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THE MEDIA INDEX |
ALICE MAGAZINE -- JANUARY 2000APACHE A-GO GO by Debbie ElkindArigon Starr went from Matlock to alternapop star in Indian Country |
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| "Non-Indians often come up to me and act more Indian than I do," laughs Arigon Starr, whose debut album Meet the Diva recently won the Native American Music Award for best indie record. "Believe it or not, we don't all do sweat-lodges," she says. "The cultural and spiritual appropriation just drives me crazy. Everyone wants to be an Indian, but if they could, they'd find it scary. You're in a place where you're invisible. People always think I'm Hispanic or from the Philippines. They always seem surprised that I'm an Indian."
Starr attempts to lift that layer of invisibility a bit by bringing Native American issues to the forefront of her bubbly pop-rock music. Cultural appropriation is just one of the many topics on her agenda. In the song "Spirit Guide," Starr gently pokes fun at wannabe natives in search of enlightenment. Of such seekers she says, "They're so dead set in their beliefs, [which are] almost always incorrect." Starr, a former military brat, left high school to become an actress. After stints behind the scenes on Matlock and Perry Mason she became involved with the American Indian Registry and First Americans in the Arts. It was an eye-opening experience that led the Native American singer to reclaim her roots in song. Most recently, the energetic singer took her ensemble on a tour of the Midwest. "Oklahoma, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Kansas....we've gotten great receptions in some places that you wouldn't expect," Starr says. Her self-dubbed "Native American Alterna-pop" has also been garnering heavy airplay on Indian country radio stations, and can be heard in the independent film Naturally Native. And in October, Starr along with activist John Trudell, headlined the 30th Anniversary of the Native American reoccupation of Alcatraz. Starr's second album, Wind-Up ("because it's got a lot of stuff in it that's really going to wind people up") is due for release this month. And the first single "Apache A-Go Go" is already getting airplay. Coming attractions include the song "Honor Me," which addresses institutionalized racism in sports mascots. "We have the Washington Redskins -- that's a term that is listed in the Webster dictionary as offensive," asserts Starr. "Then there's the Cleveland Indians -- there's not one Indian on that team. Would you support a team called the New York Jews or the L.A. Wetbacks?" Above all else, Arigon Starr strives to capture the legends of her culture in song. "We really have to work hard to get our elders' stories down on tape and on video," she says, "because they're dying in silence, and that ain't right." ©2000 Alice Magazine |
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