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Taiaiake Alfred, a Kanienkehaka Professor of Indigenous Governance at the University of Victoria, and Waziyatawin, a Wahpetunwan Dakota Associate Professor and Indigenous Peoples Research Chair at the University of Victoria offer some insight in Taiaiake's blog responding to the question "Is Decolonization Dead?".

In Peace, Power, Rightiousness by Taiaiake, he speaks about fundamentals that will become the converging point in indigenous struggle to decolonization, and the colonists presumed right to be colonists in relation to power:

Nowhere is the contrast between Indigenous and (dominant) Western traditions sharper than in their philosophical approaches to the fundamental issues of power and nature. In Indigenous philosophies, power flows from respect for nature and the natural order. In the dominant Western philosophy, power derives from coercion and artifice-in effect, alienation from nature.

In her book Remember This!, Waziyatawin in speaking about her upbringing in learning about her own existence and history, explains the historical practice in her peoples traditions:

[B]ecause these stories were told in our Native language, they also teach more about how we look into the past, how we make sense of that past, and how we remain affected today. A broader significance of these stories, then, also stems from our ability to define our history for ourselves, shaping our historical consciousness in a way that inextricably links it with our sense of identity. The stories have a transformative effect in our contemporary lives because they help determine our sense of who we are and where we are going. Through gifted storytellers the stories are interpreted through the generations, and we come to understand the meaning of being Dakota. This understanding and sense of identity is one that transcends time, the changing world, and modern technology. It is what will carry us into the future.

In traditional Sḵwx̱wú7mesh society, a family was a group of multiple nuclear families that through kinship create an extended family. The children of your uncles and aunties were your brothers and sister, your first cousins. Your parents first cousins were your uncles and aunties as well. The house of the family would typically be a home made out of large cedar beams holding up a slanted roof in a long shape, called a longhouse. Each quarter of this longhouse was the area of different sections of the family. The large family would then occupy a large longhouse home. The size of this could grow to huge portions with some longhouses holding up to 11 “families”, all apart of the same kinship. This was the basic formation of a family and it’s home.

In traditional Sḵwx̱wú7mesh culture, there is an automatic respect for those older then you. Brothers and sisters, even just a year older then you, you would respect. This social establishment extended to all those older.

For each household and family kinship, a single man would be more respected then others. The qualities of this man, held in esteem, placed him in the trust and admiration for he would be someone they follow his leadership. He was gifted with qualities in the traditions of his people, the essential value of generosity, and above else, carried his family in high esteem. Not a boss above all, but a man holding his family up. This was a siyam.

Raised in close quarters, this family was a tight extraction of the over-all society. During the warmer seasons, this family would travel as a group to resource gathering sites or be invited to other village festivities. Leading to winter months, the family with collaborate and work towards building enough resources to use during the colder winter months.


Things have definitely changed.


In modern Squamish reserves, a family sometimes lives in a big square house, sometimes with multiple branches, sometimes not. As the children grow older, they move out and start there own homes, and their children start there homes, eventually leading to smaller nuclear family occupied homes. Often these houses can sometimes be across larger distances, and not close to each other. As a result, these branches of the family rarely see each other.

For each family, there is rarely a single man the family respects enough to follow and guide. The old tradition of “grooming”, a custom that was often hereditary, ceased to happen and thus produced less and less strong male leaders to be a host, an organizer, a guide, for his family. Instead influences in foreign structures produces chairmen, bosses, controllers. The halting of that tradition also produced no strong males at all.

Separated from each other, the over-all family doesn’t see or interact with each other that often. Some family members intuitively know each other, but most of the cousins only kind of know each other. Eventually, some whole family branches don’t even know the other exists. During some yearly events like Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Birthdays, the family may get together. In many cases, different people in different branches are only acquainted with each others. No deep friendship or understanding. No common interests.



The two above definitions don’t truly exists. Some families may have some of the first, and some of the second, in different levels. There is not “traditional Skwxwu7mesh family” in modern times, and there is not fully modern family like the above defition (at least I hope not, otherwise I don’t really consider them Skwxwu7mesh). Colonization drastic change of the family make-up of the old family ways, breaking the connections, differs from one family to another. Primarily the connection to each other from cousin to cousin, from one branch to another, is the largest difference. I say colonization both in the development of modern homes and travel, but also colonization in the systemic changes to our culture into an assimilated Euro-Canadian one.

Decolonization is the task of creating ways to grow in the direction of something resembling our ancestors.



I bring up family because, although I don’t celebrate the Roman Holiday, the feelings of family and togetherness has hit me. Perhaps it’s the cold and almost uninhabited streets that make me think people are at home, perhaps with their family. This reflection on family leads me to inquiry both about the make-up of my family, about my definition of family, and what my vision of a decolonized future could look like for family.

I come from one prominent family within my community with a history of either political involvement through my uncle and grandfather being a band councilor, along with my great grandfather being a prominent leader in his time, or through members of my family being included in different parts of the community. I come from one of the largest families for my people, thus making it prominent, but also “characters” from the family that also who are remembered and respected for their commendable forthright attitude. I could elaborate further for I come from many other families, but these are my two most immediate heritage angles. I come from the Rivers and the Baker family, and I’m damn proud of it.

It’s my firmest belief that I’m not a human on a spiritual journey, but a spirit on a human journey. That before this life, I had a choice of the environment I would be taking on, but not knowing what was intended for me to be here. My connection to the guide who knows what my intention for being here shows the beauty in me, and the beauty in it’s creation. I choose this family, and I’m so grateful for everything I have from this family.

I also picked up traits from different sides of my family. I think I received my straightforward attitude from my mothers side as so many on this side going back generations were like this. I feel that I attained my humility and grace from my fathers side for the achievements and wisdom these achievements that were brought with, are commendable and memorable. I picked up my sick dry dirty humor from my northern bloodline. I found my inspiration for political valor for service of the better good from my homegrown ties. I have a lot to be grateful, especially for who I am what has shaped me.

I guess to define family, it stems from the values held most important. Some individuals hold very few values, but over the years I’ve understood there are some things I believe in that I hold myself to. Integrity is living to our highest values, which makes it my most important value. Openness is something I wish for because I believe in the sharing of knowledge and understanding. I think that stems from my personality trait to try to understand everything. The righteousness to stand up and not be seated is something I hold myself to. Seated in ignorance, or perhaps apprehension of disturbing things, but the choice to not do something when injustice continues is my value. I think my loyalty to be there, in need or desire, again comes back for it’s something I wish for, and thus believe in others. These are probably my main values.

Ha! I’m starting to see a pattern between what my values are and what I search for myself in the world. Ironic eh? Haha.

A few weeks ago when learning some new vocabulary from my language, I started finding our words for things like “honor”, “respect”, and “teaching”. One word that comes to mind is snewiyalh, a word that means to pass on the teachings to another people. Kind of like advice. It’s used primarily in the upbringing of young children around puberty That snewiyalh is taking the guidance you received either through other people or through the experience of life itself and sharing that with another. It strikes me now in speaking about values that snewiyalh is actually a value, yet the English language has nothing to really compare it too. “Advice”, “learning”, “teaching”, don’t fit when looking deeper. Ha! Another insight. But you can see from the inquiry into this single word the possibilities of other important words in my language. I know a few words that are values. How many English words for values do you know? This list has 375. I only know 3 in my language! Now that is an area to decolonize in my life.

Now I see the types of values including ethical/moral values, doctrinal/ideological (political, religious) values, social values, and aesthetic values, come from both the internal request of the world to the self, and from the external forces that influence us as we grow. So with a Western world influencing us more and more, our requests or search from the world differs quite differently from our ancestors because of the environment they lived there lives.

I also see that how we define family stems from the values we hold to, and if our values are determined by those internal and external ways, and decolonize those internal and external ways, my definition of family would differ so much from everyone else. It’s also revealing to me now that this is also why in the assimilation to a more individual nature, different members of the family will have different definitions of family.

Over this time of slumber and reflection in winter months, I implore you all to search for what your values on family are, and to see what you want in creating ways to grow in the direction of your dreams. What is it you can create, promote, or allow to happen in your life to move towards a place of those values. What kind of family do you want and how can you create that, especially if you understand what your values are.


Now I’m amazed because when I first wrote this blog post, I didn’t realize I would learn something through this personal inquiry. I sure learned something. I also now have a clearer path into my vision of decolonization. I’ll be looking to create ways to grow in the direction of something resembling my ancestors, and what their values might of been.

Over 30 days ago, I asked myself a question. "In decolonization, liberation, and resurgence, what are the habits that I need to create or foster, and the ones I need to relinquish and dissolve, in order to be a "good" leader, for myself, my family, and my people?" This came from an invitation from Chris Corrigan at Parking Lot. Chris mentions he writes in his book about his observations and exploration into these kinds of questions. I didn’t do that for this one, but for future excursions into my thoughts, I probably will carry along a way to record everything. This question came as I was beginning to understand more and more of myself as I moved off the reserve, out of my fathers house, and started to look deeply at the person I want to be. The things I want to do. And what I want to have happened when I do those things.

Decolonization is an interesting thing. It's becoming something quite larger then most thinks it is. Largely an "indigenous youth" notion, it's encouraging to see it expanding more and more. A sad understanding of our current political leadership is how they once to were the leading rebels of discontent and dissident, but in reality they failed to accomplish something that was quite larger; the real enemy of our peoples.

So they became co-opted and coerced and now deal business in colonial ways. Decolonization asks and requires something different of us. It asks of us to act in accordance to our indigenous principles, worldview, and values. Not to claim "Traditions" or "traditionalism" as tools to feed our egos of power, manipulation, and fear. The real essence of what our way of life is, not just our culture. It is about abandoning the colonial influences on our lives, our families, our communities, and our nations. It is working to move beyond the assimilated and into something more.

There is something about decolonization that is very individualistic. It's because it starts with me, then my friends, then my family, then the community. But first it must start with me. Now, trying to restore balance to our indigenous way, something that is about collective, communal, and group-strength, plagues me as ironic. We're trying to achieve something in a way that works on the individual, to eventually accomplish something that is collective.

In my relationships, I've contemplating the gift and responsibility of being honest or truthful. It's a rare thing to find people who do speak truthfully of themselves, their feelings, and their thoughts. But they also carry the responsibility of what that will have effect on. I think back to what it was like ago, because that's the inspiration for my decolonization. In the long ago, large extended families lived in longhouses. Sometimes these things went on for 900 feet long. In these dwellings, multiple branches of families lived together. No hard walls, no "private-personal" areas, but communal collectives. This thought brings to believe that in order to live in balance with so many individuals in a large house like this, their had to be a level of respect for each others to be open. You need to be open and not afraid to be open in this kind of environment.

This kind of openness does require respect. First it is a respect for the individual to be open, and two, respect for the other individual to be open. In this kind of environment, there is a trust there that no matter what feelings are coming, what words, thoughts, or anything happening will be respect. In this, people are not afraid to tell their brothers and sister they think something they are doing is questionable. They are not afraid to be confident in their beliefs. They are not afraid to express themselves. Imagine that. Your brother, sister, cousin, or someone acts a fool, does something wrong, is being disrespectful, and in this level of openness, you can sit down, discuss with this person openly your feelings, their feelings, and restore balance again. Isn't that beautiful, something worth fighting for?

Of course, the disconnect came with residential school. The Christianizing of our people has created a fear in discontent, a fear of any sort of rebellion, a deep-rooted fear. This started with the residential school children, then continued on with their children, their grand children, and their great grandchildren. Here is where dysfunction comes from. This is where rooted hurt and pain continues to linger. For leaving it inside, not restoring balance, just rots the relationships and dynamics of our families. Can we see the disconnect between now and then?

I recognize my own disconnect. I have the same fear, and nothing like what happened before exists in my or any family I know of. These behaviors of fear are innate in us because of the way we are raised, and the way our parents were raised. So perhaps this is where decolonization can begin. I can be fearless and courageous enough to change my perception of "truth" and "honest", in order to be more open with my friends and family. Perhaps even my own people.

My grandfather Frank Rivers was a councilor on the Squamish Nation band council for many years until his untimely death. He worked on many projects like Park Royal, the Plaza, the Misquito Creek Marina, and many others. I never knew him because my father was around the same age I am when he passed away. All I know is his legacy left by his children and my grandmother. I hear from them stories of him and what he did. Back in the day, the band councilors would come to the table to meet. It was here that idea’s; objectives, and reasoning were hashed out. In the name of “Making the Best Choices for the People”, disagreements of heated would be hashed out. But there was something back in these days, and even going back to the long ago, where our leaders could go to war over idea’s, thoughts, plans, in the name of doing the best for the people, but afterwards, leaves as brothers and sisters. In the council table it was war, but at lunch it was brotherhood. There is something very strong about leadership like this. The ties of family-lines and brotherhood were brought us together as a people, but recognizing the need to challenge individuals and their beliefs. I can’t say the same occurs now at the council table.

During the Christianizing of indigenous peoples, there was a notion imbedded of “speaking out against”. Historically, it’s tied to Lucifer and his rebellion against their God. That rebellion against the church was somehow connected to satanic reasoning. Ironically Jesus is a figure in their history that is depicted as a rebel. But here is you can see where the threads of discontent start to become strict solid wire. That we now have a level of fear in rebelling against our brothers and sister, our leaders, our friends, and the fear of “speaking out against” or “being against”. It’s a travesty within our culture because there now exist no accountability for people who abuse our culture for their own gain, false claims of “leadership”, or straight up failure to be a “Good person”. It’s this fear that allows teenagers to beat each other to a inch of life, or the death of our youth. It’s a strangling terror in stepping our and doing something worthy of legend, like trailblazing.

I was raised with this fear. Raised without the tools to honestly discuss the issues at hand and restore balance. Fear dominated our choices growing up, leading us to do a pathetic mechanism to flee. It exists with me today, but I identify it, and then work on doing my life differently from then on. This is what I see as decolonization.

I believe integrity is living with the highest vision of our self. It’s something I strive for: to be a man of integrity. In our cleansing rituals, my people take spiritual baths in the glacier cold water. It’s a purifying action to sacrifice something of this world for something of more then just this world. But the act is quite hard when you’re young. Your mind keeps telling you, “You do not want to f#$%ing go in there. Seriously man, it’s freezing cold. Look at how cold it is. You do not want to go in.” These impulses try to dictate us. Although some of intellectuals would like to think our minds are the highest function of our reality, it’s undoubtedly smart at deceiving us. The reality is, going into that water tests you. It trains to work against those impulses. The disciplines in making thought become action. Here, it’s taking a bath in cold water. Tomorrow, it’s getting off the couch to do some carvings. The next day, it’s saying no to that drink of alcohol. In other cases, our mind tells us things that really are not true, but we tend to believe. “You will never accomplish that.” “They don’t really like you.” “You work really hard.” “You have to be silent.”

The habits and behaviors I exist will be hard to control or overcome. But everything is difficult until it becomes easy. (On some occasions, the try attempt is easy, thus passing the difficult part.) When climbing a mountain, one can stop and feel the insurmountable goal of reaching the top, or keep putting one foot in front of the other, always moving, no matter how slow it seems. Life really isn’t about the destination though; it’s about the journey. If it was about the destination, what’s the purpose of life and death? Haha. Maybe going slower for now will reveal other wisdoms or knowledge.

My habits that I must change and become:

• Be honest. This is about being honest to myself for what I need to do, and honest with the ones and things I care about. We have to be able to overcome those tendencies and work in a place of honesty, to restore balance all over.

• Live with my highest vision of myself. I must work every day to align myself with my own vision of myself. No matter how many things I write or create, I must “be” what I want to see in this world.

• Being committing and disciplined. I must live with the integrity to commit and disciplined to follow through. To do this, I must carefully examine the promises I make so I know full well what I’m committing to. (Note: this doesn’t make take lots of time on every decision, just be aware of your decisions and know that you will commit your best to them.)

• Honor my gift. It’s my personal belief that every one of our young people is born with a talent or gift. This ranges from all kinds of things. Spiritual, intellectual, physical, humor, wisdom, whatever. The problem is our elders and leaders don’t pay attention and nurture these gifts, and we let school kill these. By the time adulthood comes, most of these gifts have been greatly destroyed or wrecked. I’m grateful to know my gifts and I need to honor them. The ancestors and Creator gave them to me for a reason, and I, and everyone else, needs to honor them because of that. Any gift from our Creator must be honored. If we don’t, it may be lost, or it may have been a waste.
  

1-The word chilh siyam was a post-contact created word. chilh means "higher" and siyam means "respected being or person". Thus the implying is "Higher Spirit". This word differs from kexe7nek siyam, our name for the Creator.

2-stelmexw translates to "Indigenous" in modern translation, but many language experts say the word really means "human". As the Indigenous were the only humans around, it makes sense we would call us that. It now means "Indigenous", but sometimes it's also used to human.


Religious assimilation has a important role in Skwxwu7mesh language study, both as historical residue and decolonization. This song in particular has clear in it's Christianity flavor. After contact, one of the first Catholic churches was built in eslah7an. In the late 1800's many hymnns were translated from English to Skwxwu7mesh to better assimilate my people. Many people were converted and now remains numerous texts of Catholic hymns in Skwxwu7mesh.

This song above is particularlly famous because of two reasons. The first is because of Chief Dan George who recorded the song on a vynal record decades ago. It was able to be remembered and learned for future generations. The other reason, is what I want to look at.

On June 3rd, 1886, what was a small town of Vancouver, quickly caught fire and the city was set ablaze. With the other significant population being the Indigenous village on the opposite side of the city (Eslah7an), my great great grandmother stepped in her canoe and paddled to the city to save the people that couldn't get out. As she took the leader of a caravan of other canoes, she sang this song praying for the people in the city. That they would be safe and still alive.

Little of this history tidbit is remembered. Mentioned at a glance.

The title of "Paddle song" comes from this history. The song does not mention a paddle or paddling anywhere. No, it's a Christian-Catholic prayer to Mary.

Not only is my usual attitude to decolonization when it comes to Christian iconography or paradym, but this is a real example of how we perpetuate the conditioned beliefs. Even if we don't believe in or follow the Catholic religion, many of my people still sing this song. At events, at funerals, at community celebrations. All because it's a Skwxwu7mesh song with Skwxwu7mesh history.

I refuse to sing this song.

The idea of taking a stand on this is to create dialogue. If I take the simple step and say, "No, I won't sing that song." People will ask why. This is apart of decolonization. We have to struggle (we being the younger people, or even the people who understand), to create a path for the next generation. This is what the old timers did. This is what our predecessors did. And the struggle is not over. If we get a 9-5 job. If we have a salary. If we shop at the tax-free mall. We must still keep our Indigenous outlook on the world, and strive to reclaim that outlook. Decolonization.

My personal philosophy, is that which goes till is wrong (with "wrong" being a POV). Weapons are not good or evil. Good and evil doesn't really exist. Is it negative and positive? Well, some things can be, and most things tend to be. But some things just are. With "good vs. evil", it's POV, so it's not absolutes. An cliche example would be "One mans terrorist is another mans freedom fighter". Although these terms and not synonymous with each other, it's true. And in this day of terror (War on Terror), the manufactured consent by media, (which is orchestrated by the settler state) makes very right wing Canadian point of views. Of course the Media is assimilated Indigenous people.

While I'm not sure it all is, I do believe there are people in big business who want to assimilate the Indigenous peoples. "Of course" it would be easy if our people became big business-minded people to conform to their "first world" model of excellence with capitalist appetite for personal success. Oppressor tactics against "the other" people of the world.

And with this time, and time being defined as the Indigenous understanding of time, that of which happens in a sequence of events, not in a systematic order of consequences, it's essential to our salvation, our survival, and our war, we permeate our lives with voices of "the other". In the antithesis of mainstream influences, decolonization is neccisary for our continual exsistance as Indigenous (or Skwxwu7mesh-ulh, Kwakwaka'wakw, Nuu-chan-nuthaht, etc.) for humanization. (The most vital of decolonization being our native-languages)

With that, I've been filtering my life with the "other" influences. Although what I've said may be "preaching to the converted," it must be said. Some of the other has been speeches by Al-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz & Delegate Zero. Have not listened to them all, but I will quote highlights. I would like more from Indigenous speakers, writers, historians, intellectuals, revolutionaries, traditionalists, and others. My greatest ideal is to lace amazing music underneath these wonderful words. I guess I'll have to do that. Working at Garage Band, but still lots of room to learn. I recommend their words, and their books. But, this idea of listening to these particular men, effected me to tell all you about this. And of course, if people told more about more amazing (radical) Indigenous women speakers, I would love to hear about suggestions and recommendations.