Indigenous Uncanniness: Windigo Revisited and Popular Culture

Abstract

The field of Indigenous literatures of North America focuses largely on the novel, drama and poetry. Certain genres have not been given sufficient, if any, critical reception within the field: science fiction, fantasy, the graphic novel, and the (revisited) gothic novel. These alternative works seek to bring the supernatural and the mythical up-to-date and into dialogue with the modern world: Windigo, Wendigo, Whitiko, Feaster, Boiled Face, Hair Eater or Skin Walker, vampire or zombie, the mysterious world of shape-shifters and evil creatures has peopled Indigenous mythology since its beginnings, and these creatures are finding their way into contemporary texts. The works I explore in this chapter – Drew Hayden Taylor’s The Night Wanderer: A Native Gothic Novel (2007) and its graphic novel adaptation The Night Wanderer: A Graphic Novel (2013), the comic book Darkness Calls, written and illustrated by Steven Keewatin Sanderson (2011), Armand Garnet Ruffo’s feature film A Windigo Tale (2009) and Kris Happyjack-McKenzie’s short film Windigo (2009) – all make reference to vampire-like creatures, who more often than not share characteristics of the Windigo. More importantly, their reputation instills fear in the other protagonists, leading them to make choices that are at times more deadly than anticipated. “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear,” wrote H. P. Lovecraft, “and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown” (3); nevertheless, there is an unquenchable fascination with the uncanny amongst readers and viewers of horror and science fiction. The different depictions and uses of the Windigo figure in these modern texts and films go a long way to show how works that make up the field of Indigenous literary studies, despite similarities in terms of the questioning of history, intergenerational gaps, colonial violence, and horizontal patterns of abuse, in no way foster the illusion of being a homogenous whole. In addition, it is interesting to consider how an analysis of literary productions now informs that of film production as well, for societal preoccupations have become so complex and opaque that it is impossible to address them via a totalizing practice of critical reading. In this way, the intersections of text and image convey the complexity of the process of textualizing or otherwise materializing storytelling traditions.