An Inconvenient Comeback - Joel Harvey

( Article written Jan 2015, a contribution to MI Reads Inconvenient Indian Initiative )

I'm glad for the active interest in Inconvenient Indian by multi-awarded Thomas King. Thanks to Judy Walker, John Aitken and others at the library, Lynn Tanaka (more softcovers are at the bookstore), and to the MayneLiner for its generous coverage of the initiative. 

I understand a followup idea is to invite King to speak here. I'd like to encourage the whole initiative, interest and passion, and contribute another idea: read John Ralston Saul's The Comeback, and work with some of his suggestions.

If you do not know about Saul - he's a scholarly writer, and historian, married to former GG Adrienne Clarkson. To me, he, unlike many commentators, is not beholden to any institution or wowed by status and power of Canadian elite figures past or present. (Check him out on WikiPedia). Saul's new work gives a flavourful boost to our thin-soup Canadian education on Aboriginal issues and history. It combines new findings and outlooks, helps us articulate and deepen our moral philosophy as citizens, and deals in current realities and legal backdrop to government's partial and sorry approaches.

A main theme in his book: "If I look for the leading constitutional voice of historical accuracy and ethical understanding in Canada over the last few decades, the sound is clear. It comes from the Indigenous community and the Supreme Court's rulings on Aboriginal Issues".

He notes Supreme Court Justices invoke an archaic, if inconvenient, concept: "the Honour of the Crown", and relates it to ongoing treaty and moral obligations between founding European and Aboriginal peoples. He argues further that the "Crown" is us - you and me - and so these moral obligations are on us as citizens.

Saul adds: "This is ... the great outstanding issue of fundamental injustice in Canada, one with a long and destructive history. Chief Justice Beverly McLachlin spoke of this in May 2014. She said she saw the focus of the Court shifting over the next few years from Charter issues to Aboriginal Issues: 'We're in the early days of the saga ... Canada I believe is a project of reconciliation ... our successes have always been in recognizing the differences ... and working together with respect'".

On guilt: "We are troubled by the suffering of others ... if Non-Aboriginals define their relationship to Aboriginal reality through their emotions, well then, this emotional drama may simply take the place of ensuring that the issues are dealt with. ...(Indigenous poet) Lee Maracle (in a CBC interview) offered a sharp correction to this destructive sympathy: 'Shame is what other people call it. No one says it about themselves ... for any real reconciliation to take place, the party that hurt you has to take part"'.

One of many new leaders in Indigenous Canada Saul mentions is UVic's Dr. Taiaiake Alfred, whose tough thinking on truth and reconciliation is worth hearing, especially that real reconciliation means ``restitution``, and that most of current treaty attempts are often about the ``politics of pity`.

On healing: this is not just about our own personal pain, shadow work, and spiritual deepening, but is about healing the tangles in relationships between founding peoples. It's way more complex than couples work, or getting kids to play fairly together. How to deal with centuries-long injustice and dishonour when you are (an innocent ?) part of the oppressor group.     

John Ralston Saul`s book points to many areas where we can do active work on these tangles. But that is for us to do. Drawing on my own shady-past adventures in this arena , here are a few rough project ideas:

•  Do issue-specific research, use it to question candidates, write informed and provocative letters to government ministers (eg: continuing land claims delays, their fiduciary responsibilities, the taxpayers-first excuses), write up your results for the media.
  

• Invite someone from the BC Treaty Commission (BCTreaty.net - Chair, Sophie Pierre) to discuss, for example, BC's slow treaty process, and hoped-for prospects.

• Work with school kid's projects to:
  • Study the politics inside the AFN,
  • Understand pro & anti pipeline bands in BC, and the Nisga debates around allowing outsiders to hold mortgages.
  • Learn the history of the Indian Act, Reserve System & residential schools - our own `concentration camp` legacy.
  • Identify present-day 'anti-Indian' intellectuals and media people, and deconstruct happy face government PR.

• Question grown-ups about:
  • Why is there opposition to changing or abolishing the Indian Act from the Aboriginal community? (hint: more loss of collective treaty rights?)
  • Which recommendations of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples have been implemented successfully? (hint: read Saul`s book)

• Invite lawyers (eg: Jack Woodward's firm in Victoria - check WoodwardAndCompany.com ) to speak on trends in litigation, current and upcoming cases, and where citizens can help. 

• Host local elders, band councillors, outreach volunteers, and their friends and families from nearby bands (Tsartlip, Tsawout, Tseycum, Esquimalt, Songhees, Pauquachin, etc). Arrange fun joint-community events; ask about their interest in the Tsilhqot'in decision as regards Victoria and the GulfIslands.

 After ``Inconvenient``, some of us will ask ``What can I do?`` Thomas King's book is a place to start, and Saul's is a concise next step for many of us to join this struggle and become stronger here, and make a difference.