Drew Hayden Taylor: Indigenous Humour

Added: 2026-06-03

[00:00:00]native humor. I I've done a lot of work on that, not only as a writer, but also in studying it. The two most dominant characteristics I find in native humor is one, our our humor is very self-deprecatory.

[00:00:13]We tend to make fun of ourselves as a nation, as as an individual, as a nation, or all nations. Racism works from the top down, and and a lot of humor works from the bottom up. We tend to like to make fun of those higher on the social ladder than us. Native humor is is usually um lateral. The other interesting characteristic of native humor, which is related to the first characteristic, is teasing. Teasing is very important in native humor. In fact, it's often a sign of acceptance, because it's impolite to tease a stranger, at least to their face. What you should also know about native humor is it's a form of survival humor.

[00:00:49]It's filtered through three, four, 500 years of colonization, of the reserve system, of of of um residential schools, etc. So, as a form of survival humor, it has two functions. It's protective, and it's healing, but within the sphere of influence of the native community. So, as a result, it's very politically incorrect. Humor should amuse, not abuse, and that's that's the benchmark for a lot of things I do.