Bon jour and welcome to another Screenside Chat. In this chat, I'm going to answer some of the questions that were posted for the instructor and I've organized on ones that are dealing with Aboriginal peoples in Canada. Some of the issues being the pass system. That's the limitation of leaving reserves Aboriginal people and elections, also self government and autonomy the question about the Fourdirectionsteachings.com website, and then I'm going to try and address the dream time and differences between native and western science. There are some other questions, I think they're going to take their own Screenside Chats, so if you have haven't heard my response to them, I'm, I'm planning one. So, the first one is can Aboriginal people come and go as they choose from the reserve or the reservation? Is there a pass required, is there curfew or a time limit, and other questions about traveling internationally. So, I'll try to address that. First of all, I want to address this notion of the pass system so at one point in time, is actually was 1885 when the Department of Indian Affairs instituted a pass system. Now, the original wording in the Indian Act was that no outsider can come onto a reserve to do business with an Aboriginal resident without permission from the Indian agent, and so the Indian agent was someone who was a hired to look after, presumably the, the Aboriginal, the Indians who were on the reserves. And so, there are, there are different agents for different regions in Canada and they applied, they, they had discretion to apply this law in different ways. So, in some places, it was very strictly enforced and in others, it was a little bit more lax. It really depended on the relationship that the agent had with people as well as the, the, the notion that the agent had about how to protect the Indians in their care. So, in many places the directives were interpreted to mean that Aboriginal people couldn't leave the reserve to do business. So although the law was actually saying that non-Indians couldn't come on to the reserve, it was applied to Aboriginal people leaving the reserve, this notion being that they, they couldn't be controlled of who they were associating with in town or off the reserve. So, that was the reason that Indian agents had to sign the pass to allow someone to leave, and they wrote down where they were going and what they were planning to do. And, and so, it was quite a, a, it, it resembled a bit of a prison system for, for many reserves. You really couldn't leave without those passes. And they were strictly enforced by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police or R, RCMP. So, that's a, that's a legacy that lasted for about a generation or almost, almost two generations especially on the west the plains. And around the time of the rebellions the [unknown] people and affiliated Indian nations, they, they, they were using this part of the Indian Act to really enforce the pass system and ensure that there wasn't assembly of Indians in larger groups which also lead to this long history of, of political assembly being illegal and strictly enforced when, when people were meeting in groups and their, it was a thought that they might be actually engaging in political discussion about organizing around rights or, or against legislation that was restrictive. Then, then the heavy hand of the law was, was dealt. There's a, part of this question was about travel, international, and I think it's important to mention the, the Jay Treaty, as an important treaty that set the precedent for you know, the, the lack of duty or taxes when crossing the border if you're a recognized Indian. So Aboriginal people in Canada are allowed to go to the US and back, and bring over goods without, without, without a duty or a tax imposed upon them for doing so as that's an important consideration. And also there are a number of first nations who issue their own passports. I am unsure about how these are viewed when they're used for travel beyond the United States and Canada. So, that's, that's a question. But certainly I've seen Six Nations passports, and this is an attempt, of course, to extend that metaphor of the nation or extend that meaning of the nation to, to other affairs that are truly international. What else well, just a note I guess about that use of language reserve and reservation and I'm not sure if, I think it is and that's [unknown], key terms which was used in the first week videos on terminology. But the reserve is the, the, the language that's used in Canada and reservation is the language used in the US, so just to clarify that as well. Okay, moving on to the next question. There's a question about Aboriginal people and elections. The, the question, one of the questions is, what is being done to ensure that more Aboriginal people participate and what can we do to use our votes to affect change in Canada as it relates to Aboriginal concerns? This is from a, from a non-Aboriginal person, so wanting to support Aboriginal issues. And, and, and do so through their vote. So, what is being done? Well, there, there's campaigns, every time there's an election to get the vote out among Indian people. So, there is, there are campaigns to encourage participation. You know, a friend of mine many years ago had drawn up a map of all the different electoral writings in Canada specifically in Ontario and she had highlighted the ones where Indians were a very high proportion of the population and could, in fact, as a, as a block vote in a way that would seriously influence the, the elections and she found quite a remarkable number of writings that could, in fact, be swayed by the Indian vote. So, it is important in areas where Aboriginal people are a growing number of the population with the, the, the franchise that they use it in a way to support the individual representative who is most closely in tune with their with their political beliefs, and who is most knowledgeable and concerned about addressing the Aboriginal concerns when they do represent the writing in the house. So, I think that's one thing is to, to be talking to our youth who are all reaching that voting age or are, are already age of majority. And they can be influencing the candidates in their area and certainly asking those questions in the candidates or running for office themselves. Now, I know this is no guarantee of the kind of ideology that they will carry with them when they, they represent their writings. We do have a number of Aboriginal people in office who are, are taking stands on certain issues that are surprising, given who they are and, and the communities that they purportedly represent. So, that's another issue too, but I think certainly encouraging people not only to vote but also to be, be the elected representatives to run for office is important. And we've had some great First Nation's leaders who we can look to as inspiration. In terms of the second part of that question, what can we do to use our votes? It's the same thing, I think. Looking, looking at the candidates, looking at the, their parties and their platforms and, and asking them, what is, what are they going to do about x or y and insert the relevant indigenous issue there, whether it's resource extraction whether it's the elimination and erosion of treaty of rights. Whatever the, the issue of concern is to take that and ask the can, the candidates, what is your stance on this, what is your position, position on this, what legislation will you introduce that will work for indigenous people? These kinds of questions are what we can do and then, we can use our vote to support those ones who provide satisfactory responses and action on those responses and, and to not support those ones who don't have an answer or have an unsatisfactory answer. So, our vote does matter, but we do have to let people know how we're using that vote and we need to let them know the kinds of issues that we want to see addressed and brought to attention when they're representing us. So moving on, the question was, Aboriginal, are Aboriginal people self-governing or autonomous or do they still depend on funding from the Canadian Government? I don't understand which kind of legal political status they have in Canada. Well it's a, [laugh] it's a, that's kind of, that's a big question. It's a complicated question. I think, I think the main thing though to say is Aboriginal people and specifically First Nations are, they are advocating for their right to self-government within Canada and many depend on funding from Canada. And the latter part I'll explain is you think, well, shouldn't they just be completely independent from funding from Canada. But the thing is, the treaty-to-treaty, nation-to-nation agreements I think you can see it as a form of rent, really. Because what Britain, the Crown and Canada were after, with negotiating treaties with First Nations was the land and access to the land and developing the land for money and profit and so a share of those monies and profit is what is asked for in the nation-to-nation agreement. So, many of them say, yes, you may have access to the land and share the land. In return, we ask for the same education standard as the new nation the same health standard. And so, in essence, that funding that flows to First Nations from the Canadian government, I see it as part of the obligations of the, of that treaties. I think, in many cases, Canada does not see it that way. They, they certainly talk it about as a courtesy or a privilege or as something that is being extended to people who need help, but not as part of a treaty obligation or arrangement. That is, that is why I think, so many people organize around honoring the treaties, because it, it was certainly a sense on the part of the First Nations that these were everlasting, and were arrangements based on respect between two peoples. And that much of the right to work with the land, profit from the resources from the land was in, in exchange for these other things. The education and, and the health, and one way of, of, of providing that is to be funding it. So, that is why the funding still comes from, from Canada and First Nations is still consider themselves autonomous even though there is a, there's a relationship of dependency, I think that comes from the Indian Act. So, that legislation that Angela mentioned in her interview is a way I see that Canada circumvents, its treaty relationships and obligations and sees its relationship to Indians as something that, that flows from the Indian Act and also the British North America Act or the first constitution and the one that was revised in 1982, the Canadian Constitution Act, where Indians and lands reserved for Indians are seen as a federal responsibility, so the government of Canada then sees itself as, as kind of a Indians as wards of the state, and comes a very patronizing approach to controlling Indian affairs as they relate to education, government, health, residency, identity and a whole host of other things. So, the Indian act is something we really have to look at too. And that's where I think the dependency model and relationship emerges and flows from. But the treaty-to-treaty, which most First Nations are advocating for is where the self-government and autonomy provisions would, would come from and treaty rights are protected in the Constitution Act, too. The problem is they, they've been having to interpret what exactly that means since 1982. So, we've had a number of, of court cases and challenges that have gone all the way to the Supreme Court to illuminate or clarify which exist, existing Aboriginal and treaty rights are and how to recognize them. So, it's not been an easy road and there are a number of First Nations who have negotiated self-governments agreements and it, has, it has removed the Indian act provisions from being exercised in their particular jurisdiction, their, their particular local, and many of these are in the West Coast, where treaties, where, where negotiative post-confederation, so, they still had an Aboriginal title that was recognized and flowed from the Royal Proclamation of 1763. So, when Canada entered into agreements with them, they were modern day treaties protected by the constitution. And these self-government acts to, took many years to negotiate and a few examples, I guess, are , the,the Nisga'a nation in BC, also the Sechelt yum, and there are, and there are a few others in the Yukon as well. So, you can look at these kind of modern nation-to-nation agreements as modern day treaties but they're also self-government agreements. I think Nunavut probably the most famous example of a form of self-government which is pretty unique in Canada because it is a territory, just like the Northwest territories and the Yukon territory. But the Inuit happen to have the majority population, so they self-govern as a result of just having the most people in the territory. So, this is also a form of self-government, too. It's, it's constrained in other ways in terms of the relationship between territories and, and the government of Canada, but that's, that's perhaps a little too complicated to get into here. So, I hope that helps to kind of clarify at least the, the, the, the, the base of your question which was, you know, are they self-governing, governing, or are they dependent on the government for funding? That's kind of the landscape of that. So, someone wanted to say that the fourdirectionsteaching.com site is superb, and compliments to everyone involved in that project. Jennifer Wemigwans is a the one who developed the site along with many others, but certainly it's her, her company, Invert Media, and she also did the Wampum resource that was a part of Week 2's content. And so, I think I'll send that along to her, I think she'd be very happy to hear that people like it. When she was working on the project, she approached a number of different First Nations to see who would be interested in, in, in being in, involved in this project to support it and address adult literacy among indigenous learners. And so, she went to the teachings and thought this is something that's going to motivate people. And, and so, that was the motivation behind the project and I'm sure there's more to it than that. That's just, that's just one part that I, I remember and focus on, but the question that, that emerged in the forum was, is there anything similar for Native Americans in the US, or even a combined site for North America? Well, I don't think Jennifer has any plans to continue with that site and its mode, but she is certainly working on ways of bringing that knowledge into more and more schools so that Canadians are learning about First Nations in a more direct way that is from First Nations teachers and elders, and using that mix of video and animation and so forth to make it engaging. So, so, that, that's kind of future steps for her and her company. I terms of is there anything similar for, for, for Native Americans in the US, I would put that back out to the course participants and if anyone is aware if they can post it in responses to this Screenside Chat and tell people, you know, here's what does exist that's really good for learning about Native American communities in the US. And I also have to say too that for the First Nations that Jennifer chose to include in the Four Directions Teachings site that many of them actually are on both sides of that border. And so in a way, it, it already is addressing and displaying the cultural knowledge of several nations that transcend that political border between Canada and the US. They, they live on both sides of the border and certainly see themselves as their own nation, separate from Canada and the US. So, this is certainly true for the Nishnawbe, it's true for the Blackfoot, it's true for the for the Mohawk, who are, I think, all on that site. So just to clarify that as well so just I just want, one more thing I'll have time for, which is the, the question about science and again, this is going to be very, very brief and sketchy but I was asked if there's one message that I could relay from first people's in my class where I teach English to very western Science young adults in, in Europe, what would you suggest? So, I guess [laugh] three things maybe. One would be to remember to consider seeing consider ways of seeing the whole and how things operate in relationship to each other. Because I think much of western Science keeps, keeps isolating and detaching things to study trying to isolate variables to understand how, how certain variables are correlated. But in, in indigenous Science, you try to see how things are related. You try to wit, witness them in their natural setting, and try to see the whole, the system. If you, if this thing changes, what happens to everything else. So, you're looking at more, the relationship between each other. So, that's a really key difference, is relations, in relationships. The second thing is to think about the universe as in a state of change and that's the basis of reality. So, within indigenous languages and their way of conceiving of the world, the state of change is the natural state of things. Stasis and inertia which are, you know, important parts of western Science and seeing the world and coming up with laws of nature tend to see things looking for the unchanging within this, this larger dynamic of life which is always changing. So, it's that's our key difference, I guess, between the two world views. And so finally, if there's some resources people can suggest, I'll, I'll recommend Native Science by Greg Cajete as a good way of looking at the difference between the two world views. Also Blackfoot Physics or also Lighting the Seventh Fire which is by F David Peat who was published in these two different titles. Some people have been recog recommending Glen Aikenhead from Saskatchewan as someone to read if you're looking at ways of introducing in, indigenous Science to people and learners. So, try these out and if there's other resources, I hope others will share them. There were many other questions I would like to get to. Some of them are, are a little involved and so, I'll try to address those in separate Screenside Chat in the future. Thanks again for your questions, please keep them coming, there's not much time [laugh] left in the course, but I will try to address as many as I can. Thank you.
