Aboriginal People - From Idle No More to Indian Act No More

When the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada in 2015 uses the phrase “cultural genocide” to describe the indigenous experience you know you have a problem.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/chief-justice-says-canada-attempted-cultural-genocide-on-aboriginals/article24688854/

There is no doubt that in 2017 Indigenous People continue to suffer under their present situation in Canada. As Canada begins to celebrate its 150th Birthday it's time to evaluate the deplorable situation still existing for its Indigenous People. Why do Indigenous People in this country feel they have nothing to celebrate? Why after over 150 years under Canadian rule has the situation for native peoples remained the same or probably worst.

Thinking about, dwelling upon, whining about or obsessing about the past is a fool’s game. It really is not too productive. It reminds me of the old saw about worrying.  Worrying is like sitting in a rocking chair.  It gives you something to do but doesn't really get you anywhere. Forget the past if you can. At least don't focus on it. As George Burns stated: “I look to the future because that's where I'm going to spend the rest of my life.”

Being a white person, having grown up poor and having lived in Northern Ontario adjacent to Indian Reserves provided me with one perspective on the impact of "colonialism" on Indigenous People. It’s awful. I worked both in business and government in my working careers and believe this has allowed me to view the situation of Indigenous Peoples from a unique pragmatic perspective.

There are two words used frequently by Indigenous People to describe their condition. These are victims of “colonialism” and “healing”. It makes me cringe now when I hear these worn out cliche descriptions associated with them. It’s almost as if these descriptors of victims now serve to define them.  When I think of the Idle No More Movement I think of getting up from sitting on one’s hands. And the two hands that have been sat on for far too long are “colonialism” and “healing”. How can you heal when the colonial system keeps pulling off the scab? It’s long past the time to stop this vicious cycle of harm.

There's no doubt Indigenous People suffer from colonialism. But it’s not the root cause. Why has their deplorable condition persisted? Who benefits from not changing the situation? There are three primary parties involved, government, indigenous leaders, and the average suffering indigenous person. Why hasn’t positive change been initiated by any of these parties?

Let’s examine government first. A great description, by Elon Musk relating to his ongoing disputes with regulators in getting his Space X off the ground, sheds light on this.

"There is a fundamental problem with regulators. If a regulator agrees to change a rule and something bad happens, they could easily lose their career. Whereas if they change a rule and something good happens, they don't even get a reward. So, it's very asymmetric. It's then easy to understand why regulators resist changing the rules. It's because there's big punishment on one side and no reward on the other.  How would any rational person behave in such a situation."

So don’t look for help from the government for change. How about the indigenous leadership? Why haven't they been agents of change? That’s an easy one. If change were going to occur for the better from this source it would have already done so. Hoping positive change will come from indigenous leadership is clearly a lost cause. The leadership can answer for themselves as to why they’ve been so ineffective in this matter.

So that leaves the average suffering indigenous people to take matters in their own hands, if they're ever going to get change. Many were hopeful as the Idle No More Movement sprang up from the grassroots.  Finally, here was an initiative that seemed poised to move the needle in the right direction. But it fizzled out or at least lost momentum. Just like the Occupy Movement, it simply lacked a focus.

I believe the Idle No More Movement needs a focus, a big hairy audacious goal to spark positive change.

I believe the root cause of the deplorable condition that the indigenous people live in in Canada is the archaic colonial Indian Act. The goal should be to get rid of it. Phase it out over 20 years. The Idle No More Movement should change into the more focused and audacious goal-oriented  “Indian Act No More”.

Led Down the Garden Path by Our Analogies

Paraphrasing an Einstein quote,, I said to a fellow worker the other day that “You can get from A to B with Logic but you can go anywhere with Imagination”. Her reaction was interesting.  I could see she recognized the quote and gave it passing kudos. However, I also recognized a halting almost begrudging acceptance of this idea. It made me think that she may have been exposed to it in school as the counter argument to a more forcefully endorsed reality.

In school we’re always being taught to compare and contrast differences as though this binary premise was the default. This is probably reflecting the modern computer dominated culture we`ve been raised in. Could it be that the binary nature of today`s computers, it`s bits and bytes as represented by 1`s and 0`s, dominates all our lives by leaking into our very ways of thinking about the world. It wouldn’t surprise me. There must be some reason the modern world is becoming so polarized. Politically, for example, there seems to be little middle ground any more.  

The analogies we use to explain things colour our world. It's as if the tail is wagging the dog.

One of the best analogies I`ve heard to explain speciation on an evolutionary scale involved the idea of a field filled with valleys and peaks whereby the peaks represent new species emerging between the valleys. This is a great way to break with the linear bipolar two-dimensional way that most of us think about nature. The analogies we use certainly limit our understanding of our surroundings. Even Plato`s idea of `knowledge as represented by a dark cave with a light source, casting shadows on the wall, has an inherent binary nature to it. We either see the knowledge or we don`t. We`re either in the light or we`re in the dark.

Binary and linear ways of thinking is most often promoted in our classrooms. It is the easiest way to get from A to B. Thinking outside the box is an anomaly and it's admired by it exceptionalism. The default linear and binary way of thinking no doubt has caused us to diminish our fellow creatures on the planet. Either other animals are sentient like us or not. We very narrowly define intelligence, for example, putting ourselves on a pinnacle and then dismissing anything below us on this scale. How else could we eat animals….

It`s time to teach non-linear, non-binary thinking as a default in our classrooms. But maybe we`ll have to wait until quantum computing becomes established.