At the Edge of Canada: Indigenous Research is dedicated to amplifying the voices of Indigenous researchers and shedding light on the invaluable work being done to support Indigenous peoples and communities. Through interviews, discussions, and current affairs, this blog serves as a platform for Indigenous scholars and researchers to share their insights, experiences, and expertise.
A controversy has erupted in Manitoba. The
first time since the 1960s a Sundance ceremony has been recorded. There have
been many negative and positive comments about this. APTN the Canadian National Aboriginal
TV Network did a three part mini series in June 2013. What are some of the reasons
against or for sharing the Sundance ceremony?
At the end of the Sundance with my boys
In the 19th century up until the mid 20th
century many of the traditional ceremonies were recorded both in word, but
visually with photos and later in video. Many of those doing this recording
were anthropologists, Indianophiles and in the 1950s and 60s Indigenous peoples
themselves. There was a tendency after the 1900s to start hiding the ceremonies
because religious officials and government agents would take children during
the ceremonies and they had been declared illegal both in Canada
and the United States.
Dr Niigaanwewidam James Sinclair a professor
at the University of Manitoba is featured in a video by Trevor Greyeyes News. Niigaan talks about
the course Super Savages and Sovereign Traces: Introduction to Indigenous Graphic Novels he developed at the University of Manitoba which explores the ideas of the graphic novel from the Indigenous
perspective. Obviously there are the portrayals of Indigenous peoples in
graphic novels by non-Indigenous peoples and the growing field of the Indigenous
artist using the graphic novel to tell their own narrative and story.
The use of Indigenous peoples in graphic novels (comics) was also a means to consume the Indian, to use the image of the Indian to reinforce stereotypes. I wonder though if we can still find pride in those images of the warrior in the comics which allow Indigenous peoples to feel strong and recognize that their culture is so powerful and enduring. When the dominant culture must use anothers image to supplement their own what are they missing? What forces them to do so? Now many Indigenous artists and writers like Dave Robertson (Sugar Falls) are using the graphic novel to tell difficult stories about Indigenous survival. They take the academic and make it real.
On September 18, 2013 the Grand Chief Derek Nepinak of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs came to the University of Manitoba to give his vision for treaty rights and relations between First Nations (or Status Indians - there was a whole debate surrounding this term) and the federal government. GC Nepinak has been very controversial in the past year having very closely aligned himself with the Idle No More movement and has presented a opposing vision of the relations that should exist between First Nations and the Federal government. While some have accused him of trying to destroy the Assembly of First Nations when you hear CG Nepinak speak you hear someone who is concerned that the current system is not working for First Nations peoples and the current approach in dealing with the federal government is in fact not allowing First nations to be strong and self-reliant peoples, but peoples living in dependence.
GC Nepinak has now set up another national organization of a Treaty Alliance which hopes to bring recogogniztion and respect of the treaties that have been signed by the crown and First Nations. He was introduced by Dr Niiganan Sinclair (UManitoba). He partially addressed the idea that his work is not only so he may challenge for the position of GC of the Assembly of First Nations, but promote greater understanding between Aboriginal peoples and Canadians. He certainly demonstrates that he does not beleive the approach used by current AFM leadership is working. I should note he never actually said he was interested in being CG of the AFN, but there seems to be an undercurrent pushing him to this position.
CG Nepinak is asking for a return to a original understanding of the treaties. It is a very difficult line to walk between building and destruction An Elder said to me it is easier to destroy than to build or we can live in two ways, the path of chaos or the path of the good life. It will certainly be an on going debate for years to come. If the work of GC Nepinak in Manitoba and all treaty territories to change the way First Nation peoples deal in their relations with the federal government and all Canadians starts gaining greater traction, we must remember where it started.
The Indigenous Revolution will be a long and slow event that will take many years and incredibly it will not be a violent revolution. It will be a revolution of the mind. It seems that Aboriginal peoples in Canada may have attained a critical mass in their demands for Human Rights. As Louis Riel said it will be the artists who will awaken my people. This song is not about Cree people, Anishnaabe people, Inuit or Métis but the common cause of all Canadians. The philosophy of Indigenous peoples offers a means to all peoples to create a better world. Vine Deloria wrote the Western world would not face defeat in war or battle, but the philosophy which guides the west will be defeated by the holistic Indigenous thought. It will be the Indigenous thought which will allow the flowering of all human beings as valuable members of society.
All revolutions take a spark, something to ignite them; to push them forward. While song is not the usual spark I hope that it will offer words of comfort. I suspect that it must be a charismatic individual that will offer self sacrifice. This individual must be above reproach so when they are attacked those attacks will ring hollow.
Aboriginal authors for the past forty years have been writing about colonialism and its devastating effects on Aboriginals. Among the first books was one that profoundly impacted the way Aboriginals and Canadians see themselves and their condition: The Only Good Indian (Waubageshig, 1972).
This was a revolutionary book. Waubageshig, in an effort to force Canadian society to wake up to the terrible suffering of Aboriginals in Canada, wrote about the works of Frantz Fanon (1925-1961), which have become the “handbooks of revolutionaries throughout the third world.” Waubageshig explains Fanon’s theory of decolonization in stages.
According to Fanon, the first stage of colonization-decolonization is traditional Aboriginal culture. It is conservative, and innovation in both technology and society generally moves very slowly. Social values and norms are in accordance with the natural environment (Waubageshig, 1972, 65-66).
Stage two comes with the arrival of the settlers. Their arrival creates a very volatile social structure with the introduction of a “new breed of men” and technology. For the settlers and Natives, it is a time of great innovation although generally the Native loses out in any power struggles over the long term. These power struggles often involve violence between Natives and settlers, as Natives attempt to maintain their status and culture. Settlers attempt to impose their culture and create status for themselves in this new land. Over time, more and more of them arrive, giving more weight to their culture and military/economic power (Waubageshig, 1972, 66).
With stage three, there is a dichotomy in relations between Natives and settlers. The new economic and social power is in the hands of the settlers. Natives are often exploited legally, economically, and politically. They are not seen as being human, but as the “Other.” They have become rejected as inferior and forced to occupy low-status positions. Violence is less pronounced, but often takes verbal and socially structured forms. In the third stage, a Native bourgeoisie has also developed and is given multiple responsibilities in administering and controlling other Natives. This bourgeoisie assumes most of the outward appearances of the settlers, except for skin colour (Waubageshig, 1972, 67).
The fourth stage is the use of violence by the Natives. This stage is perhaps the most difficult to reach. According to Waubageshig, prior to decolonization, there is a noticeable increase in the crime rate and violence among Natives. The Native culture also enjoys a revival with traditional dances and songs, as rites of the Native’s religion are performed more. Eventually, this idea of the “Other” takes hold among the Natives, whereby the settler becomes the Other. It is not the Native bourgeoisie who is the prime instigator of decolonization, but rather the peasants. The peasants have almost nothing to lose through violence and much to gain. Eventually, the bourgeoisie’s intellectuals identify with the peasants, their own people. The latter will lead the revolution towards “its nationalistic outcome; which is stage five of the theory” (Waubageshig, 1972, 67).
Waubageshig then lays out how the Canadian situation meets many of the requirements of Fanon’s theory, thus providing a wake-up call to the 1970s system of treating Aboriginals. Waubageshig says: “Indians will have the opportunity to adequately gauge the limits of peaceful negotiations. Then it will be possible to discern if decolonization will occur and if so, whether or not it would be a violent process” (Waubageshig, 1972, 67). Under the Canadian system, many Aboriginals (but not all[1]) have been unwilling to use excessive violence when demanding their rights over the past 40 years. Instead, very pragmatic Aboriginal leaders have used public desire for justice and fairness to make political and economic gains against colonialism. Many Aboriginals still believe this process has not gone fast enough and have advocated concrete action against the Canadian state (Chief Gilbert Whiteduck, personal communication, February 7, 2007). At the same time, Waubageshig does not believe that Canadian Aboriginals are willing to use any large-scale violence to achieve their ends (p. 83). Perhaps, this is due to their philosophy of life or because they see the benefits of negotiation and talking within an increasingly pluralistic society that is more and more willing to allow difference.
The need to decolonize Aboriginals and their communities is widely accepted by almost all Aboriginal philosophers and leaders. Battiste and Henderson have suggested that acceptance of Eurocentric thought process will eventually result in a single world centre (2000, 21). They feel, as do others such as Kennedy (1989) and Dimont (1962), that even North America wholly relies upon Europe for much of its knowledge and understanding. The problem for Battiste and Henderson is that “as a theory it [Western worldview] postulates the superiority of Europeans over non-Europeans. It is built on a set of assumptions and beliefs that educated and unusually unprejudiced Europeans and North Americans habitually accept as true, as supported by “the facts,” or as “reality” ”(Battiste & Henderson, 2000, 21). The Universal Declaration of Human Rights demands difference of opinion and life.
Tapwe
[1] May 18, 2010 there was a firebomb attack by “Native radicals” (FFFC-Ottawa) on a Royalbank in the Ottawa region before the G8 and G20 summits to be held in Canada that summer denouncing the stealing of land by “colonial British Columbia and the RBC” for the winter Olympics (FFFC, 2010).
In celebration or remembrance of Queen Victoria Day in Canada. I invite you to see this article from the Mail about King George VI who met some First Nations in Canada on his first trip as King to Canada in 1939. The photo is dated May 26. He was shown a picture of Queen Victoria (his Kokoum-grandmother). The two chiefs greeting the King are also wearing treaty medals as well as one is wearing a treaty uniform given to chief who had signed treaty.
There are many things to reflect on this day concerning the history of this day and it importance to the relations between the Aboriginal peoples of Canada and settlers societies.
The Mail from England calls the Indigenous peoples Indians and not First Nations, it is their term not mine. So Happy Victoria Day.
I had a conversation with Jessica Jacobson-Konefall about her research entitled Decolonizing Settler Legacies: Indigenous New Media Art in Canadian Cities. Jessica is a PhD Candidate in Cultural Studies at Queen’s University and a visiting affiliate at The Center for Globalization and Cultural Studies. Her research focuses on how First Nations new media art shapes and defies concepts of civic space and related notions of identity and community in Winnipeg.
Her research The Decolonizing Settler Legacies: Indigenous New Media Art in Canadian Cities has three objectives:
1)to understand how notions of identity and community currently function vis-à-vis what Sherene Razack calls civic “place-images” (2002) in Canada, how these mobilize civic practices and power relations in settler society;
2)to analyze Indigenous new media art practices (video art, digital photographs, multimedia installations) within cities: how civic “place images” interact with Indigenous epistemologies in these works, reorienting prevailing notions of urban space, identity, and community for Indigenous and settler citizens; and
3)to look at public responses to these artworks: the ways in which these artworks allow for the building of new “place-images,” towards decolonized citizenship practices in Canadian cities.
The conversation here covers aspects of New Media art, First Nations artists, and how their work intersects with city spaces. We also discussed how civic planning and design demonstrate the ideals of settler societies and how Winnipeg and its urban design also demonstrates settler principles.
