Canadian Inspires Cree Superhero
DC Comics cartoonist Jeff Limere announced last year that he’d be creating a Canadian version of the Justice League, including a brand new character. This Toronto based artist was inspired by a Cree teenage girl named Shannen Koostachin, the late Attawapiskat activist in Canada who was nominated for an International Children’s Peace Prize for her campaign to get equitable educational funding for First Nations children. Shannen died in a car crash just ahead of her 16th birthday on May 30th, 2010.
Now DC is paying tribute to her with a new (currently unnamed) Cree superhero which will be featured in the upcoming Justice League United. Limere said that he wants to involve kids from the First Nations community – he plans on visiting schools in Moosonee and Moose Factory to talk to students and organizing a contest in which students will suggest new super powers for the character.
Limere explains that “There would be the cultural strengths. The family ties, the knowledge of the land, the rich, rich symbolism of the Cree on James Bay.”
Charlie Angus, the MP of the region explained “There’s a huge need for role models and heroes who First Nations can look up to. Koostachin is a real-life role model who can speak to them. This shadow of Shannen, looking down on these youth today, is certainly something that would work within the comic book format.”
I am glad that DC has decided to go ahead with this, because I personally feel it will shed some light onto the growing societal frustrations of First Nations people, as well as promote Shannen’s mandate of equal educational opportunities for her community. Alas, a Native character that isn’t just some tomahawk welding savage in a head dress – a common portrayal of the Native peoples in television, film, sports logos and comic books. An image that not only belittles them, but is absolutely incorrect and racist.
Shannen Koostachin is an amazing role-model for First Nations kids around the world, and it’s nice to see that comic books are headed back into the political realm, this time instead of fighting Nazis during World War 2, they are instead fighting stereotypes in the year 2014.
