For our weekly look at practical decolonization in the Aboriginal world, we turn to a nice article in The Tyee, a regional online magazine here in British Columbia fosucing on the vision of Graham Hingangaroa Smith. He is a Maori academic educator who is visiting BC and throwing up some nice challenges to the community here with respect to academic success.

And he knows what he’s talking about. Maori education, in Maori schools has saved the Maori language, and created a huge shift in the identity of a whole new generation of Maori. When I was in New Zealand in March, I was struck by how much language was used in daily life. Having some nice kai at a hui on the marae is something easily understood by Maori and Pakeha (non-Maori) alike. In fact, I think I learned more Maori in a week than I have learned Coast Salish in the ten years I have lived here in Squamish territory.

Smith credits this amazing resurgence in Maori identity to a deep change in thinking:

Here in Canada, I have to say that we tend to suffer somewhat from being defensive, and reacting to government. The proactive initiatives I blog about here are a welcome sea change in that respect. I’m glad Smith is here spreading his gospel, because indigenous folks around the world need to hear from each other, especially about things that work so well.

Thanks to Marja-Leena for the pointer.

Buried in a long missive from Joy Harjo’s blog:

Distopia brings us some fun which only works because control in corporations has so little self-awareness.

Thanks to Wealth Bondage for the link.

Here in Canada, November 11 is the day we remember soldiers who died fighting in the wars in which Canada has fought. Increasingly over the years, Aboriginal veterans are getting their due. Back in the twentieth century, Indians who went to war for Canada lost their rights when they returned. This meant that they were no longer considered Indians, could no longer live in their communities or receive treaty and other benefits. This was called “enfranchisment” and was a sore point in Canada-First Nations relations for decades.

Despite that, Aboriginal veterans are proud of their service and the sacrifice that they made for Canada, even as their home country was dispossessing them of lands and rights. In many ways, Aboriigial vets returning from the second world war and the Korean war set the stage for the modern migrations of First Nations people to Canada’s urban areas. These vets created the first Aboriginal middle class and quietly slipped into the mainstream society to work and raise families, still connected to their home communities and yet disenfranchised from their nations by the government they had fought for.

So, like all good stories, it’s complicated.

For your remembrance day reading today, have a peek at some Aboriginal veterans resources and learn a little more about these stories, and the Aboriginal men and women who offered their lives for a country that wouldn’t respect them when they got home.

On the Open Space list, we’ve been discussing the merits of planning vs. muddling through. My two cents:

I actually think that muddling through is not a correction to the conventional wisdom that stretegy and planning is the way to go. Muddling through has always been the way. The evidence is actually overwhelming. Show me something in the world, a finished process, project, thing or event, that was not the result of muddling through.

Strategy is figuring out which way to muddle. Good strategists are great muddlers. They seem to muddle in the direction of the resources or of the political will or of the greatest benefit to others.

Planning is fun, and very useful for the short term, like on the last half day of an Open Space. But planning that goes beyond “when will we talk again” or a simple to-do list needs to be aware that the muddle factor increases as the time frame increases. More importantly, and more seriously, planning that doesn’t take into account a muddle factor and that creates a complex, long term and fixed to-do list is both disempowering for people and largely ineffective. It ties people to the plan (rather than the other way around) and limits exposure to true sources of inspiration and innovation.

For a comprehensive set of data on the effectiveness of muddling, check out the Nobel Prize winners speeches. When you come to a Nobel Laureate that says that their accomplishment was the result of a great strategic plan, let me know.

Rather than crow about their planning, here is what one recent
chemistry laureate, John B. Fenn said. He quoted the American poet Walt Whitman:

How about that eh?