Just Like Me

When I was a boy, people knew I was Indian (or First Nations as we say in Canada) because I had the features of my Indian mother. As I got older, people weren't sure anymore. "You sure are exotic looking," they told me. " Are you Spanish? Italian? Portuguese?" I was looking more like my white father. But since both my parents were dead and I was living with my Dutch foster family, I was very confused about who I was. No one ever told me then that I was mixed-blood. Sometimes I look Indian now, but sometimes I don't. My looks change according to my mood. That's why I've made these four different self-portraits. It took me many years to accept my features. Then one day I decided that I had to love myself just the way I am. I'm a rainbow man, with half of this and a quarter of that, and a dash of a mixture of everything!