Showing posts with label History. Show all posts
Showing posts with label History. Show all posts
February 5, 2009

Motivation for Politics

There was a row of chairs facing an extended table at what was clearly design to be the front of the room. One long table, 6 rows of chairs, then more tables and chairs in the back. The people stair into the presentation. Co-learning? Collaborating with emerging leaders and ideas? Innovatively seeking engagement in participatory community governance?

No. This was around 7 years ago when I started sitting in on the community meetings that involved the political decisions being made or at the forefront within our community.  These were General Meetings, information sessions, and other meetings with community members. Since then, my political convictions have grown and been influenced by difference forces, although, I will never dismiss the original cause for my desire to create change, politically.

What is politics? How do I define “politics”? I look at politics on two lights. 

There is one set of politics that occurs where individuals have to play a dance or words and actions to accomplish their own objective and agenda. “Quandary is, one doesn't generally get the chance to wield political power without the ambition to actively seek it. That same ambition often compromises the unselfish motives that began the quest.” (BSG- Sine Qua Non) It’s where you say or do one thing to get another person to say or do what you want. It’s the devilous and pity politics that conquers most political institutions worldwide. It’s even more disastrous within indigenous communities with the band council governance structure for it places enemies and adversaries between families who become “have’s” and “have-nots”. This is contradictory to traditional indigenous governance with balance and harmony with all things connected being the founding principle.

The other politics is where the direction on systemic, structural, and complex organization levels. Sometimes this political arena becomes rotten from true values of spirit of the people. In an extreme, dictatorships, dictatocracies (dictatorships in democracy), and other forms of political forms where the people do not comes first. The only time in the history of my people it has ever gone to this extreme is in the last 150 years with my people is with either the Indian Agent being the dictator, or their puppet quasi-Religious and government appointments “chiefs” dictating everything. This also comes in the form of political leaders guided by true values of the people. Operating from a place of humility in the way in which the people guide them, not them guiding the people. I place a great deal of standards in that our leadership should be defined by this kind of leadership-style: working with the people, not above or for them.



My great grandfather Andy Paull was a political leader in his time. Trained by to become a lawyer, but couldn’t join the bar for he would have to enfranchise. He later spent a great deal of his career working for indigenous people all across this country. The work he did, for the people, against an oppressors policies. He was taught by the traditional leadership at the time, and trained within his own family. He carried on the legacy of Xwupukinem- the warrior spirit that protected the people from things supernatural to human threats of enemy war parties. A legacy that goes back dozens of generations, and he carried on in his own way, defining it in a time where everything was completely re-defined.

My grandfather Frank Rivers was a political leader in his time. For at least 16 years he was a Band Councillor. Born to English, French, and Skwxwu7mesh heritage he envisioned a strong community. As Manager for the Misquito Creek Marina, he brought the number of wharfs up, and increased it’s profits by thousands, eventually hundreds of thousands. He worked with what he had to create something for his people. He used leases as a way to create some sustenance for our people to thrive and grow. He worked to see crooked leases, and bad land deals were righted from wrong. And he died young at the age of 45.

My grand-uncle Percy Paull was a leader in his time. A gentle and caring man, who carried on the legacy of Xwupukinem/Xwchtaal, he worked on the Band Council for many years. I’m told he was very wise, and a very caring man who was always there for the people.

My uncle Frank Rivers Jr. was a political leader in his time. For around 12 years he was a Band Councilor. From a young age he took an interest in our culture, and learned from the elders around at that time. He carries on the name Xwupukinem. Believing himself to be a warrior, he blockaded and protests when blockades and protests were the way to get things done for indigenous people. He stood for the rights of indigenous people, and knew this from his extensive knowledge of our ancestors.

My great-grandfather Sam Scow of the Kwakwaka'wakw nation of the Dła’ugwa’adaxw (‘Namgis) tribe of the T`sit`sałwalagame’ ‘namima. He was a hereditary chief and eagle position holder. He fought the potlatch ban, and believed in our culture and way of life. He went to jail at O’Calla Prison for 4 months because he passed an apple back in a potlatch.

My grandmother Marie Baker (Nee Jeffries) was a leader in her time. She believed in equality for all native people. She fought where she thought there needed to be a fight. She had the strength and audacity to speak her mind, and be honest and straight forward for it. She would do what needed to be done, and she would get it done. She believed and loved her family, and proud of her ancestry and heritage. She also had the funniest sayings... 

“I’m so hungry I could eat the asshole of a skunk”, 

“I have some good news and some bad news...”
(After saying what the good news was)
“What was the bad news gramma?”
“Oh, there is no bad news.”


From a young age, I have always been passionate about history. A kind of obsession. History shows us how we got to where we are today, and makes is so we can go somewhere tomorrow. With the legends of ancient times, or just my own family history. The legacy to uphold has always been strong for me, as well as many members of my family. The strength that I received from these heroes has been with me since then. They are the reason I want what I want, and do what I do. Not because of some self-guided interest involving me or just my family, but for world that looks like something ancestors could live in.

They are my heroes.

Except, all our heroes have something that becomes their weakness. The greater we place them up, the harder it is for us when they come crashing down. Maybe we need to change our perception, and as followers of great leaders, and followers of great heroes, be ready to catch them, hold them, and pick them back up when they fall. Yet we become so blinded by our own illusion of what we see these heroes as, we don’t want to see the other side to things. 

All my heroes made what I perceive as mistakes. Learning about Andy Paull, you wouldn’t believe how many things I would disagree with him on, or how many things I thought was a wrong decision. We can make those conclusions in humility to understand and learn from them, but still respect the work they did in their time. It doesn’t mean we disrespect their work by changing the direction from something they may not have fully envisioned, but thats our dilemma of being born now. We have be placed in the responsibility of time. The decisions we make now will effect so many lives in the future. The things we build and create and destroy now will reverberate in the shapes of the hearts and minds of a people not born or thought of yet.

My hope is to never make the serious mistakes they made. As a person, as a leader. To be something more, in the hopes of making them proud of me, but also proving to myself it’s possible. Integrity. “To live to our highest ideals”.

If you feel politics is not your thing, think again. Even the position of being not-political or apolitical, is still political. Your silence is complicit in the wrong doings that are allowed to go on. Those with the ambition will use your silence to support their selfish interests. People who do not have the interests of the community at heart. And unless you become political aware, we will all be lead astray and mislead. It’s that silence that makes you apart of the injustice. You can think your not apart of it, but you are more then you think.

I hope to create change. More important then that, I hope to produce more leaders. I inspire to create and build on what our ancestors thrived on. I intend to put a stop to the corruption, to the injustice, to the wrong doing allowed to go on by those who benefit from corruption, injustice, and wrongdoing. I want to raise the bar of what our young people are into something of empowerment and strength and knowledge. I look for ways to re-connect that which was broken by colonization.

But you know what, I’m going to do that my own way just like my heroes did in their time. I need to find my own way to do that, and define that for myself because these times are changing. “If you do what you’ve always done, you will get what you have always got.” In these times where the oppressor will welcome you in with open arms, only to persuade you to join him, we need resilience and strength of vision to these abominable acts, the power to speak your mind, and trailblazers to be fearless to do what needs to be done.
by Rivers on Thursday, February 05, 2009 | 0 comments
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November 22, 2008

The Colonial Legacy In These Lands

The following below was a speech written for the 100 Years of South Asian Presence in Canada Celebration at a panel at the Vancouver Public Library.

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mi chap uuys. siiyam, siiyay, s’ekwi7tel. nilh kwens spukwm-uystn nina7min sna. chen wa ten ens ta Skwxwu7mesh. Chen-t xway na tl’a xwmelch’stn uxwumixw. chen kwen men tumiyap tl’a itti.

My name is Dustin Rivers. I’m here to speak to about the myths of my peoples colonial legacy, especially in these lands. First of all, I would like to welcome you all to occupied Skwxwu7mesh territory. As guests in someone else's home, I welcome you on behalf of my people.

I also welcome you to occupied territory. I say occupied because that’s what my people live under. We never surrendered our lands, or our right to exist as a nation. We have an imposed form of government -- that of the Indian Band Council -- on my people, and we’ve been disposed from our ancestral lands. It is why I welcome to you occupied Skwxwu7mesh territory.


Perhaps some you didn’t realize that our view of colonization is still existent in our lives and memories. It’s one of the most prevalent myths in this country. That colonialism happened, has ended, and now we all live together as multi-cultural peace-loving Canadians. It is the strong myth taught in schools, in the media, and is shown in the current engagement of Canadian politics. I will say it: colonialism continues to this day in my peoples lands.


The intent of colonialism is to change our culture, to change our relationship to the land, and change our way of governing ourselves. Historically they had many ways to accomplish this. To undermine our culture by stripping us of our language and knowledge was Residential schools. By attempting to assimilate us into the dominant Canadian society, we would then be stripped of our connection to our land.

Land stewarded for generations by our grandparents, and their grand parents, and their grandparents. Laws were passed and vast resources were put in to installing reserves for my people. After that, a foreign form of government was placed and imposed on us. Whereas before we had our own laws to govern our communities, our resources, our laws, but it was felt that their form was better suited to control us.

From the beginning of our relationship with the Euro-Canadian society, we were always looked at something “in the way”. In the way of progress or expansion, but it was always held that indigenous people were the problem in the way of their progress.

Even to this day that view is maintained. A very deep example for me is the 2010 Olympics. The 2010 Olympics Organizing committee celebrates it’s accomplishment of Aboriginal involvement in the planning of the games, and subsequent benefits from the games.

Is there a connection between this and access to hectares of land for ski jumps or the appropriation of indigenous culture for profit? Is there a maintained view that by giving the First Nations, that is the band councils, some, largely insignificant benefits, they will agree to us doing the same things we’ve always done.

That with the 2010 Olympics games, we’ll have unparalleled opportunity for development of our lands and this will lead to some sort of salvation from the historical colonial legacies created by the last wave of colonizers. That we believe like they do: our lands are rich opportunity to exploit for greater resource and economic development. Business as usual in stealing the land, undermine culture, and change our relationship to the land.

The legacy of colonialism is one of myth. In the schools, Canadians are not taught that colonialism did not “win”, and the indigenous peoples did not “lose”. That we, the indigenous peoples, have been conquered, and thus the land belongs to them now. Can we really talk in terms like this when the colonialism is still not over and people are still resisting the colonial monster.

In the schools, they don’t teach you that we are indigenous nations, with our own laws of governing ourselves, with our own leadership, with our right to exist as nations. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise when Canada’s racist legacy creeps up saying we have received a lot from the government in past decades, and that we have “special rights” unequal with the Canadian society. What we are asking for is to be on equal level, on a collective level, to that of Canadian society. Nation to Nation as it was supposed to be.

When I was in high school, in the part of the history class where we learn about the racist policies against South Asian immigration to this country and this area of the country, the text book gives you examples of the views point of all the people at the time. The viewpoints of the racist White settlers, of the South Asian immigrants coming to this country. I remember my teacher, a White guy, saying he notices how sometime the text book will have some bias. He says how he noticed the book doesn’t give the view point of what the native people thought of the whole thing. Particularly with the climate Vancouver was in around the Komagata Maru. He asks me candidly if I had any thoughts about what my people may have thought of the whole thing. I laughed and said “Well, umm, you were all immigrants to us. You still kind of are.” He didn’t like that response that much.

Some say that the actions of their ancestors should not be reflective of their lives. It was not them who stole our lands, but people hundreds of years ago. It was not them who placed my grandparents in residential school, it was someone else.

But crimes like genocide, theft of land, and destruction of culture have not perished. In a legal sense, when criminals are brought to justice, neither they nor their families are permitted to continue to benefit from the profits of their criminal enterprises. Settlers continue to benefit from this crime.

And the actions of Canadians past has left us all with a legacy that all people from this land, both indigenous and non-indigenous, have a responsibility to make it right. So it stands that for non-indigenous to take root in this country legitimately, they would have to move beyond the Canadian myths and deal with the debt they have incurred and deal with indigenous peoples honorably.

We have a future ahead of us and our relationship between indigenous and non-indigenous does not have to be the same as it has been in the past. That this country Settlers want to be apart of, can change the connection my people have to the rest of Canadian society. That future generations of indigenous peoples will be born into a world where the legacy we have created is one where we’ve worked together in solidarity to rectify the sins of colonialism's past. This would mean supporting us in our fight for self-determination, for our journey to reclaim our culture, our language, our art, and our struggles.


Thank you all.
by Rivers on Saturday, November 22, 2008 | 1 comments
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