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Ogopogo (Lake Monster; Okanagan Lake; British Columbia)

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Anonymous

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Ogopogo video

I've read several reports of video of "Ogopogo" that was shot last year, July or August I believe. Has anyone seen the video or know of a site where it can be viewed?

sureshot
 
Hey, I was young and needed the money.
 
The Penticton Indian Band - what kind of music do they play, then?

But seriously, aren't they trying to impose censorship on the entertainment media here? Are they really just p*ssed off that the film is being made in NZ instead of Canada? Most communities would love to be the centre of a film project.

Do they actually have a religion based on this alleged creature? This whole thing seems odd to me, and sets a bad precedent. If I'm wrong, blame it on rynner's ruin, but please explain why I'm wrong.
 
The native americans and native canadians (not indians! they take offense to being called this) think of animals as being spiritual entities. My girlfriend is Ojibway and she told me that Ogopogo is looked apon by natives as being some sort of wise spiritual creature of the lake. There was a commericial on TV in canada which had 2 Buffallos talking to each other and the natives wanted it taken off of the air because it was an insult to their religion.

I guess it would be like having a commercial showing christ on the cross trying to sell you a phone or something odd. Anyways like the ancient scots that knew about nessie the native canadians/americans claim to have known about Ogopogo way before europeans had even set foot on North America, and the same goes with sasquatch. The natives think Ogopogo is a spirit and they do take offence to movies or commercials being made about something that is promonent in their religion.
I dont think it is strange considering the fuss some christians make about everything that they consider wrong.
 
tang-malow said:
I guess it would be like having a commercial showing christ on the cross trying to sell you a phone or something odd. g.
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It's been done tang-malow.

There was a "tasteful" advert from "Jesus Jeans" about fifteen years ago, Christ on a cross, with the caption: "Lord forgive them, they know not what they wear"....

So OK, it got chopped in most of Europe & the USA, but if you let people F*** up you'r culture, in the end you have nothing!!!!!
 
I have no religious beliefs but I would never be disrespectful to those that have.
 
p.younger said:
I have no religious beliefs but I would never be disrespectful to those that have.
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I am also not a religious person and wouldn’t be disrespectful to other religions but I think that the native Canadians in this case are blowing this out of proportion. I would hardly think making a film about a subject being disrespectful unless it was some sort of comedy or was trying to make fun of the subject therefore making fun of the religion. We have all seen "The Life of Brian" by Monty python... I would say that would be considered more of a disrespectful film and yes a lot of people complained about it but it did get made and released.

I just can’t see how making a serious film about Ogopogo would be considered a bad thing; I mean where is the disrespect in that? Do the natives want us to ignore that the creature is there? (If its there) and I was under the impression that natives believed all creatures to be spirits etc. so do we now need to stop watching roadrunner cartoons cos it shows the coyote? :confused: I never got offended when a Loch ness movie was made even though it did star Ted Danson
 
At the risk of sounding politically incorrect, I think aboriginal peoples need to lighten up. And before anyone jumps me, keep in mind all peoples were nature worshippers at some point, so I'm dogging my own forefathers (well, my grandmother's Powhatan, anyway), as well as contemporary Natives. The problem is, if someone takes interest in their culture (like in the case of this film), they're doing the wrong thing; then, if they blow them off for 1) hitting the peyote too hard and having hallucenations or 2) being just plain simple-minded, we're still being disrespectful. If a film like this harms their religion, should the Hindus sue McDonalds for practicing cannibalism, since a Big Mac might've been someone's relative? How are they going to see the film, anyway? Surely, if they view this film as exploiting nature, the harnessing of electricity to power the film projectors at the local cineplex is tantamount to blasphemy.

I guarantee if they'd taken some of their casino profits [nothing's more Native than gambling!] and invested in the production, they'd be singing a very different tune.
 
<sniffle>

But Naitaka, we can't BOTH be Alan Smithee!

And I simply refuse to go back to my old stripper name.
 
TorgosPizza said:
At the risk of sounding politically incorrect, I think aboriginal peoples need to lighten up. The problem is, if someone takes interest in their culture (like in the case of this film), they're doing the wrong thing
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You couldn’t be more right Torgos. I stay with a girl who is half native so ive kinda been exposed to some of the hatred that these people posses for "white" people. They definitely do need to lighten up and stop blaming all the bad shit that happens in their lives on "white" people. And yes I know what you mean about taking an interest in their culture as I went to a Pow wow with my girlfriend and most of the young natives where staring at me and growling at me as if they thought I shouldn’t be there but I felt that most of the elder natives were more accepting and quite enjoyed that I was taking an interest.

The whole native/white racism thing that is happening in Canada now is unbelievable and id thought I had seen one of the worst coming from Glasgow where you have protestants and Catholics but to be honest ive never seen someone refused to be served in a pub cos he was a proddy or a catholic but I have seen a pub refuse to serve a man because he was a native, this happens because of natives intolerance to alcohol and the apparent violent behavior that they portray when they are sloshed.
 
One thing I think is hilarious is that in my area, there are all sorts of white people that think they're Native Americans because their great-great grandfather from Ireland came over and married a NA woman. This should be a hint: if you have light hair and eyes, you're not fooling anyone; you're caucasian! What's the deal with these people, anyway? I work with a woman that claims to be NA, but her maiden name is German and blue eyes run in their family. She tells me there are all sorts of indians with blonde hair and such; yet, I think that's as likely as Swedes with big black afros or red-headed samurai. Do these people abhor their culture that much, that they need to be something other than what they are? If so, that's sad.

Oh, yeah, the capper: she asked me to go to a pow-wow with her and I was like, "Why?" She replied that being Native is a state of mind. That's like saying to someone in Moscow that being Filipino is all in your head. Sorry, but that Russian can study tagalog until the day he dies, but he can't will himself into being anything other than what he is...he can move to Manila, but he'll never be Filipino.
 
Have to agree with you on that TorgoPizza, seems like some folk have to have a touch of the exotic in their otherwise mundane lives....so I'd better not mention my Gypsy background.
 
I think that what Torgos is talking about is mainly a North American thing. People here are so starved for individuality they tend to exaggerate their lineage to make themselves seem more interesting to themselves and others around them. I don’t know how many times ive been in a pub and someone asks me where my accent is from and I say "im Scottish" and then they say "oh so am I" then I go on to ask them where in Scotland they were born and it turns out that their great grandfather was Scottish, oh and all these people seem to have castles in Scotland that belong to their family. I feel like saying to them your not Scottish your Canadian! Is it such a bad thing to be Canadian after all? I guess you could be a lot worse.

Its kind of irritating but I guess ive always had a strong culture and sense of where I came from behind me and I don’t know how I would react if I was like most of the people here. I guess it’s hard for people from the UK to understand where they are coming from.
 
I think what Tang's talking about (and you mentioned this to me a few days ago) is right: it is a North American thing, but for several reasons. We're pretty new; what are we in the States, 226 years? That's not a lot of history to go on, and there's a weak cultural foundation because of this. Not only that, but our culture is so convoluted and multifaceted because of our seperate origins, I'm not sure we have a true American culture, but many subcultures. I'll use myself as an example: it's near impossible to have a mother with a maiden name like McBride and feel nothing for the Irish. I think for some strange reason, descendants of Irish immigrants are prouder than most other groups, although I'm not sure why. No one is German and proud of it! There are lots of people of German descent around here (my dad's dad spoke deutsch until he was around 10 or so; however, no one's "proud" of it, I think ill feelings remain from WW2.

I guess it's a case of cultural amnesia, of sorts: we have no idea where we're from, no history, so who the hell are we? What do we do? Where do we go next? Tradition has always answered these questions, but in a land like the US, the answers aren't so forthcoming. Thank God we have MTV to help us form something solid we can take flight from. If I can be blunt, we're in a shite state: we have entertainment professionals shaping our culture, with no concern for the consequences. And the common people will apply these things they're offered to their life, because they have no guage of history to use as a standard. I wonder how many Americans watch Pretty Woman and think life works that way or watch Puff Daddy (sorry, P-Diddy) and think he's a real success story. I wonder with such a lack of identity, if we bother to think at all.
 
TorgosPizza said:
I'll use myself as an example: it's near impossible to have a mother with a maiden name like McBride and feel nothing for the Irish. I
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hey wait a minute here! i never knew u were a catholic! dont ever PM me again ;)

but seriously i know alot of McBrides Torgos! ull need to tell me what part of Ireland your mum was from, maybe i know some of your relatives! my friend scott who was a McBride worked in the WTC last time i spoke to him.. needless to say im worried cos ive not heard from him since Sept 11th but we werent the "keep in touch" kind of friends, i used to bump into him or his brothers every now and then when i went back to scotland and went to the local pub and they always invited me to go come visit him in manhatten, hopefully hes not dead! i should call his mum but im too scared.

About germans not admiting that they are more german than anything well where i stay there is a large german community and my neighbour is actually right into his heritage but i can understand why a lot of people may choose to ignore it after WW2, i hold no grudge towards the gerrys even tho my grandad was in a POW camp for 1 and a half years but they have no more to be ashamed of as say the Japanese who were probably just as bad if not worse that the germans during the war, think about it how many Japs do you see denying their heritage? maybe its because they cant get away with pretending they are Irish??? :blah:
 
If my great grandfather's cousin was a native american, I'd also claim to be NA. That means I can start a casino. You can get a lot of benefits from being NA. That's why the Hawaiians want their status changed from polynesians to native americans.

I live with Germans, and I don't know if they are proud of being Germans. But they are quite pissed that people still consider them nazis. Don't blame them for what their grandfather did. Most other countries weren't any better, they just won the war.

Lego has made some toys where they used some polynesian names for them. They also got some protest for "abusing the polynesian culture". I don't think they used anything but the names. As others have said, lighten up. Or else I want to sue Mort Walker for abusing my cultural heritage for that Hagar comic. Never liked it very much anyway.
 
I won't tell you what I think about what 'Braveheart', or any other televisual or cinematic sludge, did for my culture. Hollywood sucks.
 
Actually, I can understand Native Americans feeling a little skiddish about this movie being made.

It's not like films haven't ever taken ancient religions and perverted them into cheap thrills for a quick buck. MUMMY movies, anyone?
 
rynner said:
Do they actually have a religion based on this alleged creature?
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According to John Kirk (In the Domain of the Lake Monsters), some local natives consider Ogopogo/Naitaka to be a flesh-and-blood animal, some believe it belongs to the spirit realm, while others think it is just a myth. Interestingly, almost all modern sightings have been made by non-natives. If natives are seeing Ogopogo, they are not talking about it.

The ironic part of the news story was that they are removing the name Ogopogo from the film. Ogopogo is not a native word; it comes from a 1920s English music-hall song.

I get confused as to whether the term 'Indian' is offensive. Here in Canada 'native' or 'First Nations' is preferred, but across the border in New York state the Senecas call themselves 'The Seneca Nation of Indians', while a brochure I got in New Mexico last year says:

"Many people born and raised in the US consider themselves "Native American". The preferred title for New Mexico's tribal members is "American Indian".
 
Originally posted by Xanatic
Or else I want to sue Mort Walker for abusing my cultural heritage for that Hagar comic. Never liked it very much anyway.
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What would be great is a Ragnar Lodbrog comic drawn by Peter Madsen (the guy that did Valhalla).

Originally posted by naitaka

The ironic part of the news story was that they are removing the name Ogopogo from the film. Ogopogo is not a native word; it comes from a 1920s English music-hall song.
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Are you sure that's not "The Hokey Pokey?" After all, the hokey pokey is "what it's all about." :) Bad joke...I'll put myself in time-out.
 
Well, the Valhalla cartoon and comic are really good. Also the Quark comics are brilliant.
 
Originally posted by Xanatic
Well, the Valhalla cartoon and comic are really good. Also the Quark comics are brilliant.
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There was a Valhalla cartoon? I had no idea. How long ago was this? Any idea if it's easy to purchase on video? I might have to get it transferred to NTSC; but, then, my Danish is horrible (it's an odd amalgam with norsk, because I confuse the two). Still, I do know the story well enough to follow it. I must get this!

After being raised on Marvel's Thor and Loki, Madsen's book was kind of enlightening, in a way. The Fenris Wolf was great, especially the ending with the children. :)
 
The cartoon, that must be from 86 or 88. My sister answered what the two ravens of Odin were called and won tickets :) The movie got quite famous in cartoon circles apparently. I think Peter Madsen was a cartoonist on it.
 
sorry nothing about the poster on these boards.

this is just an update on the status of the movie.

a guy came up to me the while i was work asking for books or articles about the beast.
he was gonna be trying for a part in the movie and wanted to spruce up his knowledge.
another of my workmate's has got a friend also going for a part.
yes this still being filmed in new zealand.
i work at auckland city central library. i'll try to find about the actual production stuff like locations and script soon.
 
another update. featuring casts
Authors said the $42 million movie was now called The Big Dipper and the serpent known as Dippy.




04.04.2002


Filming is to start in Queenstown on a $42 million movie originally known as Ogopogo, with many of the cast members New Zealanders.

The local cast members were "just fantastic", producer Barry Authors said. He described 10-year-old Wellington girl Jacinta Wawatai-Woodhouse, who has one of the lead roles, as "magic", adding that she was set to become the new Drew Barrymore.

http://nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?thesection=entertainment&thesubsection=&storyID=1293023
 
icon said:
He described 10-year-old Wellington girl Jacinta Wawatai-Woodhouse, who has one of the lead roles, as "magic", adding that she was set to become the new Drew Barrymore.[/B]
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What, she'll be in rehab before she's 12?
 
The first one who calls me Dippy gets a belt right in the teeth.
 
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