University of Alberta Faculty of Law Blog

ILSA Speaker Series: Darcy Lindberg

Image retrieved from https://twitter.com/Darcy13Lindberg 

Tansi Nîtôtemtik,

        Every year at the University of Alberta, the Aboriginal Law Speaker Series is organized by the Indigenous Law Students’ Association and hosted by the Faculty of Law. This year’s theme was Indigenous Law: Theory & Practice and it featured some of the biggest names from contemporary Indigenous legal scholarship in Canada. For the rest of this week, we will provide you with a brief overview of each speaker, beginning with Darcy Lindberg’s presentation “Practicing Our Relations Beautifully: The Role of Aesthetics in the Vitality of Nehiyaw Law.”

        Lindberg is of Nehiyaw heritage and has relations in Samson Cree Nation in Alberta. He is currently a lawyer and PhD student studying the legal theories of the Plains Cree peoples, especially as found in their relationships to lands, waters, and animals. His research interests also include Indigenous stories, songs, ceremonies, and protocols, and the laws contained within them.

        As Lindberg pointed out last Monday, there is an important difference between Indigenous laws and Aboriginal law – the former refers to Indigenous legal orders that come from and exists within Indigenous communities; the latter refers to Canadian law, and how it has reacted to and dealt with Indigenous peoples. Throughout his talk, Lindberg revisited the themes of persuasion and disruption, and ultimately chose to focus on Indigenous laws.

        He drew the audience in with four stories. In the first story, “Buffalo Lake,” Lindberg told the audience about how the lake came to be. He spoke about the ways that passing this story down through generations also meant passing down the legal knowledge it holds as the people in the story have specific obligations to each other and to the land and animals on it. He then told “Buffalo Stone,” a story that includes specific protocol for how to hunt in an ethical and sustainable way. Lindberg noted that the law in this story ensured the balance between taking from the land and giving back to it would be maintained. He said that these stories also shed light on the idea of disruption and the ways that these relationships have been interrupted today.

        Lindberg’s third story was a shared one – “How Canada Came to Be.” By looking at policies of separation (such as taking land from Indigenous peoples to provide to settlers, the reservation system, and the residential school system), the story tells us not only about the violence that has been done to Indigenous peoples and cultures, but also the violence that has been done to Indigenous legal orders. Lindberg was quick to remind listeners that resistance has always accompanied the violence. For example, in response to sweats being banned, people took to doing sweat lodge ceremonies in their kitchens just to keep it alive. He also encouraged the audience to consider how this history has led to the injustices that we see today, in particular, the killing of Colten Boushie.

        The fourth and final story was “Wasakechak and the Dog Council” and Lindberg said this is one of those stories where we learn not only from the main character’s wisdom, but also from his mistakes. The story exemplified what happens when there are power imbalances and (unwelcome) intervention. A member of the audience asked Lindberg whether he interpreted the story as providing a commentary on the current trend of reconciliation. His answer drew attention to the tension between what stories mean versus what they mean to different individuals, and he explained that interpretation is often unique to the listener. Leaving the interpretation up to the listeners, he said, most of the time “the stories I’ve been told do not come with an interpretation from the storyteller.”

        Drawing Indigenous laws from stories is less about pinpointing a single takeaway and more about identifying different principles, processes, and relations, and figuring out how they might be applied today. In the end, Lindberg persuaded the audience of the relevance that Indigenous laws hold in contemporary contexts, and disrupted our understanding of what law in Canada looks like now with his ideas about what it can be. His captivating introduction set the stage for a week of exciting and important conversations about Indigenous laws. Come back tomorrow to hear about Tuesday’s speaker, James Sákéj Youngblood Henderson!

Until next time,

Team ReconciliAction YEG

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‘Standing Up’ Indigenous Laws

Artwork by Dr. Val Napoleon of the Indigenous Laws Research Unit. Image retrieved from https://www.uvic.ca/law/about/indigenous/indigenouslawresearchunit/index.php

Tansi Nîtôtemtik,

        Canada is a legally pluralistic state but up until recently Indigenous laws have been relegated to the margins. It is imperative that those whose lives are touched by the law (ie. everyone in some way) learn to see through the false colonial narrative that “the common law and the civil law are the only two legal traditions operative throughout the land.”[1] We are living in a time where Indigenous communities have options for standing up their legal systems and where we all have a role to play in bringing Indigenous laws to their proper place as a vital part of Canadian law.[2] Although Indigenous laws are not perfect[3] (no law is!), this can no longer serve as a justification for the (sometimes) well-intentioned paralysis that has characterized academia’s engagement with Indigenous laws to date. The practice of Indigenous laws will continue to strengthen the cultures from which they are drawn and to those they are applied.

        Nevertheless, this undertaking is more easily said than done. John Borrows identifies five main challenges in recognizing and engaging with Indigenous legal traditions related to intelligibility, accessibility, equality, applicability, and legitimacy.[4] For law to be intelligible, those who abide by it must be able to foresee the consequences of certain behaviour; the fact that Indigenous law can be contained in unconventional forms (from a western perspective) has led to the argument that it is “too broad or vague to be useful”[5] and is thus unintelligible. This argument ignores the fact that all law requires interpretation, and that interpretation is always “an embedded and embodied practice by which interpreters also discover and project their own identity.”[6] It is crucial that interpreters acknowledge the cultured lens with which they approach all interpretation, and do not hold Indigenous legal traditions to “a higher standard of intelligibility than non-Indigenous law.”[7]

        In terms of accessibility, it is true that Indigenous laws are not yet readily available to the same degree as other legal orders. However, Indigenous law exists in a multitude of sources. Some resources require deep knowledge and full cultural immersion and others require some community connection, but there are also resources such as stories that are publically available.[8] The University of Victoria’s Indigenous Law Research Unit (ILRU) offers one method of accessing the Indigenous legal principles contained within stories.[9] This method is a “simple, teachable, and transparent way of engaging with Indigenous laws within and across communities, and within and across legal orders.”[10] The rest of this week's posts will demonstrate what the ILRU method made possible for three different communities.

        Returning to the challenges outlined by Borrows, concerns about equality constitute a further challenge. Racist stereotypes and primitivistic discourses have inaccurately shaped mainstream conceptions of Indigenous people, and even more harmfully, distorted the ways that Indigenous peoples conceive of themselves and their laws. A profound shift in assumptions is needed.[11] Because “differential treatment can sometimes be necessary to produce equality,”[12] it cannot be considered discriminatory to make space for Indigenous laws. Rather, the failure to recognize Indigenous legal traditions is in itself discriminatory.[13]

        In terms of applicability, Indigenous laws should generally be applied on a territorial basis.[14] Still, some laws will be personal and “follow an Indigenous person wherever they go.”[15] None should be applied on the basis of race.[16] Law schools successfully teach law from other jurisdictions; Indigenous laws should be no different. What matters most in considering applicability is whether Indigenous laws are relevant and useable[17] in current contexts.

        A final hurdle in engaging with Indigenous laws is the issue of legitimacy. Frankly, all Canadians have some unlearning to do when it comes to colonial understandings of what counts as legitimate. Settler students may be resentful or apprehensive about engaging with Indigenous law but all education, and legal education in particular, must be used to “destabilize settled structures of meaning,”[18] to reveal “how and why certain interests are privileged,”[19] and to show that there are multiple ways of doing and knowing law.[20] Indigenous students, too, may be resentful or apprehensive, albeit for different reasons; “deep and bitter feelings of anger, distrust, and betrayal reside in some Indigenous communities because of the centuries-long denial of their rights and traditions.” [21] This skepticism, however, is warranted.

        In spite of these intellectual, institutional, practical, and theoretical challenges, there is hope.[22] While Indigenous legal traditions have “ancient roots, they can also speak to the present and future needs of all Canadians.”[23] When we accept that “Indigenous people’s laws hold modern relevance for themselves and for others,”[24] and that these laws “can be developed through contemporary practices,”[25] it makes sense that these legal traditions be treated with the respect they deserve. TRC Calls to Action #27, 28, and 50 focus on the need for this country to recognize Canada’s multijurality through a commitment to pluralizing the legal epistemologies and traditions accepted as legitimate in this country:

27.    We call upon the Federation of Law Societies of Canada to ensure that lawyers receive appropriate cultural competency training, which includes the history and legacy of residential schools, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Treaties and Aboriginal rights, Indigenous law, and Aboriginal–Crown relations. This will require skills-based training in intercultural competency, conflict resolution, human rights, and anti-racism.

28.    We call upon law schools in Canada to require all law students to take a course in Aboriginal people and the law, which includes the history and legacy of residential schools, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Treaties and Aboriginal rights, Indigenous law, and Aboriginal–Crown relations. This will require skills-based training in intercultural competency, conflict resolution, human rights, and antiracism.

50. In keeping with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, we call upon the federal government, in collaboration with Aboriginal organizations, to fund the establishment of Indigenous law institutes for the development, use, and understanding of Indigenous laws and access to justice in accordance with the unique cultures of Aboriginal peoples in Canada.[26]

        The University of Victoria’s Faculty of Law has taken these calls to heart and as of this September, “its law students will be the first in the world to intensively study both Indigenous and non-Indigenous law and graduate with two professional degrees: one in Canadian Common Law (Juris Doctor or "JD") and one in Indigenous Legal Orders (Juris Indigenarum Doctor or "JID").”[27] There is nothing stopping all other Canadian law schools from doing the same. Clearly, the time for “dialogue across traditions and jurisdictions”[28] is now. Join us as we explore Indigenous laws for the next two weeks!

Until next time,

Team ReconciliAction YEG

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[1] John Borrows, “Heroes, Tricksters, Monsters, and Caregivers: Indigenous Laws and Legal Education” (2016) 61 McGill Law Journal at 9.

[2] See John Borrows, “Outsider Education: Indigenous Law and Land-Based Learning” (unpublished) at 9.

[3] See John Borrows, Canada’s Indigenous Constitution (Toronto, U of Toronto P: 2010) at 10 [Canada’s Indigenous Constitution]

[4] Ibid at 138. This list is not exhaustive.

[5] See Hadley Friedland, “Reflective Framework: Methods for Accessing, Understanding and Applying Indigenous Laws” (2012) 11:1 Indigenous Law Journal 1 at 16 [“Reflective Framework”].

[6] Roderick A. McDonald and Jason MacLean, “Navigating the Transsystemic: No toilets in the Park” (2005). 50 McGill L J 721 at 726 [“Navigating the Transsystemic”].

[7] Canada’s Indigenous Constitution, supra note 3 at 142.

[8] See Matthew Fletcher, “Rethinking Customary Law in Tribal Court Jurisprudence” (2006) Michigan State University College of Law, Indigenous Law and Policy Centre Occasional Paper Series at 17.

[9] Hadley Friedland and Val Napoleon, “Gathering the Threads: Developing a Methodology for Researching and Rebuilding Indigenous Legal Traditions” (2015) 1:1 Lakehead Law Journal 33 at 18 [“Gathering the Threads”].

[10] Val Napoleon and Hadley Friedland, “An Inside Job: Engaging with Indigenous Legal Traditions Through Stories” (2016) 61 McGill Law Journal at 4 [“An Inside Job”].

[11] Val Napoleon and Hadley Friedland, “Indigenous Legal Traditions Core Workshop Materials” prepared for the Indigenous Law Research Unit at the University of Victoria (2015) at 2.

[12] Canada’s Indigenous Constitution, supra note 3 at 151.

[13] Ibid, at 152.

[14] Ibid, at 162.

[15] Ibid, at 164.

[16] Ibid, at 158.

[17] See “Reflective Framework” supra note 5 at 17.

[18] “Navigating the Transsystemic” supra note 6 at 770.

[19] Ibid, at 767.

[20] See Rosalie Jukier, “Where Law and Pedagogy Meet in the Transystemic Contracts Classroom” (2005) McGill Law Journal 789 at 792 [“Where Law and Pedagogy Meet”].

[21] Canada’s Indigenous Constitution, supra note 3 at 169.

[22] See “Gathering the Threads” supra note 9 at 44 and Canada’s Indigenous Constitution, supra note 3 at 175.

[23] Ibid, at 10.

[24] Canada’s Indigenous Constitution, supra note 3 at 10.

[25] Ibid, at 10.

[26] Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Calls to Action (Winnipeg, 2015), online: http://www.trc.ca/websites/trcinstitution/File/2015/Findings/Calls_to_Action_English2.pdf

[27] Liam Britten, “UVic Law Students to Study Canadian and Indigenous Legal Systems in New Propgram” CBC News (Feb 22, 2018), online: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/indigenous-law-uvic-school-1.4546110.

[28] “Where Law and Pedagogy Meet” supra note 20 at 797.

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Creative Representations of Resistance: Film

Image retrieved from http://www.dntconsultinginc.com/aptnschedule/oss/view/week?ch=59663&tz=0&dt=2015-03-30

Tansi Nîtôtemtik,

        For centuries, “colonizing knowledges have attempted to silence Indigenous ways of coming to know and have fabricated false notions that Indigenous methodologies do not exist.”[1] However, Indigenous theories and methodologies do exist, and continue to thrive despite overt attempts to efface them and the people who use them.

        Nation-specific and distinctly anti-colonial, Indigenous theories and methodologies are embedded in all sorts of cultural productions. Indigenous carvings, hide-tanning, basket-weaving, music, poetry, songs, plays, and films assert and build upon the power of Indigenous knowledges and epistemologies. Further, they offer potential mechanisms for addressing contemporary issues of health and well-being in Indigenous communities.

        Indigenous media also contribute to the sovereignty and self-determination of Indigenous nations and Indigenous peoples - in this way, they can be considered as creative representations of resistance.[2] The concept of visual sovereignty “references a variety of domains in Aboriginal life from cultural to political to spiritual, and also […] to the domain of media production. [Visual sovereignty is] the articulation of Aboriginal peoples’ distinctive cultural traditions, political status, and collective identities through aesthetic and cinematic means.”[3] Indigenous media that harness the power of visual sovereignty thus provide a vehicle through which colonial histories can be interrogated, Indigenous narratives can be articulated, and artistic realms can be reclaimed for purposes of cultural documentation, language preservation, and inventive storytelling.[4]

        Helen Haig-Brown’s 2014 documentary, My Legacy, provides one example of a creative representation of resistance that critically engages with the legacy of Canada’s residential school system through the lens of the filmmaker’s own family experience. My Legacy originally aired on February 6, 2014 in the Tsilhqot’in language on the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) and appeared in English shortly thereafter. It will be airing again on APTN on March 6, 2018. Filmed and rooted in the Cariboo Chilcotin, the documentary reiterates the importance of a relational understanding of self to the land and the community. It includes elements of orality through stories and interviews with family and community members and incorporates traditional language, teaching, and song.

        At its core, My Legacy is both deeply personal and inherently political – the film depicts a Tsilhqot’in mother and daughter as they work through the intergenerational trauma that began in residential school with Haig-Brown’s mother, Maria Myers. It also explores how this trauma manifests itself in the intimate relationships of both generations and within the larger web of Haig-Brown’s extended family and community. One way to understand the film is as a presentation of a holistic, localized Tsilhqot’in methodology for healing, wherein stories can be shared, relationships can be saved, generations can be reconnected, and colonial legacies of racialized violence, patriarchy, and pain can finally be recognized and transformed.

        In the context of blatant injustices such as the outcomes of R v Cormier, R v Stanley, and R v Barton, the need to resist colonial violence has become more imperative than ever. My Legacy is a moving example of resilience and visual sovereignty that calls Indigenous and non-Indigenous viewers to action in decolonization. Stay with us for the rest of this week as we explore four more creative representations of resistance.

Until next time,

Team ReconciliAction YEG

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[1] Kathleen E. Absolon, Kaandossiwin: How We Come to Know (Halifax: Fernwood Publishing, 2011) at 10.

[2] See Allison Hargreaves, "Violence Against Indigenous Women: Literature, Activism, Resistance" (2013) Dissertation Abstracts International 74:4.

[3] Kristin Dowell, Sovereign Screens: Aboriginal Media on The Canadian West Coast (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2013) at 2.

[4] Ibid, at xii.

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12th Annual Canadian Law Blog Awards

Tansi Nîtôtemtik,

        On this last day of 2017, we want to take the opportunity to congratulate all of the winners and nominees for this year's Clawbies. We are honoured to accept the Change and Advocacy Award, and equally honoured to stand beside runners-up Jumping Off the Ivory Tower and Reconciliation Syllabus in this meaningful and crucially important category. We would also like to acknowledge the work being done by our colleagues to the south at ABlawg - congratulations on your induction into the Canadian Law Blog Awards Hall of Fame!

        Thank you to all of our readers for helping us incite reconcili-action in 2017. We will see you in one week as we begin a new year of change and advocacy together!

Until next time,

Team ReconciliAction YEG

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Moving Forward & Looking Back

Tansi Nîtôtemtik,

        In preparing for our blog’s brief holiday season hiatus, the Team decided to revisit our first few months of coverage, review the TRC’s Calls to Action, and reflect on some of our own ideas for reconcili-action in these areas.

Residential Schools and the IRSSA: A Recap

        Beginning with the early days of residential schools in Canada, we first introduced the deplorable motivations behind the system’s creation. Next, we considered Alberta’s specific experience through the lens of a child’s letter to his parents, written and sent from a residential school in Edmonton in 1962. Moving into a conversation about intergenerational trauma, we examined how this phenomenon pervades many Indigenous communities to this day. Finally, we considered the legacy of the schools, especially the losses of language and culture, and the effects these losses continue to have for students and their families.

        Our next section explored the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement (IRSSA) and problematized the application of tort principles to the residential school experience. We traced the path to the IRSSA from class actions through to the failed Alternative Dispute Resolution Process. Then, we dove into the specifics of the Common Experience Payment and the Independent Assessment Process, noting that while this response was imperfect, at least it was a step in the right direction. Our last post of the section considered the statistics and we ended with the question of whether financial compensation can ever be enough to address the damage done by the residential school system.

Relevant TRC Calls to Action

        Emphasizing themes of education, cultural revitalization, and health, Calls to Action #62, #10, #14, and #18 are especially relevant to discussions of residential schools. We invite you to consider the following:

62.    We call upon the federal, provincial, and territorial governments, in consultation and collaboration with Survivors, Aboriginal peoples, and educators, to:

i.    Make age-appropriate curriculum on residential schools, Treaties, and Aboriginal peoples’ historical and contemporary contributions to Canada a mandatory education requirement for Kindergarten to Grade Twelve students.

ii.    Provide the necessary funding to post-secondary institutions to educate teachers on how to integrate Indigenous knowledge and teaching methods into classrooms.

iii.    Provide the necessary funding to Aboriginal schools to utilize Indigenous knowledge and teaching methods in classrooms.

10.    We call on the federal government to draft new Aboriginal education legislation with the full participation and informed consent of Aboriginal peoples. The new legislation would include a commitment to sufficient funding and would incorporate the following principles:

i.    Providing sufficient funding to close identified educational achievement gaps within one generation.

ii.    Improving education attainment levels and success rates.

iii.    Developing culturally appropriate curricula.

iv.    Protecting the right to Aboriginal languages, including the teaching of Aboriginal languages as credit courses.

14.    We call upon the federal government to enact an Aboriginal Languages Act that incorporates the following principles:

i.    Aboriginal languages are a fundamental and valued element of Canadian culture and society, and there is an urgency to preserve them.

ii.    Aboriginal language rights are reinforced by the Treaties.

iii.    The federal government has a responsibility to provide sufficient funds for Aboriginal-language revitalization and preservation.

iv.    The preservation, revitalization, and strengthening of Aboriginal languages and cultures are best managed by Aboriginal people and communities.

v.    Funding for Aboriginal language initiatives must reflect the diversity of Aboriginal languages.

18.    We call upon the federal, provincial, territorial, and Aboriginal governments to acknowledge that the current state of Aboriginal health in Canada is a direct result of previous Canadian government policies, including residential schools, and to recognize and implement the health-care rights of Aboriginal people as identified in international law, constitutional law, and under the Treaties.[1]

Our Reconcili-action

        One question resonates in every post from this section: that is, how do we move forward from residential schools in the right way? Knowing what is right is easier said than done. Ethics, compassion, justice, healing… all of these terms are easy to say, but hard to do. What does it mean to educate ethically? How do we commission empathy without crossing the line - can anyone ever really understand what these children went through? Will understanding even make a difference? Even if the language of healing is so fraught, is justice possible without it?

        In line with the TRC Calls to Action listed above, we can imagine how things might be different if Indigenous peoples had a say in the curriculum and delivery of public education. Or, if elementary schools no longer used picture books that made Indigenous peoples out to be disappearing, or disappeared. What if high school social studies textbooks taught the reality of Indigenous peoples’ resistance to colonization, instead of the myth of Indigenous acquiescence?[2] What if every university student participated in a Blanket Exercise at the beginning of the academic year? What would the future look like if we focused less on intergenerational trauma and more on intergenerational injustice, or if government efforts were directed at preventing future harm instead of always just applying a band-aid? And what if reconciliatory work stopped asking more from Indigenous peoples than it does from settlers?[3] 

        The truth is, we don’t yet have the answers. What we do know is that moving forward in the right way entails more than resource-dependent, large-scale, social, cultural, political, and economic changes. It also includes the hundreds of micro decisions that each of us make every single day. It starts with the relationships we have with our teammates, classmates, colleagues, and friends. One thing the Team has learned is that while reconcili-action won’t always be easy, it is certainly possible. When the going gets tough (and trust, us, it will), don't give up or walk away. We challenge you to keep going - even the smallest step can make a difference!

Until next time,

Team ReconciliAction YEG

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[1] Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Calls to Action (Winnipeg, 2015), online: http://www.trc.ca/websites/trcinstitution/File/2015/Findings/Calls_to_Action_English2.pdf.

[2] See Kiera L. Ladner & Myra J. Tait, eds., “Introduction” in Surviving Canada: Indigenous Peoples Celebrate 150 Years of Betrayal (Winnipeg: ARP Books (Arbeiter Ring Publishing), 2017.

[3] Matthew Wildcat asks this question in an exclusive article that we will be posting next term - stay tuned!

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Say Their Names

Abigail Andrews

Ada Brown

Adele Rose Mary Matinet

Adrienne Amikons

Aielah Saric-Auger

Alannah Cardinal

Alberta Williams

Alice Netemegesic

Alisha Germaine

Alissa Martin-Travers

Amanda Bartlett

Amanda Cook

Amanda Simpson

Amber Guiboche

Amber Tuccaro

Andria Meise

Angel Carlick

Angela Meyer

Angela Poorman

Angela Williams

Angeline Pete

Anne Maria Lucas

Anne Peters

Annette Holywhiteman

Annie Pootoogook

Annie Yassie

Ashley Machiskinic

Ashley Smith

Audrey Desjarlais

Azraya Ackabee-Kokopenace

Azraya Kokopence

Barbara Keam

Barbara Kentner

Barbara Loon

Barbara Shapwaykeesic

Beatrice Adam

Belinda Cameron

Belinda Williams

Bella Laboucan-McLean

Bernadette Ahenakew

Bernadette Leclair

Bernadine Quewezance

Bernice Bottle

Bernice Joan Rich

Betsy Owens

Bonnie Jack

Bonnie Joseph

Brandy Vittrekwa

Brandy Wesaquate

Brenda Campbell

Brittany Bearspaw

Brooklyn Moose

Caitlin Potts

Caralyn King

Carol Davis

Carol Prudhomme

Caroline Burns

Carolyn Connolly

Cassandra Antone

Cecilia Nikal

Cecilia Payash

Chantelle Bushie

Charity Keesic

Charlene Catholique

Charnelle Masakeyash

Cherisse Houle

Cheryl Black

Cheryl Duck

Cheryl Johnson

Cheyenne Fox

Chloe Matthews

Christina Littlejohn

Christine Cardinal

Cindy Gladue

Clarene Rose Panamick

Claudette Osborne

Constance Cameron

Corrine Moosomin

Crystal Saunders

Cynthia Audy

Cynthia Lynette Jamieson

Danielle LaRue

Danita Bigeagle

Daphne Mesher Brown

Darlinda Ritchey

Dawn Crey

Dawn Keewatin

Deanna Bellerose

Debbie Pelletier

Debbie Sloss-Clarke

Deborah Toulouse

Deidre Michelin

Delaine Copenace

Delena Lefthand Dixon

Della Ootoova

Delores Brower

Delores Brown

Delores Whiteman

Delphine Nikal

Denise Katherine Bourdeau

Desiree Oldwoman

Destiny Tom

Diana Rattlesnake

Diane Dobson

Diane Marshall

Diane Stewart

Donna Kabatay

Donna Kasyon

Donna Taylor

Donna Tebbenham

Doreen Hardy

Doreen Jack

Dorothy Spence

Edith McGinnis Quagon

Edna Bernard

Edna Smith

Elaine Alook

Elaine Flowers

Elaine Vawn LaForme

Elena Assam-Thunderbird

Elizabeth Dorion

Elsie Sebastian

Emily Ballantyne

Emily Osmond

Emma Dixon

Ernestine Kasyon

Eva Mitchell

Evaline Cameron

Evelyn Kebalo

Felicia Solomon

Flora Muskego

Fonassa Bruyere

Frances Ellah

Freda Goodrunning

Geraldine Beardy

Geraldine Settee

Gladys Simon

Gladys Tolley

Glenda Morriseau

Glennis Edwards

Gloria Black Plume

Gloria Gladue

Gloria Jean Martha Abotossaway

Gloria Moody

Heather Ballantyne

Heather Pelletier

Heaven Traverse

Helen Gillings

Helen Louise Jacobs

Helene Ratfat

Helyna Rivera

Henrietta Millek

Hilda Agawa

Hillary Wilson

Ila Oman

Immaculate Basil

Irma Murdock

Jacqueline Crazybull

Jamie McGuire

Jane Bernard

Jane Jack

Jane Louise Sutherland

Janet Henry

Janet Sylvestre

Janice Desjarlais

Janine Wesaquate

Jarita Naistus

Jean Moccasin

Jean Sampare

Jeanenne Fontaine

Jeanette Basil

Jeanette Cardinal

Jeanine St Jean

Jeannette Chief

Jennifer Catcheway

Jennifer Stewart

Jessica Cardinal

Joanna Andersen

Joanne Ghostkeeper

Jocelyn McDonald

Joey English

Jordina Skunk

Josephine Chakasim

Josephine Thompson

Joyce Hewitt

Joyce Tillotson

Juanita Cardinal

Judie Thibault

Judy Ann Benoit Ogden

Judy Ann Quill

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Judy Quill

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Karina Wolfe

Karla Desrosiers

Katelynne Sampson

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Kellie Little

Kelly Goforth

Kelly Morrisseau

Kimberly Jararuse

Krystal Andrews

Krystle Knott

Lana Derrick

Laura Pilon

Lavina Tocher

Leah Anderson

Leanne Benwell

Leanne Lawson

Leona Brule

Leslie Talley

Liana Mathewson

Linda Condo

Linda Guimond

Linda Scott

Lisa Lynn Anstey

Lisa Young

Liz Bonnie Sakakeesic

Lora Banman

Lora Frank

Loretta Capot-Blanc

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Loretta Saunders

Lori Berens

Lori Kasprick

Lorilee Francis

Lorraine Rivers

Louise Lorraine Laderoute

Lynn Childforever

Mabel Leo

Mae Morton

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Margaret Blackbird

Margaret Guylee

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Margaret Vedan

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Mariah Wesley

Marie Banks

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Marie Laliberte

Marie Lasas

Marie Mike

Mariella Lennie

Marilyn Daniels

Marilyn Munroe

Marjorie Henderson

Marlene Abigosis

Martha Boyce

Mary Ann Birmingham

Mary Ann Davis

Mary Goodfellow

Mary Hill

Mary Keadjuk

Mary Kreiser

Mary Lidguerre

Mary Mark

Mary Peters King

Mary Smith

Mary Susan Evans-Harlick

Mavis Mason

Maxine Susanne Peters

Maxine Wapass

Melanie Geddes

Melissa Chaboyer

Mercedes Stevens

Michelle Gurney

Michelle Hadwen

Mildred Flett

Minnie Sutherland

Misty Potts

Mitzi MacDougall

Moira Erb

Monica Cardinal

Monica Jack

Myrna Montgrand

Nadine Machiskinic

Nancy Dumas

Naomi Desjarlais

Nellie Angutiguluk

Nicole Daniels

Nicolle Hands

Olivia Williams

Pamela Holopainen

Pamela Napoleon

Patricia Carpenter

Patricia Favel

Patricia Quinn

Patricia Wadhams

Paula Joy Martin

Pauline Brazeau

Petrina Lynn Whitecrow

Philomene Lemay

Rachel Quinney

Ramona Shular

Ramona Wilson

Rebecca Guno

Rebecca Jean King

Rena Fox

Rene Gunning

Renee Neganiwina

Rhonda Gardiner

Rhonda Running Bird

Richele Bear

Roberta Elders

Roberta Ferguson

Roberta Lincoln

Rocelyn Gabriel

Rose Decoteau

Rose-Ann Blackned

Rowena Sharpe

Roxanne Charlie

Roxanne Fleming

Roxanne Isadore

Roxanne Thiara

Ruby Hardy

Ruth Cocks

Sabrina Polchies

Samantha Johnings

Samantha Paul

Sandra Kaye Johnson

Sarah Jane Wawia Bernard

Sarah Mason

Sarah Obed

Sarah Skunk

Savannah Hall

Selina Wallace

Serena Colson

Serenity

Shannon Alexander

Sharon Abraham

Sharon Merasty

Sharon Murphy

Shelley Anderson

Shelley Lynne Joseph

Shelley May Anderson

Shelly Dene

Shirley Beardy

Shirley Cletheroe

Shirley Lonethunder

Shirley Waquan

Simone Sanderson

Sindy Ruperthouse

Sonya Nadine Mae Cywink

Spring Phillips

Stella St. Arnault

Stephanie Cormier Chaisson

Sunshine Wood

Susan Assin

Sylvia Guiboche

Tabitha Kalluk

Tamara Chipman

Tamra Keepness

Tania Marsden

Tanya Brooks

Tanya Hill

Tanya Nepinak

Tashina Cheyenne Vaughn General

Teresa Robinson

Terra Gardener

Terrie Dauphinais

Thelma Pete

Therena Silva

Theresa Anne Yakimchuck

Therese Labbe

Theressa Wilson (Jamieson)

Tiffany Morrison

Tiffany Skye

Tina Fontaine

Tricia Paquette

Trudy Gopher

Vanessa Tagoona

Velma Duncan

Verna May Simard-Shabaquay

Verna Patricia Sturgeon

Verna Simard

Victoria Crow Shoe

Victoria Hornbrook

Viola Isabella Panacheese

Viola Melvin

Viola Panacheese

Violet Heathen

Vivian Cada

Wendy Poole

Yvonne Elizabeth King [1]

 

Tansi Nîtôtemtik,

        These names belong to Indigenous women who have been murdered or are missing from communities across the country. Too often they are reduced to numbers on a page or lines on a graph.

        They were grandmothers, mothers, daughters, sisters, aunties, cousins, and friends. They were humans. And they deserved better. Say their names.

#SayHerName [2]

Until next time,

Team ReconciliAction YEG

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[1] This list is not complete; hundreds more have lost their lives to gendered and racialized violence. Our list is a compilation of work done by Maryanne Pearce (https://docs.google.com/a/ualberta.ca/spreadsheets/d/1pvMIkZ2JmoXCUEnUWmYbcFWxfz5xcD7ljz_a8UIVOH0/pub?output=html), No More Silence (http://itstartswithus-mmiw.com/community-lists/#1485456540464-287e628c-dde8), and the CBC (http://www.cbc.ca/missingandmurdered/).

[2] Kimberle Crenshaw and the African American Policy Forum launched the #SayHerName campaign in 2015 in an effort to call attention to violence against Black women in the United States. Say Her Name documents stories of Black women who have been killed by police and shines a spotlight on forms of police brutality experienced disproportionately by women of colour.  The initiative focuses on the intersections of race and gender, and the violence that exists there. These and other intersections must also be considered in the context of violence done to Indigenous women in Canada.

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In the Media: Stoney Nakoda apply for Indigenous name changes for Alberta places

Image retrieved from Banff National Park, online: <http://banffnationalpark.com/banff-blog/casino-in-the-rockies-stoney-nakoda/>.

 

From the TRC Calls to Action:

“14. We call upon the federal government to enact an Aboriginal Languages Act that incorporates the following principles:

1. Aboriginal languages are a fundamental and valued element of Canadian culture and society, and there is an urgency to preserve them.” ¹

 

Tansi Nîtôtemtik,

        As you have read in previous blog posts, Canada’s colonialist policies have led to a disconnect for many Indigenous people from their culture and language. A revitalization of Indigenous languages has slowly been underway, as was discussed in last week’s ‘In the Media’ post, a result of growing efforts made by both individuals and communities.

        The Stoney Nakoda First Nation recently made further efforts to revitalize Indigenous language and culture, by applying to have a long list of Alberta towns, cities and landmarks changed to traditional Indigenous names.² The proposed 160+ name-changes³ would improve understanding of Indigenous culture and language. Bill Snow of the Stoney Tribal Administration commented on the importance of the name-change application: "we would certainly like to see more Stoney Nakoda understanding about landscapes in general...This is really about the preservation of our language and culture." ⁴

        Although changes to names within the province are generally rejected due to inconsistencies in mapping and navigating, the Stoney Nakoda aren’t suggesting they take away all the existing names, rather adding to what we already know about places and landscapes.⁵ A success resulting from this application may be simply adding a second official name for certain places, which reflect Indigenous language and understanding.

        The list of proposed name-changes include:

• Calgary →  Wichispa Oyade
• Canmore → Chuwapchipchiyan Kude Bi
• the Bow River → Ijathibe Wapta or Mini thni Wapta
• Spray Lakes → Horgatabi Mne or Mne thto
• the Kananaskis River → Ozade Imne Wapta or Ozade or Nikteichichiyabi Mini ⁶

        Calgary Mayor, Naheed Nenshi, responded to the proposed name-change for Calgary, ‘Wichispa Oyade’, Stoney Nakoda terms that roughly translate to mean ‘elbow town’ and ‘a gathering of people or cultures’ ⁷, stating:

“As we go through the action of reconciliation — we will always have these kinds of conversations. A nation to nation relationship does not mean that one side gets everything it wants, or the other one gets everything it wants. But I love this kind of thing because it opens up a thoughtful conversation for us in terms of how we truly recognize both the history and the future that we share.”⁸ 

What do you think of the proposed name changes? Comment your thoughts below.

 

Until next time,

Team ReconciliAction YEG

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[1] Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: Calls to Action (Winnipeg: Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada), 2015 at 2.

[2] CBC News, “Indigenous name changes for Alberta places is about preserving culture, language, says First Nations manager”, CBC News (15 November 2017), online: <http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/stoney-tribal-administration-alberta-calgary-names-1.4403132>.

[3] Tanya Foubert, “Geographical name changes proposed”, Rocky Mountain Outlook (16 November 2017), online: <http://www.rmoutlook.com/article/Geographical-name-changes-proposed-20171116>.

[4] Indigenous name changes, supra note 2.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Foubert, supra note 3.

[7] Indigenous name changes, supra note 2.

[8] Kaitlin Lee, “Mayor responds to request to change Calgary’s name”, 660 News (14 November 2017), online: <http://www.660news.com/2017/11/14/mayor-responds-request-change-calgarys-name/>.

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What is IFLT?

Tansi Nîtôtemtik,

        Indigenous Feminist Legal Theory (IFLT) is “an intersectional, anti-essentialist, multi-juridical tool that is attentive to questions about power, gender, sexuality, colonialism, and law.”[1] Research and writing that fail to utilize IFLT are likely to, at best, omit crucial factors from their analyses and findings, and at worst, simultaneously reify and conceal oppressive ways of thinking and doing.

        IFLT is of particular significance in conversations surrounding violence against Indigenous women, and in addressing the underrepresentation of Indigenous women in the political sphere.

        In the former, it is common to encounter the sentiment that patriarchy was only introduced to Indigenous communities through European contact. However, Indigenous women have faced gendered violence for thousands of years.[2] There is no doubt that colonization heightened this violence through a renewed commitment to gender injustice and the addition of race as a new link on the chain of oppression, but denying the existence of pre-contact gendered violence in turn denies that Indigenous laws contain viable options for addressing it. Further, calls for a return to pre-colonial or “traditional gender roles” limit Indigenous women’s agency and “are used to deny sexism in indigenous communities today.”[3] Without IFLT, it is easy to miss these imperative nuances.

        In the latter, it is clear that Indigenous women are “frequently excluded from formal self-governance and self-determination practices.”[4] Less clear are the reasons for this. It is useful to consider the ways in which Indigenous women have historically been forced to choose between women’s rights and Indigenous rights – the two are often seen as mutually exclusive and inherently antagonist. Because of the small wins enjoyed as a result of the Indian Act, some Indigenous men are reluctant to risk losing the gains they have made, despite their artificiality. Here, IFLT can aid in advocating for a new system of governance altogether – one that no longer comes at the expense of Indigenous women.

        Both examples demonstrate the centrality of power and oppression when it comes to conceptualizing solutions to issues involving Indigenous women. Other theoretical approaches fail to “draw out gendered power dynamics as they occur in legal processes, reasoning, and the interpretation of principles” and to engage meaningfully “with claims about gender, tradition, culture, and legal agency.”[5] For all of these reasons, IFLT is best poised to succeed where other theories have fallen short.

Join us as we explore the contemporary and historical realities related to Indigenous women for the next two weeks.

Until next time,

Team ReconciliAction YEG

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[1] Emily Snyder, “Indigenous Feminist Legal Theory” (2014) CJWL 26:2 at 367.

[2] Emily Snyder, Val Napoleon and John Borrows, “Gender and Violence: Drawing on Indigenous Legal Resources” (2015) 48:2 UBC L Rev 593 at 628.

[3] Ibid, at 611.

[4] Snyder, supra note 1 at 366.

[5] Ibid, at 367.

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In the Media: Statistics Canada & Aboriginal Languages

Tansi Nîtôtemtik,

        Despite nearly half a millennium of attempts to erase them, Indigenous languages have not disappeared.  As the recently released federal census shows, more than 70 Indigenous languages are in use in Canada today.[1]

        On October 25, Statistics Canada released a census in brief which reported that “in 2016, 260,550 Aboriginal people [including First Nations, Metis, and Inuit peoples] reported being able to speak an Aboriginal language well enough to conduct a conversation.”[2] Notably, the census tracks a 3% increase since 2006 in the number of people who can speak an Indigenous language.[3] This is in stark contrast to statistics from earlier studies estimating usage and ability declines ranging from 30-80% through the 1950s-1980s.[4]

        As discussed in an earlier post, children in residential schools were punished for speaking their first languages. Taking away the children’s languages was not merely a means of taking away their identity; government officials knew that “languages are the basic media for the transmission and survival of Aboriginal consciousness, cultures, literatures, histories, religions, political institutions, and values.”[4] Accordingly, the elimination of Indigenous languages was a core component of the colonial project.

        Residential schools were not the only educational facilities where Indigenous languages were targeted. Even today, the process of education in Canada still contributes to the erosion of Indigenous languages in many ways. However, universities are no longer “simply the colonizing site of academic exploitation. They are increasingly sites of cultural recovery.”[5]

        At the University of Alberta’s Faculty of Native Studies, Faculty of Education, and Canadian Indigenous Languages and Literacy Development Institute, Indigenous languages are being taught and learned with great success. Initiatives like Alexander First Nation’s weekly Cree classes are also popular sites for revitalization

        These successes are reflected in the fact that the census found the Indigenous language family with the most speakers was Algonquian, at 175,825.[6] The most reported languages under this umbrella were Cree varieties, Ojibway, and Oji-Cree,[7] all of which are languages linked to Indigenous peoples from the Treaty 6 territory.

        Although the threat of language loss is real, the census shows that efforts being made by individuals and communities, both in the university and outside of it, are working. Indigenous languages, and all that they contain, are a valuable resource that we predict will only grow in social, cultural, legal, and political importance from this point forward.

Until next time,    

Team ReconciliAction YEG

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[1] Statistics Canada, “The Aboriginal languages of First Nations people, Métis and Inuit” Census of Population, 2016 (Released October 25 2017), online: http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2016/as-sa/98-200-x/2016022/98-200-x2016022-eng.cfm [Census 2016] at 1.

[2] Ibid, at 1.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Konstantin Prodanovic, “The Silent Genocide: Aboriginal Language Loss FAQ” (October 16, 2013), online: http://www.terry.ubc.ca/2013/10/16/the-silent-genocide-aboriginal-language-loss-faq/.

[4] Marie Battiste, “Maintaining Aboriginal Identity, Language and Culture in Modern Society” in Reclaiming Indigenous Voice and Vision, ed Marie Battiste (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2009) at 199.

[5] Daniel Heath Justice, “Renewing the Fire: Toward the Liberation of English Studies” (2003) ESC 29.1-2 at 51.

[6] Census 2016, supra note 1 at 3.

[7] Ibid.

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Ohpikihawasowin (the raising of children)

Tansi Nîtôtemtik,

    Today we continue with the topic of Indigenous child welfare, and current challenges for Indigenous children, families, and communities that are involved in the child welfare system. To reiterate the numbers - roughly 70% of children in care in Alberta are Indigenous; however, they make up only 10% of the children living within Alberta.¹

    As was discussed yesterday, if a child is in need of intervention, decisions must be made in the “best interests of the child.” This test is outlined in the Child, Youth and Family Enhancement Act, section 2, “Matters to be Considered.” This is the relevant legislation with respect to child intervention and protection in Alberta. The child’s Indigenous culture is one of the sixteen matters to be considered in this section. Another matter to be considered pursuant to section 2(a) is “the family is the basic unit of society and its well-being should be supported and preserved.” I suggest by supporting Indigenous families and communities in becoming healthy, we move towards meeting the best interests of the child, and ultimately the goal of reconciliation.

    In today’s post, we look to specific Indigenous supports that are currently set up by and for Indigenous people to help address the challenges that result in this overrepresentation, with a view towards bringing our children home:

    Bachelor of Indigenous Social Work (BISW) degrees are offered at a handful of schools across Canada. For example, the University of Regina’s BISW is a four-year undergraduate degree program offered through the School of Indigenous Social Work at the First Nations University of Canada. “Programs in Indigenous Social Work provide specialized training for social workers who plan to work in Aboriginal communities, taking into consideration Indigenous knowledge, values and cultures.”² This program is also now offered at Maskwacis Cultural College, which is located approximately one hour south of Edmonton.

    Various organizations and programs are in place for children and families that are sensitive to Indigenous culture. The Bent Arrow Healing Society offers a variety of programs for Edmonton’s urban Indigenous population, with the mission statement to “build on the strengths of Aboriginal children, youth, and their families to enable them to develop spiritually, emotionally, physically, and mentally so they can walk proudly in both the Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal communities.”³ The Ben Calf Robe Society, named after a Blackfoot elder and residential school survivor, also offers Indigenous oriented supports and programs. Some of these programs include: Ketotayminawok (focused on in-home family support), and Kichi Awasisak (family health and parenting).⁴ The Canadian Native Friendship Centre offers supports for Indigenous children in care, where they can learn traditional dancing, the Cree language, and traditional arts & crafts.⁵ The Métis Child and Family Services Society is also a support worth noting, focusing on the health and well-being of Métis families and communities.⁶

    Delivery of child intervention services on-Reserve is done through one of seventeen Delegated First Nation Agencies (DFNA) within Alberta.⁷ These Agencies receive their authority through a tripartite agreement involving: (i) the First Nations Agency, who delivers the services; (ii) the Federal government, who provides the funding; and, (iii) the Province, who delegates the legal authority to provide child intervention services to the Agency. The DFNAs provide intervention services within the geographical boundary of that specific Reserve. As an Indigenous blogger, I truly believe the DFNAs are in place to protect their children in care and support their families. They affirm Indigenous children’s beliefs and birthrights, as well as strive to preserve and protect their treaty rights, customs, traditions, language and heritage within their own home communities.

    There’s no such thing as a perfect system, but these Indigenous-led initiatives are trying to make it better for Indigenous children and their families by being culturally sensitive and empathetic in light of the distinct nature of Indigenous child welfare. 

 

Until next time,

Team ReconciliAction YEG

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[1] Auditor General of Alberta, Report of the Auditor General of Alberta: Human Services Systems to Deliver Child and Family Services to Indigenous Children in Alberta (July 2016) at 2 [2016 AG Report].

[2] University of Regina, Faculty of Social Work (Regina: University of Regina, 2017), online: <https://www.uregina.ca/socialwork/programs/>.

[3] Bent Arrow Traditional Healing Society, Home (Edmonton: Bent Arrow Traditional Healing Society, 2017), online: <http://bentarrow.ca>.

[4] Ben Calf Robe Society, Home (Edmonton: Ben Calf Robe Society, 2017), online: <http://bcrsociety.ab.ca>.

[5] The Canadian Native Friendship Centre, Canadian Native Friendship Centre Programs (Edmonton: The Canadian Native Friendship Centre, 2017), online: <http://www.cnfc.ca/aboriginal-programs-edmonton-native-centre>.

[6] Metis Child and Family Services Society, Home (Edmonton: Metis Child and Family Services Society, 2017), online: <http://www.metischild.com/Site_2/Home.html>.

[7] Government of Alberta, Delegated First Nation Agencies (Alberta: Government of Alberta, 2014), online: <http://www.humanservices.alberta.ca/family-community/15540.html>.

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Alberta Residential School Experience

Image retrieved from http://thechildrenremembered.ca/photos/?id=1113&school=edmonton

“Dear Mom and Dad,

[...] the main reason for my writing is that I want to go home. I’m not homesick or anything, just…this morning at 2 a.m. [he] woke us up and started to preach to us on how stupid the Indian was…Then this morning as 5 a.m. [he] got us up to go and scrub the basement. It was there I decided I’d like to go home because [he] slapped me around for not getting a haircut that morning…so don’t be surprised if you see me home pretty soon. I was planning to try to stick it out the whole term, but [he] threw a monkey-wrench into my plans.

P.S. the Christmas I spent here was the worst one in my whole life”

-Letter from Edmonton Indian Residential School student to his parents, Jan. 8, 1962. [1]

 

Tansi Nîtôtemtik,

    As yesterday’s blog post introduced you to Canada’s painful legacy of the residential school system, today we look to its impact closer to home. The Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement identified a non-exhaustive list of 139 schools. Of that list, there were 25 residential schools within Alberta, more than any other province or territory in Canada. [2] Today we focus on the Edmonton Indian Residential School (IRS), and the children’s experiences within it’s dark walls.

     The Edmonton IRS opened its doors in 1924, in coordination with the United Church of Canada. [3] The school replaced the Red Deer IRS, because of it’s closer proximity to the Treaty 6 communities in Northern Alberta. Similarly to the Red Deer IRS, the school operated on a half-day system, with classes in the morning and vocational training (primarily farming) in the afternoon. Farming contributed to the institute's finances; however, friction arose as the farm work replaced time for academic study. By 1953, farming operations at the school ended, along with the half-day system. [4]

     With World War II decreasing  government spending on the school, maintenance and cleaning were a major issue for Edmonton IRS, leading to poor water quality and skin disease among the children. Staff shortages were also a problem. Principal Findlay Barnes wrote at the time, “Cheap, inefficient help has been [the school’s] downfall.” [5] Full enrollment of students (150 by 1931) was also a setback for the school, as officials began relocating children from communities in British Columbia, creating an ever greater distance between the children and their families. [6]

     Rumours spread of abuse and mortality, one student writing home, “please send for us if you do not want us to come home in caskets.” [7] Allegations of sexual abuse of the children by the school’s minister were also brought to the attention of church officials. On September 28, 1960, the minister was convicted on charges of gross indecency and received a one-year suspended sentence with psychiatric treatment. By the late 1950’s, the Department of Indian Affairs Officials called for the closure of the school, with a growing preference to place the students in foster homes where they could attend day schools.[8] The Edmonton IRS finally closed in 1966, but the effects of the school on the survivors, their families and communities are still felt today.

 

Until next time,

Team ReconciliAction YEG

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[1] Residential School Archive Project: The Children Remembered, Edmonton Indian Residential School (The United Church of Canada Archives), online: <http://thechildrenremembered.ca/school-locations/edmonton/>.

[2] Truth and Reconciliation Commission, official website: <http://www.trc.ca/websites/trcinstitution/index.php?p=12>.

[3] Children Remembered, supra note 1.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Ibid.

[7] Ibid.

[8] Ibid.

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Canada's Residential School System: A Primer

Image retrieved from http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/aboriginal-people-education

Tansi Nîtôtemtik,

        Jo-Ann Episkenew argues that “of all the policies that the colonial regime initiated, the policy that established and regulated the residential school system had, and continues to have, the most far-reaching destructive effects”[1] on Indigenous peoples in this country. Considering that even conservative estimates of attendance indicate more than 150,000[2] First Nation, Métis, and Inuit students passed through the system, this argument is well-founded.

        In the earlier days of the policy, attendance was not mandatory. However, with an amendment to the Indian Act in 1920, “every Indian child between the ages of seven and fifteen”[3] was forced to attend. Parents who resisted faced fines, jail time, and violence from the Indian Agents and other government officials tasked with enforcing the policy. This added to the reasonable distrust held by many Indigenous communities towards government officials to this day.

        The point of these schools was neither to provide Indigenous children with a formal education, nor to ensure a healthy and happy childhood. The point was to ‘break’ them from their cultures, their families, and their identities.[4] Sir John A. Macdonald, Canada’s first prime minister, felt that this break was necessary as an Indigenous child who remained with their parents would simply be “a savage who can read and write.”[5] Allowing children to remain with their parents was accordingly in direct conflict with the state’s aim to “kill the Indian in the child.”[6] Episkenew notes that:

Understanding culture as the complete way of life of a people, the regime mandated school officials to change every aspect of the children’s culture: their dress, food, language, religion, manner of working, and interpersonal relations. Understanding that language is a critical vehicle of cultural transmission, colonial officials identified eradication of the student’s Native languages, followed by their acquisition of English, as paramount to their resocialization efforts. […] School officials punished students who they caught speaking in their Native languages. Often that punishment was swift and severe.[7]

        The schools also maintained less than adequate conditions and failed to provide enough or nutritious food, clean or warm clothing, and meagre healthcare. This was in addition to the lax hiring standards for positions that, “because they afforded staff unlimited access to children, absolute power over those children, and little scrutiny […], attracted disproportionate numbers of pedophiles.”[8] Sexual, physical, emotional, and mental abuse was rampant. Many children left for residential school and never returned to their families. The records for missing and deceased students are largely incomplete and we will never know the full loss of life that the schools facilitated.

        The TRC findings evidence what survivors and their communities have long known; the residential school system was a sordid, centuries-long violation of human rights. Operated through the coordinated efforts of the federal and provincial governments, and Roman Catholic, Anglican, United, Methodist, and Presbyterian churches, these schools changed the lives of students and their families forever. For the rest of this week, our blog posts will be dedicated to exploring Alberta’s particular history, the concept of intergenerational trauma, and the legacy that residential schools have left behind.

Until next time,

Team ReconciliAction YEG

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[1] Jo-Ann Episkenew, Taking Back our Spirits: Indigenous Literature, Public Policy, and Healing (Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 2009) at 44.

[2] Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, “The Survivors Speak” in The Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (Winnipeg: Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, 2015) at vi.

[3] Episkenew, supra note 1 at 46.

[4] Truth and Reconciliation Canada, Honouring the Truth, Reconciling for the Future: The Executive Summary (Winnipeg: Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, 2015) at 2.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Truth and Reconciliation Commission, official website: http://www.trc.ca/websites/trcinstitution/index.php?p=39.

[7] Episkenew, supra note 1 at 47-48.

[8] Ibid, at 50.

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In the Media: Edmonton Mayor's reconcili-action

Tansi Nîtôtemtik,

Reconcili-action comes in all forms. For example, there are mass reports like the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Final Report. However, we can also make a difference on a smaller scale by challenging preconceived notions that are based largely on stereotypes (like those discussed in Wednesday's post), or by educating others who aren’t aware of the truth. Whichever route we decide to take in moving forward in reconciliation - whether that be large scale or on a smaller, more intimate level - we are making a difference.

Edmonton’s mayor, Don Iveson, made headlines this week for his own form of reconcili-action. He called out Senator Lynn Beyak after her controversial September 1st letter, which included thoughts such as:

“None of us are leaving, so let’s stop the guilt and blame and find a way to live together and share...Trade your status card for a Canadian citizenship, with a fair and negotiated payout to each Indigenous man, woman and child in Canada, to settle all the outstanding land claims and treaties, and move forward together just like the leaders already do in Ottawa. All Canadians are then free to preserve their cultures in their own communities, on their own time, with their own dime.” [1]

Don Iveson spoke out against Senator Beyak’s statement, believing that her time in the Senate should be over. [2] The Mayor elaborated on a movement towards reconciliation, stating:

“We need to talk about how awkward it is that people...who are in our parliamentary system, [who] have not got the reconciliation memo yet, are still even disputing the truth of some of what happened and how problematic it was to have people ripped away from their families, taken to residential schools, denied their culture, denied their spiritual tradition, denied their language and were in many cases subjected to physical and mental and sexual abuse.” [3]

Beyak’s backwards ideology on Canadian Indigenous issues was earlier displayed  in March 2017, when she defended the residential school system, stating that some men and women running the schools were “well-intentioned,” and yet their “good deeds” went unacknowledged. [4] Don Iveson, who sat as an honourary witness for the TRC, countered the Senator’s comments: “to suggest that what happened in Indian Residential Schools was anything other than an absolute black eye for Canada, is to deny a history and a truth that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission has brought to light for all of us to understand with thousands and thousands of pages of documentation and ... testimony.” [5]

We applaud mayor Don Iveson in his efforts in reconcili-action. Opinions often surrounding these issues is to erase the Indian Act and to integrate Indigenous peoples and settlers into a singular Canadian identity. However, as Iveson points out, these issues are much more complex than merely shouting “integration!”, waving a magic wand to erase the Indian Act, and solving all problems - to do this is to deny Canada’s history. We need to look to the truth in our Canadian history, and to see the effects of these truths on today’s Indigenous survivors, families and communities. Only then can we begin to move towards reconciliation.

Until next time,

Team ReconciliAction YEG

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[1] Phil Heidenrich, “Edmonton, Winnipeg mayors call for Lynn Beyak’s resignation over Indigenous issues comments: ‘Her time in the Senate should be over’” Global News (14 September 2017), online: <https://globalnews.ca/news/3746107/edmonton-winnipeg-mayors-call-for-lynn-beyaks-resignation-over-indigenous-issues-comments-her-time-in-the-senate-should-be-over/>.

[2] Kyle Muzyka, “Edmonton mayor calls for resignation of senator who suggested Indigenous Canadians aren't citizens” CBC News (15 September 2017), online: <http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/don-iveson-lynn-beyak-indigenous-trc-1.4291449>.

[3] Heidenrich, Supra note 1.

[4] Muzyka, Supra note 2.

[5] Heidnerich, Supra note 1.

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KAIROS Blanket Exercise: Learning Canada’s Dark History

Tansi Nîtôtemtik,

In light of the TRC Calls to Action, in particular number 28, which calls upon law schools in Canada to inform their students of the history and legacy of the residential school system¹, all incoming 1Ls to the faculty participated in the KAIROS Blanket Exercise last Tuesday. The exercise was facilitated by Jodi Stonehouse, radio host of Acimowin, Koren Lightening-Earle, Faculty of Law Alumna, and Professor Hadley Friedland.

So, what is the KAIROS Blanket Exercise? The exercise is an interactive learning experience that covers over 500 years of history in roughly two hours. The participants of the exercise, this year’s 1Ls, took on the role of the Indigenous peoples of Canada, while the facilitators acted as colonizers. Blankets are utilized to represent Indigenous lands, and as time progresses from pre-contact to colonization, blankets are removed as Indigenous lands are occupied by the colonizers.

Processes of cultural genocide are read aloud by the participants. Such processes depict Canada’s Aboriginal policy, which aimed to assimilate the Aboriginal peoples in an effort to terminate their existence as distinct legal, social, cultural, religious, and racial entities in Canada.² The residential school system is one major example of cultural genocide, a system funded by Canada and operated by certain religious organizations to “educate” Aboriginal children. Although on its face these schools were a learning institute, they were created primarily to break the children’s link to their culture and identity.³ The Canadian government labelled Aboriginal parents as unfit to parent, and thus removed the children from their families and communities. Their languages and culture were suppressed, with harsh discipline for those that went against these rules.⁴ Between the government’s underfunding for Aboriginal policy and the church’s resolve to convert as many children as possible, these schools became sites of “hunger, overwork, danger and disease, limited education, and, in tens of thousands of cases, physical, sexual, and psychological abuse and neglect.”⁵ 

Although the residential school system is often mistaken as “something of the past,” the last school shut its doors in 1996. The effects of the system continue to be felt today by survivors, their families, and their communities. In an effort to begin to repair the harms done by the schools, the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement provided compensation to those students who attended one of the 139 residential schools and residences. The federal government has estimated at least 150,000 First Nation, Métis, and Inuit students have passed through the system.⁶ The KAIROS Blanket Exercise is one example of reconcili-action, by educating individuals of Canada’s dark past we can begin to work together towards a future in reconciliation.

(Canada’s dark history involving the residential school system will be further discussed next month in the blog.)

 

Until next time,

Team ReconciliAction YEG

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[1] Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: Calls to Action (Winnipeg: Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada), 2015, at page 3.

[2] Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Canada's Residential Schools: The History, Part 1, Origins to 1939: The Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Volume I (McGill-Queen's University Press), 2015, at page 3.

[3] Ibid, at 4.

[4] Ibid, at 5.

[5] Ibid, at 131.

[6] Ibid, at 4.

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What is the Biggest Problem with Reconciliation?

Tansi Nîtôtemtik,

        A colonizer must jump two hurdles in order to succeed in a nation-building project: Indigenous societies must be dissolved, and a new, colonial society must be erected on the expropriated land of the original inhabitants.[1]

        The TRC’s Executive Summary exposes a plethora of the social, legal, and political processes mobilized by Project Canada to ensure these hurdles were jumped. However, from its first sentence, the summary frames ‘Canada’s Aboriginal policy’ as a thing of the past. Gone are the days where “the central goals of Canada’s Aboriginal policy were to eliminate Aboriginal governments; ignore Aboriginal rights; terminate the Treaties; and, through a process of assimilation, cause Aboriginal peoples to cease to exist as distinct legal, social, cultural, religious, and racial entities in Canada.”[2] Or are they?

        One of the biggest problems with truth and reconciliation initiatives is the propensity of these paradigms to relegate colonial violence to an event from the past. When this happens, reconciliation can look more like a forced acceptance of that status quo, as opposed to an actual means of creating new relationships and realities. An alternative approach is to consider “settler colonization [as] a structure rather than an event,”[3] a structure that, in Canada, is still very much in place to this day.

        This truth is one that Canadian government and other institutions are invested in shrouding or denying. As our blog post on Wednesday will discuss further, settler Canadians rely on myths of themselves as benevolent peacemakers and on myths of Indigenous peoples as vanishing, or vanished, in order to justify the ongoing occupation of Indigenous lands. A historical nation-building narrative based on progress, prosperity, and peace means that nothing has to change.

        Other problems with the politics of remembrance, or “distraction,”[4] include the tendency of reconciliatory discourse to cast indigenous people as victims who experiences are strictly held in relation to colonialism, and for this victimization to become a spectacle for settler consumption.[5] This will be a theme we revisit in a blog post later in the year. As numerous scholars have pointed out, attempts to reconcile are painfully ironic when harm is still ongoing: it's "a little like accepting being bandaged by your armed assailant while he is still ransacking your house."[6]

        Further, truth and reconciliation commissions can work to “erase the resiliency and resurgence of indigenous communities.”[7] Of course, colonization has been devastating for indigenous communities – but as Friday’s blog post will demonstrate, Canada’s objectives of elimination and erasure remain unrealized.

        Despite these risks, truth and reconciliation initiatives like the TRC create opportunities for critique and engagement. We hope to provide you with just that over the rest of this week.

Until next time,

Team ReconciliAction YEG

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[1] Patrick Wolfe “Settler Colonialism and the Elimination of the Native” (2006) Journal of Genocide Research 8:4 at 388.

[2] Ibid, at 390.

[3] Truth and Reconciliation Canada, Honouring the Truth, Reconciling for the Future: Summary of the Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (Winnipeg: Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada), 2017, at page 1

[4] Jeff Corntassel and Christine Bird, “Canada: Portrait of a Serial Killer” in Kiera L. Ladner & Myra J. Tait, eds., Surviving Canada: Indigenous Peoples Celebrate 150 Years of Betrayal (Winnipeg: ARP Books (Arbeiter Ring Publishing), 2017, at page 197.

[5] Rachael Yacaa?at George, “Inclusion is just the Canadian Word for Assimilation” in Kiera L. Ladner & Myra J. Tait, eds., Surviving Canada: Indigenous Peoples Celebrate 150 Years of Betrayal (Winnipeg: ARP Books (Arbeiter Ring Publishing), 2017, at page 54.

[6] Dian Million, Therapeutic Nations (Tucson: U of Arizona P) 2013, at page 106

[7] George, supra note 5, at 54.

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Meet the Team: Ms. Cleveland

Tansi Nîtôtemtik,

“It can take years after hearing a story to know the meaning of that story in one’s heart – for it to become a truth – yet the process of it becoming heart-knowledge or Debwewin is the process of integrating that echo into one’s experience.”[1]

        As someone who has spent almost a decade within the Canadian university system, first in Arts and now in Law, I am not a newcomer to reconciliatory discourse. I know that the easiest way to be an ally is to make space for Indigenous voices, but I also know that “simply making space for Indigenous voices is woefully inadequate.”[2] Making space is a fair first step. Listening is a strong second. But then?

        I chose to participate in the Law and Social Media Project because as a settler, an educator, an academic, and a soon-to-be lawyer, it is my responsibility to work towards a future characterized by accountability, equity, and justice. I, and you, have a responsibility to take the third step, and the fourth, and the fifth. As our team name suggests, action is required.

        Our blog allows us to share experiences that counter national narratives taught in classrooms and promoted in the media to this day. It provides a platform where we can draw attention to current events that expose the ongoing injustices faced by Indigenous communities nationwide. Perhaps most importantly, it offers an opportunity for us (and you) to make new stories, and new relationships, together.

        In the year to come, we will explore just what those next steps entail. You will hear many stories and I hope that you will keep them in your hearts. I will work to deepen my own heart-knowledge, and I encourage everyone to attempt the same.

Until next time,

Grace Cleveland

Team Lead, ReconciliAction YEG

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[1]  Leanne Simpson, Dancing on Our Turtle’s Back (Winnipeg: Arbeiter Ring Publishing, 2011) at 104.

[2] Aaron Mills, “Nokomis and the Law in the Gift: Living Treaty Each Day” in Kiera L. Ladner & Myra J. Tait, eds., Surviving Canada: Indigenous Peoples Celebrate 150 Years of Betrayal (Winnipeg: ARP Books (Arbeiter Ring Publishing), 2017) at 20.

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Meet the Team: Mrs. Arcand-Kootenay

Tansi Nîtôtemtik,

What does reconciliation mean to Canadians? Answers differ from person to person, depending on their own unique backgrounds, cultures, religions and upbringings.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which stemmed from the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, laid a foundation upon which Canadians can begin to move forward in understanding what reconciliation truly means in our nation. With 94 Calls to Action, the TRC lays a positive foundation for growth in Canada, but it is up to us as a nation to begin implementing these actions in our everyday lives.

My name is Breanna Arcand-Kootenay and reconciliation to me encompasses a willingness to understand our differences, to not cast judgment unfairly, and to work on building relationships with those around us. I am nehiyaw (Cree) from the Alexander First Nation and a second year law student at the University of Alberta, having completed a Bachelor of Arts in Native Studies in 2015. This year I have the pleasure of being Vice President External for the Indigenous Law Students’ Association at the U of A, as well as the Communications and Administration Councillor for the National Indigenous Law Students Association.

As a team, we hope that by the end of this project we can all better understand what reconciliation means to us and how we can move forward in building Indigenous and non-Indigenous relationships. This is the start of a complex, emotional, and at times uncomfortable ride in understanding Canada’s dark past, but all the while looking to a brighter future.

Until next time,

Breanna Arcand-Kootenay

A Member of Team ReconciliAction YEG

 

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Acknowledgment is Not Enough

Tansi Nîtôtemtik,

(Welcome, friends!)

        This is the inaugural post of the 2017-2018 Law and Social Media Project at the University of Alberta’s Faculty of Law. We begin with an acknowledgement that our blog is made possible by the university’s occupation of Treaty 6 territory, “a traditional gathering place for diverse Indigenous peoples including the Cree, Blackfoot, Métis, Nakota Sioux, Iroquois, Dene, Ojibway/Saulteaux/Anishinaabe, Inuit, and many others whose histories, languages, and cultures continue to influence our vibrant community.”

        We also begin with the understanding that acknowledgment is not enough.

        The focus of this year’s blog is the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). As part of the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, the TRC hosted national events and heard from more than 6,000 witnesses, most of whom survived the experience of living in the schools as students. These initiatives culminated in, among other things, the publication of a multi-volume Final Report, an Executive Summary, and 94 Calls to Action.

        While the TRC has done much to bring one state-sanctioned genocidal policy into mainstream Canadian consciousness (that is, the forcible removal of First Nations, Inuit and Métis children from their families), remembrance politics and mechanisms of redress are not without issue. Reconciliation is without a doubt a far more complicated concept than it appears.

        In writing this blog, we aim to unpack the histories and contemporary realities of this land and the peoples who have lived and continue to live upon it. We hope to challenge the trend towards superficial reconciliatory praxis, and to work together with ourselves and our readers to create a better way forward. We are here to incite reconcili-action.

        We will feature academic and scholarly publications, written and filmed interviews with special guests, artistic contributions, personal reflection, surveys, and a weekly edition of ‘In the Media.’

        Our blog will include critical and creative engagement with Aboriginal child welfare, criminal justice, missing and murdered Indigenous women and children, Aboriginal title, rights, and the ‘honour of the Crown,’ Indigenous laws, economic initiatives in Indigenous communities, creative representations of resistance, and many more topics central to our and our readers’ unlearning and reimagining.

        In the remaining posts for this week, however, you will have a chance to meet the people behind the blog. Our team is comprised of Cree, Metis, and settler law students from the University of Alberta, and we look forward to a year of reconcili-action with you!

        We have a lot to say, and we know you do, too. Join the conversation by following us on Twitter: @ReconciliYEG; Facebook: www.facebook.com/reconciliActionYEG/; and Instagram: @reconciliactionyeg. To receive daily alerts to our blog, email the words "add me" to reconciliactionyeg@gmail.com.

Until next time,

Team ReconciliAction YEG

Thanks and Happy 150th!

Today, we offer our gratitude.  Thanks to all of you who have clicked, shared, liked, retweeted, and otherwise gotten involved with this year’s Law and Social Media project.  Special thanks go out to our interviewees, who have braved the camera and taken the time to speak with us.

We’ve had a lot of fun creating these posts and learned a lot in the process.  While we’ve occasionally stayed on track with regards to discussing the Constitution Act, 1867, at times, we felt it necessary to broaden the scope of this project, giving you the occasional post about cloned sheep or fictional comic book law.  We’ve aimed to strike a balance between educational and entertaining.  Learning about a new area of law, concept, or historical figure in order to write competently on such a new topic every week has been a bit of a challenge, but one that has proven to be invigorating.

Special thanks are in order to our academic advisor on this project, Vice Dean Moin Yahya.  His unwavering support for this project has facilitated our ability to learn so much over the course of this year.

As for the future of the blog and this semester’s participants, three of us will be concluding our legal studies this month, and will begin the next chapter in our careers.  The other two of us will be entering their final year of law school with very demanding schedules and will therefore be unable to continue with next year’s project.

Moving forward, we are pleased to announce that next year’s Law and Social Media project will focus on issues regarding Indigenous people in Canada, specifically the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.  In addition to five brand new student bloggers, the Vice Dean will be sharing the responsibility for advising the project with Professor Hadley Friedland.  Professor Friedland is a recent addition to the Faculty of Law at the University of Alberta and recent winner of the Governor General’s Gold Medal.  She is a widely respected expert on Indigenous legal issues and has spent a considerable amount of time working with these communities.

Once again, we thank you all for your support, and hope to see you engaged for next year’s project, especially considering its importance to Canada’s growth and healing as a country.

Finally, we wish our fellow Canadians an early happy 150th.  As future officers of the court, it will be our privilege and our honour to be able to serve our country in this manner.

 

We Remain Your Humble and Obedient Servants,

The Dominion

We Will Wait Our Turn, Just Not For Too Long

Where do I see Canada in the next 150 years? What an interesting question. I highly doubt I will be alive to witness it, but I have a few minor wishes for my own life time. Rather than focussing on where I think the country will be in 150 years, I am going to explain where I want it to be in ten.

Last year’s presidential election was contentious, controversial, and fascinating all at the same time. An election filled with name-calling, bigotry, media rants, and outright craziness led to one of the most shocking results ever. The world watched as Donald Trump became the 45th President of the United States over Hillary Clinton. A businessman commonly recognized from his appearances on The Apprentice beat out a career politician. Many people thought this was insanity; others prepared for what seems like the start of an apocalyptic movie.

Hillary Clinton’s loss left many women wondering when it will be their turn to hold the highest office in the United States. Will women ever get that chance? How many more years would we wait to shatter the most resilient glass ceiling in the world?

Thankfully, Marie Henein, a named partner at Henein Hutchison reminds us that Canadians should not be patting ourselves on the back yet. We have also never formally elected a female prime minister. The only woman to ever hold the highest seat in our country was the Right Honourable Kim Campbell 24 years ago when Brian Mulroney stepped down from office.¹

When we look at our current political climate it is hard to pinpoint when a woman will even have a chance to be Canada’s Prime Minister. Depending on the outcome of the current Conservative leadership race (click here for our post from last week covering this ), all three major Canadian parties will be led by men, assuming O’Leary wins. Since I have been eligible to vote no serious female contender has been available. So my question moving forward is: when?

While it is easy to point a finger at our neighbours south of the border for their lack of female leadership, we tend to overlook our own.  In fact, out of the 13 Canadian provincial premiers only three are women. Marie Henein was right when she stated that for women in North America the message is clear, “You can hold office, just not the highest one. You can succeed, just not too much.”² My hope is that by the time Canada is celebrating its 200th birthday this message has changed.

When we focus on the political climate elsewhere, women in other countries have fared far better than us. Sri Lanka set the stage for the rest of the world by electing its first female Prime Minister in 1960.³ Fifty-seven years ago a woman was leading a country. To many hopeful women, it would seem that we were making progress. As groundbreaking as Sirimavo Bandaranaike’s election was, another woman would not follow suit in 1979 when Margaret Thatcher became the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. It took 19 years for another country to catch on, so while women were making progress, it was slow.

Currently only 33 women have been elected to represent their country in the highest office. Notably missing from the list is any North American country. The question remaining is why? What are we teaching young educated women? We are likely teaching women exactly what Marie Henein suggests, set big goals, become educated, and become successful. Just do not become too successful though because that is not what women do.

I truly hope that within the next 10 years this message has changed. It is time we change our attitudes about women in leadership. Instead of criticizing a woman’s “nasty” demeanour, it is time we celebrate her worth, ethic, and drive. Women are brilliant, capable, and deserving of the same successes as men. So by 2027 hopefully we will have one running our country as a result of her election, not as a result of merely filling in temporarily. Until then we will wait, not too patiently, for our turn.

 

 

¹ Marie Henein, “Thank you, Hillary. Now women know retreat is not an option,” The Globe and Mail (10 November 2016), online: <www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/thank-you-hillary-women-now-know-retreat-is-not-an-option/article32803341/>.

² Ibid.

³ Christine Zhang & Andrea Roberson, “When the rest of the world elected women leaders,” The LA Times (14 November 2016), online: <www.latimes.com/projects/la-fg-women-world-leaders/#decade60>.