Crossing the Line

We drove out to Monument Valley on Sunday to see some incredible megalith like rocks. This site is famous for its amazing red hues and crazy natural shapes...


It looks like something out of a Western movie, doesn't it? And you probably will recognise this place if you've ever watched any John Wayne films...there is plenty of his merchandise in the gift shop!

To get here, was about an hours' drive and we had to cross the state line into Utah - another one to cross of my list. As we went through the toll booth, John told me to pretend to be Navajo to get in for free. It worked, I "blended in like a good weave".

It's funny how when one is accepted into a particular community or family, it is ok to joke with them about their culture. If you haven't reached that level or built that rapor, you could very quickly be considered a racist or anything you may say in jest might be taken as derrogatory. So as I browsed the shop at Monument Valley, I kept comments about Cowboys and Indians to myself...the stereotypes were incredibly blatant! The John Wayne items were clearly for the 'white American' or the tourists that were from other countries (I think I caught some French and German chatter).

Whenever these siteseers walked past, they made a very dramatic point of saying hello to us as if saying to themselves 'Look! Real life Indians!' but also somewhat dissapointed that Sina and John weren't adorned with feathers and war paint...

John drove us down the dirt trail so we could get closer to these magnificent rocks. He made jokes about spotting John Wayne behind a cactus somewhere, all crisp from being left out in the sun. Again, I couldn't get the stereotypes out of my head but as we drove deeper down the trail, they appeared to exist purely for tourism - foreigners were being led out by Navajos on horses, kitted out in cowboy hats, boots, the works.

I couldn't stop laughing when John joked that he should put a wig on, take his t-shirt off and come running out from behind the rocks with arrowheads to make the 'white folk' jump. I guess when such a culture has been discriminated against, misjudged or completely stereotyped, it's ok for them to play with it a little bit.


The three of us enjoyed a lot of banter on this little road trip across the border - I felt like I had been considered part of the family.