WE MOVED TO WWW.LIBERATEDYET.COM

Liberated Yet?, a weblog that uses self-publishing technology and the internet to publish content like text, images, art, and sometimes video and sound, is a tool I began as a means to accomplish a goal. This goal was originally designed to express my indignation as well as my idea’s, for many of the time those two are interconnected for me. I also set out with the goal to communicate with other individuals, both from my people, and the world. This weblog, once published, is put onto the internet and can be accessed by anyone in the world. With other internet projects, it’s also stored in databases forever. It was birth from two previous blogs that I tried out, learned from, then decided to re-imagine to create Liberated Yet?

The name comes from a question about an idea. As an indigenous person who either out of passion and interest or circumstance learned the context for his existence. That context is he is colonized. Colonialism is not just a process, but a paradigm too. It is apart of the social fabric coming from European, and later Euro-Canadian or Euro-American dominance in the world through it’s ideologies and paradigms. It’s intend is to abolish a pre-existing set of ideologies, paradigms, and the people and land within those, indigenous people and land. Theft of land, breaking down of pre-existing local indigenous population, culture, and societies, are all hallmarks of colonization. I’ve discussed this on more detail before.

The name of this blog comes from a question to an idea. Liberation, as a chant of hope, as a means to work to overcome dominance and control from something, as an opportunity to say an end to the oppression, is something I call a path for myself, and others, to see our indigenous people rise up. In some context, peoples have taken up liberation movements to rise up and out of oppression and foreign control. It comes from the word liberty, the freedom to act or believe without being stopped by unnecessary force. It’s something, I believe, our people had before colonization, and something we do not have now, but only if we can remain our ancestral memory and not the inoculated existence our colonizers gave us. So the question is really, are you liberated yet?

Within my community, a nation of 7 villages and a population of over 3,000, communication is in a desire state. I understand it to be the focal point for any community to network and be cohesive in any sense, either as self-knowledge or to accomplish shared visions. If we look into the past, the level of community was much more cohesive because of the close quarters of living and harmonious lifestyles between branches of families, extended families, inter-tribal relations, and spiritual connection to ceremonies, traditions, and customs.

Presently, the SN puts out a weekly flyer in North Vancouver and Squamish with ads, job postings, and the odd informational flyer. Decisions at the highest level are decided upon by the Band Councilors at weekly meeting where information on the decision to be made are mostly presented at those meetings. The inner-workings of said councilors in projects, committees, and negotiations are done and information of that is kept within that section of the SN. These effect things like what happens on our land, with development, trespassing, cultural significant area’s, and homes, and other things like employees, programs working to create, restore, to accomplish something for the population. Like I said, the information, from the highest order, is mostly kept within their ranks. In some cases, the happening of said initiatives are held secret from the community.

The Squamish Nation Band Council is similar to all Band Councils in the regard of how it deals with community dialogue in issues of concern and opposition. Simply put, it doesn’t like it. Like all colonial institutions, this political system is adversarial in nature. It puts A vs. B. If something happens and information about something the community disagrees with, there is some resistance. Water-cooler talk, and gossip, and some level of indignant letter writing. I know that first-hand because I’ve taken part in this since I became interested in politics. Generally, they operate on this belief that if they wait it out, the opposition will eventually die down and they can get back to work. This tends to horribly bad for the future of the community because in some cases the guiding forces at the Band Council are foreign influences. The guiding interests in where we as a community should go does not come from the community. This create awful situations where short-term idea’s, or in some extremes, self-interested benefits, come from the politicians and many time, energy, and work is put into it.

Within my community, we have no media. Before the Vancouver City election, it came out through a leak to the media that the Vancouver City council had given $100,000,000 dollars to the developers for the Olympics village. The secrecy of this cause a stir in the public and created a wave against the reigning Non-Partisan Alliance party. To keep politics of the society aware, understood, and investigated upon, there is a media to do that. A media to share the stories, information, and beliefs from all area’s of it’s society. Some parts of the world, it’s illegal to do that, and you will most likely result in death.

In my community, there is nothing to keep the politicians honest. There is also no means to keep the public informed of the what is happening in our community, in our territory, in the rooms of the current political leaders.

I have taken a stance before, but I do not identify as Squamish Nation. The Squamish Nation is an Indian Act governance structure imposed on the Skwxwu7mesh-ulh as a tactic of colonialism to fracture the people and usurp our land. I identify as my ancestors for thousands of years have identified: Skwxwu7mesh-ulh. The amalgamation of 1923 that was the de-facto formation of the Squamish Nation is shrouded in more mystery and myth then anything known by our people. If we are to take the thought that the amalgamation was the signing of a document by the then 16 “hereditary” chiefs of 16 Indian Act reserves as truth, it was exactly that. Indian Act chiefs, originally placed into power by the church then later the government after appropriating the historical governing system of “siyam”, formation a coalition to protect the reserves from being sold out.

My land doesn’t end where the imagery line for the reserves starts. My land is thousands of hectares used and stewarded by my ancestors for thousands of years. It does not belong to me, or any one person, family, or government. It’s used for resources gathering, and carried in stewardship for future generations to have the same abilities as we presently do, and the same as our ancestors. This land was stolen from my ancestors, and remains so presently. At the moment the beneficiaries of that theft are still allowed to benefit off that criminal act. Yes, that’s you Canadian population.

I don’t recognize the Squamish Nation Band Council as “my” government. My government was destroyed by the colonizers many decades ago. I recognize that the Squamish Nation, because of colonial constructs, has been able to assert and find a significant amount of power. This is through power of will in the people believing in this false institution, and through the power to wield many resources like money, people (staff), and legal authority.

To think critically is to think of other possibilities. To question the status-quo, goes without saying, is a strong indicator of a strong society. To debate idea’s and positions is a way that we better find the collective wisdom to ensure the best possible choice for where we move forward as a people. As our ancestors asked of themselves, we must strive to live to our highest ideals. I mean, live, to them.

It isn’t always the case to live to them always, or even that they agreed on the same values. Some think this gives them to the right to disposes others by veiled threats and attacks of betraying their cultural values, and thus betraying their ancestors. I don’t mean that by any means. I know I can be arrogant and sarcastic, but I still strive to live to my, decolonized, most important values. It’s why I question, it’s why I think critically, it’s why and how I care.

Why do I feel the need to defend myself? Partly to educate some because the feedback I’ve received. But also to be firm, confident, and strong in my position, not just on this blog but as a person who cares about his community, his culture, and where those go into the future. I intend to be a strong member of my community in a way to help and create things for the better. I hope to find others to do the same. I wish to create change through alternative means, because the status-quo disgusts my integrity to create the change that by the current way. I want to find my place a leader, like all previous strong leaders in our community have, and hopefully create more leaders, not more followers. I want to have a strong community that can face the most serious threats and crisis.

I want liberation.

Last month I was invited to participate in the Art of Hosting on Bowen Island. There can be a lot to say and even trying to write about it felt overwhelming (that's my explanation for why I haven't done it on here yet. haha). One harvest I took from the four day week on Bowen Island is a question I now carry around with me in my bag, in my books, in my mind. It's a question I pose to discover more knowledge or information. To become wiser in the matter.

After answering four questions (Chris, what were those questions again?), I came up with the following question:


One of the observations I stumbled upon a few years ago was the extend the "want for change" within my nation went to. People will talk about the injustices, failures, or mishaps that exist either in their jobs as SN employees or community members. We also discussed change at the Art of Hosting on Bowen Island realizing that "change" is something that people only really want when there is a crisis for it, when the need comes face to face with us and we then demand change immediately. What about the change we didn't see coming, the change we each didn't decide on, the change that came and went and we didn't even realize things changed but they really did. It’s just that that kind of change packed with nuanced emotional charges is one kind that seems to stay at what I call the "Water-cooler chat" stage.

It remains in a place of with people on a somewhat informal level but very little rarely happens. I partly think it's because people don't care "enough" to do anything. I partly think it's fear based attitudes that keep us in situation, and that means both direct fear based attitudes from those afraid to lose power and fear based attitudes from those afraid to trailblazer and be a leader.

My understanding of this is because there is no dialogue. The idea of the oppressed dialoguing really came from reading Pedagogy of the Oppressed (which I'm thinking needs another read soon!) about the relationship between the revolutionary and the oppressed. If we dialogue with each other about these issues that are important to us, we can gather important pieces to create action and good work. There are some of the things we can gather from having important conversations and dialogue about important issues:

• We can find connection to others who feel or think similarly as us. We then don't feel like the freak in the crowd for going against the grain and that our idea's and tasks don't feel so overwhelming gigantic. We can connect with others and garner hope that something can change.

• We gain a better understanding of the other factors or information that play in some issues. Sometimes some people have limited understanding of all the things happening around some issues, for what ever reason, which tends to lead to no action or action one part that deeply upsets the other, and for what I believe is a just reason.
  
  One example I think of is SN General Meetings. It needs 100 people (When I think about, I believe it’s 10% of the voting membership which would be closer to 200 people) to be an official band meeting and get enough to pass motions and such. Either way, it still turns into a shouting match between the pissed off angry band members and a handful of elected politicians. Two sides with a line drawn down in between. For the past 3 or 4 years barely anyone comes to the general meetings and as a result have not been able to make quorum in that time. Thus, there has not been a general meeting in years. (What they are supposed to accomplish, I have no idea. Then again, barely anyone knows what our governance is supposed to accomplish.)
  
  One sentiment that has been coming out lately is the core group of members who continue to attend the general meetings and blame the rest of our society (the silent majority) for not attending. Strange they don't hold the system responsible, but that's another story I guess. What's revealing about this is that there is no dialogue between these core group of members who attend the general meeting, and the rest of our society who feel the general meeting accomplish nothing, even when we do get quorum.
  

• No important action planning or just plain old action can happen with out the important dialogue first. If there is no awareness of an issue, and community change on that issue is either not likely to happen or be met with resistance. The Band Council knows this quite well which is why they don't let the people know about ANYTHING it does. Important conversations opens the group to gain a better understanding and awareness of where everyone else is coming from and become more aware of the issue at hand. From that place, we become more educated about the situations, issue, idea, proposal, or whatever, and can then make adequate or wise decisions about how to continue.

Important conversations matter and conversations take all kinds of forms. I enjoy acting and improv and always found forum theater and theater of the oppressed an excellent dialogue form between a community and the issue at hand. Media has always been a way to produce mass dialogue on a grand scale, and alternative media developed out of the need because corporate media became so ridden with not having the dialogue. Perhaps society has forgotten how to have conversations that matter.

This is where my thought came for my question, "What are the conversations that need to happen in my nation?". I keep this question like a scientist keeps a theory and just follow where it can go. Look for information to gather in my note book, contemplate on the thoughts that surround the question, and look inquisitively into what can happen when this question is answered.

I will share my findings with you soon, but I'm interesting to hear from you.

In a departure from my usual political polemics and diatribes, I want to move into different areas in my blog.

Up until a few months ago, I lived on the reserve.  I've NEVER(edit) been a drinker of alcohol and never done any illegal drugs.  It’s a confident choice I made from an early age, quickly learning the deadly effects of that lifestyle.  I still partied with my peers, brothers, sisters, cousins, and friends from my community.  But after a while, everyone knew who I am, and that I don't have any want or need to do drugs or drink, and from what their drunken honesty has told me, some of them respect me for it.

I recently talked with friends about how I want to create change in my community through alternative means.  The traditional formats for change have been exhausted and fail.  Most are rooted in colonial ideals or colonialism.  This ranges from the political-weaving of the band council, to "economic development" type of actions.   Over the years, I've come to notice that drug and alcohol addiction are directly related to how happy and accomplish the person feels.  You have a job you love, friends and family who support you, and meaning in purpose in your life, you’re less likely to find those things in an addiction.  With parent abandonment, intergenerational alcohol addiction, high unemployment rate, feelings of inadequacies related to "Education", and a multitude of other reasons, a lot of people turn to drugs and alcohol.  Even the "successful" ones who make the money have it.

Across all our reserve, drugs are a real demon.  It's an ugly disease destroying so many good people, and wreaking havoc on the life of a community.  I talked with a friend who confided in me that they think the drug problem is becoming worse and thinks something should be done about it.  He talked about a few past initiatives to deal with this issue, some of which I participated in. 

With that, I'm inviting you all to a dialogue about these issues.  On this blog, I want to open it up for comments, ideas, thoughts, and proposals to actively work on something.  I'm intending to start the discussions and see where it takes us, to move forward and hopefully address this problem, and the wider issue that begs us to look deeper in to.

In our nations, our most vital resource is being threatened. The resource the determines who we are 20 - 30 - 100 years from now. What we as parents, uncles, aunties, grandmothers, grandfathers have a responsibility to instill our teachings, guidance, and identity in. This resource has a history of attacks, from Residential Schools to the 60's Scoop, to modern day government services. This wealth needs urgent action, as citizens in our nations, to act in responsibility to our nation. We must be the ones who take care of our children, the wealth of our nation.

The tactics of assimilation on our children go back to the first incursion; residential school. Beginning in 1885 with the pass of the Indian Act, the Church and Federal government worked to bring down our nations. It was a move to assimilate the children into good Christian Aboriginal Canadians. A whole new generation of indians that did not know their language, their culture, their identity. Mixed with severe racism, pedophilia, and physical abuse, it lead to decay almost all social foundations in our villages. Family ties, personal wellness, spiritual connection, governance, all began to fall crumble. This lead to a serious effect of family bond being broken and multiple social problems all related in someway. It reigned in our lands for almost 100 years. Residential Schools were by far the strongest attack on indigenous in this land.

The next wave of assimilation wasn't taking the Indian out of the child, but making sure the "Indian" just never existed at all. It began a wave of child snatching by the Provincial government. In the name of "helping", and "protecting", thousands of children were abducted, and purposely placed in non-Indigenous homes, mostly White. In many cases, these children would be removed hundreds of kilometers from their native home. The tactic moved into raising these children with good wholesome Euro-Canadian values in White homes. With no connection to their homes, their people, their identity, these would have to battle their way back into their homes, through racism, prejudice and own self-hatred for being something they could never change. This was a massive blow because now we have a generation of adults who are returned to their communities and knew little or nothing about their nation. Another strike in assimilation and colonization.

Right now in 2007 another similar patriarchal attack is being made on our children. With more children in Provincial care then the 60's Scoop and Residential School combined, we are leading to a massive group of indigenous children, more then before, who again will be assimilated and even less connected to their nations. It will lead to majority of our indigenous people being assimilated and colonized, with a weaker link to their homeland. Without a people connection to their culture, their land, their title, it leads to a strong case of land theft, infringement of indigenous rights, and a death to indigenous cultures. This issue of Child and Family Services isn't in the past, it's right now.

At a recent gathering I attended, the issue of taking care of our children was in discussion. It was largely uninspiring, with the overshadow of Ministry folk, and Social Workers, and even less community members present, it became a mind boggling frenzy of, "Who is this event really for?". It began as an opening to understanding the issues about the social degradation in our nations, cooped with the historical trauma of residential school, it turned into "Let's educate the Social Works?". It a mix of storytelling by a number of our elders, a victim of the 60's scoop and a presentation by the Ministry on the standing of Child Care with indigenous children. By the end of the day, most of my people had already left.

The conference continued on for another day, and another 3 day conference/retreat is set for November. The second part of this initiative to "train and educate" the social works in Skwxwu7mesh "culture, values, and traditions".

I choose not to attend the second day because I could expect similar occurrences in the meetings.

What become the spiritless initiative has become commonplace in Skwxwu7mesh projects to tackle this difficult issues. Foremost, these issues need to be worked on by Skwxwu7mesh with Skwxwu7mesh. Not with the Ministry watching over, guiding us, letting us, or even present. It's about respecting our sovereignty with our children. The second is the removal of "consultants", and "speeches" by whom ever. Any liberation, of ourselves, or our children needs dialogue. The capacity already exists to re-ignite our laws in our land. There were no victims of this oppressive system present to contribute to the dialogue, nor was there enough citizens to also contribute.

Taking care of our children is a responsibility we all must take up.

A good friend has been working on Vancouver Island with the Vancouver Island Aboriginal Transitional Team facilitating in community dialogue. They've largely created a unique and powerful way for everyones uniqueness to be apart of the solutions. He says on his blog:

The idea of “consultation” with community stakeholders is dead. This process is about inviting community members to take ownership over the structures and institutions that affect their lives. Instead of a one-way flow of advice from the community to VIATT, the new model is a gift exchange between cousins, relationships between family members who are putting children in the centre and looking after each other. As such there is expertise, care and ownership everywhere in the system and so we all must actively become “Teacher-Learners.”

Words like "cultural" and "traditions" are thrown around so much, it's become meaningless in it's action. With a pattern to place the child at the center, and to have to the community take the responsibility on this on, it will lead to a strong circle (read nation) in a holistic way. It's of the utmost importance to remember communities are organisms, not machines. You cannot take on piece of the community, say it be a problem, replace it with a supposedly better piece, then assume the whole apparatus will work smoothy.

Like an organism, all things must be considered and worked on collaboratively. In this case, childcare can be replaced with a better most indigenous and decolonized system, but what about when these children have to face school? Or the rampant cultural elitism that rejects them from being apart of their powerful culture and being raised with a Skwxwu7mesh identity.

The tool my friend has employed in this is Open Space Technologies. An open dialogue where the circle is the source of solutions. Where individuals are placed with the freedom and responsibility to be apart of the sessions in looking at the problem, and finding a solution. Where the facilitator only acts in a capacity to open the space, and let others fill it.

With the work on Vancouver Island through Open Space, it has created a holistic approach to working on this subject. Individual and community diversity is respected from the beginning and includes discussion from all backgrounds and knowledge. Unlike the "stand up and present" scenario which plagues these types of conferences or gatherings, no one is monologuing to anyone.



With those long drawn our monologues, it rejects my knowledge or backgrounds. Why? Because she or he is the knowledge carrier, and I'm the knowledge receiver. They know everything, I know nothing. What ever knowledge I do carry is pointless while they are attempting to instill some facts and knowledge in me. It's the same oppressive way of learning the schools use.

Education, child care, identity, land, and many other issues that all have a part of being indigenous, it takes a quick look to see how they are related. Our children with how they get an education, and if our children don't have an education of their identity, our land is not taken care of, and it goes on from there. It is an emergency issue that needs citizens or villagers in our community to take up strength, find out the issue, and organize in a way that inspires to create solutions, and not a step nowhere for an oppressed people who have little hope.

Our children are our greatest resource, and what are we going to do to protect that resource?