The movie, Smoke Signals, was a great movie, but it was also a culturally vivid movie. Smoke signals were something Native Americans used to communicate through long distances. Smoke is a visual component, so it could send a message for people to gather or could act as a form of media. This cultural tradition will help support the theme, plot, setting, and purpose behind the meaning of the film. The movie takes place on a Native American reservation and journeys out of that territory. The movie begins with a scene of a radio personality performing a morning show. It then transfers to the Native American report of news, weather, and traffic reports. The director immediately begins to introduce the idea of long distance communication through …show more content…
Victor suffers from the absence of his father while Thomas suffers the loss of his parents as a baby. Thomas also longs for a relationship with Victor that would be similar to brother hood. When Victor’s father walked out, that was hard to process, which he carried into young adulthood. Thomas is trying to be accepted to find his eccentric and quirky way in society. Thomas lives with his grandmothers as infant and into teenage years. Thomas aggravates the fact the Victor’s fathers die, and they get into a fight in the front yard about it. This shows when Victor begins to build anger and rage as a portal to block and suppress his emotions. He also faces a potential threat from his father life after his …show more content…
How the film broadened or influenced the student’s (i.e. your) perspectives. It broadened my perspectives of Native American culture. First inclination may be to start blaming who is at fault in each situation. This movie allowed me to analyze reservation life as very different culture that it provoked sameness and no change. I saw how boundaries and lack of inclusion was more detrimental to this culture than what some intended. I was also able to view how male counter parts may initially feel it more comfortable to suppress emotions and not address them. Ironically, I wanted some native prepared fried bread by the end of the movie. Reservation life in this culture supported by it is essential for us to be culturally competent and sensitive. Social work clinicians may have to face working with other cultures, because social workers serves population of otherness. To do so successfully, we must not only understand that family system, but the culture which that family functions in. Culture is important mental processes, traditions, and patters, which connect us to solutions for the issues they may be
The story “Smoke Signal” written by Sherman Alexie and directed by Chris Eyre, published on June 26, 1998, is about the relationship between father and son and search for forgiveness through the reflection of the Native American culture. Sherman Alexie is a Native American poet and filmmaker and was born on a Reservation at Wellpinit, Washington. The story reflects Sherman’s childhood by showing how he was growing up in a reservation and his beliefs as a Spokane/Coeur d’Alene tribal member. The main idea of the film is that forgiveness is find through a journey. Sherman Alexie use metaphors and allusion with words such as fire and smoke, Sherman use this figure of speech to show and set in motion flashbacks throughout the story where it expresses
This film represents our indigenous culture and regardless of what happens we can find good in a situation. Together the black and white community can come together and achieve more than they could ever do by themselves.
The film “Smoke Signals” tells the tale of how two boys travels to Arizona in order to retrieve one of their father’s ashes. During this journey there are several flashbacks to the boy’s, and father’s, lives. During one of the father’s, Arnold, flashbacks he asks his neighbor what was the worst thing that they had ever done, after their reply he vaguely states that he “broke three hearts, too” (Eyre 1998). At first I saw this to be a plain and simple explanation, breaking somebody’s heart is an awful thing to do to a person. As I looked into who’s hearts he broke, I noticed that Arnold broke four hearts not three. The first three people that I instantly thought of when Arnold stated this quote was: Thomas, Victor, and Arnold’s wife. But, I also think that Arnold broke his own heart along with the other three. Overall, I believe that Arnold acknowledged that he broke Thomas, Victor, and his wife’s heart, but he didn’t realize that in the process he also broke his own heart.
The movie Crash educates the viewers on the effects of racism, and the negativity it places in our society. The interpersonal communication that was played out throughout the movie, made me more conscientiously aware, of how I interact with different ethnicities, so as not to offend
Through showing the different definitions of health, the authors explain how those different understandings affect patterns of behavior on health depend on different cultures. In addition, an analysis of the models of health demonstrates even western medical approaches to health have different cognitions, same as the Indigenous health beliefs. The most remarkable aspect is a balance, a corresponding core element in most cultures which is an important consideration in Indigenous health as well. From an Indigenous perspective, health is considered as being linked, and keeping the connection is a priority to preserve their health. Consequently, health is a very much culturally determined. Health practitioners should anticipate and respect the cultural differences when they encounter a patient from various cultures. In particular, this article is good to understand why the Indigenous health beliefs are not that different than western medicine views using appropriate examples and comparative composition, even though the implementation the authors indicated is a bit abstract, not
For our film review paper, I decided to watch he film Smoke Signals. The movie was released on June 26, 1998. Written, directed, and acted by all Native American people. The film centers around two main characters Victor Joseph and Thomas Builds-the-Fire who lives on the Coeur D'Alene Indian Reservation in Plummer, Idaho. Thomas is a strange character who is a storyteller of sorts and has many tales throughout the movie while Victor comes off as angry and cold who is annoyed by Thomas throughout their adventure. They have been friends since childhood because of a fire that Victor’s father saved Thomas from when he was a baby. Because of this act, Thomas looks to Victor’s father as a hero. However, at home Victor and his mother have endure the
Growing up, Victor and Thomas didn’t get a long so well. Thomas was often annoying and Victor just wanted to be left alone. Thomas often talked of Arnold and Victor never wanted to talk about his deserted father. The last thing that Victor wanted to do was talk about the father that bailed on...
Victor knew his father for twelve years of his life, but when he and Thomas travel to Arnold’s final home, Victor finds that he didn’t really know him at all. The film also touches on ideas of discrimination. Throughout the movie, Victor and Thomas were discriminated against many times, for example, when two white men stole their seats on the bus, telling them to “go back to their powwow.” Ideas of death and legacy also play a big part in Smoke Signals. The movie is centered around the death of Arnold, and Victor’s belief in the legacy that he left behind (whether he was an alcoholic who abused Victor, or a completely different man than Victor was willing to
Cultural Competence is important for many reasons. First, it can help develop culturally sensitive practices which can in turn help reduce barriers that affect treatment in health care settings. Second, it can help build understanding, which is critical in competence, in order wards knowing whom the person recognizes as a health care professional and whom they views as traditional healer, can aid the development of trust and improve the individual’s investment and participation in treatment. Third, our population in the United States is not only growing quickly but also changing, cultural competence will allow us as educators and healthcare workers keep up wi...
It is important to include cultural issues in the helping process to be more effective. We also need cultural competence because the U.S. is becoming more diverse. Therefore with diversity comes different beliefs, norms, and values. Eurocentric values dominate sciences and began cultural universals which puts the clash of dominate and non-dominate cultural behaviors in motion. In 1996 the NASW Code of Ethics increased the recognition of cultural competence. It is important to know diversity exist within ethnic and cultural groups because social workers need to know that relationships between helping professionals and clients may be strained. This happens because of the distrust between groups. Another important aspect is that the professional realizes their own values, biases, and beliefs. The reason for this is because they must value diversity to start with and understand the dynamics of difference. Culturally competent practitioners have to go through developmental process of using their own culture as a starting point to meet all behaviors. Striving for cultural competence is a long term process of development. The literature on cultural competence is theoretical and conceptual. They have not been evaluated in a systematic way. Roughly there are 2 million Native americans in the U.S. Which survive decimating disease, over-repressed in child welfare system, suffer from health problems, and are among the poorest people in the United States. Working with them clearly falls within the social work clearly mandate to serve vulnerable and oppressed clients. However, we do not know how many people from this group is actually receiving help from social workers. Even though it is important to train social workers to provide care in th...
Culture can be defined as behaviors exhibited by certain racial, religious, social or ethnic groups. Some factors in which culture may vary include: family structure, education, and socioeconomic status (Kodjo, 2009). Some may think cultural competence is something that has an end point, however, when the big picture is seen, it is a learning process and journey. From the writer’s perspective, the client-therapist relationship can be challenging. Culturally competent therapists must realize that behaviors are shaped by an individual’s culture. Many changes are taking place within the United States cultural makeup. Therapists and healthcare professionals are being challenged to provide effective and sensitive care for patients and their families. This type of culturally sensitive care requires the professional to be open and seek understanding in the patients diverse belief systems (Kodjo, 2009).
A social worker must present themselves as a learner and understand clients from all experts of their own experiences. To show your respect to the clients as a social worker you must be able to show that you understand complexity of cultural identity. Cultural competence targets social workers knowledge of development, focusing on culturally specific demographics, characteristics, values, and intravenous technique. When dealing with cultural sensitivity a worker’s genuine appreciation of the client’s uniqueness and universalistic respect for the client’s humanness is needed. To have success in multicultural practice, cultural responsiveness come in to play, which means to be culturally responsive, social workers use dialogue skills that place the client’s construction of reality at the center of the
Victor is remembering his father leading up to him leaving and the time of him leaving. “He stopped talking as much, stopped drinking as much. He didn’t do much of anything except ride that bike and listen to music… it was my father who climbed on his motorcycle, waved to me as I stood in the window, and rode away.” These quotes display that while his father starts to drink less he also talks less and is home less which eventually causes fighting between Victor's parents and victor's dad leaving. Although there is all this sadness some have overcome
In social work, a social worker has to come to the client’s level and start from there. The client does not have to come to the social workers level. In order for this to happen the social worker has to know the importance of culture, race, gender, sexual, diversity and other forms of diversity to make the best decision for choosing a type of intervention. Understanding the client’s culture, race, gender, sexual diversity and other form of diversity is important because they affect each person differently. An example, Roberto is Latino and in their culture they believe in machomism, so this is something his social worker needs to know when addressing Roberto or someone of the Latino culture. Hispanic women bring machomism
It is imperative that social workers become knowledgeable about their clients’ cultures and are culturally sensitive. In learning about their clients’ cultures, social workers need to be aware of how powerful and significant culture is in relating to clients’ behavior, values, and beliefs. Becoming culturally competent requires the ability to integrate awareness, knowledge, and skills while maintaining a positive working relationship with the client (Sue and Zane, 1987). Today, the concerns regarding cultural competency continue to accentuate the importance of preparing social workers for a diversified society.