<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<meta content="text/html; charset=windows-1252"
http-equiv="Content-Type">
</head>
<body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000">
<div class="post-header">
<h1><font color="#ff0000"><i><small>Two articles follow</small></i></font></h1>
<h1>#IdleNoMore: Settler Responsibility for Relationship</h1>
<div id="single-date" class="date">December 27, 2012<br>
<small><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://decolonization.wordpress.com/2012/12/27/idlenomore-settler-responsibility-for-relationship/#more-63">http://decolonization.wordpress.com/2012/12/27/idlenomore-settler-responsibility-for-relationship/#more-63</a></small><br>
</div>
</div>
<p>Being at the Idle No More drum dance in Yellowknife this past week
was moving in many ways. It was led, in part, by strong young
Indigenous women who have moved in their own decolonization journeys
from frustrated anger to empowered loving action. In the cold afternoon
air, the sun shone bright as more than a dozen drummers spoke loud and
clear with a unified beat. Dancing to the drum in the middle of the
city brought a hush over the dancers: the land was fed by the closeness
and spirit of the people, receiving the offering and affirmation made
by the drummers and the circle. The drum dance transcended the
political context, revealing a spiritual bond that lives and breathes
through Dene being indivisible from the land.</p>
<p>Many settler allies support Idle No More on the grounds of moral
responsibility, or self interest. These are legitimate bases from which
to act. But the calls from Idle No More organizers where I live are
ones that are premised on recognizing and acting on relationship: calls
that say “we need everybody.”</p>
<p>Relationship: it’s a constructive approach to harnessing settler
support for achieving this movement’s goals. Everyone is needed. Its
effectiveness rests on requests for specific settler actions to be
taken in the context of recognizing and creating relationships.
Relationship is fundamental to meaningful co-existence, and an
antecedent to motivating change within settler society over the long
term.</p>
<p><span id="more-63"></span></p>
<p>Co-existence through co-resistance is the responsibility of
settlers, and we achieve it in part by making change in our own systems
and among other settlers, taking our cue from Indigenous action and
direction. For settler allies, having a place to land relationally
creates a stronger rationale for unsettling established systems:
knowing and being with Indigenous peoples, even if it is just to be
welcomed to stand alongside at marches and rallies, or to join the drum
dance circle, creates a tangible bond. Relationship creates
accountability and responsibility for sustained supportive action. This
does not mean requiring Indigenous energies for creating relationship
with settlers; it means settlers taking initiative to live on a
personal level what they claim on a political one.</p>
<p>What Idle No More highlights in part is not simply neglect and
actions of the Harper government. What it highlights is that Harper’s
extreme legislation is only possible because successive generations of
settler Canadians have normalized looking to government rather than
themselves to resolve “the Indian problem.” Canadians don’t tend to get
riled when Canada gets it right (such as impetus toward such
initiatives as a residential school apology, the Kelowna Accord); nor
do they get riled when the appalling undoing of decades of slow
progress on Indigenous issues occurs, as has been accomplished by the
Harper government over the past few years. For the most part, settlers
simply have no clue, are not engaged in relationship with Indigenous
peoples, and assume that the government is following the rule of law
and doing right by Indigenous peoples.</p>
<p>I am somewhat skeptical about the willingness of settlers to support
a movement in a sustained way on the basis of either moral
responsibility or self-interest. I have found that even the most
supportive settlers have a privilege line they refuse to cross. It is
the existence of that line and the refusal to cross it, which requires
long-term effort. Erasing that line is predicated on personal
transformation. In the short term some settlers may show support as a
way to leverage Indigenous unrest to achieve their own social or
environmental agendas. But over the long term, settlers must engage in
personal transformation to entrench meaningful decolonization. Idle No
More may assist in moving such settlers past merely supporting their
own interests toward the more difficult task of supporting interests of
decolonized justice.</p>
<p>I am convinced that such a shift needs to start early: it has been
said that it is easier to build strong children than repair broken men.
As the mother of two boys I am convinced that they are the key to
settler change: they and all the other settler children in Canada who
will in future people Canadian institutions and society. A critical
settler responsibility is consciously educating our kids away from the
constant barrage of social, educational, and structural influences that
reinforce an omniscient patriarchal heterosexual white male birthright.
This task is crucial because children are open; their “normal” is
created by us as parents. What this means is parenting in a consciously
decolonizing way. So far some basic rules for me include supporting my
boys’ developing relationships with people and places that are
decolonizing; fostering their respectful spiritual and physical
relationship with the land; and, supporting them in developing critical
thinking faculties necessary for an ethics of compassionate
discernment. In this task, a movement such as Idle No More is a
lifeline.</p>
<p>Idle No More has the potential to motivate societal change in so
many ways. It is an opportunity to shift awareness among settlers and
so shift the context on which settler privilege is premised. Over the
long term it has the potential to contribute to changing how and what
settler children learn about Indigenous peoples, and the history and
current Indigenous-state relationship. It will stand as part of a
longer record of documented injustices and Indigenous responses,
opening young minds to understanding the complexity of injustice in
which settlers live and prosper. A gift that it stands to impart to
settler society is one of both awareness and self-awareness, sustaining
a basis for a fundamental shift toward decolonizing settler
consciousness, creating a tool for fashioning a shared future of all of
our children in the shape of justice.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"> ____________________________________________________________________</p>
<p><i>Stephanie Irlbacher-Fox, PhD, is the author of </i>Finding
Dahshaa: Self Government, Social Suffering and Aboriginal Policy in
Canada<i>. She works as an advisor for Indigenous organizations in the
Northwest Territories. She lives in Yellowknife with her husband and
two young sons.<br>
*****************************************************************</i><br>
<big><big><b>First nations #IdleNoMore protests push for ‘reckoning’
</b></big></big></p>
<h1 class="entry-title"
title="Idle No More movement has closed highways and sent an Ontario chief on hunger strike as natives press for recognition of treaty rights"></h1>
<div class="entry-meta">
<p class="byline author vcard">GLORIA GALLOWAY
</p>
<p class="creditline source-org vcard">
OTTAWA — The Globe and Mail<br>
<small><small><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/first-nations-idlenomore-protests-push-for-reckoning/article6589418/">http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/first-nations-idlenomore-protests-push-for-reckoning/article6589418/</a></small></small><br>
</p>
<div class="dateline">
<p>Published
<time datetime="2012-13-20T01:12:53Z" pubdate="">Wednesday, Dec. 19
2012, 8:13 PM EST</time>
</p>
<p>Last updated
<time class="updated" datetime="2012-04-20T16:12:52Z" pubdate="">Thursday,
Dec. 20 2012, 11:04 AM EST<br>
<br>
</time></p>
</div>
</div>
<p>First nations protests that are sweeping the country are a “call to
action” and Canada must pay heed to indigenous peoples in ways it never
has before, says the National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations.</p>
<p>The Idle No More movement “is part of what so many of us have been
saying is a moment of reckoning,” Shawn Atleo, the head of Canada’s
largest aboriginal group, said in an interview with The Globe and Mail.
“We need to see real movement right now.”</p>
<aside class="entry-related lt1484 "></aside><aside
class="entry-sidebar s2of12"></aside>
<p>Highways have been closed, Christmas music has been drowned out by
native drummers at shopping malls, and the hunger strikes by an Ontario
chief and others who support her have become a rallying cry for native
people from one coast to the other.</p>
<p>“What we’re seeing in these rallies and events is that it’s not just
first nations,” Mr. Atleo said, “that Canadians are joining first
nations across the country and saying essentially what the tagline says
– that we will remain idle no more.”</p>
<p>This is not the first time native people have been moved to action,
but never in recent years have the protests been so widespread or
sustained.</p>
<p>They point to the legislation that directly affects their
communities, which native leaders, including Mr. Atleo, say was written
without their input. They point to development of natural resources on
their traditional lands that offers little sharing of wealth but
promises lasting environmental consequences. They point to a federal
government that they say has been long on gestures but short on a
willingness to listen and negotiate.</p>
<p>This week, the National Chief visited the Cross Lake First Nation in
northern Manitoba where Raymond Robinson, 51, is on a hunger strike to
protest bills that he says violate his people’s treaty rights. Mr.
Atleo also spent time with Theresa Spence, chief of the impoverished
Attawapiskat First Nation, who has gone more than a week without food
to demand that Prime Minister Stephen Harper and a representative of
the Crown meet with first nations to discuss the treaty relationship.
Mr. Atleo has written to both Mr. Harper and Mr. Johnston to ask for an
“immediate commitment” that Ms. Spence’s demands will be met.</p>
<p>When asked if the AFN supports the hunger strikes, an assembly
spokesperson said it supports all actions by first nations and
individuals standing up for positive change. The spokesperson also said
the AFN encourages safety and respect for the “sacred responsibilities
to embrace life,” and stands “firmly in pride, identity and rights.”</p>
<p>The government points out that Mr. Harper met with Mr. Atleo in late
November to discuss a range of issues. In addition, Aboriginal Affairs
Minister John Duncan has offered to meet with Ms. Spence but says he
has not yet received a response from her. But there is no sign of a
willingness to call the meeting that Ms. Spence insists must take place.</p>
<p>Tanya Kappo of Edmonton is one of the people credited with making
the Idle No More movement a cross-Canada phenomenon. “It feels like a
fire,” she said in a telephone interview with The Globe.</p>
<p>Ms. Kappo, 41, graduated from law school last spring. Earlier this
year, she heard another indigenous lawyer, Sylvia McAdam, talk about
law from a Cree perspective and the two became Facebook friends. Ms.
McAdam and three other women held what they called a “teach-in” in
Saskatchewan in November to talk about the effects of the federal bills
and to provide information about treaty rights. They called the session
Idle No More.</p>
<p>Ms. Kappo was frustrated by the fact that she wasn’t hearing about
these bills from first nations leadership. So she organized her own
“teach-in” at the Louis Bull First Nation in Alberta on Dec. 2, and she
tweeted about it using the hashtag #idelnomore. “And it just snowballed
from there,” Ms. Kappo said.</p>
<p>Mr. Atleo said every resource development project in Canada has a
first nation next to it, many with people living in poverty. The
government must also take seriously the hundreds and potentially
thousands of missing and murdered first-nations girls and women, he
said.</p>
<p>“I think we are going to see a continued expression of this
frustration in an effort to break a very toxic system that, in fact, in
my view, is life or death,” Mr. Atleo said. “The cycle of heartbreaking
tragedies has to end, and that’s what our people are saying.”<br>
</p>
<p><aside class="entry-related lt1484 ">
<h4>More Related to this Story</h4>
</aside>
<aside class="entry-sidebar s2of12">
<div><figure><a
href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/news-video/video-attawapiskat-chief-willing-to-die-if-it-means-helping-her-people/article6248832/"
title="Video: Attawapiskat Chief willing to die if it means helping her people"><span
class="sprite video-s"></span></a>
</figure>
<h4>Video</h4>
<p><a
href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/news-video/video-attawapiskat-chief-willing-to-die-if-it-means-helping-her-people/article6248832/"
title="Video: Attawapiskat Chief willing to die if it means helping her people">Video:
Attawapiskat Chief willing to die if it means helping her people</a></p>
</div>
<div><figure><a
href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/news-video/video-attawapiskat-chief-wants-better-relationship-with-ottawa/article543527/?from=6589418"
title="Video: Attawapiskat chief wants better relationship with Ottawa"><span
class="sprite video-s"></span>
</a></figure>
<h4>video</h4>
<p><a
href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/news-video/video-attawapiskat-chief-wants-better-relationship-with-ottawa/article543527/?from=6589418"
title="Video: Attawapiskat chief wants better relationship with Ottawa">Video:
Attawapiskat chief wants better relationship with Ottawa</a></p>
</div>
<div><figure><a
href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/news-video/video-first-nations-leaders-want-action-from-government/article609569/?from=6589418"
title="Video: First Nations leaders want action from government"><span
class="sprite video-s"></span>
</a></figure>
<h4>Housing Crisis</h4>
<p><a
href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/news-video/video-first-nations-leaders-want-action-from-government/article609569/?from=6589418"
title="Video: First Nations leaders want action from government">Video:
First Nations leaders want action from government</a></p>
</div>
</aside></p>
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863.9977
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.freedomarchives.org">www.freedomarchives.org</a>
</div>
</body>
</html>