WE MOVED TO WWW.LIBERATEDYET.COM

I would like to invite members of the indigenous peoples community to join other indigenous people activists, scholars, historians, cultural and knowledge people, and members of our community to a conversation on the indigenous revolution.

I want your deep engagement on dialoguing the “indigenous revolution”, what that is, why it is needed, what it can accomplish, and what it will potentially look like. This is a chance to dialogue on the opportunity surrounding the present and future state of indigenous cultures, societies, and nations. This is so we can come together toward identifying our potential as indigenous people and realizing untapped gifts for our peoples.

The work of this session with move the conscience effort and desire of indigenous peoples in our community to simply begin the first conversations into strengthening our ties to our ancestors, to each other, and to the work we can do for the future.

Difference of opinion do exist, but from this wealthy diversity that powerful new futures can emerge to better help our people. It is a hope to mix past experience, present realities and all our hopes and
dreams for the future into new path for our people.

Where there is agreement, we can move forward. Where there is difference we can seek understanding, common ground, and workable compromise.

None of this can happen without open, honest conversation and caring from each and every one of us.

It's time to get to work... what are the issues and opportunities for... that you care about? ...what are your ideas, questions, recommendations, concerns, needs and desires for resolution and future directions... right down to the the level of implementation?

This can happen in person, or through digital communication technology. The capacity exists for this dialogue to occur across distances and boarders.

This is an invitation to you to join in a conversation that matters.



If you are interested, contact Dustin Rivers at
dustin.rivers@gmail.com

or visit www.liberatedyet.blogspot.com
for updates.

I came across a book review of Dances with Dependency: Indigenous Success through Self-Reliance by Calvin Helin. that can be viewed here by Ethan Baptiste. I thouroughly enjoyed Ethan's breakdown by chapter of Dances with Dollars.

Let me first say, I have not read Dances with Dependency. I have been afraid to, simply because, I know I will be angry, annoyed, and fed up with it after a while resulting in me wasting my time and energy on an awful book when I already have a wicked reading list. I have heard from many people whose opinions I cherish with the utmost humility, and what I can deduce is: this book is seriously dangerous.

Perhaps you would think that my radical idealism and approach to politics would welcome such a "dangerous" book to the status-quo of reserve life. The thing that makes this book dangerous is not in the confusing thinking or assimilationist solutions, but in the possibility that indigenous people will believe in his idea's. Already the mainstream media, and government bodies have given him enough traction because his idea's espouse the same tireless thinking that has come out of those insitutions: indigenous people just need to smarten up and socially, economically, and political become apart Canadian business and politics.

Aboriginal politicans and bussinessmen I've heard from have rigourlously championed this book as new, exciting, and a breath of fresh air to support their own simple intellectual idea's of great economic development for salvation.

Here are some of my favorite parts of the book review, written by Ethan Baptiste:

There is a growing problem in consultation, both at the Band and community level. Band Councils continually object to the consultation process, lack of communication and level of involvement their own governments are subject to, within consultations with the Provincial and Federal governments and industry. However, the very same Band Councils fail to improve their own consultation policies and procedures. Instead they opt to basically subject their own community members to a reconstructed version of the model imposed on them. Furthermore, an additional tactic learned by Band Councils is the control of the media, where censorship and information is highly regulated by the band and “local newspapers are being referred to as ‘newsletter propaganda rags' sent out by some Band Councils” (154). By now, it should be clear who those Aboriginal governments model and learn from.

Wow, is this guy from the Squamish Nation because this sure sounds like the current Band Council!

I would like to take the author's discussion further. The underlying incentive to pursue the jobs-and-income approach is the direct quantitative results and statistical gains, which are both easily traceable. In contrast, the nation-building approach is one that is more difficult to gauge and qualitative in nature.

I know many eco-development junkies who espouse this but fail to think critically or wholistically, but it makes so much sense why they would fail to do so because of Euro-centric frameworks for evalutating success.

Doug Sandberg believed that “part of the problem, if not the main one, is that many Aboriginal leaders have only limited education and business experience themselves” (159). This is a valid statement but needs some qualifying. I agree that there is a problem with the lack of education in leadership, but this problem is more ideological, not accumulative, as business operations are effected more by the source of that education. I will elaborate. Many uneducated leaders enter office with no formal training in business management. Therefore, much of their education comes from mentorship of non-native business experts or, simply, trial and error. This is fine, in what Helin refers to as the “real world”, but can be detrimental to Aboriginal communities. First, the validation of such expert's knowledge is never questioned, a skill gained through formal education. Second, experts are limited to only one Eurocentric mechanistic world view and theories, such as capitalism, individuality, and exponential growth, which have been instilled through a Western education system. Third, leaders begin to accept that Indigenous knowledge is backward and primitive and that progress can only be achieved through Western frameworks. Eventually, leadership becomes susceptible to any outside expert projecting such ideals or equally complex analysis. Especially, if they are coupled with complex graphs, projections, statistics and equally frightening dialogue, wrought with complicated terminology to instill apprehension in leadership to not appear backward or primitive.

I have said before that the Squamish Nation politicans agenda at the table is not guided by public opinion, or by their constituents, but by other interests who have more resources, power, and influence on their decision making, much of which is unrecordable and unaccountable to scrutiny by the community. Laywers, consultants, and business elite guide the interests of many, if not most, of the current politicans, and yet leave their consultative process to business-like memo's to community members and authorative-approached dialogue meetings (You get the courage to stand up on the mic in front of 16 politicans, and the couple random non-nation members, sitting at a table at the front of the room and try and have...a diglouge? I'm sorry, that is not a dialogue, that is a bunch of monologues.)




For those who religiously favor Calvin Helin's "oh gee, why can't you be like us" road to success and his book Dances with Dollars, then please read this book review.

For those who haven't read Calivn Helin's book, please stay away, and instead read either this or this. You'll actually learn something important, instead of learning more ignorance.

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.

After my posting last week on the salaries for the SN Band Council and Band Manager, the least to say would be that it caused a bit of a controversy. There was a lot of good discussion I had with people in the community, both about the legitimacy or rightfulness for some of the politicians to be making that much. Overall though, most people were just straight up mad, disappointed, and frustrated at the elected leadership (or that's how I experienced).

One important information I forgot to put in, which is my fault, is the salaries I posted are from April 2007 - March 2008. It is from last years fiscal. Effective January 1, the staff received their 6% raise, and the department heads received their 12-14% on top of that 6%. So two Band Councilors, Gibby Jacob (Department Head of Projects, Negotiation, and Development) and Krissy Jacob (Department Head of Communications), received a 20% on top of the salaries listed above.

Another thing to point out is that some of these councilors do other work outside of their Councilor position. Speaking at events, opening events on our territory, attending meetings with other organizations, and such. For these, they may receive honorarium that is not included in the above spreadsheet. For example, sometimes other companies and corporation (Like VANOC, Fairmount, Concord Pacific, etc.) will sponsor some Band Councilors (Gee, I wonder who I could referring too) in hotel rooms, travel money, and such.

The community doesn't know where this comes from or how much. For me, this wouldn't be that much of an issue if they were a Part Time councilor, but many are full time and get a full time wage, but do this other work during their normal council hours. Getting two cheques basically.

As a point of reference, let's look at other politicians.

Vancouver Mayor and City Council has a salary and total travel expenses budget over somewhere around $825,000. At least from 2006, Sam Sullivan was making $119,178. The councilors, at least in 2006, were payed around $54,453.

That's the city of Vancouver with population in the millions and budgets in the hundreds of millions.

I'm told the Mayor of the town of Squamish makes somewhere around $30'000. (Does anyone in the blogosphere have a source or link for this?)


Back to the SN Council:
One person remarked "They are basically running countries", which I responded with,

"I don't think they are "running countries". They are running a large-scale organization that delivers programs and services, along with some negotiation for legal cases related to government law (land claims). A "First Nation" is not a nation. We are the nation. The "Squamish Nation" is a Indian Act imposed governance system that has been used to supplant our people, remove us from the land for Colonial land development, and weaken our resolve to resist and fight for what is righteously and rightfully ours. To give you something to compare, the Vancouver City Councilors make $55'000. That the city of Vancouver which has a population in the millions and manages hundreds of millions of dollars in thousands of hectares of land."

The top five paid elected officials for the Squamish Nation are Gibby Jacob ($110,392), Byron Joesph ($105,835), Krissy Jacobs ($79,673), Ian Campbell ($68,025), and Bill Williams ($64,504). One worth of mention of Band Manager Glen Newman, an elected position, comes in at $60,053 in salary wages, but with $34,317 in Out-of-Town Travel expenses. I will note this is a person who is notoriously known by staff and community alike who is never at work. He is not doing his job, and thus the Band Council appointed Krissy Jacobs to be the "Acting Band Manager" in his stead, but he is still receiving pay.

As for travel, the highest for Travel Allowances is Dale Harry (the sole upper Squamish councilor) at $10,251. After that, the rest all varry around $5000.

For Out of Town travel, the previously mentioned Glen Newman is the highest at $34, 317. Then Dennis Joesph at $13,006, Dick Williams at 12,457, and Deborah Baker at $11,505.

One that also looks odd is Ritchie Baker, who I will also mention is my uncle. His salary was $34,135, but under Other Remuneration, it's $34,530. I was told he's only a part time councilor, and the Other Reumeration was for work he was hired to do for the Squamish Nation, separate from his councilor duties.



The simple reason for the inequality is because some of the councilors hold staff positions, with a couple holding really powerful positions as Department Heads. These have more control over information, resources, budgets, and staff. One councilor has dozens of staff to do their job, other other councilors have none. Some Councilors are aware of projects, developments and such before any of their colleagues, tell their "buddy's" on council about their plans to be prepared and ready to push through their plan. It's a deep inequality at the council table, and it's reflected in the inequality of their wages.

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.

The Squamish Nation is an Indian Act organization with rules and guidelines mostly designated from the Indian Act, and some custom codes. It administrates programs, services, and economic development for it's status Indian membership, comprised of about 3400 members. It was imposed on Sḵwxwú7mesh, The-People-of-the-Sacred-Waters, in the early 1900's, but solidified in 1923 with the amalgamation. The amalgamation was the joining of what used to be separate reserves held in trust by the Department of Indian affairs for separate Sḵwxwú7mesh families. The Squamish Nation is not the nation of the Sḵwxwú7mesh people. It's an administration that is responsable to the Department of Indian Affairs, not to Sḵwxwú7mesh indigenous principles, values, or laws. Here are some little known facts about the "Squamish Nation".

• It's annual budget is over 51 million dollars.
• 11 million comes from Federal funds.
• 40 million comes from own source revenue.
• In 2003 it's budget was just over 33 million.
• In 2002-3 it incurred a 5 million dollar deficit.
• It has borrowed over 30 million from the banks since December 05.
  
• The band council's yearly budget exceeds 1.5 million dollars.
• More then 50% of that is on councilor wages.
• The highest payed Councilor makes over $100'000.
  
• 10 out of 16 Councilors have staff positions.
• 5 new councilors were voted in in the last election.
• In the last 3 years, the Band Council has payed for trips to Germany, China, New Zealand, Italy, and places in Canada.
• The highest payed employee in the Squamish Nation earns over $200'000 yearly.
• They are a Human Resources "Consultant".
• I guess that means they are not really an "employee".
• They are the only First Nation in Canada that elects it's band manager.
• The Band Manager doesn't usually come to work.
• So a Band Councilor is the "Acting-Band Manager".

If my people are not outraged by the situation with our people, then they are simply ignoring what is going on.

Every Wednesday, the 16 elected band councilors of the Squamish Nation meet to pass motions put forward by staff, the community, or councilors themselves. They operate on Roberts Rule of Order. Community members are allowed to attend, unless Council motions and passes to have an "in-camera" session. I attended last Wednesday's meeting, and here are my findings. :)

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There is a disconnection between some politicians from the grassroots community level, in huge ways. The positions or views expressed from some councilors made it apparent to me when they discussed the issue and what their concerns, thoughts, and idea’s were regarding issues. The paradigm they followed showed this disconnect and don’t think where the people come from, don’t think about what the people will see on the issue. Their time on council (read: many terms) has created this disconnection.



Council members who hold high ranking Staff or Department Head positions have more power then their elected colleagues. A handful of councilors hold staff and department head positions, and they are all senior members of council. Control of finances within their department, the knowledge and information coming from their staff position, or weight in decision making in what will or won’t do are all indicators they consolidated power within themselves. This balance of power is unequal on the council table, and has not been determined by the people. They are able to control and dominate more of the Squamish Nation.



Newly elected council members worked to create change from the status-quo and founded new policy within the Squamish Nation, but this same policy can be thrown out when, it seems like, the senior councilors want to.



Decision making, dialogue around issues, research, and power dynamics in Band Council governance is not known by the general community. The people that know how the band council works are the ones who work within that system. For the 60 something people who run every 4 years in the elections, all but the current or past council members know how the system works. Our people don’t know and didn’t decide how our own governance works. Who created or choose to operate on this system? It sure as hell wasn’t the people. 




The system that they operate under is following oppressive colonialism values. The voice of opposition is not respected, is silenced, or discounted quite quickly. There is no open discussion around the issue at hand and those who offer any kind of dissent on an issue are scorned for their “malcontent” behavior. Thus, if you put something forward strong enough, fast enough, efficiently enough, it can be passed through without any kind of open discussion around the issue. Even if what is being proposed is an extremely bad idea, or even if it’s something morally wrong like helping support corruption, benefiting individuals with nation resources, or consolidating power within a few. So what the established politicians want is for you to be silence and agree with their genius plan. You are not supposed to voice out concern, because that is bad. Geeez, why does this sound like Residential School to me. 




Money is the major force on the council. The majority of the band council’s time, energy, resources, and innovation is spent on money. This detrimentally determines the focus of the 4 year term politicians and means a greater part of their focus is not on issues the community want addressed. Issues like homes, language loss, community violence, health, and education. If they changed their focus in time and energy to the issues, there could be more change within our community. I am not speaking of simply forming a committee and discussing the issue, but putting wise thinking into wise action. That they actually work on the ground to change the issues at hand. 




Some councils view the people are a group of whinny cry baby’s who just complain, complain, complain. This arrogance was apparent among some of the council members in the way they viewed the community’s voice on issues. I found this view to be quite startling because it means they are so arrogant, anything the community addresses or shows concern about, is disregarded or overlooked. This reminded me of the same arrogance shown from senior council members shown to the newer councilors.



The last thing I discovered after this meeting is that the levels of corruption, the power dynamics between band councilors and some senior staff is weak and unstable. That is all I will say about this. ;-) :-)


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Attended last week’s Band Council meeting was a great experience for me. Observing the Band Council was a revealing and a learning experience for me. The irony, hypocrisy and the "special" treatment of "special" individuals was revealing. Learning how they work will help me understand the massive system at work that is causing so many problems for my people, when something so much better is possible and achievable. After last weeks meetings, I’ve decided I will be attending every meeting I can between now and the Winter Holiday Break, with weekly updates on my findings. I also highly suggest any our people from my community to join me and attend. Come see for yourself how it works.

Till next week,
Dustin Rivers
Aboriginalism Systems Specialist Consultant

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.

Between the South Asian Community and Indigenous Community
A group of South Asian academics, activists and community groups have come together to organize a week-long series of events in November (17- 23), 2008, to mark over one hundred years of South Asian presence in Canada, and to commemorate the 100th year anniversary of the Continuous Journey requirement. These events will pay homage to the struggles waged by South Asian communities in the past, celebrate our achievements, and build alliances as we face the challenges of the 21st century.

Dr. Sunera Thobani, an associate professor at the University of British Columbia, and one of the organizers of the event, stressed the importance of recognizing the Aboriginal community, whose land we all use. "It's really important that we have a dialogue in this country that builds solidarity between the South Asians and the Aboriginal people, because they are still struggling for their rights," she said. Thobani said that South Asians and the Aboriginal community have both been racialized in different ways, and by helping end racial discrimination towards other communities, the South Asian community can help end discrimination towards itself.

I will be speaking about racist and colonial legacy for indigenous peoples on this lands and working to build solidarity between the indigenous community and the South Asian community in working together in our struggles and against the forces that marginalize our communities.

http://southasianevents.blogspot.com/
http://www.thetyee.ca/Mediacheck/2008/11/17/SouthAsianEvent/

The Squamish Nation is governed by 16 elected council on 4 year terms, along with a one elected band manager. The idea, or so I'm told, is that the band manager is like an office manager but for all the departments. The Squamish Nation has around 11 or so "departments". This covers area's like education, health, family services, recreation, land use and development, fisheries, and a few others. Within those departments are sections covering subjects like culture, language, youth, elders, and so on. The 16 elected council members decide and vote on the direction the Squamish Nation goes in designing policy and over-all vision in which way the nation can decide things.

Within the band council, they follow a strict Robert's Rule of Order governance structure. For those who don't know Robert and his Rules for Order, I'll explain a bit. It was constructed out of US military and in a time where there was little in organizing people or organization in ways on how to make decision. It was consider a far leap forward because nothing like this existed in Western society for a way to govern groups. It follows voting procedures like majority rule, and, like most European structures, is adversarial. If a majority controls the group, everyone else must abide and thus power balances can easily be developed and remain for long periods of time.

In most cases it's akin to power use in "oppressive" ways. Paulo Freire said "The oppressed, instead of striving for liberation, tend themselves to become oppressors" have become oppressors from being the oppressed. I believe the SN throws a bit of the language in there but that seems really redundant to use our language in something so in contrast to the values of the culture that language comes from. In a very sad way, the SN has become quite tactless in their abuse of our culture.

What I have now learned from having a mother on council for nearly 3 years is that not one single person in the whole Squamish Nation, include the 70 or 80 people who ran in the last election has absolutely no idea how the Squamish Nation Chief & Council operates. Let me reiterate and be clear about this.

The governing procedures in the way the SN Band Council makes decision, designs policy, conducts business, manages the Squamish Nation 500 employee's, 70 million dollar budget, and 3500 members, is not known by anyone, except, the ones who have been in council.

Take a moment to think about what that means.



Seriously, take a moment.



For me, that's quite sinister idea for any nation. When the people don't know how their government runs, who's really running the show? The people or the ones who's setting the rules for the show. Who's the actors and the directors in this wonderful play called politics. I get the feeling the Squamish Nation likes to treat the people like objects.

In High School we spent a considerable amount of time in Social Studies and History class learning about how Canadian governance systems work. From municipal, to provincial, to federal, to things like the justice system and economic systems. Yet we don't know anything about our own nation. That's a startling scary fact when considering those in power can create or manipulate the rule-book in their favor. Maybe the script for this political play was actual written by someone else, and not even one our own people with a few revisions by some corrupt politicians.

All I'm saying is, we know nothing about how our nation is run, and the day after someone get elected in, they are at a loss on how to accomplish anything in their time there. It's a backwards system for decision making on issues that are really important and effect many people, many sacred things, and our the future. As it’s become apparent lately, the SN Band Council wants to by-pass the people, "Consult" us like how government or corporations "consult" the band council, and leave all the powerful decisions to them. We're not involved in the decision making all at. I would call it anti-democratic, but I'm not advocating a democratic system either. What it really is,

is anti-indigenous.

(Photo's from the entrance to Xwmelch'stn village where Liberal campaign signs were taken down. I would like to be neutral and show Conservative, NDP, and Green signs ripped down too, but they didn't have the nerve to put signs on our reserve. haha)

Silly Season has indeed begun. Am I voting in this election? No chance.

Coming soon: Why I Don't Vote