The couple being escorted out
The representation starts with the presenter, dressed in a suit and wearing sunglasses, leading the two Indigenous people through the main entrance of the museum and then into the cage. While this happens, a large crowd of people stands by, looking at the presenter and the couple but does nothing except to look and smile. This image presented here, of the couple being escorted to the cage and of the rest of the audience just sitting and watching them is important because it shows that more than often, the rest of society distances itself from the practices it does not agree with. This indifferent attitude is just as bad as having an active part in the imprisonment of the couple and they become involved indirectly, through their indifferent attitude.
The dancing people on the TV
Among the items in the cage with the Indigenous people, a TV could be clearly seen, tuned in to a movie about Indigenous people. The actors in the movie were performing a dance, presumably a native dance, and the two people in the cage looked at them while they stayed unmoving. The image created here shows two different aspects about the way Indigenous people are perceived. First of all, the people in the movie, dancing while wearing almost no clothes at all, represent the way the rest of society thinks Indigenous people behave and act. The couple in the cage, sitting unmoving and watching with interest the TV, shows that in reality, the image many have in their minds about Indigenous people is actually wrong, and that Indigenous people are just like anyone else.
The Indigenous people playing with the guests’ hair
An important image is the way the Indigenous people are portrayed, with their hands through the bars of their cage and playing with the hair of those who came too close to the cage. The way the Indigenous people played with the hair of the guests present there was similar to the way a monkey would search for lice and other parasites in the hair of their fellow monkeys. This image has the purpose of transmitting the idea that the people in the cage were not humans but rather they were animals.
No genitals
In one scene, the man is paid to take off his clothes and show of his genitals to the people present at the exhibitions. When the clothes are removed, the onlookers saw that the man had no genitals at all. The image presented here is that of a man who is emasculated, who is not really a man but rather a being unable to fulfill his role as a man. This image is important because it transmits the idea that the rest of the world saw the Indigenous people as not being capable human beings but rather useless people.
