ABORIGINAL AND NON-ABORIGINAL ALLIANCES AND COALITIONS FOR INDIGENOUS RIGHTS, SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE

PRESENTATION ABSTRACTS AND INVITED GUESTS

Abstracts for conference presenters will be available after final selection has been completed and presenters have confirmed their attendance.

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

PRESENTERS AND PANEL PARTICIPANTS

FRIDAY

 

Caitlyn Vernon
Masters Candidate, Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University

New Relationship, Old Relations? Justice, Sustainability and Shared Decision-Making in British Columbia

It is not enough to support aboriginal struggles for justice without reflecting upon – and acting to change – the ways in which settler society is complicit in perpetuating colonial injustices against First Nations in Canada. My central argument is that the oppression of First Nations is interconnected with the exploitation of the natural world, and therefore attempts to address social injustices must be made in conjunction with the goal of ecological sustainability. I use a case study from British Columbia to speak to other non-aboriginal activists and scholars working in solidarity with aboriginal peoples.

The ‘New Relationship,’ an agreement between the BC Liberal Government and the First Nations Leadership Council, proposes increased involvement of First Nations in resource management decision-making in order to address socio-economic disparities, reduce conflicts over land and resources and enable economic development.

In my assessment of this agreement, I argue that the privileges enjoyed by settlers are based upon the dispossession of First Nations’ land and their marginalization from decision-making, that the economy must be limited to within ecological constraints, and that within this finite economy there must be a redistribution of land, wealth and decision-making authority. I conclude that the New Relationship, while it holds promise in some regards, perpetuates unjust colonial relations and unsustainable resource management, and I make recommendations for a more transformative relationship that reduces oppression without exacerbating ecological unsustainabilities

 

Lily Pol Neveu

Beyond Recognition And Coexistence: Living Together

The issues of recognition of Aboriginal peoples and coexistence between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal populations have gained greater importance in recent times. This reality brings up important political and ethical questions. Canadian political philosophers such as Charles Taylor, Will Kymlicka, and James Tully have entered the debate by developing what is known as normative theories of recognition. These theories question the universality and well-founded principles of the liberalist ideology in North America and throughout the world. The basic principle of the normative theories of recognition states that a different identity deserves a different treatment.

This presentation will be based on the case of Fort-Témiscamingue/Obadjiwan, National Historic Site of Canada, Parks Canada, where an agreement of co-management between Parks Canada and Timiskaming First Nation is in progress. In 1998, the discovery of Algonquin remains completely transformed the relationship between the different communities of the Témiscamingue region. After a difficult period, the historic site is now working towards an agreement of co-management, and the activities are operating in that spirit. Throughout my work as an interpreter at Fort-Témiscamingue/Obadjiwan, I have observed that dialogue, openness, and exchange are crucial in order to build a good relationship.

In this communication, I would like to argue that contemporary normative theories of recognition are useful to understand how reconciliation between Aboriginals and non-Aboriginals can be done in practice. Beyond recognition and coexistence, I suggest that "action, time, and path" are three elements part of the answer to these questions. These elements contribute to our understanding of ‘living together’.

 

Bev Jacobs. President, Native Women’s Association of Canada

Theresa Ducharme, Native Women’s Association of Canada

Ed Bianci, Kairos Canada

Cheryl Hotchkiss, Amnesty International

Sisters in Spirit Campaign – Panel Presentation

Building positive relationships is the key to our success at the Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC). We believe that forming alliances with Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples across Canada and internationally is the tool to our strength and success. Having these strong partnerships builds strength in numbers which then creates an important awareness to fight for Indigenous rights for women. One of our monumental success stories due to relationship building is Sisters in Spirit. This campaign which is now an initiative was solely the dedication of our partners like Amnesty International and Kairos Canada who helped make this vision a reality.

In 2005, NWAC launched the Sisters in Spirit initiative, and secured a five-year commitment from the Government of Canada to support research, education and policy activities related to missing and murdered women in Canada. Sisters in Spirit initiative is designed to increase public understanding and knowledge at a national level of the impact of racialized, sexualized violence against Aboriginal woman and girls that often leads to their disappearance and death. We work closely with cooperating families to document life histories of these women and girls in hopes to gain a better understanding of the root causes, circumstances and trends surrounding these incidences.

We have a very inspirational story to share of the benefits and outcomes of relationship building. NWAC will do a thirty minute power point presentation on how Sisters in Spirit became a campaign to an initiative. After the presentation we will have a discussion panel for questions for 45 minutes.

 

Deborah Brandt, Faculty of environmental Studies, York University

Laura Reinsborough, Faculty of environmental Studies, York University

Jesus Alemancia, Kuna (Panama)

Decolonizing Art, Education and Research:
Indigenous/non-Indigenous Dialogue in the VIVA! Project

The VIVA! Project involves eight partners – social justice NGOs and universities in Panama, Nicaragua, Mexico, Los Angeles, Toronto, and Montreal – in exploring "creative tensions of community arts and popular education in social movements of the Americas." Supported by SSHRC since 2004, the partners have undertaken participatory action research with community arts projects in their regions and have met annually to exchange experiences and ideas, in Toronto in 2004 and in Achiote, Panama in 2005. We are currently drafting a collective book and accompanying videos which will be reviewed at our third gathering in Chiapas, Mexico, in December, 2006.

We see our joint challenge as one of decolonizing art, education, and research. Dialogue with our Indigenous partners is central to this process as we share our diverse conceptions of popular education and community arts. The Kuna Children’s Art Project in Panama involved participation of non-Kuna and Kuna artists and educators, and the systematization of the project involved a York University intern. Bilwivision, a project of community television of URACCAN university on the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua involves a multi-ethnic collaboration between Miskitu, Creole, and Mestizos. The transnational exchange among VIVA project partners has also generated questions about Indigenous/non-Indigenous concepts and relations: What research approaches are appropriate in recovering cultural histories of Indigenous communities? What understandings of knowledge and ways of knowing are privileged in a European influenced popular education and in the Indigenous practices of the Kuna and Miskitu? What lessons can the Central American alliances offer northern educators, researchers and activists who want to ally with Indigenous groups and causes? How can the arts contribute to this dialogue and alliance-building?

This panel/dialogue will involve two Indigenous partners of VIVA: Margarita Antonio, a Miskitu from Nicaragua and Jesus Alemancia, a Kuna from Panama, as well as two Canadian collaborators, Deborah Barndt and Laura Reinsborough, both of York University’s Faculty of Environmental Studies.

 

 

Marie Leger, Rights & Democracy

Jennifer Preston Howe, Ad Hoc Committee on the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

Craig Benjamin, Amnesty International

Kenneth Deer Eastern Door, Ad Hoc Committee on the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

A Common Work: The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was adopted at the first Human Rights Council session June 29, 2006 by a vote of 30 in favour and 2 against. Canada called the vote and voted with the Russian Federation against the Resolution presented by Peru and around 40 other countries, 9 of them being members of the new Council.

In Canada and internationally, Indigenous organizations and human rights organizations are working together to achieve the adoption of the Declaration.

In Canada a flexible and efficient network of Indigenous representatives, human rights organizations, and faith based groups was assembled to lobby the government. First we worked on changing the former Liberal government position, and that was achieved in September 2004. We then collaborated with government representatives until the recent dramatic change under the current Conservative government that led Canada to vote against the text, which she helped to produce.

The sharing of contacts, of legal analysis, the common planning of financial resources and the sharing of a general analysis leading to a common strategy, allowed for a more coordinated and efficient action at the national level as well as the international level. This kind of network uses every partner’s strengths and builds on information sharing. It also allows everyone to benefit from everyone’s expertise. Further, we found the end result was always greater than the sum of the parts, because of what each of us brought to the group. Although non-governmental human rights organizations first had a support role for Indigenous organizations, they also mobilized elements of the non-indigenous society, educating them around the importance of Indigenous rights for the family of human rights. The building of such a network brings more efficiency and fast action than any single organization, even the strongest, can achieve. This efficiency played a role in the positive result at the Human Rights Council but could not change the Canadian government’s position, despite a concerted action of Indigenous organizations, political opposition parties, faith and human rights organizations.

 

Margaret Tusz-King
Program Director of Tatamagouche Centre
gkisedtanamoogk
Member of the Wampanoag Nation

Aboriginal Rights Coalition - Atlantic: Observer Project and Lnapskuk - Peace, Justice and Mutuality

The Aboriginal Rights Coalition - Atlantic (ARC-A) is the only cross cultural organization in the Maritimes committed to Aboriginal justice issues. Started in 1992, ARC-A works towards the transformation of the relationships between Atlantic Canadian society and Aboriginal Peoples. ARC A seeks to awaken Atlantic Canadian society to our treaty and constitutional responsibilities through education, research, advocacy and action. ARC-A is a regional coalition of faith groups, regional social justice groups and individuals working in solidarity with Aboriginal Peoples. It hosts educational events and lobbies on border crossing mobility, violence against Aboriginal Women, land and treaty rights, forestry & fishing rights, education curricula and residential schools.

Through slides and discussion, case studies of joint efforts of Aboriginal Peoples and settler Peoples will be discussed including:

(a) the ARC-A Observer Project - a joint project of ARC-A and the Tatamagouche Centre, formed in response to the violence experienced by First Nations fishers in Esgenoopetitj (Burnt Church) N.B. in 1999 following the Supreme Court of Canada Marshall decision. The Observer project trained non-Aboriginal local people to be Observers in Esgenoopetitj, to open peaceful spaces within which dialogue could occur; and

(b) Lnapskuk - The Neighbours Project, a partnership of the Wabanaki Nations Cultural Resource Centre and Tatamagouche Centre, that promotes peace, justice and mutuality between Aboriginal and non Aboriginal people in the Maritime region. Lnapskuk is a Mi’kmaq word that reminds us of the Wampum - what we have agreed to regarding our relationship together.

 

Community Dialogues and the "Reconciliation" Movement in Canada

Rather than focusing on a single issue or conflict, activists for "reconciliation" often nurture the development of multi-faceted relationships between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples.

This panel will document and reflect on various approaches to facilitating dialogue, educating, and building relationships at the individual and community level . What are the advantages and disadvantages of each format? What are some of the successes, risks, and failures organizers have encountered? What can these forms of communication and information-sharing contribute to broader processes of decolonization? What are they unable to address? Where does the "reconciliation" movement go from here?

Mary Alice Smith (Metis, Kenora, Ont.) is Justice Coordinator for Treaty 3 First Nations and has a long history of building Native/non-Native relationships in northwestern Ontario.

Jessie Sutherland (Worldview Strategies, Victoria, BC) organized three series of teleconferences where up to 100 people at a time joined conference calls on various aspects of Aboriginal/non-Aboriginal reconciliation.

Jonn Ord (Thornbury, Ont.) and Katsitsionni Fox (Mohawk, Akwesasne) will speak on the Kids from KA-NA-TA on-line school-based cultural exchange program, started in 1992. They have also facilitated face-to-face visits between classes.

Dorothy Christian (Okanagan/Sepwepemc/Chinese, Vancouver BC) will speak about the role of the arts in reconciliation, focusing on a jointly written community history play, produced and performed by 100 volunteers from the Splats'in First Nation and the town of Enderby, BC.

Victoria Freeman (Toronto) will compare interactions on the website Turning Point: Native Peoples and Newcomers On-Line (www.turning-point.ca ) with face-to-face community dialogues held in Toronto, Kenora and Winnipeg.

Patricia Sekaquaptewa (Hopi) J.D.
Director, Native Nations Law & Policy Institute, UCLA School of Law

Justin B. Richland, J.D. Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, UC Irvine Dept. of Criminology, Law & Society

Making Aboriginal Justice Work for Aboriginal Peoples: The Nakwatsvewat Institute

The proposed presentation is an introduction to the practices and goals of The Nakwatsvewat Institute, a nonprofit corporation joining Native and Non-native experts dedicated to addressing the local justice needs of indigenous peoples worldwide.

The history of the Nakwatsevewat Institute is unique, and springs from the legal issues and concerns facing the Hopi Nation of Northeastern Arizona since the 1980s and 90s. Since that time, Hopi Nation’s Trial and Appellate Courts have seen a rapid rise in the filing of legal claims by Hopi citizens, reflecting the maturation of a Hopi judiciary that has only been in existence since 1972. At the same time, and following the call heard across Native American for a return to aboriginal modes of justice, Hopi litigants have also demanded that their legal claims be resolved according to the unique practices and principles of Hopi custom, tradition and culture. The Hopi courts thus view as their most pressing justice issue namely, how to strike the balance between Anglo-adversarial procedural norms relied upon by the courts with the cultural practices that continue to inform the lives of many (though not all) Hopi people today.

In an effort to address this matter, in 1999 the Hopi Appellate Court formed a commission joining Hopi and non-aboriginal legal scholars, anthropologists and linguists to develop and implement a Hopi justice system that would be sensitive to these complex and competing demands. The result is the Natwatsvewat Institute, a unique nonprofit whose original mission is to address the justice needs of Hopi citizens by empowering them in the exercise of their own legal and cultural sovereignty. In order to accomplish this task Natwatsvewat developed a program that provides multiple modes of dispute resolution support: training and coordinating village members in Hopi designed mediation and negotiation skills, overseeing an educational outreach program for Hopi citizens concerning their contemporary judicial system, working with Hopi villages in the formalization of their own dispute resolution systems, and finally, assisting Hopi citizens in the production of a customary law digital video archive, thereby allowing them maximal control over accessing, preserving, and administering the distribution of their cultural knowledge as it applies to their local justice needs. This multi-pronged program reflects not only the complex concerns and interests of Hopi citizens today, but also the challenges facing any effort to meet the justice needs of any Aboriginal Nation firmly committed to both their unique cultural identity and to economic and political viability in an increasingly globalized social landscape.

SATURDAY

 

Victoria Freeman

Dorothy Christian

Some Thoughts About Becoming Allies (aka the History of a Friendship)

Dorothy was the first Indigenous person Victoria really got to know. Dorothy had just about given up on White people and the liberal do-gooder white woman Victoria was didn’t look too promising as an ally or personal friend. From that unlikely beginning we have enjoyed, and sometimes endured, almost twenty years of friendship and working partnership in addressing Aboriginal/non-Aboriginal issues, through Oka, Gustafson Lake, and various joint projects, including Turning Point: Native Peoples and Newcomers On-Line (www.turning-point.ca).

It was Dorothy’s painful confrontation with her that led to Victoria’s book, Distant Relations: How My Ancestors Colonized North America, and it was through her making of a video about a group of us white and Native women sitting around Victoria’s dinner table talking about racism that Dorothy won a Gemini award for Vision TV -- all of this and more because we sometimes really push each other’s buttons as "colonizer" or "colonized" but have decided not to walk away from each other.

We’d like to share some reflections on our experiences in relationship because we believe decolonization involves emotional, intellectual, and spiritual work at a personal level as well as political commitment and action. In fact, Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people won’t be able to work together politically with any success unless we find our way through these thorny relationship issues. We believe that by doing so we can learn things about ourselves, each other, and our society that we wouldn’t learn any other way.

 

Brandon C. Whitney
School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale University

The Political Ecology of the Indigenous Discourse in the Ecudorian Amazon

I study a transnational, US-Ecuadorian NGO working with several indigenous groups in the south-central Amazon of Ecuador on organizational strengthening, political advocacy, territorial management, conservation and alternative development projects. Defined as an "alliance" between indigenous and non-indigenous partners, the NGO-foundation began in 1997 as a partnership between a mix of US and Ecuadorian citizens and the Ecuadorian indigenous Nationality of the Achuar to defend the latter’s social and environmental rights. What started as a process envisioned as the "accompaniment" of a single indigenous Nation by a group of metropolitan donors and advocates in the US and a professional team of Ecuadorians based in that nation’s capital has grown into a complex set of partnerships between a US-based advocacy alliance, an Ecuadorian non-profit foundation and seven Amazonian indigenous Nationalities. Through a variety of methods—primarily multi-sited institutional ethnography, participant observation and richly detailed interviews—my research seeks to understand the nature of their NGO-indigenous partnerships, the complexity of actors involved, and the role of discursive rhetoric about indigenous peoples and conservation. Though often overlooked, it is my contention that discursive rhetoric of ecology and indigenous peoples is itself a powerful actor in the world of environmental conservation and "sustainable" development —particularly in the context of indigenous/non-indigenous partnerships. Ultimately, I consider how these elements are connected to questions of power, identity, representation and independence in the Ecuadorian indigenous context—and what influence these later questions have on conservation, development, and human rights conflicts in their indigenous territories.

Daystar/Rosalie Jones
Ned Bobkoff

Cross Cultural Collaborations: Friend or Foe?

Developing original theatrical material steps to the heart of what it means to "collaborate". Whatever the form of the end product (written, spoken, danced, sung, painted, poeticized), one discovers almost immediately that the individual, whether regarded as a member of a given community or agnosticized therefrom, reflects a particular world view. Those views of cultural, political, religious or spiritual belief, enter immediately into the creative process, which in turn demands that the total community of "collaborators" function within a subtle mix of give and take. Being able to submit oneself to this mutual ritual of recognition can then lead to truly fresh insights about self, the community, and the the material being forged. But how can this subtle interaction be realized?

Two professionals working in their own fields of western and indigenous theatre and dance will talk about their varied experiences in North America and abroad. As a collaborative "team", they have developed original theatrical material with Native American youth in the Southwest, with aspiring actor/dancers in Bulgaria, Turkey and Finland.

Rosalie Jones is Adjunct Faculty in the Indigenous Performance Program at Trent University, and is the founder and artistic director of Daystar: Contemporary Dance-Drama of Indian America.

Ned Bobkoff has been a tenured Professor of Theater at Dowling College, as well as founder and director of the Hamlet Theater in Houston, Texas. With experience of directing over 80 theater productions, and teaching multi-culturally in the U.S.A. and abroad, his current theatrical adventure is the production of a stage adaptation of the well-known Azerbaijani novel "Ali and Nino".

 

Rick Bauman
Program Director, Mennonite Central Committee-Ontario

David McLaren
Communications Director, Chippewas of Nawash

Ken Luckhardt
National Staff member (retired), International Department, CAW-Canada

Marilyn Struthers
Neighbours of Nawash

Rick Wallace
PhD Researcher (Conflict Resolution) and Activist

Lenore Keeshig Tobias
Storyteller, Writer, Educator

Winning Fishing Rights: The Success and Challenges of Building Grassroots Relations between the Chippewas of Nawash and their Allies (Unions, Neighbours and Faith-based Groups)

The panel will compare the various approaches to initiating alliances, building relationships, and developing strategies at the individual and community level. As partners, what were some of the successes, limitations and tensions they faced? How can effective communication strategies and political advocacy at the grassroots contribute to the process of self-determination and securing Aboriginal rights? How important is it to sustain past alliances for current conflicts?

In the 1900s the Chippewas of Nawash mounted a highly successful public relations and legal campaign to win recognition of inherent fishing rights in the Bruce Peninsula, Ontario. Faced with local violence and an unwilling racist bureaucracy (MNR), they utilized an extensive support base to counter local opposition and provincial intransigence.

In the context of creating political collaboration and effective strategies at the local and provincial levels, what lessons can be learned by asking what motivated the Chippewas of Nawash and their allies to get involved in the relationship? What role did anti-racism education play in the analysis and strategies? How were concrete strategies devised and what impacts did they have in building support for the Chippewas of Nawash? How did the role of local activists differ from those externally-based allies like Unions and faith-based groups? Lastly, as the Chippewas of Nawash face ongoing conflicts over water-bed rights and burial grounds, the process of sustaining past alliances and relationships remains a question to be addressed.

 

Thierry Drapeau
Department of Anthropology, Laval University

A "Glocality"in the Making: Learning From the Experience of Resistance of the Secwepemc Watershed Committee

Since the mid-Seventies there has been a massive increase in the activities of indigenous minorities in the world. Born from the "margins" of established society and struggling for control over their conditions of existence, the rise of this global indigenous movement has been capable of presenting important challenges to the capitalist world-system.

From places which up to now have been the locations most favorable to the neoliberal model, the indigenous struggles have been creating new sites of resistance and political organization which set themselves up as de facto autonomous regions, whether explicitly or not.

In our Canadian backyard, since the summer of 2000, in Neskonlith reserve, located northeast of Kamloops in the Interior plateau of British Columbia, many elders, land users and youth of the Secwepemc nation have maintaining protests againts the expansion of Sun Peaks Resort on their homeland. Throughtout this time, opposition to this ongoing urbanization of their land has set off not only powerful direct-actions resistance and international boycott, but also a cultural rebirth of sorts in which the struggle is deeply grounded. Thus, this presentation will try to think about what could be learned both theoretically and tactically from the Secwepemc Watershed Committee against reterritorialisation of global capital.

Borrowing some concepts from the field of transnational anthropology I will try to bring to light some of important principles that could be relevant in order to articulate theoretically this concrete "glocality" in the making, where the encounter between indigenous people and global capital shapes a new significant sociopolitical order.

 

Lyanne Quirt
Adam Barker
Suzy Myskow

Part 1: Settler Role in Decolonization
If alliances between Indigenous and non-Indigenous (or Settler) people are to achieve substantive change, there is an absolutely essential need for Settler people to approach Indigenous issues and concerns with a level of self-reflection that is all too often absent from political and social movements. Settler people must begin to take seriously the concept of "decolonization" as a personal ethic if neo-colonialism is to be ended. As Settler people involved in the Indigenous Governance Program at the University of Victoria, we have each benefited from a decolonizing experience and have discovered unique perspectives on the individual and collective decolonization of the Settler person. It is from this personal perspective, combined with our academic experiences, that we intend to present three different but linked facets of what it means to attempt to decolonize as a Settler.

Part 2: Cultural Misunderstandings and Colonism
In any cross-cultural conversation, there are miss-understood words; words to which the different parties assign different meanings based on their cultural contexts. If alliances among Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples are to be successful, both sides need to watch out for these common sites of misunderstanding. This presentation will discuss some of the most commonly "misunderstood words" in these conversations that emerge from our different cultural philosophies and life experiences, drawing both from literature and from my own experiences as a member of the non-Indigenous minority in the Indigenous Governance Program at the University of Victoria.

Part 3: The Wall: Colonial mentalities as Barriers to Settler-Indigenous Alliances
For centuries, Western culture has contained heavy elements of imperialism and colonialism. The history of contact between Western nations and the nations of the Americas is a history of colonization. Though often disguised due to what Taiaiake Alfred and Jeff Corntassel describe as "shapeshifting colonialism", these colonial acts have continued uninterrupted into the present. At some point, individual Settler people must ask themselves why Canada, the United States, and other "liberal democratic" states continue to behave in a colonial manner. This presentation will discuss the perspective that individual Settler people continue to be driven by colonial mentalities, and that these mentalities, when properly understood, can be confronted as part of the decolonization effort. This research is the basis of Adam Barker’s MA thesis work with the Indigenous Governance Program, as well as being derived from his own experience as a highly-colonial individual attempting to personally decolonize.

Part 4: Making Amends – Transcending Colonialism
After coming to the realization that, as non-Indigenous people, our thoughts, actions, and opinions are rooted in a colonial mindset, how do we overcome the feelings of guilt and shame that ensue in order to progress towards peaceful coexistence? Central to this presentation is the notion that all Canadians benefit from the legacy of colonialism, whether consciously or not. Duly, what follows is the necessity for each non-Indigenous person to make amends for their role in this on-going legacy as a requisite to engaging in the decolonization process. By comparing the notion of apology without culpability, illustrated by Jane Stewart on behalf of the Canadian government in 1998, with the notion of genuine restitution outline by Taiaiake Alfred in his book Wasase, this presentation will demonstrate the essence of what "making amends" means. Furthermore, by drawing on experiences in the Indigenous Governance Master’s program Suzy Myskow will share how she and others have made this stance a liberating reality in their lives.

 

Lynne Davis (Principal Investigator) and
Heather Shpuniarsky (Ph.D. Candidate; Research Associate) Department of Indigenous Studies, Trent University

The Spirit of Relationships: What We Have Learned About Aboriginal/non-Aboriginal Alliances and Coalitions

The Alliances Project, begun in 2004, is a SSHRC-funded research study investigating relationships between Aboriginal peoples and organizations that fight for social and environmental justice. Such relationships may form in the context of expressing solidarity with Aboriginal struggles or as a result of Aboriginal peoples and social or environmental organizations entering into strategic alliances to pursue common objectives. These kinds of relationships are little explored in the literature on social movements, despite their growing number.

The Alliances research has developed a number of case studies, as well as undertaking interviews with Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal leaders and activists who have engaged in alliance and coalition-building activities. The presentation will focus on the experiences shared by about forty individuals who have been interviewed in the research to date. Those interviewed were asked what they learned through working together and what advice they would give to Aboriginal peoples and to social and environmental justice groups who might contemplate entering into such relationships. Individuals participating in the study did so with the understanding that others would have an opportunity to learn from the successes and tensions in their encounters with relationship-building, including moments of triumph and disaster.

There has been strong thematic consistency in what people have shared, with many rich and moving examples of experiences. These themes are being developed into a web-based publication so that there can be a wide sharing of the experiences that have been offered. The presentation will be of particular value to those who want to explore the challenges of encounter in the contemporary context of colonization and decolonization.

 

Kevin FitzMaurice

Are White People Obsolete?

I am interested in and would like to present on this question in relation to the issue of ethical and meaningful partnerships. I would like to begin by defining what might be thought of as the ideal ally or partner and then discuss the many impediments to this ideal both at the macro political level as well as the personal, individual level within the context of

Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal relations, with particular attention to the question of whiteness. This talk will be a blend of Indigenous, Western, and Buddhist perspectives and will touch upon (as a broad exploration) a variety of issues and questions including;

• The litany of failed attempts to form Aboriginal – non-Aboriginal alliances and the present focus on the positive ‘best practice’ scenarios
• Power and its various and subtle manifestations with particular attention to the question of both getting it and letting it go.
• The many possible notions of an Ally, including: benefactor/savior, ‘white technician’/helper, collaborator, ally, partner, and mentor
• The legacy and contemporary reality of paternalism, racism and the impact of these ideas/ideologies on the ability or inability to be an ally
• The question citizenship as a space of intersecting truths and knowledges
• Respect and what it can mean specifically in this context
• The importance of a slowing down and taking more time in order to demonstrate commitment and build trusting, long term alliances
• A discussion of anger and defensiveness
• The question of insider and outsider identities and when the outsider becomes less of one or even finds herself on the inside through the formation of new communities and how one can tell when this happen

 

Ravi de Costa
Trent University

Co-operative transnationalism and Indigenous peoples

In the aftermath of the frontier, dispossessed Aborigines regrouped and mobilized in order to assert their demands. This presentation reflects on this history in order to understand the concept of cooperative transnationalism and the role it has played in the recovery and resurgence of indigenous Australians.

In the first part of the presentation I will argue that indigenous peoples experienced and eventually adapted the "discourses of responsibility" that Europeans promoted during the colonization of Australia. These discourses were promoted by humanitarians of various stripes as well as communists. What is common to these interventions is that they each held that there was a higher value or standard that was universal and therefore existed beyond the colony or nation-state. For evangelical humanitarians this was obviously God, imperial humanitarians believed in the "good Empire", while communists were motivated by the ultimate goal of emancipation of the working class.

This presentation asks three questions: What was the status of indigenous peoples in the universal moral order promoted by these groups? How much did they alter the Australian debate about the place of indigenous peoples? And, most importantly, did these interventions and the ideas that underlay them influence the politicization of indigenous peoples?

Tanya Chung Tiam Fook,
PhD Candidate, Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University, Toronto

A Makushi Knowledge-Based Approach to Collaborative Conservation in Guyana

The pretext for my paper is to explore the transformative potential of indigenous knowledges for constructing a decolonized conservation approach that is libratory and transformative, and grounded in the ethical embodied practices and articulations of both Amerindian and conservation communities.

Conservation is not simply about protection; it entails the reallocation of land, species, water and mineral resources, as well as the political economic restructuring of social institutions. Conservation also involves a dialectical relationship between people and their social-ecological environments that is grounded in specific knowledge paradigms that reflect the contexts of both human cultural and ecological communities.

However, conservationist and indigenous perceptions of ecological and social systems and their stewardship are informed by different values, practices, and cultural epistemologies.

In conservation and resource management policy discourses, there is a strong push toward adaptive management through the integration of indigenous knowledge and conservation scientific knowledge. While collaboration between these knowledge paradigms may be inevitable and beneficial in the long-term sustainability of ecosystem and wildlife conservation, the worlds constructed by their differing epistemologies can be dualistic and seemingly incommensurable.

Thus, part of the challenging process of decolonizing collaborative conservation narratives that this paper will address is to explore spaces of slippage, reflexivity and syncretism where conservation and indigenous communities can enter into a reciprocal conversation regarding knowledge construction and collaboration. Moreover, how can such an approach be empowered by Makushi peoples in the Iwokrama forests of Guyana as a catalyst for consolidating both their historical cultural relationships with the forest landscape and animal beings, as well as their rights to stewardship and self-determination?

 

T’hohahoken Michael Doxtater
McGill University

Environmental resistance through coalitions: the case of SNAP

Coalitions between Indigenous Peoples and Canadian or American citizens for environmental issues were used by Six Nations Against Pollution (SNAP) in the 1990s.

SNAP created an environment for coalitions along the Grand River in Southern Ontario near Brantford Ontario. Working with experts from the Citizens Clearinghouse for Hazardous Waste (CCHW) and the University of Western Ontario (UWO), SNAP worked with citizen's environment groups from Dunnville to Brantford to raise awareness of the environmental health of people living in the Grand River valley.

Using Indigenous treaties to leverage action for environmental issues like illegal dumping and industrial pollution of the Grand River, SNAP also provided support for Canadian citizens. Coalitions helped expose Greater Toronto's plan to use Six Nations as a dumpsite. Also Indian Affairs was forced to upgrade Six Nations water treatment plant, monitor contaminants such as NDMA, and replace asbestos lined elementary schools. SNAP helped delay construction of the Brantford Southern Access Road (BSAR).

The main strategy employed made full use of treaty protections like the Nanfan Treaty and the Haldimand Treaty that inhere indigenous rights currently configured under international law. However, these rights pertain to preemptive indigenous rights configured through the Two Row Wampum Treaty. The phrase "grass grows green, waters flow, and sun still rises" as the sunset clause for treaties was resisted by SNAP, but was colour blind and inclusive for all future generations in the Grand River valley. SNAP members also used the strategy in the Red Hill Valley and Tutelo Heights disputes. SNAP disbanded in 1994.

 

William Woodworth

Iroquoian Condolence practiced on a civic scale

The Iroquoian spiritual messenger The Peacemaker gave to all the protocols for the meeting and the working together of peoples from the four directions. We native peoples have been instructed to offer comfort in grief for those found wandering on our territories a long way from home – the At the Woods Edge Condolence. Assuming that all non-aboriginal peoples in Canada, and specifically Toronto, are among these wanderers, in compassion native peoples need to reassume their roles as hosts of their own territories. We need to comfort and even attempt to adopt all those who have come in the continuing waves of migration. This has the potential of redressing the cultural imbalance and redefining native and non-native relationships.

In the great cycles of return, understood so profoundly in native lifeways, Toron:to-Ontar:io-Cana:da [named entirely in Iroquoian language] has been, and continues to be unconsciously streaming the spirit of the Ancestors. A proposed psycho-spiritual-cultural event and exhibition series Toronto: A Beacon to the Ancestors will attempt to demonstrate the fundamental aboriginal expressions and duties expressed in the civic organism which is the City of Toronto. The reinvigorated use of traditional condolence events and speeches is projected for an architectural emplacement along a brief stretch of the original shoreline of Lake Ontar:io. This presentation by the founder of Beacon to the Ancestors Foundation will describe the ongoing process to bring this vision to life in conjunction with the Toronto Waterfront Development Corporation, Parks Canada, and the City of Toronto.

William Woodsworth is a member of the Mohawk Nation, Six Nations of the Grand River in Ontario, Canada. He was given the name Raweno:kwas {la-way-no-gwas] "he dips the words". He holds a doctorate in Traditional Knowledge – Recovery of the Indigenous Mind – from the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco. Dr. Woodsworth also holds a professional degree in architecture from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and has a design practice in Toronto, Ontario, based on traditional notions of culture and architecture. He is Executive Director of the Beacon to the Ancestors Foundation.

 

Robin Buyers, M.A., is the Colombia Project Support Coordinator for Christian Peacemaker Teams and a Professor of Community Work at George Brown College in Toronto

Ann Pohl, M.Ed., works on youth wellness issues as Community Learning Coordinator for Breaking Barriers Resource Centre, in Kent County, New Brunswick, near Elsipogtog (Big Cove) Mi'kmaq territory

Building Alliances to Build Alliances

How do people come together across multiple differences to work on issues of common concern?

Robin Buyers and Ann Pohl are two Canadian women who met doing Indigenous solidarity work in Toronto in the mid-1990's. During six intense, demanding years of working together as two "white grrls" named as Non-Native Spokespeople for the Coalition for a Public inquiry into Ipperwash, Robin and Ann learned to be of one mind, despite differing faith perspectives, ways of knowing and learning, communication styles, and organizational skills. Among other things, they taught one another how to "have someone's back" in coalition work as well as how to "move with Spirit" when Spirit is not experienced in the same way by all.

In this workshop, they will share what they learned from each other and others about how to work together, and where that learning has taken them. Sitting in on this workshop will also be Mary Lou Smoke (Anishinawbe-kwe) and Dan Smoke (Seneca), respected Traditional Teachers, journalists and activists with whom Ann and Robin have worked closely over the years.

 

Adolphus Cameron: Director of Communications, Grand Council Treaty #3

Jennifer Rasmussen: Economic Development, City of Kenora

Rory McMillan, MA Social Work: Councillor, City of Kenora

Cuyler Cotton, Dovetail Resources

Working Together on Common Ground: The Grand Council Treaty #3/City of Kenora Partnership

The City of Kenora is centrally located in the traditional territory of about 15 First Nations within the territory encompassed by Treaty #3. Located as it is near the Manitoba and U.S. border, it has been witness to the evolution of a number of intergovernmental conflicts and relationships.

In the 1880’s, the St. Catherines Milling case arose in the vicinity of Kenora. This dispute over resources became a landmark court case that continues to shape Aboriginal rights to this day.

In 1965, Kenora was the site of the first Native protest march in Canada. The issue was the protection of rights and resources guaranteed under Treaty.

Nine years later, with the occupation of Anicinaabe Park, Kenora became the site of the first armed uprising by First Nations in centuries.
In the last few years the Grand Council of Treaty #3 which represents the 25 First Nations that were signatory to the Treaty affecting the Winnipeg River watershed, and the City of Kenora have developed a political process they have called Common Land, Common Ground; an attempt to harmonize efforts on shared issues and foster understanding. Most recently the two governments have resolved to work in true partnership for the management of a large tract of legacy lands within the bounds of the City. (See joint letter sent to an Ontario cabinet minister, attached.)

This presentation will discuss how this relationship came to be created, the principles upon which it has been founded and the challenges of moving forward together. This relationship is an ongoing work in progress and the presentation will bring conference delegates up to speed on the most current progress and pitfalls.

Jeffrey L. Hantman,
Archaeology/Anthropology, University of Virginia

Rhyannon Berkowitz,
Graduate Student, Anthropology, Univ. of Virginia

Powhatan RedCloud Owen,
Chickahominy Nation

Setting the Record Straight: Collaborative Efforts Between Virginia First Nations and State institutions to Reclaim Indigenous History and rights

This panel will focus on a unique partnership that has emerged between the state of Virginia’s eight state recognized First Nations and two of the state’s foremost universities—Virginia Tech and the University of Virginia (UVA). While these collaborative relationships have their roots in research partnerships between specific indigenous nations and individual scholars, they have in recent years coalesced to address indigenous agendas that have historically been impeded by state policies toward indigenous peoples that would have denied their legal existence.

Until the late 1960s it was, quite literarily, illegal to be Indian in Virginia. Eugenic policies designed to separate perceived "degenerate" races from the "pure" Anglo-Saxon race mandated a rigorous policy of classifying individuals as either "white" or "colored", thereby eliminating the legal category of "Indian." These postbellum policies were reinforced by local political economies in which Indians were often chastised as "mixed-race degenerates." While Indians could theoretically attend schools for African Americans, in reality they were locally shunned from such institutions. At best, most Indians might receive up to a sixth-grade education in mission schools. This quasi-feudal structure remained in place until challenged by shifting economic conditions, coupled with the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s.

By the late 1990s, political activism among Virginia’s First Nations had reached an unprecedented peak. This panel explores how this activism influenced state institutions of higher education, resulting in the creation of an American Indian Studies program at Virginia Tech in 1999, and a cross-institutional collaboration with UVA by 2003. The guiding principle of these institutional developments is an understanding that indigenous agendas come first. These agendas include redefining public education and advancing the political rights of Virginia’s First Nations.

PANEL
PRESENTATION
Sat. Nov.4
3:45 to 5:15 pm
GZC Room 106

 

Luc Lainé, Orihaw Inc., Wendake

Roy Wright-Tekastiaks, Geography, Queens University
And others

Iroquoian Kinship in Council & Diplomacy
The alliances and coalitions which link Aboriginal communities and organizations with non Aboriginal people today may be viewed as an extension of the relations which have always held through centuries of negotiation and conflict resolution BETWEEN different Aboriginal communities and nations.

Such relations apply even WITHIN their communities, as there is no universal line of demarcation between the smallest human groupings such as nuclear families and the largest nation-states, only a slippery slope. The same principles, tactics, and strategies can be seen at work at all levels of discourse and action. Out of the many-leveled relationships involving Indigenous peoples, we will only examine the principles and protocols governing Iroquoian group relations over time, testing one proposed hypothesis: Kinship is the metaphor applied to all Iroquoian relationships, extending outward from the family to the most distant peoples. This kin-based theory will be tested in greater depth and detail here, in order to challenge the (hitherto unquestioned) validity of the psychological and sociological models which seem to dominate current political theory and practice.

Huron-Wendat elections
As elected chief on the Council of the Huron-Wendat Nation during the late 1990’s, Luc Lainé was the one responsible for developing and implementing the reformed political representation laws introduced in 2000 and revised in 2004. The great innovation here was the assimilation of a code within Canadian Federal law to the traditional precepts of representation by descent groups within Iroquoian traditional law.

1788 Oka Treaty minutes
At Canada’s National Library in 1983, Roy Wright discovered five pages of hastily-written Mohawk text in between two parts of Chief Louis Decaire’s carefully-copied Mohawk hymn & prayer book. These difficult lines contained the transcribed minutes of a treaty meeting held 9 February 1788 at Kanehsatake, then Oka, between the English and the Seven Nations. Kinship terms here as elsewhere reproduce for the English the metaphoric kin status ascribed to Indigenous members of councils and treaty meetings.

Hochelagan and later linguistic tradition
For example, in 1535 Jacques Cartier noted that the Hochelagans called their enemies up the Ottawa River Agojuda, which appears to be *akohsotha' ‘grandparents’; since the 18th century the 6 Nations Iroquois have called nations such as the Delaware by various fictive kinship terms.

Iroquois Confederacy Constitution
Provision for adoption and assimilation of once-hostile groups is one of the ways the Iroquois Constitution deals with the aftermath of war, a major legal concern. It can in fact be shown that peace is more often treated there as the consequence of war or of the threat of war, than it is by itself. This has been shown throughout history, from the grass-roots alliance of former missions to the Confederacy, culminating in 1924, to the Stand at Kanehsatake in 1990.

Kahnawake membership law
The blood descent base of Kahnawake's membership laws is one more example where European precedent has taken second place to the strength of Iroquoian kinship and descent traditions.

 

Jessie Sutherland,
Director Worldview Strategies

4 Touchstones for Reconciliation

In recent years, reconciliation is often talked about in solving First Nations – Canada conflicts. However, what reconciliation means or entails is rarely discussed. Misunderstandings about reconciliation can lead to ineffective efforts and, eventually, cynicism about "peace-building" and reconciliation in general. In this presentation, reconciliation movements will be contextualized within a global framework, indicators for false reconciliation will be touched on, and conditions for genuine reconciliation will be discussed.

I suggest that the heart of genuine reconciliation is a parallel process involving both personal and political transformation from systems based on domination to relationships based on mutuality. I also suggest that four guiding touchstones are necessary to create conditions for genuine reconciliation. These are: exploring fundamental worldviews of the parties themselves, transcending the victim-offender cycle, engaging in large-scale social change, and assessing appropriate timing and tactics.

As this presentation explores the role worldviews play in creating conditions for meaningful reconciliation, it emphasizes the important connections amongst the role worldviews play in human survival, the global loss of meaning, and violence today. Interwoven throughout this presentation, I draw on stories to illustrate the points being discussed.

Worldview Skills Workshop
What are "worldview skills for transforming relationships"? Reconciliation involves building relationships of mutuality with others and all of creation. Worldviews are how a given culture sees its relationship to the rest of the universe, its creation at the beginning of time, and how best to organize human affairs accordingly. Since the heart of Indigenous and non-Indigenous relations has been about the imposition of one worldview over another, I believe "worldviewing skills" are necessary for transforming our relationship with others and all of creation. During this interactive workshop, participants will explore the important link between creation stories and conflict/peace; learn to identify worldview differences; and discover new skills to engage across worldview difference.