期刊名称：Australian Critical Race and Whiteness Studies
印刷版ISSN：1832-3898
电子版ISSN：1838-8310
出版年度：2007
卷号：3
期号：1
出版社：Australian Critical Race and Whiteness Studies Association (ACRAWSA)
摘要：Literature on Canadian nationalism sugge sts that living in Canada is living the border, a frustratingly self-conscious place to be. The border divides Canada from the U.S., but this is secondary to its colonial function. In parcelling out land between the two settler nations, it acts as a colonial border, a marker of settler power and entitlement on Native lands. First Nations are both at home on their lands and profoundly alienated from them within the settler state. Nowhere could this be more apparent than at Niagara Falls, where the image of a dying Native woman, known as the Maid of the Mist, helped to form the tourist industry. In 1996 the myth of the maid was abandoned by its chief promoter, the Maid of the Mist Steamboat Corporation. This abandonment sparks questions of visibility and representation, community and responsibility. What does the Maid of the Mist's presence obscure or render invisible. What does her absence make visible. These questions contribute to the interrogation of the settler nation, and in acknowledging them, the settler nation is challenged to become the decolonial nation. Introduction Vanishing is no metaphor (Chrystos 1988: 40). In September 1996 the Maid of the Mist Steamboat Corporation finally heeded the protests of First Nations leaders, activists, scholars and community membe rs and stopped using the myth of the maid to sell their tour. Prior to this, tourists were treated to the tragic story of the sacrificial Indian woman which was pre-recorded and played on the tour boat and featured in promotional materials. The steamboat corporation is not alone in its use of this tourist industry myth; in fact, it is ubiquitous at Niagara Falls. The Maid of the Mist has graced everything from comic books to key chains since the development of this tourist industry, and in her many mundane appearances her origins in Native culture is simply assumed. In fact, she is a fabrication of the tourist industry, designed to give context and meaning to tourist experience at the cataract. Lelawala, another name for the maid, is a marker of authenticity in a place that is known for its theme park atmosphere. She is the mythical Indian princess who paddles her canoe over the brink of the waterfalls, thereby willingly sacrificing herself to appease angry gods and save her community. As authentically inauthentic as she is, she is, to borrow again from Chrystos, "such an old old story" (1988: 41).
