to make fun of elders and survivors who are healing.
He set his satirical focus instead on the Catholic Church, the Vatican, the Pope, and government responses, such as noting how the Alberta government suddenly found money to pave roads in Indigenous communities for the papal visit and suggesting that they’ll tear them down after Francis leaves. He said a lot of times Walking Eagle News is not meant to be funny but to point out the absurdity in certain things.
Mr. Fontaine said while the papal visit has been divisive among Indigenous communities and families, particularly with the headdress incident, humour allows them to laugh about it and keep them humble.
Within hours of Pope Francis receiving the headdress, a meme circulated on social media of Colonel Sanders from KFC – a widely loved fast food chain for many Indigenous people – wearing a headdress (clearly digitally altered) with the caption, “The only White Man that deserves the Headdress.”
“I love that about our people too, that often our immediate response is humour,” Mr. Fontaine said.
“We’re all coping with this in our own way,” he said. “And laughter is a big part of that.”
Janelle Niles is a Mi’kmaw Black Two-Spirited comedian from Sipekne’katik, N.S., and part of an Indigenous comedy show called Got Land? She agreed that the papal visit has been polarizing for Indigenous people.
Like her fellow comedians, she’s waiting for the dust to settle before coming up with material that doesn’t harm anyone but instead cuts the tension by making them laugh.
“Comedy is building tension and then releasing it,” she said.
Ms. Niles calls herself a political comic and says when it comes to tough times and hard topics such as residential schools and colonization, it’s not about finding the funny in it, but laughing at the audacity that it happened. She said laughter is a part of her culture and that everyone on her reserve is a comedian with a sense of humour.
“Laughter humbles us and keeps us grounded and it gives us critical thinking.”
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