From Silence to Voice:
An Aboriginal Perspective on
Sustainable Partnerships
Presented By: Dr. Doris Mitchell
Member of Brunswick House FN
October 11, 2012
No conflicts of
interest to declare
What do you value ?
First Nations Peoples
• Pre-contact , it was believed that there were millions of
indigenous people living on “Turtle Island” (North America)
with many different cultures.
• Each of these cultures having there own government, health,
judicial and education systems
Spiritual
Word
Spiritual Life Cycle
Completion of Life’s Tasks
Arrival with
Ritual/Celebrations
Gift from the Creator
Elders – Earned Respected title
Values & Respect
Keepers of Traditional
Power of the Word
Customs & Language
Gender Roles
GRANDPARENTS:
teachers
Special relationship with
children
Inner Respect
Unconditional Love
Elder
Spiritual
foundation
Aunts/Uncles helps to
raise and provide for
children and family.
Adult
Role Models, parenting was hard work.
Adults were the most active providers
as leaders, life givers
with elders
RIGHTS OF PASSAGE
Adults working to become Elders
Women were highly revered,
Childhood
Special Relationship
Celebration of puberty
Young
Adulthood
Marriage
The One Who Will Walk with Me
Shared Respect with clear Roles
Relationships Men/Women,
taught gender roles
/responsibilities
Decision: Consequence and
Reward
Learn from Mistakes
The Newcomers
• John Cabot’s task when commissioned by King Henry
VII of England was to: “conquer occupy and possess
the land of the heathens and infidels.”
• Europeans characterized Aboriginals as wild,
roaming beings, not unlike animals.
• To justify their invasion of the Americas’, Europeans
regarded the Americas’ as vacant territory “terra
nullius” knowing full well that there were people
living on the land.
• They denied that there was ever a pre-existing social
or legal order.
The Time of Silence
Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary:
Genocide
• Defined as the deliberate and systematic
destruction of a racial, political, or cultural
group.
• Many Aboriginal people and historians
believe that there were direct attempts of
genocide of First Nations People, through
warfare, enslavement, legislation and disease
and that this continued well into the 20th
century.
Attempts of Genocide
• The Canadian Government decreasing the land
base of the Native peoples. They attempted to
ship the Indians off to lands that where deemed of
less value.
• This segregation occurred to keep native people
away from the new settlements and relocate them
to more isolated areas; Manitoulin island.
Duncan Campbell Scott
Poet and Canadian Literary Figure
• Wrote short stories in the
late 19th and early 20th
Century.
• Was known as one of the
Confederation Poets.
• Much of his poetry revolves
around his sympathetic
poetic treatment of native
culture.
• A stark contrast to the severe
policies of the department in
which he headed.
Duncan Campbell Scott,
Head of Indian Affairs 1913-1932
• “I want to get rid of the Indian
Problem. Our objective is to continue
until there is not a single Indian in
Canada that has not been absorbed
into the Canadian society and there is
no Indian question and no Indian
department.”
Legislation of the time
• 1857: permanently disenfranchising all Indian and Metis peoples, and placing them in a
separate, inferior legal category than citizens.
• 1874: The Indian Act is passed incorporating the inferior social status of native people .
Aboriginals are henceforth imprisoned on reserve lands and are legal wards of the
state.
• 1880’s ceremonies (potlatch), gathering and protests were considered illegal
• Illegal for more than 3 Indians to congregate for any reason including discussions about
grievances against the Canadian Government.
• Illegal for an Aboriginal person or group to sue the government.
• The Government made it unlawful for a Native person to cut down a tree, to hunt, or fish
on reserve land without the permission of the Indian agent; but sold the cutting and
fishing rights to outsiders.
Deliberate and Systematic
Destruction
• 1884: Legislation is passed in Ottawa creating a system of statefunded, church administered Indian Residential Schools.
• 1905: Over one hundred residential schools are in existence across
Canada, 60% of them run by the Roman Catholics.
• 1907: Dr. Peter Bryce, Medical Inspector for the Department of
Indian Affairs, tours the residential schools of western Canada and
British Columbia and writes a scathing report on the “criminal”
health conditions there. Bryce reports that native children are
being deliberately infected with diseases like tuberculosis, and
are left to die untreated, as a regular practice. He cites an
average death rate of 40% in the residential schools.
Residential Schools
• 1908-1909: Duncan Campbell Scott, suppresses Bryce’s report
and conducts a smear and cover-up campaign regarding its
findings. Bryce is expelled from the civil service.
• May, 1919: Despite an escalating death rate of Indian children
in residential schools from tuberculosis – in some cases as
high as 75% – Duncan Campbell Scott abolishes the post of
Medical Inspector for Indian residential schools. Within two
years, deaths due to tuberculosis have tripled in residential
schools.
• 1920: Federal legislation makes it mandatory for every Indian
child to be sent to residential schools upon reaching seven
years of age.
Residential Schools
• Between 1831 and 1998, 130
residential schools would
operate.
• The earliest was the Mohawk
Indian Residential School,
opened in 1831 in Brantford
Ontario.
Introduction of: Reservation system, reduction of land base, residential school
Spiritual
Word
Reserve System brought
“Uncertainty, Politics New
Beliefs
Children taken as young
as 4yrs of age.
taught new values and
beliefs
Elders carry grief for the
community
language taken away
Elders lose Roles as Teachers
Stripped of Identity
Grandparents have become
parents again
Physical, Mental,
Multigenerational /
Elder
Unresolved Grief
Difficulty Being Role Models
No Parenting Skills
Wounded due to loss of
relationships
Adult
Spiritual Childhood
foundation
Abuse
No Rights of Passage
Puberty =Shame
Young
Adulthood
Breakdown between –
Men& Women Youth do not know where they belong
MARRIAGE
Emotional, Sexual
Power Struggles
Family of Origin Issues,
Abandonment/Grief/ Addiction/Abuse
Loss of family
Brothers/sisters
No parenting model
No community role
models,
Early Introduction to Drugs and Alcohol
Suicides, life-no meaning
• Residential schools came to
represent both in theory and in
practice a deliberate systematic
effort to remove generations of
Aboriginal children, one by one,
from family, community,
language, culture, and broadly
speaking, Aboriginal ways of
living in the world.
• For those traumatized by their
experiences at residential school,
the policy of forced assimilation
has resulted in pervasive loss,
loss of identity, loss of family, loss
of language and loss of culture.
Power and Control
Edmund Metatawabin, 49, a former chief of the Fort Albany
First Nation, said he remembers he and his class being
forced to take turns sitting in the chair and receiving painful
jolts of electricity to entertain visiting dignitaries.
Loss of all that you
value
The Beginning of the End of
Residential Schools
• 1947 The United Church wants residential schools
shut down in favour of non-denominational day
schools, citing harm to children in being separated
from their families. Over the next two decade,
many schools close.
• In the 1960’s with the number of Residential
Schools on the decline, and education jurisdiction
almost at the point of being transferred to the
Bands or Tribal Councils, another epidemic was
being created in the area of Child Welfare.
60’s Scoop
• Known in the field of Native Social Work as the
60’s Scoop. Refers to the time of the early 1960’s
up until the early 1980’s.
• Thousands of Native children were apprehended
by Child Welfare agencies and 70% were
adopted to the care of Non-Native middle class
families.
• Thus the Child Welfare System took over where
Residential School left off with regards to the
removal of Native children.
To Voice
Phil Fontaine
• 1990 Grand Chief of the Assembly of First Nation and
then-leader of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, states
during the 1950's he was sexually and physically abused
at the residential school in Fort Alexander, Manitoba.
• This one act opened the doors for Aboriginal people to
begin to talk about their individual and collective
experiences.
• It opened the door to discussing the injustices, social and
political inequities that exist for Aboriginal peoples in
Canada.
Many leaders over many
decades
Beyond Cultural Competency
Seven Grandfather Teachings
• is a set of teachings on human conduct towards others.
Originally from Edward Benton-Banai's book "The Mishomis
Book".
Truth
wisdom
Humility
Love
Honesty
Bravery
Respect
Wisdom
• To cherish knowledge is to know Wisdom.
• Wisdom is given by the Creator to be used for the good of the
people.
• In the Anishinaabe language, this word expresses not only
“wisdom,” but also means “prudence,” or “intelligence.”
We are wise when we seek to learn from others, when we
recognize that we can learn from all
Love
•
•
•
•
To know Love is to know peace.
Love must be unconditional.
When people are weak they need love the most.
In the Anishinaabe language, this word with the reciprocal
theme indicates that this form of love is mutual.
With Love we recognize how we have harmed others and
created power imbalances and recognise the need to help those
who are challenged.
Bravery
• Bravery is to face the foe with integrity.
• In the Anishinaabe language, this word literally means “state
of having a fearless heart.” To do what is right even when the
consequences are unpleasant.
• It takes bravery to admit wrong doings and to work to correct
them.
• To have integrity is doing what is right even when it makes you
vulnerable , creates fear and makes it feels like it may slow the
process to achievement.
Respect
• Respect: To honor all creation is to have Respect.
• All of creation should be treated with respect.
• You must give respect if you wish to be respected.
Respect is an active participatory process of being open. It is
the recognition that we are equals.
Honesty
• Honesty in facing a situation is to be brave.
• Be honest in word and action.
• Be honest first with yourself, and you will more easily be able
to be honest with others.
• In the Anishinaabe language, this word can also mean
“righteousness.”
From honesty comes trust. To build any partnership trust in each
other is paramount .
Humility
• Humility is to know yourself as a sacred part of Creation.
• In the Anishinaabe language, this word can also mean
“compassion.” You are equal to others, but you are not better.
• Some communities express this as “calmness,” “gentility” or
“patience.”
To have humility recognizes that we need each other,
It recognizes that ego and decisions based from ego can harm
relationships .
Truth
Truth: Truth is to know all of these things.
Speak the truth.
Do not deceive yourself or others.
Understanding Truth requires maturity, self reflection, integrity,
humility, wisdom, experience, opportunity, respect
Sustainable Partnerships
•
•
•
•
•
•
Understanding
Must be specific
Negotiated
Participatory
Empowered
Equality
Voice
Despite all messages given from our past
My culture has value, my people have value,
We have lessons and teaching that all people can learn from
References
• People of Terra Nullius: Betrayal and Rebirth in Aboriginal Canada, Boyce
Richardson, 1994.
• Ponting, J.R. (ed.), First Nations in Canada: Perspectives on Opportunity,
Empowerment and Self-Determination 1997
• The National Residential School Survivors Society @
www.shingwauk.auc.ca/NRSSS
• The Anglican Church of Canada @ www.anglican.ca/ResidentialSchools/report/rsupdate14.htm
• http://www.ex-iwp.org/docs/Cults/Chart%20of%20Coersion.htm
• http://www.ahc.umn.edu/AHEC/resources/healthy/cultural.html
• http://canadiangenocide.nativeweb.org/photoelectricchair.html
• Hidden from history; the Canadian holocaust, Kevin Annett ( 2001)., the truth
commission into genocide in Canada
• http://canadiangenocide.nativeweb.org/photodrdarbyonboat.html
• Benton Banai (1988) The Mishomis Book: the voice of the Ojibway
• White Buffalo Resource Centre (1994) Spiritual Life Cycle, Saskatoon,
Saskachewan
Meegwetch
• Thank You, Merci and
Meegwetch.