The Unknown Fisheries of First Nations in Eastern Quebec - Les Peches des Premieres Nations dans L'est du Quebec

In a discussion in French with Dr Paul Charest from Laval University about his new book The Fisheries of First Nations in Eastern Quebec we discuss the finding of this little known industry. A group of researchers was involved in writing and exploring this industry which is growing in importance for First Nations.  

For over a decade, commercial fishing has played a fundamental role in the economic and social development and the affirmation of the autonomy of Indigenous Nations established on the banks of the estuary and Gulf of St. Lawrence. Historically, Indigenous peoples practice fishing in both freshwater marine environment, but the importance of this activity in the economy and the daily lives of Nations and Aboriginal communities in Quebec has remained largely unknown until now.

By better understanding the situation of the Innu Nation, the Mi'kmaq nation and the Maliseet coastal people currently in Quebec, their pressing development needs and efforts to achieve, among others by commercial fishing, this book aimed to contribute to helping First Nations make their rights known in a world of globalization. It is the recognition of the autonomy of Indigenous peoples of Quebec and Canada through the fishing activity are the issues that underlie the contributions of the authors of this book.
Paul Charest is a retired associate professor of the Department of Anthropology at Laval University where he taught from 1969 to 2004. He has conducted research and ethnographic documentaries on the North Shore of the St. Lawrence since 1965. His recent work focuses on the use and management of wildlife resources, sustainable community development, miscegenation European settlement of Inuit and Innu. He is the author or coauthor of more than 200 texts. He was awarded the Weaver-Tremblay prize of the Canadian Association for Applied Anthropology in 1995. 




The book was written by a collective of authors
Mathieu Bergeron
Brieg Capitaine
Paul Charest, editor
Julie Courtois-Girard
Camil Girard, editor
Arianne Loranger-Saindon
Marie Massuard
Emmanuel Michaux
Jean-François Richard
Thierry Rodon,  editor


This is an interview only in french.
To learn More (interview podcast)

http://archive.org/download/LesPechesDesPremieresNationsDansLestDuQuebec/PaulCharestMixdown.mp3

Professor Kim MacKay-McNabb Aboirginal Health, HIV/AIDS: Community-based Researcher using Action-based Research.

Kim McKay-McNabb, Assistant Professor, Department of Science. Kim has been a faculty member since 2006. She is originally from Sakimay First Nation in Saskatchewan. She was born in Regina and has lived here most of her life. She is the mother of five children, one of who attended the First Nations University of Canada; Kim hopes that the others will consider attending First Nations University when they are old enough. Kim is an alumnus from the Saskatchewan Indian Federated College where she received her undergraduate degree, a Bachelor of Arts (Psychology) and her Masters of Arts degree in Clinical Psychology. She is currently completing the requirements for her Doctorate, in Clinical Psychology at the University of Regina. She will be one of the few First Nations Registered Psychologists in Canada once she completes her degree. Kim also coordinates the National First Nations Environmental Contaminants Program (NFNECP). This program is administered at the First Nations University of Canada in partnership with First Nations Inuit Health Branch, Research and Monitoring Section and the Assembly of First Nations. The objective of the NFNECP is to help the First Nations of Canada assess the extent of their exposure to environmental contaminants and the potential for associated risk to their health and well being (see www.nfnecp.ca for more information). Her research interests are Environmental Health, Aboriginal Health, Aboriginal communities and HIV/AIDS. She is a community-based researcher who believes in action-based research.

To Learn More:
Part I
https://archive.org/download/KimMcnabb/20130418-341.mp3

Part II

Elder Winston Wuttunee: Control of Government and the Environment

Here is a video of myself with Elder Winston Wuttunee (Cree). Winston Wuttunee is the 2013 Indspire (National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation) award winner in Culture, Heritage & Spirituality. He talks about how a well qualified Indigenous person should be placed in charge of the environment departments in all governments. He feels that the life on earth needs to be respected and too often governments put ministers who have no knowledge of the environment or fisheries in charge. They then go about making decisions with little knowledge of the true importance of the world around them. Winston believes that Indigenous peoples have a profound connection with the land and it is this connection which would make them better defenders of "all of creation." Winston ends with the words that we are all in this together.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eDlWImohho&feature=youtu.be 

Corrections Canada and the Coming Tsunami of Youth in Prison

 

Here is an interview I did with Radio-Canada journalist Claudine Richard-Beaudoin about the terrible state of Canadian prisons and the over representation of Aboriginal peoples in that system.  HTTP://www.radio-canada.ca/emissions/midi_plus_manitoba/2012-2013/chronique.asp?idChronique=279078

March 8th, 2013

Howard Saper, the Correctional Investigator tabled a report (7 March 2013) with the Canadian Parliament. The report, entitled Spirit Matters:  Aboriginal People and the Corrections and Conditional Release Act, examines the implementation of Sections 81 and 84 provisions of the CCRA.  Section 81 allows the Minister of Public Safety to enter into agreements to transfer care and custody of an Aboriginal offender who would otherwise be held in a federal penitentiary to an Aboriginal community facility.  Section 84 provides for Aboriginal communities to be involved in the release of an Aboriginal offender returning to their community. Nothing in the report is new except that the tough on crime approach may not be working. I see the report as indicating that we are creating the potential of a tsunami of under privileged young people (Aboriginal) who will eventually be sent to Canadian prisons. We should remember that this is the youngest population in Canada. Perhaps it is time to consider more traditional models of being more intelligent on crime. While no one likes criminals, eventually a criminal has the right to live in society. It should be the task of Corrections Canada to ensure that people when they leave prison have the skills to make a life for themselves on the outside. Too many people learn bad things in prison and it becomes a way of life. Many young men in the Aboriginal community feel that they are destined for the Criminal courts. How can we prevent young people from becoming involved in the system. We are seeing that too many institutional systems are failing too many of our fellow citizens. The education system is not meeting the needs of children and in the case of Aboriginal peoples they have schools which are under funded by 30-40%. The Child and Family services are also failing our youngest citizens. When we see the cases like Phoenix Sinclairs’ which are in my mind the tip of the iceberg, we must be concerned. Children have a destiny in life and positive destiny, but we are the adult can affect that destiny and reduce the potential for the success of all out children. 

While many see underprivileged children as not being their children, they still have value. We often ask what we can do. These children will exist along side us in society. We will see them in the streets, in supermarkets, on the bus and potentially in our cities. While Howard Sapers said he could not comment on the processes that go on outside of correction facilities I can and I see a direct correlation. My quality of life is affected by the quality of life of all children in Canada. Every person who is in prison is a failure of the Canadian state to ensure that all citizens’ Human Rights have been respected and they have been given the options to make good personal choices in life. No man is an Island and we cannot shut ourselves away from the world. By being tough on crime, we must be smart and eradicate crime before it starts. Childhood poverty should be eliminated and we will see cost savings in our prisons and improvements to the Canadian politic in one generation.  

A Life of Resilience: The Example of Elder Ralph Paul

Ralph Paul taken from Nativejournal.ca

This week it is a two part interview with the very active and inspiring Elder Ralph Paul from English River First Nation. Over the course of 50 minutes we discuss his life from when at age 6 he was sent to residential school in Saskatchewan to his later years as a chief for his community. After a very difficult time away from his mother, father and family at Residential school he was eventually chosen to be one of the first Indians to attend a white school in the Battleford area. A Catholic priest believed in his abilities and felt further education would be profitable to him. Ultimately he graduated and was offered the chance to enter teachers college when he earned a one year teaching certificate and so began a very long career. During that time there were not a lot of options available for young men, teacher, priest, or book keeper, so Ralph felt lucky. Ralph has worked in schools in Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Eventually in 1973 he was working in Thompson as a school counsellor. He was advising children to get an education yet he did not have much of an education. In 1974 he enrolled at the University of Manitoba for a Bac of Ed degree. He was one of only 13 Indian students.

He also married to a lovely Scottish lady and had two children and both have been very successful in their chosen careers. He learned form his wife how to care and love children because it was not something that you would have learned in Residential school. He in time became the best father he could. The question is why some people are successful even after the horrors of the residential school era. Why do some have an inner resilience and have been able to become successful. We discussed marital relationships and how a man and woman should not discuss politics, but focus on loving each other.

Eventually he moved back to his reservation after he had retired in early 2000s. After 8 years near the community he was elected chief. A position he held for 4 years before taking another break. There was along discussion about politics, chief, financing, funding, per diems, treaties and other issues that have been very hot in the media with a lot of misnomers and misunderstanding. Ralph felt it is important that a chief speak the truth and understand the needs of the people he represents. It is not a top down approach, but consultation and involving people in the governance and running of the reserve.

He told a number of stories about how the elders felt that are the signing of the treaties it would take 7 generation for the Dene people to surpass the Moonyas people of Canada. He feels we are in the 6 generation and it will be his grandchildren and my children who will be the most successful and truly rise to their full potential.
To Learn More (Interview and Podcast Part I)
https://archive.org/download/RalphPaulPartIMixdown/ralph%20paul%20part%20i%20mixdown.mp3  
https://archive.org/details/RalphPaulPartIMixdown
To Learn more (Interview and Podcast Part II)
https://archive.org/details/RalphPaulPartIiMixdown
https://archive.org/download/RalphPaulPartIiMixdown/ralph%20paul%20part%20ii%20mixdown.mp3  

Citations

Book Review Louis Riel and the Creation of Modern Canada-Mythic Discourse in the Post-Colonial State

Here is Louis Riel at the Manitoba Legislature facing away towards the Assiniboine River. What is the message? Does he look to the river and the ebb and flow of flow of fortunes of his people of Manitoba? Does the river represent the past or the future or the present? Is symbolic Riel looking to the past. It is certainly magnificent to skate by this statue, but it is a shame so few people get to see from the river.

Book Review published in Aboriginal Policy Studies

Riel a little closer Feb 23 2013

Louis Riel and the Creation of Modern Canada-Mythic Discourse in the Post-Colonial State

Robert-Falcon Ouellette’s interview with the author, Jennifer Reid

142-148

http://ejournals.library.ualberta.ca/index.php/aps/article/view/19011

http://dx.doi.org/10.5663/aps.v2i2.19011  

http://ejournals.library.ualberta.ca/index.php/aps/article/view/19011/pdf 

aboriginal policy studies, Vol. 2, no. 2, 2013

www.ualberta.ca/nativestudies/aps/
ISSN: 1923-3299

Louis Riel and the Creation of Modern Canada—
Mythic Discourse in the Post-Colonial State
Robert-Falcon Ouellette’s interview with the author, Jennifer Reid

The following is a conversation that took place on the radio show
At the Edge of Canada: Indigenous Research between the host, Dr. Robert-Falcon Ouellette, and Dr. Jennifer Reid. First broadcast on April 17, 2012, the two talk about Reid’s new book Louis Riel and the Creation of Modern Canada—Mythic Discourse in the Post-Colonial State (published by University of Manitoba Press). This interview was broadcast by the UMFM radio station and the podcast is hosted at www.attheedgeofcanada.blogspot.com. The interview was transcribed by Bryan Tordon.
Robert: Welcome to At the Edge of Canada. I’m your host, Dr. Robert-Falcon Ouellette, and today I have with me Dr. Jennifer Reid from the University of Maine. Dr Reid received her PhD in religious studies from the University of Ottawa; she is the author of Myth, Symbol, and Colonial Encounter; Worse than Beasts: An Anatomy of Melancholy; and The Literature of Travel in 17th and 18th Century England, as well as numerous articles in the history of religions. She has edited the volume Religion and Global Culture: New Terrain in the Study of Religion, and she has just published her new book, called Louis Riel and the Creation of Modern Canada—Mythic Discourse in the Post-Colonial State, published by the University of Manitoba Press: so welcome, Jennifer. Tansai.
Jennifer : Well, thank you Robert.
Robert : I was reading your new book—well, it’s not a new book, in fact it’s an "old" book republished here in Canada for the first time. It’s called Louis Riel and the Creation of Modern Canada—Mythic Discourse in the Post-Colonial State. So why would you reissue a book in 2011 that was published in 2008?
Jennifer : Well, it was published in 2008 by University of New Mexico Press, so I think it probably targeted an American audience. I actually didn’t know it was going to be published again in Canada until I heard from University of Manitoba Press last fall saying that the press had negotiated the Canadian rights and were going to reissue it in Canada which was great. I was really happy.
Robert: Wow, that’s very exciting,
Jennifer: Yes, it’s what I wanted in the first place but I couldn’t get a bite in terms of Canadian publishers, so that’s why I went with the US publisher.
Robert: This book looks at the mythic significance that surrounds Louis Riel and explores the search for Canadian national identity. I was wondering if you could just talk a bit about the premise of the book.
Jennifer: There are a few things going on simultaneously in the book. One of the basic things that I’m interested in is how, in a broader sense, the notion of the nation state doesn’t work very well with post-colonial states. It’s a European construction, and with a nation state you need to have broad geopolitical notions of identity that rest on traditional things like religion, language, or ethnicity. This is what makes a nation, but in post-colonial states we lack those traditional markers for community. We don’t have a single nation in any post-colonial state. That’s the nature of colonialism: it mishmashes everybody together. So I started thinking about how, maybe, identity in this context has to reflect disjunctures and tensions rather than commonalities. Immediately, my long-term interest in Riel just kind of congealed around that. I thought about the constructions of Riel by so many different communities, and the so many different Riels that are out there, and it occurred to me that perhaps he could be one of those linchpins for thinking about identity in terms of disjuncture and tension. So that’s what it came out of.
Robert: Because you also write about the métissage and the creolization of the Canadian state.
Jennifer: Yes, I think that the fundamental thing we have to come to terms with in the modern period is that post-colonial states, the Atlantic world - essentially Africa, North America, South America - these states are incredibly variegated in terms of culture and we already know that we have different ways of talking about that. The US has its melting pot, and we want a mosaic, but we’re all trying to find a way to—of talking about the fact that we don’t have that unity. I like the idea of métissage partly because we get the term from an actual group of people who have lived through these tensions and have created something absolutely new in the New World. And Métis peoples hearken to a process, not of struggling to maintain discreet Old World nationalities, but of creating something very new. I think that’s what we have; we just haven’t created a language to talk about that.

Louis Riel Day Podcast Special

This is an hour long special in honour of Louis Riel Day (18th Feb, 2013 in Manitoba) presenting Aboriginal music of Turtle Island with a focus on Métis music. There are also segments talking about the history and life of Louis Riel. I hope you all enjoy.

Performers are Raymond St-Germain, Winston Wuttunee, Hawk and Eagle, Shingoose, and many more.

Podcast music and Riel Facts

http://archive.org/download/LouisRielDaySpecialAtTheEdgeOfCanada/LouisRielMainMixdown.mp3

Human Rights of the Métis

The Making of Colonial Shatter Zones

This is an interview with Dr Robbie Ethridge, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Mississippi. We discussed her research and work when she was visiting the University of Manitoba. Robbie gave two talks about her work on January 24 2013 entitled Global Capital, Violence, and the Making of a Colonial Shatter Zone and  January 25 The Contours of Contact: A Continental North American Perspective. She has written several books such as Creek Country: The Creek Country and Their World, 1796-1816 (2003), and From Chicaza to Chickasaw: The European Invasion and the Transformation of the Mississippian World, 1540-1715 (2010). Her current research is on the rise and fall of the Mississippian world which examines the rise of the world of the prehistoric Mississippian chiefdoms, the 700-year history of this world, and the collapse of this world with European contact. I certainly felt there were strong links to current events and we could learn a great deal by understanding this period of great urbanization and re-creation of traditions within Indigneous communities.
 

To Learn More (interview and Podcast)
http://archive.org/details/RobbieEthridgeGlobalCapitalViolenceAndTheMakingOfColonialShatter

Citations

Message Lost in Translation: The Indian Act & No Way Forward

This is an interview in french only that (Oct 22, 2012) I did with Radio-Canada about the Indian Act and the motions presented by liberal leader Bob Rae and the conservative Tory MP Rob Clarke in late 2012. Both Parties had presented very opposing points of view about how they see the need for changes to the Indian Act and how these changes should be implemented.

The Conservative point of view is to have a slow incremental changes while the liberal point of view is that the Indian Act should have massive change after consultations with First Nations. The problem is neither is really an adequate solution because the conservative view will modify an imperfect system and make it only more functional, but still imperfect while the liberals are not likely to get much consensus from politicians and First Nations. The proverbial Rock and a Hard place. perhaps we should all move to England and start a fresh.

I think the need for a major overhaul of the Indian Act is long overdue, but as we know the Conservative have no mandate (example Senator Brazeau) and have little chance to bring about consensus. The excuse that consensus will never come so we must impose a solution is also wrong. It is time we spent some long hard hours talking between Canadians about these issues. The issues though must be worded in terms that the average Canadian can understand, Human Rights. If First Nations people continue to use the term Treaty Rights, we will be talking to ourselves. We need to allow the average Canadian the ability to have a reference point something they can grasp.

For most Canadians they see treaty rights as being special rights that they do not have, wrongly or rightly this is the impression. While attending the American Indian Studies Conference in Phoenix Arizona on Feb 7-8 2013 I was in a hot tub with three Canadians and a couple of Americans. there were two parts to our debate the first part was after we each talked I realised we were not sharing the same common language about the issues. I changed my language and we finished the very constructive debate of 2 hours about the idea of human rights to education, housing, food security. The Canadians got it and understood when it was done in these term. Paul Nadasdy wrote a book Hunters and Bureaucrats: Power Knowledge and Aboriginal State Relations in the Southwest Yukon where he talks about how Aboriginal peoples must translate our concepts and understanding into term that average people can understand.

Interview with Radio-Canada about the Indian Act

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSIrDCmJ7UM&feature=g-crec-u 

A friend of mine Leo Baskatawang, who walked across Canada to change and abolish the Indian Act also talks about this issue: March4Justice
http://www.attheedgeofcanada.blogspot.ca/2012/11/leo-basktawang-march4justice-dragging.html

Stories in a New Skin: Approaches to Inuit Literature

This is a conversation with Keavy Martin from the University of Alberta who has written a book about the oft ignored worlds of Inuit Literature. It is a fascinating look and what too many in Canada have little knowledge about. Inuit literature has a depth and breath encompassing many genres as explained by Keavy.

Keavy starts with the following quote by Elder Rita Nashook. “Southerners don't want to understand Inuit ways. They’re ignorant about our culture, don't consider our opinion and treat us like we know nothing. Inuit culture is oral and we keep knowledge in our minds. Even without text, our culture is full of wisdom.”

The true work of Keavy is translating not words, but the meaning between systems of knowledge and allow greater communication between cultures and peoples.

To Learn More  (interview and Podcast)
http://archive.org/download/StoriesInANewSkin/KeavyMartinMixdown.mp3  

Citations

Buffy Sainte-Marie Inspiring Generations of Canadians & Idlenomore



Buffy Ste-Marie &
Robert-Falcon Ouellette
Aboriginal House U of M
29 January 2013



I heard perhaps one of the most important speeches I will hear this year (Jan 29, 2013) by peace activist, artist and Cree woman Buffy Sainte-Marie about her thoughts on Idle no more, Indigenous rights and how we have a positive role to play in improving the lives of those around us. Buffy's message was one where we must stay positive and connect with others to build bridges in a non-violent manner. She discussed her role in the 1960-70s American Indian Movement and how that era has laid the ground work for the current movement to come forward and start addressing these issues and educating Canadians both individually and collectively on the rights of all Canadians to have a decent life based on human values without hierarchy. We each have a role to play according to our skills and desires and we are each important in moving our nation forward. It will not be the leaders who will change the system, but individuals who collectively, one by one, who will bring about improvements in the lives of Aboriginal peoples in Canada.

One of Buffy's words of wisdom related to the idea that European when they first arrived in North America had come from the Spanish Inquisition, they had been engaged in dreadful warfare that had and still was killing millions. When they came here they knew nothing else and simple perpetuated what they had been doing for a thousand years on the Indigenous peoples of North America. While it does not make it right, it makes it easier to understand that they are also victims of themselves and their own culture. We need to help them as well.

“Idle No More is a dream come true for a lot of us across Canada who have been involved with decades of Aboriginal community efforts to make things better,” states Sainte-Marie. “Last week I did a quick iPhone video [of the protests] and it’s gotten tens of thousands of views so that tells you something about the Idle No More team, their expertise in social media, and the many people worldwide who agree with Idle No More. Bill C-45 must not stand” ( The Manitoban).

To Learn More
http://archive.org/details/BuffySte-marieAndIdleNoMoreInWinnipegJan292013 

Where the Waters Divide: Neoliberalism, White Privilege and Environmental Racism in Canada



Fighting over a bottle of Métis Water

Dr Michael Mascarenhas has written a masterly book Where the Waters Divide: Neoliberalism, White Privilege and Environmental Racism in Canada that demonstrates many of the issues facing Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal relations in Canada. Using water as a backdrop to look at the larger issues of the why Aboriginal peoples see themselves as being in an inferior position and why non-Aboriginals do not see any issues because the system is colour blind and based on common sense. Michael is able to clearly state what neo-liberalism is which unfortunately most Canadians both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal fail to adequately understand. Michael demonstrates the neoliberal economic bias within the Canadian political system and how it affects not only First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples but all Canadians. He has been able to analyze how contemporary neoliberal reforms that came to the fore within Canada and the Western world since the 1980s with de-regulation, austerity measures, common sense policies, privatization and show how they have shaped contemporary racial inequality in Canadian society.

Michael has brought together theories and concepts from four disciplines; sociology, geography, Aboriginal studies, and environmental studies to build critical insights into the race relational aspects of neoliberal reform. “In particular, the book argues that neoliberalism represents a key moment in time for the racial formation in Canada, one that functions not through overt forms of state sanctioned racism, as in the past, but via the morality of the marketplace and the primacy of individual solutions to modern environmental and social problems.” Because many Canadians are no aware of Canadian history and how the economic system in Canada came to formed they are not aware of how most Canadians have benefits from the past policies which still affect a system wide racism in the economic policies. The Economist writes that the greatest challenges are not based on redistributing wealth, but ensuring mobility for large social classes within society and economic systems. The average Canadian is “not aware of this pattern of laissez faire racism, and because racism continues to be associated with intentional and hostile acts, Canadians can dissociate themselves from this form of economic racism, all the while ignoring their compounded investment in white privilege.”

Dr Michael Mascarenhas joined the Science and Technology Studies Department
 in 2007. Dr. Masarenhas completed a Post-Doctoral Fellowship at the University of British Columbia in 2006, and received his Ph.D. in Sociology from Michigan State University in 2005. His current research examines the relationship between recent environmental governance regimes and their impacts on social relationships and structural hierarchies. In over a dozen publications, he has written on water, wolves, seed-saving, standards, supermarkets, family farms, and forests.

Where the Waters Divide: Neoliberalism, White Privilege and Environmental Racism in Canada by Michael Mascarenhas.

To Learn More (Interview and Podcast)

http://archive.org/download/MichealMascarenhasWhitePrivilegeAndNeo-liberalism/MichaelMascarenhasMixdown.mp3  

 

Citations

Aboriginal Children Count: A Campaign for Social Justice for Early Education

Kathy Mallett and Wendy Prince are conducting a research project entitled Kiskinwahamkwakewin. This is a cree word which describes the task of education or instruction.   Some of the findings were then taken and developed into the social justice campaign entitled Aboriginal Children Count.  Too often the debates happening around Aboriginal people ignore issues for young children. This campaign is to reach the grassroots and connect with parents and talk about the needs of young children. Further goals include making government more aware about the issues surrounding young children and their specific needs.

There were three stages to their work. The researchers invited families to participate in order to discuss the values they hold and what meaningful people in their lives gave them or taught them those values. The second aspect they asked the parents is what values they actually taught their children and what are the differences between the values they learned and the values they teach to their young children. Wendy and Kathy also asked the families what types of programming they wanted to see in their communities.

As an example Wendy talks about how she would yell at her children to get them to do things. She was mimicking the values in parenting she had learned from her mother, who was also a residential school survivor. Eventually she decided to ask the kids how the felt about the parenting values she was using during a family sharing circle. The children indicated that they did not like this and wanted to see greater respect. Wendy then used more Indigenous parenting techniques to convey her values to her children.  

http://aboriginal.scdsb.edu.on.ca/sevengrandfather.php 

Some of the values that the parents talked about where the seven teaching and other values such as courage, respect, helping one another, eating together, standing independently, language.

To close Kathy said that too often Aboriginal parents are stereotyped as being bad parents, but there are excellent parents who do wonderful work with their children and their research demonstrates that the values that Aboriginal peoples hold as parents are very important and positive and should be used by many different parents.

The researcher have the intent of going into other communities(i.e. William Whyte, St John's neighborhoods) to complete the learning circle portions of the research  in the near future. 

Kathy Mallet is a mother of two adult daughters and a grandmother of three boys and one girl.  Kathy is a band member of the Fisher River Cree Nation, and has lived in the inner-city of Winnipeg since the early 1950s.   In 2008 she received the Grass Roots Women’s Award, and in 2000 she received the first Manitoba Human Rights Commitment Award.  Kathy’s first award came in 1985 when she was recognized for her community work by receiving the YWCA Women of the Year Award in Community Service. Most recently Kathy received the Order of Manitoba on July 11, 2011 and the Grandmothers Keep the Fires Burning award.

Wendy Prince, Cree woman from the Opaskwayak Cree Nation and also familial connections to Peguis First Nation.  Notawiy(mother of three amazing adults), Kohkum (grandmother of two).  Wendy currently supports young parents(13 -23) in the areas of housing, budgeting, educational pursuits, finding appropriate childcare, parenting, and provides 1-1 counseling(i.e grief & loss, self-esteem, family violence, etc.) via the Parenting Student Support Program @ Mount Carmel Clinic. 

To Learn More (Interview and Podcast)

http://archive.org/download/EarlyChildDevelopmentWithKathymalletAndWendyPrince/KathyMalletWendyPrince.mp3  

Citations

Indigenous New Media Decolonizing Canadian Cities

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.

To Learn More (interview & Podcast)

http://archive.org/download/JessicaJaconson-konefallIndigneousNewmediaAndSettlerSocietiesInCanadian/JessicaJacobson-konefallIndigenousNewmediaAndSettlersMixdown.mp3   

Citations

A Separate Country: Postcoloniality and American Indian Nations with Elizabeth Cook-Lynn

This is the second part of a long conversation with the Crow Creek Sioux academic and writer Elizabeth Cook-Lynn and her political book entitled A Separate Country: Postcoloniality and American Indian Nations. It is  a collection of essays where Elizabeth takes those in the ivory tower to task for espousing the idea that “postcoloniality” is the current norm for Indigenous peoples in the United States. After a long career Liz gathers writes that American Indians remain among the most colonized people in the modern world, mired in poverty and disenfranchised both socially and politically. Despite Native-initiated efforts toward seeking First Nationhood status in the U. S., Cook-Lynn posits, Indian lands remain in the grip of a centuries-old English colonial system—a renewable source of conflict and discrimination. She argues that proportionately in the last century, government-supported development of casinos and tourism—peddled as an answer to poverty—probably cost Indians more treaty-protected land than they lost in the entire nineteenth century. Using land issues and third-world theory to look at the historiography of the American Plains Indian experience, she examines colonization’s continuing assault on Indigenous peoples. We also discuss the idea that Native Studies still has a lot of work to do in creating a more rigorous discipline, the difficulties in producing work while working within academia and the anger of writing about a cultural genocide.

Elizabeth Cook-Lynn, a member of the Crow Creek Sioux tribe, was born in Fort Thompson, South Dakota, and raised on the reservation. She is Professor Emerita of English and Native American Studies at Eastern Washington University in Cheney, Washington.

Liz says “The final responsibility of a writer like me … is to commit something to paper in the modern world which supports this inexhaustible legacy left by our ancestors...and yes I am angry.”

To Learn More: (Interview Podcast)

http://archive.org/details/ElizabethCook-lynnASeparateCountryPostcolonialityAndAmericanIndian

http://archive.org/download/ElizabethCook-lynnASeparateCountryPostcolonialityAndAmericanIndian/AtTheEdgeOfCanada-SeparateCountryMainMixdown.mp3

Citations