If there is a Canadian equivalent to the discredited old practice of a white performer wearing blackface, a Quebec bottled water company seems to have unintentionally stumbled upon it with a new advertising campaign.
Ads posted throughout the Montreal transit system play on a similar theme.
"This is a racist and degrading caricature of indigenous peoples, especially for the Algonquin people whose traditional territory includes the Saint-Mathieu-Lac Berry esker [where the water is sourced]" said Marlene Jerome, Vice Grand Chief of the Algonquin Anishinabeg Nation Tribal Council. "Natives are presented in the advertisement as primitive beings and ridiculous, again carrying old prejudices."
The council is calling for a boycott of Eska and a full apology from Toronto-based Eaux Vives Water, which bottles and distributes the brand.
Other native leaders charge that Eska is adding insult to injury because the water is extracted from a source in the traditional Alqonquin territory of Abitibi-Temiscaming while many native communities do not have access to potable water.
"It's like bringing a big cloud over all that work we've been doing," said Edith Cloutier, director-general of the Val-d'Or Native Friendship Centre, which was established in the mid-1970s to build bridges between native and non-native residents.
Using warrior imagery, she said, conjures up images of the 1990 Oka Crisis. "It's like bringing back all of the perceptions that are negative of first nations people."
She added: "This is not how we create a harmonious relationship."
In a video posted on YouTube, Mohawk activist Clifton Nicholas asks, "How acceptable would it be on YouTube or in a newspaper if somebody was in blackface, or if somebody was dressed up as an Hasidic Jew, selling this water?"
Spurred by social media activity, Eska's Facebook page is splattered with allegations of racism over the ads.
Eaux Vives Water, which retained a public relations firm last weekend to handle the growing controversy, says it needs to grasp the exact nature of the criticism before acting on it.
"There is no intention of the company to hurt people," said spokesman Gilles Corriveau. "Their customers, their employees live in the area, work in the area." He added that the ads had been tested with focus groups without incident, though he acknowledged that he didn't know if any first nations member had been included in the research sample.
He also insisted the company had received "all types of positive comments" about the campaign, though he declined to provide any examples.
Eaux Vives has scheduled meetings with first nations representatives to discuss the issue beginning July 18.
The ads were developed by KBS+P Canada, which is owned by MDC Partners Inc. Eaux Vives Water is privately held by Morgan Stanley Principal Investments.
Simon Houpt