Those of you who don’t live in Canada probably haven’t yet heard of the stand-off between Iroquoian peoples and developers in Ontario. The dispute concerns a piece of land called The Haldimand Tract, the jurisdiction of which is under dispute. The Six Nations people who live nearby, and on whose traditional territory the land lies, moved to stop a housing development there five months ago, with the idea that until ownership over the land is settled, building houses wouldn’t be a good idea.
The dispute has been angry and a little violent, but recently, the provincial government and the traditional government of the Iroquois Confederacy have been in talks to resolve the situation. The province bought the land in question and has moved to compensate some local businesses as well. Conversation is the higher form of peace making, so this is all good.
But then yesterday a judge called David Marshall, inexplicably ordered the negotiations to end, and order the police to move in and arrest the indigenous people at the blockade. This seems completely screwy to me. Courts in Canada usually have to work hard to get governments to the table, not away from it. In fact, the move is so unprecedented that the Ontario government has moved to appeal it. The order has exacerbated the terrible strife between the indigenous and non-indigenous residents of the area.
What would lead a judge to order police to move in before negotiations, which were going well, by all accounts? Could the fact that he owns land within the tract in question have anything to do with it?
I hope the appeal succeeds and the parties are allowed to negotiate again. If not, it’s a sad day for Canadian justice, what little of it there is left for indigenous peoples here.
Keeping a flame lit here for the people of the Six Nations territories in Ontario, and hoping for a peaceful resolution to the standoff there.
It’s a Tsimshian expression that means “of one heart.” It was also the name of a very powerful appreciative summit I facilitated last year on youth suicide in northwestern British Columbia.
Today Jane Morley, the Child and Youth Officer for British Columbia, and the convener of that gathering released her special report on the summit and its results. The report is available as a .pdf from her site.
The gathering was one of the most powerful experiences of my life. On May 4th 2005 I saw nearly 200 Aboriginal youth step into a gathering rife with fear and trepidation and emerge engaged and powerful. They achieved this by simply turning to one another with a set of powerful questions about what might be in their communities and after some conversation, they delivered an inspired set of messages to policy makers and politicians.
In her report, Jane summaraizes the transformation of the day this way:
By the end of the inter-nation forum, it seemed that a shift had taken place – from the overwhelming sense of loss, alienation and fear people had felt in the face of youth suicide, to youth beginning to take the lead in finding a solution. THe energy and power of the youth were palpable, as was the willingness among the others present to hear and accepttheir views, the mutual respect and the support for the emergence of youth voices and youth leadership.
The inter-nation forum, the work that preceeded it and the subsequent results were the fruit of hard work by many people, but first among these were the youth themselves. It was such an honour to work with them. I hope the governments involved heed Jane’s report.
I piece I wrote here after the BALLE conference in June was republished on the Sustainable Review website.
Nice of them to re-publish my work. Would have been nicer if they had contacted me and asked me to fix the typos. Ah well…the price of glory!
Categories: firstnations, sustainability, local, economy, BALLE
Jeff Aitken left me a comment with a useful framework for inquiry form Apela Colorado. These are principles of indigenous science:
1. The indigenous scientist is an integral part of the research process and there is a defined process for insuring this integrity.
2. All of nature is considered to be intelligent and alive, thus an active research partner.
3. The purpose of indigenous science is to maintain balance.
4. Compared to Western time/space notions, indigenous science collapses time and space with the result that our fields of inquiry and participation extend into the overlap of past and present.
5. Indigenous science is holistic, drawing on all the senses including spiritual and psychic.
6. Indigenous science is concerned with relationships, we try to understand and complete our relationships with all living things.
7. The end point of an indigenous scientific process is a known and recognized place. This point of balance, referred to by my own tribe as the Great peace, is both peaceful and electrifyingly alive. In the joy of exact balance, creativity occurs, which is why we think of our way of knowing as a life science.
8. When we reach the moment/place of balance we do not believe we have transcended — we say that we are normal! Always we remain embodied in the natural world.
9. Humor is a critical ingredient of all truth seeking, even in the most powerful rituals. This is true because humor balances gravity. (1994)
2. All of nature is considered to be intelligent and alive, thus an active research partner.
3. The purpose of indigenous science is to maintain balance.
4. Compared to Western time/space notions, indigenous science collapses time and space with the result that our fields of inquiry and participation extend into the overlap of past and present.
5. Indigenous science is holistic, drawing on all the senses including spiritual and psychic.
6. Indigenous science is concerned with relationships, we try to understand and complete our relationships with all living things.
7. The end point of an indigenous scientific process is a known and recognized place. This point of balance, referred to by my own tribe as the Great peace, is both peaceful and electrifyingly alive. In the joy of exact balance, creativity occurs, which is why we think of our way of knowing as a life science.
8. When we reach the moment/place of balance we do not believe we have transcended — we say that we are normal! Always we remain embodied in the natural world.
9. Humor is a critical ingredient of all truth seeking, even in the most powerful rituals. This is true because humor balances gravity. (1994)
I’d like to suggest this as a framework for thinking about inquiry within a bodhisanga that takes its cue from the relationships between humans and the cosmos and the divine.