"Supaman" dispels clichés about Native Americans

Students from a seventh grade class at Radebeul's Lößnitzgymnasium met the indigenous rapper and artist "Supaman". Wearing feathers and jewelry as well as traditional, colourful clothing and moccasins, he was there to introduce the children and young people to the culture of the Apsáalooke and to dispel clichés.

"I don't always walk around like this. I dress normally. I have a job. I live in a house in a small town with 2,000 inhabitants," explains "Supaman", whose real name is Christian Parrish Takes the Gun.

Became famous with music and "Fancy War Dance"

He is a Native American and one of around 14,000 members of the Apsáalooke tribe still living in the US state of Montana. He has become known for his hip-hop music, which puts a contemporary spin on the themes, melodies and instruments of his culture. He is also a "fancy war dancer".

He performs choreographies to traditional tribal music at dance competitions as part of so-called "powwows", cultural gatherings of indigenous tribes. Contrary to the usual traditional rites, the participants freely use dances from all of the more than 600 indigenous tribes in the USA, he explains.

"Only from old movies"

"A lot of people only know us from old movies where we hunt buffalo, live in tepees and fight all the time," he says. "That's the old, stereotypical story. A lot of people think Native Americans are still like that - but we're just like you today." The seventh-graders took the opportunity to quiz the 48-year-old about hunting, war history, language and everyday life on Native American reservations.

Parrish talked about how he won one of the coveted "MTV Video Music Awards" in 2017 with a music video together with the rapper "Taboo" from the multi-Grammy award-winning hip-hop group "Black Eyed Peas", rapping in his tribal language. He travels the world with his workshops and has already been a guest at schools in Taiwan, France and Sweden. This weekend, he will be performing his music on stage at the 33rd Karl May Festival in Radebeul.