Possession is 9/10 of settlement…
Have you been following the #IdleNoMore movement?
Well I use the word”movement” but what I really mean is “occupation” because that is what it is…indigenous people deeply occupying traditional lands and traditional languages, and being joined by settlers. It is another example of the active decolonization that has been going on largely unseen in indigenous communities for many years now. These efforts take all kinds of shapes and forms but they are almost always initiated by youth and Elders together. They are rarely led by traditional indigenous organizations or leaders.
The purpose of things like this is awakening. It is not that a few simple sounding demands need to be met (although the hunger strike of Chief Teresa Spence and the protest of federal legislation are providing a simple focus). The mainstream and the powers that be love to have a simple goal. They continually asked the Occupy movement to put out some demands. It is easier that way, both to respond to it and to fight it.
But Occupy and #IdleNoMore are not lobby efforts. They are prototypes of new ways of being. They are arenas for the practice of a new kind of conscious living. They are not fully fledged revolutionary moments in time that have a definite start and end. They are far more sophisticated than that; they wake people up.
#IdleNoMore has beautifully woken up settlers, and that is one of the things that makes it different. Most indigenous protests move along barely registering on the minds of non-indigenous Canadians. i’m willing to be that few readers of this blog (and you guys are in te know) have actually engaged with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission process in Canada. It’s kind of absurd, that there is a major examination of the legacy of residential schools being worked over, that deeply important stories are being told and very few Canadians are there to hear them, let alone be a part of the compassion, forgiveness or reconciliation. Most days it feels like indigenous people in Canada are reconciling with a ghost.
That one-sided invisibility is largely why #IdleNoMore has sprung up this winter. Teresa Spence has been a target of powerful political interests for more than a year, when the housing crises in her community shed light on the appalling policies of the current federal government. And their response to her was to have her investigated and pilloried in the media for wasting money and not being a responsible leader, none of which was true. And now you have this absurd moment where a democratically elected leader is camped out near Parliament Hill, on a hunder strike to ask the Prime Minister to meet with her. And so far he won’t.
And so all across Canada people are engaging in round dances and bone games, organized flashmob style. Indigenous and settlers are celebrating the historic occupation of North America by it’s original peoples and while the dancing and the playing is going on, minds and hearts are being opened. This is the first time in my life when I have seen such broad based engagement between ordinary non-indigenous Canadians and their traditional hosts. So if you are non-indigenous, what can you do to play? A question many non-indigenous people are asking is how can I decolonize myself?
Well, beyond understanding the situation a bit, and helping to spread the word and stand as allies with Elders and youth, there are a few other things you can do. First of all, notice how you speak.
Yesterday I was having a conversation with my good friend Khelsilem, who has been involved in organizing not only some of the local #IdleNoMore activities around here, but who has alos been hosting the deeper conversation on what decolonization means. We were discussing this question of what settlers can do and we stumbled on a challenge. Khelsiliem is a language teacher and he was noting that in many indigenous languages there is really no possessive case. You can’t really say “That is my cup.” Instead you say something like “This is the cup I am using.” Also, concepts like want and desire are different too. “I want that cup” is a strange ting to say in Squamish, while “I could use that cup” is more accurate.
You see that English spends a lot of time keeping nouns and verbs seperate (English scholars hate it when people “medal” at the Olympics or “texT” a message or “groundtruth” a concept) and as a result, English has a a lot of rules about how to possess things.
So one way to begin the process of decolonization is to notice how often you use the possessive in English and what it feels like to offer a different sentence construction. This gives some insight into what it is like to live in a way where, in the words of one of my Elders “I belong to everything” rather than a world where the world is full of “all my relations.” Shifting the mindset of possession, of what we belong to and what belongs to us, is a very interesting way to think about what is happening. As indigenous youth reclaim languages across Canada this is the mind shift they are going through as well. When the richness of indigenous language is plumbed, the mindset of belonging to everything sweeps over you and that is accompanied by gratitude, humility and delight.
This is one of the quiet, powerful effects of #IdleNoMore and you won’t find anyone talking about it on the talk shows or in the newspapers or on TV, but it is happening EVERYWHERE and it could be one piece of personal practice that happens to you too. While a Chief is hunger striking and a railway is being blocked,minds are changing and hearts are opening and relationships are being formed. This is the real work that is going on.
Thank you for this post, Chris. It’s an important inquiry in a critical conversation in our country. Your line of questioning very much mirrors my own personal inquiry over the past few months. Again and again, since I opened myself to the question, I have been brought face to face with the colonizer (and the colonized) in me – in my marriage, in the way I parent, in my relationship with myself, in my relationships with students and others in my community, and in my relationships with people of other races and cultures. It’s difficult personal work, but it’s a worthwhile journey.
I wrote about the realization that reconciliation begins with me after sitting in a sharing circle for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission last July… http://heatherplett.com/2012/07/reconciliation-it-begins-with-me/
Your post is one of the brightest pieces of writing I read last year Heather. Your own inquiry shows the way too.
A thoughtful and thought-provoking posting as ever, Chris. However, I sometimes wonder whether such concepts of ownership as expressed in the structures of various languages are really as clear as we may think they are. Gaelic also tends to use non-possessive language structure for most objects. We would say “the cup that is at me”, not “my cup”. But I don’t know if this really signals a different sense of ownership or not, though it is often claimed so. Gaels certainly did have a sense of ownership of objects – although within a very strong tradition of sharing and hospitality – no “Englishman’s home is his castle” mentality. But we also do say “my head”, “my mother”, “my friend” “my love”. Does this communicate aggressive “possession”? Do I possess my relatives, my friends or my lover? It may be that the difference in language simply signifies a stronger or weaker intimacy with the subject being described. This, in itself, is interesting since in so many ways the consumer culture in which we are now so immersed, has elevated these less important objects to things which powerfully define many people. Does this relate to deeper language structures within the English language and the world view they may encourage or is it merely an interesting coincidence? I do like the idea of being attentive to how we use our language and considering what invisible cultural prejudices it may bring up within us. Thanks.
Wicked Mike. Thanks for the comment.
Thank you so much for sharing this analogy, it is true about the use of possessive terminology, even the thought that we belong to the earth, the earth do not belong to us…ninanaskom’tin (thank you with much gratitude, appreciation, humility…sorry not possible to completely translate from Cree to English, as it looses some of it’s meaning & impact when translated)
You are welcome Shannon. And chi miigwetch to you too for being one of our alarm clocks! Waking up!
I appreciate the point made about Native languages in this. It’s important to note though not all Native languages are the same. In my language you can add on a suffix that would indicate mine, theirs, ours, yours. What’s interesting in my language about where nouns are placed is humbly last. Actions are first. I believe we do have a strong sense of possesion or ownership since it is only chiefs that hold songs or what I would call titles to air, beaches, waterways, mountains, lands, resources. We have boundary lines with other tribes as well. There is a sense of stewardship here in that philosophically we understand that “everything is one”, but we also know what our chiefs own. I’d like our people and Canadian people to know our Nuuchahnulth language has a possevive aspect. It is why we are territorial.
I feel like I have spent years explaining that the concept of ownership west of the Coast Mountains is very different from what lies east. So yes to Nuu-Chah-Nukth concepts of ownership.
What is different as I understand Hishuuk ish tsawalk is that there is a reciprocal belonging. I might own a possession, a ha hulthee for example, but what comes with that is a sense of belonging to that which I own. And thus tsawalk and ownership comes with isaak. Something like that.
At any rate for me what us most interesting is this subtle shift in thinking. Just to experience that subtle shift is to understand how a small move like playing with language helps to produce a big shift in worldview. That is a good way to understand what decolonization actually feels like from the inside.
Thanks so much for adding to this discussion!
Hiishukish tsawaak-everything is one
YOu have a very good perspective on what is happening from the Occupy Movement to the Quebec Spring and now the Idle no more movement. I spent four days on Victoria Island and fasted in support of Chief Spence. I witnessed their a peaceful determination that is as strong as the Spirit that guides the Native Peoples. I also saw many descendants of settlers and present day Europeans offering their support to this movement. They know that humanity is at stake and bonds are being created in honor of Mother Earth, peace and dignity.
I very much appreciated learning about the lack of the possessive in the Native tongues – what a mind-change. Thank-you – I will try and put this into practice – must not be easy.
Important to note that the exercise is one not designed to clean your mind but rather to experience whatnot feels like to be decolonizing thinking.
I look forward to continuing the conversation! I don’t know much of the feeling the maple spring but hoping to feel it more in Montreal next week. Perhaps we will meet then?
Yes I will be at the Art of Hosting event in Montreal. And I do believe you are one of the hosts. I had not made the connection before.