The Martlet

Propaganda, protest and appropriation took the forefront at “The Olympic Torch: Symbolism and Politics.”

Presented by UVic Social Justice Studies, the panel began with a screening of the first half hour of Leni Riefenstahl’s Olympia, a documentary of the 1936 Berlin Summer Olympics. Riefenstahl is infamous for having worked with Adolf Hitler to produce and direct several Nazi propaganda films, including Victory of Faith and Triumph of the Will.

The film was used as a jumping-off point to discuss and criticize the use of a short clip from Olympia in VANOC’s new promotional video. The issue featured in last week’s news — the clip used was of a man running the last stretch of the torch relay into Berlin. After entering the stadium, the man runs up to light the Olympic cauldron, passing by masses of people all giving the Hitler salute. In the promo, a black frame was placed around the edges of this clip in effort to conceal the salutes. However, this was picked up almost immediately.

VANOC’s intended use of the clip was for its historical value — the 1936 Games were the first to include a torch relay, establishing it as part of modern Olympic tradition. However, they received much criticism for having used the propaganda for any purpose, in any context. The video, titled Lights Will Guide You Home, has since been decommissioned.

Victoria saw the Olympic torch relay’s launch back in October. It was received with mixed feelings and heavy numbers of protesters, many of involved with the No2010 Victoria activist group, who organized both a festival and a zombie march which took place on the day. Representing No2010 at the lecture was Tamara Herman, also research coordinator for VIPIRG.

Herman addressed media propaganda and representation of No2010 in the news. She referenced October’s protests, saying that the media “did not fairly approach the cause” behind No2010’s demonstrations, but rather portrayed their anti-Olympic sentiment as simply heedless and opportunistic. She criticized the media’s one-sided coverage for propagandizing their own pro-Olympic bias.

Christine O’Bonsawin, Director of Indigenous Studies at UVic, began her speech by acknowledging traditional Aboriginal territories which UVic sits on. O’Bonsawin spoke on the issue of Aboriginal protest.

There is “not any one common, unified reason for [Native] protests taking place,” she said, citing the undesirable presence of RCMP on traditional territories, environmental issues and travel of the torch though Aboriginal lands, as some of the many causes for protest of the torch and other issues.

Dr. Dennis Pilon, assistant professor of Political Science at UVic, also had critical words for the Olympics.

“It is impossible to avoid these events, they are just so in our face,” he said. “The selling of the Olympics takes a particular approach — you don’t want to be on the outside of these events.”

“[The Olympics] are not good investments ... If we really care about sport, more money should be put back into the communities themselves,” he said. “The Olympics are for the rich, privileged, international crowd ...We are subsidizing their elite experience.”

After the discussion, the floor was open to the crowd of 70 that had gathered. A question came up about the province’s choice of Olympic symbol.

”The inukshuk logo infringes on the sovereignty of the Northwest Coast,” O’Bonsawin said.

“This is appropriation of their cultural symbol.”

She also had strong feelings about the Olympic mascots.

“We’re talking about the appropriation of oral traditions that have been taken and used for very inappropriate reasons,” she said.

Nodding heads throughout the room expressed solidarity. The evening ended with an invitation to the next day’s final No2010 Victoria demonstration, and a reminder about this week’s upcoming Anti-Olympic Convergence in Vancouver.