Archer Pechawis
Performance
Choice
grunt gallery, Vancouver BC 1993
"Choice" was performed with the assistance of Anthony Favel and Leonard Fisher.
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Performance excerpt
Hello. My name is Archer Pechawis. I'm a halfbreed, which means I can see both sides of any argument, but that doesn't mean I always like both sides of any argument.
When I was growing up we traveled. A lot. In cars.
When I was a kid I loved cars. Still do. Cars were safe. Bad things never happened in cars. Not like houses.
Well sometimes bad things happened in cars, like the time that lady forgot to put her parking brake on, and her car rolled backwards down her driveway and hit our Falcon. That was the shits. I hit my forehead, and I started to cry. And I cried and cried and cried and cried and cried and I didn't stop crying until she showed me her kid's room with all the toys. That part was great.
We traveled around a lot. We never lived in any one place too long, and you know that was okay with me cuz I thought that was kind of traditional, it's like we were following the food source, we'd go where my dad had work.
I love my family. My dad, he was a bit much. We had this black Ford F-100 pick-up truck and on the doors he had someone paint, "The Maylings, Kay and Rod". It's true! I hated that. But you know, my mom tried to raise us the best she could, and I think she felt like we'd have a better chance if we were just like white people. As you can see, she did a pretty good job. There's me, and there's my mom, and there's my brother. We're riding elephants, which are traditional in other parts of the world. I'm still a little bit pissed off at my mom for not teaching us Cree, but she says it's because there was no one else around there who did. I just figured she wanted us to have a better chance.