Coyote and Raven Go Canoeing: Coming Home to the Village 9780773576056

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C o yo t e a nd R ave n G o C a n oe i ng

M CG I L L - Q U E E N ’ S N AT I V E A N D N O R T H E R N S E R I E S Bruce G. Trigger, Editor

1 When the Whalers Were Up North Inuit Memories from the Eastern Arctic Dorothy Harley Eber 2 The Challenge of Arctic Shipping Science, Environmental Assessment, and Human Values Edited by David L. VanderZwaag and Cynthia Lamson 3 Lost Harvests Prairie Indian Reserve Farmers and Government Policy Sarah Carter 4 Native Liberty, Crown Sovereignty The Existing Aboriginal Right of Self-Government in Canada Bruce Clark

12 From Talking Chiefs to a Native Corporate Elite The Birth of Class and Nationalism among Canadian Inuit Marybelle Mitchell 13 Cold Comfort My Love Affair with the Arctic Graham W. Rowley 14 The True Spirit and Original Intent of Treaty 7 Treaty 7 Elders and Tribal Council with Walter Hildebrandt, Dorothy First Rider, and Sarah Carter 15 This Distant and Unsurveyed Country A Woman’s Winter at Baffin Island, 1857–1858 W. Gillies Ross 16 Images of Justice Dorothy Harley Eber

5 Unravelling the Franklin Mystery Inuit Testimony David C. Woodman

17 Capturing Women The Manipulation of Cultural Imagery in Canada’s Prairie West Sarah A. Carter

6 Otter Skins, Boston Ships, and China Goods The Maritime Fur Trade of the Northwest Coast, 1785–1841 James R. Gibson

18 Social and Environmental Impacts of the James Bay Hydroelectric Project Edited by James F. Hornig

7 From Wooden Ploughs to Welfare The Story of the Western Reserves Helen Buckley 8 In Business for Ourselves Northern Entrepreneurs Wanda A. Wuttunee 9 For an Amerindian Autohistory An Essay on the Foundations of a Social Ethic Georges E. Sioui 10 Strangers Among Us David Woodman 11 When the North Was Red Aboriginal Education in Soviet Siberia Dennis A. Bartels and Alice L. Bartels

19 Saqiyuq Stories from the Lives of Three Inuit Women Nancy Wachowich in collaboration with Apphia Agalakti Awa, Rhoda Kaukjak Katsak, and Sandra Pikujak Katsak 20 Justice in Paradise Bruce Clark 21 Aboriginal Rights and Self-Government The Canadian and Mexican Experience in North American Perspective Edited by Curtis Cook and Juan D. Lindau 22 Harvest of Souls The Jesuit Missions and Colonialism in North America, 1632–1650 Carole Blackburn

23 Bounty and Benevolence A History of Saskatchewan Treaties Arthur J. Ray, Jim Miller, and Frank Tough 24 The People of Denendeh Ethnohistory of the Indians of Canada’s Northwest Territories June Helm 25 The Marshall Decision and Native Rights Ken Coates

34 Eighteenth-Century Naturalists of Hudson Bay Stuart Houston, Tim Ball, and Mary Houston 35 The American Empire and the Fourth World Anthony J. Hall 36 Uqalurait An Oral History of Nunavut Compiled and edited by John Bennett and Susan Rowley

26 The Flying Tiger Women Shamans and Storytellers of the Amur Kira Van Deusen

37 Living Rhythms Lessons in Aboriginal Economic Resilience and Vision Wanda Wuttunee

27 Alone in Silence European Women in the Canadian North

38 The Making of an Explorer George Hubert Wilkins and the Canadian Arctic

before 1940 Barbara E. Kelcey

Expedition, 1913–1916 Stuart E. Jenness

28 The Arctic Voyages of Martin Frobisher An Elizabethan Adventure Robert McGhee

39 Chee Chee A Study of Aboriginal Suicide Alvin Evans

29 Northern Experience and the Myths of Canadian Culture Renée Hulan

40 Strange Things Done Murder in Yukon History Ken S. Coates and William R. Morrison

30 The White Man’s Gonna Getcha The Colonial Challenge to the Crees in Quebec Toby Morantz

41 Healing through Art Ritualized Space and Cree Identity Nadia Ferrara

31 The Heavens Are Changing Nineteenth-Century Protestant Missions and Tsimshian Christianity

42 Coyote and Raven Go Canoeing Coming Home to the Village Peter Cole

Susan Neylan 32 Arctic Migrants/Arctic Villagers The Transformation of Inuit Settlement in the Central Arctic David Damas 33 Arctic Justice On Trial for Murder – Pond Inlet, 1923 Shelagh D. Grant

C oyot e Raven G o C a noe i ng C o m i n g H o m e t o t he V i l l a g e

PETER

MCGILL-QUEEN’S UNIVERSITY PRESS

COLE

Montreal & Kingston • London • Ithaca

© Peter

Cole 2006

ISBN 0-7735-2819-9 (cloth) ISBN 0-7735-2813-9 (paper) Legal deposit first quarter 2006 Bibliothèque nationale du Québec Printed in Canada on acid-free paper that is 100% ancient forest free (100% post-consumer recycled), processed chlorine free. This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, through the Aid to Scholarly Publications Programme, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. McGill-Queen’s University Press acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts for our publishing program. We also acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP ) for our publishing activities.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Cole, Peter Coyote and raven go canoeing : coming home to the village / Peter Cole. (McGill-Queen's native and northern series ; 42) Includes bibliographical references. I SBN 0-7735-2819-9 1. Native peoples–Education–Canada. I. Title. II. Series. E96.2.C635 2006 371.829'97071 C2005-903726-1 The image on page 2 is the work of Keith Smith from Samahquam. Designed and typeset by studio oneonone in 10.2/12.3 Rotis Serif and sans Serif

for Pat O’Riley partner friend co-journeyer muse thank you for everything and more Kukwstum coyote

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itinerary

welcome xiii acknowledgments xvii writing sp a ces 3 living in the village water mark(ings) 7 relics 13 ama7 sqit nilhtsen skwatsits tsexox 14 larry 17 aboriginalizing methodology: considering the canoe protocol for passengers 19 shaping the canoe 21 in creating a framework 24 in considering a sweatlodge 25 domicilic frameworks 27 more aboriginal/ized epistemologies and methodologies 28 aboriginal technological frameworks 29 relating to relations: a framework of respect 30 navigating upstream occidental turbulence 34 maori fullbloodedness and Koori dreaming 37 educating jackie 42 talking about talk in kitsilano reserve and at calhoun’s 44 navigating around the english language and ‘indian experts’ 44 auction re:search 60 back to the english language and ‘indian experts’ 61

please don’t take our stories our knowings our technologies away 81 haida ‘myth’tellers 84 Indian experts revisited 91 whose history? whose land? whose voice? who’s awake? 93 reclaiming our stories 96 much rez adieux about (dewey’s) goats in the curriculum 100 satellite campus scenario: british columbia 111 intertext 118 interludic rouse 120 a coyotec interlude with heesoon bai 126 technologizing the rez 129 ghettoizing the margins 133 special education special delivery cod return to sender 140 i/terature re/view indigenous traditions and ecology conference 151 translating native american cultures conference 161 indigenous knowings conference 178 new zealand council for teacher education conference 190 our stories of ‘schooling’ felicity’s story 204 alissa’s story 212 suzanne’s story 215 teresa’s story 218 travels with elsa 223 an education story from up home 225 pat’s story 226

other ab/original stories of ‘schooling’ aotearoa: (new zealand): frances’ story 230 aotearoa: agnes’ story 241 belize: filiberto’s story 255 malawi: andrew’s story 269 mexico: ricardo’s story 276 kenya: mutindi’s story 283 intertextual journeying: first nations inter/viewing texts: writing 286 inter/viewing texts: dancing 301 inter/viewing texts: singing 313 dan smoke asayenes 313 moving on making room for aboriginal people and practices in aboriginal ‘studies’ 315 the postresidential school 320 listening to the elders 322 bilge pumping and looking after our friends 324 references 325 index 331

welcome

this book is a conversation a canoe journey shaped out of words with members of first nations communities in canada the usa mexico belize peru indigenous and ab/orginal communities in other lands aotearoa australia malawi kenya those who didn’t go to school (but were educated anyway) those who went to residential school band school mission school public school and got miseducated dyseducated antieducated transeducated propaganducated this book is a ‘decolonizing’ a decristobalcolonizing an aboriginalizing of the epistemologies of academia and of the practices of western research methodology by honouring the wisdom of the first peoples their knowings protocols and practices by ‘aboriginalizing’ I mean rewrighting rather than repackaging although canada is the principal site of conversation indigenous people from/in other countries also shared their experiences of education and cultural regeneration we decided together how our stories were to be told if we wanted to tell them conversation rather than interrogation was how our words came to be woven together how they came to dance and sing and drum we talked about what kind of education people in our communities might need so that we could move to those places which worked for us for who we are so that we might share power relations in a good way so that we might talk together about our own ways of knowing being becoming doing we also spoke of those kinds of education we have always had before the invasion occupation and colonization the land and our people are not archeological sites anthropological opportunities objects to be gazed at disinterred carbon dated rediscovered or historiographically reframed not objects of otherness accusatives of grammatical extra-territoriality we are our stories our land is its story

we are guardians and children of the land not its genitive agents my community is my sentence my phrase my word my ambience this book combines performance and collaboration in the creation and implemention of a series of related scripts which exemplify traditional and contemporary thought and social practices of first peoples aboriginal peoples indigenous peoples our stories are situated in word gesture movement and place this journey uses poetic dramatic and storytelling voices these voices are inherent in our language and the customs of our communities the poetic voice sings language dances and plays it sometimes it is embedded in other voices melding its sound and rhythm polyphonically polykinetically the dramatic voice is the collaboration of land story and body storytelling is a way of experiencing the world rather than imposing decontextualized denotative ‘truth’ claims story is about historicizing culture enculturing history contextualizing like poetry and drama storytelling is itself interpretation paddle paddle stroke paddle we are at the launching place of a journey of words and spaces coming together for a time outside of time yet remarkably not outside of words nor indeed with in them and yet somehow of them reading ourselves reading ourselves performing ideas being performed searching to find worlds within/iwithn words meaning sound rhythm etymology dancing with that which will not go gentle into that good night (Thomas, 1952) by the shared dynamics of our stl’atl’imx language ucwalmicwts and the english language rather than molded solely by the grammar syntax etymology and proctalgia of a colonizing language even one so rich and powerful as english (but aren’t they all rich and powerful) I do not see my writing as having been composed (least of all) by me if there has been any shaping I am the shaped the written not always a passive automatic writer but a trusting recorder a scrivener sometimes editing is done consciously what might have been better left alone yet knowing that the creator would give me guidance and direction wind for my sails even without knowing how that might become manifest the typing hands type on how the navigating might be learned and practiced shared I leave in part to chance and natural patterns of knowledge accretion in part to trust that a higher power holds the tiller directs the wind and currents indeed some of the writing that passes through me might isomorphically be made manifest as falling down the w o r d e d stairs or slipping on semiotic

xiv

cursive figurations settling down into furnitured denned penned tropes it can be very dangerous losing one’s balance while preoccupied with thinking about thinking about thinking and other hazardous practices

xv

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acknowledgments

thank you creator… this writing is for my father dan to whom veteran’s affairs would not give a pension nor educational benefits after he served in both the airforce and the navy during world war two and afterwar in the merchant marines this is his writing his research and journey his learnings his teachings are in it his silences and wisdom humour and pain his smile though I have not put a section in it called daniel cole this writing is for my mother winifred alberta (née robb) who was aboriginal through marriage a second generation canadian of welsh/scottish heritage brought up in the wild west of the coalbranch in westcentral alberta a wonderful writer poet playwright director novelist educator oh how she loved a good murder mystery and children’s books making wine planting gardens planting flowers and replanting picking berries going up the ‘branch and to atlin panning for gold looking after her home her cats my siblings too I have learned much with and from them their children spouses pets especially suzanne maggie sue who loves cats dogs birds and more cats a catscade of them butch diver beauty skunky zinc matilda/catalina & cordelia [aka grey & blackie harshette] quester the parrot fritz & tony blanca and who can forget daisy her heart is in pain when any animal is hurt and how she loves flowers growing things nurturing designing thank you lee o’riley adventurer sky person the kid derek stobbs fisherman high flyer outdoorsperson len millis educator magician/trickster renovator daniel and chris and kiwa lori and ted jessica and amber shane neufeld co-manager of suzanne’s menagerie and arborist magnum cum laude dr m i shoush writer poet dramatist teacher and scholar extraordinaire homme de lettres d’amour et du monde my cousin cliff whiting whose wit humour wisdom and spirit are amazing a true autodidact scholar man of spirit kukwstum clarke smith hereditary chief and keith smith artist carver of samahquam and family friends relatives ancestors of the lower stl’atl’imx and elsewise the elders the children the inbetweeners from up home robert charlie herman dan laura purcell kaykay the peters family the smiths the gabriels and so many more norm poggemoeller for

working so hard for out community also chief andy thomas and maryann (esquimalt) marie cooper (tsartlip) barbara riley of walpole island dan and marylou smoke (smokesignals radio) heather spears poet artist social justice activist mark toole (and the inimitable deb oh rah!) and lloyd johnston who read my hannibal so long ago michael tracewillin pastien (crazy dancer) ken wilson (dances with small appliances) ivan sundal (philosopherpoet) doug elves (visionary organizer) ruth donovan (holding the moral helm) tracy murray (poetista social justice activist) of stroll fame our sunday poetry group chez nous it seems so long ago and far away but the joy remains thanks too to frank moher bill meilen ben tarver jim defelice elsie park gowan henry kreisel ted blodgett milan dimiç grant kennedy bruce mccormack crazy genius peter greene (pousser un cri) d’antan du banff centre et reginald bigras acteur loin d’ordinaire kathleen flaherty mentors and colleagues from banff centre workshops marie annharte baker ojibwe coyotrix and gifted poet bonita lawrence mi’kmaw drummer singer and personabouttown bob lovelace man for all bonfeasance brother in spirit mary bryson and janice stewart for their friendship and support howard smith for his good humour noel and annette gough for all things cyberenvirosciencefictional bill doll and donna trueit for their humour and hospitality carwyn jones of palmerston north aotearoa for his help with maori terms thank you daryl drew zulis yalte linda smith (tsilhqot’in nation) christine connelly sharon fernandez and so many others for sharing their wisdom and experiences jim mcfadyen of parlee mclaws and randy and deb for believing in us for their competence brilliance perseverence humour and support thank you olive dickason for your ‘pioneer’ing work helping those who come after to benefit from your struggles and the paths you have helped to trace on our shared journeys thank you gene desfor and yufa for your support very special thanks to all those whose words ideas images appear within the spaces of this book directly indirectly and the publishers who have allowed me to share these words and so many friends who are writers artists performers in many genres and in their lives the stroll of poets society stands out the early edmonton fringe festival studio theatre mfa directors scenes the may studios and other workshops at the banff centre individuals at cbc radio edmonton calgary vancouver cbc tv toronto thanks to people whose work I have read or seen or listened to felt tasted smelled or otherwise sensed but never met kit marley ma maurice blanchot frédérique apffel-marglin and pratec oscar wilde laura (riding) jackson thomas king dylan thomas louise erdrich tomson highway herman hesse pd ouspensky chuang tsu lao tsu marguerite duras allama dr sir muhammad iqbal eqbal ahmed noam chomsky mary oliver wa mozart john cage susan purcell the unpublished the oralists painters potters ceramicists carvers sculptors dancers actors directors stage managers installationists photographers filmmakers musicians meditators fasters walkers runners hikers canoeists trackers and tracers we have struggled together separately toward we know not what perhaps a meeting with our own spirit a common spirit of all creation certainly some urge(ncy) to write direct (en)act produce compose record paint draw play engage unleash thank you to the many wonderful colleagues and students and staff I have (had) the privilege of working with whose work ideas humour and activities I have learned much from aboriginal and indigenous people from around the world together with nonaboriginal people friends allies sympathiques helping to provide dynamic balance/ imbalance whoops also written in beyond the liminal are all who wrestle/have wrestled with language with xviii

meaning with representation with silence and other fig/ments and /urations with ‘with’ with para with meta with ‘wrestling’ with aboutness those whose journeys have included re’discovering’ the permission to enact xxx-gressive praxes in terms of writing and allied modes of expressing re presenting it often seems the only places where ‘creative’/ transgressive writing is being accepted is outside of ‘formal’ education that seems to be where such initiatives always arise and develop the hinterplaces the places of heart places of passion places of spirit places of lived experience this book would not have been published without the openness of mcgill-queen’s university press to publish works that are more in keeping with aboriginal ways of being becoming thinking and writing philip cercone joan mcgilvray bruce trigger and others whose editing and design skills have helped to shape these words into a book [though the binding glue paper and ink might not be tricksterproof] a special thank you to arts and culture organizations at the national (canada council for the arts canadian native arts foundation) federal (heritage canada the department of external affairs) and provincial (alberta foundation for the arts the banff centre ontario arts council) and local levels for giving me space time and funding in the past to develop and grow as a writer kukwstum to those poets musicians performers their agents and publishers whose words I have quoted songs poems lyrics ballads fragments including art solomon murray porter archie roach kathleen rodriguez pat o’riley frances goulton fitzgerald marie annharte baker robbie robertson yothu yindi wayne gorman jeannette armstrong jacqueline oker alberta native news west coast line douglas & mcintyre international journal of qualitative studies in education canadian journal of environmental education peter lang publishing inc especially et surtout I thank pat o’riley my wonderful life’s partner for her guidance wisdom humour brilliance patience and love so much of her is in these words the journeys are our journeys together my muse intellectual/mental emotional spiritual physical e di più aroha kukwstumlhkacw coyote nia:wen pat any mistakes deletions misquotes misspellings misinterpretations I take responsibility for and offer apologies kukwstumlhkacw to the reader to the creatures and the plants powers and spirits and beings and to those whose names I have not written here but who have helped me in so many ways now in the past from the future many thanks kukwstum hiy hiy

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C o yo t e a nd R ave n G o C a n oe i ng

writing sp a ces

being a member of various employment equity committees and subcommittees aboriginal councils and affirmative action initiatives at various universities makes and made me realize how astonishingly far ‘mainstream’ institutions of postlearning have to go to be inclusive of diversity even the spirit of diversity culturally diverse curricula culturally respectful methodologies ethics protocols in terms of educational vision hiring retention and promotion practices the rhetoric is there but it seems to be as far as they are able to go all the more reason to get first nations ‘universities’ on the ground being the only self-reporting first nations person in a tenured/tenurestream faculty position at a university community of 55,000 came as a bit of a shock to me in 1999 one aboriginal faculty member out of 1,250 faculty in our union representing less than 1/10th of 1% yet first peoples in all our constituencies make up (at least) 5% of the population of canada (and pleaaase don’t quote statscan stats to me about how many of us there are/n’t) including the province of quebec which is itself an interesting case of visible invisibles so we were underrepresented by a factor of 62.5 1 hired 61.5 to go just for purposes of equity maybe now it’s 60 do I hear 59 to go not including osgoode law school itself a semiautonomous institution with its own faculty association and underrepresentation of indigenous law faculty update update bulletin there are now 4 selfreporting first nations faculty at (un)said university together with 1,315 tenure/tenurestream faculty rockclimbing has nothing on our job in terms of risk factors challenge and there are no ropes or nets I worked to create a first nations faculty caucus to endorse initiatives of importance to first peoples and hopefully to society at large this caucus is a mirror showing what and who is not there as well as what and who is reflection refraction diffusion diffraction Drawing by Keith Smith

greater toronto where more than half the population is nonwhite while indigenous students and other nonwhite students at universities are surrounded by what amounts to a very privileged homogeneous institution in terms of faculty in which whiteness is significantly overrepresented particularly some ethnoreligious ethnoeconomic ethnobotanical expert categories with a dearth of anything indigenous or aboriginal save a very few rhizomes mostly ap/ex/propriated by white people white indian experts (wie’s) abound this university is not an anomaly I have also been part of a team working to shapeshift education at a much less culturally diverse university (zzz) so that it will work for all students but especially for aboriginal students the reshaping being determined by members of the community indigenous and nonindigenous as partners cojourneyers but some first nations faculty and staff are starting to leave disenchanted because of unfriendly attitudes and policies and practices (including slippage transverse faultfinding backsliding) toward first nations people and these attitudes are not just emanating from nonaboriginal people the colonized elite themselves have become soldiers of the empire at universities all over this country even in leftleaning british columbia there is plenty of talk bavardage en abon dance ou abandon ance and selfcongratulations gladhanding practicedsmiles about visa avis first nations un oiseau m’a dit this and that oh we’re doing sooo much ‘for’ them (uhoh wrong preposition) but when it comes to really instituting fair treatment consideration and inclusion enacting policies (heaven forbid) we are left in tokenism with narry a local first nations representative to be seen anywhere except on the occasional mailing list fax list tokenary inclusion list dear chief xyz you are hereby invited to . . . please remember to bring this invitation with you . . . that’s not how to ‘invite’ first nations people on whose territory the institution is a guest and institution x (or u or v or w) not even paying rent I was told at one point by a señor administrator pedro no quiero che ‘peter I don’t want you contacting those people (the local chiefs) and inviting them’ to a council they are (at least on paper) apart [sic] of cough cough am I hearing things the unconscious speaking for instance no no the sound waves are still reverberating yes yes we have local chiefs on our indigenous education council have any ever attended well uh no what I am not seeing with respect to university bureaucracies and hierarchies are the nation to nation relationships between hereditary chiefs elders and education leaders presidents chancellors vice presidents boards of governors rect(itude)ors is it a step down to enter a first nation leader’s home a step ausser weg von au dehors adios indios vaya con and treat her/him as an individual as a human being 4

as a person deserving of respect friendship what is this business of sending emissaries liaisons faxes letters emails even phoning the proper protocol is to go and contact them personally person ally they will invite you into their homes and treat you with the respect you deserve even better the proper protocol is to get to know them as people as individuals and make sure that there are local first nations representatives who are respected by the communities they are to represent strong informed local first nations representatives present at every meeting of every council committee board or senate that might relate to them otherwise there is no legitimacy to the councils and committees of the university no organicity to the establishment and without local aboriginal presence all other first nations representation is groundless intrusive and disrespectful all universities and colleges in what is now called canada are [present tense] situated on ‘indian land’ traditional first nations territory hundreds of thousands of our ancestors perhaps millions are buried where now are university and college and technical institute buildings roads parking lots playing fields staff faculty and student housing satellite campuses each first nation is a nation and as such has a ‘national’ leader a chief who deals with other national leaders other chiefs including the prime minister and the governor general I say this even though the idea of nation or nation state as constructed by western and western colonized powers is not an aboriginal kind of governance or sovereignty or relationality at many universities there are departments schools programs or specializations called native studies first nations studies indigenous studies aboriginal studies however separate degree granting first nations postsecondary institutions of learning are gaining momentum slowly being realized in the same way that maori universities whare waananga in aotearoa/new zealand have helped to create a crisis of legitimacy in maori studies programs at ‘mainstream’ universities why pay tuition to a mainstream university first nations studies program when it can go to aboriginal institutions grass rhizomes freegrowing communities rather than imported sod gmo monsanto nothanks small groups of aboriginal scholars and community members in canada together with their allies have been working toward creating aboriginal centres of excellence (which of course is a redundant expression) and international indigenous centres to support research education and publishing by indigenous people for indigenous people for the regeneration of indigenous knowledges and spiritualities and the reclamation and revitalization of ancestral languages and technologies our institutions will implement equivalency and mutual respect reciprocity as ways of honouring all our relations rather than dwelling exclusively excessively on the western ‘academic positivist or even postpositivist thinking’ dimension 5

the human dimension is what we need to nurture the dimension of all living things rather than the dimension of global corporate capitalism the all mighty market to market to buy achat eh! researching and writing this book embarking on this extended canoe journey has helped me to move from that place of reaction inhibition transformation cognitivization and blaming to one of growing together with other aboriginal people learning through mutual respect and caring sharing stories knowing that first peoples are working together throughout the world in every community to enact their visions listenings feelings texturings sensings recognizing they are family they are coming home to the village wherever that village might be rural urban conceptual actual a key word is ‘sharing’ mutual nurturance looking after one another regenerating shared visions perceptivities a shared future and present a remembered ‘history’ I thank the andean people for articulating these ideas (Apffel-Marglin, 1998) and frédérique apffel-marglin for her respectful work with them first nations knowings and practices untranslated uninterpreted unanalyzed unfiduciated unfacilitated by mainstream other are legitimate just as they are in whatever language we are regenerating them having ourselves been forcibly filtered through the many genocide machines of the newcomers governments empires (personal corporate and academic) religions media we are recovering from the effects of successive holocausts over a period of 500+ years crimes against our humanity crimes which are even now ongoing visibly invisible we are working in healthy ways with colleagues and friends who are from here and who are indigenous to other countries other continents we have learned that we have had similar experiences with colonizers working together to make the world a more caring loving place to live in and share in peace and move forward together in aboriginal ways traditional ways that have always been modern paddle paddle drum drum drum paddle drum whwhwhwhwhooooooooooooOOOOSHHHHHH

6

living in the village

sounds of drumming dancing

voices

singing Sima7 wi sapa7 Sima7 wu skika7 Suxwast tu7 tswuwecwa Atsxen I tusqwaoza Tsixwst Ita tgswuwecwa Hey ya! Hey yo! Sima7 wi sapa7 Sima7 wu skika7 Suxwast tu7 tswuwecwa Atsxen I tusqwaoza Tsixwst Ita tgswuwecwa (Peters, 1996) Hey ya! Hey yo!

water markings the following five seemingly blank pages represent the voices understandings wisdom rights respect and humanity of the first peoples of canada over the past 500+ years as acknowledged by the immigrants/settlers/invaders to/of this land in the fields of education health medicine law philosophy social justice family studies ethics history language science politics environmental studies community development the arts and spirituality please add in the spaces your knowings stories relating to aboriginal people add out the silences silencings unhearings unlistenings absences invisibilities your contribution as a(n interactivist) reader is welcome and critically important but you might want to use pencil since as we all know history seems to change with the whether (or not) patterns

a nation’s shame ineffable silence silencing

absence terra nullius no see um sub liminal

forced migration removal dis-appearance make way for capitalism

unheard unseen

invisible

canada’s dirty secret

bounty erasure extinction genocide

the screened pages are the silencings absences removals extinctions invisibilities erasures extinctions that we as first peoples have had forced on us for 513 years (and counting) the message has been and is genocide there were bounties on aboriginal people in this country rewards for their/our scalps yet if you fill in the spaces overwrite the watermarks with words images oak leaves cedar sprigs scents fingerprints you will help to erasure the erasure and we can sing our songs together celebrate our survival this land is your land this land is my land sings woody guthrie who is your and who is my and where is our and we the blank pages are the words of trees pressed flat clearcut solutions forests replaced by tree farms dissimulacra listen écoute nous sommes là toujours avec les saumons les ours les arbres les aieux

relics I look at your beautiful war canoe grandfather I feel the lines of its hull with my fingertips stroke its ribs inhale the length and depth and volume of its smooth belly sweet smell of cedar smudge with sadness grandfather I see your beautiful war canoe hanging there on the wall suspended from the ceiling by wires spot lighted high lighted caught in the glare like a spectacle trapped in time and space imported time white space I look in awe grandfather at this tree you have transformed transfigured from art of nature to art of mind formation body formulation I see the beauty that you carved with your own hands the grace that you drew from the spirit of the living wood carved from a single straight cedar sixty feet long your canoe a thousand years old I watched you with your axes and your knives and your chisels I remember the arc of your hammer the sound of your mallet Grandfather tell me

will your craft feel again the surge and the roar of waves the touch of sunlight the breath of sea wind the scent of the rising mist or will it rot within the spaces and the time of these halls these walls swept up each night a sliver a speck a strand a mote 13

of bark of cambium of heartwood will it decompose with these other staged relics with this annotated collection of westcoast Indian artifacts? memorabilia from ages times spaces past memory grandfather elder brother sun grandmother moon mother earth father sky powers and spirits and beings of the four directions brothers and sisters of the wind and water all my relations I call on you ask that you give this canoe life again pray that you grant wings to its spirit let it fly through the canyons of hell’s gate through the rage and the clamour let it crash onto the rocks in the land of its birth don’t let it die here in this climate-controlled mausoleum this gallery of respectful silence don’t bury it like this crucified displayed where everyone can watch it rot for two dollars and fifty cents half-price on thursdays give me an axe and I will end its misery (Cole, 1996b) and my own.

ama7 sqit

nilhtsen skwatsits tsexox

I am from the black bear and grizzly bear clans being of a genealogy which transcends overlaps prescribed boundaries and as my cousin pah-ee spoke of as he was returning to the spirit world the sasquatch clan was waiting on the other side welcoming him home they too are our people (pah-ee, 2002) the wolf too is a helper a teacher a guide elder sister brother cousin and by (mis)chance coyote and raven though often ‘help’ is not always the first word that comes to mind I hope that I have the sensitivity to learn from them their (fr)antics (rom)antics (sem)antics (ench)antics I am from the border lands in this life and in the spirit world we are from the stars my relatives tell me not from siberia or japan nor from a peninsular glacial connection with europe nor longlost from the african continent despite the dead reckonings of western scholars of that grand narrative rationalist hype called western science which itself is a shapeshifter over time space evidence ‘truth’ claims (haffkaff) my community has been defined by many in many ways by geography language family relationships treaty/landclaims negotiations the department of indian affairs intermarriage transmigration historical and precontact linkages dna tracings la poussière des étoiles in-shuck-ch is both a mountain in our home territory and a pulledtogetherbytreatytalks 14

community/composite we are related through the mountain which offered our ancestors refuge during a time of great flood we are the survivors descendants of survivors we have a traditional geographically succinct (enough) community the lower stl’atl’imx we are related over some thousands of generations including with neighbours some of whom have moved far away over time sometimes it seems we cannot agree on what to name ourselves let alone decide on the direction of our communities we are n’quat’qua sakteen samahquam skatin xa’xtsa the old pemberton meadows village up that way whistler blackcomb garibaldi and those places overlapping the olympic bid site east and south a wide swath and down harrison lake I am from those places and others too where aboriginal people do not live anymore because the land has been taken away by colonial governments who have sold it to settlers who have given it to their children or resold it to other settlers and sooner or later it shows up on mls.ca poof! the government says this land is no longer your land reprise this land is our land you have no rights now you are not people you are not human beings you are not persons surprise! this land was made for me/us not for you the animals and fish are gone the birds the sealife extincted by the billion the forests have been cut down and the water is poisoned by progress by gdp by economic growth by white jobs by market forces my community is the towns and reserves along the fraser where we travelled and fished for 100,000 years no there is not one too many 0’s in time the archeaologists glaciologists and their trackings tracings (Drew, 2003) spelunking excavating gravedigging colleagues will learn that we were here long before during as well as after the pleistocene glaciers my community is where we live now some of us in exile some in diasporic detention distantiation cis/trans/intra/migration my home is the rivers and lakes prairies and mountains shoals and rapids and the sky from anderson lake to mission seabird island sumas mountain where my father was born and vancouver where my grandfather lived on kitsilano reserve number 6 before it was taken away by the governments of canada british columbia and vancouver whitebullies bushwhackers cultural genocidists the people had a deal forced on them somebody signed something my grandfather fought against it they called him in from mission to help them but all he could do was get a better financial deal for them the cards were stacked the jury was rigged the indians were hung out to dry and in 1913 the people of kitsilano reserve were removed shipped on a barge a scow to north vancouver bye bye now 15

my home is new westminster where my grandfather was born in a fishcamp in 1863 the south fraser where we fished every year where we picked hops and berries worked in gardens my home is to the south and north many weeks’ journey by canoe there is no central geographical focus of where my people live now though mission-chilliwack-abbotsford and the lillooet river area are the arcs of where we have come to be there are the traditional places up home where not so many live now where there is little economic opportunity though the land and sky and waters supported us for millenia home is where we are it is our land that calls us we belong to the land and the sky and river we are blue and green red and yellow black and white but mostly we are invisible except those of us whose bones have been unearthed museumized archived picturewindowed in the old days we called ourselves human beings before the anthropologists linguists and land surveyors invaded and labelled us lillooet indians interior salish stl’atl’imx those close to the fraser tsal’alhmec from anderson lake up seton lake way the lilwat’ul from mount currie pemberton n’kuktsa from the lower lillooet river valley in-shuck-ch refers to a mountain which looked after us during the flood lower stl’atl’imx is also a popular way of describing us lower lillooet and of course white linguists and archaeologists and historians ethnographers set themselves up as experts in who we arewerewillbe what our wor(l)ds meant we try to ignore the more penurious injurious egregious we send them away with fauxvrais s(t)imulati the more thoughtful ones we invite for tea and con versation but I see us as the human beings from up that way our ancestors and future generations of nowthen nownow and nowtocome my relatives are from all these places over time and from other places there has been intermarriage with neighbouring nations over millenia the tsil’qoten secwepmec nlaka’pamux okanagan sto:lo cowichan saanich and beyond our community is very poor in the socio-economic sense though a few in administrative positions are well off financially most of us are generous with what we have it is called potlatch giveaway sharing generosity anticapitalismus rebus because of genocidal policies of the federal and provincial governments including residential schooling and legislation making it illegal for us to practice our cultures and making it illegal to raise money to fight in court for our rights and for our land over the past 150 years some of us have developed serious problems with alcohol and abuse of other substances drugs gasoline sniffing there is violence toward others and many suicides especially among the young there are accidents that are not accidents but too there is much light and hope and possibility in our struggle

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we are growing toward refiguring regenerating our traditions traditionalizing modernity (re)dressing the old ways in new clothes building solidarity within our communities as well as with neighbours including newcomers step by step we are learning to pull together to empower ourselves to regenerate our language and culture to get some measure s of our land back now that the idea of aboriginal right to land and sovereignty has some western legal precedence in british columbia extinguishment on contact itself has become extinguished though certainly there is smoke and smoulder enough that the legal community and the government can claim there is no clarity so they try to carry on as before (pre)history came visiting but might clarity itself not be problematic whose clarity concerning whom and what is so special about clarity anyway drumming

singing

dancing

larry he was the first in class to paint his drum proud as a new father of the bear on it it was more beautiful than any drum except an unpainted one sunday last today pat and I took a day off from my comps and her dissertating to go to the mission powwow visit relatives and friends when from the milling crowd came word he’d gone to the river the night before where he used to walk and think and this morning they found him down in port coquitlam his last journey was alone in the fraser the river than runs in and is our blood this fall our ucwalmicwts language class will be smaller his wife and grandchildren too may not be back even with first nations cultural programs and a first nations coordinator even with drummaking singing dancing and art as part of the class the words of his language were coming back slowly week by week but he was so desperate to move back home to the reserve live off the land he felt there was nothing in town for him and now he’s back at the reserve back home every time one of my people dies they pull down part of the world with them the geography of their knowing not just the words but the things words stick to the rocks and the rivers and the hills the sky when their breath is all gone when it stops the wind in the valleys is still the drum of their life falls into itself and the sinew snaps singing people dancing I am thinking too of my cousin pah-ee and madeleine gabriel’s son steven passing on too at that same time so young and tragic

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going into that earth back home called back and now pah-ee too is gone called home kaykay rose siah robert charlie cousin eegie dancole auntie suzie abbie enid joseph melina madeleine annie jim so many ones following the others the earth and the creator call us all home we all must make that journey prepare for it by living in good ways

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aboriginalizing methodology: considering the canoe protocol for passengers ama7 sqit nilhsten skwatsits tsexox welcome to the sound of running water ideo morphic ortho graphies welcome to conversations of stone river earth sky this canoe tsexox missing a few glottal stops perhaps a sibilant or two welcomes you first a caution even to the best swimmers treaders floaters logholders it would be advisable that while we are in motion you not stand up as we journey to lake stream river ocean sky stars language spirit world “please spare us” I can hear an academic geyser spouting up right down centre everywhere in particular this oraclic source infected with ratio caucus iuris this mesoscopic cog(noscento) of how it [education] is supposed to be shaped and shaping this disease which is its own vector this malady which is its own cause is known to cause short-sightedness tunnel vision and intolerance to diffracted white light manifesting as otherly coloured “please” speaks the voice from the plume “channel your romantic piffle elsewhere in this country we use scientific principles social science methods including objectivity generalizability and scholarly referencing” which appeared to a succession of mostly white mostly expired mostly men of mediated merit du club des vieux garçons or perhaps ex nihilo like manna banana panna me my mo money fu nny coyote is feeling a bit put off by the tone she is picking up but she puts it down to human beings being human beings of an occidental kind but uncontaminated by this accelerating discovering she transforms herself into a fourlegged and trots along the river bank while raven skycams overhead now alloyed to the bird nation

passengers cojourneyers may I have your attention says coyote who stands at the front of the vessel hands pointing to each side then to the back tail switching with respect to this canoe journey there will be extremes of weather and climate there will be portages rapids waterfalls riptides swells crests gales typhoons tsunami forest and grass fires droughts sandstorms blizzards toxic sludge customs agents so bring waterproof windproof heatproof coldproof insulated breathable floatable comfortable light wash‘n wear bedding clothing attitudes and a thick skin you might want to bring a therma-rest 6season tent an extra paddle some bushsmarts navigating knowhow but please no cellphones pagers beepers laptops palmtops modems handsfrees brainsfrees satellite communication devices radios tvs fishfinders cd recorders dats recorders blackberries no blueberries yes the default position here is ‘unencumbered’ by the ‘conveniences’ of modern life wireless transistorless chipless lesslessless is more some ports of call require a passport and a visa some require oaths or affidavits of allegiance some sovereign indigenous or aboriginal nations require that you apply in advance to enter their domain using the correct protocol I know that you will be respectful to the shapes and textures scents resiliences resonances zoning bylaws stones native flora ‘driftwood’ morés ethics of the places we visit I know that you know how to act in someone else’s home where you are an invited guest not a tourist so watch your footprint and grab a paddle or rudder or line and keep time i t indian time my experience says raven who is dressed in black wearing a captain’s hat is that a vertical attitude in turbulence tends toward horizontal or oblique compromise so for your own safety and that of your cotravellers please sit or crouch be comfortable and strap yourself in to a personal floatation device parachute or clutch of helium balloons relax have fun and don’t worry too much if there aren’t sufficient references to published materials or any at least in the first few bends in time the earth and sky will denecessitate the need for biblio graphics replacing them with sound vision texture scent taste as jake thomas cayuga elder said at a conference at the six nations reserve in 1998 “thank you for inviting me (Thomas, 1998) to come up here and waste my breath again” silence followed by laughter

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shaping the canoe the means of transportation I have chosen for this journey of journeys besides language and spirit is a canoe constructed not from the forest nations but from words and the gesturings of those words and the spaces around those words the idea of chapter is anathema to who I am as an indigenous person it implies western order and format as ‘the legitimate shapers of discourse the presumption being that the universe is ordered into rationally constructed geometries precluding that enthalpy be the prescribed means of navigating rather than say entropy devalidating our own symbolic sense of ourselves perceptions of our perceptions making us take up the tools of the settlers hoe hoe hoe rake shovel ratiocination for the nation the idea of paragraph is meaningless to my sense of oral contiguousness with the land with community with acting in the world it is a denunciation of the geography of my relationship with place where are the plateaux the escarpments the end moraines the ridges and slopes the practice of academically certified punctuation distances me from my sense of space time and natural speech patterns including translated ones separating me from my connection with the earth and its natural sounds and rhythms the a priori presumption being that the written word is of paramount worth the assumption being that the mechanisms of codification and transliteration of our rhythms periods commas semicolons have anything (whatsoever) to do with our paralinguistic choreographies to thus delegate the orality of my nation and its transcription to a para place removed from equal symbolic even orthographic consideration is to put us in our place illiterates illegitimates iterati the idea of beginningmiddleend genesis exodus revelation testa corpus coda are ways of linearly encoding a western vision of the world ways of encrypting experience so that little by little we are all molded into believing unthinkingly that there are beginnings middles ends believing that experience can be diagrammed graphed morphed thus the idea of capital versus small letters as being reflections of the world is a way of ‘class’ifying words casteing them and those who use them differentially it is a way of playing with value and with naming some words (we are to assume) are common some proper and because I do not see any noun as being un’common’ or im’proper’ and rather than using caste nomenclature orthographic diversion in the practice of capital and small letters rather than being equitable and capitalizing them all 21

I capitalize only the ones which ask to be capitalized by which I mean I am writ the things which become words ‘write’ me retroactively and in so doing make the choice themselves as to how they prefer to be and if at all on paper so how is it you capitalize ‘I’ says coyote because my vertical caput al dimension does not include a disjoined dot oh says coyote I guess that explains it but neither does [I]italy but if italy were doing the writing perhaps it wouldn’t include one either it’s all clear now says coyote so is that why the ‘y’ in coyote is there because it represents my tail if so how did it get to be in the middle that’s up to you to figure out I can’t interpret others’ isomorphs for them maybe the word’s shape represents a trickster involved in pin the tail on the coyote makes sense says cootey hmmmmm says ycoote lots of loose tails everywheres about hey y y y y the idea of only a fixed vocabulary being tolerated in scholarly endeavour disallowing unglossaried unannounced neologistic precipitation is culturally binding these categories are cultural prisons within which ‘other’ is castigated set adrift within a panopticon/vention in (a) craft bound not for mutual acculturation but for unilateral assimilation genosimilitude where are the translated places for parts of speech english doesn’t have parts of speech indigenous languages don’t have where is there unobstructed space for the animated in transit I align spatially rather than use punctuation as the default place of diacritics semiology this english language was forced onto my nation in residential school and other places of detention our languages were and are not ‘official’ have you ever seen a five year old girl with a pin (inserted) through her tongue ton(pin)gue for speaking her language permission resides in me as languaged to use this imposed english as I must otherwise it will use me at its discretion forging me into molds of correct usage which would never do insofar as my own agenda is concerned english is one of the languages I was raised in it is the language of my mother though her father spoke gaelic and cree and her mother welsh and my father knew this english too and his father and of course latin squeezed itself in sideways through priestly intervention I allowed myself to be colonized by this english unaware ssssss in turn I have chosen to use it as I need to for my speaking and writing even if it means I must write chaos chance trickster even if it means I must bring words into existence which thencetofore were naught if a word does not exist I let it invent me through it

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if a way of getting an idea or sound or intention across works or I think it does I employ it paying union wages including over time I am the written the languaged the read and the ‘me’ I speak of here at this cross-roads this node this inter-section this confluence is one which exists within as well as despite language like a stone partly beneath the earth or water or sky partly above it it is not only that the stone is partly buried or submerged but that its relationship with earth with water with air is not defined solely in terms of the prepositions that fix and circumscribe it as a languaged person I do not acknowledge as ultimate authority of how I am to express myself ‘correctly’ using english dictionaries lexicons grammarabilia and other imported colonialist paraphernalia who owns this english language to whom is it deeded chartered who has given the university the government the viceroy intendancy over how documents are to be languaged over what counts as legitimate discourse within a sanctioned institution of post-knowing when this tool of conquerage this english was forced upon us we vowed to use it so as to communicate as best we were able I set as my task to write for meaning rather than correctness even at the risk of being misunderstood mis-taken which is part of what language is all about risk negotiating meaning agency power relations in order to enter those realms of annointed power those racially predestined orbs those p/reserves of academ(ent)ia those places where I can be of immediate help for my nation it is deemed by the colonizing powers that I am to follow western epistemologies cast like the commandments of moses [or the manifestos of andré breton or karl marx] into petrified substantiation transitted like retrograde orbiting planets with us as indigenous peoples caught in the thrall like occulted satellites eclipsed step sibs ellipses to the indian act and treaties my canoe is a place of cultural understanding it transports it connects me to the forest and the water and to my spirit it conveys it acts as a place of gestation of birthing in transit and final worldly threshhold for generations milleniations of my relations if ever there was home for our migrations it is this form this vessel this tree relation this part of my word forest or perhaps it is a farm in that it is shaped though we used fire to shape forest too as I was saying before coyote distracted me this is an introduction but not to a beginning

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to a continuation a continuing with the transfer of these words from computer screen pencil pen thought feeling spirit sound to paper the canoe comes from the forest and from place of mind spirit memory ancestor thanks here are given for the sister/brother cedar’s life medicines are burned whereafter planks are so carefully eased from the snag’s trunk with such delicate surgery you’d think it were an operation on a butterfly’s broken wing though it might seem the canoe and tree are from a conceptual space they are from spirit and heart and it is in those places I give thanks kukwstum paper has long been the form whereon the academy has held the forest hostage for its wildness its untamed savagery its plantness in the end itself returning to pulp and dissipated print so many documents are created or photocopied ongoingly you’d think universities were themselves forest industries so great their tonnage of this stuff yet here too is a forest though not called so yet is pulped pressed flat between covers printed on in aisles and paginated even so it is just that yet not just that even is it more this canoe’s medium will be air though most of us are aware there is customarily in air a plenitude of water called humidity the power needed to make and power computer engineering arises in the turbines of dams for which forests are felled submerged biocided paper thus is even where it is not since its absence is only that a presence of not having been processed from tree dimension into eight and a half by eleven a-4 plus or minus and its direct declensions the sentience of trees named by the sound of wind in branches when elder brother is reddest indeed this relation of the tree nation is all that brother can be when manifest in trans form ation a home for my nation hey yá

in creating a framework our educational frameworks are not imported from conceptual spaces or other western domains they are not semiotic xenotransplants tip-layered epistemes adventitious suckers this would be the usual site for parentheses encasing a published reference title punctuation year perhaps a superscript numeral alas I offer only experience upon which to draw in this instance this nexus it is my only referee

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I the unannointed postclovis paleosubjectivity am not unaware that persons high on the plateau of western knowing the in alto cognoscenti would call this practice unscholarly or ‘polemical’ if in fact this article became becomes published [it did] alack we pre/preter/extra/alter/literate autochthones with our transgressive praxes have only our experiences and stories to which we might allude —though we could beg to intone invoke evince the anthropologists linguists historians indian expert educators who have made careers out of studying us and we could fulfill the mandate of referencing by quoting them quoting us— but I will refrain )and please this “we” I employ is inclusive only as a rhetorical device( and since I am not practiced at referencing nature in a scholarly manner I will let the paren)theses( remain outside of the risible visible and get on with building a framework with a purpose as we paddle together portage make and break camp I will take time to consider and plan and implement a framework of some no little importance for the life of many first peoples

in considering a sweatlodge for a sweatlodge it is not unimportant the journey of the parts in relation to the whole firstoff it (the impersonable pronoun) is not taken for granted that a sweatlodge is necessarily necessary at such and such a time or place or circum/stance it is not taken for granted that we are called upon by the ancestors and the powers and spirits and beings to construct a sweatlodge rather it is an honour an obligation to construct one or have one constructed through oneself once it has been determined necessary or appropriate the framework then is not identical from nation to nation to nation nor the rituals involved including the means of harvesting our relation the willow if indeed it is the willow we speak of (some employ other members of the tree nations especially as willow is not universally present in all geographies) and on the willow grow ofttimes our spiritual sisters and brothers our relations the fungus nations we do not take for granted that we can dislodge these spiritual medicines from their home further it must be agreed on the placement of the lodge and the timing and not just by one another and ourselves but by all that is life everything is part of the framework and is the framework including our relations with ]the[ creator sun moon earth sky one another

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how many willows must be asked for how are the willows to be spoken with who will speak and when and how in what language what will be offered the willow for its life will the willow agree are there not insect and bird nations to be consulted viruses will the willow be in constant contact with the ground situated so as to remember and relate in transit and what ground where from the time of harvesting onward s during transportation to the place of construction of lodge will the ground be dug into with implements or with hands or at all will there be a pit for the rocks which will heat the water that will carry our prayers who will do the digging what will this person say when will the leaves of the willow be removed or not will there be purifications at all stages is respect to be shown generally specifically latently in the consensus of this enterprise will ‘nature’ be part of consensus who will speak for ‘nature’ who can hear her is interpretation necessary in order to understand the voice the language of ‘nature’ are we not nature how deep will the holes be for each willow how many which hole will be dug first what direction who will dig it which second who will tie the willows together once they are bent together what will they be tied with what knot what colour what time of day in what moon how are all of our relations to be honoured when the intercultural conversation is from many nations and languages and traditions are there hardandfast rules are there protocols known through living respectful lives on and with the land and sky where does authenticity reside legitimacy whose whose not what will cover the bent willows the skins of our relations the fourleggeds or tarps plastic whatever is available where will the fire be what direction how many stones will be used how many logs for fuel what kind how will they be collected and by whom how will the logs and the stones be set down who will keep the fire how will our relations the stones be treated after they have helped us in our healing there is so much more and much of it is not for sharing on paper for academic reasons why the instrumental of who is not one of the adverbs conjunctions or nouns which our elders employ in interrogative discourse (Thomas, 1998) because to use why it is said seems to be questioning the creator’s motives seems to be calling onto the mat of reason what lies beyond 26

(or other/wise thither from) reason a framework is not just an architect/ural or /tectonic manifestation of a blueprint/ing it is the enactment of a respectful relationship with the rest of creation which shares this earth with us a framework is never a noun never simply a metaphor it cannot be captured thus as a part of speech a figuration it is more than any words which attempt to denotate it a framework is a journey/ing with

domicilic frameworks we constructed our homes from earth from our relations the tree nations according to the seasons our number and available sustenance the placement of salmon people in a comparatively accessible degree you could argue (if you were of such a mind to) that we had theories of nomadism and seasonal variation migration initiation the practice was we inhumed ourselves in and with the white blanket of winter but this was not an academically strategized model it was practice it was survival it did not rise or otherwise spread from rationalist scientist occidental epistemologies even retroactively even by onside ‘indians’ colonized elite collaborators ambitious apples or variations on these our pit-home walls kept a considerable r-value between us and the weather and the geography which were also inside we slept and cooked and attended indoor chores in reasonable comfort there was a hole for smoke and the breath of our ancestors and the plant nations to mingle with ours and at least one alternate means of egress in case of emergency which of course was always just around the bend we didn’t have corners in our language we wove mats spread grasses hung our salmon engendered regenerated expired in this domicilic framework enfolding us this home within an elaborate performative epistemology of survivance thank you professor vizenor for that netted neologistic gem precluding or at least gesturing toward our continuance on the great interior plateau our home land and native oka nada (which for those outside of the canadian context relates to a major military standoff near montreal quebec canada between a handfull of aboriginal people and a division of the canadian army over replacing a sacred ‘indian’ burial site (alias dictus cemetery) with a golf course oka being the reserve nada being never) the less 27

each person had comprehensive expertise we were communal individuals with broad as well as specific survival strategies sleeves up our tricks ravenpockets coyotedreams in those days before the whiteman our individuality was not the focus and resolve it is today ex/clusivising self from selves selves from self life spindled spun and wove us together paddle stroke paddle swoooooooosh

more aboriginal/ized epistemologies and methodologies weaving and knitting our clothes and furniture from trees grasses wool hair roots provided protective domestic frameworks with which to cover ourselves in those long winter nights when we had time to theorize about indigenous weaving metaphors and textual interpenetration linguistic multifurcation and the strategics of risk venturing but for the most part we huddled together in collective warmth and caring our looms and spindle whorls were are technological studies in simplicity denoting demarc/at/ing us as primitive disingenuous naïve stoneage gullible trusting our simplicity made us fertile grounds for evangelical hubris for the lies and genocides acted out on us present tense not excepted by the ruling soldierly and settlerly classes from europe [sic] trans/planted imports choking out native species scotch broom english ivy french toast of course it is the greatest genius which is simple s/implicit anyone with less than half a mind can dumbfound an audience with complications obfuscative dithrambic clarifications appropriately gesticulated graphed and overhead projected lubyrasered chartflipped oh yes we had our frameworks and they were mostly temporary like us except in the long run we returned to the earth we never left our frameworks the grammar of our actions declensioning us subjecting us to nominal activity deverbifying ‘acting’ into action even now the english language is the time machine that takes us back wards to a truth that was never part of any story we ever heard or imagined in our primitive e/state or participated in especially as we have (at least had) no past or future tense until our ideas became translated into english and back and suddenly even our present became on hold mise en scène iris shot zoom out whooossshshhh that linguist just got to the gesticulation stage prelinguistic Ibegtodiffer I’mtheexperthere look when the scene changed I mean changes things are getting tense

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aboriginal technological frameworks frameworks yes we used what the newcomers called frameworks to gather our relations the salmon nations these were our installations and properties and sets molding us to the places of the river which named us through our naming of them the land languaged us with the breath it gave us we spoke to identify (actually to relate) our connecting our fishing platforms and scaffolds held us over breakwaters hairpin bends and back-eddies with our three-pronged spears and gaffs harpoons basketry traps weirs set lines set-nets dip-nets gillnets scoopnets and drying racks ready to enact the prayer which adapted us to the condition/al/s the laconic geographies a few weeks of good fishing meant survival rather than starvation and it was rarely longer a time we were given to store for the winter ‘if’ was not an overly used morpheme in our vocabulary our frameworks and workings took into account the clarity (or not) of the water its speed its dervish it placidity its negotiativity we paid intimate attendance to geography by the default position of being unseparated from it rather than prepositionally related ad/hered to it we were and are not speci/fic/ally different from salmon steelhead rainbow silver trout oolichan sturgeon dolly varden until we all started sprouting latin nomenclature becoming reductively subsumed into rationalist scientist discourses substrates of linnaean classification strategies I don’t know how it is canada has a federal department of indian affairs but no department of white affairs french affairs salmon affairs moose beaver deer bear not to forget the waterfowl and how did the conversation about sustenance and traditional trade practices get shifted into the western category of ‘rights’ including aboriginal rights we never had ‘rights’ before contact we had relationships we had community we had obligations we had community decisionmaking processes that were meant to be inclusive of each person and like a hologram the whole is contained within each part that was our sense of ‘individual’ of relational focussing on aboriginal ‘rights’ is a way of moving an aboriginal relational conversation away into a western legal jurisprudential discourse give me relationships m chrétien mr martin m/r/s prime minister and the opportunity to practice my culture on my own land and you can keep your native rights and the rest of your imported legislation that was passed to benefit the ‘majority’ which means the 95% who are not aboriginal don’t continue to lock us in your semiotic conceptual prisons we’re inmate enough without being further immured by the cementum of your white discourse 29

relating to relations: a framework of respect catching fish is different from studing toward a phd (though they can both be done at the same time) in that fishing can sustain life directly one does not require possession of these three consonants after one’s name in order to catch fish or even to provoke them into predatory discourse nor to be able to create tools and implements and ideations relating to the fish nations it does not require a certificate or degree to understand or be able to assess the psychology limnology piscetology related to fish because psychology and assessment being human constructs are of little import to fish but saying that I do not presume to speak for fish but to share my experience of with them together with my assumptive objectifications which I try to keep to a minimum in order to be able to predict indeed or survive in or with the weather and attached seasons and know the relationship between the blossoming of particular plants in the montane ultra back home and the running of particular salmonic subspecies/subspecific salmon does not require academic expertise in the fashioning of tools with which to fell trees and make of them nominations of survival weaving together t/ropes finding respectful ways of design/at/ing our relations the fish nations from earth from tree containers to hold salmon oil one does not need a masterate in archaeology or socalled ‘hi’ [sic] tech to survive in the mindset/tler space of ‘pre’ historic times a rich and diverse imagination and respectful action would do and did and does theory yes we devised ideas too frameworks when there was time to reflect refract diffract diffuse there was always somebody in the community wanting to gainsay needing to theorize about the world but mostly they were under six years of age or more than five score and six and mostly it was refraction and diffusion which are about how fish see us and patterns of in/ter/ference relating to how we see them or not not to forget or neglect the importance of groping in darkness tactiling feeling for the bottomfeeders with your toes your feet not needing to rely exclusively on visual acuity clarity our kind of framework/ing is looked on as primitive by the larger society because in modern western mindsetting there are factory people to perform the preliminary piece work to assemble package process thereby deprioritize the need for us to rub sticks or strike stones together in order to have heat we have a thermostat and ‘fossil fuels’ volatile combustibles in the fervour and flux of modern comfort let us not forget dams which not only destroy animals and their homes the forests meadows 30

but they also heat us in directly proportionate ways to their destruction of life habitat yes insects viruses rodents amphibians reptiles mammals the bird and fish nations live lives real lives the creator gave them life existence memories and love families too they are not expendable just so that we can be more comfortable how can methodology be separate from the living of an ethical compassionate life together with as first peoples of this land our responsibilities include to take into accountability not just measurability of our relationships with the rest of creation we follow our original instructions as orally passed on as well as continually relearned in our ceremonies rituals daily protocols we work to regenerate mutual relationships interpenetrating considerations ethics for us is not an add-on or a form to fill in it is intimate integration with the deep structure of our understanding of creation including its ongoingness its pre- co- and post-emptiveness our way is not to bioassay and reproduce mapped grids gradients of the western research paradigms accountability and respect are not just about seeking rezoning approval it is more than following approved bureaucratic structural codes what about consideration for all our relations what about love for each leaf tree stone student colleague insect fish worm fourlegged microbe fungus moss lichen virus prion what about offering tobacco water thanks awareness prayer intoned sung danced or silently felt prayer as conversation with all of creation oh the priest was frightened when someone brought up our own heathen unchristian sacred ways acknowledged compassion for the harming of these relations rather than the consuming of them as the sine qua non the rest of creation does not reside in the genitive case of human beings as alms to our need and propietary claim do we dare to move a stone knowing it has is spirit knowing it has been t/here a thousand millenia a hundred thousand do we dare dig into our mother the earth our earth the mother even with our hands even with our thoughts our metaphors and not remember we are all related what is it to drag our mother into those presumed prefigured conceptual spaces of languaging of visualizing of justifying our mistreatment of her defiling her for profit 31

if we knew what it meant at the level of body the place of spirit to call life to call living things our relations “resources” what kind of place of violation of creation has this english language created turning a tree into lumber timber log 2by4 sawdust paper garbage turning a tree into a resource what kind of etymology is that what kind of ethic epistemology methodology what does it say of the underlying motive of capitalism consumer fraud ab origine is this not a consideration worth considering before outcomes and risk assessments and surface rights wrongs is there not spirit in the air we breathe the breath we share in the water is it not an obligation for human beings to offer some thing for the life we are about to take a life which we do not own which we have no right to assume is ours to take even to survive is the framework of ethical consideration and spiritual connection not the frame work we need to consider and to act within the guidelines the creator gives us however that might come across be it direct intervention sign/ification interpretation or presumption even within the translated real/m of the english language whose geographies are alien to many of our minds and hearts is there not sown some respect for how things might be to others our frameworks are not frames nor are they works they are the movement of forest and relations through mind hand and spirit they shape our minds around themselves bring it into organic functioning sometimes retroactively fashioning themselves into us through our co-optation of them as words yet with respect to ethics is it not just another liberal notion meant to contain contentment validate western traditions is ethics not a negotiated notion arising from/as the ashes of western epistemologies at the expense of ‘other’ is ethics not a cultivar rather than an adventitious shoot meant to privilege certain kinds of knowings sowings and not others is ethics not something which is meant to ensure indigenous knowings and actions must fit the delineations and geometrics of the denotation of western ethical action who is in charge of the ethics police whose frames matter whose are expendable who holds the reins and whip the keys to the dungeon the drawbridge this too is the stain and cut of ethics which does not end nor begin in white picket fences 32

stone mansions and marble places of white worship it begins in the pockets of the privileged and in the pockets of those pockets it resides too in our plank houses long houses spirit is everywhere everywhence the land backhome being thick with bush the mountains steep and rugged the air not a viable option most of our travel was by water craft we did not take for granted our sister and brother tree nations sacrificing their lives for our ‘needs’ whether vertically situated or oblique horizontal whole or fragmented driftwood snag oldgrowth deadhead sweeper diseased or burnt a tree is a relation and as such is equivalent to any other relation stone star objet trouvé we learned to take a canoe from a cedar without felling it slate for tools profuse with islands not just a way of life but life itself hunting trails berry trails trading trails visiting trails we assemble bit by bit the canoe giving thanks in that place europhilosophy calls ‘conceptual space’ t/here I speak with the assembled tree nations to/with a particular tree asking permission to use part of its clothing its bodywood its spiritwood its heartwood as a vehicle for my journey of words ideas intentions actions feeling as a companion paddle paddle paddle paddle swooooooooossshhh

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navigating upstream

paddle paddle stroke rudder

whooooosh

occidental turbulance international date line equator the reef space and brown bodies dancing singing drumming enjoining pulling into brisbane after a few looong portages outback chasing snakes and scorpions away from our bush tucker getting dizzy from watching kangaroos and wallabies jumping upanddown eardrums sore from the screeeeeeeeeeeech of silver crested cockatoos we stop and listen to a mob at (unofficial) speaker’s corner in a stunning new park just off downtown a former railroad yard roma street parkland taking turns at the podium eucalypt rostrum it is not the way of my culture to identify human beings becomings as the summit of creation the crest of high ground the pinnacle of becoming we believe the creator made the world for all of our sisters and brothers the plant nations waters stones mountains insects bacteria viruses powers and spirits and beings of the four directions our relations that cross the sky at night our ancestors and children and a 1 and a 2 and a 1 2 3 yothu yindi materializes like a hologram they make a pyramid with their bodies on the [concrete] soapbox and sing with power “maker of the land maker of the song maker of the constitution the journey of the great one starts from the east where the mighty ocean meets the land then the population came she walked with the law in her hands singing children of the earth praise the journey of the song lines find the sign and follow the sun maker of the land maker of the song maker of the constitution like the southern cross above

beam your light for your destiny from the great dividing ranges to the desert to the city streets” but this transliteration doesn’t do justice listen to the band put your heart into their music

(Yothu Yindi, 1993)

next up archie roach koori man also from downunder kangaroo place his songs are sad and beautiful listen “my beautiful child the brightest of stars couldn’t match your sweet smile but you grew up too soon far beyond your young years now all that remains is your memory and tears you were always to blame and they put you through hell then they locked you away in a dark lonely cell but you weren’t really bad just a little bit wild now they’ll hound you no more oh my beautiful child free from this heartache and pain and misery when they found your body that day some said you’d smiled (Roach, 1992a) and I wish I was with you right now my beautiful child” yothu yindi sings too about their land and people no end to the tales of tragedy even if you don’t know the words you can understand them take a break from reading listen “ganura gay mmm milkarri gay mmm dhakiyanda mmm barangurrthun mmm mmm mmm ranggurrminythu mmm djalpinydhu mmm guyupayu mmm we know they know all people accept sacred history of the rock what has always been ours was determined by the floods and the tears the tears they cried words are easy words are cheap much cheaper than our priceless land all your promises have been broken just like writing in the sand treaty yeh treaty yeh treaty yeh treaty now nhema gayakaya nhe gay anhe nhe gay anhe matini walangwalang nheya nhimadjatpanhe walang gumurr jararrk bangadi this land was never given up this land was never bought and sold the planting of the union jack never changed our law at all now two rivers run their course separated for so long I’m dreaming of a brighter day when the waters will be one promises disappear priceless land destiny go go go go living in the mainstream go go go go under one dream reflections in the water I see black and white living together sharing dreams of the red black and gold (Yothu Yindi, 1992a) living dreamtime now in the yolngu way” archie returns to the soapbox once the pyramid deconstructs itself his beautiful words softly in tears “this story’s right this story’s true I would not tell lies to you 35

like the promises they did not keep and how they fenced us in like sheep said to us come take our hand sent us off to mission land taught us to read to write and pray then they took the children away took the children away the children away snatched from their mother’s breast said it was for the best took them away the welfare and the policeman said you’ve got to understand we’ll give to them what you can’t give teach them how to really live teach them how to live they said humiliated them instead taught them that (Roach, 1992b) and taught them this and others taught them prejudice” his songs seem terribly sad some times bitter sweet a duststorm comes whipping up and all the trees shake and out of the dust murray porter’s voice comes sailing across the night air from southern ontario jet streaming migrating changing pattern whorling “why can’t we make you see the light? we are red we will not be white why must push always come to shove? why must we fight for what’s already ours? you took away our homes our languages and our land (Porter, 1993) told forget all that you have learned no choices just demands.” always a pleasure murray his voice fades back into the jet stream as I think of his song 1492 who found who next up a quiet man carrying himself with dignity chief arvol looking horse 19th generation keeper of the sacred white buffalo calf pipe speaks of the birth of a white buffalo female calf in august 1994 which is killed less than six years later spring 2000 by a state trooper he says this is a signal of the coming and fulfilling of the prophecies of the seventh generation he speaks of the need for global healing the responsibilities of first peoples “As caretakers of the heart of Mother Earth, it is our responsibility to tell our brothers and sisters to seek Peace. With this great responsibility at a time the people were suffering from all the effects of genocide and religious suppression, alcohol and abuse was the way of life we saw. I am trying to change that cycle of abuse we have toward one another. (Looking Horse, 1995) It is not an easy time to be the spiritual leader of this Nation.” now many more white buffalo calves are born some all white some part white and none is albino we continue our tromp downtown toward the river transportation system our canoe stored safely in our hotel room climate controlled away from the weather paddle stroke stroke stroke

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paddle paddle

maori fullbloodedness and koori dreaming after taking the rivercat upstream a ways up the brisbane river we stop in at a cybercafe near the university of queensland check our email there is a listserv response by ross himona maori activist and website owner responding to a question from white america about the possible continued existence or not of full-blooded maori a nononsense though tongueincheek tone throughout response with editorially provided linebreaks “Given that I don’t smoke or drink alcohol, and given that I’m a vegetarian, and making allowances for my advancing age of course, I’d say that my blood is as pure as any Maori, or any other race. All Maori are full blooded. In common with all of humanity, Maori are full of blood (and other bodily fluids). The question itself involves the perpetuation of a racist myth. And I am personally sick and tired of this question, and of people insinuating that we are somehow less Maori because of an infusion of other genetic inheritances. Maori-ness is a cultural and familial state of being, regardless of the total genetic inheritance of a particular person, and regardless of the degree of brownness of the skin. For instance many tribal peoples in Aotearoa/New Zealand today are quite fair-skinned after long contact with the Pakeha (non-Maori). But they may be nevertheless fiercely staunch members of a “Maori” family/tribe. Furthermore, we who are called “Maori” only consider ourselves “Maori” in relation to those who have no “Maori” descent. “Maori” actually means “normal.” We do of course refer to ourselves as “Maori” when operating within or alongside other cultures in order to make it understood who we are. Amongst ourselves we describe ourselves according to our dominant genealogical line, i.e. tribe or hapu or family. The tribe or hapu is of course kin based (i.e. descent-based as opposed to blood-based), so we actually describe ourselves according to our dominant extended family. I personally operate across a number of my familial groups, given the fact that I actively maintain those wider links. However most of my extended family operate within only one of their familial groups (tribe or hapu). Being “Maori” is being a member of a family of “Maori” descent that operates within “Maori” cultural values, norms and beliefs, regardless of the degree of genetic infusion from outside that “Maori” line of descent. “Blood” or “bloodedness” is a totally spurious notion used only by white people, very often to denigrate those who choose to live within non-white cultural frameworks.

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In Aotearoa/New Zealand at least, it is a tired old racist notion that refuses to lie down and die. To answer the question; yes, all “Maori” are full blooded, although my fourth-cousin definitely seemed to have more alcohol than blood in his veins for a time last night. Hopefully he has returned to full-bloodedness today. (Himona, 2000) Do you also have your full volume of blood?” kalanwi touché kia ora paddle paddle (Frankland, 1997) as richard frankland koori filmmaker said to pat and me you can’t be part aboriginal part first nations because the designation lies in the heart not in multiple choice tests or blood quantification bioassays polemics some call this patti lather said that word once in my hearing a hot afternoon in august 1998 columbus ohioosu campus it was something touching on referentiality evidence versus speculation sub/ob/jectivity betty st pierre had spoken of emotional data dream data but I wonder how are westerndom’s axioms referenced what is the foundation’s foundation the axioms axes what of the level of western sediment known as the ‘laws of nature’ invented by the men in white coats nature becomes terminal declension though an idiom unacceptable as is ‘we’ is extracted ‘I’ am extracted re/de/fining relationship with paddle paddle stroke shwooooosh paddlepaddle

we move out of brisbane find canoe (and portage) routes to sydney nsw paddlepaddlepaddle and as we walk in the botanical gardens near the opera house where thousands of huge bats sleep immediately above diners coffeedrinkers loungers who don’t seem to be particularly concerned about unwanted condiments precipitating onto their meals yothu yindi has come to do a solidarity installation painted dancing and alive they sing to all assembled and more “there’s a waking of a rainbow dawn . . . and the future of another day all the people in the world are dreaming get up stand up some of us cry for the rights of survival get up stand up saying c’mon get up stand up for your rights while others don’t give a damn they’re all waiting for a chosen day so you better get up and fight for your rights don’t be afraid of the move you make you better listen to your tribal voice voice you better listen to your gumatj voice you better listen to your rirratjingu voice you better listen to your wanguri voice you better listen to your djapu voice you better listen to your warramiri voice you better listen to your marrakulu voice you better listen to your dhalwangu voice you better listen to your dätiwuy voice you better listen to your manggalili voice you better listen to your ngaymil voice you better listen to your madarrpa voice

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you better listen to your djambarrpuyngu voice you better listen to your munyuku voice (Yothu Yindi, 1992b) you better listen to your gälpu voice” having spent some time here in darling harbour and bondi beach we figure it is time to move on so we take the camouflage off our canoe and pack our supplies in big carrots australian licorice a flatwhite to takeaway or as pat said in palmerston north ‘ta ke a way’ and we sing our own song in response and our paddles sing with the water and before you know it we’re across the equator and international dateline and rightside up and the north pacific back in canada there’s an environmental protest on vancouver island quoi de neuf paddle paddle drum drumdrum paddle stroke clear blue sky a skywriting plane spouts out palatino 1100 skypuffs a group of first peoples is only asking for the land they’ve always lived on which was taken away by white‘settlers’ listen in we know this land in our hearts with every molecule of our bodies every quark we survived by learning from the land the water the thunderers the creator showed us that lightning brings renewal that controlled burning refreshes the land a logger responds that the resources are for the taking development the euphemism most often used is ‘logging’ but it’s actually contract killing arboricide sylvi/cide serial killers are rewarded for their work bounty collecting using chainsaws and monster nameless vehicles choppers delimbers disembarkers in an effort to kill the forests and everything in them the forest industries and their pocketed governments pretend to create jobs diversification but a native woman asks how is destroying forests creating diversification how is extincting 50,000 species per year diversifying anything how diverse can monocrops be clones cultivars tree farms salmon farms cashcrops ‘sustainable’ becomes the universal modifier of every noun whose signified is up for grabs every noun saddled with the term ‘resource’ forests are buried as oak flooring pine dressers cedar decks cardboard packaging annual reports toothpicks stump stumpage stumped scalp scalpage scalped how stupid do they think the public is how apathetic the loggers stand with their thumbs in their mouths a wise old indiancowboy pushes his stetson back a bit wipes his forehead speaks up saying it’s no good western economic and political ideas are destroying the earth cap capital kaput sings a crowdvoice leutevox the plebrabblesprache a young man wearing a bandana reads quietly from his notebook I was never meant to have ‘dominion’ over my other relations I leave that to adam abraham shem scipio africanus alan greenspan

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george bush maggie thatcher john christian and others whose names I do not want to even appear in this document as ink or pixels on a screen paddle stroke paddle anishinaabe spiritual leader art solomon’s words come to me as we sit at a bench by the epiphytes and other native plants having canoed back to brisbane for a quick howdoyoudo “there are those children of the Creator Who are not content They plant trees in straight rows, etc., Everything is done in straight lines And right angles Yet everything in nature tries to be round, It seems like we cannot allow anything To be ‘natural,’ So the tyranny of the right angle dominates our lives And it seems like there have always been Those who were obsessed with ‘Progress and development.’ But I have rarely found anyone who asked: ‘Is this progress forward or backwards?’ ‘And this development, (Solomon, 1992) Is it for people or is it for money?” the quiet question is the tsunami betraying the far off (but connected) seismic events paddle paddle stroke out of the blue come the quiet but forceful words (Thomas, 1998) of cayuga chief jacob thomas who asks why “why” he says it is never easy for a white person to attempt to understand the native way just as it is not easy for a native to understand the thinking of a white person he says we are different the native elders speak of honouring all things and they have no word for “why” there is no need to ask “why” because they accept what is the great mystery white people on the other hand always want to solve the mystery time to get our feet wet again shove off for te wai pounamu the south island of what the pakeha call new zealand though there are probably a lot more maori there than there are zeas drum drummm drum paddle swooooosshhhhhh outside at otago university and in the attached town of dunedin are poster sessions publishing kiosks book tables author readings crowds of indigenous people talking about solidarity

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everywhere people have little signs up banners advertising what the session is about I casually walk by stopping longer at some lingering at others getting snippets and soundbytes of dialogue first peoples are working together to disrupt the imperialist project of ‘collecting cultures’ working to protect indigenous knowledges from bio and other piracies working for selfdetermination and sovereignty hmm sounds like academic ‘indians’ talking but I guess we have to take on the language of the academy in order to even be heard let alone be listened to paddle stroke paddle stroke I think of my own work choosing to not use eurotheorists in my writing my research this presented itself to me as being racist exclusionary unneighbourly however I did not immediately expunge this idea from the whether of my thoughts I was having a hard time coming up with one good reason to include what white people say or have said about indigenous people in particular the white indian experts which is an introduced rather than a native species it was by default that I included them I wanted balance not just talk about balance eurotheorists had appeared in my writing before in outrigger positions or as ballast jetsam in the margins I needed to set myself a good example to follow my talk besides I have to keep reminding myself there are many many nonfirst nations people doing thoughtful helpful respectful work with rather than on us I awaken out of my reverie to a lively skin rapping and dancing up a tsunami about neo-vichy collaborators ho hum paddle stroke paddle what’s the word on the street about apples spuds coconuts oreos kumara the word is ewwwwww auggghhhh iiiiiiiiiiii ooooooo uuuuuuuuuu the colonized elite who colonize their own people the new fort scouts yessir nosir threebagsfull sir the leucobeisant genuflectors to white supremacy tokens the original simulacra the ethicalectomized postindians postindigenites groomed for white privilege who hold pretend-conferences with global networks of volunteer cohort/icultivars from the ‘field’ of t/reason inviting via subornation respected elders or selfproclaimed elders to legitimize their party of the first party internal racist pedagogies the new treaty makers one up every sleeve the harangue chorus walks around acappellaing its lyrics and libretti not turning down monetary contributions to their openhat concert as we walk along we encounter numerous streetspeakers paddlepaddle stroke paddle

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a young carver gets up from his work and goes into his spiel the game is let’s assimilate the savages let’s play race war pretend it’s about politics and cultural difference the game is for them to make us think that we’re welfare recipients tenants prisoners nobodies needing wardship intermediation fiduciation (self-)protection supervision fostering looking after the game is to make us think sovereignty is just around another corner another curve ball four take your base next batter up pass the popcorn paddle stroke strokestroke western epistemologies eurodynasties have long half-lives they take up megaspace nanocosms in conceptual perceptual exceptional landfills too much to compost or otherwise recycle the space is all (ready) taken there aren’t enough conceptual trashcans dumpsters recycle centres dumps so littering has become the norm white knowledge is spilling out all over under between through from in fact there aren’t enough prepositions in english to handle it all most of the nouns are already taken stuffed full with western con texts and even the verbs are exhausted overworked from transporting the endless nouns under their own steam ing the prevailing weather tells me it is time to move on and after a quick paddle back ‘up’ to canada again I always get a strange feeling passing through the international date line going back in time without going back in time we pull into first victoria then vancouver a few portages through the rockies the columbia icefields north saskatchewan river to edmonton now for a meeting with wayne and jackie wayne gorman introduced me to jackie on paper though we had appeared in an anthology together a powerful voice as I paddle by I listen to her words in the wind paddle stroke stroke paddle paddle whooooooooosh paddle stroke

educating jackie “Remember It was not long ago I was jailed at the residential school for a crime I did not commit. The black robe guards they beat the sun dance, chicken dance, fancy dance, and hoop dance out of me. These dances are evil they yelled. 42

The sacred language they whipped out of me. Speak this instead they ordered. Confused, and terrified I surrendered my tongue. Brainwashed to take commands like a dog I did not know who I was when released from prison many moons later. Squat over there on your land if you can’t make anything of yourself they said. Crouching on mother earth, I faintly recall the dreamer’s songs, the dances, the legend of the spider, the hunting ways of my people. I could not fully connect. I was alone. One day while sitting with an elder trying to talk the black robe people arrived. Speak your language, tell the legends, sing your songs, dance your dance, record this for future generations. How can I, I replied. You pounded these sinful ways out of me (Oker, quoted in Gorman, 1998) Remember?” as I reread this poem by jacqueline oker from wayne’s thesis I think of him searching for his indigenous roots his family the poem guiding him his words come to me my mind’s ear “I was sitting in this darkened place looking into a pit of heated rocks. In my nakedness, I was gazing at the beauty of these red-hot stones, their glowing red embers surrounded by the darkness of the pit. It was a quiet place. The air was warm and filled with the scent of sage. I heard a voice. It was a very old voice that crackled as it spoke. I couldn’t see who it was. It said, ‘You know our ways.’ ‘We learn from stories and from dreams.’ ‘Our stories and dreams (Gorman, 1998) are our way.” hiy hiy 43

I’ll go along with that seeing the river tide about to take the canoe away I wade out and prepare to paddle back west to kitsilano I guess I’ll have to do this leg myself the tricksters have shapeshifted or skedaddled maybe bothand onwords paddle paddle swooooosh paddle swoooosh paddle

talking about talk in kitsilano reserve and at calhoun’s after crossing the international date line almost getting run down by a fleet of illegal factory fishing trawlers then a school of commas leaves a raucous wake like standing waves in time and space we get back into the marina at false creek vancouver where native people lived for hundreds of centuries sometimes between glaciers waiting for the salmon to return to bring the nutrients of the deep ocean to the streams and the rainforest but now our home for millenia is a transformed landfill a playground for the yup and coming no interesting talk in the coffee shops here so we head up to calhouns on west broadway for some much needed walking after we get our orders we sit near a large group of congregated tables of mostly first nations university students professors and other people talking intellectual hooey dewey sounds like they’re part of a qualitative research conference or quote post-colonial [sic] think[sic]tank unquote we listen in and occasionally participate in the conversations some people stand and read poetry some mutter some draw orate sing but most just sit and talk and eat and listen and drink coffee coyote and raven are fairly quiet because everyone’s pretty tired from the last leg and are not especially wanting intellectual stimulation there’s a poem about epidemics and viruses another about sexual abuse oppression the legacy of european invasion the gifts of the white man hmm

navigating around the (english language and) ‘indian experts’ we are gathered on the wheel together remembering smallpox measles scarlet fever influenza diphtheria consumption everywhere the scent of dying death our children buried in white places of jesus mary holy ghost england france italy spain holland belgium germany portugal russia went into the unprotected private places of our nations entered us like enemas dildos suppositories contagions violating our spirits imprisoning our children trans/forming them into agricultural labourers miners loggers contaminating their little bodies with white holyfather penises fingers our mothers and sisters raped by fifty million whiteboys we learned to internalize abuse to replicate addictive behaviour 44

and the fascists ask why do we drink sniff snort pass out grieve fight rave no refray ay ay ay ain it happened (at least) once before they came to our door neoliberal western ideas are the new path/ogens microbes disease vectors in the form of rationalist discourse logic the plague la peste should we call a doctor or wait for the dis/ease to run its course 5 centuries is a long course and I’m not even sure if it’s even up to speed yet with all the hidden agendas like an unnumbered cryptic advent calendar with special categories for the rcmp csis the opp qpp inac mikeharris jeanchrétien duncancampbellscott dna recombinant labs and piconanotech robots hohum another day in oz a student from a local first nation stands and speaks languages arise from land people dreamtime time before time before before land lived not merely occupied through indigenousness mutually embracing this is not derivable through chaos theory fractalization or emergent systems theory it is our own way of being and becoming hey ya! someone stands and speaks it seems automatically oraclically invasive agency overruns continent pathogenic disease vectors emerging from the body of historical memory carried on wind in food water sealed blankets empty parcels genii in cog[n]iti action inaction pray alternatively rub command community ball game captain on first archaeology on second whalers are up to no good settlers on deck should be on the scaffold entrepreneurs in the hole with the anthropologists making it bigger between innings hole is a hole is a hole is a hooo ly! is that the mariana trench supratended über(usquequaque)ed onto the continental plate perimetered by a jurassic volcanic belt birthed via consummatio orthogonal convergence consummated through extensional fault[y reasoning] unrepentant collisional orogeny pass the goat cheese thanks how much are those tectono-stratigraphic assemblages in the window more indigenous people are excavated and buried but they die faster than shovels can dig and get wrapped in ferns and moss leaves left by the side of the road via incognita terra nullius x non grata singling ourselves out she says standing as if on a plinth inviting the plagues grillo an andinisto battisto a repatriated andean campesino says (Grillo, 1998) the plague of colonialism caught us out of balance because we were without respect not honouring of our ancestors we in effect invited pathogens interspecific viruses bacteriophages extra-nuclear plasmids nomadic nucleic acids rogue mitochondrial dna seasonal prionic presences recusant buckyfullerenes to desequence detemplate precolonialist education health family grillo says we brought about system/at/ic abuse acute symptomatic rebus starting to feel lightheaded from the trepidation remembering the past time to get back into that canoe paddle over to the bush up that way find some medicines alteric allopathic treatment before I we become extinct ed 45

paddle paddle pallde pdlled peadll p d p p d aaa dle p p oops an untimely trireme we must have hit the bermuda triage finagle I didn’t know it was mobile must be due to climate dysversion time for a good shadegrown caffé canadese coffee shops are interesting places but it’s hard to find a parking place closeby for the canoe I hope we don’t get a ticket I can’t stand it when the rentacops make chalk marks on the gunwales so I put electric obsidian wire around the parking space security bars just don’t cut it like that holy man from india who hasn’t eaten drunk eased nature (and I suppose sweated) for 70 years whywouldhehaveto enact the ultimate and penultimate if the antepenultimate and preantepenultimate were not carried out whewww I feel atthesametime worn and reborn bushed bothand beat punk as my dad used to say as I fall into a half reverie exhausted by the fire of memory whitewater thoughts overwhelm me draw out my power of conscious wakefulness white capped waves of language back eddies sweepers all is aswirl language is such a powerful technology it can bring together drive apart isolate in/to islands of ‘truth’ archipeligal cognizances depending on the tide grandmother moon it can make us afraid of contradiction make us believe in reason rather than reasons or synchronicity acausality stories it can become clichéd it can make us our thinking into clichés fossilizing epistemologies and practices petrified protocols palaeologies language can lead us toward or away from spirit a young aboriginal woman says that we are not separate from what we call environment when forests are clearcut we are clearcut the unborn the future generations are clearcut our ancestors are clearcut we are all joined in time in space it is an illusion that the past is not already here today the future is not different from the past they are all part of the eternal present even though some might say the present is gone before you can even say it begins in mind in words ideas closed hearts this tearing apart of the forest home is tearing a part of the ocean the salmon and the bears the phyto/ and zoo/plankton the sunlight the weather which are stored in the forest living memories actualized memories when that forest is clearcut those wideranging relationships are destroyed and the roots that held the soil from blowing or drifting become lifeless and the soil is taken away by the wind and the water and the ground is hard and compacted from the traffic of clearcutting and the rain cannot seep into the hard soil to nourish roots that are sill alive it just flows into streams and the water appears as floods rather than storage in plants or soil including groundwater so too with people when they are clearcut

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their wideranging relationships are severed we are told by the white man that forests are resources if we let ourselves believe that we will let them die maybe even help to kill them without thinking about asking their permission inviting them into the conversation language can be a place of great empowerment renewal regeneration at one ment a journey so exciting but is it any more than illusion after she sits and sighs a young indigenous man rises speaks there seems to be a euroassumption that all languages are translatable that all ideas can change languages just like changing socks or one’s mind or exchanging batons in a relay race p[r]ooof! and they’re off there seems to be this presumption that everything can be interpreted known uncovered discovered into the english language language relay on your marks teg tes !og as first peoples are we to be comforted knowing that somewhere somehow somedip an academic probably a linguist is appropriating our language (andor culture) exposing it eviscerating it autopsying it foren[sic]king it even resurrecting thetruthandthelight luxveritaque in re hearsed latin taking the pressure off keeping our languages living onstream knowing they will be stored in a bookcloset videocloset httpcloset hoop la are we to be overjoyed that our languages are the object of colonizing salvational forces just as we’ve been the object of colonizing salvational forces lots of lawsuits out there right now probing that very thing lots of ‘indians’ wanting to become unbaptised unsal[i]vated once the living language reaches the brink of extinction habeus corpus becomes the rallying cry of the ambulancers the stretcherbearers and the mobs that follow armies into battle postbellumites and the residue is shapeshifted away from living speakers to an artificial environment to become codified linguistic cultivars ‘saved’ on audio/video/tape cd dvd harddrive the internet in hoc nomine like a basso continuo an unwanted echo cruciferous pyropoeic understory our language saved on atoms or molecules of silicon as magnetic fields electrical potentials realizations of resistance capacitance champs éléctroniques or maybe the pentagon has reached the submicronano stage by now whoooooaaa! cataloguing will not save a language it just moves it from the organic realm of life and living to the archival where its cadaver can be dissected bisected multisected for purposes of career enhancement and monetary furtherance once our languages enter academia or are entered by academia once they enter places of interactive diorama objectified peepingtommery they are no longer our languages our stories they become part of the public realm

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linguistic cemeteries where our sacred languages are treated as objects and it’s the white linguists who get almost all of the ‘aboriginal’ funding from sshrc isn’t there something very racist about that they qualify as primary investigators and we don’t qualify at all because we use aboriginal epistemologies methodologies protocols practices we don’t ‘have the experience’ because they get the grants let’s rewrite sshrc start anew the process itself is part of the systemic racism of canadian society against aboriginal peoples the bureaucracy is stuck in its own white hegemonic logjam created and nurtured by itself aho! some people sit with their dropped jaws as a young aboriginal student slowly stands makes signs to the 6 directions and begins to speak I want to go out and check our parking meter but hold back the urge he speaks softly confidently orality is not about ‘writing down’ anything it is about discourse speaking together not concatenating events cursively uncially on paper but living them when ucwalmicwts words and ideas are ‘translated’ into english do they remain ucwalmicwts words like a tree farm/word farm a summer treeplanting project of english planted interlinearly with the ucwalmicwts forest for me they remain ucwalmicwts words only the ‘sense’ is translated but ‘whose’ sense aboriginite it’s a ‘natural resource’ an outcrop which has been the focus of white indian expert mining operations for centuries seams of it have been exposed measured mapped dynamited hacked and removed and it’s ‘free’ for the talking and governments industry universities pay big money for it but first peoples don’t get anything out of these negotiations because aboriginal everything has been stolen or destroyed by the colonizers invaders occupiers reshaped refigured reworked and sold as authentic yes authentic simulacrum when language english in this case creates or becomes sensemeaning or prepostandintertransfigures it exclusively when language legitimizes referees itself when it is never in a double (or multiple) blind making itself the default position of all communication and legitimacy according to its own codes regulations bylaws where is the arm’s length let alone the tongue’s english does not own or hold the secret to the uncontexted unified grand narrative even that of its own la[i]nguaf[r]acture vis à vis aboriginal languages being saved on paper words being pressed onto clearcut forests arranged in reams seams spines bindings in the translation or transcription of spoken sounds rhythms what becomes of ambiguity playful misdirection trickster discourse

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gesture eye contact being in good relation with audience participation breathing the same air walking the same earth together be/com/ing in the same weather sharing context consensuality commensality a meal celebrating together grieving being hungry wet warm cold together sure saving it on paper is preferable to clearcutting ucwalmicwts altogether replacing it with more english tree farms of exotic othernesses but I do not see how an ucwalmicwts word can become a word in english sure english can borrow it even translate it but in borrowing a word or some words what happens to the culture the language is attached to its roots its rhizomes its innumerable connections with environment with history with meaningfulness with the grammar syntax interactivity it is part of its genealogy how can meaning be transferred you can’t cut and paste it in english ‘meaning’ is a noun at least has been categorized as such which pretty much describes philosophy in that language adobe or not adobe that is the estionquay adobe too doesn’t just appear out of the linguistic firmament as a noun it is shaped from soils dried stacked chinked without those verbs as integral parts of it adobe doesn’t really go anywhere or even become itself from its parts and where did the soil come from what relationships gave it form and place (Anderson, 1994) laurie anderson talks about language acting as a virus but a lot of people seem to take it pretty much for granted as a truth and tricksters along with chance operations get their door in the foot and beknew you for it every back is wardthing and downside ups what in english is referred to as the past does not exist everywhere universally ucwalmicwts does not have this temporal locativity in the english sense rather the present just opens its wings and is every/where other/wise pervasive the past and future are not trapped outside the eternal now elsewhere elsewhence wise and whither

when our stories are stolen brokered borrowed if you will held hostage in academia trans/fixed onto alien media stripped of their original context placed into archives subjected to analysis by imperialismus albinorum english words intervene take up spaces our languages used to inhabit what happens to our words and ideas as they enter into english as english words linguistically transcribed by an english ear the acid atmosphere of the english language creates figure by etching into the meaning and silences of ucwalmicwts conversation refiguring this to english aka universal meaning our words never get into english except as descriptions of ‘other’ness es alteric spectacle mirabilis oracle always trans lated foreign ground

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maybe the english language needs to return to its original territory where body/speaker and language accouched developed toddled together in say the year 1412 or 412 canterbury germania the low countries instead of trying to remap and colonize the rest of the world within itself english has colonized not only indigenous peoples but its own speakers as well it has colonized silence it has colonized ‘other’ multiplying itself exponentially vectorally hemispherically cartographically trying to capture meaning but all it has captured is itself through its own ana/lysis the english language is prisoner of its own grammar syntax etymology epistemology presumptions hubris in all of the ceaseless linguistic skirmishing english has managed to capture only itself having built bridges to borrow lend words while the germanic cor’s diastole beats on the moats are not just figurative metaphorical you have to use prepositions or at least active preverbs to negotiate them these acauseways language is among other things a lens through which one experiences the world other languages and ideas are experienced through that lens if your spectacles are halfway down your nose and you look over them it will be pretty blurry fuzzy but who’s to say things would be any better if the lens were repositioned perhaps it is the lens that needs changing or the hearing aid the texturing aid the english language has a proliferational generational representational problem its nose and its reach are beyond its ken and getting to be in everybody’s way and having progressive (cough cough) multifocal corrective lenses just hides the lines of refraction refractoriness england as a nation as a democracy of civilized people ‘settled’ canada using the methodologies methods practices and protocols of genocide which retroactively have been exonerated as ‘oh it was a different time’ ‘we can’t blame people from other historical time periods’ [no? just as we purportedly can’t problematize the united states of america for refusing to be part of the international criminal court because of its centuries of war crimes hate crimes participation in genocide because as policing agent of/for the world its role gets it into trouble biiig trouble] at the same time the english language used and uses double talk and other tricks to camouflage its monstrous crimes thinking that if aboriginal languages were extincted then the secrets of war crimes and peace crimes against first peoples would also disappear but you know I’ve seen those same secrets dug out of the english language sure sometimes other/wise shaped and ‘understood’ but there re presented resent ed where is the sense in discovering what is not lost

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enlightening what is not in darkness or shadow transforming what is already fully formed and whole

complete

with so many moving parts the english language suffers wear and tear need for replacement parts and there’s no guarantee the words will be there when you get back or mean the same as they did when the treaty was signed or not signed or signed by someone without either consensually accorded authority or community permission or understanding what ‘signing’ meant what it signified one ‘x’ looks pretty much like any other and often is by the same hand white hand government hand official hand treaty signing in our stead that’s fiduciation canada the state our foster mother syntagmama mer surrogati taking on custody taking on power of attorney we being minors we being made minorities once there was only us estrang(l)ed daughter of eng land now changing hands again all hail the 21st pm taking office at least he asked for purification from the feather the smoke and the burning medicines though the elder’s wristwatch was a bit of a surprise I’d trade the english language any day for justice andante con fustis baculumque [it’s greek to me says raven] [he’s saying justice should walk softly and carry two big sticks says coyote] messianism saving indigenous languages turning them into m/w/ine resurrecting them orality for us is not about collecting memorial instances of culturally transmitted or transmissable narrative events imaginative immeubles in the form of pre/post/con/literary compendia ascriptive incunabula semiotic prostheses for those whose auditory cortices are not functioning up to doubletriple bogey notthatsportsmetaphors are mything orality is not a prescriptive means by which our community engages in self-identification based on looking at ourselves looking at ourselves looking at looking at looking at our/ or other/selves for us orality is about engagement rather than infringement community rather than ‘communication’ passing on rather than passing over before the coming of western linguistics western linguists and the translation of our words or presumed translation of them into eurotongues for consumption enbouchement mastication engorgement digestion catalysis peristalsis assimilation elimination recycling our languages were doing just fine now they are being preserved in mason jars and cdroms on websites in putatively interactive sites digitalized de analogued rather than just being spoken ‘in the village’ to assume that our aboriginal languages are being saved

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by being investigated phonetically transcribed and deconstructed by linguistic mostly nonaboriginal academic ‘experts’ using nonaboriginal methodologies is frightening to assume that we are the objects of colonized salvational forces is equally frightening look at the lawsuits for systemic serial sexual abuse by priests who were in saviour mode when is a smile a grimace a leer behind a mask paedophilia as default position selective institutional historical amnesia now they’re wanting to save our languages once ucwalmicwts the living language begins to pass on the cadaver is left as corpus delicti or habeus we come to a place of assuming our languages are not de facto in facto being lost shapeshifted away from living speakers into places of artifactuality translatedness kalanwi this is not the way to save a language cataloguing it pressing it into paper [look what happened to eatons and woodwards coyote interjects] it is only a way of moving language from the organic realm of inter/action of community to archive museum or conference symposium places of storage containment exhibition virtuosity white expertise once languages on the edge of extinction are targeted by the academy once they enter places of white/western mimicry and soliloquy and other milieux of invasive proceduring the languages become surveyed appropriated expropriated annexed mergered amalgamed rendered cut and pasted the stories become fixed crucibled crucified interpreted romanticized casestudied the object of academic venery positivist pedagogical taxidermy the stories once filtered out of our languages out of the spoken living realm cease to be our stories we have been edited out our ancestors edited out and white knowings are edited in experience as is eclipsed by information about expertise of that variation that variety means it’s been killed and is now a/trophy thinking back ahead to donna house dene botanist’s talk about the name of the insect residing within the name of the plant it pollinates contrary to western epistemic prearrangement showandtell this does not make the insect’s name a cryptic linguistic infix rather it makes the tree and its name part of the genealogy epistemology etymology epidemiology of its pollinator and its pollinator’s name voilà semiolysis semiosynchrety semiopollination if there were no insect there would be no fertilization no plant no insect name residing within plant name and so on words writing is a kind of fixed soundless often contextless speech punctuation marks representing extralinguistic correlates of meaning 52

on the other hand perhaps the words are the punctuation or contain it diacritical marks indicating terpsichorean positioning blocking yet silence is rarely celebrated as a morpheme or even phoneme part of the rhythm the sound the p/l/ace of listening with and to and in so if there is meaning in silence how did it get there who placed it and how does it come across between languages between speakers/listeners how does one differentiate between pause silence and beat who provides the context how according to whose authority lexicographers perhaps for reasons known only to themselves seem to have a great attachment to dictionary as form ing agent d’ alphabetization as the great impositioner encoder perhaps it is similar to my community using the canoe motif in art our alphabet is the canoe the paddle the weir the fishing spear we spell by speaking pronouncing doing rather than striving to replicate essence with orthographic re presentation symbolic re version how is it that first nations children [not to mention other children] do not learn their oral indigenous language alphabetically how do they learn it without a bureaucratic structure and staid mnemonics without courses in linguistics sociology psychology of language without a prescribed curriculum learning outcomes lesson plans ipr’s how did our children learn in the village way back before contact without ever writing anything down without chalk pencils computers we were truly wireless we didn’t even have a word for wire we were wire less or rather ____less maybe the children learned with in as rather than were taught by maybe they participated integrally in village life they learned because they were loved and part of rather than units to be forded evaluated negated have adults not the intellectual maturity of children or is there simply too much alphabetical flotsam clogging up the intake fluency exchanger of adults it’s like trying to train a dog to sit by saying ‘sit’ maybe as human beings we could try learning some dog talk instead if we could learn what even one canine morph/phon/eme means or how to pronounce it correctly that would be a start maybe we could learn something from our sisters and brothers the fourleggeds rather than spending an inordinate amount of time trying to ‘teach’ them ‘tricks’ or ‘to obey’ who is teaching whom? and how is it that learning is expected to be one-way maybe the planners and the engineers might want to get together with other human beings who actually live their lives outside of their theories and statistical norms and patterns refrain we were called prehistorical because we didn’t use alphabets because we did not fit in to the noun ‘history’ we were the wrong shape 53

or the noun was the wrong shape we were identified as being prehistorical because we spoke together and listened rather than spending our time scratching out meaning secondhand using tools or perhaps thirdhand using linguistic based thinking and ‘meaning’ being a word was caught in its own headlights and taillights circling we know all about back eddies and front eddies and sideways ones and that’s what english thinking and writing and talking seemed like to some of us we had iteratur iterati we were iterate though we had no english words for these sautauxyeuxisismes we never misspelled anything or something or everything we learned without being conscripted into schoolprisons without being processed through the funnels and corrals of slavery capitalism mercantilism socialism free enterprise before the boats came we had no history only a past a prepast a repast everything we did was prehistorical everything we were was prehistorical even our future was prehistorical our history is only 160 years old because before that nobody in british columbia could read or write white or spell though we have always written on stone we have been here tens of millenia do I hear twenties in the back stretch we are not immigrants to this land the creator made us here if there were a beringial transasian parkway subcontinent it was not used by us to come to this land because we were already here that isthmus was a means by which the white imagination has made great efforts to transport us away from our homeland to asia or the north pacific islands or africa you can use dna testing stanford binet testing wine testing or test testing you can get scientific evidence 50 miles high but you won’t get the truth of us you’ll only get socalled objective socalled scientific criteria the science of genetics is hardly half a century old the use of radium maybe twice that yet science knows it all science has it all figured out ah but we’ve all heard it the laws of science discovered—or rather invented—by people never change the truths of science are constant and if they are then they must be constant ly relative science they impute is god god is science long live scieod the default truth of all truth well hello wake up extra extra think all about it there is no spirit this is a certainty a onetruestory because science has no instruments that go beyond the physical science doesn’t need them because if you go beyond empiricism if you go beyond causality there is only evil emotion transcendence subjectivity and satons they’re like electrons and protons but are inherently evil waiting to pull science into mysticism into scifi into fictive realms au secours save science have faith in science science will rain manna processed manna red dye number two manna hydrogenated gm oil manna 54

science said oh the savages aren’t human they have only been here for a short while here? the new world new? I would think it’s hundreds of millions of years old (Dickason, 2002) olive dickason shares recent scientific ‘evidence’ that we have been here for some time even in the minds of western interlopers who are looking for any excuse to find that we too are newcomers and being the younger sisters and brothers of our fourlegged winged finned scaled chitined and carapaced relations we are also guests of the bacterial and viral nations the plant nations and guests of the creator with respect to sovereignty we as first peoples did not speak of ownership of land until treaties and landclaims were forced on us either you’re with us or you’re with the antiterritorialists we do not have the genitive case didn’t use possessive adjectives that way that is we never did until you got it until we began treaty talks landclaim talks we are forced to move to western ways of justice western ways white rules of evidence western ways of according legitimacy and legitimation and habitude if we want to demand the return of our land which has never not been ‘ours’ we must enter the euroconversation yet also sneak in our own ideas be intimately aware of the words that we use and don’t use today nouns pronouns conjunctions take up the space silence used to have silence used to be we have for gotten fasting silent prayer respect are more than about what bodies do when the night and day are in im/balance teeter tottering paddle paddle pad dle no matter what city we come to there are white people speaking as instead of or (smilesmilesmile) ‘on behalf of’ first peoples because we’ve all had larygectomies pharyngectomies epiglottectomies palatectomies because we’ve all taken vows of silence vows of linguistic celibacy not only white first nations experts but all the other colours too have invaded our languages the land of our thoughts using magnetoencephalography magnetic resonance imaging positron emission tomography sylvan fissure xoscopy or perhaps they are waiting for us to have neurological diseases attack us so we can become objects of discovery or there’s always postmortem analysis hemispheric dissection looking for ectopic neurobundles or load shifts chorus oh they come from academia it’s rampant as you see oh they come from churchiana it’s a vector site for sure for we which is the nominative subjective of us oh they come from publishingia only nonindians need apply another chorus living and working in vancouver victoria edmonton calgary saskatoon regina winnipeg toronto hamilton ottawa montreal quebec city st john 55

fredericton charlottetown st johns I know I missed a lot all living off the avails feeding their children from the avails travaiiiils taking jobs away taking spirit away taking book contracts away from the objectified from the exoticized from the transmogrified you got it indians!! paddle paddle paddle stroke stroke moving right along to an extended harangue about white right white write white write white write whitewhite moving away from first nations right write wright rite right? but we’re making baby steps for ward mothermayi no now go back to the closet badbadbad oh for heaven’s sake why don’t you indians move on find something positive somewhere sometime get on with your lives things will change eventually five hundred years five hundred years five hundred years away from home they’ve heard the white whistle blow five hundred years tweet tweet tweet pardon me for not referencing that citation but if ralph klein can get away with plagiarism at athabasca u well why bother citing anything anyone anymore excuse me sir you’re trespassing on my property don’t you have a streetcorner or backalley or reserve where you can take up space splish paddle paddle splash paddle I was taking a bath thank you bobby darin raven and coyote are putting on a talk tonight a town hall meeting let’s listen in to their human forms pit and poitah order! I am raven called corvus corax by ornithologists our form is avian but we are actually bird people transformers shape shifters on my human being side I am from the black grizzly bear and sasquatch clans of the lower stl’atl’imx my community is port douglas (xa’xtsa) sakteen skatin samahquam n’quatqua the old pemberton meadows village whistler and blackcomb garibaldi from the south and east the north pitt and those places up there where our people don’t live anymore because the animals and fish are gone the forests have been cut down the water is not clean the burial places have been flooded our ancestors dug up I am coyote otherwise designated canis latrans coyotes like ravens are survivors and like aboriginal people we have been the object of genocidal policies and practices but we always rebound because we’re pneumatic ffffttt like ravens coyotes are (O’Riley, 1998) tricksters we change shape thanks to your creative visioning paddle stroke stroke stroke paddle I join the circle at this bend in the river of words experience body spirit I push the canoe into the current enter it with my ancestors and thosewhoaretocome who like tunneling electrons have overleapt reason and discovered a shortcut to nownow from nowthen or nowtocome having only the eternal present as temporal domicile

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I become enfolded in tidal drift back eddies standing waves spinning gunmagazines and bottles weirs eel traps salmon fences frontier jurisprudential felonization of everything indian I try to use words so as to gesture to directions not common to ucwalmicwts and english weave an alter/native text whose direction cannot be scripted read written broached breeched beached abrogated interrogated exacerbated this gesturedto direction cannot be detected bisected or explicated using scopes graphs charts maps grids compasses sonar radar geiger maser laser digital global positioning technology even a radioshack continuity tester our knowings are not available as a byproduct of translation how do you translate culture and with what it is not a separate item from the words the speaking of with through via as from this narrative journey is a bringing together of indigenous ways of knowing the world while honouring tradition as being other than static fossilized epistemology what I mean by try to is that I actually see it being done or imagine it being done but I do not know how to access the accomplishing postvisualizing tools which allow me to move from the conceptual to the performed to the spiritual and not be caught in a forest of language a treefarm of words by try I mean I am on the road to giving up trying (Deleuze, 1994) replacing hesitating with doing perhaps this is what gilles deleuze was talking about with respect to stuttering (Cage, 1961) or john cage meant when he spoke of silence sound edge and bubbles the archaeoinformation highway needs upgrading regrading it looks like the aftereffects of an asteroid shower or a hail of lead grape another caveat this one about bridges and crossing geographies the idea in english of ‘bridge’ is very much about going over or through territory without touching it being touched by it the idea of bridge is about not touching the river geography land etc but being above it away from it paddle paddle as first peoples we define ourselves relative to the river the weather the land so what use is there of ‘bridge’ to us in the english language sense yes we had bridges across or through for traversing difficult geographies as un/in/ob/trusively as possible but we weren’t afraid of getting dirty or wet or mussed but dr coyote when you do research aren’t you removing yourself from stepping away as it were the busyness of same othering it the ‘data’ in my research with coparticipants is derived from conversations rather than from a question/answer format

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it

I avoid asking questions as much as I can knowing that questions shape answers as of course do comments yet sometimes I am caught by questions and in seeking release ask

(O’Riley, 1998)

of course if you don’t ask how do you get answers however interrogation is seen by my relations as being invasive the 3rd degree staring glaring peering voyeuring ocular snaring panopticonning as an aboriginal scholar who is sometimes caught up in the thrall of academiosis I want to be as uncoercive unmeddlesome uncontagious in my research as I can be though coercion is often well disguised and as often pretended away when is noncoercion not just the seeming absence of coercion we are on a shared journey of learning living coexisting together I am aware of a power differential between myself and those with whom I speak interact it is critical that I give back to the community I research with not simply take like a predator like a politician in the night give me that! that’s mine my data my knowledge my project c’est à moi paddle paddle swoooooshshsh shshsh sh paddle raven and coyote got to talking the other day about the global colonization of first nations peoples and technologies by the new age movement by academia and by drug companies which all claim our ceremonies our stories our technologies our medicines found or discovered like the Western hemisphere to be unclaimed unpatented unregistered so now everything ‘indian’ is being sold out from under (over and beside) us making us mistrustful of global marketing especially at a corporate governmental postsecondary educational level

C OYO T E :

imperialism is about continual rediscovery from which we’re in continual recovery hey monique mojica R AV E N : wrakkkk oh canada their home their natives their land troop ate riot lovin all thy sons [and daughters] command tenhut! C OYO T E : gazing grasping voyeuring eavesdropping gablepeering redecontextualizing interpreting infiltrating inventing underestimating dissenting unrelenting racial cultural historical appropriational eliminational procrastinational postemancipational interdenominational exonerational disproportion-ational glass of water please thank you over to you raven

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R AV E N :

so about narrativity storytelling how about if we start with a workshop on building baskets canoes weirs spindles looms sweatlodges C OYO T E : if you want a workshop we need trees or at least lumber R AV E N : not this one it’s an internal workshop I build the canoe in my head C OYO T E : (rolls eyes) I can hardly wait for the launch R AV E N : it’s constructed not from the forest nations but from words the gesturings of those words and the spaces around those words C OYO T E : right so anyway I was telling you about this white publisher woman who asked me to write a book about what she called TEK traditional ecological knowledge I said to her what’s TEK? she ignored my question and said she wanted chapters and paragraphs and punctuation I put my paw down and said your rules for my behaviour go against who I am as a coyote I said to her I have to do it my way or you can write it yourself so she said okay I’ll write it myself R AV E N : wrong move C OYO T E : to which I responded – CHOMP! I bit down on this scurrying four-legged rodent running around her office so you think you can speak for coyotes I hazarded would you like to share this little morsel (holds up rat) rattus rattus she said no no thank you maybe I could listen to your plan plan? I said I never promised you that I’m too busy to have plans I have things to do okay okay she said then I’ll listen to your intuition no time for that either I just do what I gotta do she relented so I let the rodent go it scurried over to the accounting section R AV E N : so now you have to write a book do you have editorial control C OYO T E : no she has but I have control of her the rat was the pivotal point she wasn’t willing to walk my talk so we negotiated equity on my terms R AV E N : what will your readers think when they see your words sprawled all over everywhere you can’t just have a whole bunch of howling who’s going to understand C OYO T E : understand I’m not aiming for understanding I’m just telling a story R AV E N : what’s your angle C OYO T E : obtuse isosceles scalene acute equilateral coyotec I call them on their stuff R AV E N : who m? C OYO T E : the publisher and editor-in-thief R AV E N : meaning C OYO T E : meaning she steals my name and attaches it to my ideas after they’ve been sifted through her vocabulary writing style and business agenda in the past it was only human beings who wrote about coyotes but a lot of coyotes protested demanded equity reconciliation I said to her no way are you going to ascribe that jabberwocky piltdown to me I do not talk or think academic jargon so I will not write it she started talking academic mumbojumbo so I reached over her desk and hit her a good one on the back it’s a coyotec maneuver for dislodging things from your trachea 59

that aren’t supposed to be there I thought she was having a fit but she was just talking academic having a rhetoric attack R AV E N : so she wanted to m/academize your talk your knowings and technologies pave it over with primate babble C OYO T E : right and sell it on a global market for a fee fee trade R AV E N : does she think your voice will sell? C OYO T E : of course it’ll sell doesn’t matter what she thinks I said to her I didn’t agree with the universe being ordered into rationally constructed geometries and portfolios I’m a coyote I said I got to talk coyote TEK is white talk whiTEKnowing it has nothing to do with us coyotes and shapeshifter indians what we have is collective ecological knowledge it’s not something you can catalogue or squash into books and articles for white curricula TEK is not knowledge at all but the process of how we live what we value what our relationships are with creation R AV E N : let’s hear it for postmodernism deconstruction rhizomatics critical pedagogy phenomenology auction re:search C OYO T E : suddenly raven launches into auction mode people went crazy remained crazy

auction re:search R AV E N :

all right let’s go now what is this thing? I don’t know but it’s authentic aboriginiana fniana indigeniana autochthoniana which is to say stolen uploaded I mean collected where do you want to start on this beauty do I hear one thousand one a one a one over there with the feathered earrings do I hear two one and a half now two with the beaded headband now three three three three man with the bone choker now four woman with the sacred bundle five in the second row no halfs sir you know the rules we’re on roll whattayawannabid whattaabid do I hear five five a five a five a woman with the dreamcatcher earrings go half now half now half five and a half now six and a half to the man with the double roach there’s a reserve bid on this folks and we’re not even close do I hear ten thousand and now twenty twenty twenty twenty and half now fifty in the back will you go a hundred one sixty five from the phone now seventy do I hear seventy and a half now 80 one hundred eighty 80 80 come on folks this is one of a kind merchandise you won’t find this in kmart let’s get serious one eighty in the front row with the ribbon shirt and now a half 187 50 one a one a one and one ninety woman with the linda lundstrum jacket and two hundred whatdoyouwanttobid whattabid comeonenow two ten with the bolo tie and fifteen up there in the buckskin and twenty wannabid wannabid wannabid now two twenty five do I hear 30 wheredoyawannago wheredago wheredago twenty seven fifty

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come on folks this is a one of a kind opportunity to purchase an authentic indian artifact you won’t find in any retail outlet anytime soon even on ebay do I hear 30 now 30 30 30 now let’s go folks let’s go let’s go and now 35 will you go 5 two and half now 5 wheredoyouwanna go wheredago wheredago now 5 and on the phone now 40 come on now come on now will you go 60 with the hudson bay blanket coat and now 65 70 now 75 and 80 bid80bid80bid80bid80 whatabid whatabid whatabid now 90 wheredago wheredago wheredago sir! are you bidding well this is no place to be doing calisthenics or pilates or any of that there’s a yoga studio down the street thank you lady with the lady with the lady with the eagle vest will you go a hundred now 300 thousand let’s go now whattabid whattabid now let’s go and now 10 10 10 will you go five two and a half and now 3 I might as well put this microphone down and start up a kiosk at the ferry terminal come on folks get out your fingers and your hands whatabid whatabid whatabid will you go 10 and now 20 from the phone museum of civilization bid 30 will you go 5 we’ve got a phone war going 30 now 35 and now 40 museum of anthropology back to line 1 and now 45 from line 3 yes sir that’s you you’re three and now in back there with the dakota pipe now 60 dakota dakota dakota bid now do I hear 70 70 75 now 80 please sir! go across the street if you want to stretch I’m trying to run a business here do I hear 80 that’s it folks three eighty just getting started gottogo gottogo gottogo 380 now 90 with the dreamcatcher earrings back to you with the beaded headband double roach now 4 4 whatabid now bidnow bidnow let’s go now and now 10 man in the bucksin go 20 420 thousand do I hear 5 ladies and gentleman this is an authentic what did you say it was it’s an authentic northwestcoast artifact do I hear 25 we got a long night ahead if we move this slow gotta go gotta go gotta go now do I hear 30 ladies and gentleman this is from the collection of mr duncan campbell scat esquire a great what was he? a great canadian poet and artifact collector a great supporter of indian memorabilia he what? didn’t much like indians well then let’s move this out of his collection right now do I hear 30 going once going twice and now 30 and 35 now 40 50 50 wanna bid wanna bid wanna bid phone bid number 2 go 360 will you go will you go will you go whatta bid whatta bid whatta bid now 365 and now a quarter

back to the english language and ‘indian experts’ C OYO T E :

what is this white drive to translate first peoples into marketable data data data data data data data data data da ta [to the tune of batman] available in

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veneer or full grain airbrush stencils transfers tattoos also available free plastic pocahontas with every order over xxx dollars takeit takeit takeit it’s the call of global capitalism buyit buyit buyit everything’s for sale up for grabs email eprogress ecommerce egreed egregious R AV E N : did you finally agree on a format for your published work? C OYO T E : the only agreement was me agreeing with myself and her agreeing with herself R AV E N : so you’re at an impasse C OYO T E : no she’s at an impasse I’m doing fine R AV E N : will they publish it as is? C OYO T E : doesn’t matter I got some new desktop publishing hardware and I can do it myself if they don’t want to listen to reason the latest R AV E N : speech recognition processor? C OYO T E : yes it’s called pencil and paper anyway we came to an understanding she understood I wasn’t changing because I’m too smart to and I understood that she wasn’t smart enough to understand me so she wasn’t going to change either in the end she said okay sign here I said thank you but I’ll write up the contract and you can sign it on my terms she almost fell off her highhorse I won’t write like you I can’t think like you I work to bring together aboriginal indigenous ways of knowing the world while honouring tradition as being other than static fossilized epistemology we have always been traditional we have always been modern it’s what happens when you only have a present tense until it gets translated into english R AV E N : she agreed? C OYO T E : she fell asleep but I went on anyway I was on a roll there are no commas in my life I got a/way with words harrrrrooooooo R AV E N :

now the international news mediation and reconciliation have failed everywhere the inequity/affirmative inaction index is on the upswing capitalism though not universally welcomed is steady trading in environmental racism is up strongly mammal slaughter is down marginally due to animal rights activists vegetarians vegans and their ilk euro-analysis plants are being built everywhere to protect white light from diffraction from having to break into other colours sports next now the sports racism in sports is on the rise the weather will follow bulletin the world trade organization has bought the weather and will be selling shares the markets are next oops they’ve gone off the chart again and now for a sound byte from george bush about ‘native american’ rights [long silence] and now for a word from former prime minister jean chretien about ‘native people’ himself having adopted a native boy surely he must have a lot to say [long silence] herb dhaliwal former minister of makingsureindiansdon’texercise theirright to fish would like to talk ‘briefly’ about indians and lobster [silence holds index finger up] and lastly the former leader of the official opposition doris day “che sera sera” back to you coyote 62

C OYO T E :

I told her this english language was forced onto my species in zoos obedience schools spca and other places of detention but I will never forget my coyote language harooooooo R AV E N : so in the meantime you are becoming a co-owner as well as tenant of the english language a tool of corporate globalization what has it to do with aboriginal technologies? C OYO T E : language is a technology my writing is a technology my howling is a technology in order to be of immediate use for my species it is deemed I am to follow western epistemologies human-based knowings while my natural inclination is to subtend into coyotec plate tectonics and radical canid astrology hm let’s see it’s the year of the fire human from thatplacejustyonder (brinnnng brinnnng hurst) hello indian validation and intercessionary society it has reached our notice which is to say we have been informed that certain autochthonal elements have traversed the boundary of ‘speakfor’ speakfor? yes it’s a combining of verb and/or with a preposition a declensioning instrumental operation whereby the party of the first party is not going through the party of the second party in order to facilitate information about the former in relation to the latter when a fiduciary relationship has been superimposed onto the first party by the agents and agencies of the second party R AV E N :

are you saying you want us to bring our own salad dressing is that it (gets out a flipchart) you see here this companion planting of white knowings with indigenous epistemologies doesn’t work because the white knowings tend to proliferate [quick hand motion] rather than share the space they tend to monocrop and biocide they call indians ‘weeds because we’re like rhizomes you know like quackgrass we go outside the lines we invade gardens and sidewalks and lawns may be these white experts think they’ve become aboriginal by default through association or an act of parliament or referendum [Beethoven’s 5th] dum dum dum dummmm dummm dummm really dumb

C OYO T E :

R AV E N :

the transpositional story of narrative native drift is supposed to go like this what story? R AV E N : oh the story about ‘indian’ stories belonging to everybody they belong to “Canada” they’re a global legacy ‘from our red brothers’ now we’re brothers you know you can’t copyright orality ‘indians’ are our national treasure but putting so many of us in prison is sure a funny way of showing it we must be reaaal special anyway our stories are purportedly part of the public domain so free for the taking selling renting borrowing resowing changing restraining interpreting but don’t you indians try patenting them copyrighting them C OYO T E : what do you think they are aspirin tylenol prozac ritalin aids drugs and where do you think those came from were they invented or discovered for the C OYO T E :

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good of all [monied] humanity hm ask the pharmaceutical companies ask monsanto my saint my holy one R AV E N : okay here’s how it goes one white fellow tells about another white fellow who claims to have bought some stories from a real indian way back generations ago m before there were witnesses affidavits instant replay negotiable fictive space and one true story whose? right so the stories entered the public domain voilà retroactively m running backwards and forwards at the same time funny how most of our sacred objects end up there C OYO T E : anyhow other white ‘indian experts’ say we stole our stories from each other so that means white people can steal them from us because they don’t really belong to anybody except everybody they’re free until some white person copyrights them as text m this indian expert says oh this is an individual’s story oooooh we says hm [and we leave a looooong cultural space] then we say what’s an individual is it like when they gave us smallpox blankets way back measles influenza diabetes diphtheria alcoholism blankets and we died one at a time or was it when we died all at once all hundred million R AV E N : an individual is like a tribe but takes up less space C OYO T E : hey! I want to write about us too I got stuff to say I got cultural inclusion arrrooooooooo R AV E N : stomp on that idea you got no place writing about yourself you can’t just assume unchaperoned indians got things to say why would you write about yourself when there’s a white person behind every bush behind every keyboard every publishing house every docudrama “canada a history” coughcough [silence] besides what would all those white tenured faculty indianexperts do with legitimized ‘indians’ filling up faculty positions producer and director positions writing books and movies about themselves there’d be chaos there’d be uppity indians everywhere and 10,000 white indian experts in postsecondary canadian institutes would have to look elsewhere for honest work C OYO T E : hm tsk tsk you know it’s getting to the point indians think they’re indians sure they’re the real indians but not the write ones the w r i t e r l y o n e s funny how the white name mostly appears as author and guess who doesn’t get the royalties the phd the literary awards the sshrc grants the laurels the encomia the endowed chairs the tenure and (self-) promotion R AV E N : right! the aboriginal people not on your life it’s like magic and indians never have to come out of a hat or handkerchief or get sawed in half pretty interesting trick C OYO T E : (grins) everybody knows you need white indian experts otherwise how would publishers like uoft ubc oxford m&s douglas and mcintyre know if such and such an indian were authentic if there were no white expert to validate them or ignore them where would the author ity lie hmmm

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R AV E N :

so let’s get back to your canoe journey coyote first off I didn’t know coyotes liked water travel C OYO T E : remember the canoe in the head amygdala limbic system hypothalamus pineal pituitary gortex cortex R AV E N : how will you begin your storytelling journey C OYO T E : begin? the journey is already taking place and incidentally the canoe and tree are not just from a conceptual space they are from spirit and heart this journey takes place on papertree too in your talk about frameworks raven I know you build biiig nests waaay up that withstand the weather and earthquakes but we need things that work for us and nests don’t do it for everybody R AV E N : what about a sweatlodge as a framework? it’s an epistemology and embedded in it are methodologies remember how I tried to explain it to father o’dewey the gist was sweat lodge as healing ‘paradigm’ enacting respectful relationships on the ground he didn’t get it it wasn’t in his black book so it didn’t exist he said I was talking about a physical framework not the kind of framework which has meaning in an educational or theological sense C OYO T E : he thought it very curious indeed that we should ask for permission to remove fungus from a willow he said ‘fungus is just fungus’ it’s there for everybody it’s a pest R AV E N : m and when a pest saves your life you have to reassess your language when you complained about coyote experts he said indians and ravens and coyotes need to be written about by disinterested outsiders C OYO T E : distinterested? is working toward a phd or tenure or sainthood disinterested is being paid a bounty a ‘find’ersfee disinterested is getting a book published disinterested is becoming an expert on other cultures rather than looking at their own role in the perpetuation of colonialism colonialist discourse genocide and coverup disinterested is saving souls disinterested I thought father o’dewey was going to have an apoplectic fit where did a coyote learn to talk like that he said to the cosmos R AV E N : and he went on in elevated systole artheroexcitement building a heathen sweatlodge for your ungodly practices is not a christian technology it’s voodoo it’s blasphemy apprenticeship to the devil oh I’m no lawyer I says to him C OYO T E : he turned down all invitations to come into our homes our dens our lairs our eyries we invited him many times but he always had excuses he probably thought we were going to put him in a pot he didn’t like the look of our pit-homes too earthy he said you live like beasts he raved and need the lord jesus christ to save you ‘from what?’ we said satan he replied the red devil over yonder down under it’s a pleasant place you said to him raven he didn’t even crack a smile or simile his face was like a vice roy R AV E N : we said we had technologies of survival of respect and preservation

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and he said you can’t compare that kind of primeval proto- paleo-technology with steam engines rifles and modern factories C OYO T E : without technology you’ll never amount to anything he said with his white collar and his combed hair and his plucked ear hairs R AV E N : but we keep telling you father our technologies are everywhere and we don’t even have to dam rivers or kill or destroy the earth to live our looms are studies in simplicity this same simplicity which denotes demarcates us as primitive disingenuous naive stoneage gullible and trusting C OYO T E : trusting is good said father o’dewey who didn’t trust a one of us R AV E N : but there’s a downside I said to him the christian practices that you trans/planted tip-layered from your catholic hell into our heathen eden C OYO T E : you speak well raven said he if somewhat blasphemously but you’re unschooled profoundly ignorant and you don’t know a whit about writing and spelling R AV E N : and I said to him on his elevated equine mount father o’dewey says I in me worst irish accent yes you have fine big ships and compasses they’re MARvellous technologies to which he beamed then you continued so excellent they are for war and piracy and genocide not to mention theft of other peoples’ property whole empires so efficient they are for the transporting of slaves and criminals and booty C OYO T E : that’s rubbish he said the english language is a jewel a precious gem R AV E N : I’ve read about some of your frameworks father o’dewey the ones that reside in that black book of yours the ones written in your jewel of a language about ‘man’ having dominion over beasts and about one race being superior to another the white’s über alles one race to be servitors of the other supreme race C OYO T E : he replied that being poetical doesn’t mean anything he said my words and delivery were distractions and you said then how is it it’s the king james bible you’re always reading from wasn’t it poets and dramatists who wrote it rendered it the ‘dregs’ of elizabethan society if your bible is such a wonderful technology how is it that you don’t read the original texts you preach the translations did god not want you to learn aramaic chaldean ancient hebrew why are the original words of your god and saviour not being cited if your black book is so hellfiredly filled with truth are your god’s words so easily translated and who is qualified to translate them who is not R AV E N : while his mouth was open ready to hurl back more backhanded compliments or more likely forehanded insults I said to him our frameworks and workings always take into account the clarity (or not) of the water its speed its dervish it placidity its negotiativity we paid (and indeed do pay) intimate attendance to geography by not being separated from it I said we were not speciely speci/fic/ally different from salmon or bears or labrador tea or deer flies until we were linguistically immured by linnaean categories transsubstantiated by christian alchemical herme(neu)tical measures

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C OYO T E :

father o’dewey never did get it he couldn’t see you were a raven he thought you were an ‘indian’ he thought I was one too R AV E N : I said father o’dewey our technologies have always been practical theory has never been the high road for us C OYO T E : you were cruel with him raven R AV E N : romantic rubbish he said if you do not have logical theories about your relationship with the numinous the divine you will go to hell if you have no concept of ethics as a rational system you will burn forever C OYO T E : burn yes life is about combustion and so is death what did you tell him about your canoe journey raven? R AV E N : when he opened his mouth to naysay me a bee flew in and stung his tongue (pointing) right in the middle of it a key point of articulation I said to him as his tongue swelled we learned to take a canoe from a cedar without felling it using slate for tools this is our framework our technology we had no atomic bombs nuclear reactors dirty technologies we were not able in a few generations to create systemic transgenerational cancer together with 100,000 toxins and myriad other diseases imported wholesale from europe retail from the usa we were primitive and unknowing in such devices everything was organic C OYO T E : father o’dewey baited ‘you seem to be saying that old technologies are good and new ones are not so good’ his mouth full of venom his tongue in any case R AV E N : technologies are not separate from the context in which they are created and used look at technologies of control technologies of colonization technologies and technosophies of academia paddle paddle old sam jim and my dad used to go canoeing up north pitt river way there’s high mountains back there real rough territory the old time indians say there’s a big seam of gold up there aztec emperor’s ransom just waiting to be rediscovered old joe grubstaked a miner who took sick who mailed him a map some say it was cursed gold but anyway he told joe where the seam was on paper on account of him being waylaid by illness but there was a yellow ribbon around every tree and rock thereabouts or a red one and all the clues were confusing ambiguous so though there was plenty of excitement that’s about as far as it got lots of hope equal measures of disappointment stalemate that map it appeared in all kinds of publications and people used it to get themselves in high spirits and more than a little bit of disappointment and other troubles it didn’t really matter if they found any gold or not though they were real poor dad liked hanging around the old people that’s how you learned [lip point] actually back in 1928 sam jim wasn’t that old for an oldtime indian more like middleaged about 65 had another good 40 or 50 years in him yet lots of people from our community lived to 110 120 140 do I hear 145 even more dan said the pitt river area was the roughest country anywhere

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that he’d been

he said lots of people never came back loads of grizzlies and sasquatches up that way you have to learn how to negotiate with them get along like I said our family is from the grizzly black bear and sasquatch clans meaning they’re supposed to be on our side we’re supposed to look after each other dad had a lot of stories from their trips one he told us a lot (because we asked) was how to stop a charging grizzly bear well when the attacking grizzly stands up for the coup de grâce you’re supposed to reach out quick as lightning and shove your arm down the bear’s throat as faaar as you can and then maybe a bit further and in a quick motion you turn the bear inside out that’s it the big secret but timing is everything we must have asked dad a few thousand times to tell us that one he was probably sorry he ever told us the first time five kids tell us again tell us again I think he was trying to say to us everybody learns in the bush or else dad learned a lot from sam jim and sam probably picked up a few things too dad was pretty quick himself it’s like osmosis the learning doesn’t just flow one way or from one source it diffuses through living systems going where there’s an opening the fish learned too the trees birds insects animals algae moss lichen even the bacteria and viruses they say bacteria and viruses carry a lot of knowings around with them not in the shape of words a lot of knowing is doing some people think that viruses and bacteria put us human beings together to transport them around dad used to say learning is infectious indian people know all about that we’re the survivors and the children of the survivors of the epidemics brought by the europeans you have to learn to bargain with the viruses bacteria protozoa get to know them most of our learning came from learning how to track read traces footprints pawprints clawprints rippleprints skyprints wordprints soundprints quicksprints learning to ‘read’ the forest the river the sky one another in his own way dad was talking about an epidemiological basis for knowledge production and dissemination for learning not just something you learn as an individual from another individual as in disease pathology etiology it was more like ripples in water air and earth oscillations intra trans interspecific narratives nouns and verbs partnering up in a threelegged race transformer nouns dos à dos ing with the verb ensconced within the nounness except we had no nouns or verbs separatelike words have never been the main way of learning for us the via orthodoxus the rustic way we had own ways besides talk words they’re more of a temporary vehicle that carries the sounds of the knowing the body’s breath the rhythm like messengers mimes mimics that go around pointing gesturing motioning embodyin(g) embodyang toward shared understandings people already have inside themselves the context is not extract or extraction it’s more onstream milling the action inter con trans the effects more than local it’s like when you make sourdough bread you mix flour water and salt and wait 68

for the yeasts that live in the air to join in unless you’ve got sourdough starter the mixing together sets up a nice home a smorgasbord for the yeast as far as I can figure epidemiology looks beyond disease mechanisms pathologies at interacting systems host hostee hostage relationships vectors of knowledge transmission sometimes manifested as verbal versations songs dances ceremonies rituals books and other new media the interacting is multifactorial between colonies of bacteria or viruses and colonies of human beings not staid epistemolatries stucknounsstuck paddle paddle whooOOOOOOSSSHHH when I studied neoplate tectonics and vulcanism aeons back our professor would begin a sentence and get out only a few words then he’d begin another sentence of qualification justification explanation of what he was about to say he would begin say 10 or 12 sentences clauses phrases all spinning their wheels in gridlock so he never did say much of anything that really held together with any kind of semiomortises subordinate clauses fragmentals slalomings fibrillatings circumcircumlocutions utterly without throughline resolution single if any focus it was a fascinating and memorable experience a kind of linguistics class it was as if he were trying to say everything at once disprove heisenberg’s uncertainty principle pauli exclusion principle defy the laws of gravity and demonstrate variable interlocking instantaneous squared velocity accelerations in one big infinished sentence it was as if he were enacting upthrusts subtendings mantle plumings not linearly through rationalist discourse but through a kind of phraseal clausal stuttering eructating verbal pluming grammatical transverse faulting mantle shrugging morphopoeics isomorphism if you let it human communication can work as do other natural systems dad said an onlooker might see no communication taking place between him and sam jim no passing of information like two people in parallel trances what the white world calls autism the real trick is being caught in the zoom rather than being the zoomer zoom zoom slipping out of the nominal object position and rejoining the circle like a virus shearing carding spinning weaving darning itself into a genome forgoing prepositional incursion locative forgoance our homeland is prone to earthquakes and volcanoes shifting foundations energy building up under intense pressure and releasing sounds a bit like modern political systems we know that knowledge includes cracks and fissures conversations with through rock molten blood remanifesting as cone as petrification mountain chains pushed up imperative declensions the past resolving itself with in a future present ideas erupt as ranges plateaux ridges passes moraines valleys avalanches interacting intersecting topologies topographies creative rewritings oblique editings 69

selfpublishings le mot le mieux becoming comparative becoming fonts what if the whole appletree had fallen on newton or his parents or theirs paddle paddle our emotions are a kind of weathering that hang around us influenced by and influencing our topologies our somatospheres energy systems inviting conversation if you take a meteorological approach to knowing learning you can map or trace relationships contours of comings together my dad said that sometimes he and sam jim would say nothing for days they’d just be (in) the landscape (part of) the weather system no effort was made to not say anything to hold back it was a default positioning base camp and then suddenly somebody would fart or sneeze or hiccough and there’d be rollicking laughter quiet rollicking laughter sound as the punchline of silence fronts colliding ridges laughter the molten oracle of earth pressed into sky the belly reclaiming the face diaphragm bridging overarching there were big glaciers up home including the pitt lake area but they’ve been getting steadily smaller the past ten fifteen thousand years we have oral memories of time past ice ages lakeandriver tsunamis floods ing ris geographies in flux sea levels changing rising fall our villages even those hundreds of feet above waterline in hundreds of miles inland became over time sea g peninsulas defined by water on two sides and a third become archipelagoes smatterings of seemingly unconnected isolated epistemo-geographics identified not by their submarine and occulted connections with one another but by their surface features such as being other than mainland extra-continental surrounded by water disconnected modal islands like understandings have to do with levels of awareness tidal shifts gravitation (heavenly) bodies in relation points of view if the sea level went down sufficiently the archipelago would become one island or even part of the mainland a peninsula so too our thoughts ideas actions these are the common knowings the landscape of indigeneity reminding me of when n scott momaday was asked how long does it take to become indigenous he said he couldn’t remember ice is part of mother earth part of climate cold congealings drawn from sky tree ocean river bodies time shaped into geography corpora/lities ice migrating retreating advancing gouging tides of frozen clouds wind our stories are older than words longer than cellular molecular memory they are the impress of experience onto physical being

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rather than merely axonic dendritic synaptic holographics we are the etchings of story of landscape of weather aging is a kind of learning growing younger older outside of time wrinkles and stiff joints are conversations not just monologues there’s an arabic saying about time being a way of explaining change for us up home time was always presence rather than absence time keeps itself so we don’t have to fend it off time holds the quill and we are its figurings though to be sure we never had time in the european sense before it escaped from the english language infecting inflecting temporality making time into a noun a container making language into a noun knowledge is landscape we are landscape terra lingua lingua terra hum humus human hummmmmmility hum bug paddle paddle paddle in terms of schooling many in our community received no ‘formal’ education some attended public school band school residential school many quit school and could find no jobs so they went on welfare because they felt they had nothing to offer no-one wanted them now there is only bingo and smoking and lottery tickets and hanging around friendship centres and bars the ucwalmicwts language class in mission was bringing a few back but I have been told that some of our transmillenial neighbours wanted only the halkomelem language to be taught in the fraser river valley so they lobbied to have our language taken out of the secondary school in mission replaced by cree which is not a language indigenous to bc the restoration and revival of ‘all’ aboriginal languages is a priority a few years ago I was able to say “our ucwalmicwts language class continues” but that no longer applies at least in the town where most of our children are where mostly our children make up the first nations student population paddle paddle paddle I have no wie’s (white indian experts) no alter/native cognoscenti of otherness paddle though the academic and trade publishing industry seem to be more interested stroke in stand-ins than the real thing paddle though you might in fact say the wie’s are the real thing these white shamans and their apple cart spud wagon coconut cream cohorts the onside indian scout cultural partners colonized elite mac and ida red pacific rose faithful tontos/tontas everywhere smilesmile bowbow kisskiss endofact one set change props change land change hands mood change repeat from head to tail whoaaa there holier art thou your horse is getting too big for you and you for your britches and vice versa if you must criticize offer hope offer alternatives a better way 71

m that’s good

sounds like a great commercial

red indian chorus no no no ce sont de faux amis ces yeux blancs ces couteaux longues out out damn iago tracking for the dark side tracking for the lightside tracking for the mediumrareside selling our words selling our prayers selling our ceremonies edging us out themselves in edging in their vast ‘nice’ white networks nice nice nicenicenice nicenice nicenicenicenicenicenicenicenicenicenicenicenicenicenice they infiltrate us in prisons schools colleges universities clinics churches places of healing our own homes villages chromosomes genepools but they’re so nice ready please aim please fire thank you so much with so many wie’s people around who needs native people anymore besides the department of ‘indian’ affairs of course paddle who are mostly well salariedandbenefitted white people I mean how can it be assumed that we can look after ourselves yet the government of canada pours billions into indian affairs this massively expensive daycare of wardens prison guards indian agents otherwie’s named the cavalry or is it calvary

nice

paddle

chorus our wardens our wardens oh woe eeeee iiiiii aaaaaa hold your horses! roll up the teepees and wigwams and longhouses get out yer travoises and yer winnebagos and yer indian ponies wounded knee three some of those precious white academic poets and proseurs need us too those indian experts who have out-indianed indians canadiana americana mexicana peruviana indiana cabana banana panna those white academic cognoscenti are the real indians they have invented themselves as native experts through/despite us they have validated themselves as authorities in cross-cultural interaction their palms oleaginous (organic gmo free of course) withfrom re wards grants salaries the indian industry is alive and well throughout the back 10 + 3 people working from the borders of sshrc grants nserc grants lurk grants friends always at hand out encouraged by those appointed by the pmo to keep indians down and cover up the racism with wordwordswords chorus fee fee didgeree dee grants are coming to town grants and rants extravagance where’s my buckskin gown indian experts in the guise of oh so ‘respectful’ acknowledgement time was we were only supernumerary but now we have moved on

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paddle stroke stroke

to being becoming supplemental incidental extranumerary smokescreens if those white and otherly-hued indian experts are so respectful (haffkaff) how is it they continue to make careers out of hybridizing us fiduciating us de-nominating us excluding us from around into their multicultural templates and petri dishes and unbalanced ‘alliances’ how to get the gravity of appropriation across to a mostlywhite audience/readership using black ink on white paper hmmmm how about this appropriation is the handcrank of the genocide machine jumpstarting it jumpstopping us using us as ground and live terminal effectively shortcircuiting us hotwiring the killtheindianinthewo/man machine the white indian expert professors working from the borders counting coup/s making raids to get sshr grants nserc grants as primary investigators no such luck betterlucknexttime you said that 10 years ago 20 25 now 30 in the back they invest in us deposit us into their bank accounts our knowledge collect interest none of which goes to us and we end up being crumpled in somebody’s pocket which along with the rest of the garment eventually gets laundered bleached out so the trick is we need to make a heap big cobweb but we’re not after cobs this time we’ll catch a couple of skins in transit indians on the run I was a captive of the longknives and how I escaped and came home ward bound refrain we are not their manifest re-creation their transunsubstantiated host pass the toast please wine with your meal with that be cash or they get masters degrees by re: search earch eeearching us phds by publishing books articles stories cdroms dvds about us a bout with out us on our shoulders on our backs getting tenure sure lure manure stir just add data s upplied by us and agitate stir and around once more how do they get these credentials you ask oh you don’t well I’ll tell you anyway by ‘allying’ coughcoughcough pardon me getting grants instead of us by being selected for hiring committees by other white people [owp] owp owp owp would somebody let the dog in or out being selected for those hiring committees instead of us les yeux blancs disent oh we can’t have indians on hiring committees they that is we have a builtin prejudice against / for wanting aboriginal people hired for aboriginal positions sorry this one is an indian expert position maybe next time wait in line you mean this one that goes around the block around the country that’s a lot of waiting no can’t have us on the committees for selecting even for choosing the qualifications desired qualities of the candidates deciding what the job description will be no no no indians it would pose posee posse a conflict of interest can’t have that’ though they don’t talk about whites hiring whites hiring whites 73

like a mobius escher con ununundrum wie’s ones preselected to sit on wie research awards committees owp owp adjudication committees without us being anywhere in cite ation for the nation getting tenure sure by teach each eaching about out without us getting tenure pure allure by ‘allying’ coughcough allying cough cough with us getting grants ants ants instead of us getting on hiring committees in lieu or loo of us getting on aboriginal research awards committees adjudication committees without out us on the radar becoming visiting adjunct assistant associate full distinguished university professors via us via indiana without us occupying those positions without us being anywhere in cite ation for the nation permanently on probation full house straight flush one of a kind no room go away repeat ad astra ad nauseum pass the rosary amen ra rah rah! these privileged others alterisimi simulacri legitimate themselves as indian experts as oracles of postindigenous curation retroactive definatory agents framing us scaf/folding our words thus thus thus thus thus thus or thus kalanwi I must plead [prayer gesture] with you to not take us our words out of context because context is all we have left oops had that is another tense lost another conjugation fewer to memorize our knowings have been tokenized misappropriated de-aboriginalized curated choreographed edited re/dressed caricatured extracted fractionated labanotated pruned esplaniered tip-layered scioned strip/mined strip/searched ex/onerated transformed into information bits bytes bouchées thence into cursory newage wisdom or spread in the field using academic conferences classrooms and research p lop! what are you doing now dissemination it’s in the contract our sacredness has been de- and re-constituted reshaped and vomited out as whiterewrite blancmange weissessen bianche qualcose ma non so che to be accurate I should write it in spanish portuguese dutch russian italian vatican too for I can’t truthfully say the english were the only ones or even the worst because they were all worst worser wurst jesus praising butchers mariolators eugenic agents chorus they were christian countries praise be to god on high halleluia in the name of jesus smiting down the wicked halleluia goddamn indians our medicine people our savage children our hellion elders our unsaved women jesusmaryholyghostfather ménage à trois ex machina and don’t forget the popes and saints and borgias cathedrals awaaaaay how much is that relic in the window back in the early days of eurocolonization empire building corporate toddlerhood when the hudson’s bay company [for those not steeped in canadian/british history charles ii’’s european relatives and in(out)laws] was given vast tracts of the canadian 74

west which at the time was neither canada nor canadian 4 million square kilometres a billion acres of indian territory more than 16 times the size of england and the rednecks cowboys and fishers have the gall to complain about us getting some of it back in order to secure fortunes for europe’s aristocracy and ‘gentle’’men’ adventurers hbc was the original h’old boy’s club however 200 years later roundabout the time white people call confederation [we call it the big steal (bs)] after the monopoly was getting to be a bit much for even the white settlers of ontario and points west the dominion of canada pressured britain into selling the land to it for $1.5 million and as a kickback golden parachute handshake hbc was given 7 million acres of prime forest and agricultural land and now that prince rupert’s company and its heirs have leeched hundreds of billions of dollars of wealth out of this aboriginal land there is talk of selling our birthright and inheritance the mothercorps nobody paid us for the land treaties signed under duress and coercion don’t count the canadian taxpayer hasn’t a clue s/he’s being fleeced (apologies to sheep) by the government-business machine unaware of the rug being pulled from beneath them or should I say blindsided (it’s so difficult to decide among clichés) never saw it coming because the rug is attached to the engine of free enterprise which is perpetually on hyperfastforward and out of control unaware because the rug was long ago sold to the lowest bidder who just happened to be another h’old boy kin who pulled the cloth so fast the dishes on the table didn’t move and nobody noticed they’d been glued/slicked down with english/canadian morals maybe the white eurogods the ones in the sky that multifurcate mammon tenure & promotion the ineffable filthy lucre and a 5 bathroom house were punishing us first peoples for being healthy loving peaceful respectful and relatively free of the enacted epistemologies and protocols of cruelty so familiar and common in medieval renaissance and reformation europe I can just hear the diatribes correcting me oh but the indians were sooo cruel they had terrible wars and slaves they stole women from each other scalped and tortured they killed so many buffalo and salmon and you know when you own all the words and euroknowings validate only euroknowings you can manufacture evidence by manufacturing interpretation don’t be cruel oo oo ool oh the digressions I have to make says coyote just to fill in the history of this land why can’t these white indian experts be satisfied to just look at their own cultures and leave ours alone we do not want to be spoken ‘about’ as though we were specimens from their unnegotiated space their privileged ‘mainstream’ positions 75

the wie’s have even become mainstream in terms of aboriginal cultures ‘adopted into’ xxx band xyz tribe given an indian name oh joy thanks to the shoehorn indians slide stuff slide thanks to the wd40 lubricant onsiders squirt squirt thanks to the pickpocket agents provocateurs shhhh how big is that (hudson’s) bay blanket you’re spreading coyote? oh big enough to cover say 25,000 maybe 50,000 so you’re not covering everybody with it oh no you know me because we have many white allies who are true friends comrades I know I know but who can distinguish the allies from les poux when is an ally an acrostic for aboriginal land & life yearner it’s common knowledge that whenever there is talk of intercultural conversation it is always white women and men ‘inviting’ us and of colour others to commingle with them and their indigenous rubrics do those metaphase double agents imagine they will become elders ethical crossovers by diligently going about their pseudochromatid business making sure only white people are hired to teach aboriginal education or have power within aboriginal education because the way I see it there are many many instances of so-called aboriginal education in canadian universities which have no aboriginalness about them sure there may be an aboriginal faculty member hired maybe a sessional adjunct limited term maybe even assistant or associate professor maybe even an aboriginal research chair but tokenizing us will not hide the blemish of racism that is the true countenance of postsecondary education in canada racism is more than skin deep more like six feet deep you’re pretty upset for a disinterested narrator are you guys on shift and are you fictional too deal shifts to the right

far right

which one are you or real like us

been there done that

and if there are to be aboriginal people on faculty they stack the hiring committee to make sure only their indians get dealt in after the faux shuffle faux cut double cut cross cut under cut palm force crimp you know how it is some of them finding themselves in compromised positions getting their degrees and job offers slid under their door sh sh strictly hushhush those whose ‘formal’ postsecondary education has been western orthodoxy everybody knows it’s not politically smart to change course in midlagoon dr apple getting her/his phd edd by playing let’s make a deal I’ll sell my culture 76

for the robes the floppy hat and the scroll and t&p but it will look like I’m being respectful and traditional and oooh so nice nice the operative word pass the scalp(el) ho! that’s a mean thing to say says coyote that’s highhorse talk you’ve said it now says raven it can’t go back in the bag even with the latest stuff software william tell ouverture allegro con brio who was that masked indian must be kimo no sabe nada you may have a point there we’ve all seen them says raven the white indian experts presenting a white paper at an aboriginal conference someone asks what nation are you from or are you native s/he remains silent with the staged practiced lowered gaze of the ostentatiously meek voy/ag/eurs beware there are many cons parading as res veridicus many composits cultivars congeners ethno-alteric-panopticonifers whose needles are falling reminds me of those seedlings they hire students to plant every summer to camouflage the cultures the government/corporate partnerships have raped assaulted trampled under now they’re hiding the evidence or burning it calling it reforestation controlled burns a tree farm is not a forest an apple tree is not an orchard wie is a wie is a wie all the way home kanien’kehaka scholar wayne gorman’s words come to me “Contrary to Kvale’s assertion of interpreting the meaning of what was said as how it was said, this study subscribed to the belief that the researcher cannot successfully interpret someone else’s experience by analyzing their story, but can do so only through a shared experience. The researcher may interpret the shared experience and may have its reliability (Gorman, 1998) scrutinized through discussions with the storyteller.” many white indian experts choose to ignore aboriginal scholars whose ideas criticize their practices they form wannabe cabals abracadabra methodologies ab ound ound ound ouuuu oh yes those same wie’s ones plinth their ‘professional’ credos manufactured credentials within indigenous communities they write about ‘working with’ us except ‘us’ becomes ‘them’ first person plurality becomes third person (aka first person) singular in other words third person becomes first person first people have not even unbecome who we are alphabetically we mostly come after them in terms of authorship [because we are both place of data collection and secondary or tertiary author/itie/s no matter what our surname begins with or theirs] we never seem to make it to the co-author ship on an even keel I am reminded of the reflective tape that runners wear at night which alerts us to movement while that to which the tape is attached remains in obscurity the white experts are that tape we as esoteric object exotic accusative are that obscure presence defined only by those moving lines 77

we’re there yes but we’re marked markered marke(r)ted

paddle paddle

if you want to come along for a paddle no not a ride a paddle [we never had a word in upriver ucwalmicwts for passenger though there is one for a resting paddler] please leave your expectations of this journey at the border on the strand shore pier littoral sandbar spit beach as you read listen paddle portage recover resume I ask that you be careful with respect to the placement of each stroke each footstep each word each action each idea assumption predigestion prejudgement prejustice prejudice the terrain of words and intervening spaces can be hazardous it is layered terraced screed corniced escarped rather than chaptered versed and [para]graphed our journey is determined by who you are rather than by something I could give you I have no aboriginal knowings to share with you because ‘aboriginal’ is about how white people language me before contact there were no aboriginal people there was just us people of the land paddle paddle paddle academic oral history internet site february 1998 the research gets past the university ethical review board of course in fact it usually picks up speed there whips right on through the listserv management team like it wasn’t even there which it might not have been the online ‘invitation’ wanted early aboriginal accounts of contact stories from the westcoast contributions acknowledged in book (oh yippeee) not to mention hearty thanks and firm but virtual handshake (not my hand not my virtue) well if it isn’t another bc based assimilationist incursion into first peoples orality and ‘pre’ history wie historians looking for publishing ‘opportunities’ the payoff for contributing early aboriginal accounts of contact stories being a handshake some payment! I would rather be a human being than a footnote and just imagine him/her/them being willing to ‘mention’ those who contribute I wonder just who ‘might’ have contact stories who was here anyone? right! the aboriginal accounters accountants accountees accounted fors stand up and be accountable after (by which I mean ‘before’) all haven’t we learned our place on the acknowledgement page not the tenure & promotion page authorial authoritative page postprehistoric page hurrah for collaborative authoring hurrah for collaborative editing 78

hurrah for sharing the power despite coercively maintained differentials of interrogative/declarative/interrogator/’informant’ rah with respect to oral history projects done on rather than with first nations people we have been anthropologized to death oral histor/i/ed into silence ethnographized as if we were specimens petri cultures it is not first peoples who overwhelmingly publish refereed articles are granted phd’s ma’s in history linguistics education english anthropology make careers by peering into other cultures other ‘t/races’ ‘t/racializations’ peek a boo peeppeep just peeping digging into sacred sites of burial of bone of story of tradition of spirit past memory yet we are expected to celebrate being cited rah please pardon my lack of overt enthusiasm maybe we’ll even though I doubt it appear in the index appendix (but that might cause inflammation) table of contents in/cited ap/p/l/ause for consideration we have been fixed like rana pipiens but you cannot see the pins and the formaldehyde has entered the realm of father sky mother earth how I ask myself many tens of thousands of mostly white people have gotten phds masterates on our backs in canada they’re getting heavy must be the steady diet of red meat and white values the noun ‘anthropology’ was invented because my relations did not fit into the noun ‘history’ being oral being writers of wood writers of paddle articulators of cedar our ortho/graphy thus instrumented pre/figured/saged our taxonomy as being ‘prehistorical’ we did not fit well even into the new nouns english kept inventing epistemologizing genealogizing etymologizing so universities began creating words to delineate parameter denotate us but we kept not being the same each time we were asked or told or subjuncted and the language ‘about’ us got so big it filled whole departments and disciplines and apostles and we became ‘important’ rah get out the bannock rah break out the macaroni chips and diet coke yes my people know that noun ‘anthropology’ it was shaped by us and those others who were put into it ‘indian’ persons other ‘other’ persons alteric alter/natives et alii that noun was also shaped by the ones who put us into that language place and kept us there em/balmed those nouns you know they don’t just have a pre/fabricated shape they don’t just come into be/com/ing ex nihilo machina or /eunt by leaving someplace else and happening upon a comebychance referent it’s a process of gradual dis/integration from the world into language 79

by ‘upper’ educated persons trying to write cultures trans/late otherness the prototypical purportedly wellmeaning indian expert might say ‘oh I just want to save the stories’ ‘ secure and document’ ‘I just want to fill in the blanks that native peoples cannot fill not in the formats which are called for call for formats cff like the silences that are part of us maybe the blanks are not meant to be filled in because they are not blanks they are knowings not to be shared especially with academia

in’

I’m not talking about indigenous persons being on the acknowledgement page the dedication page the memorial commemorational or whatnot page or mentioned in the references bibliographies endnotes footnotes appendices I am talking about free unfettered aboriginal authorship and if they’re nice to us maybe [don’t quote me on it] co-authorship if my calculations and the books in print and library archival databases are accurate we’re about 500 years behind in authoring stories about ourselves so if all waohie [white and otherly hued indian experts] [pronounced wow’ee] stopped writing and we suddenly became as populated as they are here and we wrote until say 2525 we’d still be way behind because we don’t own the publishing houses the newspapers the radio and tv stations and the banks that lend them money for venture capital “you want to what?” try the commerce across the street try the savings & loan on broadway try the ing direct [oh sure!] try the credit union or the hock shop sell cigarettes start up a casino buy lottery tickets play bingo raffle off something organize a loonietwonie 50/50 quickdraw you may in theory own this country but you’ve got no credit rating ciao bello which is because everybody else is running up a deb(i)t in our name on our land I’m talking about us sharing the decision making and the royal/ties with one another rather than with outsiders especially the cultur/al border raiders the waohie who say “I’m on the border between” but what s/he fails to mention is s/he is getting all the grants that should or would otherwise go to first peoples and s/he is getting the lucrative job that should/would go to the first nations person and s/he has a mwnoioe [massive worldwide network of international ‘other’ experts] [pronounced ‘mon oeil’ oh!] don’t confuse with the homeric aoidoi storyteller but you know we’re very generous my relations and I and we would probably give some chapters to some of those otherlysituated people [osp] to write to those selfsame ones who want to marginalize or even expunge us we could do that because we walk the earth together we are sisters and brothers is it not the magister/ial race that wants to control the discourse that wants to manufacture the consent is it not the mainstream (la fleuve tout doit) that might deign to legitimize the margins the tributaries (les maudits ruisseaux) sans lesquels … [or dams them redirects them] objectifies the hetero/geneous 80

subjectifies deifies the monocropal is it not the intellectuals and their reason/ed judgement who data/fy/fo/fum other human beings for a fee because they [and their post hic hoc theories] give themselves permission to please don’t misread me I’m not at least I hope I am not throwing a hudson bay blanket of common blame on all persons who are oral historians anthropologists linguists educationists english profs and others who practice white indian expertry I am speaking rather about some persons of whom there are many who engage in appropriation of other voices other cultures maybe because their own culture does not interest them or maybe because they want power over what is racism? and what does it feed on who is racist? who racializes? notmenotmenotmenotme right! sameold sameold if it is not immediately obvious from the length not to mention tone of this dia/tribe dia through across away tribe a bunch of indians in the way ie going across around through or away from the people whose land is being stolen I am talking about first peoples writing our own contact stories (if we choose to) rather than sharing ours with waohie people who want to make a name or degree or tenure or promotion retirement package for them/selves who want to become ‘experts’ on this or that ‘tribe’ or ‘race’ or ‘band’ or ‘protégé(e)’ people who want to write academic articles chapters in books esubmissions I heardtell that some euroamerican universities shut down or reorganized or rezoned refurbished refounded their anthropology department foratime not so long ago because of what anthropology has been all about and whom in some cases anthropology has gone underground resurfaced as cultural studies certainly anthropology’s rhizomes show up in other disciplines and interdisciplines pardon my repetition but I am continuously astonished at this academic fascination with and engagement in messianic pretense and delusion with respect to first peoples’ cultures gear down back up go up the other fork

please don’t take our stories our knowings our techologies away please don’t take our stories and bury them in your books about us in your articles theses conference blabble exhortations media interviews they’re the only soapbox we have left and it’s where we keep our clean socks how is it you want our stories professor x is it your (and your colleagues’) intention to transcribe de/oral/ize every thing about us with your taperecorders minidiscrecorders camcorders recordable cd roms dvds shovels pens memories more shovels how is it you want to reconstruct remake represent us we are not archives we are not waiting for a museum to collect steal win us at an auction 81

usually over the phone so nobody knows who the highest bidder is a respected institutional collector using public or philanthropic funds had the winning bid we might want to save our languages our cultures our traditions orally and other than oral ly ourselves we might want to trans/cribe them record them onto film tape paper disk and if we do then maybe that is up to us unless we are now part of the public domain the human genome project the patenting of bioeverything so much of our intellectual property has been stolen over the past five centuries that it might take ten centuries to list it all and yes of course I am not painting all and sundry with the same brush the brush is not wide enough seriously though we have a myriad of white allies some of them ten feet tall in our hearts but as to les autres un poux on you laisse les lapins toi qu’un sang impur sois tranquil/le laisse-nous I know some white anthropologists and I emphasize some haltingly because the percentage is so small as to require a nikon macro lens who are of good heart spirit practice come on coyote there are quite a few goodhearted ones we’ve met over the centuries who have learned that there is a time to get out of the way now for instance so that we can speak for ourselves write for ourselves act for ourselves be ourselves teach ourselves research ourselves if we choose to or not without their wie waohie re/ or inter/mediation re/in/ter/vention ethno/investigation I am talking about honouring human beings and other living things I am talking about not career-making through interrogating or other/wise invest/igating invading first peoples or practicing coercive unequal power relationships with/on us is on you you’ve made that point a number of times I know I tingle each time I feel like I’m at a slave auction maybe we should talk about permission and where it resides says coyote sometimes it’s here sometimes it’s there it must be nomadic or seasonally migrational let’s make a treaty with it if there is to be writing about the first peoples of this continent ahem! isphere says raven or about us including ‘our’ inter/relations with the ‘explorers’ and ‘settlers’ pre/emptors and co/opters then we will do it if it needs to be done and if you want to help us then help us if we ask you to which sometimes means you have to get out of the way or go away are you still going on about that ad for contact stories

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I don’t care what respectful inclusive liberatory research methodology you employ what kind of inter/viewing method my story is not yours my history is not yours our stories and histories including accounts receivable transmissable are not yours your stories about us are housed in libraries archives museums special collections the majority of it derived from white people in places of power and from ohpisp’s [otherly hued persons in subordinated positionings] decantings who pried or cried or lied it out of our communities my words belong to the air and to ancestors thosetocome not to places of white legislated or otherwise expropriated ownership please honour our cultural spaces our not getting to a/the point our contra/dictions our silence s silence is sometimes what is not heard absence what is not seen emptiness what is not felt experienced there are times when these are what we need a fast ness without hunger or despite it a fast ness that fills without there being a container or contained or solution to the problem we seem to have become despite our vigilant advertence in the writing of my writing I do not always have the sensitivity I might have if I were not on fire I do not throw these words out to injure or to shame to dis/integrate but to acknowledge that there is in the world our voices and they are not ‘other’ and we have learned to write ourselves all my relations was that a confession

sorry I do not qualify to give ab/so/lution

there’s a question from the floor what is it oak ah yes in the front why do you keep repeating yourself throughout do you think we have no memories good question well? as I said good question okay I’ll put it this way they don’t get it it? it i t infotech no indian time indian tech indigenous trajectory the tide calls grandmother moon is pulling time to move on further up the west coast of british columbia paddle paddle paddle paddle paddle paddle paddle whooooshhh shsh sh more indian experts to dance with where are coyote and raven when I need some help paddling or wind pfeeeuuuuww for the sail paddle stroke

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haida ‘myth’tellers a story as sharp as a knife: the haida mythtellers and their world by robert bringhurst reviewed (Weber, 1999) and counter-reviewed in the globe & mail now they’ve nominated the book for an award writing as nonnative writing as native about native wait there’s more we’ve arrived just in time for a shoot no not execution a filmshoot establishing shot a beach on haida gwaii iris shot in of a white man with halo and/or nimbus and/or quiver of arrows and/or pointed stick explaining a creation story in the sand to a bunch of ‘indians’ he thinks they’re enthralled actually they’re just being polite wondering where he dreamed all this stuff up once we were human beings but we have become ‘fields of study’ for anthropology archaeology linguistics education sociology history law political science fine arts english ‘psychology’ religion they’ve all stalked us staked us stooked us track pack harvest leggo locked flags flying surveyed purveyed in corporated dis corporated field? mm I would like to be an alpine meadow so as not to be trod upon so much discarded on hiked through bulletin parks canada is reporting a significant rise in littering in the mountain parks please take your garbage with you and stuff it thank you from parks canada with global colonization and technocapitalism indian experts have denecessitated our existence made us superfluous supernumerary replaced by simulacra (Miller, 1998) in their “licensed trafficking” our stories indians have been moved into abstract rea(l)ms we have become theorized we have become theory trapped inside white words white worlds the object of tenured browsing tethered simulacroids tethered meta indians it’s a difficult place to traverse this para-geography where only we are not economically positioned so as to speak for ourselves to be socially academically strategically mobile now we have to wait in line behind all the (mostly) white ‘indian experts’ in order to get a job publish a book about our own cultures get funding from sshrc nsrc lrk smrk it seems there are so many people from the united church helping us we get all tied up with our tongues because even with their help we can’t find the cultural space to speak to be heard to be listened to it would be really great if a lot of those people who are ‘helping’ us would let us be let us speak for ourselves because you know 84

whenever there’s a talk and questions are asked everybody just jumps in like it’s life and/or death if they don’t get their words out and there’s no s p a c e made for people from other cultures people who sit back respectfully and wait their turn pleasetakeanumber which never comes because all the experts and the colonized elite are so quick to fill up all the discursive spaces colonize/settle all the silence with discourse datcourse racecourse and everybody butts in in front of polite people and in classrooms the ones who wait their turn from grade school to graduate school get shut down time after time after space and the ones in faculty meetings who wait for others to speak to have their say never get heard and those ones in committee meetings who are there to make a difference never get a chance to say a word because there is no cultural space in academia and it’s the white people who vote one another onto influential committees it’s the 400 401 qew don valley parkway 427 the malahat lougheed highway 99 seatosky on a weekend memorial drive bellamy hill ste catherine street pembina highway talk or die and there are no crosswalks no lights you just wait once again for the traffic to stop and once again your thoughts never get a chance to even reach your own tongue anyquestionsmovingrightalong paddle paddle strokestroke paddle C OYO T E :

what if people trees stones are considered to be complete whole indispensable with their own inalienable ways of being with definite personalities with specific responsibilities in the keeping of the harmony of the world it is in such conditions of equivalence that each part of this living world relates with each one of the others R AV E N : you know coyote every wo/man tree stone might be a person but is every coyote a stone is every person a tree which way do the equal signs go for coyotes we see people as people trees as trees we don’t assign one thing to another community how equal is equal C OYO T E : don’t get caught up in human language raven it’s never been good for you and you might want to ask those question marks to stop following you around they’re distorting your expressed thoughts? R AV E N : they are my thoughts not my expressed ones anyway if aboriginal knowledges were treated as equivalent instead of lesser than western ones aboriginal people would not feel that the only way to get out of poverty for themselves and their children is to put their cultural knowings aside and learn western ways C OYO T E : okay but this will mean a willingness to make major changes in so-called freedom and democracy R AV E N : I’ve seen a steady deterioration in aboriginal freedom and democracy since the settlers landed 500 odd years back 160 in this pacific part of the world and an equally steady increase of the settlers’ rights with respect to making it legal for them to steal aboriginal knowledges and practices by institutes of postknowing and their indian experts and onside scouts same old song except this time they’re stuffing words into our mouths that never came from our lungs or larynx C OYO T E : exactly like TEK a western simulacrum that presumes to encompass or 85

represent the wisdom spirituality science and technologies of aboriginal peoples it is certainly not aboriginal people who are vetting who are promoting this tek talk ofcoursethereareexceptions the tacit assumption seems to be that aboriginal and indigenous peoples’ knowledge is there for the taking and that aboriginal peoples are obliged to share these knowledges with them to save the earth from the extinction or the threat of it R AV E N : but it’s their technologies and practices that have created the mess we’re in and now they want our knowings to save them from themselves hello?! C OYO T E : do you remember cecil king talking about preserving the flame for humanity that “it is too weak to be shared at this time, but if we all are still and respect the flame it will grow and thrive in the caring hands of those who hold it and in time we can all warm ourselves at the fire but now we have to nurture the flame (King,1997) or we will all lose the gift” R AV E N : we need to pay attention to this coyote the dominant society has power and the knowledge to save the earth today they don’t need to look elsewhere for solutions they need only examine themselves discover themselves and take responsibility for their actions rather than looking at tek for their salvation if you don’t need an suv don’t buy one western society needs more recycling and detoxifying technologies to make up for the mess their other ‘high’ tech has made more tech is needed to troubleshoot the ‘high’ tech that is promoting commodification the spreading of capitalism and war on children and they need to get rid of the packaging that has to be recycled they’re declensioning is all awry C OYO T E : what if western knowledge making had no borders constructing ‘other’ to know in order to study objectify act upon validate or transform? the world would be a place to cohabit and participate in together it would be a space for not only people but all living things all of creation (O’Riley, 2003) there is spirit in all that is and isn’t R AV E N : what are you getting at coyote are you just talking for the sake of impressing everyone with your analytical mind C OYO T E : I’m getting there. I’m getting there just hold on to your tailfeathers cousin R AV E N : we were invited here to these pages to talk about narrativity and aboriginal knowings got any ideas about that C OYO T E : what’s aboriginal R AV E N : indians C OYO T E : oh which ones R AV E N : the red ones the well read ones any ideas C OYO T E : you mean all organized and stuff R AV E N : oh boy it looks like we got to do this all over again C OYO T E : those ?s are still following us around R AV E N : maybe they need a good scarecrow C OYO T E : or scarecoyote ? : or scare? songbreak now for a word from our partners in education 86

two timing four legged trickster rap port coyote [b flat minor] trapped inside the heartwood inside the fartwood inside the of menace side inside the genocide trapped inside plain sight eugenic diorama side the stain is genocide indian o cide the only good one ubiquicide the grain is genocide good only one side better step aside or get on side I spy with my little eye [circle with index finger and thumb] I spy some indians doing ceremonies and I’m going to make money off them earn a phd edd ma me my research get grants and more grants to study other invent other other other chorus gonna make dreamcatchers indiandrums sweatlodges sweetgrass baskets sage bundles sacred bundles tomahawk bundles scalp bundles birchbark canoe bundles jewellry bundles filthylucrebundles and we’re all going to live like real live indians back in the wilderness in the middle of nowhere skid row boot hill the rez home sweet downtown eastside allan park 95th street hey! what happened to stanley park and baby point and the torontomontrealvancouvervictoria waterfront not too many ‘indian’ mansions or tipis or wigwams or longhouses or ishkins or anything very much ‘indian’ there must be an oversight or hindsight 20/20 or 30 aught 3 maybe lasersight paddle swooooosh beep beep z i p splash 600 A.I. (after the invasion) /2092 A.D. there’s a new golf club they’ve been working on it for about 600 years now it’s a big one even for executives pms and prezs it stretches the whole of north central and south america if you get better than par there are prizes free indian bones and skulls and trinkets from the nearest sacred site we sell specially designed golf bags to carry them but you’ll have to get past the archeos and anthros and museos who have bone and dna and c14 detectors at the gates so to bypass them you can courier them to your home address from our conveniently located de(s)pot they don’t like competition where are our sacred burial sites our grave yards from past millenia the hundreds of millions of final resting places of first peoples where are the bones of our ancestors the funerary gifts and poles how is it these sacred these holy places have been excavated replaced by banks places for selling parking lots churches ‘developments’ walmarts and why would white canada care bay street wall street mall street where are our 800,000 villages burial places of those who lived and passed on ‘development’ is the dirtiest word and no matter how you euphemize it it remains another word for genocide racism kkk make way 87

for whiteness in all of its capitalist shades keep kanada kleen international development sustainable development tell it to the aboriginal people of british columbia the amazon southeast asia the us of a development means destruction it means resource extraction industry jobs jobs jobs jobs jobs jobs at any price ie money comes first every time ‘indians’ are expendable undependable distendable representable development it’s another way of bulldozing aboriginal people into the utter utter silence [silence] of extinction wasn’t it christ the jew who threw the moneyhandlers out of the temple what would he have done if he’d found them in the cemetery dealing doing real estate transactions looting the dead prying the gold out of the grandparents’ teeth selling babies families alles horatio I knew them not just so many skulls and trophies also spracht that ward churchill [keetowah band cherokee] fellah got into biiiig trouble down south in freedom land talking about 9-11 little eichmanns and technocrat situatedness (Churchill, 2003) pushing back and the chickens coming home to roost oooooh that angered the righteous brethren and sisthren of colorado and points east south west north they wanted to lynch him right there they wanted him to apologize for saying what everybody else was too scared to say that if you [ie the us of a] act as a genocide biocide allesocide machine for 200 plus years not counting pre’liberty’ genocides one day somebody’s going to say this is the medicine you’ve been dispensing to the rest of the world since long before you came out with your fanatical rightwing rhetoric about manifest destiny and your ‘amerika für ein tausent jahre heil bush all hail’ imagine a mere indian person [who at the same time has to fight reporters and others with reference to his blood quantum of indianness] saying he would not apologize “On Tuesday night[febr 8, 2005], Churchill again emphasized that he was not blaming everyone in the [twin]towers for U.S. [xenophobic racist imperialistic genocidal] policies [which resulted in the death of 500,000 iraqi children during the 1990s] “No I did not call a bunch of food service workers, janitors, children, firefighters and random passers-by little Eichmanns,” he said. “The reference is to a technical core of empire – the technicians of empire ... obviously I was not talking about these people.” (Churchill, in Pankratz & Merritt, 2005)

getting back to re pre senting you know aboriginal people are a gold mine to researchers research you know it means funding bringing prestige to your university by ‘interpreting’ other regurgitating data herniated hiatus syndrome turning aboriginal people into ‘information’ bites bights bytes bouchées hors d’oeuvres quantitative qualitative modern traditional empirical anecdotal ethics review boards now there’s a front a hallowe’en costume yearround

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refrain peeping tom peeping jane peeping teacher peeping student peeeering [big glasses] into other cultures look look look see what I found bone trophies authentic remains somebody’s grandma’s skull a baby skeleton yippeeeee we’re rich rich rich we’re researchers rich searchers get the mtdna counters the genetic drift counters the dead (from the neck up) reckoners make a capital purchase order indigenous peoples’ sensibilities cultural meanings and connections become lost in the transformations and transactions wannabes are the world’s largest tribe and especially in academia where they eclipse those whose light they borrow for minh-ha “the margins, our sites for survival, become our fighting grounds and their (Minh-ha,1990, p. 327) site for pilgrimage” bell hooks jumps up and says it is important that the “margins not be collapsed, they are important positions, to recover ourselves and move in solidarity (hooks, 1990, p. 342) to erase the category colonized/colonizer” bonita lawrence mi’kmaw rises and calmly says “The question of who is an Indian, which lurks beneath the surface of many of the issues that contemporary Native communities are struggling with, is much larger than that of personal or even group identity—it goes directly to the heart of the colonization process and to the genocidal policies of settler governments across the Americas toward (Lawrence, 2005, p. 16) Indigenous peoples.” ada deer menominee tribe calls for social justice for aboriginal peoples quite a crowd of revolutionaries here stroooong women all watch out! C OYO T E :

what is it doctor [paw in front of mouth] tell it to me straight [doctor shakes head] it’s transmissible cultural rhinoplasty caused by a cephalocaudal vector it mostly affects white experts who invade sacred indigenous spaces and can’t seem to unstick their noses is it curable is it operable? that depends on you [deadpan] oh there’s a touch of ophthalmic syphilis too caused by voyeuritis malefactum decorum a pox on you

moving along to more vision/dream data from orphanage memories impacting and the effect that shaming and guilt had on personal development coyote break hahahahaha says coyote who is not laughing good thing our culture has a long shelf life must be the ex tenders imagine believing our stories are for sale that they are sellable that they can move across cultural borders through exchange of currency imagine how a story would feel learning that the person it had created thought they had the right to sell it hey raven says what’s that bunch of indians standing there

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with their mouths open talking to those nonindian people with note pads and tape recorders and phd robes and floppy hats with tassels it’s the conversion scene says coyote changing indian stories into white books also known as stations of the doublecross I’m going shopping I need to get into the commodification game[sings] buy buy love buy buy happiness buy buy indigeneity think I’m a gonna a dye dye dye my hair black today ay I’m a through with indian experts I’m a through with shove I’m a through with encountering this anthropostuff and here’s the reason that I’m so … with apologies and thanks to felice and boudleaux bryant and phil and don everly grandmother what does ‘interpret’ mean oh you don’t want to be fooling around with that word but I need to know how to use it for school so I can be evaluated assessed kalanwi it means you take something and you make it into something else so it looks like you know what you’re doing it means you don’t just let the story be you change it pretend it makes sense in a white language stay away from that word it’s bad medicine get you in trouble skinwalkers how about that aie (no it’s not a cry of pain it stands for academic indian expert with the three vowels invisibly infixed within three consonants ‘phd’) rudy wiebe and the unbalanced unconscionable power differential negotiating with an imprisoned native woman must be nobody in his family worth writing about nobody in his culture worth re:searching and how about that ubiquitous white litmaven agreeing wasn’t that nice of her to write the words for an e pauline johnson opera where would the kanienkehaka be without a whitewoman writing for one of their ancestors filling up e pauline’s mouth with mavlit’s words but in the end she didn’t write the libretto thankfully mustn’t have felt right about it but that didn’t stop another one from writing about pauline that’s an old white trick having an extra-cultural critique a one-way intercultural conversation its done with mirrors and parabolic microphones “reflective epistemolatry” it’s an interactive monologue in which the ‘indians’ part of the conversation is silence big silence heap big silence in order to legitimize a whiteperson writing the libretto for an aboriginal woman’s story but hey maybe that one is related to e pauline some people stay in the closet a looong time I guess those ones have no relations this is sad maybe we can find them some it can’t be nice being a cultural orphan a refugee in the mainstream needing to invade the margins to legitimize one’s own self it really is sad but many white writers and artists say hey! what’s wrong with that 90

everything’s up for grabs everything is in the public realm well I couldn’t agree less and it’s not just about one of them writing about us it’s the ones added up to dozens scores centuries thousands getting literary academic government grants instead of first nations writers artists community members writing as hey! says a real indian without beads and feathers the only real indians are the white ones the rest of us are just uncontrolled wild types let them write what they want they’re not talking about us anyway only about themselves does permission not reside in us to choose /or not to publish/or not to share/or not our stories our songs our dances our knowings with those who come to us seeking and if members from our community seek to enter the white world and there is no shortage of those ones who have been infected with that white malady ‘ambition’ so are they all all honourable men hey tony if they choose to leave our world our traditions who are we to stop them from selling or thinking they are selling our stories my language has no word for sell we shared our stories we were generous but our generosity was is violated constantly honi soit qui mal y pense speaking of which funny how the rcmp are still around and not just in the northwest there must be whiskey traders or wild indians around riots in manitoba hangings in saskatchewan unrest in the territories more indians to be hunted down and hung getting back to our stories and generosity and apples is it time to stop being generous trusting inclusive or do we practice noninterference if we did the latter exclusively uncritically we would become extincted pretty quick I suspect there are a lot more or’s to consider bothands too they tell us they are ‘saving’ our stories from extinction how is translating them into english saving them and who will save them from the english language there are salvational forces everywhere messianism everywhere pass the toast pay the rent would you like pepper how is your meal thank you please come again and don’t forget you’re catholic now protestant now converted [sings] in hoc nomine sub coelum dei where’s your religion your spirituality your sacred objects in hoc

indian experts revisited mr bringhurst is quoted as saying “no people or community or nation, and especially no political authority, can have exclusive rights (Bringhurst, 1999) to interpret its own history.” pardon me but who is publishing all the books about us 91

and who is in the category of ‘exclusive’ when it comes to first peoples in academia in publishing in government and what does ‘interpret’ mean anyway he goes on to warn the reader drum roll please mood music [beat] “We know too well what happens when they try . . . Germans, Serbs and many others . . . without regard for the hopes and histories of people around them.” wait there’s more “the predicament of all the North American native nations [that’s us] stems from another such campaign: the long attempt of Europe as a whole (Bringhurst, 1999) to make its history the only one that matters.” mmm aaand writing aboriginal history too taking up the slack interesting by juxtaposing his ideas about historical interpretation and genocide by mainstream populations in europe “Germans, Serbs” and montaging [gesture] this with an almost seamlessly sutured mobius double entendre we are presented as victimizers and as victims he also seems to purport that aboriginal people are interested in ‘interpreting’ our own history and that we are ‘mainstream’ populations whose actions to protect our cultures from genocide are instances of perpetuating genocide meaning we are in the same category as cultures which practice genocide the logical process I get from his convolutioned forinstancing is that by giving voice to the genocided jews and the genocided croats [et al] who might be saying let our voices tell our stories and you tell your own that by them having an exclusive voice to tell their narratives they are enacting genocidal proclivities interesting logic as an experienced and talented writer of many genres mr bringhurst should know the power of such racial inferences regarding our minorizing action of claiming ownership of our own stories within the space of for instance the english language trying to protect our culture from majority exploitation incursion from being bastardized mutated by appropriation by (mis)adventure where is the parallel where is even a single oblique or tangential mortise [lock fingers] as evidence for equating our protecting ourselves with our being genocidal what kind of writing is this leaving insinuations dangling I was taught that when you weave you tie up the loose ends or cut them off otherwise they might get woven into something else mis appropriated caveat semper maybe there was a misquote by a newspaper listener/writer of mr bringhurst’s words or a mishearing of what he said or a misinterpretation which is also an interpretation does mr bringhurst think that learning the basics and maybe somewhat more of an aboriginal language even dedicating himself to it over time allows him or gives him permission to enter our minds our histories our spirits our cultural spaces does he think that hanging around aboriginal people even for decades 92

will gain him entrée into our side of our culture our understanding of the world does he take for granted that interpretation of a story is possible that it is desirable meaningful relevant is a poem or a story not itself already an interpretation and when does an interpretation become a symptom the eurocentric hubris that reason is a universal tool that analysis of another culture is possible and conclusive is a racist epistemology strange logic ratiocination for the nation ratio ad portas ratio delenda est mr bringhurst seems to be saying that genetics doesn’t matter so therefore our culture belongs to him or anyone else who wants to exploit it at least as much as it belongs to us I never thought of my culture as being an add-on an addendum to who I am an exogenic narrativization I always felt it was inextricably me rather than part of me maybe mr bringhurst imagines he has knitted himself into the genome the experiential cultural epistemologies of indigenous culture of ab/originality I don’t think so although viruses can enter into the chromosomal dna and be transported thus passed on thus

whose history? whose land? whose voice? who’s awake? a few years back pat and I were invited to meet with ‘representatives’ (a nonaboriginal author/editor and a nonaboriginal graduate student) from a lower mainland first nationto discuss transforming their historical take of native people into an authentic first nations curriculum document that was ‘teacher friendly’ because teachers didn’t want to use it in its current form even nonaboriginal teachers not even a minute passed after we first entered the room when the author/editor started telling me an erroneous history of my own first community he had not lived in our villages walked the earth with us shared any relatives he had put in time researching in libraries museums archives reading about first peoples through the eyes and voices of other nonaborginal people I suppose as a masters student in history he also did some ‘field’ work ie peeping peering voyeuring interrogating profiling trespassing oh sure he was in viiiited oooooh! by informed informants perhaps the same informed informants he was now working for what do they learn in history departments about ethics of research cultural protocols respect reciprocity I guess they don’t need to learn such things they just know it seems to be the white way of doing things homo axiomatica mr wie was hired by the local first nations people to write their history so he put in a few quotes an interview here and there with actual aboriginal people he insisted that he was writing it with them where is this withness he gets the credit a phd a career they get an acknowledgement 93

song break I want a withness withnesswithness what puzzled me was how it came about that these aboriginal people did not want to research and write their own history create their own curriculum for their children and grandchildren rather they chose to commission a nonaboriginal graduate student to do it it seems to me it is part of our responsibility to research and write our own histories for future generations and how many other first nations communities across canada this hemisphere world are acting similarly chorus do wah cultures for sale or lease pay cash up front if you please there was not a single local first nations person in that room interviewing us and we were to believe this was local aboriginal history we were to believe that this local consortium of first nations gave him the power to hire additional shamas case in point his summer assistant where are the local first nations people I kept asking myself there are a lot of them outside of this office but not one is here in this room I noticed a hereditary chief out in the hallway I guess they have their personalized indian expert so it doesn’t matter much besides his ‘aboriginal’ history has already been written we said to mr wie we found it hard to believe that he was hired to write the history of this first nation “because they could not find people of their own to write it” did he think that putting elders’ voices into a different font made the book ‘their’ story the overwhelming majority of it was written by him with other white people providing articles no we said we didn’t want to validate or legitimize this kind of appropriation however we said we would consider providing assistance if we could work with local elders and do a rewrite he said they were too busy hahahahahahaha please help me before I fall over too busy! hm that’s funny we found it hard to believe that aboriginal people could be too busy to write something as important as their own history mr wie’s history is not the history of this aboriginal community the history is his invention sure he ‘consulted’ with some aboriginal people a few interviews pardon me but I think that there are some very competent local aboriginal people who could do this work more than adequately people who are from this first nation has anyone asked them yes no? so what do they do they hire a printer and get a bunch of copies of this nonaboriginal indian history put into book form now they will teach this to local aboriginal children and others as authentic

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authentic what authentic white history of bc indians what I wonder is the history of history in this province of white people writing native everything and validating themselves and one another not to mention being financed to fabricate misinformation about us and where do we fit in terms of having books written by us researched by us using our ways not white ways no no no this seat’s taken yes they’re all taken in perpetuity let us not forget situatedness and context when it comes to writing ‘history’ how one first nations history is written affects ongoing treaty negotiations/land claims including overlapping boundary claims by neighbouring first nations historical ‘verities’ rules of evidence are very important in courtrooms and at treaty and landclaims bargaining tables now this selfsame nonaboriginal author/editor has created an atlas a [clearing of throat] ‘first nations’ atlas in which he claims pretty much all the land of my community as belonging to his client neat trick it won’t be long before he’s testifying in court or at a landclaims tribunal as an expert witness that will put the political purpose of this ‘history of local aboriginal people’ into a different light treaty light landclaims light some intense narrative lobbying is going on under the guise of curriculum publication and ‘historical’ research and it’s not even at a treaty or landclaims table interesting tactic though quite transparent all along the watchtower standing on the corner watching but it gets to be a bit much when not only our land but also our own people and our own transformers are claimed trying to use whiterewrite to eclipse our oral histories I was told by my elders to be careful with whom I share our own histories especially the oral ones when pat and I lived in aotearoa our maori friends shared their experience with respect to divulging whakapapa the dangers of letting others know one’s genealogy some day you never know it may be patented copyrighted cloned stolen or otherwise misused by some pakeha opportunist or onside kumara kumara? that’s what our maori friends called maori who are the colonized elite brown exteriori albion dedans can we help you mold this wie book into something else I don’t think so what and whose purpose would it serve mr wie’s book is not the history of my relations many of whom were from the territory and nation of his clients [over the passage of millenia] many of our people married into the lower communities this nonaboriginal history is not the history of my grandfather who lived in the village of snauq at false creek before it became part of the kitsilano reserve

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which itself was pseudopodded into vancouver [im]proper through nefarious coercive means this is not the history of my father who was born in mr wie’s client’s territory and lived his life there this is not the history of my greatgrandmother who came down to the oblate mission in the 1860s from sakteen and xa’xtsa this is not the history of any of my relations who live in that part of the world it is white history mr wie’s history this is not something we can help mr wie to disseminate we have had contagions enough without having language and image viruses plague us I asked him how it was he didn’t talk in his history book about all the elders who refused to speak with him because they didn’t trust him because they didn’t trust indian affairs indians either maybe including the ones who hired him his socalled aboriginal history is about the aboriginal people who trusted him enough to be interviewed by him and mistrusted themselves enough to not write it themselves his history is from the archives special collections and museums those places of white expertise those habitacles of climate and source control of documentary insinuation and cultural immurement many aboriginal people are currently involved in education at many levels teaching learning researching community work many of these are brilliant caring people who know or are learning their history some did not learn it from their elders who had been forced into genocidal camps called residential schools where up to 70% of students died through mistreatment and disease at the hands of the churches and their government partners their elders often didn’t learn their history because they were taught to forget who they were where they came from because they were forced into the annals and appendices of white history we need to work together to write our own histories as first peoples paddle paddle stroke paddle swooOOOOOSSHH

reclaiming our stories my father was born in upper sumas (mountain) in the fraser river valley when the colonizers were still dyking to keep sumas lake from returning and to keep the fraser river from doing what was natural they did this the teit pullers milk stealers cowshit [aka fertilizer] spreaders so the cows could shit into the river indirectly without drowning my father told me about those days “He knew it wouldn’t be easy From the dark sounds he’d heard in utero 96

From the way his chromosomes had squared off, How they moved, How they danced to the drumming and the songs, How the genes had aligned themselves, Coupled, dos-à-dos-ed, allemanded left With the most biochemically compatible allele, DNA choreography, swing your partner, Fiddle dee dee. His generation was going down fighting And the next one would and the next, And so so so on, But not onwards. His people were running out Of time. Of space. Of hope. (Cole, 1992a) Running out of running” I remember my dad taking a creative writing class at the uofa extension faculty around 35 years ago not so long after he told his community he didn’t want to be chief though he comes from a long line of hereditary chiefs what he maybe didn’t want (and had learned to not want) was to be as indian or at least to be less indian or less obviously indian than he was/seemed one story he wrote reminds me of him trying to become unindian or to unbecome indian something indian affairs couldn’t just declare and give him a certificate this man is a nonindian or notsoindian especially since noone in our line ever signed on to an indianaffairslist a bandlist a governmentlist we were legitimized by our own people the chronology of his story included mexico italy austria the emperor maximilian a speculative mystery with a long stagecoach journey ocean voyages escapes asylum loss and rescue abandonment goldrushes dad used to tell us when we were kids not just about our indianness our culture but he’d take us to visit with our relatives all over british columbia every summer I would spend months with my aunties he also hinted at our relationship to a famous italian inventor or at least that’s where he led us when he pronounced the name vaguely ambiguously letting our imaginations do the rest fill in the blanks invent ourselves other/wise turns out there was a trickster in the story the only relation we had to any italian was imaginary and arose through how the oblate priests/missionaries (who were french speakers) spelled/orthographized ‘indian’ names on baptismal marriage and death certificates one of the indian names was written so as to approximate an italian cognate anyway dad wrote a story about his grandmother madeline august douglas aka granny cole whose father was chief at sakteen in his story she made a deathbed declaration to him and him alone 97

according to his narrative madeline was from way up there on the lillooet river close to inshuckch mountain sakteen was called pemberton meadows village in newspaper accounts she was born before the white man came up that way about 1835 died in 1942 in mission buried near that blackberry hedge so the story my dad wrote was about an abandoned baby left by a goldrush couple an italian grocer and his indian wife maybe they were both grocers anyway they perished or got lost or were desperate to save their baby and had to leave her with somebody who just happened to be madeline august douglas who would have been somewhere around thirty-five with lots of children of her own to look after sure some of them may have died during the epidemics but she went on to have two more husbands both chiefs and through my father’s imagination the daughter melina became part italian or was it joseph becoming part austrian part inshuckch/lower stl’atl’imx through chance operations and retroactive geneal/ectomy/otomy which would give my dad more italian blood and/or austrian blood less indian blood but he still looked like all of the members of his community all were his relatives cousins siblings uncles grandparents maybe they were all italian too or austrian maybe columbus or mozart got around to the west coast without making a big deal out of it or maybe holyrollers [holylllogrollllers batman] from rome or the hapsburg empire [emperor charles v for instance] came looooong ago looking for convertsation [sic] and lucked out [I wonder if any of them met up with the descendants of the crews from emperor zhu di’s fleets perhaps the great great grandchildren of admiral zheng he (Menzies, 2003) from his peregrinations in the early 1420’s] interesting too how much melina looked like madeline her mother interesting too how nobody else in the entire very small community ever learned the story of melina and the absentee grocer/s interesting too that madeline’s first husband may have been an italian but died before melina was conceived of by anybody in fact this little verse pretty much sums up the situation with ‘her man’ being the italian confettiere confezionato droghiere uomo di genere alimentare “he liked the pemberton meadows woman killed her man took her quick died and her third was coming down the hill in feathers and bark and cedar branches as morning broke like a bloody egg (Cole, 1992b) on the disappearing fraser river”

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the white names for native children came from the oblates french names italian names christian names some of the people waited until an hour before they died to agree to being baptised having lived lifetimes before being convinced of their heathenness and savagery not to mention godlessness and it’s not always obvious who agreed to be baptisted at or near their time of passing to the spirit world was it the person her/him/self or one of their christian relatives the way those oblates spelled our names showed they never knew the first thing about our language or about phonetic transcription we called it the impacted wax syndrome (iws) interesting to recall my dad’s pride as a native man in his young life for who he was what he believed in his accomplishments and at the same time his shame shame for how he looked what he believed how he spoke where he came from I think my father needed that story back then to legitimize himself in the white society we lived in and to give us an alter/native identity his father had an equally interesting genealogy lots of goldrush fever runs in our family I sure do miss him ciao bello but he lives on in us the immediate family and also in relatives in xa’xtsa skatin samahquam sakteen n’quat’qua including clarke smith one of our brilliant hereditary chiefs from samahquam who reminds me of him in a lot of ways his humour his intelligence his ethical concerns his knowing how to work with community his good looks and his knowing how to plan so that there’s always a big picture in mind one that involves being of service without creating enabling relationships people have to learn to look out for themselves because being dependant on others for everything won’t help anybody selfempowerment is community development like my dad clarke is also interested in the spiritual connections the unseen influences that have always been part of we were are and will be stroke paddle paddle paddle stroke stroke drum drumm drum drum drumm drum journey of heartbeats journey of breath forward stroke stepslide a push from shore last prayer song of farewell our canoe sets off down the lillooet river harrison lake chehalis rapids where auntiesuzie was born to the fraser the sea and be yond paddlepaddle it is part of storymaking rehearsing the future recalibrating words which are tocome with those that comebefore refurbishing the future auditioning reaspecting yesterday or as the maori say walking backwards into the future ‘but’ says a voice from the oldboys club ‘where are your references you can’t just be your own source’ where is the extended cubit the arm’s length the disinterestedness 99

leave the unprincipled polemics of autochthonality back in the wigwam give us published sources ishkin how can I be both indigenous and scholarly how do I bring in the scottish/welsh voice of that part of my heritage where is my legitimacy from what is it constructed and how what does it mean to follow rules of proper conduct in publishing editing writing white rules the academic steeplechase you must make margins such and such for ease of reading and binding and just generally making sure everyone is the same especially indigenous people and if we can be the sources for white history how is it we can’t be the sources for our own history I can hear the waves of ocean turning into footsteps becoming footprints becoming retinal images indentations on my fingertips sussurations in my spirit cecil king, odawa from manitoulin island writes “Suddenly, throughout the other peoples, the whisper was heard: The Indians have a fire. There was a crush of bodies stampeding to the place where the flame was held. I pushed to the edge of the Indian circle to stop those coming to the flame so that it would not be smothered. The other people became abusive, saying that they were cold too and it was our responsibility to share the flame with them. I replied: It is our responsibility to preserve the flame for humanity, and at the moment it is too weak to be shared, but if we all are still and respect the flame it will grow and thrive in the caring hands of those who hold it. In time we can all warm ourselves at the fire.” But now we have to nurture the (King, 1997, pp. 118–119) flame or we will all lose the gift.” paddle paddle stroke stroke paddle stroke stroke

much rez adieux about (dewey’s) goats in the curriculum paddling down to new orleans louisiana state u pat and I respond to an invitation to write a chapter in relation to bill doll’s chapter on ghosts in the curriculum in a book entitled curriculum visions edited by bill doll and noel gough somehow through a process that might be called pleasurable mishearing together with translational synchronicity and community history we move from the spectred to the capricious paddle paddle paddle paddle swoooooooosh paddle swoosh paddle paddle “I don’t know says 114-year old sam jim picking bits of loose rubber off his highback canvas runners you educated people got it the other way round from the way I was thinking 100

long pause during which he re-ties his shoelaces very slowly first place I don’t see it at all seeing isn’t the word I’d use I reckon there’s been a whole lot of seeing going on especially seeing what’s not there and not seeing what is there maybe we could use some of those other senses the creator gave us see how that works out for a spell listen for a change use our noses taste things feel things you’re not going to last very long in the bush standing around looking and talking you got to use all your givens including your hunches being bush smart is different from city knowing. foreigners come here and see us on the shore in our longhouses we live here content even happy fishing picking berries and roots they come and they take everything before impact we taught our children without ministry of education prescribed curricula we had no special ed needs education was for every person it was called living in the village these immigrants thought we needed special attention because we weren’t like them so they put us in residential schools now they call us special needs because we don’t fit their academic models and standardizations they want to wire us to computers to headsets to the future where there is no respect for our land-based spiritual connection with the rivers and forests four-leggéds the wingéd ones the fish nation the powers and spirits and beings of the four directions the moon and sun earth and sky the stones the tree nations these white people are consumed by their visions by the visual they don’t say can you smell the difference I taste what you mean hear this get a feel for that their society is about looking it is about peering rather than feeling or engaging the other senses this visual control this panopticon mentality who will put this goat to rest? they have visionaries but who listens to them? aren’t there any listenaries in their culture? are there no storytellers? image imagine imagination is not just about seeing imagine learning piano by just looking at the notes or the keys? why do schools not talk about intuition? they talk about an end in view, not in hearing how about finding your voice even if you can read lips or see your words audioscopically you still can’t get it visually your voice it comes through your vocal cords what about hearing colour or feeling it subtle shades feeling timbre smelling silence seeing tonality what about a tectonic movement in language? 101

semiotectomy geographizing knowing

putting the land back into the language

my mother’s father august jacob told me about this irishman otis dewey esquire come up home when he was a boy round 1850 called himself a schoolteacher arrived in the middle of a loud summer storm with a trunkful of books and black clothes nobody ever saw a book before or a trunk or a white man dewey brought some queer-looking goats up with him not like the ones from the mountains up home his followed him around the village chewing making funny noises not paying anybody mind you need a foundation he would say so if you put words together they don’t fall apart it’s like a stone house but it comes out of books all I ever saw there was words and nobody ever heard of a house before or knew what it was for the word ‘curriculum’ has a three-pronged genealogy consisting of multilateral coderivatives from the past the future and from a dysauditory linguistic space curare a carib word referring to an organic metabolic toxin causing neuro-paralysis krklm a neo-retro-paramorphopoeic radical originating in the future and kr7xlhm a dysphonic audiotrope from the tl’atl’imx (a coyotec version of ucwalmicwts) language ‘7’ representing a glottal stop the ‘lh’ is a lisped ‘l’ sound like the initial phoneme in welsh ‘llwelyn’ the ‘x’ is pronounced like the terminal phoneme in the scottish ‘loch’ dewey said I came to educate you to read and write english so’s you’ll be book smart and so you can read the word of god and go to heaven woman doing the translating was having a rough time because a lot of what dewey was saying didn’t make sense to her either dewey would go on about ideas with roots that go way deep we asked him what the roots hung onto down there way deep what kind of roots were they could you eat them could you make baskets from them did they soften up if you soaked them good what were they connected to uptop he didn’t seem to know what we were talking about he said the roots are words not real roots then he talked about white words having very old roots he sure was interested in roots for somebody with clean fingernails we thought maybe we needed to stir up the roots of tl’atl’imx a bit maybe the seeds weren’t planted in the right places maybe they were put too deep or grew under language stones or maybe our language didn’t have any roots maybe it was more like a lily pad or crabgrass I’m talking about planting ideas it didn’t seem to matter what season he did his planting 102

or what phase grandmother moon was in or if it was even the right climate the soil he talked about was made of words not something you could feel or taste do you understand what I mean he kept saying we told him we didn’t have questions in tl’atl’imx so what he was saying wasn’t going anywhere but eventually to make him feel better we said yes we understand though the word understand has no meaning in our language we don’t have that word I guess it had nowhere to grow or we didn’t know how to grow it or find it we listened politely assuming he’d never ‘understand’ what we were talking about it wasn’t so much making sense as sensitive he didn’t know much about planting he assumed ideas and words grow like things in the bush in fact, the word ‘grow’ isn’t the right one at all he was really only talking about growing things in his head and it was perfectly clear he’d never harvested anything or done any companion gardening of any kind if we’d known that in the first place we wouldn’t have bothered listening because we had salmon to catch and dry for the winter Curare follows indo-european rules of how metaphors are supposed to act in semantic places like sentences, arboreal places like word trees, phenotypic places like the human vocal apparatus and in public denotative linguaspheres—dictionaries, encyclopaedias, etc. Through spontaneous mutation, caused by intense exogenic linguistic pressure, curare xxx/gressed into ‘curriculum.’ Early on, it manifested as minorized protophonemic dysphasia but declined rapidly through bilateral anabolic phonosynthesis into acute emergent retroflex hypertrophic oeneropathy, with the final stage being chronic semio-epistemic paralysis, requiring intraspecific retro-phonectomy with attendant post-latent lacunogenetic bypass. What this means in lay terms is that words simply stopped ‘meaning’ because language stopped having anything to do with the realities it purportedly re/de/ferred to—and it fell into itself like a blackhole sucking its event (conceptual) horizon into itself like a community of blackholes revolving around a mutual centre of gravity, eventually disappearing into scientific adimentia incunabula he told us knowledge is vital—it frames us then after explaining what that meant we said to him we have frames for drying salmon and clothes we have baskets nets looms spindles and canoes that’s fine but if you want to get on in the world you have to use them when you talk he said we never had to frame our talk before up to then we’d only used our own language framed knowledge is intelligence he elaborated nobody up there wanted that kind of knowing if it came with a frame you had to lug around we knew all about seasonal migration and portaging Dewey spent more time talking about where words came from 103

than actually using them to communicate as he was teaching us english and gaelic he began to learn tl’atl’imx [ucwalmicwts] after a few months we didn’t need a translator anymore because the translations didn’t make any sense the explanation didn’t mean anything to anybody people listened to be polite after a while he’d sit for hours talking gaelic to the elders and they’d talk to him in tl’atl’imx that seemed to work out okay it kept things uncomplicated Krklm is a word whose etymology originates in future time. Through backformation, krklm transiterates into the present (tense). Krklm can act as a noun adjective verb adverb and preposition simultaneously. It is not bound by agreement with respect to number gender tense or case and has a variety of divergent meanings, some contradictory, some nonsensical, some saltatory. Krklm is not transmutable into any figure of speech, though it sometimes functions as a nomivore and verbiphage which in effect catalyzes equivocality through dysnotation and deconstruction. This is known as deiterative semiopathy or spontaneous morphemic transformation. Meaning is catabolized as words are being uttered, so language becomes deconstructed/ degenerated through its own generation. This has historically occured when xenophones, especially leucophones, become supernumerary in linguistic geographies, causing rubricaphones and other autochthonophones to become autorecessive—such as took place after the mid-1850s in the British Columbia interior, reaching a virulent stage when eurolinguists assumed taxonomizing functions. Krklm does not usually act in an either/or fashion but in a both/and one. It does not grant the visual sense preferential status or recognizance over the other senses. Krklm has no particular meaning outside of the context in which it is used. This is true for not only its roots, but also for its stem leaves bark rhizomes peduncles xylem and epiphytes. Krklm is alive in a euglenal amoeboid botanical way, rather than being a dead metaphor awaiting inhumement, grafting, or transplantation. dewey taught us to speak english not by treating english as a living language not by having us learn useful words and phrases but by teaching us ‘correct english grammar’ so in effect he taught us english grammar as a second language it didn’t make any sense to anybody but he didn’t seem to notice he was a man of great book learning but not very efficient at learning our language he didn’t really (or virtually) have the patience to teach us any utilitarian english except how to talk to the white god we didn’t know what the words meant but hearing us repeat them with our eyes closed or sing them made him happy everything was going fine until he tried to change our language he wanted to frame it and make it like english he said he was going to give us framed grammar and syntax we said we like it the way it is we don’t want nouns and verbs in tl’atl’imx it would make no sense he said these things were already there

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showing he never really had a feel for our language he never really connected with it just as he never really connected with the land or the spirit of things kr7xlhm is on the third tine of the trifurcative etymology of curriculum. It is an extinct or at least obsolete word meaning ‘rogue mountain goat of either sex’. It joined the etymology through mishearings by speakers of tl’atl’imx of the English word ‘curriculum’ spoken with a lisp and through a strong Irish accent by Otis Dewey. That is, Dewey enunciated ‘curriculum’ so that it approximated a word for a kind of mountain goat, which is now extinct. This particular genus was a strongheaded alpine ungulate which didn’t spend much time with the rest of its relations in the higher elevations of the Coastal Range of southwestern British Columbia. all the time dewey was talking about curriculum we assumed he was talking about goats because of this (what we would later call pleasurable) mishearing we had many strange parallel or tangential con/di/vers/at/ions if raven had overheard us s/he would have understood perfectly and taken much pleasure in what s/he heard or mis-heard these diverse cognate journeys and homophonic dysnotations diversated like a goat of yesterday and tomorrow into today hoofs akicking jaws achewing horns abutting head back singing the stars down dewey delighted to tell us all about different goats and how they hung around after people died he talked about how ideas have goats too seems okay to me I said they gotta hang around somewhere somebody got to feed them comb the tangles out he looked at me in a peculiar way sometimes but my silence (which pretty much filled up the major part of our conversation) made him think I understood or agreed with him he talked about goats appearing and disappearing about them not being real about them existing on the edges sure we said they’re your goats you can tell us about them we got goats too but they live high up in the mountains they’re hard to catch they don’t hang around the village he figured we were catching on figuratively using metaphors in primitive ways dewey figured it was good to create a “formal place of instruction” but sitting-down-in-rows-repeat-after-me schooling didn’t work too well for us uncomplicated national geographic retros it made everybody have the same take on everything what he called misconceptions and misperceptions worked out fine back home where they weren’t identified as mis/takes [but as allo-takes takes with a difference alter/native perceptions]

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grandmother showed me the fish wasn’t w/here it looked like it was she said throw your spear where the fish is not where the water tells you listen for the fish refracting through the sound of the water smell it diffuse among the other scents feel its tangential movement through the palpitating ether

it is

just as light defines shadow so does coolness and dampness through smell object/iv/ize the edge is every/where alienation is a good starting place/position framing an in/visible gallows steps heard visual indigestion wired seeing eyes hear eat feel hooves scent in the dark of the moon hearing is believing in the salt of moon the silence of soft touch of tasting is gustatory taxonomical bruxism jaws meet alveolar ridge melds dental migration dendritic axonic cloverleafing belwethers butt horns pull beards goats dream Goats unlike curriculum experts are not restricted to ‘the field’. They are undisciplined and refuse to stay where they’re put, often browsing within the whole of the area and circumference of their t/ether. They often eat their tether or kick down restraining fences or jump over them or dig under them. Liberated goats take to journeying toward the limits of their mind’s appetite, including to valleys rivers mountain peaks vegetable gardens urban lawns parks and other such expanses led there by their stomachs rather than their eyes. They are not constrained by fences, standards, or definitions. Sometimes goats will even eat the punctuation of the sentences they are put into. Old goats are still able to appreciate a good field without visual acuity—so long as their taste and hooves are in/tact, they can still rove in the unseen. A wise goat trusts its hunches. mutindi told us that in her village in kenya goats are always blamed for breaking the narrow-necked cooking pots getting their heads stuck in them and shaking them despite the mischief they get into they always have a calm look on their faces but inside they are hyper they are often blamed for breaking into vegetable gardens and eating the cabbages but time has proven that goat haters have concocted and spread these malicious fabrications framing goats through others’ perceptions for having appetites which they do not have. we do not use goat here as a metaphor but use metaphor as a goat freeing it from its definition and grammaticality allowing it a wider range of action In recent times, goats have fallen victim to others’ capricious imaginings and persiflages about them. They are regularly forced onto computer screens and made to be gazed at, their maneuverings assigned meanings which the goats never intended. Says a spokesgoat, we are not blocking or choreographing or other/wise conducting ourselves as performers in someone’s imagined vision. We are not limited by a screenwriter’s imagination, a director’s directives, a theoretician’s generative vision, a programmer’s 106

language, nor by an audience’s expectation. Rather, we enact who and what we are— alternators rather than generators or generatees. We articulate our own verbalizations. Even now, my ideas and those of my relations are queued, awaiting re/lease rather than manufacture by other. like goats we are private we don’t want to be put on monitors we don’t want to be translocated including to an information highway we don’t want to be reframed onto screens we are our own browsers we have our own stories trickster discourses nomadic subjectivities chance operations capric imaginings inchoate interceptions mosaic fugues cantatory canterings dewey talked a lot about dead people and their goats he got real excited when he figured we ‘understood’ him that made him talk even more he went on and on about flesh and incarnated goats those are the ones you can see hmmm sure we thought sure those ones not the invisible ones he sometimes talked about or the ones that went under the ground when the sun came up or had no permanent place to rest grandfather was very patient and waited long for this education but it never came every so often dewey would say ‘martinheidegger’ he would follow this with words without spaces between them we thought he was praying so we closed our eyes too then he thought we were praying so he’d stop talking when we opened our eyes again he went on about goats going to the land of no return which we figured would be up in chilcotin country but he said they came back at night sometimes only you could see them sometimes everybody could “you got to look after the goats when they die for a long time you feed them and put things in the ground with them give them water and talk to them in a familiar way” we never did that with our goats but we figured his were probably different from hanging around people a lot dewey talked about burning people into ashes when they died and goats coming out of the smoke we never saw that happen he talked about this old ferryman far as we could figure he only lived in books what’s a ferryman he explains we thought hmmmm what’s a coin hmmm and hell some goats go to hell some are loved by god some appear to the living and ask to be prayed for mostly he said goats appear when it is misty and mostly in places of burial some goats come back from the dead for revenge we thought about the goat hair blankets and horns we use in ceremonies but we always spoke with the spirits of our sisters and brothers the four legged before hunting and they offered themselves so we didn’t understand about goats’ revenge 107

dewey talked about curriculum as control how we needed a new livelier spirit of control students wandered were allowed to he spoke of dead greek men romans protestants philosophers he spoke about scholasticism paradigmatic change dialogic glosses taxonomy methodology rhetoric softening industrial metaphors maps of knowledge moving to standardizing the earth hurtling through the cosmos mechanical clocks industrial expansionism curriculum as an ordering school-as-factory he spoke of integrating education schooling curriculum and community into a seamless whole centred around the distinction between imposed and emergent control what’s so wonderful about being seamless we wondered what’s so wonderful about control he spoke of learning as a running course for people carriages chariots he did not speak of canoes Beyond the unseen is the unimagineable, beyond the unspeakable the ineffable. Or perhaps within. Goats are always in those places, even in their senator years. Some human beings try to capture goats with words, try to lassoo or bridle their wild/er/ness. They think along the lines of the visual grasp when it comes to goats. But how a goat looks is only a very small part of what it is to be a goat. There is more to a goat than meets the eye. What of the audient participating When a goat speaks, its tongue draws back on itself and with the palate acts as one point of articulation, causing a di/vision between nasal and interlabial utterance, though young goats are more likely to exhibit rhinosonic ventriloqu/ism/ation than bucal. Goats are often gregarious yet do not think only as herd—they are idiosyncratic in individual and communal ways. A goat will act in ways inconvenient for self for sake of community, for special needs, to make the species stronger. One cannot inter/view a goat as they do not accede to the interrogative mode, prefering to deal with the imperative declarative, occasionally subjunctive when in need of emotional support. Goats are great buttressers and are willing to insulate themselves from the whole for the sake of it in order to ensure the survival of each, thus all. They are not usually considered to be trickster figures but fit that non-stereotype. They can be coercive but prefer to just be left alone. When they act as words, they do so as semiotropes, meanings clothed in symbols, making them hard to tie down, even metaphorically. In acting musically, a goat prefers basso continuo, with preferred clef alto minor quay. Sustenato non piu con moto and da capo goats act out xxx/notatively. Their rhythm is not so much harmonic as syncopated. They act out of convenience for self and via synchronistica rather than altruistically, the latter adverb encompassing, enjoining the subjectivizing mode rather than subsuming it. dewey said he was not seeking to assimilate us yet seeing infuses grammar and syntax imbricates object/subject grandfather asked (in his own way) is duality inherently visual are we to distinguish tastes or let them meld can we learn to hear through the traffic of ambient sounds is muddled hearing analogous to refractive diffractive reflective vision 108

is the visual the default position is position the default transparency seeps into curriculum as optifuscent magneloquent what of trans/audient/sentient embodiment without prayer without respect without sensibility sensitivity spiritual enhancement through creating nurturing environments sustaining as is there is just dead space where nothing will grow nothing will rot yet in that dead space not even nothing will grow or rot there will be hoodoos auraed by an uninflected timelessness av/oid tl’atl’imx has only the present and the extended present we have no future no past tense not as eurolanguages have we see hindsight in english as a way of assuming a future a turning around with the visual faculty cued all this talk of reflective teaching is about seeing is about looking is about angles of incidence beyond touch scent tingling transparency and opacity too are about degrees of seeing what of transaudient transsentient transolfactorial I do not know that my sensations are produced and mediated by me somewhere location and embodiment are about the locative and the retro-transcendant these actors dancing along borders are referents seeking to cross into the symbols only to find not even nothing not even dynamic imbalance not even not even an inter to pret to penetrate to wit when white people talk about the future I don’t understand them grandmother says because most of the time they use the present tense to speak of it this time ‘yet to come’ at least seems to indicate isomorphic continuity to speak of the future as spectral immanence which if I xxx/take this right is about all everywhere which by my calculations is a lot of goats in a lot of curricula which means a lot of milk and feta but also a lot of cleaning up after wards we could follow the hoofprints or we could make our own dance editorial note tl’atl’imx as a coyotec version of ucwalmicwts our language sometimes follows its own rules or misrules please note that marginalizing the citation references allows for improved balance this kind of narrative anatomizing works like an outrigger to steady the canoe in turbidulent [stormy churny muddy] waters it also allows the nonaboriginal references to share the margins with the aboriginal ones to see pasts and futures enfolded in the/a present yes this affords us location and embodiment but to compare or contrast vision with/from pre/diction is to speak on the one hand of looking on the other of speaking before 109

the future in english is trapped in the present surrounded by pre/positions articles and present indicative in the lingering taste of latency of a coming now a potent/shall be will be yes futures as accusative caseload as time as noun as name ‘is’ coming/en route/post ex facto/che sara when ‘will’ as aide de camp verb helper adjutant factotum predication come of age with auxiliary modifying or other/wise enhancing the main verb yet the main verb is still in the present only the ‘willness’ gestures gesticu/lates toward the future (exit up right) yes “times to come” are (not only) seen as metaphorical equivalents of “places to visit” nominalized congealed into nounness or verbable andante yet here they are at tongue’s end mind’s frontier ear’s/finger’s terminus here they are tangible present (choose appropriate pre/position) t/here the future forever trapped in the now the w/here/ever the frozen when whatever else they are futures are nouns tending toward imperialist taste seeking consummated inbetween times settled territoriality com/pounded stakes surveyed boundaries acceded proprietaries yet future is always in present time motioning as asl speakers do to indicate an idea of forwardness beyondness though not a spatial one future cannot travel temporally only spatially and tomorrow is no more forward than it is in (or out) any other direction then those european linguists came to skatin sakteen samahquam n’quatqua xa’xtsa with their phonetic alphabets and tape recorders they tried to stencil western knowings into my language tried to filter tl’atl’imx and ucwalmicwts words and sounds and rhythms through english our words born in the pemberton valley in those days the wind carried our words when we wrote on stones shapes the wind wore them down “and we forgot the old dances and the songs and the rhythm of the drum and we forgot the sounds and the movements of our ancestors we tried to sell our broken spirits to the curator of the museum of civilization we tried to barter our souls for bannock for a crust of bread for recognition for a line or two in some book but they only wanted materials they could classify put numbers on so we traded them to the catholic church for wafers and wine (Cole, 1992c) eternal life and a christian burial.” this curriculum technology expert they sent to educate us in the ways of the future in the ways of progress always lectured to the class okay we said to this teacher you tell us you are teaching us we see us and we see you but we don’t see the teaching and we don’t hear it or smell it or feel it where is the life of it 110

a woman from our community said I do not want to use alter/native ways we are the mainstream which is made of tributaries my language and people are part of that stream the tributaries are not greater or lesser than what they flow into we keep returning to the circle sometimes to one perimeter sometimes concentric ones or spirals the computer technology teacher is always talking about ‘being on the leading edge’ in our culture the leading edge is every/where not just in a terminal position that’s very post-structural she’d say very post-colonial This whole arrogance about perception, this ‘persistence of vision’—have we not heard the last of the seeable? This anatomical zeroing in on the eye and its orbit/uary, this visuocentricity, this oculomania—why has it not been diagnosed in western society as a malady, as an obsessive-compulsive dis/order? We’ve heard the phrases, the emphasis on the seen—‘the way I see it’, from my point of view, reviewing a lesson, looking at it from my perspective, revisioning curriculum—see what I mean? we can choose or not to adopt innovation into our traditions quipu wampum sundance we are narrators narratives voices interlocutors of our own knowings we can determine for ourselves what our educational needs are in our tradition the experiential is accorded greater importance than the theoretical lifelong education for us has always been contiguous with the process of life and survival before the coming of churches residential schools prisons (Cole & O’Riley, 2002) before we knew how we knew we knew” paddle paddle paddle swoooooooo paddle oooossshhhhhh paddle takem swat

tsitmusam ats7a

kalanmints tsina sqweqwel

cwis mitsaq lti zenka

satellite campus scenario: british columbia stupid indians cant they figure out how to give me references bibliographic sources they look at me like they never heard of apa footnotes scholarly bibliography I mean how do they think they can get a half-decent mark if they keep using ideas that come out of a shoebox last week everything was working out not perfect we’re talking satellite campus reserve graduate students this indian guy after weeks of silence I thought he was mute suddenly pipes up from the back row hey teach’ I ignore his rude gesture as reverse patronizing continue my lecture on plato hey teach’ he says I got news for you you put your hand up if you want to talk in my class not in my culture we only put our hands up if we’re being robbed or arrested or when we hide food in the tree and I think you got your possessive adjectives mixed up it’s ‘our’ class trés amusant jimmy I told him you have a way with words 111

I know he says when I talk I got great command so teach’ if I’m so smart what’s with the d you gave me on my paper? am I that stupid or are you not sure how to assess my work? work? huh! it’s unreferenced and demonstrates no prior reading in the subject area it’s self-indulgent subjective scribbling you don’t even use a computer I don’t need a computer I got a pen and when that runs out I got a knife and lots of pencils my kids crayons charcoal lots of hardware anyway I got no ‘lectricity in my shack like most of us here looks to me like you’re trying to impress the rest of the class with your wit and quick retort no sir I’m just asking ‘why’ the d why? that’s a favourite white person word we’re not a hundred percent sure what it means where it comes from how to use it it won’t catch us fish or deer or help us find berries us indians don’t have too much use for why and lots of those other white words mostly those adverbs you white people made up so’s the verbs wouldn’t look so limp but teach I want to ask you something what do white professor people use all those big words for

and say nothing

at a graduate level we have professional standards set by the university the department the board of governors the senate the ministry it’s like ritual is to you people kalanwi! what do you know about our rituals? you think you can container them by turning them into collective nouns you think you can ‘understand’ what we do because you have the word ‘understand’ you think that you can use reason as a prybar no teach’ my conversation begins long after yours ends it seems we have an unsolvable dilemma with respect to acceptable academic style can anyone suggest what can we do to alleviate the situation? situation? I don’t think we have one of those all we got are a bunch of nouns and modifiers stuck in traffic ‘alleviate’ is no more than vaseline or preparation h it’s just a synonym for another word that has nothing to do with the world I live in you think words join together no they join apart they are your fences your exclusionary barriers your paradigms we indians got good languages too ucwalmicwts has worked for us for a long time you’re proving my point that we are civilizing you people to the extent that the education we provide enables you to argue with us and you are proving mine that two people can speak the same language and have a conversation in which there is no exchange of anything but words you have mutated bakhtin from dialogic to parallel monologues you refuse to let me teach you yet you invited me 112

you asked to be invited then you tell us we invited you you were invited by the colonialist indians who run our educational programs they have been whitewashed into believing we’re only good for primary resource extraction industry employment now you’re trying to tell us the computer will save us we’re told to trust that cyberspace is more fair more equitable less racist than downtown vancouver colonialist education shows no respect for the land-based spiritual connection of native people with the rivers and forests four-leggéds the wingéd ones, the fish nation the powers and spirits and beings of the four directions the moon and sun sky and earth the stones the tree nations it is contrary to eurodoctrine to pray to grandmother moon heretical to talk about the breath of the grandparents in willow lodges or attribute divine power and life to stones visions dreams colours moving right along do you know what the chicago manual of style is gillene or apa? sure teach’ I use it for a doorstop and one time it was real useful I threw it at a cub that was clawing my door it’s good packs a real wollop you think you can just come up with these anecdotes these fictitious stories and that will make me change your mark? my assessment of you oh they’re not fictitious no way indian truth is just more flexible than white truth if you’re so on top of it today what are the central tenets underpinnings and cultural understandings of your thesis and who are your collaborators? ‘central tenets?’ I do not subscribe to ‘centre’ but to multiple loci conjuncted beaded concatenated decentred perimeter can be centre not ‘tacitly’ assumed as centre the circle is important in first nations culture but there is no geometrical centre it is the joining of hands the oval ovoid our traditions our languages are pi they show us our relationships with all of creation our carvings and paintings have multiple centres or foci in the extended family of my culture there is no centre just individuals working together toward common goals our ‘tenets’ are like crabgrass and tricksters ‘underpinnings’ have to do with western foundations and structures this is not a conversation that has any traditional meaning in my culture ‘cultural understandings’ are not authenticatable information bytes which can be synthesized from outside our culture from outside our language the assumption that we or non-first nations people can find ‘solutions’ for us by using white methodologies and by implementing eurotheories is a racist assumption first nations people have been participatory/action researched case studied ethnographized to death first nations people do not need to be empowered by others 113

we can empower ourselves we are not deficient in knowings needing filling of a lacanian lack we have 100,000 years of knowings with this land now we have to know both your and our knowings to live in y/our world collaboration is interrelating and connecting of language body geography with no hierarchy collaboration is decolonization aboriginalization of first nations education including the imposed structural conformity of the construction of theses dissertations books articles but if you don’t believe in collaboration? collaboration for the purposes of my thesis has to do with seeking from my community and other indigenous communities our own educational needs deciding together not silencing by the invasions of dis/covery first nations collaboration is communal we pass the stone or stick or feather around the circle until everyone is of one mind that is our consensus canadian education is largely a form of limited consensus with first nations and other/s perspectives accretively accreditively addended filtered through western foundations multiculturalism and diversity are mainstream liberal notions offered by the ‘host’ society to contain cultural difference it’s all very well to have ideas but who are your sources? the forest the stones the sky my ancestors the gifts the creator has given me isn’t there a cheaper way for you to learn the ways of the west/ern world than to have me fly up here from vancouver every weekend with my lesson plans and overheads and cd-roms and the latest software? and your own toilet paper you could move to the reserve learn about filleting and drying salmon fixing nets learn about the relationship between salmon and bear and rainforest eagle and understory we got technology too and we don’t even have electricity they made us buy laptops those stupids at indian affairs and we got nowhere to plug them in or charge them they won’t give us electricity because it cost too much to bring it to the reserve even though the hydrolines run right through it we got modems but the nearest phone line is two valleys over none of my people wants to be on the internet but we get pushed there indians are good scouts and we’ll figure our way there pretty quick I was led to understand that many of you in class were interested in computers sure ask them why they’ll tell you we got to learn about your arsenal if we want to have a strategy that will work for us if we want to decolonize ourselves reaboriginalize free ourselves from your notions of democracy and freedom and progress and what you think is good for us 114

more and more people are accessing the information highway everyday we’re putting people in touch with ideas I hear this first person plural ‘we’ all the time we this we that we are putting consumers in touch with markets now we are enlarging the ozone hole we have more acid rain than ever meanwhile the old growth forest are disappearing into big macs and a side of fries times 100 million or a billion we could look at studies of social control bring on the net hell bring on the seinenets and helifishing you refuse to write essays for this class to use standard academic format essays are not a conversation we want to enter you want us to talk about how white people talk about other white people precedence! it is very important in our society it’s how our courts of justice operate precedence you mean like who was here first if you’re going to talk about precedence let’s precede back to who was here before the captains and the surveyors and the ‘settlers’ precedence has to do with law not with prior residency and it’s white people who make up the law you were not making use of the land you had no understanding of forest management the forest managed itself without your chainsaws and your clearcut and your log booms and your pulpmills and your heli-logging the bears and salmon and eagles and trees worked together and managed one another by following their original instructions we ate what was there we did not claw our mother with plows or throw phosphates and sulphides and radio-isotopes onto her belly we had salmon and oolican and berries we had what grew in the forests the swamps along the river we had the four-leggeds our relations you had primitive ideas about religion and spirituality you worshipped trees and fish and the sun made graven images of cedar and stone we spoke with the creator with more than words we gave thanks by sharing you had no science knew nothing about the rotation of the earth about distance and time you had no numbers we had one two three and enough we did not need your numbers we had our lives and we lived here since time before mind without logarithms derivatives square roots medians and graphs my point is you are able to talk about these because you have studied them in white schools white knowings from white teachers sounds like kkk collegiate I am able to translate from my language and the knowings of my people into the units of information I have harvested in your prisons your churches and your schools you see you have become richer metaphorically from us being here you come here and see us on the shore in our longhouses 115

we live here fishing picking berries and roots rhizomes tubers corms content even happy you come and you take everything but first your diseases kill 95% of our people if you look at canada’s population of 32 million and take away 95% of it you would have 30.4 million people dead and 1.6 million survivors to set it in perspective you would have the population of greater vancouver with the rest of canada empty of human beings now you want to virtualize us with screens monitors applications there is not even a context in that cyberspace no room for community there are only pixels and colons periods right or left parenthesis to show a smile or a frown are we now iconographizing our feelings? this is an age of globally competitive markets there’s more knowledge than ever before aren’t you excited by that hooooly imagine that ‘ever’ and everybody’s going to know it all what do I need my traditions for I could have the internet freemarket entrepreneurship is the way to go hemispheric freetrade agreements and the world trade organization will be the big equalizers entrepôt entrepôt! it’s better than being stuck in primary resource industry extraction maybe you should go join a big corporation instead of infiltrating the classroom as one of its globalizing agents we need to be strong in our partnerships with industry we all have to survive on this earth together we need to find better ways of using technology improved multimedia better television programs more elaborate interactive videos my people need to get rid of television cathoderay tubes and liquid screens all you want to do is plug us in sure let’s participate in writing the post/colonial post/human we’ll all be victims of or is that partners in imperialism isn’t this why you are in a master’s program — to evolve your thinking? we’re each paying five grand for this degree you think we want to throw that money away learning to be white technologized in the margins cybernauted we only want our children to have a better chance than we got I got more news for you teach’ there is no post when it comes to colonialism you come from privilege and you’re stuck there and all the time you talk with such authority about people not in the mainstream hey in case you haven’t noticed you’re the one who’s standing at the front of the class telling us about ourselves this is not why we are investing in post-secondary education we don’t need to learn about ourselves secondhand from someone outside of our culture we’re in the margins yes to you but at least we got an aisle seat in case the architecture doesn’t hold in case the geography checkmates western ideas of progress

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you’ve been reading too many selfhelp books about empowerment and decolonization no I been living them and I been reading second or third hand about myself or hearing it pour out of you and the other old guard indian experts who made careers out of outindianing indians those stories that retired fart brought up here those northwest coast myths are his not mine not ours he gathered them from your people who freely gave them not quite he paid them by the word do you think my people would sell our own stories that would be selling ourselves we are our stories they are not separate narrational events describing metaphorically how we view the world a story is more than the words of it the performance of it a story is the speaker the listener the context ualizing myth you know it’s a white word that categorizes our spirituality hey just stay out of the margin okay it’s the only place where we can afford the real estate you got a lot of smarts for a haida hey I’m not haida I’m from this land that’s enough the name of my people in your language has nothing to do with us we are not your words your language has a proliferation problem it is caught in its own assembly line don’t blame me we all work with different values different maps different goals wait a minute teach’ there’s that ‘we’ again that global p/reach we don’t need the information highway we’ve got our own stories and trickster discourses my grandmother showed me that the fish wasn’t where it looked like it was she said always throw your spear where the fish is not where the water tells you it is they call this re/fraction dif/fraction in optics and post-structural theory what you are doing is making students not trust their own senses you are saying that their perceptions are flawed does the water talk to your senses or to your spirit boy for an indian without any academic credentials you sure got an ego problem chip on the shoulder problem you need reality therapy I know about psychology how white doctors try to analyze my people into discrete units tell us what is wrong with us that our children are ‘special needs’ I’ll tell you about psychology and reality therapy teach’ before you came here with your texts and subtexts and pretexts

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your data and your methodologies and your psychology ethnography your chi square standard deviations deviated standards your pills and analyses and shock therapy your pre post sub un consciousnesses I don’t know how they all fit inside one person we indians knew who was going to fight in the trenches and the front lines and who would hang back and be tactical experts officer material we didn’t need iq tests stanford-binet tests and all your other hyphenated knowings we don’t need people coming here telling us there’s something wrong with our kids filling our old ones up with antidepressants antischizophrenics sending them to a psychologist

intertext many researchers . . . frame their research in ways that the locus of a particular research problem lies with the indigenous individual or community rather than with other social or structural issues russell bishop a maori scholar at waikato university says western research methodologies with its criteria outside of indigenous experiences (Bishop, 1997) are dangerous to indigenous peoples gerald vizenor chippewa professor at the university of california berkley writes of white (Vizenor, 1978) words and white expectations being part of the problem “wordarrows” being defined and held down in white language word prisons controls right well whatever that was about so what is your project botros? my dissertation is a commingling of poetic dramatic storytelling voices misreadings of the cultural categories of western discourse communal conversations myself members of the inshuckch community and other indigenous communities (Vizenor, 1993) will become narrators narrative voices “narrative chance” interlocutors of our own knowings determining for ourselves what our educational needs are different ways of writing in the academy is not new at the 1994 and 1995 aera annual conferences there was lively debate (Saks, 1996) about the acceptance of a novel less bounded forms of writing such as that of daphne patai’s prosepoem writing of the stories of the brazilian women she interviewed a voice closer to the women’s own voices than academese (Patai, 1988) and laurel richardson’s use of dramatic poetic and academic voices to present her data (Richardson, 1993, 1994) in the sociological quarterly robert donmoyer as editor of educational researcher opens the question on what is acceptable academic writing “submission of nontraditional (Donmoyer, 1996, p. 21) scholarship should be encouraged” I have had refereed conference articles published in a poetic/storytelling voice (e.g. Cole, 1998, 2002) a voice more in keeping with the orality of first peoples the poetic voice sings language dances and plays it sometimes it is embedded in other voices 118

melding its sound and rhythm polyphonically the dramatic voice is collaboration of land story and body storytelling is a way of seeing the world rather than the imposition of a decontextualized denotative truth story is about historicizing culture enculturing history like poetry and drama storytelling is itself interpretation rather than subscribing to the literature review and theoretical framings model of the western canon the occidental artillery I am concerned with the daily practices of orality and audition in my culture for me bibliography is about the superior positioning of published eurotheories and texts over oral tradition all right class order! if you expect to be listened to you cannot be the object of your own study without an objective presence there are no checks and balances you with the braid what is your project for this term and please you can’t just dream up a methodology and implement it you need precedent marie baker augusto boal and tomson highway are contemporary writers who use the idea of continuous evolution and grassroots collaboration successfully just stick with the tried and true it’ll be easier for everybody we have been tried and found no truth just white justice your history is crooked filled with bent discovery stories prehistoricized indians rochelle from the yorta yorta tribe overthere downunder says about the ozcolonizers (Patten, 1997) “when they get their history straight they will be okay” marie what’s your project? I trust you’ll be more in line with academic norms. could you say something constructive for once you seem to beat around the bush and go every which way and I can’t follow you I like the bush I try to be quiet when I’m in that place you know respectful every which way yes rather than following a straight line you can throw your trackers off that way even the indian scouts and guides I am writing my dissertation so that my community and I are a unit an alliance a ‘we’ rather than ‘they’ and ‘I’ ‘them and me’ this project combines performance and collaboration in the creation and implemention of a series of related scripts which exemplify traditional and contemporary thought and social practices of first nations people performance? this is not a drama class how do you plan to collaborate non-coercively I explore the narrative of our land and culture not by subjecting my people to interrogation using the question and answer mode I do not investigate cross-section or situate my people in the space of ethnographic discourse I do not occupy or invade them with words especially those of the occupiers how did you collect your data then dream it up invent it over coffee on commercial drive? 119

I am speaking with children parents elders those who didn’t go to school those who went to residential school band school public school colonized brothers and sister in other lands we decide how the stories are to be told if we want to tell them there are no questions asked we talk about what kind of education might people in our community need we need to get back on track pat what are you cooking up in terms of thesis recipe? I know you don’t subscribe to positivist ideas about education but try running with us on this one give us your one true story/menu/smorgasbord/recipe for curriculum “add women and stir add people of ‘other’ races, ethnicities for variety knead well—until suitably constituent add jargon of gender and race inclusivity add leavening only if necessary add a dash of political good will (O’Riley, 1997) bake until next election” what I’m asking is how is your project shaping up? my work is “a methodology of stutterings in/out of chorus offering different sounds and silences different plateaux (O’Riley, 1999, p. 19) of discursive geography that is not yet script” I’m disappointed in you you had so much promise what I just heard was a load of mumbo jumbo nothing but semiotic slickery empty talk surely you have something rational to offer trickster validities that twist the world round like a raven in a whirlwind and deleuze’s cartographic gesture (Deleuze, 1994) making language cry st stt tutter mumble whisper my chapters are plateaux without culmination or termination points rhizomes quackgrass lines leaving one plateau proceeding to another like columns of ants “each plateau can be read starting any/where (Deleuze & Guattari, 1987, p. 22) each is related to every other plateau” acts of insubordination speaking out of place (O’Riley, 2003) using cultural restriction enzymes to cut the code (Haraway, 1991) no that will not do at all apa format is strictly enforced don’t get me wrong we ‘re not racist here we just want to have the same rules for everybody there’s no plot everything is characterization what about you with the beard and ironic smile (Gough, 1997) “I’d rather be a character than a citation” oh that’s just great everybody’s going crazy now what

interlud/ic rouse enter david carroll upstage left pause crosses to centre special rises on him as he speaks

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DAV I D :“Any

narrative that predetermines all responses or prohibits any counter narratives puts an end to all narratives itself by suppressing all possible alternative actions and responses, by making itself its own end and the end to all narratives.” (Carroll, 1982, p. 117)

enter raven upstage centre R AV E N :

my favourite word in english is ‘precolumbian’ oh stick to the topic special needs hmm I was labelled special needs because points of view different from the mainstream’s have always been considered dangerous by the extant powers if you think or feel or act differently “if your spirit moves outside of acceptable norms you’re labelled dangerouscrazyborderlineseditioussubversive. part of the stream that flows beneath down there with the trolls talking rabbits and saints. as first nations people we have to write ourselves paint ourselves, dance, act, sculpt ourselves without a first-person voice we can only be objects of others’ discourses masks totems salmon rattles shields canoes clothing carvings songs are not separate from our ceremonies our rituals our culture they are inclusive context-bound nature is our gallery our museum of civilization our studio mother earth is our archives father sky our catalogue our sacred songs and dances and objects are not artifacts they are our spirituality our cultural celebration (Cole, 1994, p. 954) art and life have always been one site specific installations”

MARIE:

“in college my psych prof diagnosed my anomie to the class like all Indians I didn’t know the rules: how to act either a wild Indian or a farm girl I didn’t even know the enema tube was invented by us. He must have used an inferior brand he didn’t know we discovered rubber.”

(Baker, 1990, p. 70)

enter rosi braidotti walks on wearing a relief map upstage right moves downstage centre moves counter-clockwise after each sentence R O S I : One must start by leaving open spaces of experimentation, of search, of transition. I think that politics begins with our desires, and our desires are that which evade us, in the very act of propelling us forth, leaving as the only indicator the traces of where we have already been, that is to say, of what we have already ceased to be. The cartography of the. . . embodied subject, just like Foucault’s diagrams of power, is always already the

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trace of what no longer is the case. As such it needs to be started all over again, constantly. In this repetition of the cartographic gesture there lines the potential for opening up new angles of vision, new itineraries. Nomadism is therefore neither a rhetorical gesture nor a mere figure of speech, but a political and epistemological neces(Braidotti, 1994, p. 182) sity for critical theory at the end of this century. enter donna haraway and noel gough as cyborgs keyboard attached to their bodies DONNA:

“This world-as-code is . . . a high-tech military field, a kind of automated academic battlefield, where blips of light called players disintegrate. . . each other to stay in the knowledge and power game. . . . Perhaps our hopes for accountability, for politics . . . turn on revisioning the world as coding trickster with whom we must learn to (Haraway, 1991a, p. 298) converse.”

enter raven prancing goes over to donna and noel and looks at them curiously exit DONNA:

“Subjects are cyborgs, nature is coyote, and the geography is elsewhere.” (Haraway, 1991b, p. 21)

voice-over of coyote technodesire haaaaarrrooooooooooooooooooooo harooooooooo N O E L : “The kinds of cyborgs we and our children are now—and are possibly becoming— will be shaped by the stories we mutually construct. . . . Even if we ignore cyborgs, I (Gough, 1995, p. 83) doubt that they will go away.” sound of hand drum first nations singing gerald vizenor enters lipsynchs his lines stops lipsynch halfway through lets voiceover continue without him G E R A L D : “The trickster is postmodern. . . . trickster is “within” language. . . . trickster is chance. . . . the trickster is an encounter in narrative voices, a communal sign and (Vizenor, 1993, p. 9) creative encounter in a discourse. . . . narrative chance. enter john cage down centre from audience umbrella sound of rain no words carries (Cage, quoted in Herwitz, 1994, p. 200) placard with following quote voice-over “Whether at any hour. . . . weather at aNy hour” enter coyote moving spotlight noel and donna turn to show signs on their backs “hegemonic codes” and “oppositional codes” coyote collides with both of them C OYO T E : “Oh boy . . . it looks like we got to do this all over again.” (King, 1994, p. 429) exeunt installation performers return to satellite campus scenario teacher okay okay but what is all this talk of cyborgs nomads technodesire what does it have to do with first nations education or your project this is not a course in robotics artificial intelligence psycholinguistics paleomethodology this is education we take the world seriously here we have no time for verbal hijinx sycophantic blatherskate you might be better off taking a phd in creative writing or 122

drama what is the subtext? subtext? this play has no subtext interpretations? explanations? I don’t have any explanations it’s its own explanation and what’s there to interpret words? into what more words? interpretation doesn’t make a kissass of difference if you can’t understand the action symbolizing it won’t help you it’ll just make you think you got it when all you got is a handful of stupid thoughts ghost of Donna Haraway appears wearing a FemaleMan©_ Meets_OncoMouse™ tshirt there are calls for rallies trangressive acts in the “border war” between humans and machines

(Haraway, 1997)

I’ve never seen you in class before or are you a hologram? somebody’s catching on to hightech maybe you can see the importance of a partnership of industry with education brokered by government education can only benefit from such partnerships by preparing students especially special needs ones for a world mediated by computers and multi-media technology we are learning to communicate better and better all the time doing that will bring us close together over time we will develop common goals ghosts of Deleuze and Guattari appears (Deleuze & Guattari, 1987) maybe we should resingularize act collectively be/come writing is a way of trying to make life more than personal (Deleuze, 1995) freeing life writing from the view of the unborn that is yet unlanguaged creating is not communicating it is resisting are you on the class list all right class I said all right class let’s get back to the curriculum where were we ah yes first peoples and technology we’re not all the same teach’ us ‘indian people’ we are not interchangeable you know we don’t come from places of simulacra panindianism we’re not hollywood indians we’re not theme park indians wax museum indians wooden cigarstore indians waiting to come to life during times of appropriate tokenizing of the national identity weekend workshops and conscience nessless razing sessions we don’t come from assembly lines from a mold though the governments have tried to put us into one by taking away our languages outlawing our culture our ceremonies sending us to residential school day school concentration camp industrial school coercing us into places of white worship and imprisonment those of us who have survived some of us are creating healing in our lives from the direction and guidance we ask for we don’t look for it in textbooks and psychological paradigms new(w)age workshops but what we’d really like at some point is justice it pays the bills whereas healing sure it’s great but justice is healing too just ask tslagi/algonquin bob lovelace and his fight for wild rice and recognition of the rights of ardoch first nation and allies ‘status’ and ‘nonstatus’ indians 123

with respect to casino rama profits for all first peoples in ontario not to mention (butIam) the rights of aboriginal students and inmates elders children and women yo! bob that’s right we’re not all the same we don’t come from cuttings we’re not slips grafts suckers cultivars we’re not a monocrop cashcrop human resource we don’t come from white export processing zones the world bank didn’t make us nor who imf nafta oecd mai wto ftaa fucof gohom they are not our progenitors nor post we came from the earth and sky the sun and moon and four directions all directions we came from the stars we’re not clones mosaics chimeras interspecific hybrids we are related through our attachment to the land rhizomatically we are sovereign selfdetermining yes like you say there are similarities among us and between the respect for our mother for the sisters and brothers we share this land with who share this land with us the old ones and the ancestors the powers and spirits and beings each nation has its ceremonies and words for honouring the gifts there are many things that make us look from the outside like we are the same we fish and hunt pick berries and medicines bottles and cans play bingo nevada 649 loto super 7 that doesn’t make us the same those onkwehonwe in six nations are not the same as the ones at west bay squamish piapot hobbema musqueam nanaimo xa’xtsa mi’kmaq some of those rich sisters and brothers live in monster houses big fancy mansions ten thousand square feet fifteen twenty twenty-five do I have thirty thirty thirty and a half now remote control tv cd radio property surveillance relationships car house garage golf cart bicycle alarm portable you name it yachts fireplaces on every floor bathrooms everywhich where indoor swimming pools libraries rec rooms preview rooms six-car garage tennis courts conservatory attached greenhouses what happened to living together? and sharing hm and letting your own mother onto the bandlist but you know a lot of us still live in tents a lot of us live in tipis shacks lean-to’s cardboard appliance boxes condemned houses culverts freight cars dumpsters warehouses the old woodwards building on hastings mostly without doors or windows or central heating lots of us live on the street s of your big cities parking lots doorways right in your face race ism put that in your history books newspapers documentaries 100th anniversary celebrations you’ve seen us in doorways on queenstreet 96th street east hastings douglas

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skid row skid road skid alley skid parkinglot skid abandoned warehouse skid skad I was takin’ a bad sure we got fireplaces too barrels to keep us from freezing to death detached water closets and a lot of us live in prisons and youth detention centres foster homes where we are abused sexually physically mentally emotionally spiritually we share a lot as first peoples the colonization the suicide rate the school dropout rate the systemic abuse racism the loss of language the destruction of identity the shame of being who we are in your eyes we learn well from your catechistics your lessons role modelling but we survive anyway case in point the city of kelowna in celebrating its 100th year history (2005) has commissioned a seven film compilation called temporal transitions as part of the celebrations the catch is one of the films by kelowna native jayce salloum ([email protected], 2005) “untitled part 4: terra incognita” features frank revelations by members of the westbank [sic]/okanagan first nations who speak frankly about the unlaundered history of ‘contact’ including the residential school holocaust and other shameful remembrances and acts of ‘settlement’ history it seems there is censorship taking place the city of kelowna doesn’t like to be reminded of the racism and theft of aboriginal land which are part of its history and legacy nice eh? westbank first nation interesting name I wonder if the jordan river runs through it you over there you’re new in class come on out with it we haven’t got all day lena uh yes we do we have lifetimes lifestime we have a curriculum to enact we have outcomes in the closet closets in the outcomes this is a place of education ed u ca voiceover “The concept of ‘education’ is new in the history of the West and it is found temporarily associated with the emergence of modernity in Europe. This is not to say . . . that various ways of learning did not exist before the modern era. The question is in what moment (Apffel-Marglin, 1998) education begins to become a substitute for nurturance.” give me a break with that hokum pokum let’s smokum okay okay what about you lot from aotearoa what are you on about your research why are you here have you paid your tuition registered officially “If you seek advice from knowledgeable elders and other experts, making those decisions will be easier. In the end, it is the maintenance of the intellectual taonga of our people that is at stake. Taonga belong to the three domains of the person, te taha tinana (the physical plane), te taha hinengaro (the mental plane) and te taha wairua (the spiritual plane). If each acts in harmony with the others, and this harmony is reflected in our interaction with the iwi, hapuu and whaanau, with respect to family and tribal taonga, then our future as Maori, as a tribal people, will be secured.

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charles royal kia hora te marino Kia whakapapa pounamu te moana Kia tere te kaarohirohi. . . . Tihei Mauriora!”

(Royal, 1993)

whatever that’s supposed to mean speak english eljon fitzgerald (rangitane, ngati hamua) “For all of that there is a story we have to tell. . . . The common denominator is obvious. Being on the outside one cannot become involved (Goulton-Fitzgerald & Christensen, 1996, p. 105) unless invited to.” that’s one person’s opinion in the west we do things differently kahu stirling (te whanau a apanui, ngati porou) “Nau mai haere mai e koutou te manuhiri Ki Te Kupenga o Te Maatauranga E mihi atu nei e.” (Stirling, quoted in Goulton-Fitzgerald & Christensen, 1996, p. 117) english please this is canada not the south pacific coyote harroooooooooo put that into your englishonly pipe raven wraaackkkkkkk what if we said aboriginal languages only in ‘canada’ henare green (1996) (ngati porou) says that “[i]n Maoridom, having a meetinghouse and a marae is something to be immensely proud of. The history of one’s people is embodied in the house, enshrined in the marae and jealously guarded over as a taonga. And so, Te Kupenga wharenui establishes an identity for us, Te Tini a Te (quoted in Goulton-Fitzgerald & Christensen, p. 62) Kupenga o te Maatauranga.” okay break time you’ve got 5 minutes exit teacher

a coyotec interlude with heesoon bai how wonderful to be able to spend some time with heesoon bai my friend who is a buddhist an educator a mother a daughter a scholar H E E S O O N : This does not mean that we must banish words, ideas, concepts, and thinking. It is just that they will be our guests, rather than our master: they are invited to play with us but not dictate and control us. R AV E N : you were talking about pointing at the moon earlier H E E S O O N : Zen masters have warned us of the danger of reification, using the parable of a finger pointing at the moon: Don’t look at the finger; look at the moon that the finger is pointing to. Our language, like the finger, points to the possibility of sensuous experience beyond itself. R AV E N : that coyote is a language expert or thinks she is talks a lot H E E S O O N : One’s field of sensuous awareness is so filled with a constant torrent of mindchatter and external stimuli in the form of words and images that it is difficult to gain a clear view of it. R AV E N : hm clarity was never high on my agenda I like muddy gotta feel around C OYO T E : that’ll be the day you’re saying that language distances us from the world H E E S O O N : Pattern-recognition-naming preempts a sensuous contact and engagement

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with the ‘object’. The result is a missed opportunity to experience being-to-being connectedness to the ‘object’. R AV E N : how does daydreaming fit into this flights of fancy H E E S O O N : When thoughts are allowed to arise and pass away freely, which is made possible when we do not cling to them and identify with them, then we can catch glimpses of the spacious awareness between and around the thoughts. R AV E N : you bring up the analogy of learning to play a musical instrument H E E S O O N : In this space of awareness, the customary dualistic perception of the separate self effaces and is replaced by a sense of nonduality. . . . One realizes, not conceptually, but in one’s senses, that one is not separate from the world, that one is (Bai, 2001) the world as its one local expression. thank you heesoon voiceover we are coming home to the village back to our own knowings our own teachings according to art solomon anishinaabe spiritual teacher “The traditional way of education was by example and experience and by storytelling. The first principle involved was total respect and acceptance of the one to be taught. And that learning was a continuous process from birth to death. It was a total continuity without interruption. Its nature was like a fountain that gives many colours and flavours of water and that whoever chose could drink as much or as little as they wanted to and whenever they wished. The teaching strictly adhered to the sacredness of life whether of human or animals or plants. But in the course of history there came a disruption. And then education become ‘compulsory miseducation’ for another purpose, and the circle of life was broken and the continuity ended. It is that continuity which is now taken up again in the spiritual rebirth (Solomon, 1992, p. 79) of the people.” enter teacher look all you people who aren’t registered in this class will have to either register and pay tuition like everybody else or go someplace else down to the mall or the library or the dock

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coyote maybe this one could learn some manners maybe he might like to be shapeshifted poooff! teacher disappears in a puff of smoke now more from art solomon “There are two different philosophies which have always been the fundamental difference between the people of the land and the strangers who came here from Europe. One is a philosophy based on the concept of materialism: ownership of land and possession of things. It is a false concept because only God can own what He created. And we are only visitors here in this part of His Creation, We are His “guests,” We have come from the spirit world and we must return to the spirit world again and there we must make an accounting for the time and the opportunities and the gifts that were given to us to accomplish our individual destinies. The philosophy of the original people was based on the timelessness and the harmony and the power of the Creation and humanity’s place and purpose in it. And because of the fundamental difference we could not, and we never can “be like them.” God never intended for roses to become daisies. And so it must ever be. And because we will never be (Solomon, 1992, p. 80) “like them” they have despised and rejected us.” coyote he? fadeout return to classroom scene now to get back to the water the sound of water the rhythm of water the gift of water come on bring the teacher back coyote o kay poof! teacher reappears dazed confused unbalanced soso sameoldsameold end of satellite campus scenario paddle paddle swooooosh swooosh paddle paddle paddlepaddle swooooooosh whooooooosh turning the bow toward the eastern door another cross continental trip we wake up at sunrise somehow we got the stars all turned around and we ended up in upstate new york the catskills

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technologizing the rez first peoples are not in the conversation in this hemisphere in any real way at thanksgiving [which in upstate new york is not anywhere near harvest time but conveniently (commercially) located between hallowe’en and christmas] there are token/racist school projects a kind of paintbynumber pilgrims and ‘indians’ reenactment of things which didn’t happen that way otherwise first peoples are forgotten ignored edited (whited) out misquoted today western technology in education seems to be unquestioned as to legitimacy primacy centrality direction motive where is the talk of gender socioeconomics race culture sexual preference environment ableism these are not separate from technology where are these conversations how many children died to produce the computer I am writing on the printer I am using the lamp and what can I do about that is that death recognized by the corporateprbankrollingfreetrade monster is it taken into account in the computation of the gdp gnp profit margin is my use of computer technology to compose this manuscript worth the environmental damage done in the damming of rivers the destruction of home/land/s which facilitated the production of the power to manufacture and operate this computer what of sweatshops and maquiladoras in ‘third worlds’ the women and children enslaved there so we can have modern ‘conveniences’? how many animals died are dying or will die just so you could leave a light on leave your computer on all night long just so you could watch garbage tv who would ever have believed a few short decades ago besides marxists socialists and native people that capitalism and its lethal euphemisms would be even more effective instruments of systemic genocide than all other holocaust providers (hp’s) combined public affairs departments are the new war rooms genocidal strategy camps icbr intercontinental ballistic rhetoric talk with a big payload the final solution cluster bombing also known as target advertising right wing journalism biased media slipslidingaway ethics it is important for us as aboriginal people to realize that ‘permission’ to enact our visions resides in us as gifts from the great spirit if we seek guidance and direction from the creator if we act with good mind we will speak as we must speak hear as we learn to hear but if we continue to believe that the default position is that permission for legitimacy of thought and action resides in euroamerican educational institutions and rightwing thinktanks including those which are (coughcoughhack) registered charities like the fraser institute and corrupt governments and bureaucracies we will continue to give our power away our land away our unborn away

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we are being asked to blindly adopt computers and the neo-imperialistic world of distance education for ourselves our children generations to come becoming more and more assimilated in/to the agenda of ‘progress’ defined by consumerism hyperconsumerism esl class lesson one I buy you buy s/he/it [sic] buys we buy y’all buy they buy chorus buy buy happiness hello emptiness goodbye tradi itions buy buy first nations pre/history good buy are we giving our children a virtual world a screened world where there is no performative is this the goal of first nations communities to buy into the commodification of every thing what if we chose to not buy anything at all for one day per week one day per month? what would happen in the world? I can hear the words of ines talamantez in new haven on this the silence the guilt of the audience if we use the word ‘technology’ only to describe computers nano and pico electronic manipulation artificial intelligence robotics and other so-called ‘high’ tech hard/soft/ware we forget that we had our own ‘technologies’ long before contact technologies of survival of sustainability language technologies technologies of tracking and tracing reading the land the waters the sky our own hearts the spirit of the community reading our wrighting without any thoughts of selling marketing them imagine life before sidewalks sales victoria day sales endofseason sales what are the agendas of corporations and their partners the american military nasa the weapons industry and their clonies which have funded most of the educational technology research in the united states this technoknowhow whoa now this technology is passed on to corporations huptwothreefour hut hut as a public service gesture and guess what the money came from taxes and guess who pays taxes right not the corporations and where did that $100 million for john roth’s salary and benefits package come from right the shareholders and the backs of third world people engaged in slave labour and who really pays for that package who really pays when the corporations take a big hit right everybody because guess what the price of everything goes up how far is up is up really up or is it down people being buried from civil wars caused by greed corruption people being buried because clearcutting by transnational corp x has denuded the land so the water doesn’t seep into the ground causes floods mudslides what is so free about free trade? for whom is it free?

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whose freedom to do what to whom who pays what is its true cost? what is all this talk of jobs and economics when lives are being destroyed when industry is knowingly killing people toxification corporatization dehumanization are enacted by corporations and those who support them through speculation venture capital what’s the venture what is gained what is the price [and who pays it] of encouraging growth at any price systemic cancer what is canada accessory to an accessory of this is central to the conversation called ‘educational technology’ ever notice its absence in academia where ed tech means big bucks where ed tech means massive infrastructure grants where ed tech means using computer technologies to flume in the gullible where ed tech means passing the buck and the blame so in the end nobody’s responsible for failure in educational institutions or (computer) technology is to blame sure blame the machine (Bryson, 2004) and now (thankgoodness) “we won” mary bryson et al have fought off ubc and the rest of universitas 21 global and its international postsecondary (read megacapitalist) partners who want (present tense) to claim ownership of her (everybody’s) online course materials intellectual properties and anything else they can get that’s free and belongs to somebody else but of course these graball university agglutinations use nicenice language to pull the angora qiviut ducttape industrial ear protectors over the eyes ears propaganda is the megaphone of imperialism the shiv of capitalism the sine qua non ne plus ultra und so weiter of con/sumerism threats and blackmail—those are the trump cards university administrations pull when democracy rears its testa intestata universities and (other kinds of) corporations are not democracies in action or even inaction they are places for the greedy and the ambitious to ‘get ahead’ where is the talk of ethics and right action when it comes to computer technology in schools with dupont patenting a living being an ‘onco-mouse’ maybe they should ask the creator first since they are not creators of life geneticists are patenting seeds and patenting indigenous people pharmaceutical corporations are patenting everything they can get their greedy hands on especially indigenous medicines putting us on the acknowledgements/ohthanks/backgrounder page again the human genome project is looking to transmut/at/e living beings into money and power control money is the bait government and corporate america corporate canada corporate u use to draw fête schmooze entice the willing the hesitant to cross that ethical line in the sand those hashmarks that become upc barcode lines price tags to convince the public that 1 + 1 or 1 – 1 equals whatever they say it equals trapline and snareline technologies are alive & well and thriving 131

in [email protected] under the guise of science in the service of human health power is about maintaining and perpetuating the economic/medical colonization drs faustus helenas rubenstein kings midas dorians gray you might have noticed I don’t put the names of people who are the really ruthless antihuman perpetrators because I don’t want to infect this text with their names which even in ink (or pixel) form would cause spontaneous autophagy alcohol and drugs including those legalized for pharmaceutical use are part of the economic & medical colonization if we drug ourselves up good and overwork we can blame our apathy on being outofsorts beat too tired to care and we turn off the hearing aid when the voice of reasoned nonviolence speaks when the voice of activism against injustice calls anybodyhome big business is about ignoring protestors forahealthiermorejustworld imprisoning indigenous peoples w o r l d w i d e killing aboriginal peoples under cover of rhetoric and media silence big business and government enact “environmental racism” policies (Grossman, 1993) running hightension wires through reserves and through areas of urban poverty and where do ‘indians’ live in shaughnessy rosedale dallas road yes in the hedges under bridges on the beach corporate control means dumping poisons onto our homelands (LaDuke, 1999) mining our mother the earth without thought of other life forms global capitalism is about exploding or otherwise testing fission and fusion and delusion devices on traditional lands and in our minds killing trees and calling it forestry or jobs rather than biocide calling trees ‘resources’ it is easy in the english language to forget that paper and cardboard and wood and lumber and two by fours and logs and sawdust telephone poles and desks and pencils and flyers ( who can forget flyers) were alive at some point and they come from trees from the tree nations tree tribes tree bands tree people our elder sisters and brothers whose breath gives us breath if there is no genealogical/epistemological/etymological continuity we can forget a lot bury it in the plain sight and hearing of words let us remember to make offerings for the medicines for letting us be part of creation another day for the lives of all our relations traditional knowings though can be very dangerous for corporations and their boudoir companions the governments and educorps of this hemisphere aux genoux look at the delgamuukw decision in british columbia who gave the provincial government a big dose of sleeping pills of ignorecourtdecisionsaboutaboriginaljustice pills the inherent right of aboriginal peoples to land and continuance here in canada

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our sovereignty has not been extinguished by queen y or king x and premier w or their ‘right[wing]ful’ representatives it has just been ignored for 160 years in british columbia 500 in the maritimes in between inbetween the silence of mainstream inaction resounds when you hold the talking stick you have to listen to what it is saying learn to listen with your hands and your heart all my relations padddddddle paddle paddle paddle paddle swoooooooooosssssssh

ghettozing the margins my mind journeys to the film The Sun Dagger anasazi indigenous people in the chaco valley in the southwest of the usa using stones and etchings as a sun and moon calendar no need for batteries or writing no harming of the earth but what of the environmental damage in the producing of the video was it worth it each of us has to decide what is worth what trade-offs negotiating risks and benefits but we also have to find ways of deciding together learning to contact one another through the channels of common humanity common animality common being/s common becoming/s let us not forget the epidemiology of environmental racism running hightension wires through reserves and areas of urban poverty making deals with corrupt reserve ‘officials’ to dump poisons and bodies onto our lands mining our mother exploding fission and fusion devices on traditional lands and in our minds mass killing of our relations the tree nations and calling it forestry poisoning the rivers and lakes and oceans and glaciers of mother earth fouling the brow and being of father sky thinking back ahead on massachusetts november 14th 1997 snow falling on cambridge the charles river frozen the trudge to harvard was better than trying to drive through boston orileyp and I were the only human beings from north of the line harvardu ‘native american’ conference and who do you figure took up all the time not to mention space storytelling right the same ones making up immigration rules setting curricula the ethnopirates the xxx comelatelies videotaping audiotaping cdro/a/ming dvding dong around in the collective nouns and frozen verbs they have made my culture into oh yes sure the apples will let them come in ‘invite’ them extend open welcomes heyy!! oreo spud coconuts pomme pomme kumara deep dish apple pies mrs minister mr minister deputy this and ceo that come on in let’s play let’s make a deal! okay we’ll all sell our souls to the white indian experts for a piece of the pie just sign here and you too can be leash trained litter trained obedience schooled

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signing on behalf of people who oppose being represented by inac chiefs and councils who are selfinterested community disoriented not all of course but the ones who are suure bring in the ed tech paraphernalia interalia sure lots of room for distance learning and slide in the cyberimperialism while you’re at it the cyborg-indians plug’m in wire them get them inter/v/ested in addictional ways of networking that move them further away from the world of their relations traditions and land claims come on everybody knows the world is becoming a global village tell it to my relations back home you want a village I’ll show you a village you want to see what colonialism does did will do come on up hey how about this let’s make the world into a screen let’s territerror/alize pixelate get big rams ewes (electronic widget evaluation systems) dvd’s lcd screens and explore the bravo new world of hyper/capitalismmn nouveau what’syoursign I mean processor’s capacity vivacity speed don’t heed wow now that’s mega terato I mean giga giga googol we got computers now and know what that’ll be the beginning of equality and the end of racism right right? wrong there’s no electricity up that way we’re not on the provincial hydrogrid despite the fact it runs right through our communities dear chief and council and other indian affairs persons bureaucrats civil servants and premiers xyz education minister schoolboard fn and/or band education coordinator superintendent human resources person we want to educate your indians to become cyberhewers and h two oh drawers but we don’t want to come up t/here to that isolated place and instruct in person and well you know we don’t want to send up especially educated fn people who might be critical of ‘the system’ or of those ones in charge of education policy of what/where/ever this or that sub/ or is that hyper/text/ual/ity might lead wait we want to re-in/con/stitutionalize your people differently as if imported religions and languages and attitudes and laws and schools and prisons haven’t already done that over and over ah andover massachusetts home of america incorporated may 6 1646 not by ‘indians’ as a post/con/script we can’t afford to have real human being persons at/tend you but we do invite you to cyberspace teleconferencing hypermediated media hyperated learning there’s plenty of room all you need is http or was that html java jaguar panther tiger kittycat what’s your sig n ifier been there done that getting back to serious things now don’t be left out of the listservs the superlinks and info/h/e/aven powwow teletalk words images even sounds just like real life just plunk in your postal code or zip you don’t even have to think about getting around the world of the world 134

just eat what you feel like eating become or remain a supine semiprone docile body don’t exercise don’t get rid of stress in a good way just consumeconsumeconsume don’t worry about trying to do something about the poisons that are building up in your body in your mind in your emotions in your spirit just click that mouse and clatter that keyboard and poooof! nerve anna ute opia waiting aweigh again in mariaville and maybe I should put in an antiplug for those of you who needlessly drive suv’s and help to poison the earth and sky and waters and animals insects viruses bacteria human bodies ohIdidn’tknowwhatIwasdoing! I’m so sorry! well it’s getting a little late for that moving right along to will the real ‘indians’ and other un/dis/closed simulacra the message I get is this will they please sit down/go home/find an aka/ rather than en/demic to re/present them anyone sub/ob/ject of a euro/pre/position or pre post independent clause stand alone internet application reservation terra nullius persons dieudonné extra territorialists manifest/ations of destiny please any persons who do not fit well into the noun ‘history’ like the inshuckch flood survivors and their lower stl’atl’imx progeny who were in bc before the surveyors and the ethnographers and the inside out macs red spy delicious fuji grafted and other/wise pruned esplaniered orcharded hey we don’t even have a past tense or need one though we do now have a translated past now that english has keyholed dovetailed infiltrated itself via its agents revocateurs into our language realm please hold your traditional silence noninterference stance to which we reply please don’t try to historicize us we’re already pigeonholed grommeted stapled catscradled cutandpasted rivetted divetted origamied and we still can’t even get home delivery of anything especially justice someone once said let’s just move to the positive once in a while and talk about giving our children love and get away from all that blaming and digitalpointing of metafingers catch a way vvve now our children are learning how to surf that’s a good plan the net play computer games based on violence and sexism and racism and more violence hate greed yes especially greed and other kinds of violence before they learn their own traditions before they learn to be in their own bodies they are being virtualized by the schools by the teachers by education’s partnership with industry and by the ministry of colonial education these partnerships with ‘hightech’ industry are supposed to ‘help’ children get experience with new software and hardware the latest educational package ‘sure’ this is supposed to help our children this computer ‘technology’ digital technologies isn’t there at least a glimmer of the residential school experience in cyberspace sure we are free to choose but from amongst what options? see I’m trying to be positive but reality just gets in the way of my throughline just like ‘indians’ get in the way of the throughline of white progress is that positive enough for you getting back to the (er)rant

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how many are even questioning the whole idea of computer technology (you already asked that heard it all before puhleeese) in retrospect that will be or already is the tragedy we are embracing it it is embracing us and our children smothering us csi csi 911 hello hello helphelphelp making us into commodities we have become the consumed with our consuming the world is becoming a world of simulacroids an endless series of theme parks sitcoms talkshows copies of copies of copies of cops in the head hey augusto! advertisements for how we are supposed to dress feel smell look taste sound act fart even what kind of toilet paper and other personal hygiene products we should be using technology conferences are pushed from every direction and 99.999% of the time they have nothing to do with loving the earth when we hear the word ‘technology’ have we been homogenized into believing that technology has not always been here right here in british columbia for a thousand centuries even before the first ‘white’ euro walked out of africa across a landbridge into the italian riviera and created civilization are we having conferences on traditional technologies is anyone talking about where computer components come from were they made in sweatshops under inhuman conditions in indonesia by an woman chained to a desk who died of old age at 26 because she was worn out having been worked like a slave after multiple abortions were forced on her because pregnancy and having children get in the way of her efficiency as a worker on the line ‘the line’ sweet sound of capitalism mainline inline online lineage mainline inline online line up and be discounted and canada this beautiful shining ‘model’ of democracy is funding businesses to invest in indonesia argentina the sudan to import from indonesia and china remember tianneman square and tibet east timor mexico where they are massacring the first nations people where is the talk about traditional homelands being flooded so thousands of dams can be built for the hydroelectric power to build and use computers faxes and everything that fits into those scsi fzzi ports of call anchors aweigh and god said let there be credit cards and fraudulent ceos mother boards or mother earth madre mioa o madre ceoa? what is this movement of first nations people to technology when we aren’t encouraged to even think past the computer to the technologies that have to do with gender socioeconomics race age ability environment sexual preference technologies of equity where are the technology conferences that celebrate our survival as distinct peoples and nations rather than our fitting in to a/the mold is language not a technology and knowing the forest and the rivers and sea and sky 136

the fourleggeds our relations the salmon and our own connections to these are these not worth while conferencing about if you’re in to conferencing that is what about the technologies that help us to overcome colonialism neocolonialism ‘post’colonialism imperialism apartheid racism drugs alcohol violence depression diabetes the sexual assault of children the murder of aboriginal sextrade workers which is a crisis situation if your aboriginal but not even noticeable if you’re a white cop un agent de media, mp mla premier prime minister as rochelle patten of the yorta yorta tribe over there downunder said “we have to get rid of tv and alcohol” adding (about the ozcolonizers) (Patten, 1997) “when they get their history straight they’ll be okay” there is no money in education for children for their needs only for building new school buildings capital (ist) construction (construction jobs construction contracts timber/lumber industry) and buying more computers (partnerships with industry) the dictatorship and the arsenal there is always money for that industry/government make sure of that it’s all about buying funneling profits asses getting bigger brains shrinking hearts atrophied spirits dismissed evolution for the dow ist tradition standard and poor fund nasdaquiri happy hour educators talk about fetal alcohol syndrome [fas] children in ways which assume those children are not unadjectivized children in ways which assume those children are not ‘up to standard’ we talk about attention deficit disorder [add] as though it existed separately from television and videogames child-targeted advertising pharmaceutical and other drugs sweets junkfood and the whole infiltration of education bywithasfor business and its capitalist/facist/misanthropic agendas in 1932 people didn’t believe it was happening either in europe it did ask around now we have the mai treaty gone subliminal changed its name trying to hide inside the wto oecd imf [anti]world bank we have export processing zones ‘free’ trade agreements with coldblooded monsters nafta ftaa in the wings who knows what in the hole caribbean central american ‘f(r)ee’ trade gare à vous environmental racism patenting our sisters and brothers of the plant and animal nations the human genome project the new age movement have moved research back de/generations/cades anyone for ethics halfprice if you buy three or more fired sale we allow and encourage the wiring of our kids into virtual worlds wiring them out of their bodies out of the natural world harpharpharp as though there were going to be high paying jobs ‘for them’ using computer technology as though cyberspace were less racist than downtown vancouver the province of bc the government of canada which are using tagteam tactics coercion intimidation bullying 137

reprise they stole kitsilano indian reserve number 6 stanley park jericho beach all the lands of ubc north vancouver westvan not to mention the whole of ‘british’ columbia and they have not yet made one move to give the land back where is that conversation now that the ball is in our court s where is the government of canada the governments of the provinces with respect to honouring even their own laws and court decisions let alone paying lip service to criticizing international human rights abuses abroad hie! by not enforcing these decisions they are enacting cultural genocide eddie benton benai lac courte oreilles anishinaabeg creator of new midewewin lodge says there is the road to technology and the other road to Spiritualism. They [elders]feel that the road of technology represents a continuation of headlong rush to technological development. This is the road . . . that had led to modern society, to a damaged and seared earth. . . . “The [other] road represents the slower path that Traditional Native people have traveled and are now seeking again. The Earth is not scorched on this trail. (Luke, 1999, p. 198) The grass is still growing there.“ sitting here thinking about technologies of racism and domination I hear the voice of hirini melbourne maori musician from tuhoe and ngati kahungunu professor at waikato university hamilton aotearoa north island of what the pakeha call new zealand we are at a conference where he is speaking and intermittently playing mostly wind instruments his voice is like a song he is speaking about maori technology which for him is music spirituality the making of instruments and the playing the fitting the instrument to the body which will play it the honouring of ancestors looking at his cd case I see in the liner notes they talk about some instruments having two voices male and female several different putorino made variously of maire albatross bone stone and matai rhythm and movement are essential to life the hue puru hau [large gourd] pakuru [tapping stick] ku [a single-stringed instrument] and a small gourd rattle that celebrates movement and life the porotiti is a small disc that creates sound when swung on a cord and in earlier times it was to accompany karakia [prayers] and to set pitch for new compositions of waiata koroua and in some areas it was used for healing purposes spun over the faces and chests of sleeping children who were suffering colds or influenza the vibrations helped loosen the mucus also placed in the hands of those suffering from rheumatism and arthritis the vibrations created by manipulation of the instrument gave relief (Melbourne & Nunn,1994) alas he has since travelled to the spirit world paddle paddle stroke paddle swoooooooosh paddle swoooooosh paddle elddap 138

“A buried root. A nuisance people dig up and throw into the sun to wither. A globe of frail seeds that’s indestructible” (Erdrich, 1993, p. 258) indigenous people like other rhizomes and nomads such as crabgrass dandelions and coyotes (Blaeser, 1994) have been pulled up by our roots and expected to die those who have survived five hundred years of colonization are reviving our cultures through the recovery of our traditional languages and knowings and reclaiming of traditional lands which have been taken away through treaties, flooding, pollution, resource extraction, and expropriation “Under the sage cloud, I smell strength. I breathe clear, clean air. I touch five centuries (Warrior, 1992, p. 37) of invisibility that refuses to vanish” why aren’t you lining up your references comme il faut I have already explained it’s because they’re multiple arms of balancing outrigging this canoe journey water wings and everybody knows that if you line all the indians up in a row you can kill them all with one bullet strategically placed and I’m trying to disprove that theory just being careful in my own way you know survival strategy technologies of survival indigenous people are telling non-indigenous people that we can speak for ourselves and articulate our own realities we do not need others to speak for us to teach us (about ourselves) to research us the dominant society has its own (O’Riley, 2003) culture to study and translate it has much work to do about the “legacy of imperialism” in schools (Willinsky, 1998) it can regain a memory of the holocaust of the people of this land which seems conveniently lost in from school textbooks reprise where have all the first peoples gone . . . “manifest manners” of colonialist mentalities and white language (Vizenor, 1994) with their “aversion to the presence of tribes” and literary annihilation capture silence and hide native cultures in the shadows of white signification “Manifest manners are the simulations of dominance; the notions and misnomers that are read as the authentic and sustained (p. 5) as representations of Native American Indians” ‘indian’ never existed in reality it is a simulacrum (p. 9) “the word has no referrent in tribal languages or cultures” it is an absolute fake yes we’ve also heard the in dios malarkey letting crystalball semicolon off the hook for being hoodwinked by himself “The land and new nation were discovered with nouns and deverbatives consumed with transitive actions, and embraced with a causal sensation (p. 9) of manifest manners” when jean pat and I spoke together about culturally modified trees (cmt’s) taking planks out of trees to make canoes rather than felling them and about curricular lacunae 139

I mentioned how the ministry of education supports this same process with children taking pieces out of them changing who they are (Clandinin, 2000) jean clandinin said ‘curriculum modified children’ yes cmc’s they take planks out of them too and us but we learn to heal together the healing is not just one-sided unilateral it is immanent multilateral because we are one it is a journey we heal together or not at all well curriculum discourses are manifest manners literatures of dominance and absence and there is no room for us to dispute such colonizing stories because they have (O’Riley, 2003; Vizenor, 1994) not been in the same universe of discourse the universals and standards resonate with epistemic violence (Vizenor, 1994) cultural genocide continues but there are “postindian warriors” who are replacing “the invented indian” and creating cracks in the foundations of colonial curriculum inventions “terminal creeds” and“literatures of dominance” postindian warriors are concerned with (Vizenor, 1978) the methodology that separates their stories those of survivance arising in silence not inscription or scripture liberating the imagination. paddle swooooosh stroke stroke paddle paddle paddle paddle

special education

special delivery cod

return to sender

so what of special education special needs and the discipline of psychology well seems to me decolonization has inhumed itself into that specialization in a big way all this talk about learning styles is just more psychtalk about whatever the ‘object’ of psychtalk is words at a word rodeo bucking around just as psychology is not anything in and of itself it is ‘about’ the human beings it tries to de/lineate as/pre/pro/in/scribe scribble dribble into this or that category de/an/dys/notation this or that me/di/an or mode there are so many numbers in psychology no wonder it doesn’t know if it belongs with the arts or the sciences you get dents from sitting on (white) picket fences count them or analyze them or get off the fence triptych method ologizing psychology circum/locutes/scribes/vents probes theorizes hypo/stas/thes/izes gazes at grasps inter/venes interferes tests retests assigns value/s grades numbers scores graphlocates attributes of assignations to it makes people into petri cultures culturefair (or probably not) norms (or not or whose) psychology hopefully will follow anthropology as a ‘discipline’ out of academia out of the schoolsystem out of the ‘profess ions at least the kinds of psychology that have impacted the lives of so many first peoples racist academic liturgy (raly) psychology is one more colonialist im position frame of reference addendum wherefrom the masses are viewed gauged measured assessed enumerated numbered reified an/nealed/nulled dumbed down up sideways what is it about people giving credence (and money) 140

to psychologists psychiatrists psychoanalysts and their theories and assumptions about the rest of the world as though the rest of the world had nothing better to do that to try to fit in to theories presumptions these psych/xxx expect us to be models or manifestations of as though those ones themselves were well in their minds spirits feelings actions and the rest of us ‘unwell’ exemplars of psycho/socio/pathologies the great ‘unhealed’ plebrabble especially the formerly invisible indigen/(t)s as though psychologists were ‘qualified’ to judge be expert witnesses or other/wise card/ord/inalize us people could just give some tobacco to an elder or offer some to the creator and not have to pay through their caps for advice they have no intention of following oh but s/he lets me talk about my problems tell my stories and it’s covered under my benefits contract (together with other (mostly) small western allopathic remedies) C OYO T E : R AV E N :

boy that’s a rant and a half I think that one’s had bad experiences with psychology

the way I hear it psychology of the education/al variety came into being in order to devise and legitimize test questions which were set up to make sure the upper classes and those who thought like them those who were educated like (but not necessarily withby) them would be/come the commissioned officers deciding who would be in the trenches to be sacrificed for the country (ie for the corporations and the aristocrats) in time of war (corporate fundraising) ‘free’ enterprise capital ism that time of war occupation subjugation has not gone away for us it is just disguised using the term (cover of) ‘democracy’ in which the wealthy help the wealthy become wealthier the corrupt help the corrupt become corrupter (witness the jean chrétien liberal government sponsorship scandal with québec ad agencies and the amazing testimonies of witnesses in the ensuing gomery inquiry) and laws are made up to make sure the rich and the corporations are not taxed that is plutopsychology that is where the idea of learning styles comes from the morass of words and palaces of power the visible/hidden propaganda which keep us in our places and out of theirs teststeststeststeststests hmmmm if that’s where educational psychology comes from it must be very old older than the english language [bell] psychology in partnership with education has created special needs which is (about) racism classism categorizing casteing our children as being outside the norm ab/normal below the norm sub/normal other than normal in need of special attention it is a kind of intellectual apartheid and it has been around for a long time long before the ‘special ed’ de/a/ssignation in 1912 duncan campbell scott director general of the department of indian affairs (canada) wrote

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The degree of general progress which makes it possible thus to divide and classify the Indian population . . .has been developed within less than a century, and in this relatively short time we have arrived within measurable distance of the end. The happiest future for the Indian is absorption into the general population, and this is the object of the policy of our government. In the Indian communities now under discussion we see the natives advanced more than half-way towards the goal, and the final results will be this complete absorption. The great forces of intermarriage and education will finally overcome the lingering traces of native custom and tradition. (Scott, quoted in Dragland, 1994, p. 121–2)

dan smoke asayenes of the seneca nation of the six nations iroquois confederacy says I know here in canada no one would believe the native people when they said what happened to them in the residential schools and how the ‘indianness’ was beaten out of them or at least was a source of low self-esteem it wasn’t until the churches and government acknowledged their roles in these policies that people started to understand what happened and why this happened it was supposedly to civilize the native people and to make them more like white people the consequences of this is that there are now 7,000 cases of residential school abuse claim before the courts and the federal government has had to apologize (Smoke, 2000a) to the native people for its role in this dark history of the country special needs is a place for certain kinds of people just as ghettos barrios and lowincome housing are ‘the projects’ (?) whose? special needs is in the archipelago of thosewhodon’tfitintothewhitemiddleclassnorm dangerously near the shoals whereon educational theories are often wrecked however first nations children are not special needs ‘cases’ requiring special education by a colonial administrator vice/roy intendent ‘indian’ expert (post-colonial of course would be a misnomer unless they’re colonizing posts now which is perhaps what ‘logging’ is colonizing trees clearcutting indians) what needs changing is the educational system to suit our children their special knowings and attitudes and beliefs and practices the state and its agents of reeducation have no right to ‘change’ our children our cultures our beliefs our languages or us we are sovereign nations within this socalled british columbia we have suffered much most every/thing was taken away including the potlatch it was deemed anti capitalist anti dotal and it was our way of sharing of distributing ‘assets’ maybe it is the teachers and administrators and professors who need to be ‘specially educated’ (sed) rather than ‘special educator’s (sers) someone who is learning about/from/with rather than teaching to dr jay bishop ser I do not want my children labelled special needs ‘special’ — yes every child is that and every child deserves e/special education

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how is it then that our children are labelled special needs never just ‘special’ is ‘special’ a euphemism for stupid or attention deficit or slow or aggressive in a way the system does not know how to deal with what percentage of white children are labelled ‘special needs’? what percentage of our children?of poor children? how many billions of dollars are spent yearly on special education drugs ritalin sitdownalin quietalin gohomealin dingalin bewhitealin I have never heard special needs to be mainly about bright children or about loving children caring for/about children because we are told that you can’t be ‘gifted’ unless you pass certain tests and you can’t be ‘gifted’ and ‘special needs’ at the same time you are ‘put’ into one category or an ‘other’ most times and if you are in both a psych/xxx is likely to label you schizophrenic multipolar transequatorial some/times ‘gifted’ are put into special needs classes as a way of legitimizing psychoracism covering the spectrum gasoline rainbow they talk about reflection but I see fear of refraction refractoriness diffusion white light not splitting into colours not opening to alteric hues antiprismatic prismophobic don’tletitsplit and you know sometimes kids who are labelled as being special needs actually are gifted (aren’t they all) the creator gives all of creation special gifts how often do we hear our own children called gifted yet look at all the gifts the creator gave to each one special gifts how is it when we talk about special needs or special education we always find ourselves being talked to indigenous people and minorities those with ‘dis’abilities not to mention congenital/socioeconomic ‘anomalies’ and the poor those from dys/functional families or are they now broadening it to dys/functional communities subcultures nations races hemispheres who’s hue hues who mmmm special needs discourse is a growth industry it’s on all the stock exchanges it is part of the racism that infiltrates our nations our own first nations educators and the educating of our children part of the assimilationalist jargon which we parrot as though we too were taking for granted that some children ‘lack’ that some children are insufficient deficient that they are missing something to make them whole and all right and ‘equal’ part of the ‘main stream’ are special needs children segregated or are they integrated in/cluded or ex/cluded are they ‘other’ed are they set a/part are they examples of dys/functioning or dys/functional human beings are the ‘gifted’ too dys/functional what is all dys psych talk and how did it get to be part of everyday jargon somebody’s been priming our pumps with contaminated notions

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special needs in first nations academic discourse is about us believing in the discipline of psychology including educational psychology with its testing and its norms its numbers and percentages its deviations which purportedly re/present people numbers as people people as numbers numbering of people peopling of numbers and its tacit assumptions that professional white people or white professional people or ‘others’ who have passed through the helix of psychotemplation who have an ma msw msc edd phd in special thisorthat ‘social science’ ‘education’ ‘discipline’ ‘know’ what’s best or good or better for us for our communities for the generations than we do because of testing testing testing imperative disguised as inter rogative whoareyou translated as getouttahere kalanwi to believe that our children are special needs cases in need of special education by a special educator is to turn us against our own nations taint our own families it sets up internal racism it is a way of cloning apples macs fuji ida red it is a way of dealing with monocultures cultivars vegetative cuttings rather than varieties of being in the world shared knowings do you take a flower from the alpine meadow and try to grow it in the ocean do you take people who are inseparable from the land who are inseparable from their language and culture and try to make them into white people leucoleute loco loiter ers with white values and white ideas of success and convenience v8s 4 by 4s suv’s quads seadoos leafblowers viagra pampers botox ffffffffasssstfood hummmmers liposuction antiagingeverything cooleverything lure them away from tradition into computer and electronic technologies where they can become virtually as well as ‘real’/ly colonized white values too often eclipse indigenous ones overshadowing them isn’t the idea of white values essentializing I suppose so but isn’t that what the english language does isn’t it a natural result of positivist discourse drawing supposedly straightish lines by joining the preordained dots by fulfilling greek ideals and frenchbritishamerican presumptions not to forget whitecanada and its logicitis logocentrism presumed objectivity scientific detachment ten huuuutt about face forward (into the white future) march eyes right under the b bullish in the end what the ministry of education really wants really aims for at is for everybody to fit into its corral les bêtes rouges milling the flotsam they call them ‘guidelines’ or ‘core curriculum’ or legislation words like that which are dictates no matter how many committees and votes the words have gone through they get through they give them nice sounding names patronizing names it’s like a person after major invasive surgery being given a bandaid and a firm handshake no dealing with the deep wound or with the immune system 144

no effective exit strategies no coping strategies just titles of new aboriginal educational programs from on high white people telling first nations people how we canbe willbe shouldbe mustbe educated the crossword puzzle approach to education only certain words fit certain ideas the rest are out of place pace race mace on your marks get set hey you without proper runners you can’t compete here barefoot is forbidden and you you can’t wear $10 runners va t’en va te you think they don’t know we have internalized the residential school experience that we have replicated and mutated the experiences of 6 or 7 generations of our relations who have gone through those halls lived between those walls these were passed on to us as though we were in a relay race as though smallpox has been replaced bywith euroknowledge schools are the new hudson’s bay blanket (hbc rewards) and the whole community has caught the contagion and we seem to have no immunity to it we are carriers of eurovalues/whitetalk we do not realize (some of us that is) that our knowings and values are being replaced and have been our children are losing their language even their genes their chromosomes are being harvested by re: searchers the new dis coverers of ‘indians’ the new seekers for the northwest passage to riches (underorstrip)mined from fiduciees the new settlers staking someone else’s heritage settling the new nanopicofrontier sometimes we get so caught up in being professionals teachers counselors professors consultants administrators coordinators parents grandparents so caught up in the wor/l/ds that white people have brought here we get so immersed immured immeubled in the psychtalk the scientizing the normalizing nominalizing in being professional educators not to mention consumers late bloomers bee boppa (salish) loomers that we don’t realize that we have taken in been taken in by our own desire/s to fit in to a/the system with its racist undertones and subtexts and foreground and voiceover and scrip/t are we so afraid to stand up and say my child does not lack my child is not ‘special needs’ (though it sounds sooo nice so caring sooo ‘special’) are we willing to say my child is just right my child is not part of a dysfunctional puzzle ‘invented’ by ‘dis/covered’ by psychologists and other kinds of curriculum experts psychodiscoverers psychoexplorers ministry of education people with highereducation credentials or business links dis missing our needs promoting racist pedagogy proandinaction on the part of the self-elected un/settlers for heaven’s sake change the system don’t give the kids drugs you’re just masking the effects affectations of inhumanizing education what did kids do before drugs what did teachers administrators parents do before drugs are drugs the new ‘strap’ the new corporal punishment punishing the mind the body rather than problematizing the [sic] society whose priorities are money (savingornot) face and image (ohand) convenience 145

of course it is never the parents who are the experts never the grandparents nor the rest of the family not the community it is those ones with western credentials euroknowings especially those who are white or at least non-aboriginal people certainly we can fit into the model into the bureaucracy as voices as ears as bodies just so long as we do not have any power to implement or deimplement there are always token people who are seconded tertiaried quaternaried brought in to put up a legitimat/ing front but they are only part of the trim they can do nothing themselves it is not allowed das is verboten weis(s) du das nicht herr hitler israel and south africa learned well from the canadian government department of indian affairs how to set up ‘homelands’ apartheid andor camps of inter(n)ment containment andor extermination vernichtungkeit and as always the media play a major role in framing (in more ways than one) Iwasframedneverbeenneardaplace youcantpintheraponme the situation creating provoking maintaining bias the provinces do not want to let go of their role as foster parent in loco parentheses special needs is a construction which we have internalized about ourselves part of the colonialist hidden agenda (hidden in plain view) which we are fed in school special needs is about psychology it is about swallowing the racist manifestos which are cosmeticized festooned camouflaged marketed as liberal humanitarian policies which are progressive and ‘good for us’ it is one thing to criticize within a discipline or a theory it is another to criticize the whole discipline the whole educational structure the latter is what we need in bc altsaskmanont pq maritimesterritories canada I think of what jeannette armstrong of the okanagan people says about human beings their context and treatment as children of the creator as sisters and brothers within creation no talk here of special education ghettoizing aboriginal people into special crevasses within white racist edbabble “To the Okanagan People, as to all peoples practicing bioregionally self-sufficient economies, the knowledge that the total community must be engaged in order to attain sustainability is the result of a natural process of survival. First, we can expect each INDIVIDUAL to fully appreciate that, while each person is singularly gifted, each person actualizes full human potential only as a result of physical, emotional intellectual, and spiritual well-being, and that those four aspects of existence are always contingent on external things. Second, as an individual each person is a single facet of a transgenerational organism known as a FAMILY. Through this organism flows the powerful lifeblood of cultural transference designed to secure the best probability of well-being for each of the generations. Third, family systems are the foundation of a long-term living network called COMMUNITY. In its various configurations this network spreads its life force over centuries and across physical space; it uses its collective knowledge to secure the well-being of all by the short- and long-term choices made via its collective process.

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And fourth, a community is the living process that interacts with the vast and ancient body of intricately connected patterns operating in perfect unison called the LAND. The land sustains all life and must be protected from depletion in order to ensure its continued good health and ability to provide sustenance over generations. It is clear that community—through the family and individual—must be seen as a functioning whole system engaged in maintaining the principles that insure its well-being.” (Armstrong, no date)

I look at the lack of proper protocol being followed at universities nonaboriginal people deciding what aboriginal people need atep (aboriginal teacher education program) xxx u with its wie’s tapping into the reserve/s fund tuition white people as manifest destinies of aboriginal defunct/ionalism white people who have made careers out of being ‘indian’ experts white people in positions of authority to delegate white people enacting subvening cultural genocide even/especially the nice ones there’s a mob of them at virtually every canadian university and they deputize those sisters and brothers who are willing to become collaborators vichyites vichy geese wawa honk honk willing to sell out their communities for a job for a piece of the funding pie even if that pie is cooked by the united church catholic church anglican church even if that pie is baked as a recipe offor forgetfulness of the aboriginal holocaust that is ongoing cultural tectonics many of our sisters and brothers are willing more than willing ly at the trough panting salivating salivation ever ready to facilitate cultural extinction hoping to get a faculty position any position it is their decision to follow their own ambitions there are no offside aboriginal people to missionize them save them from cultural extinction they are big girls and boys and can choose for themselves how they want to live who they want to be at some point before they walk down that long corridor they will have to look at what they have done with their lives and what they have done to their communities I see nonaboriginal researchers taking money for interrogating our children in public schools for white research projects and getting other aboriginal people to buy in to this intrusion into our children’s privacy the term ‘informed consent’ is usually a misnomer when it comes to first nations ‘research partners’ a systemic misnomer perhaps more accurately it could be called ‘misinformed consent’ or ‘they didn’t exactly say no’ (because they weren’t exactly informed about the big picture) these white experts get the big research awards white privilege recapitulates itself they are and have for decades been the sshrc committees who perpetuate anti’indian’ policies prowhite prowestern policies bringing aboriginal sympathizers onside pretending to care when all they want to do is make us forget the residential schooling or make us remember in their words under their authorship author/ity make us forget the lawsuits

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because the united church could go bankrupt oh dear as if that made any difference what is bankruptcy next to genocide economics next to extinction residential schools were one (mis)step now this postsecondary recruitment of aboriginal people whitewashing is another step stop atep hut two three four conscripting our children when will aboriginal education be aboriginal designed driven taught and initiated without the coercive power differentials of white expertise I wonder how jewish canadians would feel gay or lesbian canadians black canadians women if they were put with their abusers to ‘heal’ especially if the abusers spent the whole time washing their hands and denying they had done anything wrong if the abusers were leaders of the appeal for re education of the abused the aboriginal holocaust survivors imagine nazis as the healing agents of holocaust survivors abusive husbands gaybashers white supremacists as the workshop facilitators white indian experts in academia are helping to draw and quarter aboriginal communities don’t talk to me of ethics unless you practice ethics act ii scene iv verily I say unto thee come ye together with thine malefactors even as brothers and sisters yea though they hold power over thee trust in them and lo’ it was done and it was not good for the transgressors kept their faces turned from goodness and were wicked in the sight of the malefactees but so what?! said the universities and sshrc nserc cihr cfi through their policies and practices they’re just indians don’t worry about itthem ignore them they’ve already been legislated out of existence (ie the federal government’s responsibility to them as first peoples) and we can stop feeling guilty as white people for taking their land away and enacting genocide on them for not honouring our treaties with them (ie not living up to signed historical contracts) and for giving 98% of ‘first nations’ funding to white indian experts time after time after time after time after time for shaming and humiliating the first peoples of this land R AV E N :

how is it that university y is enacting racist hiring practices where aboriginal people are underrepresented by a factor of 20 C OYO T E : and universities q and a where aboriginal scholars working to be of service to their communities are not only invisible but pushed back into the hat by their own prestidigitators apples and their thwarticulturists R AV E N : and universities b and s where apple scholars and their white handlers practice double dealing palming bottom carding false shuffling crimping when it comes to working to save first nations languages and cultures with the apples working for their own personal interests 148

maybe they’re like that because they’re stuck in that place of whiteness what they feel is the place of ‘right knowing’ which is the place of cultural suicide for us whiting out our own ways C OYO T E : some highprofile aboriginal academics wear their treason like a remembrance day poppy a token of their own tokenization to market to market R AV E N : and between the petals you can read ‘I am one of them all hail’ university v’s administration claims they care (cough cough) about aboriginal people and have said so in their strategic plan C OYO T E : hahahahaha! that’s a good one gladhanding is just gladhanding R AV E N : can you blame the white indian experts for living according to their own cultural standards it’s their way I look forward to seeing more of our communities have control of education without state interference having aboriginal people teach one another and create curriculum and critique that curriculum and create texts and software and implement traditional technologies in which we talk about our place in the natural world as spiritual physical emotional mental beings using our own languages and using curricula that come from aboriginal communities themselves C OYO T E : nice dream but look at the flack george sefia dei got at oise/uoft for even suggesting that having black schools with black teachers in toronto might help more black students graduate the newspapers went crazy dave coushene of the ojibwe nation says “I see why education has failed the Indian and why I see education in general failing society because it does not reflect the spirit. (quoted in Buddle, 1993, p. 25–26) It has not spiritual foundation.” dan smoke eagle staff carrier and member of the seneca nation says “Over the course of two or three generations a lot of our ways a lot of our traditions have had to go underground as a result of the church as a result of a policy of assimilation and (Smoke, quoted in Buddle, 1993, p. 10) genocide as a result of the education system.” “When someone speaks from the heart that’s when I receive it the best. When someone shares right from the gut level of their heart, I know, and I can feel that, then I know that that’s where I’m going to receive it. And so I never have to hear it again because I felt it. I felt everything they said. And I’ve recorded it. It’s recorded in my heart. All I can do is (Smoke, quoted in Buddle, 1993, p. 36) share it in the same way. as the first peoples of this land we know the land and its language and something of ourselves we must be given the opportunity to design our own curricula and implement them without people from outside of our culture helping (ie interfering) let those from outside our cultures who are willing to help help if and when we ask for help in an informed way not as colonized people/s and let them know or learn when to get out of the way and this is key there is hope only if there is action through selfempowerment without eurotheories we can empower ourselves with them we can bury ourselves or one another o:nen ki wahey it is good to be in indian country paddle paddle paddle stro oke stroke 149

“Serious attention to cultural hyperrealities is an invitation to trickster discourse, an imaginative liberation in comic narratives: (Vizenor, 1993, p. 9) the trickster is postmodern.” trickster discourse is “pleasureable misreadings” of western curriculum trickster discourse creates “comic holotropes” and “dissident narratives” it offers potential for rewriting the codified discourses of our cultural hyperrealities it is relational western curriculum demands one true story indigenous knowledges have no place in social science monologues swooooooshsh paddle paddle hyperreality talks with hyperreality not with the land not with the people “The trickster narrative situates the participant audience, the listeners and readers, in agonistic imagination; there, in comic discourse, the trickster is being, nothingness and liberation; a loose seam in consciousness; that wild space over and between sounds, (Vizenor, 1993, p. 196) words, sentences and narratives.” in between in the white spaces of recycled forests the trees’ muteness resounds deafeningly dead flat canopyless deracinated I grieve these relations for I am the forest and it is me however there is hope trickster whether it be coyote or raven or nanabuzho or fraser river or volcanic eruption flood tsunami speaks to the imagination and (pat tells me) speaks with anyone who will listen and listens to anyone who wishes to speak or howl wraaakk (Coyote, outside of time) paddle paddle paddle stroke swooooooshshsh

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iterature prefigures literature iterati prefigure literati it prefigures and configures it words reaches the ear the eye and in between the mind has to decide their delineation did the {wooden/stone fence} come first or the morpheme and what was being contained or claimed are words domestic wild both/neither raven knows but coyote won’t tell

indigenous traditions and ecology conference harvard university cambridge ma november 1997 paddle stroke stroke oren lyons speaks of having a strong collective memory of place he speaks about consensus the blending of minds “our white brothers and sisters have only been here for 5 days and look what’s happened” he goes on about the driving force in today’s world being unregulated commerce it takes place in an arena where societies aren’t even in the conversation three trillion dollars exchanges hands every day including on the internet “meanwhile we’re walking on the earth” wall street is dealing in futures all right our futures our children’s futures at cape cod they’re crying about the lack of fish but they go out every day and fish what they call resources are our brothers the economic boundary is very fuzzy these days you look for legal economic scientific technological answers to the ills of society but you cannot see that only a moral solution can lead to a better life get the sand out of your head america you cannot deal

with the problems of the world until you clean your own house “respect and you will be prosperous” “I am a ‘citizen’ of haudenosaunee not a ‘member’ we are a nation not a band not a tribe when I travel it is on an onondaga passport I say to my relations ‘I see you carry american passports you call yourself american citizens I ask you—how can you have a treaty with yourself?’” they took the children away to the residential school in carlyle pennsylvania today there is a graveyard there filled with our children your laws speak of the “right of christian lands” the “doctrine of discovery” your laws say we had only the “right of occupancy” but you don’t see it is the land that occupies us we have always lived here yet in 1843 your government invoked ‘manifest destiny’ this is not your “promised land” nobody discovered us we were not lost we were not misplaced displaced replaced until you came in the ‘africanist’ agenda academese swirls and I wonder where are the voices of the common people the non-academics there is talk of directed cultural change the emergent cultural reservoirs of indigenous knowledges then at last the first sounds of earth space sky ancestors reincarnation recombinant deities spirits pervading the umbilical cord buried in a calabash becoming land again the woman in teresia’s story asks “mr minister who did you represent at that conference in europe?” “the masai” long silence there is nothing traditional about mr minister they say he is a coconut kenyan black on the outside white on the in “God owns the land” she says “others have user rights everybody is entitled to land but you ask for permission to use it to plant you ‘own’ land by working on it” who is benefitting from cash crop cultures why is there no talk of shell oil and starbucks where is the collective accountability of commercial enterprise why should globalization mean poor people in kenya go without rice because of a war in iraq she used a cup metaphor saying “culture is not given thus” she spoke of north atlantic technological culture debris comparing ideals ethics from different cultures the colonists used religion government and education to destroy indigenous ideas overnight kenyans became squatters on land they had been on for millenia now they are squashed together in a commodified system of land tenure monocultures were introduced subsistence survival became a memory 152

the mau mau event was reported in western papers as terrorism not as a land and freedom movement who’s doing the interpreting of cultures

a holy war

pashington speaks of technologies and identities he says that technology tends to disengage us from identity ideology he speaks of borrowing from precolonial and the colonial emergent everything has become academized anthropologized even indigenousness the cult of white-expertise permeates who validates whom? “nigeria has always been a subsistence market economy now thanks to the world bank it has become a bureaucratic centre indigenous people have become tenants in their own lands” where toxic wastes are everywhere there are no ecological policies for multinational companies the visiting uoft nigerian spoke of the modification of oral tradition a diviner insists that all drink from the common cup to catch thieves and witchcraft people traditions and new technologies mix together land back home is communally owned not individually back home the first person singular is not so all important lunch little evidence of turtle islanders teresia joined us we spoke of the technologies of racism the indigenizing of nutrition of churches using wheat flour for communion not millet not corn not rice no indigenous grains I think about the origins of hexaploid wheat the difficulty of indigenous people digesting it the pueblo man speaks of the worlds we bring with us creating spaces for dialogue he prefers to speak of ‘spiritual ecology’ rather than religion look to the mountain he says his book sometimes I cannot listen to my relations speak our language has been disemboweled by the newage movement filled with saccharine clichés and when we speak our own words from our own hearts there is the residue of newageism all I can think about his paintings is [what is it to paint a pipe?] his talk of cultural schizophrenia and healing I wondered [why heal] is being ‘unwell’ not a natural state too the words came as from a selfhelp book “guiding myth of our emergence” “it is said...” “we have a saying among my people” “life is an interdependent whole” “we must preserve at all costs” I baulk to hear him call food ‘a resource’ then “we’re all kernels of the same corn cob” “elders are repositories of culture tradition and languages”

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donna is from the dineh nation she calls harmony a way of being she speaks of the difficulties of dualism—chaos and order “I am not me without you you are not you without me” she speaks of no ego or beyond ego she speaks of a tree with the name of its pollinator embedded in it she speaks of maintaining her values her ethics using trees in publishing closer to home she says institutions are moving in opposite directions to sustainability [I think to myself ‘beware of dualism’] 2:21 pm she asks why it isn’t working snow slides off the south side of the roof like thunder “there’s your answer” an avalanche of laughter “so what’s one more book that’s just going to just sit in the library with the other books?” 2:24 pm more snow falls in a great roar from the north side more laughter quickly subsides when she speaks of economic racism the omni-presence of toxic dumpsites on native land we know the sensitive areas we know about conserving we know too about the harvesting of information the sharing of information with others working on phd dissertations who then leave to never return “all of you are indigenous” she motions showing a picture of a water molecule the snow stops sliding listens ines who is apache says language is the most important though it might not save us from technology [I think ‘language is technology’ but I know what she’s getting at] “americans are concretizing our mother and at the same time downsizing getting rid of more people getting more technology” then she talks about the deadwood in academia not engaged in teaching or in publishing their work she speaks of having enough of a struggle without having to help others 3:04 pm snow rumbles off the roof again from the north “it provides a sense of place burying the umbilical cord back home” she speaks of the common good the lacota idea of the camp circle of mutual respect and multi-media “who are the native people here?” she asks nobody looks around because they know she speaks of the sacred white mountain of winnowing four times the cattail pollen “the beautiful beautiful shimmering substance” she speaks of ritual transformation of “person into holy being and back to person” she speaks of her people as consultants rather than informants she criticizes anthropologists for asking questions and not even listening to the answers she criticizes the taking of photographs you can see a lot of people think about the man who is a member of the conference organizing committee 154

who is constantly taking pictures without asking a smile on his face like he’s doing everyone a favour she goes on “every native american scholar in america is a walking miracle when you consider what we’ve had to go through” she talks about “initiation into adulthood” “how to be human beings” then the emotion comes with “there are so many violations against the spirit world” you can feel the shivers when she says “imagine crawling up next to an Indian woman at night to keep warm it’s beyond worrying about your career” then she goes on about savagism christianity manifest destiny western expansion “unpack those concepts” she says and in speaking of clearcutting the forests “that should make your heart ache” in the end she reads a poem by laurence ferlinghetti a buddha in the woodpile which seems appropriate and tact ful sort of oh wonderful! another all male panel indigenous indian men (the real ones columbus was looking for) and a nepali for such a small group they take up a lot of space especially during question period one speaks of his people’s full flowing and the growing intolerance to pluralism the devaluing of the sacred the anthropologist who is moderator speaks longer than anyone but pradip manages to get words in edge/wise “you belong to the land the land does not belong to you” “ecological understanding is not rooted in the intellect but in the desire to understand the process of life” he speaks of the need to create a space that protects the national interest. the need to create define and expand that space he speaks of the disjuncture between power and knowledge he says that anthropologists are now doing what his father was doing I can hear all the anthropologists collectively swallow wallow allow he speaks of the relation with one another through ecology of having an ecologically specific identity of “the semiotic expansion of capital” and putting the preconditions on the table too he says that one religion claiming to be superior to the others is where the dialogue stops “civilizational envisioning” the white anthroplogist quotes marlene dietrich in shanghai express “welcome to asia...” people are not impressed he goes on about the politics of language about organizing translocally the euphemism he uses for ‘anthropologists’ is “scholars of other cultures” nobody is fooled the government is damming the narmada river giving in to ‘development’ he speaks of defining indigenous people there are 70 million in south asia and the government of india says there are no indigenous people in south east asia there is talk of the white grammar of conquest of translation and conversion of the politic/s of translation 155

suddenly someone starts talking about the riverland as a repository for past events “the supernatural” panang says if this is your land where are your fathers’ holes for honey? if this is your land, why do you keep asking us the names of the rivers? he goes on about “mythological significance” ‘who is the we who ascribes?’ I can only think about how racist the word ‘myth’ is its lingering the man from sarawak from the forests of borneo is humble respectful there is not much belief (re:) moon and stars but birds flying left to right can be a bad omen you have to align yourself with the power of the gods through the eagle certain trees where the spirits are living certain pools in the river places of the wild boar the dark places of the river fallen trees these are important others come and destroy these areas we have great respect for animals and are not allowed to make fun of animals we do not waste food a rice kernel floating in river is asked by an insect why it is crying it responds because the family threw me away they don’t want me now people align with the power that felled the trees with bulldozers we invited visitors into our area treated them as equals now they have the power of the government behind them and missionaries we feel like fish on land if people break into your home you have to defend it yourself it is our house and we know it intimately if we can respect the place of our origin and respect the houses of others when we visit the white anthropologist from mcmaster u speaks of the encapsulating society the man from kahzakhstan speaks of huge energy and mineral deposits of ecological devastation of 90 years of sovietization he speaks of the influx of non-indigenous populations the shooting of antelope with submachine guns for chinese medicines so old men can get it up it up a white man speaks of the north atlantic mind someone else about cartographizing via the written word mr kaplan who with his colleagues bankrolled this whole series of conferences on religion and ecology speaks of the industrial-science community of weather and nature prediction and control of moving ideas he speaks with passion and great respect without notes a white woman organizer said that those who were not to have papers published in the proceedings of the conference book are to not ask questions except in private because of the book/publication nature of this whole thing because it was being transcribed from the audio/ and video/tapes many are traumatized at this there is almost a mass exodus of fn people many if not most of whom spoke from no paper no notes but from heart spirit

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javier speaks in mayan and spanish and english of meanings beyond western rationality of agriculture and the supernatural of myth of reading nature of praying of planting of singing to the corn his brothers and sisters “we know how to read the iconography of nature when the news hasn’t arrived yet” he speaks of mulch wheat and corn inter-rowed garcia speaks of the calabash the gourd the logogram he tells us about the word for turtle speaks of homophones and toponyms a gourd-vase-dimpled boat guilded tobacco gourds cities shaped like gourds he speaks of glosses and hiding inside a barrel cactus with the head sticking out of gourd of looking for a new place together victor is mayan an academic he speaks of ritual in daily life he begins many sentences with “I argue that...” he discusses the popol vuh and its relationship to judeochristian testimonies he speaks of the umbilical cord between earth and sky the blue bowl (inverted cupola) green gourd of earth he speaks of creating guardians “we must understand respect have compassion for all animals and food and stories” the man from guatemala says “you should never urinate into the water...” you will be searching everywhere for little drops of urine forever he spoke of contamination and pollution stories for children their roles and responsibilities he spoke of the value of powerful teaching of the supernatural domain of the interconnection of all things “these should be inculcated at early age in our culture the mother in the field talks to her child from the first moment (of pregnancy)” he speaks of the mountain as mother as sacred he speaks of water and mountain mutang the political refugee from victoria is very humble as he speaks of deities always being with us as he speaks of collecting plants on certain days at certain times you have to ask permission first one woman speaks about those on the outside having to decolonize themselves because of anthropologists the man from nicaragua is here speaking even though his son just died a few days ago he has a great spirit he came to share the first nations man who teaches at a university in california who translates for him says he doesn’t want anybody to talk for him he says mayan priests are not witch-doctors one of the academic africans asks about ritual and efficacy in pharmacopoeia the response is that before collecting plants they present themselves to you the potency is different in the same herbs you have to be part of it for it to work you do not just pick them

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the moderator speaks of loren miller as being persona non grata as amazonia’s enemy for patenting the sacred plants the hallucinogens we are not the antlers of these indigenous people we are their employees I think how do you manage a forest certainly not with the imperative mood he speaks of politically usable belief systems in nicaragua the government affirms the rights of indigenous peoples but they are non-entitled to lands that go to the state another white man speaks of the awas tingni the korean owned plywood factory the logging firm he speaks of conflict management devices including using the gps satellite system and gis mapping system software which can locate precisely in any geography he says it’s indians vs loggers in nicaragua julio says the mellifluous words in spanish frederique makes poetry of them in english he says the stars are alive they are persons and plants are companions he was trained in systems theory and was the co-ordinator of a very large team in a small village in peru for three years he learned about the practices of these farmers he says there is no room for feelings in science for agricultural feelings he spoke of chakra of corn and quinoa growing together many varieties of potatoes diversity is essential to the continuation of life in andes because of weather we work in community farmers converse with plants and stars with the pleiades “we converse with plants and animals and all that is in nature. there is a ritual for every agricultural task there is always asking permission making offerings we put in our hat the flower of the potato so we can be like our sister the potato we paint our faces white we dance rather than pray there is a combative state between the shining path terrorists and the high pastureland of andean agriculture but we go on in that great mixture of grasses the llamas our sisters carry bells on their necks to call on the spirit of food for without spirit corn does not nourish the llamas they are on loan from apu the mountain one our vision of cosmos does not go through the market we have ceremonial sites where the path of sun comes to the four corners the four seasons at the equinox the sun rises at its very entrance we burn our offerings rather than bury them always we ask permission of the mountains I was blinded by practices of science for many years 23 years as a a plant geneticist the modern way is unique in not respecting nature the religion of modernity is science and it is the market” what could be more beautiful than these two people one speaking spanish the other english both speaking from a world of spirit nelly a j from venezuela is an anthropologist she speaks of branches of the tree of life caught in heaven 158

the fruit as heavy as stones indigenous knowings she speaks of local indigenous organizations where agreements are made where they threw out sacred narratives not indigenous to that village hearsay the question forms of who has the right the maturity to undertake the accumulating of religious knowledge orthodoxifying now over five consecutive decades the people haven’t allowed the presence of evangelical religions when originally it was one of the most assimilated areas the talk goes to the right to ancestral land after the public speaking the quiet/unparticipating indigenous people speak up complain she spoke seven hours with church officials with a priest and a missionary but they were unwilling to see she said spirituality is most important donna says most groups can’t afford to hire anthropologists etc and who would want to [the technology we need is to learn about the topology topography of legal loopholes] “we’re supposed to be happy just to get territory” nelly spoke of the court not being a traditional tool like guerillaism talk went to genetic campesinos and roads through the forest footpaths during political blockages there was sharing but it was called ‘smuggling’ because the enemies of the state get harnessed with all the bad verbs the geneticist says the peasants share everything he said don’t compare a way of being in the world a way of life with others when you start to compare is where you run into trouble. he said the standard in the recent past was western ways he spoke entirely in spanish very aggressively he said that in peru to say ‘peasant’ is to say indigenous it does not have a pejorative connotation lima has denied the presence of indigenous people in it. they are invisible to officialdom teresia then went on about spheres of missionary influence in kenya then the maori man stood up and spoke his language then continued on in a very western way about the metaphysics of philosophy and culture he spoke of his people travelling the pacific for thousands of years “for many cultures the ocean is an impediment for us the sea is not a problem the pacific is our backyard” travelling by canoe is very important even today, in his language 747 and canoe share the same word he says that maori religious thought does not begin in new zealand it is in the cook islands in atols he spoke of tidal waves it’s in nature that we find all the answers to the philosophical questions he speaks of his gods saying there are many names for one god we don’t need scientists to tell us about these ones all his sacred genealogies go back to children of two gods he speaks of change and tradition spirituality maori life essences and creation tapu being potentiality and sacredness mana power authority and common good hau spiritual source of obligatory reciprocity in relationships and economics 159

the ethic of whanau or the extended family as the foundation of society “biologists, architects, engineers, lawyers, can’t understand this kind of stuff” now we have bicultural courts because the court forgot how to think like this the two christians speak one indigenous the other an anthropologist from melanesia we opt to go to harvard square for lunch nick the california indigen is slow and respectful while the australian anthropologist speaks patronizingly constantly we are reminded of those larded with phd’s in anthropology speaking with author/ity expert/ese now tom and ellen first peoples of australia will speak until very recently only the written word was privileged “our laws and traditions were called hearsay evidence “ tom speaks of the need to break sacred law by relating oral traditions in court in order to save their land the newage movement has appropriated everything tom speaks of standing with people in their fights against dizzy pocahontas movies which do real harm caricaturing first nations people tom begins by saying “I give you all my respect we are all brothers and sisters all belonging to the land” he had a vision of the camp in 1985 that he and ellen have in the south “we see and feel the land as our own body it is like our body and named after its parts it is like our mother it cools warms feeds comforts it will always be our land and we must protect it the umbilical cord the navel the stomach miwi these tell us a person is good or bad a woman being followed by someone with wrong ideas feels it down there the power is in the stomach not the heart not the brain in the 1820s european sealers and whalers brought smallpox to australia they poisoned our people and used them for sexual purposes enslaved them the people thought all bad things that had already been happening might stop if they listened to the newcomers” all the while ellen works on her basket “we were forced to stop speaking our language made to live in missions in towns religion was forced on us our sacred sites were desecrated women’s secret knowings were put in trust into an envelope there is women’s business and there is men’s business the women’s business was violated by the state a male minister opened the envelope in parliament he got an aboriginal man drunk had him tell lies that were put into a newspaper the racist commission had no evidence to support its claims except by dissident women (who knew nothing) end of political picnic

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the politicians said we have been conspiring with environmentalists reading their books” imagine that eh ellen brought material from her land to help her speak it is a meditation there are many problems collecting materials for weaving there is pollution pesticides water drainage is poor the welfare department took our children away if they didn’t go to school beginning 16 years ago we began to learn from our elders tom said in front of three score (of same) “we tell anthropologists something just to get rid of them” he goes on to speak about the lack of authenticity in that profession nor has he kind words for religious studies and linguistics “between us we have six children” the generations must continue after greeting the assembly in ucwalmicwts wishing happiness and prosperity I mention the preceding conferences harvard has been holding on shinto buddhism confucianism I say ‘there are anthropologists in my village today digging up the bones of my ancestors taking pictures videos I only hope that in the three upcoming conferences on christianity judaism and islam there will be an equal percentage of anthropologists as speakers as there are here that would be about fifty percent equal amount/s of applause and silence re/sound the organizers then promise to include the oral discussions in the upcoming conference publications thirty-seven hours of tape to transcribe wouldn’t you know it it was mostly the first nations people who spoke without paper or notes the brahmin in the burgundy turtleneck said he would be happy to reduce the number of pages he contributes so oral discussion can be transcribed into the proceedings paddle the key that winds the conference slows in its turning paddle there is an exchange of numbers and addresses promises of future coming together and the people drift away like memories. paddle paddle

translating native american cultures conference yale university new haven february 1998 stroke the sounds of steam singing in pipes chants operations signs every where of first nations absence the amistad memorial like an adjudicated addendum in the park everything in new haven shuts down at 6 pm tonight we are at a dramatic monologue by monique mojica

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an expatriat ‘native’ american living in and around toronto she enunciates every other syllable like it was trying to get away vocally imprints cadence and stress like tent pegs whack WHACK whack WHACK whack WHACK “corn MAID corn CHIPS I LOVED tonTO chickY hopALONG casSIDY then eases off to doo ops boom ba boom ba ba bda da da day shoo bee doo bee wa aaad be my muffin and I”ll be your marmalade princess buttered on both sides like coyote in drag” green sheer pink scarf orange polka dot dress burgundy sleeves black boots fur trimmed arizona aquamarine right middle finger decibels of jingly copper round ring left middle finger single braid jauntily placed over right shoulder sometimes we need to caricature ourselves to make a point to newagers and other wannabes she discusses research methods methodologies resurrects quotes from museums texts songs immigrant transcriptions from long dead mouths john smith’s chapbooks journals aged 12 pocahontas and her entourage wear nothing but deer horns and leaves in the forest “I belong to the deer clan this is the first year I dance with the other girls” I must collect my own paint wear my own colours” heating pipes chant monique does not acknowledge their song con tribution they beg notice her lyrics are to the tune of ludic skipping ditties mother goose jamestown virginia 1600_something who are these men pocahantas’ relatives ask whose families do not want them starving freezing on our land directionless without relations talk of hybrid tobacco halfbreeds monique says she’s jewish on her father’s side from new york she has ancestors from virginia a great grandmother who moved to brooklyn after the civil war monique married a mayan from chiapas she does guerilla theatre the pipes rattle like chance percussion she shakes her rattle sits cross-legged looks at the front row nervous laughter “a virgin warrior woman with butterfly wings spider grandmother serpent clothes skulls dangle between breasts I birth a continent” “how many tongues cry” pipes rattle decrescendo again and again unheard yet not inaudible “we build alliances with our bodies” the singing pipes continue to beg notice cantabile moderato sustenato obligato da capo

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“I am third and youngest wife of a captain of the home guard” sounds like a gilbert and sullivan opera “I look after the children of the other wives who are not my people they twist my hair wash it with harsh lye soap” the pipes sing like a john cage choir “the women rub off the bear grease that keeps me warm because they say the men don’t like my smell rebecca hummingbird becky to the powatan people of virginia I cry for you” her narrative about a possum with detectable muskrat blood weasels and the department of possum affairs draws brief applause which I think in this case means failure to connect she caricatures first nations songs disnifies the indigenous falsettos friday february 6th medicine river’s first us screening tom king has a bit part in this film playing basketball yo! tom we are told a cbc fellow wrote the screen play graham greene plays wil on location reporter his plane a navajo single engine seneca 1 is landing in medicine river he heard his mother’s health was not good his only reason for coming ‘home’ it turns out she is dead maybe a ruse by the writer to get wil home to be acted on by events and the people attached to them “so you take your coffee white?” tom/harlan asks adding “she’s in the cemetery over there the funeral was last week” adding “you know we got some grant money for vans but we got cameras instead” a fundraising plan of producing a calendar with photos of the elders “hi I’m the friendship centre’s accountant” makeup three inches thick another stereotyped native woman cut to horseraces “I’m goin’ to get me another one of them ‘dogs” ha ha thelma who wil is putting the moves on doesn’t want to get married et cetera she doesn’t want the “complication of raising a man too” wil struggles to put the crib together no ikea this one he’s wil but is he readying “I don’t want to live with a man [pause] I like the way I do things” wil standing on the railroad tracks thelma sitting on them in a femmy dark flowered dress barby fn cut to clyde in jail cut to the game cut to wil alone in the gym afterwards cut to the maternity waitingroom where wil is called mr heavyman and laughter at the gender role reversal the nurse says “it’s a girl what will you call her” “south wing” he says seeing the sign behind her deadpan “it’s okay I’m indigenous” “so what happened to the important contract in africa?” “guess I”ll be staying a while” the mounties put clyde under his uncle’s supervision a group shot of elders end of medicine river cut to ‘real’ world george miles of beinecke library has been 28 years at yale he speaks of a meta/discourse of native american studies “rising out of the foment and activism of the 60s” then george (tink) tinker from denver speaks of missionary conquest he does a beautiful prayer song in what I take to be lacota for which all stand 163

liz cook and jace speak of the theft of native american studies liz is professor emeritus from eastern washington university she speaks of setting the bar high I assume this is a track-and-field metaphor “I’m really quite thrilled to be here in the colonies” flourish of laughter she’s from a small sioux reservation in dako TA quoting a colleague she says “you know I really don’t like people who go behind the bush and beat around” “remember now I’m retired” she says “so I can say anything I want ‘I’m ‘out of the loop’ to use an old george bush phrase” they’re big on him down here he’s one of the good old boys from here “post-indian” language has a way of taking on a life of its own she reads most of her words oralizes rather than is oral it’s very much written in a conversational writerly way she speaks of authors tapping into already legitimized discourses “native american studies having to fight off post-modernism et cetera not to mention simple lethargy and stupidity” there are liberal doses of humour throughout her talk “the law has rarely been moral in the treatment of indians” she goes on about racism colonialism disney pocahontas as history ken burns’ lewis and clarke documentary the quote “the wonderful thing about this country is that it started at zero” right! then “it is a crime to overturn a scrupulously cleansed history as you know all rhetorical questions are accusations” robert warrior says his book Like a Hurricane is an attempt to keep the focus even without the political thrust he speaks of foucauldian philosophers who try to stay marginal “the rights are not separate from tribal nations and traditions what about faculties who compromise for personal gain” very powerful silence then “in sovereignty and nationhood land is most important who is behind the diminishment movement in the supreme court? we must find out if the enemy is out there or is one of us” adding “passive violence often goes undiscovered” he speaks of native american renaissance of first nations and the mainstream “my culture is where I’m from and where I’m going” he speaks of “‘colonial laureats’ and the deficit model of indianness” how “novelists are rewarded for this they see us as nonplayers” he goes on about the need to pay attention when speaking in english to always refer to ‘the great sioux nation’ he speaks of “the epistemological roots of native american scholarship the strategies of co-optation failing to address initial arguments useful to our own constituents then “postcolonial studies will never help us” moves on to “this being held ‘in colonial trust’ is economic imperialism” “native american students need to be defensive regulatory transformative” “multiculturalism is not a defender of native american sovereignty” 164

“dissidents are attacked or ignored assimilators are nurtured rewarded native indigenous nationalists is what I want the people depend on us” george charles begins with a story and the lacota saying “it’s a good thing you”re moving slow because you”re going in the wrong direction” together with alan kilpatrick and anna and rick chevallos we speak of latinos hispanics chicanos wetbacks and self-definition suddenly monique is on stage again this time in a bearclaw dress seh speaks of fleshcoloured band aids white sugar white flour alcohol postcolonial stress disorder ethno-stress “ talking back to walt disney movies is okay” then she falls down growls on all fours “I’m still in recovery from discovery” she acknowledges the work of nick deleary and floyd favel starr moves on to “native theatre guerilla theatre native performance structure decolonizing theatre the chiapas massacre working toward a memorial 60 million of our relations gone in the first 100 years following contact what are the consequences of not creating art out of these atrocities” standing in the rain forest december 22nd chiapas murder then speaks of the strong women’s song this is for kingston p4w” a good talk last night about this and who has permission to tell stories whose story the kingston riots and so on into the am 9:20 am february 7th another day at yale jace says goodhumouredly “two caveats the first is that each participant is here as themselves not representing a tribe nation or culture the second that with respect to the papers for the respondents they are all winging it, having not received them beforehand “when you speak of this as you will be kind” ‘the panel and respondents’ include harry long muskogee from oklahoma phil deloria james riding in arizona ofela u arizona poet linguist who works with sun tracks alan kilpatrick ucal sandiego who translates 19th century cherokee texts george charles yupiq from alaska ucal santa barbara harry long a methodist clergyman since 1949 speaks of “one drop of blood” the cherokee trail of tears the 800 miles a quarter to a third of the people perishing “each of us here has a special story to share singing is a way of communicating” he says a muskokee lay prayer after no talk of jesus then george in beige slacks white sweatshirt a viet nam vet a musician an actor speaks first in kayana his language “those that came before me first I would like to thank” “we are grounded to the place we come from” his great grandfather was a medicine man “ at this distance I can say this” his father was a maskmaker including prediction masks “I remember the sound of hail on sealskin on the drum 165

‘beware of gifts from whiteskinned ones’ they were warned “women owned the houses up there and they still do my great aunt used a weather prediction drum back then we used dogs to predict the weather” he smiles “opening the window on the tundra at night is opening the window to the spirit world” “our people’s history is written on the tongues of our elders” he jokes about the linguists’ lingo parodies it respectfully then the russian orthodox came in the moravian german academics researched my people my father felt his own body saying ‘this is my church’” “gratitude can be so powerful what it can do good for you” “the way of the human beings know this the path of the power of words be careful of thoughts that can become real be careful not to hurt the thoughts of others” “we believe in reincarnation but the young people are not remembering to respect the spirits of animals” “the medicine song is your path your way around down there” he speaks of the chant the essence of mystery “there was no fixed meaning in the time when the earth’s skin was thin the ‘I’ that approaches ‘me’ who is putting on the big spotted seal” denotations are often the subtextual ones the socalled secondary ones context creates meaning I figure you cry the world rejoices you die the world cries alan kilpatrick speaks of “losing irreplaceable human expressions” he goes on about magical texts “words never meant to be translated” “it is important too to resist translation” “ translation is the activity not the final product it is about patterns and about us it is about mutual re/discovery” he speaks of magic of “translation as transmutation despite a constellation of possibilities” “the griffin and thompson papyrus has been translated as reconstitution” now there’s the sound of a helicopter flying low maybe the cia or the vatican he speaks of christianity of criticizing indigenous beliefs “the opacity of the sacred” “negotiating magical words slippery words” 10:39 ofelia speaks in her language her talk is of “acts or gifts of kindness” she speaks of papago which includes south arizona all the way to sonora mexico where two thousand people live of whom 60% are indigenous for whom their indigenous language is their first language her phd is in linguistics she says “we cannot run to the library and look further our elders our speakers are our libraries” “you need not just language but cultural knowledge explanation of explanation is itself another book I don’t want to fill in some gaps sometimes we say nothing she speaks of collecting and storing languages just for the memory for contemporary languages “all languages need to be considered

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opening to ‘other’ not so exotic cultures” “we translate for our own members” she refers to notes speaks of effect instances of english not as a translation from her language but as written in english she has moved away from direct translation “giving someone a drink of water from cupped hands what stays back what I prefer to not give them or what won’t move across language anyway but nobody goes thirsty” deloria speaks of content versus context he quotes walter benjamin says “it matters the context the intention” “looking at the sacred quality of language” “language acquiring its intentionality” “we must go back to the generative moments” he must have memorized a pomo dictionary before coming here he comes across as an intellectual an academic speaking of “four paradigms” “being caught between cultures cultural no-person’s land a liminal place of social nothingness biculturalism and syncretism the translator as broker zen diagrams r white’s middle ground which must be somewhere” he moves on to mis/perception mis/recognition he’s on a roll he speaks of parallelism and simultaneous native and non-native parallel events says “I don’t wear a washington redskins cap” then speaks of meaning simultaneity a hybrid postcolonial subject quotes homi bhabha “who talks about ivy league indians” he goes on about euros including derrida also of spivak “I’m probably just pillaging” he names the name “subjectivity” “po/l/emic how does power work in translation using native language as fodder for appropriation” oration “how do we constitute boundaries? whose?” he gave the euros a good workout in his talk james riding in from arizona state u gives his ‘indian’ name his genealogy speaks of “an intellectual foundation based in indian tradition” in his white shirt black vest stetson he says “to come in and tell us how to speak is an absurdity” “who has a right to translate? who owns knowledge? what should scholarship give back to the community?” “scholarly writing is very ambiguous writing you get permission but you give complete editorial control to the community” he goes on about “presenting history correctly rectifying problems caused by nonindians” how the overlanders en route to the westcoast represented“america’s first driveby shootings” he talks about “capturing meaning over centuries” “island place becoming land” of “coming into english where meaning freezes” brings to mind the quote “rain just hitting the desert that sound the dampness of desert” some people nod “and this aroma happens”

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oh wonderful a list from a white man in the audience with a scruffy ponytail about “exposing texts” “destructive incantations and curses” and “going into the temple to study without going there to worship” the question/comment/accusation is directed at alan who says the power died with the owners of the text” his parents lots of mixed feelings from that ex change bad medicine lingers ines speaks of indigenous scholarship assimilation conversion political reality being trained at the university to categorize and walking the earth you have to be a comprehensive scholar you have to be a poet in both languages” n scott momaday was born in oklahoma in 1934 lives in new mexico teaches at the university of arizona he speaks of sequence “in the dimension which we call time” “time as a particle of eternity eternity a stillness as far as we know it is a door through which we perceive the ever present our ancestors and progeny a place to meet them” speaking of ancient paintings in a cave in spain he talks about caves in spain where he felt like he “passed from time to timelessness” “time is in the middle distance it passes away” he speaks of the apron of sumaron desert the colorado plateau rio grande valley “I think of those kiowa and their horses their centaur culture migration tenure invasion the sacred journey of kiowa to rainy mountain” the hopi say “we were always here” “we know” someone asked him how long it takes for a people to become indigenous? he said he can’t remember then goes on about the imagination “the great matrix of the oral the 30,000 year tenure” “identity being fixed in the earth” “multiple use conservation a sacred relationship” he looks at everyone says “remembering my face in the mirror of masks” beat then speaks of “the conquest of the cultural composite of cultures” people are starting to get tired everyone at once it’s 2 pm low blood sugar another poem is sutured in lots of monotones intact I awaken to “always in the presence of the sacred” “artificial tenses extensions of the present the past as a kitschy corner of time” then he says “urset hears nothing until yahweh says ‘berries’ ‘berries?’ time in context and timelessness” “there is no time on my side of the table there is time on your side it is a table for god’s sake I’m sorry” at the break monique talks about an anthropologist’s mother who approached her proudly talking about ‘my daughter the mexican expert’ what is ‘a mexican expert’ the next part in which dr kevin mcbridge a tribal archaeologist and nonnative talks of mashantucket pequot museum of the aboriginal research centre “‘we’ are geared toward education there will be a scholar’s area 168

in the centre for 16 people an internship program” he points without due respect to a slide of a woman with his right thumb I am apalled at this gesticulation now he calls them ‘exhibits’ you can feel everyone shudder at his insensitivity there will be a kind of wax museum hmm why not indian candles dioramas wooden whites interactive computer video he speaks of the importance of “building in a half day at the centre” now there’s a panel on literature al trachtenburg a yale prof from american studies moderates the whitehaired ponytailed man with the fisherman knit the young man in the blue sweater the short woman lauren tohe the grey shockofhair woman and robert warrior brian wescott actor robert warrior stanford u has a phd from a religious organization he gets right into it by quoting edward said he speaks of intellectual excitement and of “criticism creating subject matter” of bird “parading ethnicity and first nation’s autobiography” wayne newton’s is forinstanced they say he does things for the cherokee his people “an attitudinal shift to/ward cultural studies looking for the smoking gun in the beineke library montezuma” he speaks of native children being taken to carlyle school in pa from the southwest” he asks “what is an english department for?” arguing citations citing argumentations he speaks of ahmed refuses citation method talks of metadiscourse conditions and trajectories critical space and fora opposition and re-opposition and criticism in the public sphere wherever that might be he speaks of “the invention of postcolonial discourse as a new imperialism” discusses “hierarchies of values ethical imperatives plurotopic and iatopic hermeneutics the existential encounter of art and science “there is no blueprint pay attention to loci of imagination” he moves to postwar relativism “papyricizing indigenousness foregrounding morality” but how about feeling? “in 1837 the native american intellect is spoken of by r w emerson there is a need for robust awareness of our own” whatever and so forth laura tohe is dene from the sleepy water clan she speaks first in navajo her first language then gives her genealogy saying she was brought up on the navajo reservation she talks of translating native cultures she talks of songs prayers stories for healing art and poetry and feminism “there were no words for these until recently no need for words for these” she speaks of the poetic “seeing the world through poetic eyes 169

of creative artists not separating you from anybody else in the community being uncreative would set you apart” then speaks of “literary identity and being connected to the homeland o keo my feet below the land homeland of the navajo the four sacred mountains we are bound we are like this” she speaks of thread and strand and a weaving “we belong to land” she went to grad school in lincoln nebraska in 1982 where there are no mountains no lizards no sagebrush she drove to the river’s edge she was so homesick “you go into the body of water your hand and foot the platte river fort sumner in newmexico is four generations away” “words are sacred words can hurt you couldn’t give out your ‘indian’ name the name is part of your identity what you called one another by kinship this prevented incest you know to sound ssshhht it is a name place holder you take the rhythm of everything in writing this is a way of sharing it is shared memory translation misses the nuances” “kwoidjo is living a spiritual life this engenders everything responsibility to family community” “what then of a tenure track what of native scholarship not being valued as traditional scholarship?” “in self-evaluation every year the other faculty members didn’t have to explain themselves to the chair who said the administration needed it “values are important ever heard that one before?” “fuck” somebody said kate shanley from cornell says “it is important to talk to the animals and take out the chant” she speaks disparagingly of newagers of appropriated tribal tunes she quotes uneuropean sounding names “you have to face your fears and the wilderness colonial presence t ribal absence” “the american identity depends on indians vanishing but aboriginal people are needed too even by them thinking with the heart is good” “indigenous people often are absent from table of contents even of minority discourse books” there is always the definition involving pan-indians whatever that’s supposed to mean or prove must be from the percussion section the tympani “in indigenous stories there are conversations with one another narrative logics of indigenous epistemology the trickster would give imperialism a rough time trickster figures are adjectives verbs not nouns the politics sovereignty everything is sanitized or cerebralized or not translated at all she tells of “s/he/it” which is a new pronoun she made up general laughter as she pronounces the new pronoun “a variation on western carnival tropes” 170

the talk goes on to “disease sin crime naming practices and the trickster to recuperating names to renaming — somebody has to” what does emile durkheim have to do with all this and who let him in? must be from a bookmark left by another epistem-borrower her talk moves on to “collective effervescences” and “really indigenizing” followed by more eurotalk about “effervescent forms of sociality” “trickster and time frame coyote old or young the embrace of contraries coyote and newage woman two-backed beast coyote speaking to in with a dream” “must be a dog god inversion backwardness in the sanatarium in green grass running water” jerry rigged people institutions and names great grandfather running water four people in the insane asylum escape and national disasters happen there is a siren outside in here there is talk of “lector of power” disguising ishmael “the word parodic surfaces detective discourse people and characters meld” she speaks of “a cleanedup coyote” an anecdote of birds in this book flying into skyscrapers in toronto the traditional flight path being blocked by progress a flock of indians flying into the side of a building a bit shocking even the second time around or third a short history of indians in canada and bay street being blackened “the whole sky for days” the term/in/us exploding with binaries comes up and the ‘loss of joyful belief’ by monique craig womack oklahoma creek u lethbridge by way of national literatures at u minnesota press then brian wescott and another fellow say a few words then womac speaks again harry long sings his prayer in skokee after which elizabeth is thanked again “there is talk of the need for tribal literature to be tied to specific landscapes locating (rather than situating) literature of community” the trickster turns the lights off in real time in and out of fiction “the almanac of the dead rushes by the trickster trope is invoked there is not always celebration of this trope” “the sun came down” and napi there was shape shifting opening up words to infinite meaning going too far” brian wescott who is yup’iq athabaskan and enthusiastic went to hollywood and became semi-famous he is both glassy eyed and á bout de souffle from alaska he is very full of hollywood he speaks of the pomo tribe in california of images consumed of a pomo pomo pomo writer he goes on I’m sure I must have missed some thing perhaps a preposition or filmography he speaks of trying very hard to think from the heart I wonder if he’s ‘trying’ with the head to think from the heart trying “to translate across gulfs” he speaks of 500 nationswhich is a documentary by kevin costner give me a break please though I do appreciate his intention 171

he goes on about “traditional education as being considered coeval with static societies” he was technical advisor for ‘on deadly ground’ in alaska whoopie ding he speaks briefly of bear spirit then of just talk then of being in the moment he mouths grand indian playing indian what about “sheilah tousey” whom he invokes when he speaks of actors who must “first honour text” she should know she plays any tribe or community if it pays a female graham greene I exaggerate to make a point can anyone I wonder write trickster is it not the other way around the name james welch blackfeet gros ventre author comes up I think about the bringing to life of clichés and first peoples like in tomson highway’s rez sisters the raping nanabush the malicious violent trickster jace is mad sort of he talks about many nations bringing all stories together chicano and first nations learning together from one another what are the borders I wonder and who made them it is still saturday night and we just had a grabwhatyoucan meal at the beineke library with alan kilpatrick strange to dine in a rare book library with millions of dollars in books behind plastic a huge 1489 map of the world in the basement near the toilets oh happy day prewestern hemisphere precolumbian great talk about vizenor and thomas king looking at the columbus map we think it would be good to do research here within and against or just not enter certain conversations we’ve moved to nearby sudler hall waiting for the l/iterati 7:15 and jace is glowing his face is happy his nose very red even though we’re 15 minutes late betty louise bell oklahoma cherokee teaches u michigan “my brother would never believe this everywhere we go he says keep your voice down” she is precious the quality of whatever is not strained jace puts his cowboy boots up crossed on stage he doesn’t attend many readings I suspect “look for me in the moon the old lady says talk of the public image of cherokees” unkind i/mage a beautiful hall more talk of cherokees and evangelism “you all talk of genuine rocks from the cherokee nation sharp #2 pencils” lucy evers says “I am your worst nightmare I am an indian with a pen” “don’t mess with indian women you white house/s” laura tohe talks of first nations women walking behind their men “steering them” she went to albuquerque indian school she speaks of thunder beings baseball bats chito harjo a creek from the early 1900s ofelia of the tohono o’odham nation speaks of the birth of stars speaks a lot 172

in her own language and I started to understand somehow perhaps despite itself and myself “everything I write is retrospect you know” she says

language outside of itself

hyphenated elizabeth speaks about the spokane rez reads poems about her ex-husbands about a black hills museum now she can’t even get the sequel to her first novel published “it talks about the 5 or 6 dams on the missouri river” a beautiful blanket over her left shoulder she sees herself as a poet a fiction writer she’s very funny also very bitter and nasty in an anticolonialist wayshe documents overheard airplane conversations including one woman and her husband who when they were in egypt explained their kids had to go without toys because the parents moved around so much “please” she said to her explaining emergency onboard procedures “put the bag over your mouth and breathe” instead of being nasty in my writing I leave blanks ines reads from a manuscript she translated from navajo or apache before graduate school it is long and beautiful it’s actually a prayer maybe it’s the limited edition book with pictures by the german woman with whom she collaborated in the 1970s that’s now being auctioned on the internet for thousands of dollars ines speaks of 13 different schools in elementary she attended as a child she talks of chaining herself in california in protest against a lot of things of moving to mexico for 7 years going to graduate school with 7 kids her husband having left her I leave more blanks because I”d rather listen than take notes then she coughs and coughs gestures for the navajo woman to finish for her she drinks water shakes she is not well in her body it seems maybe there are bad spirits lurking later up the stairs of the hall looking down I hear someone say monique is giving her some herbs I remember I have echinacea and golden seal in my shirt pocket and vitamin c betacarotene calcium I had forgotten she must have known in her spirit that she would cough must have known I had brought some medicines from new york state and forgotten to take them in the morning forgotten to give some to pat too sunday february 8th 9:37 am jace is relaxed and we haven’t started shock double take we are late by 7 minutes but now he’s going to start almost on time he’s been incredible in terms of being watch bound mind you not ‘clock/wise’ as someone said ‘wasn’t the direction’ because the direction was around before clocks were jace says “whitney humanities complex has not had such a large sustained turnout in 5 years” semi-sustained applause 173

then he acts as almost an apologist for alan about whom he says his parents died much too young they were ethnographers jace says there are ten to twenty thousand speakers of cherokee trudy richmond from the scanakoot nation in georgia says a prayer then speaks of her friend who would light a fire at some distance from the reserve to let her know she’s on her way she speaks of the quitip/pitipiaq people who no longer exist ‘officially’ they say ‘as political entities’ the pequot were chased and killed “finally the colonists said if they got rid of their dogs they’d give them more land for their corn the quinnipiac peoples where are they? where are we? we don’t speak the language have no ceremonies we say we are an ignorant people that is our history the mohicans allied with the english the skataquiak went into the hills now there are three recognized groups of extinct people of my nation” I’m not sure what “recognized” means I assume it means by white people the golden hill paugussett reservation is fewer than .25 acre the smallest and oldest reservation in the usa consisting of one family there are 2 pequot nations two groups emerged treated as pt and nt people looking for federal recognition this is what trudy is doing jace introduces tink tinker who is really george he is from an indigenous school in denver colorado tink talks about a trip to bolivia “a central church built in 1639 two years after a big massacre 4 years before j elliott of boston brought the gospel to native people to dispossess them of the land” “now there are many generations of christians and once a week there is a religious activity called church with over a million catholic indians there are 12 catholic priests white jesuits and franciscans dominicans dos nortes cochabamba in august in bolivia mesoamerica andes amazon catholicism everywhere” tink says there is little sense to them in celibacy love us to death look after us “thy will be done” ‘rockefeller’ the sin of 500 years of evangelism spreading the word of jesus how to posture ourselvesfor the next millenium of the indian experience an exceptional talk by not the literati the grassroots church workers “180 indians adopted a document unanimously that is consensus thinking they generate their own theologism no jesusbut creator if there is any room for jesus jesus must fit in to who they are into their ceremonies” “there were many different traditions” turning circle differently sunrise works different down there “clockwise/counterclockwise” as jace says but “that must be a cherokee thing” understated humour does not trans/late/fer well onto the page

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all ceremonies are done by both man and woman parity is so important it is modelled everywhere he shows jace the watch which is to say the time now john mack faragher a history prof professional historian of colonialism reads a chronicle dealing with frontier movement from red jacket 1805 seneca how to worship the great spirit the panel members include left to right “first white frost” then jace ines mescalero apache a ucal person by the name of homer noley chris jocks a mohawk from dartmouth college then john and the mohawk an elderly rez/verend lay fellow from the seminary who gives thanks and speaks of souvenir his prayers are marked in red he uses word replacements with the king james as a template “I would have written it in choctaw” he says “speaking of hermeneutics” “it being originally biblical interpretation in particular” he speaks of errors in translation “during the second century” “the jews becoming gentiles” “martian’s strict dualism” “phantom jesus” “justin martyr and aristotle as christians” adding “the catholic church is the protector of traditional translation” suuuure it is just watch next he speaks of hermeneuts with his very soft broadvowelled speech of zeus and pegasus athena am I in the right room he doesn’t look like joseph campbell “the crucifiers of jesus became interpreters missionaries in washington dc you might as well be flying into athens” he says speaking of the columns “what if the romans came here” he says hoping zeus isn’t here “yes this is the new rome” “the old boatman putting coins on the eyes of the dead” my people never had coins somehow he moves to “elysian fields” and “athenian heaven” yo here we go “in southern california there is elysian park” I guess that must mean something “aristotle said some people are born to be slaves some to be masters” where I ask myself does the spiritual authority reside “we must remove the veil from moses’ face” that’s a take ines speaks of the yale logo being light and truth “knowledge is like a tree not just the branch and other parts but the whole tree” she speaks of “symbolic systems generated by being land-based” she speaks of “spiritual homeland not real estate” “it is an illegal plunder of the past just as stripping fencing the earth and plowing are” “it must not be cut into our mother when you dig a pit for a sweat” she moves to talk briefly about the chumash of southern california “it is with hands not a tool or implement you make an offering of perspiration” she was very angry when she began to speak when she “began to teach” years back a fellow named roy harvey pierce was her mentor “way back like the old thing of honey and vinegar the land was raped and people were clothed in nature” “our pines are our cathedral nature is our bible” she talks about the abomb detonations “as the cloud moved across the reservation

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it created a new mythology about nomads in the crucible of the desert” she spoke of ceremony as ‘aesthetic’ “you pray for trees used as tipi poles abalone shells are used even way out there” a space of silence “we are in this together” a siren wails “we are consumed by consuming” she says “the ‘new scholar’ surfaces from my work” “we all walk this continent together” she speaks to a white audience here at yale “we know that development is wrong” “we all know about nonnatives speaking about native spirituality” bringing her to the idea of “an apache ambush” “I prefer the term ‘integrated’ to ‘holistic’” she moves on to writing “about ethnopoetics studying tribal poetry validating white interpretations—what is this?” “we must begin with language with ‘respect’” “is it a native or is it a north american experience” “did you know the biggest tribe is the wannabe tribe” oh say newager can you see “facing the west” checkmark this one history “we welcome them to our fires to work with us can we know the faith of the prophet without knowing the arabic language of course not” she goes on about language and indigenous language “they are distorting the words of our prophets ‘there’s no such thing as navajo philosophy’ the department head at the university of new mexico told me” lights go out at 10:01 the trickster puts the lights out on “the world of the ‘supernatural” “we need to keep in mind repatriation of spiritual objects from museums” “harvard’s peabody” someone clarifies she speaks of “singing to the rattles in the peabody” “they have not been fed we cannot move without carrying that pain we are in it together we are in it together we are in it together the majority of our students are not native because of genocide I don’t buy the term postcolonial stop thinking about land as real estate” chris jocks is mohawk from southern california now at dartmouth college he speaks of “where the nuns carried rulers and they never measured anything” he was afraid of them so he obeyed so he obeys “why do we engage in translation? people’s words and lives extrapolating meanings from texts” he goes on about “analogies of cherokee” of “georgia” and “dumping the tailings” translations become pablum “because you like being called an expert you want to get tenure and get your name in the corner of a book” “you may have heard ‘translation benefits all native people’this is a dangerous misleading idea we think we know because we have words but it often hides more than it reveals—I am a goad in this” he speaks of six native languages of medicine masks and haudenosaunee of nondefined thing/s chiefs regalia sacred objects native religion a checklist you can work with boxes they fit into “what we have to do is change the definition of religion” 176

“translation can only bring us to the threshold there are piles of interpretation” “do ideas wear out?” what of word journeys “the great law of peace the category of nation longhouse tradition a bundle of traditions” he compares the aboriginal garden and eurogarden speaks of crosspollination he quotes “a late philosopher and ideologue of the warrior society” winding down he speaks of “polysynthetic languages including mohawk” he speaks of “being rooted in ground” sue kidwell speaks of “land as a source of culture” a ‘single drop of blood’ salvation the coming of corn skin becoming corn they must kill her and drag her body around the field now corn grows there corn is life death when I dance I am the corn she speaks of the great tree saying “the tree of ines is not something you can deconstruct” “people become chained to radiators for speaking their language” she speaks of “culture as a moving target a process and slang is part of it” she quotes n scott momaday ‘ I stand in good relationship to all things’ she speaks of the navajo having “a sense of beauty balance harmony” we learn a bit more of jace’s biography assistant prof at columbia law school got his phd at union theological seminary in 1996 “I get the last word” he jokes adding “it is deadly serious business” with humour he talks about chief peter about “white wampum and black wampum and taking out the black beads so all the wampum might be white” and “ the malleability of indigenous people” “the only cultures that do not change are dead ones ‘stasis’ ‘that box of 19th century ideas” then changes tack “for ines english is her 3rd language” moves on to “religiocultural cartoons” of chris “sharing ‘big ideas’ rather than the work” he speaks of “‘yowa’ a word so sacred at one time only certain people could speak it” I would be surprised if it has lost any of its sacredness “the yohiwa rather than the yawahi which is the cherokee jehova” then he moves to “the elder fires above” “fractured myths” and “speaking english not being a diminution of indianness” through “allophonia you can speak to a broader community” this is the burgundy shirted speaker back and forth it goes “property rights and ownership of stories” “misrepresentation of text and task” “people from south of the rio grande”“the first ad/vent of white people into the western hemisphere” “the shared quest for a meta/discourse” who says its either shared or a quest? there is talk of “community activism” alter/natively I consider ‘communitism activy’ “the parameters of the discourse for native american policy is law whose departmental home is in american studies” hmm? the politics of aboriginality of academic indianness 12:04 time moves jace briefly crosses his arms he wants to be a scholar I can sense it a speaker of bon mots his and others 177

a rainforest metaphor surfaces the word “canopy” and “people below” “if the cornstalk does not produce ears how will it feed the people” he speaks of the 4th year of tenure track and so forth then “taking elders prerogative” ines says “we should do like jewish people do with their holocaust keep it in their faces” she speaks of consumerism “one day per week or month don’t buy anything!” then with great emotion and energy “behind corporations most are american is a hideous genocidal agenda how many children died creating that product” “and how about napa soaps? the struggle in bolivian mines these are about consumerism” “what about the reception of native american studies by more established disciplines” jace adds chris jocks speaks of writing a novel for a tenure committee though jace tries to hold her back ines will not be bridled “I’m an elder I can speak any time “linguists” she says “get information from first nations people yet they don’t speak at the conference” jace is shaking his right hand to get her to stop then a reference is made to “will rodgers a cherokee intellectual” “hey that’s redundant” someone says bringing lots of laughter end of conference paddle swooooooooosssssssssshh paddle paddle stroke paddle

indigenous knowings conference mcmaster university/six nations grand river polytechnic may 1998 friday may 1 we’re in the basement of the hamilton general hospital where there was recently a radio-isotope spill and multiple (mis)firings the conference folder includes a nuclear map of canada a letter of welcome from linda staats director of grand river polytechnic a grp brochure mcmaster’s mcmoccasin telegram a request for papers for a planned publication the conference booklet and dawn martin-hill’s business card settling down to the first speaker chief arnold general and the drum he gives a 15 minute thanksgiving address in the cayuga language “I’m so glad to see the place is so half-full” he’s from the beaver clan of onondaga “I am the language of my aboriginal language” “we always must use common sense thinking because we must think of the children of tomorrow we come through life respecting mother earth when you don’t respect mother earth you see her as an it” then there is the drum the sound of our own hearts the president of mcmaster peter george is very positive very involved he speaks of “the successful navigation of the rapids” linda staats talks of “to and fro” martin-hill says native students at mcmaster go through an experiential program an indigenous knowledges and md program 178

dr k smith director of mcmaster health sciences international discusses flexibility in health science beginning with “students have a lot to teach us” and “ there is 96% interest in medicine among native students” I hope that means they don’t smoke eat greasy food and drink diet soft drinks harvey longboat is a cayuga chief glasses blue jeans, green/black brooks runners striped green/red shirt jacket speaks briefly “it is almost impossible to have culture without language” martin-hill says “those who speak the language are the true heirs to indigenous culture” hardly a progressive way of entering a conversation she speaks of criticisms by some elders of students “not being indian enough” because they don’t know the language “it is difficult for them the students to be positioned as experts in class when they went through the same process as everybody else” she says it is vital to seek knowledge of the heart spirit and mind marlene brant-castelano is an academic elder “I don’t consider myself to be a keeper of traditional wisdom” she spent 25 years at trent has “had six decades of life” and speaks of indigenous knowledge as if an artifact “a shawl an instrument a sacred fire you brush away ashes looking for embers” she speaks of historical/traditional practical commonsense empirical spiritual knowledges which come together there is an [aha] wholeness silence almost “tradition is about the ancestors spirits memorializing battles treaties which have been handed down more or less intact” then she goes on about not interfering about not being wrong just different “traditional knowledge is essential to our wellbeing today industry calls it empirical knowledge ‘research and development’ we have always had this” she discusses the olympic designed kayak which is virtually unchanged from the aboriginal original she employs a ‘navigation’ metaphor discusses the evaluation of ubc first nations education last fall 1997 moves back to herself “passing a lifetime of knowledge a very sacred act and responsibility” she speaks of prayer circle sweatlodge longhouse of indigenous knowledges “which include throwing a basketball fixing engines algebra spiritual knowledge prayer and fasting respect appreciation for the haudenosaunee” “there is always spiritual help available as well as scholarships and stipends” she goes on to say “not just tobacco is a symbolic gift” she speaks of christian first nations tyendinaga anglican “trying out knowledge to see how it works in today’s world” “jake thomas says ‘peace is supposed to work’ jim berk says the geese migrate store energy father together” carole leclaire is metis wears a colourful sash from the red river she speaks of “the retraditionalization of metis native women” “my grandmother was an ethnobotanist though she didn’t know what that word meant” 179

norma general a cayuga ‘elder in rez’ from the wolf clan speaks of “the need for validation from parents those spirits dance with us” she speaks of first nations tradition of revitalizing spiritual fires agnes williams speaks of “the ‘doing’ part of retraditionalization of indigenous women tom deer teaches mohawk at mcmaster and 6 nations he speaks mohawk at length adding “I’m not going to translate that ” he speaks of rain teachings “grandfathers from the west who refresh the rivers lakes and underground waters” “harvey longboat asked me to teach mohawk here because a teacher was off sick I was working on high steel and was between jobs” “if there are no speakers left how are the ceremonies going to be carried on?” learning a second language can be embarassing sometimes sometimes there is laughter not at the person but at the mistake there are only 200 mohawk speakers at 6 nations out of 15,000 people language is that root you have to follow that root back to find out who you are” he speaks of teaching about the great tree of peace throughout the world saying “we put our minds together as one” in a good way marge henry is cayuga with husband reg they wrote a cayuga dictionary worked at 6 nations radio stationdeveloped books “after finding out what the community wants do what you can” she says “cayuga was never written” then she speaks about orthography and how the committee language training took place “in a trailer next to my house if the community is interested then I am too” theodore peters with fire in his eyes says “ the main focus is to try to save the language parents have to encourage the language not put it on the backburner again sure it is fine in conferences to talk about it but you have to be an agitator you have to speak out to save the language kids need role models it is good for them to see people struggle to get language back people drop out after a while because they get tired of it we have to work together and not leave it up to one small group speaking as a student and as a parent these things I say” someone says “what is not sacred?” birgil kills straight is oglala from pine ridge he speaks of being active at the community level and the national level in his brown leather jacket and sunglasses and cowboy hat “I left administration and education in 1984 looking for or toward a spiritual model” he speaks of himself “at 57 as being a young elder a not so grey eagle” he goes on about grey eagles back home of his “research into christianity” he speaks of hell as a room and hades as a room of the river styx of pope nicolas in 1452 of lava flow he speaks of heathens pagans infidels as part of the landscape “so far as I can figure rocks vegetation and trees being part of the louisiana purchase so the white folks must own them too he speaks of the lacota he speaks of rocks ‘becoming’ of first world spirit of root nation people

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of 500 million years a single blade of grass appearing he speaks of ‘uia’ the size of your thumb from which the universe came he speaks of the tipi “the first 3 poles as past present future the two inverted cones the next 7 poles the sacred sites of the lacota” “you just have to understand the syllables” he analyzes them ame/rica love of riches puerta/rica door to riches dumb/dome capitol freedom the word dominium he speaks of the english language winning out the past becomes the future he ends with “women are the life givers” then evelyn bomberry ojibway-cayuga says “before the healing can begin the poison must be exposed” then “tomson highway wrote the rez sisters first in cree in longhand we have to tell our stories ourselves” tom hill seneca from ohsweken is an arts activist he speaks very gently of ‘culture’ gives a long definition it does not come across like the rest not orally it reads which is to say hears/listens like a speech he doesn’t look up at his audience very often he speaks of artists and the canada council “where are the role models in the sciences in traditional health occupations” asks vince tookenay md “biomedical practitioner of wellness” he goes on about “allopathic medicine” “chronic degenerative diseases cancers viral infections allergies autoimmune diseases metabolic and mental diseases” words just pop out of him “object reductionist posit determine diagnosis” he speaks as a first nations person but not like one “western health care is disease based not diagnostic preventive” he goes on about fundamentals of complementary and alternative medicines janice longboat speaks of self-healing including working at anishnabe health in toronto “our health is at an all time low this is the high cost of not dealing with balance and harmony and respect of the earth and spirit keepers indigenous medicine is a way of life indian medicine means taking responsibility for ourselves a well-known secret society went underground to be protected the indigenous approach of this land it is not enough” she says “to blend western and indigenous medicines she speaks of “singing and dancing prayer and ceremonies as healing we need piece of mind medicine we need to offer prayer just once a day only we need to offer the pipe healing and wellness is about time past present and future it is about relationship renewal positives and negatives our activity behaviour with this don’t refuse to help the fourth is about having a strong belief system holism is more than physical it is the correcting of imbalances we need to learn to heal ourselves to nurture the gift of good health for five years the uoft has included a course on traditional pharmacy”

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she moves on to indigenous healing “it’s in our conversation there is no special time for it but there is need for revitalization” she is speaking and crying which I guess are a single activity sharing a single verb jake thomas smiles in his string tie “I’ve been asked to come up here and waste my breath again” we all laugh “I don’t know when you’re speaking million dollar words I don’t know what you’re talking about” less laughter then without prelude “native women don’t have knowledge of the names” “the woman’s duty is the winter ceremony name giving you need peace and power and righteousness and good mind and what the white man calls love we call it caring” then he speaks of women and men and cannibalism “the peacemaker visiting these cannibals he sees a man’s face appearing in a pot three times handsome face saw this “this is empowerment of mind” so he quit eating and killing people “when you take up the wampum speak kind words it is said ‘medicine friends are part of our healing’ the usa took their constitution from the 5 nations these were the mothers of confederation and in 1924 the Indian Act changed there was a new law you need a licence to be allowed to help people you need a degree to become a doctor or a midwife you need papers his mother had 14 children and midwifed herself up in 3 days” the band council and indian affairs “they took the hospital away so they could assimilate us what is their game the government under their sleeve I don’t care about the paper it’s the mind that matters” “I’ll tell you my ancestors my old people they never looked at the clock” “myself, I don’t believe in the role models they trip and fall over so many things you go rolling around use the creator as role model” then cecilia mitchell speaks she is an animator a motivator you can see it in her “kwe” she says “hello” she is very humourous in her long ribbon shirt and wallabies “I’m goin’ on 62 I was put into a clothes closet by nuns I rebelled against my mother and against the school when I wanted to learn about the relationship between people and medicine I found a teacher medicines are like people they give you power “look at your plant to be in the shape of the organ it heals” “look to your elders” “look at the animals watch them” “there are 7 roots in crabgrass it is white” but “you need medicines from where you live not from california or north dakota plants grow just like you just like people be at my place sunday at 1 pm and I will take you for a walk to visit the medicines” “follow it by the moon and the seasons you always pick in the morning when the sun is coming up the power goes right into the plant” she speaks of how to burn tobacco for plants show respect a plant has a spirit 182

there is a plant for each organ many warrior plants are out there ready to give their lives for your body time to get up and stretch” she says and we do harvey longboat says “I am giving you some of my thoughts on the environment life comes from divine breath and being that is our mother the creator’s original breath is still there here it is always around us it’s all family and that’s how we communicate with it” “differences are to be respected we tend to want everything to be the same” “gifts” he says talking about the weather first the thunderers the grandfathers going west to east this year they only came half way the second is the sun our great uncle the third gift is grandmother the moon” “it is important to address everything as our relatives how we relate to others plants animals this determines how we are responded to we can have a good mind or a split mind the four ceremonies are important we can let everything be the same” then he mentions maple syrup and the green scum on the trees “trees starting to die from the top I can’t drink the water we got to fix the whole world not just apply bandaids we need a global consciousness” he speaks of a “need to alter the attitude the practice of accumulating wealth we’ll do anything to get it we need an alternative attitude to our world we must change our minds regarding our attitude to the world” what about “native versus non-native and the 7 wonders of the world which were all accomplished bc what was in the minds of those people then? “what about the pyramids of mexico and guatemala and you don’t believe in coercion?” robert warrior is osage from oklahoma teaches english at stanford university “I am always happy to cross this false border” then he speaks about indigenous writing in english over the past 300 years 400 in spanish of western style and “those of us who inhabit academe” “you can’t just replace one style of education with another” he speaks of american antiintellectualism lester irabinna rigney is a narunga man from south australia he calls the spirits from australia with his didgeridoo” he speaks of “extracting the language” “mining indigenous knowledge” he speaks of non-indigenous peoples stealing knowledge intellectual appropriation and “indigenous liberation research methodology” “marinating adopting research methodology paradigms” day two 6 nations 10:30 am may 2 “there is no time left for anger for jealousy in our community” says patricia salas brown in her flowered dress she is coahuiltecan living in texas 1600 miles from her own territory she is a midwife “developing a curriculum for traditional midwifery” she speaks of “the language of the earth of the plants and animals which give us sustenance” 183

“science took the earth and divided it into 127 different elements” “underneath whatever labels they know who they are latino chicano hispanic aztecs” lee maracle says “my name is butterfly in my language it is a metaphor for nosy” she laughs to make others laugh then quotes chief joe capilano “if you eat like them you will live like them and die like them” we have to study our knowledges through them the halmen collection in chicago is translated hindu medicine and vedic medicine came from us” from first peoples “expropriation as a vicious assault” barbara frazer is cree from northern saskatchewan she is dressed in black permed academicized “my opening is in cree and now it is totally gone I was raised in the bush we were always in constant preparation for winter” hmm marge henry is cayuga she speaks of orthography learning by reading and writing she speaks of paradigms in cayuga of language teaching in rochester with reg her husband she speaks of “these urban cayuga who didn’t know there was a language to go along with their nation” “anthropologists at the university of rochester got involved we didn’t agree with the writing system the community kinda rules what I do” three girls come up students the first learned mohawk from age two her grandmother said “a man will come and ask you if you speak your language “ if you say no I guess you’ll become part of someone else” the second student was very shy and said a very few words in english she said she overcame a learning disability the third was quiet alvin manitopyes is plains cree and saulteaux from saskatchewan he travels a lot and speaks about traditional healing processes “nothing is yours until you share it you can’t just have the language” he has a cd out in saskatchewan but this cd maker won’t publish it because it’s not an official language of canada when the cd people ask if he’s singing in c or d he said “I say I don’t know I just sing” rod whitlow talks about the eagle project centre where he’s working on a project for the assembly of first nations looking at the effects of the great lakes on indigenous people “humans and turtles and eagles are at the top of the food chain akwesasne women are now told not to eat fish from the st lawrence river mother’s milk has pcb’s in it from eating fish there is also add and iq depression” deb mcgregor is anishinaabe from whitefish river “sustainable development it is important the validatation of first nations knowings to scientists the application of first nations environmental concepts what about the definition of sustainable development you can’t translate it into ojibway anishnabe there is no sustainable development only sustainable community 184

sustainable development would be giving back to the earth rather than taking forever and ever sustainable development already exists in communities it is not something they can be given everytime a language is spoken a ceremony is done this is an act of sustainability her grandmother had a dream she told chief matthew coon come about a coming dam project that he must stop it this is environmental assessment integrated sustainable development equals data” a fellow from saskatchewan speaks of chief smallboy moving from hobbema in 1968 with 160 cree into the foothills near lovett to get away from alcohol other abuses now cheviot mines near jasper national park wants to strip the land ralph klein gave his permission then there’s the swan hills waste treatment plant “we must live our knowledge it connects with natural world and spirit world” “it is important to acknowledge the medicine wheel the four directions the traditional concept of energy relating to environment in a respectful manner” he speaks of tobacco “honouring the spirit of that plant getting back to earth with that plant” he speaks of the energy of plants “manipulating this energy to make medicines” he speaks of the pine tree “its male and femaleness symbolizing the creator the spruce tree symbolizing mother earth the sweat lodge gathering rocks offering tobacco treating rocks with respect if they are to heal us bury them in the earth after the sweat to renew their energy don’t just draw energy out of them and throw them in a pile” “sickness is loss of balance we are under obligation to protect our spirits what we do comes back on us” he speaks of “traditional knowledge emerging all over the world” the importance of “protecting the knowledge and intellectual property rights of indigenous people.” jake swamp of the wolf clan akwesasne speaks of the predictions of nostradamus of the mayans for the year 2028 of handsome lake for 2017 he speaks of prophesies warnings strayings from teachings forensic science the 1452 papal edict hmmm he speaks of “sharing traditional knowledge with universities so many people in the world are disconnected from the environment any environment which is natural” he works with children to instill in them thankful feelings “what do you think the future will be like?” he asks them “their heads bow” he says “they look at the floor don’t put their hands up” he speaks of “taking specimens from nature students don’t feel right about this students ask elders for counsel I’m going to leave it at that” lunch terra macphail is polish-scottish-swampy cree from saskatchewan an artist in her second year of fine arts at mcmaster a painter and sculptor she speaks of matter spirit and creative energy of immanence 185

of her 2 years of adolescence in india suddenly a broken branch on the tree outside speaks the shutters are painted there are concentric circles a mandala very subcontinent al papier mâché meditation involution involuntary mandala archipelago made of shredded revenue canada documents a dividing cell golden vedic this and that sweat lodge and hinduism horsecollar hide stretcher bamboo chair frame meditation frame bronze tipi with wax colours nice balance of theory and application a woman in a straw hat speaks of those “who have gone on before us” thanks them speaks of “taking fruit from the tree and sharing it” cecilia mitchell is mohawk from akwesasne wears a long ribbon dress “there are lots of the illnesses now that are from stress from being in the fast lane world we cease to see we have so much in our own world we forget how to utilize” cecilia has taken on many roles healer seer basket maker storyteller teacher counsellor mother grandmother donna house finally makes it here after not being allowed to board the plane in the usa without her passport she had to drive two and a half hours back home to get it “the program is not accurate” she said “I am not hopi but navajo dene and I am a botanist not an ethnobotanist” and I know what both words mean she looks tired she is a very low key person with gentle humour “I found a way to keep who I was in my education when we turn to our bodies we question the earth the environment we have to come out of our ego there are songs there are ways of going about collecting these plants there are economic roots there is identity attached to the environment” someone speaks of how gentle donna’s voice is jan longboat is from the mohawk nation turtle clan “mother said goodbye to all 10 kids there was a feast for her within two hours” of her passing “I have said this many times in those days we could still communicate telepathically I know myself genealogically this makes you strong grandmother told me it is time to go and sit by the water the fourth time I finally saw myself I saw me age eight I began to learn about the medicines I was four years at anishnabe health in toronto where I learned respect for both western and traditional medicine” she speaks of the importance of “seed savers in the community “an elder once said to me ‘never bargain with the medicines’ jan owns and operates an earth healing herbal garden at 6 nations

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ruby miller from the mohawk nation turtle clan is in her fourth year of the nursing program at mcmaster she has worked a long time with the friendship centre she begins with “life is short and so am I” then “nursing does seem to meet that fury of holistic healing going into a scientific mindset was very hard” so it helped to have as her minor native studies next in black cowboy hat with a hand drum david pratt he is dakota – nehiyapwat from saskatchewan a medicine man he helps in the repatriation of sacred items from museums “I can’t add to what they say” his hand drum is bent he sings a prayer song a song he invited four up “to stand and look stupid” he says in a fun way a great ending very brief sunday may 3, 1998 6 nations from white bear andy netowhow is stoney the program says he’s cree from sturgeon lake saskatchewan he’s an addictions counsellor he helps his people in the area of sociopolitical wellness “in 1936 I was introduced to addictions and I have been sober for 25 years I didn’t know about spirit songs now they tape me in new york new zealand I hope one day you’ll be singing this song one day this beautiful song it’s a great thing my friends you know to share this 10 minutes with you” laughter he speaks of treaties and of overtipping the pipe “my grandfather heard from an old man ‘hold on to your drum pipe and sweetgrass give to the young’ the cree way is to offer tobacco to four elders the four cloths the prints are yellow north white blue sky and red for the mountains the rocks the sun setting also there is green for our mother” ernest sundown says he is from the cree nation the joseph bighead reserve in saskatchewan he’s been a chief 20 years he speaks with rather than of great humility he puts a phd on high “not that many who breathe the walk” he says lester irabinna rigney teaches at flinders university at the yunggorendi first nations centre “I am deliberately academic I have to operate in those dominant paradigms “I am sick of education departments of university departments telling us what to do knowledge is sold to the highest bidder” he speaks of mining companies “professors whose careers are based on aboriginal knowings knowledges disembodied the dismemberment of our culture” I am going to interrogate your theories academic knowledges generated apart from the community we will legitimize ourselves 187

make researchers accountable to us if we need certain research others we don’t need to analyze data we will sit beside you with this data come up with strategies and implementations of strategies and tell you whom to interview the university is instrumental in our oppression the second phase is schools and universities after the first phase which [was and] is guns universities are built from materials that will last 100 years we want to keep the poison of institutions out of our children’s minds” patricia monture-angus is from the mohawk nation grand river territory she now lives on the thunderchild reserve in northwestern saskatchewan she studied law at uwo “it is good to be home” the tears are right there “there is pain at the universities it is deliberate” she is finishing another law degree she says she is calling it “that poison it is deliberate contrived premeditated native studies is not a home the decision was made without consulting the people the cree and metis I got tenure but that’s not what it’s about” then tell us patricia what is ‘it’ ‘about’ “there’s no place no space yet at the usask I’m privileged I experience homelessness yet I have a house I understood at law school not what was presented but what was between the lines I never talked about it publicly before” she speaks of self-reflection how are we living our relationships? pause “I was very very sad I started to hear voices an old woman dreams in the summer of 1997” she speaks of 4 days in fast time when she was almost hysterical “four bears appear in a dream protecting me what keeps me on a day by day basis a warrior is my community speaking of the geography of knowledge and drawing lines around it I don’t believe in that” next u of sudbury prof ovide mercredi speaks “I say thank you in ojibway because I’m bilingual” but he only speaks cree he can hold an audience that is important after a bit of fun he quickly gets to the point “learn what your people represent who they are even if you don’t know your people an old woman told me though I was not willing to listen to her at the time ‘you will be the next national chief ’ I never did meet her again it was here at 6 nations she said ‘I will tell you about paradigm shifts come to our home and have tea there are some things you need to know’ but it was open tent at chief’s park I was with my wife shelly and I’ve never found those two people 188

I’m still looking for those elders” he pauses briefly “orval” he says “was raised traditional I was not and 90% of the people in this room I bet were not we’re taking on other people’s memory as our own the paradigm is not just collective it is individual I think you know what I mean the roots of indigenous languages are also beliefs how do you preserve knowledge if only some of us have access to elders” he works at the indigenous institute at sudbury “developing ideas you don’t have to practise christianity or buddhism” to be spiritual “I’m not as wise as everyone else but thank you for listening to me” he comes across with great humility and pride and humour david newhouse is onondaga from six nations he is chair of native studies at trent university “I graduated 31 years ago today from this place [ j.c. hill highschool in whose auditorium he is speaking] he speaks of his early vision “I saw a university teaching indians to be indians at trent that’s something I thought I could do I don’t know what traditional knowledge is it’s like jazz you can’t define it but you know it when you see it” he speaks of some faculty members at trent being 3rd and 4th degree medewewin there is an oneida chief an apprentice chief or medewewin “there is a dye lot of traditional indian people and academic world ones enlightenment is a challengeto reason” then he moves on to “the philosophical underpinnings of the great law” and “methodologies of extra-reasonable things like dreams fasts and other accepted expressions of traditional knowledge” he speaks of “the evaluating of knowledge the construction of knowledge accreditation the need to be more rigorous academia has an unquenchable thirst” he speaks of the original social contract and the great law “we need to go beyond blame we have been abused colonized” brian rice is from the redwood forest of california he speaks of the beauty of redwood “they all came from the same suckers of an original tree” then he says in california there is no first nations talk no identification of mixed bloods mexicans” it probably won’t be long before they outlaw speaking spanish in public pat is very ill and weak from the air of hamilton and the water which are not quite so bad here at 6 nations so we leave this basin of polluted air and water and wonderful human beings and other relations and head back to belleville kingston then upstate new york waiting waiting for july when we can come home again to canada paddle paddle paddle stroke stroke paddle paddlestroke

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new zealand council for teacher education conference waikato university hamilton aotearoa november 1998 we get into our canoe our gortex our taiga our mecwear hoist our sails our umbrellas our aspirations check the outrigger in preparation for our ocean journey then we paddle up in the direction of hamilton on the north island aotearoa arriving october 14 tired cold and wet we check into a motel near the river wash up grab a quick coffee and head over to waikato u to register and to hear the keynotes we came ostensibly to present papers about our visions for education but also to learn what’s happening with indigenous education in this most ultra-right wing of all ‘developed’ countries and to discover why the voters let the government give the corporations whatever they want in whatever amounts this is truly a country of monopolies so much for the treaty of waitangi the conference theme is ‘remapping teacher education for the 21st century’ that should be quite a challenge given the lack of knowledge about what even the territory will be the conference is hosted by the school of education u of waikato three of the sponsors of this conference are wineries and if the milton estate is a winery that makes four and there’s a rent a car company air new zealand a nissan dealer a real estate company pouparae park they get front page exposure eat drive drink and be merry buy a house buy a dream vacation abroad and let us not forget the ‘cooper and lybrand’ lecture theatre where the keynote addresses are hmm nothing like advertising a corporate accounting firm to new zealand’s teacher educators to get them used to the corporate agenda accountability the business model of education another finishing nail in the academic freedom coffin this fourth nzcte conference hasn’t even officially started yet and clichés already abound a woman standing at the front is manufacturing them from a page with her vocal apparatus “as teacher educators we face huge challenges” no applause yet “increasingly diverse social and cultural context” still none moving right along to the “impact of new technologies” you can hear people holding their breath/applause now she’s moving on to shoulds how we need “to respond to community expectations” “increasing demands for accountability” noeline alcorn is very english though not and conference committee chair she must get her introductions from a rainyday jamjar of shredded government documents

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the minister of education wc is standing there with interlocked fingers he begins with “the average teacher is eight years older than the rest of workers there is little new blood” as though new blood were going to solve anything he goes on about “remuneration” he’s hit the head right on the nail or maybe his thumb he moves to talk about “paying teachers well” there are many coughs and clearings of throats suddenly he says without ado ‘infotech must be strong’ which translates as ‘buy more buy more faster better don’t wait buy now’ even if you don’t want or need it “it can be a powerful aid” he says here comes one of those “avenue” of opportunity sentences from the political cryptic crossword encyclopaedia of verbal pablum suddenly he gives a big plug for special education 2000 what a business they’ve made out of people whom they identify as being misfits dysfunctional disabled othered he speaks of “additional tax dollars” and “intervention [meaning legal advice] of the ministry of education into schools” ta DA ta DA ta DA he must have written his speech with a metronome “when the life prospects are knocked back by poor performing schools, we . . .” and coughing ends that sentence here comes some kind of pronouncement he’s gathering his face together “based on an ero [educational review office] assessment [which is to say official standards of quantification and adherence] report things are turning around” that’s nice ero giving itself a pat hand not to mention on the back self-congratulations all around and with the other free hand it is perfecting the intimidation of school review offices watching him makes me realize that privilege goes to men with faces like old-fashioned canopeners whhhshshshsh ooooo fffff his voice drones on “shaping learning and achievement in new zealand schools” all of a sudden he’s talking about bribing teachers with bonuses of course not using those words something about “healthy competition” you can see him scan ahead a few lines wanting to say something profound “papers [syllabized curriculum courses] are not to be driven by artificial deadlines” hmm I think aren’t all deadlines artificial? aren’t all assessments artificial? aren’t schools? ministry standards? governments? there’s something simulacral about him then he moves to “people responsible for ‘training’ teachers” yes that’s just it the word ‘training’ not ‘educating’ he moves on to “jaded burned out teachers” which in here is probably a tautology “in the modern world” he banalizes “teaching is a skill” excuse me but did someone just funnel more clichés into his mouth while we were all blinking and coughing in disbelief at the last lot this part ends in a song/prayer with maori words the ed minister’s nose hongis with the maori’s nose speaks maori words this keynote speaker rb a maori brown/yellow tie is a group manager from the ministry of education he has a prepared speech 191

but miraculously begins with casual chat banter cajoling all carefully planned strategized choreographed a lyre bird all the while singing ‘sellout sellout sellout’ he begins in english talks about teacher ‘training’ rather than teacher education he did the former at waikato quite a few years ago when “maori were not high in our consciousness” whose consciousness is ‘our’ I wonder? was he not high in his own consciousness? “our environment was very monocultural and we didn’t think anything differently” my ears blink then how did it get that way? by a fiat (oppel 2cv renault) or other means of locomotion was everyone in and around “the shores of rotorua assimilated by magic?” everyone settles back thinking this must be a tall story or a short one on stilts or there’s a trampoline somewhere out of hearing he speaks of “another form of native school emerging as kura kaupapa maori” he speaks of “saving the language to save the people” then retreats into ministry babble again plodtramp plodtramp get out your cliché counters “getting more classroom resources curriculum developments assessment tools” he must have used his [prime minister] jenny shipley cliché expression and catchphrase digest he hasn’t mentioned ‘training’ more teachers for at least 2 minutes “much of the thinking seemed to be based on a day to day kind of planning” sounds a lot like new zealand incorporated but then he meanders to “many maori inspired initiatives outdid the thinking of well-intentioned administrators” well intentioned? obviously he’s trying to make a transition and lo’ and behold the treaty of waitangi became important again to educators and corporations someone must have told him to remember to mention the treaty he speaks of his days at hamilton teachers college “I saw pride in maori language and culture to be very strong” so “last year we [being the ministry] commissioned a meta analysis of maori education literature and research” wooooow! a meta something to try to find out what everybody who was maori already knew “that the relative family resource position of maori is an important cause of education disparities [vis à vis pakeha]” he goes on saying “maori parents have had less education” I am assuming here he speaks of ‘formal’ education “to pass on to their children” and “the reviewers found that ethnographic studies were rich in detail and description but frequently difficult to generalize outside the area of study” I wonder where they ‘found’ this out does he perhaps mean ‘deduced’ or ‘interpolated’? or was it actually found swaddled or maybe in the post? suddenly he confronts us with what anybody with half a brain knows from childhood 192

which might exclude the majority of those who run successfully for office that “conclusions sometimes appear to be overly dependent on the prior views and experiences of the researchers” “researchers” he says “have discovered that opposing secondary cultural characteristics were developed by maori as a result of the historical accumulation of the effects of colonization land confiscation assimilative pressures and relocation of many maori into working class urban environments” I wonder who commissioned the study and why it was even held this is not something new this “conclusion” mind you is premised on the presumption that because pacific islander school leavers are said to “perform” better than maori [however this is assessed or evaluated] because their cultures and languages “remain largely intact back in their home lands” how can two different countries two different groups be compared who have different governments school systems histories cultures there is the racist assumption “the peer pressure hypothesis” that maori strive to not succeed or at least do not strive to succeed this assumption looks only at the surface of the manifestation and this maori from the ministry stands there spouting this like a pakeha fountain why would he and his ministry buddies assume that other ethnic groups would have a similar experience to maori if racism were involved other races are not claiming prior residency or sovereignty of aotearoa other races are immigrants just as the pakeha are they are not indigenous to this place only maori are he speaks of the ministry needing a more deliberate plan of research and a maori education research framework who I wonder will create these? at one point he says “education can be an important catalyst in “helping to improve learning” what kind of education is he talking about formal pakeha education institutional/ized education? or traditional education and how would he be in a position to know or to choose he goes on listing lists then talks about “students who experience learning and behavioural difficulties” I wonder who else could experience behavioural difficulties for them or is he talking about other peoples’ behaviour as being the difficulties he particularizes those “who are from low income communities” the number of bland inept ministry initiatives make me think of someone dying in intensive care covered in bandaids and get well cards “in some localities there is private sponsorship of certain school-related activities” for whose benefit? he follows this with “the move to more enabling resourcing and remuneration policies” and “to increase the responsiveness of the school system to meet the needs of maori students” not to mention the agenda of big business he keeps saying things like “the range of policy options” and you know he’s talking about strategies to limit teaching encourage training then to the astonishment of no-one he says “we know that policies are interpreted differently by different people and in different situations with different results” 193

is that saying everything or nothing? how about whose interpretation matters? who is in control of interpretation and of policy and of funds and curriculum? next he moves on to effectively blame local maori communities for differing levels of “achievement” and “variability” in school some communities interact ‘better’ more ‘efficiently’ he is hinting with the schools and who makes up the “professional leadership and capability” which is “able to read and interpret policy”? making “best use of the resources they have” what about what they don’t have? maybe he has been at the ministry too long he is speaking internal racism “if the capability is not up to [whose] scratch then it’s going to affect the education of the students some of this capability is dependent on the quality of initial grounding received in places like this now he goes on about a framework for a maori education strategy which has “over-arching reasons” for being developed sounds like he’s building a bridge or a monument maybe to himself one of the over-arching reasons being “to break down the adhocery that builds up as policies are adjusted to bring a better focus on maori usually after the event” now whose “adhocery” is he talking about maori or the educational system’s? who is to say that ad hoc for maori might not work very well? whereas on the other hand the ad hoc of the system might be another name for ignorance or rejection of maori culture? and as to “a deliberate plan of action for closing the gap between maori and non-maori” what gap? and is the ‘gap’ one of ‘performance’ one of ‘assessment’ one of ‘culturally sensitive and inclusive curriculum’? all gaps are not the same some are quantitative some are racist and purposely constructed some are qualitative meaning cultural and certainly there are too internal gaps those within a perceived system and what about this “new imperative [being signalled] by government “to focus attention on the education of maori over the medium term” so there’s quite a conversation going on here about the needs of the pakeha majority being the flaws of the maori monopolistic capitalism and racist discourse as the default position with the maori community as the broken teeth in the gear towards market globalism must be the presence of tectonic plates or weather systems interacting isomorphically catalyzing humans to come on stream one of his points about the “consultation process” is “there needed to be more accountability” but by whom by the government maybe the ministry? no! “everyone could do more (parents, schools and teachers)” and as to the other “main messages coming from the consultation” with whom? there needs to be “more responsiveness and diversity in education” by whom for whom of whom?

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there needs to be “changes in attitudes and expectations” aren’t those always changing? and of course there needs to be “better information and communication” what does information have to do with education? and what is meant by “better”? oh he’s onto some more pakeha truths “in our [our?] thinking about the broad shape of an educational strategy framework five interconnected strands [cute word] or elements act as the basis for how we [we? whose side is he on] address maori education concerns [and education too hopefully]” I’m sure his grandparents didn’t bring him up here’s another truism “good communication is about saying the right things [we all know what they are right?] at the right time and in the right way and naturally based on good information” what is this “information” he keeps talking about is it like knowledge but without a context? oops I almost missed another gem “you know yourselves as both managers and teachers how difficult it is to get good information at the right time and in a form you can easily understand” what is “good” information and who creates it? I think the saying about pulling wool over eyes must have originated in the ministry of education in wellington he could make a necklace out of these gems following immediately on the last quote “working out the best way [hm there’s that word “best” again it must be a rhizome] to do this so the task is efficient is an important value to consider taking a more [rather than less] strategic approach” efficient in whose eyes? by whose standards? whose assessment? whose agenda are we talking about here whose life? we’re told the chapple jefferies walker report has a “technical academic version and then there’s a more lay person’s version” I wonder who the “lay” refers to and if they read basically the same or maybe they’re like the english version of the treaty of waitangi and the maori version which is translated into english for comparison? how do you translate a kumara a spud an apple and into what do you cut out the eyes and plant them or dry the seed and cover it with earth and hope for the best the necklace grows “how we communicate our messages is absolutely critical it is one of the most basic of all of our needs [whose?] but is probably given the least amount of importance because we sometimes assume and wrongly so that everyone will understand what we’re saying” does he listen to himself I wonder I think he has a roulette speech replicator just add words finger pointings and spin “making the connections across these different players” aren’t we moving into business lingo I thought this was to be a subtle sell I can feel an auctioneer in the wings “and facilitating information sharing” there’s that “i” word again and look who’s facilitating it he says “is an important part of our work and no doubt yours”

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I don’t get it where’s his allegiance who is “our” referring to and who is “yours” he’s talking about teachers and students and parents and community and teacher educator and ministry and researchers is he maori or ministry or a hybridmosaicchimera? his method of putting together sentences is very devious “becoming more effective” that part is okay “in how we communicate our messages” okay but who does “we” and “our” refer to I keep asking myself the ministry I can only assume here’s the rest of that sentence “can happen in a number of areas” now why not in all areas isn’t total communication what is important the words the context the feelings being there in body spirit? isn’t that what becoming more effective is all about ‘whatever works’? he follows this with “providing maori with good information” the “i” word again “and a greater ability” I ask how can he assume the we can provide maori with greater ability? that’s like assuming we can empower someone else the rest of the phrase is “to get more from existing policies” I think the maori [whether he includes himself or not] are probably quite able to provide themselves with ability without the ministry’s facilitation skills next sentence that “i” word again where he talks about “different ways in which these policies could be utilised by schools and trustees” what about parents and students and teacher educators [or for him trainers] and what about the notion of who has the power to implement policy and interpret it and who has the ear of the government and the press? his next point is about the “i” word again someone sure scattered the seed he goes on about emphasizing “communication to communities” it’s the “to” I find troublesome it means ‘one-way’ why not ‘with’? next in this “our” strategy of improved communication of “messages” is “providing the examples of good practice” rather than the communities providing the examples themselves “in ways where schools and communities can utilise [the “i” word] quickly and effectively” quickly? does this mean without reflection refraction? effectively? yes but by whose definition using whose model? and “i”ntervention goes on “providing good [sic] information and advice [for whose benefit and according to whose definition of “good”] and what if they don’t want advice or prescribed policy or government interpreted policy? spinning his wheels no wonder he’s in such a big groove “to iwi and other maori groups wanting to become involved in education” isn’t being a maori mean being involved in some kind of education? can maori not be the teachers? he goes on about getting “maori media to help communicate information” how can information be communicated? isn’t it just something which is transferred? he hasn’t talked about knowledge yet or policies the maori might have he ends up his short [in many ways] list by suggesting the building and maintaining of “good working relationships with key maori groups in education” 196

and here’s where he gets sloppy “to help inform thinking around new initiatives” yes the word ‘inform’ goes with ‘information’ but aren’t initiatives things that can be worked on together rather than “communicated” by a patriarchal government ministry that wants to get rid of community based “adhocacy” because it’s not efficient? sure why not “explore local solutions and opportunities” but why are solutions needed? if the problem is the ministry and educators rather than the maori then why not just get rid of the pakeha ministry the government which appoints the minister could let the maori educate their own children and give them the money they need to do it money which comes from their payment of taxes in its many forms money from the pakeha long-term lease on aoteorea we’re not done yet he hasn’t taken his jacket off yet “the second strand has to do with maximising the benefits from new policy work” rather than maori people making up their new policies rather than maori people fighting against the imposed policies of the settlers and their indigenous scouts and guides sure it’s a good idea that when “we’re developing policies” “we” being the ministry being the minister of education together with his/her mates and colleagues and the bureacracy attached thereto “we should have a good idea about what the likely effects of these will be on maori people” this imposition this trying out new strategies of conquest rather than working together with maori communities working with coconut maori rather than those who reject western ways of viewing the world of living in the world he goes along with this to an extent remember he’s on a tether “one of the best ways to do this [involve maori in the process] is to have developed good and reliable two-way relationships with maori people” he is speaking in the past tense “is to have developed” rather than present progressive again why “two way”? is he talking about all maori thinking the same way? do maori represent a united front? of co-operation? of opposition to government “strategies”? are they half of a binary yet his idea of mutual leverage of networks and leadership and consultation seems at first glance to be an open ‘let’s work together at this’ entrée but what benefits could maori people have in this leverage relationship with the ministry’s “networks and leadership”? who would give and who would take? where would permission reside what group of people constitutes the ministry’s “networks and leadership”? sounds like maori would have access to the cabinet and the business links or would it be pretty much the other way around? the whole struggle is to keep the “networks and leadership”’s hands off maori education and maori culture and maori epistemologies he’s really making the most of the word “strand” now he’s moved 197

to the “a” word “achievement” and how maori people can get this in school achievement is pretty much partnered with that word “assessment” we all know who assesses and who’s criteria are used when I hear him start his fourth strand with “underpinning a stronger strategic focus is the varied and important role” I think okay what does he mean by “stronger” narrower? and what “strategic focus” is he talking about the ministry’s? maori parents’? students’? the government’s? and is it the parent’s “role” that is important or what they do how they empower themselves and stand up for their rights in a society demanding that children be educated formally and according to certain outcomes and assessments there is no subject in the phrase beginning with “and the place of ongoing relationship management and engagement with maori” there is not even a verb there is a preponderance of nouns which are not even related to one another “the place” with respect to what and where is the government the ministry in this sentence this strand? there is no throughline just vague ministerial words dangling and what is this “ongoing relationship between management and engagement” which maori groups and parents [what about extended family] can play “in supporting this”? what first of all is an “ongoing relationship management”? and what is an “ongoing relationship” “engagement”? who is running the relationship in each case who is managing who is controlling the engagement? according to the sentence it is in the first instance “maori groups and parents” who do and from here we go into a semantic void in which “maori groups and parents” seem to manage and engage with “maori” he explains then or perhaps I should say “communicates” that this role of maori in being managed and engaged with in their own education presumably by the ministry is “certainly a key priority for the ministry” mm how nice of them he goes on to list “the ministry” “schools” and “other education providers” and we deduce from the sentence before that maori are to have a “role” in this as well yet he again calls it “two-way” [only two?] which “should also be about adding value to the process rather than take it away” whose value? and should value not be inherent in culture? is value not imbedded in education rather than an add on? he never did explain what an educator provider does or if that meant education was provisional he talks of the importance of ministry links with maori groups in a straightforward way I think somebody else must have written this section of his speech or paper or maybe he’s just winging this part and he’s not equal to the updraft now he’s onto “the final element” rather than “strand” which “is about achieving more effective social policy coherence” 198

the word “about” almost negates the word achieving in the body of his talk he comes back to “strand” as though it were a lifeline to the rest of his talk then he goes on about the efforts of health welfare and education being “better targeted at the most at-risk families” sounds like archery or an education/al version of the gulf war “at-risk” is a euphemism meaning that these people are probably maori who have been colonized are colonized and are suffering the effects of colonization so they do not fit into neat little achievement packages and outcomes balance sheets he speaks of housing and employment having an effect on the quality of family life about welfare having an effect on it as well intimating that quality is quantity intimating that poor people’s quality of life is not as good as rich people’s quality of life supporting his statement he particularizes the amount of time and “resources” [which I assume he will at some point explain the meaning of] parents are able to give to their children is he saying that poor people give their children less time and “resources” than nonpoor people then he ties the fuses all together and lights them adding “so does education” to the bundle education has an effect on the quality of family life by which I assume he means ‘formal’ education but is education not part of quality of life? quality of family life? is there not a mutuality at work here? I don’t know if this fellow is part of any traditional maori group but saying things like “strengthening parenting skills through parent programmes and adult literacy programmes” is like saying that parents without pakeha style education cannot be strong parents and need their parenting skills strengthened being a good parent does not mean being literate that is a racist classist assumption then he goes into the importance of “knowing how to go about getting problems solved” as if the world were a set of problems needing solutions specifically white/pakeha rationalist ones so far it seems positive when he says “in policy development we’ve [the ministry I assume] been concerned to change how we [sic] think about maori aspirations and concerns” but he relates this to people like they were production units when he talks about “the need to get more effective uptake of policies on the ground” there doesn’t seem to be room here for ongoing negotiation he is softening or losing the ministerial imperative or maybe just tired “our thinking and advice now puts more emphasis on the need to move away from “one-size-fits-all” ways of thinking to approaches that put greater emphasis on accommodating local solutions to local needs and strengths” there’s that word “solution” again and “needs” I think he’ll get a lot more than two-size-fits-all or ten-size he is almost through his talk I hope and for the first time 199

he mentions the ministry acknowledges the need to be listening to maori communities I’m sure a lot of people fell off their chairs at that one if they’re still awake then he moves into talking about “shaping policies” seeing “gains coming faster through more effective interventions once decisions are taken” rather than negotiated moving back into the business and/or military model he must have just come out of a ministry-jargon-as-a-second-language immersion program moving right into “trade-offs” and “the need for good buy-in by the local community and schools” big sibling/s watching “more local solutions” “greater local involvement and control” and will be expecting “greater levels of assurance and accountability regarding the effective delivery of policy on the ground”is there a war going on somewhere? did someone forget to pay income tax? then he gets into the dualism “we and maori communities” so much for him being a maori he ends this part with “we” being prepared to consider more “wholesale” arrangements for the local delivery of services” I can’t keep count of the business metaphors I wonder if there’s an antidote now he’s got it bad “issues relating to our capability to invest in a worthwhile and meaningful way with all potential maori stakeholders” now who is talking about investing or about being stakeholders I thought we were talking about educating children involving the whole community but “our” “ability to support the development” of more iwi and non-iwi groups in education can “become very stretched and a possible source of frustration” I wonder how you stretch ability and is this necessarily a bad thing and is frustration something to be avoided? I can’t imagine anybody wasting their time writing stuff like this but he goes on about the need for “clearer understanding about our respective responsibilities and the different pressures and constraints we each face” he’s saying our hands are tied and we’re hamstrung and we can’t find the blindfold and mother may I doesn’t work here and maybe we don’t want to budge we only budget of course it makes sense “we need to rely on people with informed [?] local knowledge and an understanding from them of what is needed for policies to make a real difference in their communities” hurrah for some progress it must have slipped the censors but how can “we” “need an understanding from them” take place the “we” has to do the understanding they can’t just be given it “we” can’t “get it” from them we must get it from ourselves interesting that he says “te runanga o ngati porou will always know more about the ‘coast’ and its people than the ministry” I wonder why he didn’t say “we” maybe he’s coming on board before both sides make him walk the plank then he kind of waffles plays both sides “like schools we have much to contribute [sure you do keep telling yourself] but we need to shape and adapt our contributions through listening [an interesting choice of words] and enhancing the contributions of others” 200

at least he’s being “above board” from time to time “many schools and communities find it hard in practice to develop good working relationships with maori” this “we” learned through “our schooling improvemen initiatives” so since the initiatives were the ministry’s and the idea of what “schooling improvement” is is the ministry’s then maybe maori people can work with themselves and invite people to work with them if they want to ask them the land after all was taken from them and given to britain there’s not much reason maori should trust the pakeha and their maori cohorts he discusses school initiatives to “help retain their maori students” including joint ventures school “support in setting objectives helping with social and family issues peer advocacy mediation and support” if he could have spoken about the difficulty of getting maori parents “involved in the life of the school or for schools finding ways of effectively engaging with the parents of young maori” many maori he says “did not have a clear understanding of what they should expect their children to achieve in school nor did they get good information to judge the progress of their children” that “i” word again and now the “p” one then he goes back to more ministry jargon “schools would have taken maori community on board” some big ifs there “expertise would be allocated to meet certain objectives [whose for instance]” then he’s fine for a sentence or two but adds “the difficult parts but also the joys of achievement and progress” without even hinting that these terms are culturally contextual and constructed then he moves to the treaty settlement and the tribunal process non-kin and iwi groups and the exercising of rangatiratanga “it has implications for us and you” clearly he is separating himself from the maori community the treaty clearly is a document of some power more consultation will be focused on he tells us and “getting alongside” various maori groups suddenly he moves to “building a stronger maori dimension” interesting metaphor and “generally increasing the overall responsiveness of the ministry to maori including “accepting the responsibility for taking the initiative on the government side in the development of an educational strategy for maori” again he moves to the need to “close the gap” as one of ‘our’ key strategic priorities” then almost parodically he talks about “a willingness to look positively at solutions that lie ‘outside the box’ but further on he almost takes the bridle off “in supporting maori to take control of an education initiative or programme we would be looking for them to manage the resources and capabilities and take responsibility for the risks” that sounds pretty good though the ministry “is also conscious it cannot rely on local maori organisations which often have few resources [oh damn] to pick up additional responsibilities without some support” “we we we” will ‘we’ ever cross over to include maori he’s starting to sum up his words are losing some of that minstry tone and stultification though it does linger 201

he speaks of “effecting a better return from existing policies” while looking to “continuously provide them [maori] with more authority to develop the options which work better for them and at the end of the day [day?] for everyone” that’s as positive as I’ve heard from him then he says a sentence about teacher educators and ends with “maori will choose a number of different waka and pathways to reach their destinations understanding there will always be a finite amount of resources and always thinking that obstacles are those scary things that get in the road when you take your eyes off your goals” makes me wonder what he was like before he went and worked for the ministry not finished yet he speaks of “the resources” the peer pressure hypothesis colonization assimilative pressures land confiscation he’s not much of a talker which is probably why he works for the ministry he’s a renderer a report writer something of a linear positivist researcher interesting that the ministry and otago u people left before he started talking the word “resource” comes up in the context of “more neighbourly resourcing” I think the ministry must play scrabble or cryptic crossword all day or let’s see who can get the most in/non/anti/human ways of talking about people and other living things [it is important to speak clearly slowly to be inclusive] does he still know any maori words? he is spending forever boiling roman meal throw your written speech away mate talk to us who is talking about being assimilated “maximizing the benefits” he must have found that one on page two of a microeconomics textbook was that polices or policies he’s onto now maybe both add on something to do when things go wrong responses needling away for them “the quality of our communication” was that “management education or managing education” with this government they’re the same his jokes are actually asides which are presented as speaking downwardly toward mother earth perhaps that is where all misdirections are directed “dadada dadada more effective social policies” was he expecting applause now I know why they left he talks like a textbook or ministry policy parrot annotater he treats words as if they were sterile seeds scatters them like we were stones oh he’s still got rhetorical momentum “re-mediation and support” another barren metaphor stay away from anecdotes he was warned don’t speak as a human being but as a ministerial cog or homophone you’ve certainly exceeded succeeded in that before when the only chronicle was the spoken word and the piles of bones the tales of the scavenger birds the ants and flies what about this “settlement process” the verb becoming a noun or adjective this fellow should pour his words into a fertiliser spreader and not treat us like captive compost or undernourished crops “we know that we can improve the core of what we do” so what if they know it of course they know it but what about proaction? 202

he talks about parents’ roles and socioeconomics near the end to pretend he’s a real live human being or that we are he talks a wee bit about maori in the end then there is singing someone says “children are our máka” or was that mana I go outside still happy to be in aotearoa despite this performance grateful to have maori friends to know that they are strong I walk down to the waikato river the canoe is still there but coyote and raven and wes are nowhere to be seen or heard or scented pat has gone for a flat white with some friends think I’ll join her wraaakkk I lift up a paddle and look at its grain and feel it and feel the wind of this place the powers and spirits and beings of it and I think it’s like home it is home for now o:nen aroha kukwstum paddle paddle paddle

stroke whoooooooossshh

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our stories of ‘schooling’

paddle stroke paddle stroke paddle I turn my canoe to those parts of british columbia where our people have lived since millenia and millenia before there were pyramids in egypt those places the white people call “whistler” “blackcomb” “garibaldi” “pemberton meadows” those places saddled now with white or hybrid names mount currie skookumchuk port douglas mission kitsilano stanley park sumas mountain harrison lake the fraser valley we journeyed with felicity on the rivers and lakes coffee shops and ucwalmicwts language class places of email places of dream places of ancestor we talked we listened raven and coyote joined our conversation as did wes(tern methodology) who seems to pop up everywhere especially where s/he’s not wanted felicity is a strong paddler a strong first nations woman she does so much for the community she is the spirit of generosity and struggle and moving forward

felicity’s story

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ama7 sqit so felicity talking about school a subject dear to your heart hm I went to school in the Residential School phase when it was near the very end. I went to the public school in Mission, Chilliwack, Lillooet, Skatin and Mt. Currie. so you lived in all those beautiful places I was raised on a reserve at the head of Harrison Lake in beautiful Skatin Community. one of the infamous skookumchuks nice There was a handful of people who lived in the Skatin community. When I was younger I remember that I did speak my own Ucwalmicwts language, and did understand my traditional ways. I remember my grandfather used to sit me on his knee and sing me songs in Ucwlamicwts. My mother also used to teach me to pray in Indian and how to dance the sakota. sounds like you enjoyed your childhood up home

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My mother disciplined me to help out at the community gatherings such as doing the dishes after the meals and peeling and cutting potatoes and whatever else had to be done. yes we have had potatoes up that way for a looong time I was disciplined very well into the cultural ways. Although people look at me and say that you don’t look that old, I still remember when our community didn’t have any running water systems or electric bathrooms. you are wise in many ways for one so young I am not old and I will not be old until I earn the wisdom to be an elder. I believe in what my parents taught me, and I also believe that we can heal as a whole community, and educate each other on the knowledge and honour of our people. so you were not brought up in the big city I was adopted the Indian way and brought up in the white man’s system. I wear the clothing that the white man invented and live in a place in which we use up-to-date technology, but I still am not a white person and I do not wish to be. What I am is a person who has brown skin and dark hair, of which I am very proud. I have red blood just like anybody else in this world. sounds like you and your family had a good life you must be very proud of them I have two families. you mentioned the one you were brought up in and your biological family I was born in Mission BC in 1971. The life story that I am about to unfold is very personal and very moving. I will try to tell it like it is and both for fact and to the point. there’s no rush please take your time I would like to tell you a bit about my life, and this is how I am going to tell it. As I was sitting in the pews of the chapel at the St. Mary’s Church, which was also a Residential boarding school, m so many of our people went there I looked at everything that was in the church. I remember that the look in the church at the time was hard floors, stained windows, a piano to the right of the church, to the left were the confessional booths, and the front doors that were brown in colour, that swung open outwards. m your eyes remember well I also remember the pictures on the wall, the Stations of the Cross. I remember I used to look at the pictures and being disgusted what those horrid people did to Jesus not to mention what they did and do to our people the genocide nailing him to the cross. I was a very emotional kid. If I looked at it for a long time I would start crying. you’re still very emotional felicity a very caring person there’s a lot to grieve The children that I hung out with there would be my relatives that were also sent to the boarding school. These children would play a special role in my life. I was protected from being picked on by these kids. they picked on you The kids used to call me names, because I was a very scrawny looking girl. I had long uncontrollable hair, and I was nicknamed Mrs. Haggerty. They called me Mrs. Haggerty because my hair was very long and so unmanageable. I remember how hard 205

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it was for people to do my hair because I would cry because it hurt so much. I would run around and play like I was on the reserve yet. freedom knows no bounds nor it seems did your hair When I was on the reserve I used to climb in all the trees and be a monkey, or tomboy, as some would tell me. sounds like a great place to be raised away from cars and pollution I also remember one time when we were in residential school, they made this big meal with this icky white stuff, and red things. Now a days I guess they call it Shepherd’s pie. No body ate that meal because the look of it was gross. I was the only one, who ate that pie, because I was always taught to eat everything off my plate and not to waste anything. me too every last bit or else right or no dessert more like no next meal I remember they also used to make us eat this yellow mush cornmeal. It used to have lumps, and in those lumps were powder. I used to hate that so much. The burnt toast used to be the worst. The lunches they gave us were sometimes ok, but not all the time. They used to give us peanut butter and jam almost every single day, except for the days when they would give us the really icky sandwiches with lots of mustard, and mayonnaise and soggy soggy lettuce. Oh it was bad; nobody even wanted to trade lunches. Some of my white friends even pitied me and gave me their lunch, or brought an extra one along with them to school. you’d think they’d be more caring about your nutrition maybe the catholic church was in a slump in those days or lost their copy of the canada food guide coughcough The boarding school used to be a place where we used to live ten months out of the year. We would go to school outside of the residential building and went to neighbouring schools. This was because there were too many students to take care of all at once. I used to hate this one supervisor in the school because she used to be so mean to us. She didn’t know how to handle the kids; she used to be so angry all the time. mm real winner I will leave out names if I can. mm me too I remember that they used to punish everyone. Not just one person but everyone. Somebody stole a wallet that belonged to one of the supervisors. Everyone had to sit in the recreation room until someone fessed up and nobody would, so we stayed in that room for such a long time. miserable frontier justice There are times when I thought what did I do to deserve such a sad place like this. Although I wasn’t beaten at the school the residential school affected me because my parents went there and so did my brothers and sisters. I was beaten as a child and also raped. I have since gone to therapy and gotten counseling. I did however confront the person that abused me, the people who abused me (I am not saying any names) could have been abused in the residential school. I am saying this because I need to voice this and let other people know that it is not right to be abused. nor is it right to abuse to have to go through such a horrible experience as a child 206

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I didn’t know much about my culture before I went to the residential school. My foster parents drank alcohol and had an unhealthy environment. They knew that they had to do better things so they brought us to the residential school hoping that we would get a civilized education and a home. civilized hm civilized according to whom the priests and nuns I used to sit at the windows of the residential school, like many others in residence and bawl my eyes out because I missed my parents. Although I had an abusive upbringing I still loved my foster mother. I always did and always will. I was so heartbroken. it must have been very very hard and lonely I remember one time me and my friends at the school used to use this bucket with a towel and we would use sticks or whatever we could to try and remember some of the Indian songs that were taught to us by our relatives from back home. We were hiding this from our supervisors and if we would’ve gotten caught I bet we would’ve gotten into trouble. no music after 8 pm especially indigenous music They did condone our culture when I was in there but not when my parents were in there. They would’ve gotten the pulp beaten out of them. generations of abuse I remember somebody telling me that if they could go back and change things they would get revenge. They can’t go back and change things so they are consuming their lives with alcohol and drugs. They are too scared to speak up. I wish that abuse of children wouldn’t go on. But it did sadly in that so-called stupid idiotic of a place residential ‘civilized’ school. I hate the residential school and I wish that there never were such a thing. It hurt members of my family and it hurt me because I know that a person was never brought up to be an abuser. They had to been taught by a filthy predator so-called ‘civilized’ people. I would not pay a million bucks to go back and relive the things that I had to endure because what my families had to go through. Being abused is not a funny thing and it shouldn’t be ignored. nor forgotten I seen too many things with our people it is time to stop this now. Start to heal and love one another like we are as one. We should all unite. This is called the education of life and it is within our hearts. good point western education does not speak much about this love is certainly not usually part of the formula in the curriculum documents I’ve seen I look back all the time and try and remember good things but the negative things just won’t go away. The pain in my heart is big; my anger is so big it’s not easy to be a human being who has been hurt over a long period of time for no reason our community has seen a lot of pain you have experienced a lot people with degrees and certificates can tell you things but the people who have the knowledge like our elders keep getting ignored. they’re being invited into classrooms what more do you want indigenous knowledge as agenda not addenda I have a friend who told me that in one of her classes when she requested an elder from a First Nation community to speak at her First Nations class the professor 207

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replied that if we get a First Nations elder in here we will have to get one from the Chinese culture, the Mexican, European cultures, and so on. Why was an elder refused to be allowed to speak in a First Nations class? many teachers have tiny minds the fraser river valley is a vat of racism of eurocentrism from my experience I feel that the residential school was not a good place for the white man to put the Indian people; this makes the Indian People very sad. The Government was trying to help by giving us a free place to stay that will clothe us and feed us, and so called educate us. that may have been the promoted public agenda anyway your homeland was also a free place to stay white people are very good at saying look at what we are giving you but they took away the province of british columbia from us 230 million acres look what they give us back they took stanley park where we lived for millenia kitsilano indian reserve #6 false creek jericho beach whistler the fraser river valley they gave it or sold it to the dutch the germans the scots the english now their cows and chickens and pigs are poisoning the river the underground waters the sky the air we breathe the earth our food our children as they grew within us those yet unborn promised a poisoned world so the settlers could benefit Why are our people in jails, on the streets, on drugs and alcohol? Why are our people abusing? They learned it from the system—abuse you are not born with—you are taught it. I think it was all part of the plan long- and short-range let the colonized learn to colonize themselves one another then who is left to blame the victims for perpetrating what they learned over generations I am not directly pointing fingers but we need to have more than an apology. sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sor ry so rry sorrysorrysorrysorry We need for some of the governments to give us the free special counseling but not white counseling not psych ology and psychoanalysis in every community to be there to hear us what we have to say. Sit there and listen to how much pain and turmoil we went through how many tears, the anger, and how much it messed up our lives. They need to understand that this goes deeper than the apology. We need to be compensated, not with money but by having the people who harmed us to listen and look at us. Why do you think that you can change us? that they have or had a right to Civilize us? You can change the way we dress; act, and talk, but you can’t change the color of our skin and hair. You may beat the language right out of us. You took the traditions away, stole and raped our children. Did we beat you for speaking your language? Did we molest your children when they were helpless and nowhere to go. Did we force you to learn our language fat chance of that did we force you to learn our culture, do we shove an eagle feather into your faces, and force you to pray our way? Is this how you teach your children to live? Now we must try and pick up our people. Must we be afraid when we see a shadow in the

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night; must we fret when we try to speak our language? Do we run with embarrassment when our relatives come with a buckskin hand drum? little by little it is changing back We need to talk about our past why did the government and clergymen allow this? Why did they stop our children from being themselves? Couldn’t they have just left well enough alone? Our people were good where they were; they hunted and trapped for the food. They survived off the land; they harvested food. it’s the way of the european the christian way converting the savages savaging the converts We were educating our children. The language, the hunting, trapping, our arts, and crafts, the old traditional ways are lost, but they are coming back. We are trying to regain our culture back, and we need to look at the educational part of our history. When you think about it we do have a very good educational background. not in the western or academic sense The women knew how to weave baskets, make buckskin dresses, and moccasins for the feet. They had carpenters in our tradition. They built the houses and in the earlier days they built the ishkins, underground houses. People knew how to make drums, tan the hide of the deer. They knew how to track deer, bear, cougars, and other wildlife. The other tools that they made for hunting were bow and arrows, sling shots, deer rib scraper made out of the deer antler, and there are several other things they made from their own hands to catch the animals for their meals. Of course they only took what they needed. not like today’s society the waste the hoarding the consumerism They even made stuff for transportation in two different forms snowshoes, and canoe. They made these from the trees in the forest. They didn’t go into the forest and chop more than they needed. That went for other things such as berries, animal hunting, and wood from the trees. It was taught that they shouldn’t take what they didn’t need. it wasn’t about putting trophies on the wall the heads of our relations the fourleggeds measuring the length and weight and breadth paw size antler size They prayed for the things taken from the mother earth. Such as an animal that you have hunted down you would leave your knife, pray to the creator, thanking the animal for giving up its life to feed him and his family. The knife would also serve its purpose if someone was walking down the trail and they would find the knife they could keep it. This would mean that the knife served its purpose. the christian religion didn’t take too kindly to praying to anyone or anything except their god the one they’d made in their own image The Indian people already had their religion, and they were very humble about it. They didn’t need a big congregation that was fancy. They had their tipi or sweathouse. The sweathouse wasn’t really introduced until the 1960’s to the Stl’atl’imx people. Our own culture is with the hand drums and dancing. We have our prayer songs. We also have our own traditional ways that were taught to the people until they were sent off to the residential school system. Stories were also taught to the children, legends that will be carried on until the end of time. in our own language

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Our language is very unique and is special to our people. The sad part is that not very many of us know the language. Sad to know that this was beaten out of most of our older generation that went to residential school. We had our ways of teaching our children; it will take an effort to regain what was rightfully ours, our pride and our culture. We will not give up our children again. P yet social services is doing this everyday the scoop goes on F People have got to know that this land is not for sale and that money will not be useful when we all meet the Creator again. You can’t pay your way into heaven. C OYO T E : [heaven?] F We will prove what is ours even if it takes our great grandchildren. We are educating our children so that we can fight fire with fire. We are educating our children to be as humble as we were in the beginning. P good point F We will not beat your children or you if we catch you speaking your language. We will come together as one. P that’s more generous than I often feel F This is the education that I will be looking forward to. Let’s hope that our own governance will beat the system that is around today. P you said earlier you were adopted F When I was around 2 or 3 years old, I was adopted by the Joe [pseudonym] Family from the Skatin Community and grew up there. My biological father is originally from Samahquam. My mother is from Shalath on the Seton Portage. In my adopted family, I have several brothers and sisters. Many of them have lived in Skatin all their lives, they lived off the land like many families. P is there anything more you want to say about education either traditional or the white education forced on you F I attended the residential school of St. Mary’s in Mission. It was the last of many residential schools which were shut down in the early 1980’s. I regret having to go to residential school because it took me away from my culture. I was stripped of my language and traditions. P it must have been good the times you got to go back home F When I did go home, I remember having the traditional foods that were harvested in the valley. I enjoyed eating deer meat and grouse. I never did go hunting or fishing, but other people told me about their experiences. I was a very curious child and asked many questions. P you still do and are very respectful and sensitive and caring F My adopted mom tried her best to teach me as much as she could, but because of the residential school system, I was already ‘assimilated’ into the mainstream. I remember asking my adoptive parents about what it was like growing up, and they would tell me that the residential school took away most of their native culture. Because my mom had an arranged marriage, she was lucky enough not to attend residential school. She started a family with my dad, who logged for a living. P european immigrants don’t seem to appreciate the importance of traditional education living on and with the land it’s not ‘formal’ enough F Most families from the In-SHUCK-ch N’Quat’qua territory still hunt deer and grouse. F

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These animals are still a part of their every day diet. Some have learned how to hunt from their fathers or grandparents. Many traditions are still respected and are being taught to the younger generations at community gatherings funerals, birthdays, graveyard cleaning, weddings, name giving, and hand drumming, singings, and dancing. it’s taken a long time to get the old ways back The youth were taught to do several things before a hunt. They were taught that they could not just go out to the forest and kill an animal; they had to earn it. good point They had several things to learn before they were allowed to hunt. They would learn that when a person caught their first animal he/she could not eat it. It must be dispersed to the community. The hunter was usually stuck with eating fish instead. that wouldn’t be too bad though a 90% fish diet could be a bit much at times This teaching was adhered to when one caught any animal for the first time. The elders were very strict with their teachings. One had to earn the title of being a hunter. you were telling me what a hunter did with the very first catch The hunter is not allowed to eat it, the piece of meat, you give it back to mother earth, thanking it. The first deer, they made you drink the blood from the deer. Whatever you catch you should offer it back, say a little prayer; a little ceremony is just as good. However, some of the teachings have been questioned. you were also speaking with someone in Tipella who didn’t seem to follow that They said “you are supposed to drink the blood too but I don’t do that.” I’m sure they’d get excommunicated by the church or put in jail The youth would have to follow the elders into the forest and learn the sounds of nature. The different trackings were also very important, such as bears, deer and any other animals that were out in the forest. Every hunter is taught that you must tell someone where you are going and what you are taking on your hunting trip. An experienced hunter would teach you all that he knows about nature. He would teach you about the Ucwalmicwts words for the animals. The elder taught the importance of how to cut the meat, and preservation methods. The elder hunter taught that every part of the deer is used, and that one must never waste anything. tall order In an interview in Mission, B.C. when asked how often his dad hunted, the interviewee replied, “Oh maybe about three or four times a month. That’s just enough to hold us, enough meat.” The deer antlers were used as tools for hunting, and the hides of the animals were used as clothing or drums. The hooves were also given to medicine doctors, and the spirit dancers that lived in the Fraser Valley. Songs were taught to the young hunter, like the bear and deer songs. you say the women did not hunt so much The women also had a very important role in hunting. Although hunting was not really performed by women, they did provide for their family. In addition, single mothers would hunt for their families. The hunters would bathe in the river or a lake, and sweep themselves with cedar boughs to remove the human scent from their bodies so as not to frighten the animals away. that is not much talked about these days

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Many do not carry on the traditional ways anymore because of the residential school system. Slowly, however, traditions are being brought back to the community. the healing is very slow Many generations of our people lived with sorrow, because they experienced the negative effects of residential school. Many have turned to drugs and alcohol. The healing process for the people has just begun recently within our communities. they try to throw money and psychology at us and anthropologists A small amount of financial resources is being offered. When the interviews were being held in the communities, the number of people who attended was very small. People were very skeptical of anyone who worked for the government. They have suffered numerous bad experiences in the past with government officials. The government should be aware that a lot of healing needs to take place before the trust of the community members is regained. that’s an understatement you were wanting to talk about trapping Trapping of any kind of animals are not done any more by my people. Trapping for skins such as marten or mink was not performed in earnest until the white man came. Clothing was made commonly of deerskin or the wool of the mountain goat. and then the fir industry moved in only when the Hudson’s Bay Company moved into the area did trapping become part of the lives of the In-SHUCK-ch N’Quat’qua. Whiteman traps began to be used instead of traditional snares. of course these had to be purchased or traded for voilà consumerism Families had their own traplines, which came up creeks in all parts of the territory. They sold their furs to fur companies in Vancouver and Kamloops. For many families, trapping provided their livelihood. and logging The logging industry moved into our territory in earnest in the 1940’s & 1950’s, and most of the trappers became loggers. thanks kika felicity I’m glad we spoke it’s your turn to paddle for a while I have some editing work to do I give you my permission to edit it, the way you like. I have no more time for this. kukwstum paddle please sister we have many miles to go many bends of the river to round coyote has agreed to steer and raven will watch for rocks and deadheads and sweepers hey you two keep alert! paddle paddle stroke paddle swooosh paddle stroke swoooooosh

alissa’s story getting that canoe closer in to shore now I dock over by the shopping centre in mission I see the sikh temple on the hill near where my auntie susie (susan purcell) used to live the water is high today I secure the canoe and walk up the bank across the lougheed highway and up toward the highschool to visit some relatives alissa tells one of her stories from school her story is “learning how not to tell the truth” we meet within the lines and pages of text 212

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good to see you alissa thank you for agreeing to speak with me we might as well get into the story I know this is a busy home and I don’t want to get in anybody’s way it’s good to be here it’s busy like auntie suzie’s always was back in the 1950s and 60s a halfway house between up home and city living a refuge a place of welcome you were saying In grade five, I had my first male teacher, this was supposed to be an awesome experience, but unfortunately he was not an awesome teacher. welcome to the real world of school Anyway, the teacher left the room for a short period of time, and asked us to continue on with our assignment, after he left, one of the students got out of his chair and started moving stuff around the desk. oh oh I know I’m going to get blamed wrraaackk I didn’t do it you always say that even if there are beakmarks everywhere When the teacher returned, and demanded to know “Who did this!” That same boy, said it was Armajit, a new kid, who barely spoke English, being a boy he did not rat out on the boy who accused him of his crime. it’s always a ‘crime’ when first nations people do it whatever ‘it’ is I could understand why he couldn’t, he was a guy. boys will be After the teacher told him to stand beside his desk, the teacher walked up to stand over him, and said that he was going to expelled for what he had done because he was delinquent. ‘delinquent’ doesn’t that mean indigenous or raven ous The other boys in the class wanted to say something, they looked around at the other students, I quess hoping that something would happen. Armajit was also looking around for something to happen too, he had a panic look on his face, then Armajit glanced at me, being native Indian, aboriginal, I was the only other person of colour in that class. Before I knew it, I stood up beside my desk, and said, “Sir, he did not do it. It was Kevin.” that was brave of you “What did you say?” oh oh now she’s going to get raked over the coals hoed over the embers With a smaller voice, I said again, “Sir, It was Kevin who touched your desk, not Armajit.” With firm conviction, the teacher said, “That’s a lie. Kevin said it was Armajit, and you’re just sticking up to protect Armajit. You are also going to get suspended. Go to the Principal’s Office now.” sounds like a winner of a teacher Then, another voice rose out, “No she is not lying. It was Kevin.” This boy who spoke up was the most outspoken kid in school, looking back he got away with alot, because of the family name he bore. Looking back, I don’t know why he defended me and not Armajit, maybe because we went from grade one to five together or because it was okay to defend a girl. 213

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maybe he had a good heart and spirit despite his actions and intentions The teacher, for some reason got incensed with the situation, because everyone started talking and saying it was Kevin. He then told Kevin that he would do lines and clean the chalk board. no suspension for the whites no visit to the principal’s office different rules In other classes up to this time, cleaning the chalkboard was a privilege, I don’t know why it became a punishment with him. like white collar crime doing prison time at home community work as punishment welcome to martha stewart prison for do-bads The teacher told Armajit to sit down, and said to me, “Alissa you are a tattler, go stand outside for the rest of the day to reflect on being a tattletale.” ah the fairness of white teachers when confronted with aboriginal protocols and indigenous ethics I was in shock with the teacher, I told the truth, and I was being punished for preventing another from being punished wrongly. I was upset and crying when I went home, because when other students went by for their toilet breaks, they could see me, I was so ashamed for standing outside because it looked like I did something wrong. what a horrible thing to happen to you I was told by my older cousins, that shamas [whites], did not like to hear the truth from those who were not shamas. This made sense, since the teacher did not believe me till another shama student defended me. the fraser river valley is a very racist place including some aboriginal people who are racist against their own people culture language history many side with the white people the shamans the indian experts who get the powerful academic positions where they develop their own system of aboriginal collaborators sellouts traitors vichys oies From this point I became more self aware that the other students were different from me, and that telling the truth did not mean that you would be listened to or be appreciated. or believed how many of our people are in prison today because the whites do not believe our words I’m sorry that happened to you alissa I guess in the end since you remember the incident so well you took some learnings from it not that they helped you at the time when you were hurting kukwstum alissa case in point the 1969 white paper jean chrétien as minister of indian affairs drafted to assimilate ‘indians’ acted as an instrument a locus of solidarity and activism for aboriginal people across the country was it worth it to tell the truth should truth be rewarded should it be punished hm whose truth you’ve come a long way and you’ve been through a lot I know that you will continue to work in a good way paddle paddle paddle paddle swoooosh swooooosh paddle 214

suzanne’s story talking to my sister suzanne over there in alberta province in deklein required a canoe journey but at least nothing undulatingly oceanic just a bit of a portage over and through the rocky mountains it was all downhill from there the odd forest fire tourist stampede festival we met at her place and went outside into the refreshing wind along the banks of the north saskatchewan river and talked while the river ran high and the birds flew overhead P S

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so what about messengers from the feathered nation I am watching for the birds the magpies come and check for handouts several times a day. I believe crows, magpies, bluejays, eagles, owls and hawks bring news and are messengers from the spirit world. we have a lot to learn from them Last night there was an interesting show on tv, a continuing weekly program called Stargate, which was a big hit movie a few years ago with yankee heroes of course. It is filmed in Vancouver, and this particular one was about aboriginal people of Salish ancestry, and their alien protectors! It was a little far fetched, but the Salish are now known! we always knew about us just alberta and the rest of canada were in the unknow I wonder if they got permission to use the Salish name? I doubt it they probably think we’re all dead besides I think ‘salish’ isn’t salish hm alien protectors I think we could use some of those ones right now I have been thinking of what to write for you, re: education and aboriginal people. I think little stories might be the way. I haven’t been writing for some time. Just not into it. your experiences at school maybe I remember walking hand in hand with Mom on the first day. I was terrified. Leaving the sanctuary and safety of home and Daddy, I thought I was being given away. School always scared, frightened me, it never felt safe, I never had confidence, and do not remember having it instilled in me throughout my entire sentence. it was certainly longer than a phrase I was never taught about Indians, natives or “red skins” as many called aboriginal people back in the 50’s & 60’s. not too many other races in alberta back in those early days though I don’t know if we even qualified for that we were more in the line of primitive antiquities of yesteryear people davy crocket missed people john wayne forgot to finish off I did not know about races, minorities, different colours of skin being a reason to be hurt and abused. I was hidden from this. what about your indigenous heritage I was not taught about my heritage on Daddy’s side of the family, it was not mentioned, kept hidden shamefully, a sin perhaps. just hints and little snippets the whole indian princess thing was ambiguous it wasn’t good to be an ‘indian’ back then remember dad tried to have himself declared a nonindian he wanted to be italian austrian anything but aboriginal 215

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remember the writing class he took at the faculty of extension back in the 70’s he wrote that story in which he said that he was less indian because his mother was maybe part italian an orphan I remember talking to him about it it was something he needed to do for himself the italian connection was a handy one because madeline had been with an italian grocer for awhile must’ve been the mid-1850s during the goldrush because she already had kids of her own before the white people showed up dad’s mom melina was the daughter of the chief at port douglas and melina’s mother madeleine was the daughter of the chief at sakteen or was it skatin anyway dad talked about his dad the same way as having austrian or italian connections rather than what the community says about joseph being aboriginal and a chief with a bit of white blood way back through an eastern connection just like his brothers it must have been hard for him being indian back then In school I have no recollection of learning about Indians. I remember being taught about the great british, french, spanish, american, mexican, chinese peoples of the world. These people supposedly brought culture and civility to our country, conquering the savages was the thing to do. yes they called it enterprise the good guys were always the ‘settlers’ who were meek and law (nottoforget god-) abiding except that they were members of the ltc (land thieves collective) if people only thought about what the verb ‘to settle’ really meant or ‘taming the wilderness’ they’d get a picture of 160 years of genocide there was no wilderness before the white people came and invented it or discovered it we had no word for wilderness it was home there was no frontier either for us 100,000 years is long enough to get to know a continent to get to know our territory before after and during the glaciers The Hudson’s Bay Company was a real culprit in bringing the indians under control, a “blanket” bribe changed the lives and destiny of many of the First Nation’s people. biological warfare weapons of mass destruction a holocaust of 200 million the stealing of two continents I’d say so but they haven’t been referred to the hague yet must be a long lineup Thousands of white people, who called themselves adventurers, explorers, trappers, hunters brought disease and sickness and violence to the indians. the bad guys The history I was taught never criticized the devastation brought on the First Nation’s people by these foreigners. We were taught that Canada was civilized with the English and French cultures being forced upon these people. I remember that the Indians were considered savages, to be brought to their knees and enslaved. to be good citizens of the british empire and the dominion of canada god save the queen may she have gravel in her spinach I can’t say I’m overly fond of spinach but what’s wrong with gravel not everyone has a gizzard Perhaps my memories are from the grade five and six classes. I loved history and the study of different people, but never was taught of Indians and their wonderful culture. Looking back I see only negativity, that the Indians were no good, they smelled from herbs and oils put on their bodies, they were nothing but drunks and had sickness. no account savages bloodyminded heathens kill you as soon as look at you! 216

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watch out those !! are following you around again! ! !! “The only good Indian is a dead Indian” is a phrase I remember hearing many years ago. The only time Indians are remembered fondly is at Thanksgiving, especially then. The Indians taught the palefaces how to survive, how to “conquer” the land, the great crusades against the forests and the buffalo the bird nations the beaver the white man scalped anything that moved including forests we shared our home with the newcomers our people were trusting and expected others to be honourable and in return their lands, lives, spirits were stolen and to this day are still being torn from limb to limb, from coast to coast. m that’s catchy maybe it would be a good substitute for ‘oh canada’ At home, the girls were called Indian Princesses by their father, but nothing else was really brought to light on being “halfbreeds.” I don’t think Mom liked the fact, and was ashamed. In the early years of Mom’s life Indians were not part of the white society, they belonged in the bush, they were used as scouts, labourers by the white, blue-eyed settlers and kept in the background. So I think Mom believed she married beneath her station. scots/welsh presbyterian/united the priests and ministers and other babyrapers were convinced they had to bring jesus to the miscreant evildoers red satans I do not remember Mom and Daddy together at any school functions, I do not remember them holding hands. I don’t remember dad at any school function I don’t think he felt welcome In the summers we often went to visit Daddy’s relatives in BC and this was a wonderful time. every summer it was great sometimes all summer at auntie suzie’s I felt loved and knew I belonged. I remember the kind and loving people that lived on the hill going into Mission on the lougheed highway number one highway back then highway 7 and the wonderful exotic faces and voices, the strange dark medicine house, with bunches of dried herbs hanging from the roof. These memories never leave me. those memories are you so what about alberta alberta [where you been so long] In Alberta, being an Indian seemed a shameful thing to be. I think Uncle Eddie’s wife hated Daddy and his half breed kids and I will never forget the shunning I felt from this part of Mom’s family. m we were the untrustworthy we might steal or murder or rape or laugh out loud or use the wrong fork or eat with our hands or kiss the cat We weren’t good enough and our skin got too dark in the summer for us to be considered “white” for certain relatives in Alberta. This was an early lesson, and I never really knew it at the time, because I was such an innocent, sheltered from so many things only memories taught me of the sickness the whites had in them. so this innocence and knowledge of your true heritage coexisted okay I never considered myself different from the lilywhites in the neighbourhood and at school. In the primary readers, everyone had the skin of the english, the hair of the dutch, the pale blue eyes of being the conqueror. the postwar immigrants and you had thick brown hair brown eyes skin too many shades darker than off white 217

If you ever saw an Indian in the readers provided by the schools and libraries, they usually had buckskins and feathers as well as war paint and weapons. P always ready with the knife or spear S I should have been taught about my heritage at home, and been given a strong backbone to stand on with my identity. P even knowing your indigenous heritage from visiting the reserves and auntie suzie’s and auntie annie’s you feel you were not ever sure who you were S I do not remember ever being told who exactly I was. It was always a fairy tale, princess story. P yes it was easier to glide over it S Maybe Daddy didn’t want us going through the horrors he and his siblings went through, and Mom just didn’t want to consider her bearing “half breeds,” I wonder what her logic was re: half dutch & half her side. T [half-brother] certainly is a halfbreed as well, but since it is all white then it’s okay. P good point halfbreeds always being looked at as inter-racial rather than intra-racial S I don’t remember being taught anything positive about First Nations, only the negative. That Indians were savages and the white settlers who came were the saviours. I don’t remember anyone being nasty to me or calling me names. P just the whisperings of relatives the racism from some of father’s in-laws S It is funny sitting in this house with the ghosts and looking out the back yard and thinking about our little lives and being together. I feel Daddy here, and you but no one else. P you burning the medicines downstairs and growing them bring the spirits back S When it comes to education, it should be open, honest and start at home. The Foster programs don’t teach the young First Nations kids anything but whiteness and a lot of times abuse. P the big grab the scoop is still very much the way the great genocidal triumvirate school kidnapping for fostercare and church C not to mention capitalism R and the imported justice system S I think Ben Calfrobe School is the way to go in having a positive start, or Alex Taylor. P m kukwstum sister of the raven sister of the cat and parrot now it is time to get back to the canoe turn it over and let it dry out it is good here by the north saskatchewan river sleeping on the clean grasses listening to the creatures and the plant nations alberta has been a good home it is good to have many homes many campfires and a special sister paddle paddle paddle paddle stroke swooosh paddle paddle paddle stroke S

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single spacing looong canoe trip across this country lots of portages atm transactions inconveniencing other pedestrians with this canoe sometimes I have to pull it on a wheeled contraption it’s hard to hitchhike with I talk to teresa and to her text and as was their wont coyote and raven join in when they’re not up to mis chief elsewhere and to others who invite themselves write themselves in P T P R C T P T

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teresa we were talking about education for the kanien’kehaka the people of the flint My education involves all that is around me; all that I have taken in, and more than I have learned. sounds very zen zen sounds very native very coyotec It is a great part of me which encompasses all that I have been, will be, and am now. Education, truly, is my life. that’s a lot to take on I often look at Native people who have been educated both within and outside of Native communities and influences. As my eyes go down the list of statistics, I see high drop out rates, high unemployment and welfare, low health levels and the highest suicide rates of any group of people in the country. it’s been like that for a long time It is no surprise to me that my eyes stop here as I wonder what the world will be like for my children. that’s a tough one for sure children have been gracious and trusting in lending us the present My culmination of educational experiences have made me who I am today: a proud, strong Iroquois woman who thirsts for knowledge, respect and balance. However, I do not wish my experiences on my children; I want to give them more tools to learn than I have ever had. but we can’t save our children from our experiences no matter what tools we have or use we still have to live in this world whether it is a western or nonwestern world we have to find our own place in it My idea of success in this world is to encompass the characteristics of a bridge, with a strong foundation on both “traditional” and “western” grounds, to offer a solid foundation to those around me now and for the generations to come. whewwww you have a lot more faith in human beings than we have we got jaded somewhere along the way and turquoised everywhere along the way greenstoned marbled and quartzed Caring, sharing, respect and honesty will offer balance within the Native realm being, communities or institutions, but to earn a living in this poisoned and capitalistic world, participation in the technological world would also be a benefit, and oftentimes a necessity for optimal health. ironic and tragic plug in plug out plug off As I learn, I begin to teach others as they teach me. 219

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you talk with great feeling of the circle and what you can learn there many teachers use the circle in their stories circles concentric spiral intersecting This circle can be expanded into the “Seven Grandfathers: Traditional Teachings,” wonderfully compiled by Georgina Toulouse. In her article, she paints the story of the seven great teachings given to the Nishinabe. I like your use of the word ‘compiled.’ the oral teachings are important for us I believe that all of these are useful, relevant teachings that we must share with the youth and aged alike. we learn together without one not being the teacher the student but both Wisdom can be attained through our experiences: from our environment and our choices made in regard to the opportunities given to us. We learn to make good, healthy decisions that not only affect ourselves, but also those around us. I don’t know what it is about human beings but they seem to trust one another even if there is no basis for trust I never trust them they’re too much like coyotes arroooo black devil bird sometimes you talk about love and respect as though they were the same thing I am not sure if that is where you are going Love is not meant in the sense of Western, intimate relationships. It refers to a love of the Mother Earth, the Sky Beings, spirits and all of those who cross our path during our stay here. It is necessary for Respect of all things, and appreciation of them and our place in relation to them. your listing the seven grandfathers it is good to see them put in a modern light I’ve always had a hard time seeing them separate and also when combined together bravery for instance as a virtue whatever virtue is supposed to be I was wondering when you would admit it was a foreign concept Bravery is much different than it was before European contact – then it often involved life or death, honour or shame. Today it involves a daily onslaught of decisions that will ultimately affect our life, death, honour or shame, but is not always necessarily life-threatening. come to the fields and the forests you’ll see life-threatening everywhere it’s nothing special it’s everyday sometimes all day and all of the night da da da dadadada da how about crossing the street or the highway or the schoolyard foolhardy Our relationships are a constant renewal of decisions which are both a source of our bravery as well as the reason why we sometimes have to be brave. I prefer to be careful than brave I’m not much on bravery unless I’m surrounded I guess we pretty well covered that one yes we can move on to truth truth? that’s a rare one not welldone in your case at any rate Honesty was the way of life for most Native people before contact – we must be true 220

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to ourselves and those around us if we are to have a healthy, balanced relationship with them. I don’t know how many honest people I’ve ever met lying seems to be more the way things go I can count on the phalanges of one claw the number of honest post contact settler human beings I’ve encountered you got me there but you do hang around a lot of shady places with the ferns honesty doesn’t seem to be the winning bingo number must need something else Humility aids in this, and allows us to “live in harmony and balance on earth.” Truth is what we will have “when all of these teachings are understood.” These teachings should be intertwined in the teachings and socialization of all children of all colours – the world would be a better place if we were to give these gifts of knowledge to the young ones and allow them to make their own decisions on how to live. can we learn how to live without living if we don’t learn from our mistakes we’ll keep doing the same thing over and over it has been said to me that the most important knowledge is that which comes from our own experience rather than from an external place. external place like where external to what I have seen many learning styles in the kindergarten class that I taught – all fifty children have fifty very distinct personalities which directly affect their learning styles. learning styles oh watch out for theorists they grab and patent A good portion of the class are considered high needs, whether it be Attention Deficit Disorder, English as a Second Language, violent tendencies, well or ill-developed dexterity, and the list goes on. is the community you speak of involved in the children’s education The great majority of teachers and staff are from the community – there are about ten percent non-Native teachers employed there. Parents are encouraged to take part, which I believe adds quality to education, the student and their learning process, and includes vital, positive self esteem. I learned from my parents but they never really taught me you can say that again you always were a bit fuzzy watch your back scruffy watch the sky In this hurried world of inflation and benefit-less jobs, it has become increasingly difficult for parents to be active participants in the learning process of children. too busy shopping changing the tv channel moving the kids from one junk food to another trusting in labels and documentaries and government edicts Most parents breathe a sigh of relief when the children go off to school, so they may continue or increase their participation in jobs or other aspects of adult life. I never had a job except being raven I wouldn’t make much of a coyote I wavered between being a lone coyote and being part of a pack the adults around seemed to love me or at least accept who I was However, the old Native saying that it takes a community to raise a child, is true, more and more. a flock it takes a flock a pack 221

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a slither a school a herd a pool a gathering a gaggle a mob a waggle someone’s ventriloquizing ating This is one of the reasons I cite for the breakdown of family and personal health – the world today is each family for themselves. We cannot be whole without support from other than our nuclear families – I strongly believe in this. and what about the mohawk school I have experienced an intense, personal stuggle over the issue of integrating bi-lingual and bi-cultural education at the school on my home reserve. Lets make the issue clear, though, we are not close to bilingual education, as the struggle is chiefly involving biculturalism. it is often the mainstream elements of society which are foregrounded even with the best of intentions conquerors write the history they own the presses there was no conquest in canada no conquered people just war crimes and peace crimes I was shocked and dismayed to find that every Wednesday the Presbyterian Minister’s wife came into the school to teach “Life Skills.” I wondered why, if it is life skills, does a christian/religious person have to teach it? because conversion is what it’s all about saving souls cobblecobble toil and trobble and it’s through the uprights downrights I sat in on a couple of the classes, curious to see what this was all about. My mind was quickly flooded with memories of Sunday school, complete with the Ten Commandments, the Light and the Darkness, Good and Evil. we all know where ‘indians’ are going certainly not the same place as decent folk and cowboys I inquired about this to my Associate Teacher, and asked if there was a traditional/ spiritual/Iroquoian/Mohawk class in comparison to the “life skills.” She stated that the school holds four traditional days each year, where a theme is made (ie. harvest day, midwinter, etc.) and traditional people are brought in from other communities to teach. looks like tokenism run rampant racism by any other name eurocentrism aboriginofugic phobic this is on a reserve? it’s everywhere This hurt me – what can the students possibly learn and retain of this culture and the rich teachings which burst from it, if there is no reinforcement, modelling or links to obvious relevance in today’s society? my perception of western education is not about relevance to anything spiritual it’s about how it can best serve the powerful those in control conspiracy theory conspiracy theory I was also then told that we can include culture in the curriculum “pretty much” to the extent that we wished we being the teachers and it was basically up to us as long as we kept it to ourselves. I think this is a travesty! I understand and respect that in my reserve, there are people of numerous religious and traditional beliefs and 222

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practices, and that all should be respected, but there is little balance! perhaps the idea of a dynamic balance which involves imbalance too might be considered m lift and drag sturm und drang not you I won’t This points to the most important fact that I have come across in my life, which is that we will be healthier, more balanced people if we have role models who are healthy and balanced as well. I am scared for the children there and everywhere else in the country, as I sit and wonder who their role models are. chief jake thomas used to speak of wanting only the creator as role model because everybody else trips over themselves person fault parse error tense dis agreement language police dot that comma haa roooooooo This urges me onward to be the best, most respectful person I can be. I have been put on this earth to learn, and it is how I deal with myself and my relationships with others that I will make some impression. different people respect different things or say that they do who’s to say that respect to a white person has any relationship to what respect means to a coyote or a first nations person or any of our relations I need to have self-esteem so that Natives and non-Natives can see that in me; so they can take that information and put it into their lives. information? I’m not quite sure how that works Even if I make a difference to one person, I have not failed. My success is making someone laugh, feel good, whether it be with a hug, a smile, a comment, or a lesson learned. yes children need hugs they need love that is the bottom line My teaching philosophy involves all of these things. Holistic, cultural expression must be allowed and incorporated into technological, western teachings. Our lives and the lives of the generations to come, depend on it. you mentioned earlier being influenced by Georgina Toulouse who edited ‘seven grandfathers: traditional teachings’ interesting how your email signature contains a real indian’s counsel ‘be the change that you want to see in the world’ m. k. gandhi thank you kukwstum o:nen ki wahey sister of the sunrise sister of the dawn paddle paddle paddle paddle paddle

travels with elsa now it’s time to paddle back to the prairies from time to time we use a sail on our canoe like those prairie schooners did way back or the vallella vallellas of the pacific in their spirit of interspecies cooperation our next stop is to visit my good friend elsa travels and visits with her are never dull elsa is a cree-metis woman from north central alberta actually she is a character who created me 223

while I was sitting in front of a 50-year old manual typewriter one day she coinvented herself from a hundred elders or rather she synthesized herself through me me through her we met halfway I wouldn’t say that I created elsa or the stories about her they just came to me a gift from the land of story of spirit I just have to learn how to get out of the way of their (re)generation Elsa taught me a lot about being in the world she said nature is reflected in our spirit and we are not well we are part of the sickness the illness of our spirits (Cole, 1991a, October) is mirrored in the land the sky and the waters she said it was okay if alberta native news published my story about her talking about education so long as it got an editorial spot and of course I insisted on an honorarium for her and after a while she even got invited to elders conferences elders’ panels by readers who thought she was a ‘real’ person of course she is real but not easy to catch because she’s always so busy dodging punctuation and misplaced modifiers You need your own language or else your vision dies. You can’t just pray with white words to some God that’s stuck in that there Bible. You know, when you take away language from the kids, you take away their connections with the old ways. . . . There’s a reason why all our words exist. They didn’t just happen and that was it. The words and the traditions—they grew together. Like a family. When you talk about a rock in Cree, it’s not the same as in English or those other white languages. A rock isn’t just an idea. It’s not just a name. There’s a power in the word. In the sound. That rock becomes part (Cole, 1991b, November) of you when you talk about it. Elsa was a great believer in practical education. She thought people read too much and didn’t do enough things like chop wood and look for new fishing places and work on their own spirituality. “The Creator gave us hands and eyes and ears before giving us words and fancy ideas. You can’t tan a hide with words. Or set a snare by talking about it. A tipi isn’t going to make itself. Fish aren’t just going to jump into your pan and fillet and cook themselves. Somebody’s got to go and find wood and light the fire.” As she cut the fringes for the jacket, she smiled. “I met Joe at the Residential School you know. About seventy-five years ago. He was one bad boy. Always getting into trouble, speaking Cree and that kind of stuff. Education had nothing to do with Indians and people living off the land. It was about spelling and remembering white people’s names and dates and that Bible. ‘Louis Riel, 1885 hanged.’ That was Metis history. Rebellions and massacres is how they talked about Native people. One of the kids wanted to know why they had to learn Cree when they came to her house and why it was never spoken at home. “I teach you Cree because you’ve got to learn it.” ‘But we never use it.’ “Your language is your spirit. Without it, you get further and further away from your culture.” She taught them songs and showed them how to dance. She drummed as they sang. The dancing made them really happy. Sometimes there was a whole houseful of kids singing (Cole, 1991b, November) in Cree and dancing. Having a great time. Just being kids.

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The priests and the mounties came and said I had to go to school. We didn’t know what they were talking about. But I went. I had to leave my parents and my brothers and sisters. I had to leave my village, my forest—the only thing I knew. Everybody figured it was just for a while—a month or two. Then I’d be back. We’d all be back. (Cole, 1991c, May) That’s not how it happened. You weren’t allowed to talk about rocks and trees having spirits. They whipped you if you sang your own songs, prayed your own prayers. In your own language. They made you wear white man’s clothes. Everybody dressed the same. We must have looked like a bunch of mushrooms. None of us spoke English. We just had our own language. ‘Stop speaking that heathen language’ they’d say. We learned all about sin. About how bad it is to be Indian. About praying in a dead language at the same time our own was dying. (Cole, 1991c, May)

thank you elsa

let’s get together again soon grandmother kukwstum e’kosi

an education story from up home before the whites came we taught our children without pathfinder or ministry of education prescribed curricula we had no special ed needs education was for every person it was called living in the village there were no ‘’dis’abled persons everyone was ‘able’ because they were part of the community each had special gifts to share the focus was not on lack we have to make room in schools for our knowings translated untranslated interpreted uninterpreted I do not want to use alter/native ways we are the mainstream which is made up of tributaries my language and people are part of that stream the tributaries are not greater or lesser than what they flow into they are it my people are going back to the old ways “now that the potlatch is legal again and we don’t have to break the law just to celebrate our culture just to be ourselves now that we can come together and share our dreams and visions give blankets to the cold and the needy bannock to the hungry tobacco to the creator and to the four directions and to the fires that heat our rocks now that being indian isn’t against the law we can share the earth and the rivers and the sky and our tarpaper shacks and dried salmon and welfare checks with people from across the sea who never paid us for our home land who pushed us out of our valleys gave us liquor and the indian act didn’t even thank us or ask how we felt about what they were doing

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his spirit calls out to his children to their children who lie drunk or beat up or in jail or trapped inside institutions inside ideas there is no escape from a school a hospital a prison an asylum that you don’t know is there (Cole, 1996a) that you don’t know you’re inside of is inside of you” paddlepaddle stroke stroke paddle

pat’s story with excerpts now it’s time to cross the country again paddle portage paddle portage to eastern ontario and southern quebec pat o’riley’s story of schooling is one of dedication perseverance and brilliance from her birthplace in the (south)eastern townships of quebec and life on a maple sugarbush farm outside lennoxville a downhomer coming from a hard place surviving survival her parents certainly not making anything any easier yet despite everything rather than be defeated she became stronger as she moved from place to place alexandria cornwall coppercliff madoc tweed actinolite belleville when she was in grade 4 she could beat all the grade 8 boys in marbles even then she had an eye for accuracy maybe that’s why she’s such a good sewer seamstress tailor she had to be to support herself and her little ones toronto rednersville kingston belleville then out west in 1974 to mountains sea rain and surf vancouver north vancouver surrey richmond and ibetweenn columbus-ohio then in the late 90s bloomingdale nj warwick ny then back home to canada ameliasburgh followed by a big leap to palmerston north-aotearoa/nz then home again to new westminster edmonton toronto belleville toronto victoria steveston ottawa and of course before any of those places the mohawk valley ireland and france she comes not from a place of privilege parental kindness and ease but from a place far removed from ease having to continuously create dreams to even survive knowing she had to be her parents’ parent as well as her siblings’ from a very young age and needing much more of a childhood than she got not learning much about her mohawk heritage indigeneity was not a big topic of conversation in the home though she always knew her mohawk french mother had been given away to nuns at a quebec city catholic orphanage as a young child of 5 abandoned by her white father after her own mohawk mother died he had a huge white family of his own with a previous wife some of his kids from his first marriage were older than his mohawkfrench wife and he didn’t want to be bothered with two little indian kids messing up his life

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even ones who were his own blood pat’s mom was never adopted at the orphanage they said because she was a sauvagesse an indian from south of the line and heartbreakingly she never saw her 2-year old sister again they had been sent to separate orphanages it hurt a lot for a long time a life time that was her residential school and home it was a cruel place for a little girl to grow up and try to learn to be a mom pat has been learning other aboriginal ways besides her own through involvement in the lower stl’atl’imx community including learning the ucwalmicwts language she was the best speller almost right from the beginning quite an ear for the language she realizes that not being raised in an aboriginal community she has missed much in terms of that heritage yet she has always been in love with the land of her birth and upbringing the skootamata river stoco lake the sound and colour of leaves ocean sky wind and more ocean the seasons and especially the beautiful rocky outcrops of the canadian shield that hold and support the astonishing lakes and rivers and overburdens of forest and creature oh for a world of sugarbush canadian shield with ocean wind and sky she has been a mom most of her life her kids are her priority how they are knowing that they’re okay just to see them for any length of time travelling thousands of kilometres for a hug a hi a smile mom’s prerogative mom’s responsibility mom’s heart for many years pat experienced discrimination and bias in the workplace being a woman of mohawk heritage in a male dominated profession as a drafts’man’ (there were no draftswomen or draftspersons back then) and designer of single and multiple family housing as a plan checker a building inspector a factory inspector an occupational health & safety officer a labour negotiator a human rights officer after her youngest went to college it was mom’s turn not having had an opportunity following highschool to attend university or the art college she had been accepted into because she couldn’t afford it and because she had the responsibility of being a mom once accepted into university she went straight through undergraduate beginning with english 101 not sure if she could do it all after a long absence she surprised herself (but noone else) by whizzing through in record time and after getting top marks winning major awards and prestigious scholarships she was encouraged to do a master’s been there done that in eleven months and was again encouraged by her professors to do a phd she had to go to another country to do it osu columbus because there was no place in canada offering a phd in her area technology education

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getting her first job teaching during her twoyear ohio stateu residency then abd (no coyote it’s not the stuttering abd abd that comes before ‘that’s all folks’ it means ‘all but dissertation’) in hand then she began to teach in new jersey aotearoa-new zealand canada getting her book Technology culture and socioeconomics: A rhizoanalysis of educational discourses published with glowing reviews Gaining entry is the easy part. Survival in this male-dominated terrain is another matter and is taken up in a variety of complex ways. Some females (students and teachers) feel that for their own sanity they need to become “one of the boys.” Others try to walk on middle ground, compromising much of who they are in their worlds outside of technology education. Those of us who want to do technology education on our own (O’Riley, 2003, p. 81-82) terms as females pay a very high price. seen as being especially brazen is her pointing out control technologies and how they relate to women many of them indigenous women silenced women it’s not that they don’t have a voice but they’re not heard not listened to by the ‘mainstream’ technology (male as default gender) voices when will women give up on critiquing the extant power structures in biotechnology and computer/digital technologies say the biotech megacapitalists and their government-university bedbuddies the spoonfeeders of the media and the general [private 2nd class] public they are finding it tiresome (ho hum) go back to your reserve honey go bite some skins tan something have a drink we got work to do important (male) work enough already regardless pat holds out hope “gridding tightening framing gasping for breath suffocating how can there be life in this place? how can there be love? without either of these how is it possible to live in story and spirit? within these shop walls and computer labs I cannot pry open the grids held in place with words standards machinations their truths their words of certainty my mind body and soul whisperings

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and yet I know that life can be made in these places when eyes and hearts doors and windows are opened when I unlace my boots and let my feet touch the earth (O’Riley, 2003, p. 73) where spirit and body have a place to dance” she’s learning the mohawk shuffle and stl’atl’imx middledistance crosscountry running engaging with the world of memory ancestor spirit vision 228

through traditional ceremony ‘traditional’ meaning (and including) modern rather than from and of only the antique past ‘traditional’ meaning inviting change exulting in being part of creation each day knowing the world changes constantly with out changing at all layeringlayeringlayering her respectful journey regarding all cultures her considerateness of the four-leggeds the six-leggeds the eight-leggeds the evenmore-leggeds the those that slither on their bellies the feathered ones the fish nations the rocks and stones our sisters and brothers the tree nations sky and earth sun and moon and weather all the directions all our relations a raven high over our houseboat a coyote howl ing party rave n ing going on time to get on with this journey paddle paddle stroke glad for the balance that reference citation offers a line of cite running down the starboard side of the page for outrigger coming about manoeuvring learning in this place of inky conversation about the dynamic of onetruestory harrooooooooo wrrraaakkk echo echo echo echo echo echo I think of how embrace is a kind of wordless epistemology a welcoming position gesture a methodological enactment rather than just a place of sentimental or romantic en/closure coralling we’d better get paddling pat the whether/weather’s changing by the way who’s steering and where are we stopping for lunch calhoun’s great! then it’s back to aotearoa or maybe the bowron lakes and our friends lothar and betina no we best go south first paddle whhhoooossshhh paddle paddle paddle stroke paddle

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other ab/original stories of ‘schooling’ aotearoa (new zealand): frances’ story after cycling to the supermarket I (P) come home to speak with my spiritual (maori) sister frances (F) of the nga puhi people and pat o’riley (Pa) we talk from 1315 –1445 it is summer (1999) in aotearoa balmy palmy (palmerston north) ihaka street a warm sunny day with lemonade and coffee occasionally trickster (coyote raven) intervention happens and wes(tern methodology) infringes P F

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frances I’m not that knowledgeable on maori and pakeha in an historical context we were families and those families belonged to groups of people or clans iwi would go back to a common ancestor in new zealand there are about 58 and probably more registered iwi groups they had quite a well structured education system and obviously the main language was maori and after european contact things started to change for maori and the thing about maori in terms of education when the pakeha came maori saw that some of the things that they brought with them were actually quite good good? good? good? we could live with those things and they could be in effect our tribes’ in the way that we live so they were quite pleased that they came into the country and many tribes welcomed pakeha into the country they decided that england would set up a treaty for the maori people because there was an increasing population and they were scared that the french might come and set something else up in a sense the treaty was to sort of to claim their right to new zealand not all iwi signed the treaty of waitangi in 1840 some of them decided to stay out of it now at the time the heavily populated areas were in the northland north of auckland in and around auckland because 230

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at the time auckland was the capital sort of where everything happened in precontact times the tribal groups were quite isolated they had their chief if you like their rangatira looking after themselves the people scattered throughout the country that’s why some of the language is common such that they could understand each other but there were dialectical differences through education and colonization they standardized the language to the point where the majority of the iwi people speak maori have got a sort of new zealand maori speech although the south island tribes’ languages were so different the dialectical differences most of us are aware of when a person starts speaking that’s due to isolation of tribal groups [throughout her talk birds sing] moving right along to education living in the village once the government arrived the treaty was there ‘we’ needed to educate the native people like any other colonized country and the white man had a way of looking at our life and our lifestyle and saying that it needs to be changed you know that ‘white is right’ sort of view so education came in and it was the policy to assimilate them and if that means taking them away from the villages and schools then one should do that there are six maori colleges set up in the late 1800s and the children when they were about eleven years of age they would send them off to these colleges they were church-based colleges catholic and anglicans wraaack blackrobes blackrobes lock up yer children in canada they were industrial agricultural places where the children were basically slave labour not places where they would become lawyers and doctors interview bias one of the colleges in particular they had this principal come out he’d just come from south africa I think I think his name was thornly he was going to assimilate the boys’ college and turn them into fine young gentlemen jolly good show teach them cricket and rugby basically what the maori people were doing at that time they saw that this had status ‘mana’ they sent the best of the boys to these colleges and there were three girls colleges as well because the girls had been sent off to become good farmers’ wives cooking cleaning but the boys were sent off to technical colleges can’t let all that fine land go to waste besides a boy needs a trade and a girl needs to learn her domestic role hem hem keep that language up and you’ll have a domestic role and trade of your own but this particular college his whole thought pattern was to produce gentlemen who could aspire to becoming lawyers and doctors so what he did was create a whole group that became the young maori party with the whole range of these and one of them I’d like to talk about was apriana ngata who was a maori parliamentarian and he could speak better than most of the other parliamentarians he had very much status both in the maori world and the nonmaori world and they produced some doctors at this time the maori race was declining rapidly diseases I mean the lifestyle changes were just so dramatic for us decreasing in population and so this 231

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young maori party was created which went round and sort of led us out of the dark ages they took on all the so-called goods of the whiteman’s world but because they were still steeped maori at heart they actually found ways to remain maori but still carry the things necessary to move into the future health education they had a huge influence on our development their mana before must have been quite different than what the europeans brought the idea of an english gentleman is much different than being what maori men were before the europeans came if we go back to my father’s generation he’s seventy so he was in the first generation uprooted from their tribal lands and moved that would have been in the 1950s in fact where I grew up Hastings that’s not where our tribal roots are both my parents came from the northland in search of work so it was back in that time the policies had worked they believed that they were going to become the working class population of new zealand because that’s where we belong because we don’t have the language skills so they were sort of more or less brought up believing their life was about working physically hard builds character make no mistake dad was very young he left home and he became a freezing worker and that is the story of thousands and thousands of maori men they became freezing workers and my mother she was a seasonal fruit picker her family went to auckland in search of work her parents came down they were twelve in her family and twelve in dad’s or eleven and that’s what it was all about you underprivileged reproduce far beyond any economic sense as children we were born and bred in a place that was alien to us amongst another tribal group and you know dad talked about that about ngati kahungungu and how the men from ngapuhi the northland how they were viewed but you could almost always pick out these different groups of people based on their tribe and how they were the personality sort of thing the other maori families around us very few of us actually came from that that area so I’m a freezing worker’s daughter and the sad thing about it is that all the sons became freezing workers and they believed that that was their role but what’s happened over the last ten years is that most of the freezing works have been closed down and you’ve created a jobless group of people because their aspirations you know seeing dad get up and go to work every morning to cut up meat is no longer there so with maori people I mean for me personally I think that the best thing that ever happened is the freezing works closed down I’m just so pleased that it’s that part of our life is over because I suppose that’s part of the process of moving ourselves onto something higher than aspiring to becoming a freezing worker you don’t expect pakeha to take on that role butchering and rendering charnel house charnel house wraaak now with the renaissance of maori people their language their culture their customs has meant that a lot of us are in the process of re-educating ourselves to something we want to be and it does not necessarily fit a white model of success for me 232

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personally to be successful is that I can engage totally in my maori world that means having to re-educate ourselves reclaiming that knowledge there’s some things I just know and that’s a lot for particularly my generation who came through with being educated totally in english schools when I was educated there were four maori families in our area and in the school I never felt comfortable at school I always felt like the you know I was just two or three or four shades too dark and sort of very shy I didn’t say much and never really engaged in classroom activities I could see why you wouldn’t want to though you wouldn’t feel right you felt like you were an odd person my parents never went to school at all my older sister who’s a year older than me she took me to school and she enrolled me and my brother he’s a year younger than me when he started we took him to school and we enrolled him and when our other brother started we took him and then there were four of us at the school and that’s just how it went it was foreign yes there was nothing there that would make them feel welcome I remember at that school there were two maori teachers but they never made me feel you know close but that was a time you know the sixties seventies where they had to be more like pakeha than maori to succeed they had to be white or act white that’s right but in fact we weren’t treated the same so yeah you know primary school was just a nonevent really what did your parents feel about you going there did they have any worries about what you were learning? no no because I mean [distant explosion] what’s that noise do you know? someone might be blowing up the college (Pa and F laugh) ooo yay you see dad was working he left the house before six he was exhausted and the other thing at that stage is what men did was go down to the pub after work and the other really important thing that I think impacted on our family’s life was the pub used to close at 6 oclock man needs a good cold one after a hard day of physical labour but they changed that rule and it closed at 10 and that had a huge impact on maori families so now there was quite a high level of violence in amongst maori families yeah so that I remember it as a child because it changed the way we lived after 6 there was no dad after 6 and sometimes he’d come out a bit later what about your mom in this? well mum also worked hard and she worked in the orchards and she died when I was 16 that’s also not unusual I think she was 44 what did she die oF hard work just sort of cancer or high blood pressure I think it’s just a whole you know because my grandmother died I think she was 63 do they have a lot of diabetes among maori mhm mhm 233

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because they’re not eating their traditional foods that’s having a huge impact and you’re not exercising because I mean you’re doing tedious or stupid jobs exactly and just having a lot of children that’s sort of all impacted on our life that’s only bits and parts of the story you know and the story can ramble off and and you know that land you’re not just sitting on land but you’re sitting on your ancestor papatuanuku this is our earth mother in the true sense of the word because we whakapapa we can follow talk about genealogy going right back to earth mother and sky father the connections are really amazing the similarities so you know that that hill or that mountain out there was your ancestor so we’d have to talk about that you go into the forest that’s the forest of tane and if you’re going to take anything then you’re going to say karakia you’re going to talk to him and you ask for that right you know and all that sort of knowledge in the last hundred years has been lost and the maori that’s what we’re now beginning to recapture that knowledge which we know gives us our life force is it possible to be educated like you would before contact what they did was they would feed certain people knowledge tribal knowledge family knowledge and they would pass that knowledge on and not everybody had access to that we’ve got another view on that now that education is for all everyone that certainly wasn’t the case prior to european contact but we’re making that the case now that’s part of our culture’s development that’s part of the advancement of the people and for a lot of us to be successful is not to drive a car and have a big house to be successful is something that’s inside you I mean like those things are exterior things they might make your journey easier but the journey really is inside of you and those things that really money can’t see or touch that you just know kuokookohau our language 1905 95% of the maori population could speak maori and now we’re at about 13% of the maori population can speak the language and that’s a huge loss and the amount of work it takes to continue the growth of that language is huge so 1982 one of the strategies was to set up early childhood institutions for young children they called those kohanga reo language nests and the whole aim behind that was to revitalize the language and get it early young children pick it up really quickly then in the late 1980s and the early 1990s it was like we’ve got kids coming out of these language nests and they’ve got nowhere to go we weren’t prepared so there were 7 schools throughout the country set up and kura kaupapa te maori movement and that was a movement of setting up primary schools for these children before that there were bilingual and these bilingual schools they had some maori input because there were some fluent speakers who were teachers of maori in the schools at the time but that was not recognized as being a kama or a special gift at the time so in 1990 the government agreed to fund 7 schools in 1998 there were nearly 60 kura kaupapa which are primary schools there are now at least 7 secondary schools offering secondary schooling in maori and there are 3 maori universities so the last two years has seen maori just pick up and just get on with it it hasn’t been easy because most of the kura have started in people’s garages no funding they started with no syllabus a real strong urge to give their children that which they 234

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think is necessary and proper in order for their children to grow up strong confident competent [magpie singing] people maori people [magpie sings again] so it’s sort of like the river somebody opened the gates and fooooshhh (Pa and F laugh) it’s exciting isn’t it yeah it is really exciting and when you’ve got your own children in it you have to live in it and there are some days when you just want to pack up but you just carry on I was listening to colin baker he spoke at a conference and he’s supposed to be the big guru on bilingual education and he said he’s worried that people are putting their children before the kaupapa or putting the need to have the language retained before the children but then I sort of thought about that I don’t know if he understands the gifts that go with it and I also found out he was an englishman I would make up a little song that’s the only way I could do it otherwise I would switch to english which I didn’t want to do I had to prove myself I mean of course as I got older when you get mad at them [the children] (laughs long and hard all three of us) they’re getting their language and they’re getting the feedback from the school all our reports we have monthly meetings at the kuia and they have them at the kohanga reo but they’re all in maori there are two meetings throughout the year that are in english so and I think a lot of it is due to your confidence and I think that I’m lucky in that I’ve got sort of confident enough that if I say it wrong that people understand me what influence has religion had on education meaning european religion? these maori when the missionaries came we could identify with some of the things that they were bringing in yeah easy for us the ceremonies that’s right I mean they the whole belief in something more powerful duhduh duhduh we knew about those things it was an easy translation and you know like you haven’t got whakatauaki not that I know much about the teachings christian hymns and maori hymns the whole thing you know is there something in maori culture that’s different? there were a number of maori churches set up that thrived a hundred years ago and still some of them are still around ‘the raised hand’ pai marire there were several churches ratana that were set up some of it still had christian based teachings but now for example in some kura kaupapa there are no christian any karakia and when you go to a maori hui or gathering we always start with karakia and karakia is not all prayer but it has been commonized it’s sort of like a way of setting the tone for the meeting it just brings people down to the same level in a particular way and some people use christian prayers to do that in fact I start all my classes with karakia all the maori classes at college we start with karakia so when you come in with your bag on your back and your books in there and you been working in that other world concrete world you come into your class and you can say well let’s [birds chirp] let’s sort of start from this point and then we’ll go into our teaching you know and work from there so all the maori kaupapa classes and all the kura as well most kura schools primary schools will start with karakia and some of 235

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the traditional karakia or the old karakia a lot of the kura kaupapa also aspire to those karakia so and my kids know well when they bless the food give thanks for food they don’t talk about thank you god for the food they talk to their gods where the kai where the food comes from there are these amazing similarities and some of the work that some people are doing at the moment is about developing well just seeing if there’s such a thing as matauranga maori maori knowledge and maori education does it really exist you know people are starting to wananga or they’re starting to discuss and have dialogue about those things which we know existed we’re not sure how they existed or some people are now I’m not a knowledgeable person peter said in that one poem ‘before we knew we knew we knew’ you know it’s really important it’s just you know that’s it you don’t have to say anymore that’s right but you get sort of a bit muddied really in terms of you know western education you’ve got to know how you know and they’re going to assess that when you know and they’re going to tick it off that you know right yeah that’s right I’m not doing that in my classes my students are shocked (F and P laugh) it would be nice to get rid of a lot of the linearities europeanizing anglicizing that’s the kura kaupapa paradigm the kids don’t have a problem because they’ll have what they have which is what they know and they think that most of the world know what they know (all laugh) that’s great it’s nice to get them sheltered you think then oh god but there’s things that we know when we’re maori we didn’t have radio stations for a long time and funny in the last ten years that we’ve had radio stations amazingly almost the whole country knew the same songs we’ve got the maraes around the country so your teachings aren’t confined to an education-based system they’re not confined in a way really because the marae are sort of set up around the country if someone dies and you know them or you got a link there you go to that funeral you don’t send them a card you go to the funeral that’s where lots of political statements are made on the marae through our customs I think we’ve managed to stay informed and have a sense of how people are doing because of those sort of a ritual system we have set up in terms of how we greet and meet and look after people and how you share knowings those are all outside of the learning sort institutions but those are the most powerful places where you learn about yourself you have important discussions you wear the hat it’s on a long table and most of the dining rooms that’s where you find out all the news [sound of dieselly airplane] the other thing is that it’s just not unusual to know people from right around the whole country and know all the applicants for the job oh well if he’s going to come down he can stay with me but I’m on the payroll but it’s like he’s a brother you know what I mean like she’s saying oh well

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well you know we can put him in a hotel or something you’re never going to put him in a hotel (laughter) it’s just that we’ve got to think that we’re all whanau but we’re forced to do things through that system but we sort of felt oh well I won’t tell anyone but everybody’s been ringing to you (all laugh) that’s beautiful (all laugh) really really beautiful the learning is not a thing that you put onto a place it’s not a curriculum document no but it’s sort of what I was going to say about those curriculum documents they’re sort of scary in a way because it compartmentalizes knowledge what happens to the things that fall outside of those seven areas? that’s what we’re doing in class I’m saying this is a very tiny way of looking at technology so you’ll have to look at it and you’ll have to know it but we’re going to look at the big picture out here the little tiny picture is made up by just a few people so we’re going to look at all of this too good well that’s one all right that’s one area down (laughs) students are sort of fed with this this diet of this is known and this is right because it’s written and these people reckon we learn like this you know that’s not true either that’s sort of my thing to help them demolish some of those myths good for you it’s tough isn’t it ooh it’s a hard one it takes a lot of energy yeah to do it it just draws at the end of the day I’m exhausted I have them talk all the way through I say talk talk to me about what I’ve just said and what are you feeling about this really it’s like pulling the rug out from under you and they’re saying that they know that what they’re learning is they don’t agree with it they just need permission you need to encourage them to say go for it it’s all they need is encouragement but I think a lot of them have been brought up on a diet of it’s right but it’s actually hard for them I know the maori students click on straightaway because they’ve been fed this for so long and they know it doesn’t fit so they seem to take to it a lot easier than I find a lot of the pakeha students where their world has been quite an easy fight I can imagine a maori student thinking this knowledge doesn’t have the right shape to go into my language so we’re going to have to cut this part off and this part off and maybe rearrange a few things or have it flip more turn it into something that’s fluid that’s what I talk to the students about move it out of its box this little grid it’s in just open it up and see what happens where it goes what comes in what goes out the fluidity of it until they start thinking afterwards they must wonder if technology is how you take up the world and it’s everything

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that’s what I tell them see how everything is integrated and it’s not separate attitudes of what knowledge is and what education should be and they’re shocked to find that they know so much that they come in with so much knowledge like they have to know this they say I don’t know anything about technology I say you know way more about technology than what’s in this document (musical bridge maori flute) my kids play touch you see it’s really funny most of the maori kids in town play touch team sport girls and boys so if you want to know where any of the maori community are in Palmerston North Friday night the kids are down there playing it’s on the other side of town and it’s really funny because you’ve got all these kids and a lot of the teams speak maori that’s wonderful we maintain the language wherever we are and all the parents are out there yelling out to their kids in maori my daughters both of them are playing now one’s five and one’s seven and the seven year old thinks it’s great but she all she does is jump up and down she doesn’t want to touch the ball (all laugh) she’s just having a good time is it soccer? no touch is it’s in the shape of a rugby ball we put four year olds sometimes the kids are there and they want to play we just chuck them onto the field (all laugh) parents are out there but you sort of pass the ball then you sort of move forward in a line formation and then the other team comes up to you and if you get touched you put the ball down and roll it back and until seven touches and then you pass it out to your team and they run over this line but it’s really cute because the kids are like you know they’re having a really great time isn’t that lovely and you’ve got a whole lot of them out there yeah and they’re all out there and the parents get involved but they’ll be able to go aljon will take them he’ll take them and they’ll have a good time down there laughing and yeah is there anything else you wanted to ask me now that you got me (all laugh) with the chains around her neck here no I think that I might ask you how to spell some of the things afterwards some of the words that you said okay oh I’m wondering if maori kids were made to cut their hair all that yes of course they were did they have to wear uniforms wear uniforms take off bone carvings tonga been in schools through that debate schools where I’ve talked to staff and boards of trustees about students rights maori children’s rights to have language taught to them if their parents desire be in the school to support them to support maori children yeah they’re their tonga which are carvings because pakeha schools saw them as jewellry jewellry is not allowed it still continues to be in pakeha schools that sort of thinking the teacher says what you

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wear this is how you do it and for maori kids it’s like uh what difference is that going to make to their learning mhm it might help their learning I mean it’s interesting just some of the interviewing just talking with some of those that I interviewed with my thesis and how they were brought up and their experiences in schools there were two about the same age as me two males and they talked about their schooling experiences and it was just dreadful same as you know same as me we just had very similar experiences at the highschool I went to an all girls maori highschool thanks have a good game we have to catch this tide whooooooshhhh wind’s up tack tack starboard paddle rudder hard port swooooooooshsh

we see frances most days after this the days we don’t we miss her very much one morning I write friday, 12 march kia ora Frances; you have a good sense of humour certainly a necessity as a teacher parent spouse human/being or should I say human/becoming because we are all human and all becoming your modesty makes everything about you even more striking because it is there together with pride I watched the sun rising this morning from the little bridge over the lagoon saw the red shifted spectrum the blush of elder brother sun colouring the face of father sky while below the coots chased one another the ducks murmurred the black swans showed off their children making rhubarby sounds with the mallards in chorus sustenato non obligato a beautiful time to be in aotearoa a guest in your home we canoe making people know our relations the tree nations we know weather and water and living in the village with our ancestors there is weather in us there are trees and rivers there are villages and those we have known there is tradition and renewal we are the shoots the seeds the saplings the leaves and bark the flower the scent and the insects the gardens the river banks the forests we are the process ing of our own spirits wishing for you a great friday I am wondering how agnes’ class went yesterday you are a good example frances that is so important past all the talk and theorising and evaluations assessing it is what we do with whom for whom how it is sustaining community pat and I are going to have a nice coffee while it is yet cool o:nen peter

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we next navigate the canoe up the manawatu river portage across the hokowhitu campus of massey university to the lagoon tie it up and walk to our place on ihaka street just off te awe awe street I check my email and get this letter from frances friday 19 march 1999 Tena korua I have been thinking a lot about you two over the last two days. I was so looking forward to you joining me in the visit to Wanganui—but I did not realise the fill ins between our seeing each other. When I found out that you were not coming I knew something was definitely wrong—or right whichever way you look at it. To speak truthfully now —when I first met you both I knew that it was going to only be for a short while. This is heart knowings stuff. Anyway when I went over to Wanganui yesterday after my school visit, I went to the beach for an hour or so—and of course the fact that you two were supposed to be there with me—meant I spent a lot of time thinking about you and what has happened—and I feel really sad about it all. But, but, there was a reason and so all has not been lost. Anyway I wrote these lines for you both on the beach and in the sun. 18 March 1999, Castlecliff Beach Take time to nourish your soul do not let the neon humans eat away at your essence and most of all do not eat away at theirs. Find the gentle path, the one that leads you back to you Ground yourself in peace Let mother nature play with you Sit in the sun long enough and let it dance upon your skin Hear the waves as they kiss mother earth Let your breath be stolen by the beauty Imagine the silence and feel still I feel today it will not be long and you will return home This has been an important time But return with the memory of Aotearoa with Tangata Whenua in your heart. I never let people see my insides, but you are pulling them out of me. 240

With much love to you both. See you soon. Frances what a sad sad parting it was you the girls and aljon paddle paddle paddle stroke

sister we miss you you are closest family paddle

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aoatearoa: agnes’ story journal entry canoe trip to aotearoa may 26 1999 lemons café hokowhitu village palmerston north the cast/crew raven (R), coyote (C), Wes(tern methodology), voiceover (VO), agnes (A), jane (server), pat o’riley (Pa), peter cole (P) (chirp chirp chirp) enter raven R cheep is talk A when I’m getting interviewed I can’t talk C then what’s that you’re speaking loud silence P So about education and other myths A I think our maori people should be taught by maori people first of all because of their identity and because when there’s a pakeha in front of the class teaching our maori children they can’t get close to that person plus that person doesn’t know how a maori thinks whereas a maori knows how maori children think and they’ve got that wairua same spirit you can tell what that child is thinking about VO maori mauri (slowly) A that pakeha coming along oh you’re naughty totally different reaction from the maori person who’s got more aroha love and awhi they care more maoris are sort of touchy people you know hands on whereas pakeha are sort of individuals you know they don’t get close if I were to go into a class and talk to some maori kids it’s like they’re my own like my own blood PA it’s what we talk about in the classroom I say I don’t care what the curriculum is you love those children that’s what matters respect them A I’m teaching my students and then they go out on teaching practice and I go out and have a look at them it gives me a lot of joy just to see them WES evaluation assessment it’s the only way you know if you’re doing the job right PA in peter’s community they have mainly white people teaching first nations people the people who are first nations are going out and being taught in western ways it doesn’t have that love and that closeness that you’re talking about so it’s a big problem (sound of drums then sounds of the city together the sounds of the city get louder and louder) A don’t want their minds colonized PA I have a lot of maori students in my classes (sounds diminish) A a lot of them they’ve been colonized even some of the maori lecturers they’ve been brought up in town they haven’t got that wairua that spirit (sound of wind in trees) our program is total immersion maori everything’s done in maori our bosses 241

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are still white (laughs) it would be good if we could run the whole thing our way I’m thinking about how massey is structured in canada you have a dean—pro vice chancellor here—the lecturers will say we’re going to bring this person in and they vote for that person through a hiring committee well that’s what we don’t have eh we don’t have a say who comes in here we don’t get to see the person ‘til they’re hired they talk about academic freedom there isn’t academic freedom here that’s what you’re standing up for when you stood up in that meeting that’s what a university is supposed to be about it’s in the laws for massey you have every right to do what you’re doing but the strange thing about it it’s the maoris who are wanting to bring the western stuff into maori training when you come to academia leave your indigenous epistemologies methodologies orthographies ontologies discographies at the door preferably out of the way so visitors don’t trip on them I was surprised at her [head of maori and multicultural education] wanting to bring in these ideas from another country including canada but she thinks that we need it because you’re “uneducated”and have to learn all this somewhere else she knows she’s been there she’s met with the apple indians in canada the academics introduces their applecations orchard knowings windfall ideas and she’s got the jargon she’s done the research on her own people for white academics if it’s not for maori then it’s not relevant is it so I was trying to say to you it’s not me (sound of plane and cawing) pakeha children are taught to think you can put up a windmill and not have to think about the spirits of this land you just get wind power you just put it up (sound of wind in trees and ocean waves) whoooooo are youuuu the love is there but it’s difficult for it to come through the abuse residential schools generations of people you had to stay there all year long (birds chirp) until they were sixteen weren’t allowed to speak their language like the boarding schools (sound of writing on blackboard pointer struck on desk) (sfx music) jesus loves them this we know silence! taken away and put into schools (sound of marching brass band whistle) hup hup hup two three four hup hup hup two three four most were sexually abused by the priests and nuns (christian singing) an elder told us there are more than 100 children are buried behind the one where peter’s people went to who were abused and died the parents never saw them again because it’s very mountainous it’s very rugged (sound of children crying screaming whimpering pleading as they are being beaten sexually abused to the sound of organ music christian hymns and prayers) it’s 150 200 miles away you can’t even see your children 242

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(singing) where have all the children gone long time passing where have all the children gone long time ago pete seeger knows pp&m ew&f know about 90% of peter’s people were killed by disease (birds chirp) or murdered starved generations of parents had to go to these schools the only examples of parenting was nuns and priests it’s hard to have an idea of how you’re supposed to treat your own children (sound of hair being cut with scissors leather hitting bare flesh leather shoes on hardwood floor little barefeet running away) there are very few left who know the songs the traditions the ones who do most of them have a big chunk of catholicism (hymn singing in ucwalmicwts language) do they have their own laws still? but they aren’t talked about at particular times of the year when there’s a death (sigh) a road you can hardly get in they drink (drunken sounds) so they’re isolated hmm they used canoes before to go back and forth that was better they get less than $200 a month from welfare and that goes into buying potatoes and turnips and they make them in big pots and they all eat together the rest goes into buying alcohol it’s not everyone but too many it sounds like the maori they live in these shacks designed and built by the department of indian affairs (musical bridge maori flute wood on wood stone on stone) my grandma my great grandmother and great grandfather we used to go out in the bush all the time and that’s how we lived and whatever we caught that’s what we ate and we used to go fishing and my grandmother I used to go to the marae all the time with her whenever there was a ceremony (sound of maori singing) she was into healing I used to go around with her at night when she used to go around and do the dead people whenever someone dies they die in a funny position so she used to go and crack their bones I used to go that’s where I learned that from the cracking from doing dead bodies (sound of cicadas) frances said to me the other night I thought you only did that to dead bodies and I says well you look half dead to me (laughter) so I learned the songs at night the old songs you got no choice you’re lying there in the same bed you pick it up (sound of singing in ancient maori) you learn something you don’t learn from school mixing all the medicines and all that like you drink it took me ages to get used to the food out here I used to get sick all the time it doesn’t surprise me it’s all processed and it’s not healthy right and everything was fermented we used to have seafood for about three days a week you hang the eel up on the line for a week until the maggots get in yeah like you were telling us the other night and it bloated it do you think that’s important to teach students you have now who are going to go out and teach is there a way for you to do that in this kind of an institution I’d do it anyway you’ve got to be careful with people ‘cause they say you got to 243

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have a ticket hey to do that massaging and stuff you been brought up in talking about there’s still a law here do you have a licence can I see your licence where’s your licence excuse me are you a licenced practitioner lice sensed whose law (all laugh) so it’s being lost it’s still there eh unless you carry it on it’s going to be lost but there’s only certain people that I teach what about the old people they don’t actually teach it you’ve got to listen and just watch they don’t say you’ve got to do it like this they just take me along with them and you’re just observing what they’re doing so if you don’t (bird chirp) pick it up it’s not for you that’s how they look at it but over here everyone’s got to do the same you teach something and everyone’s got to learn it but what I learned is not for everyone you’ve got to share the knowledge tell all tell all crawk crock a dile the whole idea of standardization doesn’t work because everybody’s at different places in their lives like I say to frances okay it’s like this when we’re doing the haka and she couldn’t do it I said this is your last chance then I’m not teaching you this is not for you ‘I’ll do it slowly’ (laughter) but there’s certain people I give different things to I don’t give the whole lot just to one person because if something happens to them it’s all lost oh where oh where have my cultural artifacts gone oh where oh where can they be m mooo mmoooo seum but then later on they all meet they’ll learn off each other and pass that on to people they think can learn take them by the hand I was thinking about when you got up to watch the cat the other night animals can tell you a lot look at this one [white laborador retriever] having a listen those human beings think I’m a white lab they’ll learn pretty quick that I don’t retrieve I don’t eat bones and I don’t beg for supper she’s a transformer (musical accompaniment) he’s been here a while having a listen they can tell you a lot you know the pipi? is it a bird no it’s a shellfish we used to dry them on the line and when we went to the bush that’s all we ate put it around your neck ‘cause you’re not allowed to take food into the bush that was the only thing you ate when you’re on the horse for three days they’ve got to last you is that because you eat only what’s there in the bush yes otherwise you won’t catch nothing because you’re mind’s too busy eating I was just thinking about the stl’atl’imx community the land’s been destroyed because of deforestation and damming is it the same here 244

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no no one wants to come into tuhoe they’re too scared we’re isolated eh they don’t have anything to do with the outside world only a few of us can come out and survive most people come out and they can’t handle it and they go home cause home it’s different you can just go to the neighbour and get our apples go in one garden get a pumpkin people offer you food they got too much fish or something they hand it out to all the neighbours over here you’ve got to have time and you’ve got to have money over there you don’t look at the time (bird chirps) you don’t have to have any money just live off the land I think the kids’ll love it waiora [frances’ younger daughter] that one can see things the first time frances said to them I’m coming over to your place and the other one kahuurangi [frances’ older daughter] sort of sneaks behind I said to frances what’s the girl’s name she says waiora I said ohh the other one’s talking to me all the time I said ohh this one’s a bit you know (laughter) colonized that one is all right (laughter) ‘cause the older one talks a lot she don’t worry she just jumps into things the other one’s careful she’s very cautious peter had that feeling about her that she was standing back and listening and paying attention to what was going on I told frances that little one is going to look after the older one you’ll see when they grow up it’s supposed to be the older one looking after the little one the world trade organization will look after everyone (sound of cutlery and dishes) when I first came here I was so used to eating with my hands (slurp) oh gross! too uncooool like uh major manners dude in maori studies I was in my first year everyone sort of stopped you know they had their knives and forks and I just went (slurp) with the soup and they all went [mouth open] I folded up my bread and put it in my cup of tea and they just stopped I looked up and they were all looking at me and oh what’s wrong it’s just the way you’re eating they never saw anyone do that for a long time since their grandparents they were probably delighted I used to get into trouble because I used to wear no shoes when I first started here I’d have my suit on but forget the shoes (laughter) (bird chirps) what made you do your master’s degree ‘cause they think we can’t do it the native speakers and I wanted to prove them wrong because they think oh all the intellectual ones are uh they been schooled the western way they know all the theories from overseas like trish was saying your maori students needed I thought ‘I can do what you can do but you can’t do what I can do’ (upbeat dancing music) you can learn the language come in and learn maori language but they still don’t know the wairua of those kupu the wairua of those words the meaning behind the words they’re just saying the words but they don’t know that doesn’t make them maori by learning the language ‘cause it’s part of you eh you live it I don’t just speak maori just for the sake of speaking it it’s part of me it’s like you practise what you preach other people just practise it or just preach it they just know this is it it’s a theory they’re not putting their theory into practice it’s a living language, eh it’s part of my world 245

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like peter’s language ucwalmicwts when we were going to the language class there was a white guy nice guy nice guy krawwk hey norm poggemoeller! ama7 sqit trying to teach it but the native speakers some of the elders were sitting in the class and one guy was sitting beside me [kaykay] and he said that’s my language but I’ve never heard it spoken that way you can tell from the words that it’s very much from the land the way he was speaking compared to this other fellow and just the passion one’s just a language that doesn’t mean it’s on the top a surface language that you hear now it doesn’t go in it’s not connected to the land we got four languages where we come from our tribe and when you come out here they think it’s just one language the maoris in the town they think maori’s all the same it’s not (chirp) see we got a bird language there’s another one called kirikiti it’s a mixture of spanish and maori when they had the world war the maoris used the spanish and the maori but no-one could pick up what they were saying they went overseas and when the grandfathers came back that was the language they brought back a mixture of spanish and maori and then you got the old maori way of speaking and then you got this modern thing that’s happening now but you can tell a native speaker as soon as they speak english what was the bird one? the bird language tiowene if you were a bird you’d say it four times (chirp) even now our prayers our karakia we got a word in there called tereina whita now if you say that four times you sound just like a bird tereina whita tereina whita tereina whita tereina whita it’s a song sort of like walking your talk again in the language yeah the people are serious when you speak maori but where I come from they know how to make it sound real funny you don’t see that side ‘cause everybody’s really serious about speaking maori they don’t see the humourous side of it the hands are very alive but you don’t see that here this [she gestures] can mean a lot of things (all laugh) you don’t see that I teach my students that in social studies cause you do pikoi people’s culture and I say okay what does this mean (she gestures with her eyes/eyebrows) (laughter) I say what’s that supposed to mean? they go oohh no try it it’s all in the eyes just the eyes you don’t even need to say hello it’s just keremutu like you were signaling to frances the other night to start doing the haka and when you said the prayer for food (bang) oh it just stopped them from talking they could be right in the middle of just going ah and they stop right there it’s like a freeze frame (bang) they’re getting used to it well did you get anything? (to peter) if you see a bird fly the english way of looking at that is it’s a sign when the fantail comes into your house the maori see that as death someone close to you or in your family so you get your stuff ready and just wait for someone to ring you or someone will come over some people can dream please no dream data we want numbers stats real data 246

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none of this da ta ta taaa dah taaaa I have a lot of dreams (airplane noise) sometimes the people are still alive but in the dream they’re dead then you wake up (loud small plane) next morning oh I gotta go home and no-one knows why you’re going home sure enough the phone rings sometimes they can be really really sick and you need to warn them and they don’t even know they’re sick like a mediator between the creator and the person you’re in between like the messenger to that person and you’re sort of like that right now where you are located in the college of education because you come from a different way of knowing certain people know you don’t sort of open you don’t tell people that you don’t show everyone how to do it those things are hidden you know because if you say to people oh I saw so and so last night and they were dead and whatever they’d think you were mad but you can tell somebody else who is like you and they’ll understand like when frances says did you move it [sweetgrass] I didn’t even touch it but there was this old man there first night I went there I saw him looking through the window and I thought ah should I tell her then the little girl started getting sick I thought that old guy then her mother comes ‘kururangi’s getting sick’ I better tell her I said ‘oh I’m going to have to do your place’ (sound of dog in pain) she says when you went away on the weekend one of my mates said there’s all of this water in the bathroom but she knows she just finished cleaning up the bath (sound of dog in pain) she walked in there and she reckons there’s all this water in the bath[room] and she just slipped on the floor and she says yeah and she got up she was all sore she came out and she said you know there’s heaps of water in there when frances went to have a look there’s nothing I says oh I’ll do your bath you take the kids make them have a bath and leave the water in there and just take them out and then I’ll do your bath but then the other night I saw the old guy again then you fellahs came over and I said oh I gotta do it cause I saw him when you fellahs were there I says to frances me and you walk down to the gate and when we were walking down the path there’s a part where you just get this gust of wind really cold ‘did you feel that?’ frances says ‘oh yeah’ you know she’s quite scared I says ah don’t be scared move back back up ‘cause it’s better if it comes into my back rather than forward ‘cause I’ll start looking like a dead person in the morning just walk back with me you’re going to come with me because this is your place we got to do this thing so walk backwards and when we walk backwards it just heughh she’s starting to get scared I said ah better get to the gate because I can hear wowoowo starting the truck walk to the gate and we’ll be all right when we go out the gate I said look that way okay what am I looking at (all laugh) you feel anything no well look that way feel anything no look that way she goes ohh you know this big wind came blowing just before you fellows came down I said ah it’s all right now I said it’s all right it’s in my back so when we dropped you’s off we came back I got her to touch my back I took my top off put her hand on my back I said you feel that she goes aah there’s something pulsing in you it’s something living in there there’s something in your back I said that’s that thing from outside your house she says how are we going to get rid of it I said 247

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you grab it you pull it out [laughs] she said how the hell am I going to get right in there just imagine you’re inside me and try and grab it oh she spent half the night trying to grab it out and pull it out she still couldn’t get it and I said aw leave it there it’s not time for it to come out so last night I said oh just bring the girls up because they’re having bad nightmares bring them up one on this side one on that side I got up this morning and my back’s all right it’s gone she’s still trying to understand I said you got a kèhua over here a kèhua is a ghost this old guy keeps coming (whispers) frances says uh I wasn’t going to tell you this but my brother’s seen him too I rang him up cause I was so scared and I described what you (dog yelps) and I said you see this is what I’m talking about this is something no-one knows this is matauranga maori this is maori education we’re talking about and it’s in my back and you’re having the experience now and you’re feeling it and you’re going whwhwhwh it’s pulsing in the back there I said what you’re feeling now is a spirit and it’s a bad one but it’s better if you take it through your back rather than the front because if I went to work in the morning I’d start looking like a ghost it’s going to take me a long time to get it out because it’s hitting me from the front (chirp) affects your breathing you start sounding like an asthmatic she’s learning a lot from you she says to me do you know why you’re here she asks me such funny questions she has incredible respect for you she knows what a gift it is to have you in her home and for her girls I said to crack’m outta my back just give it a little bit of a kkrghh and she goes heeeagh I said I’ve done it to you you turn around and you just go like this on my body and whhpp you’ll know how hard you’re gonna do it or soft you just put it over here and she says put my hand there so I know why don’t you just do it and she cracks she cracked my back I said see you’re all right you can do it to somebody else and she goes oh now can you do it on a tree on a tree by yourself yeah if a dead person say was like the knees over the bed here and flat how you would do for it you just punch in the knee and then the whole body will come back up as a reflex yeah you can sit them up in the coffin but people would freak out some people die with their mouths open so you gotta break their jaw get it back into place we used to bury our dead in a tree that’s what we do too leave them up there hang them up there and get them down after and scrape the bones take them somewhere else in the cave (chirp) we got a big mountain back where I come from lot of bones in there they used to hang them from the trees before then we take them down they call it hahunga scrape the bones then you put it in the mountain you don’t use any hot water no just wash in cold water illness is caused by depression by anger if you’ve got evil thoughts you’re going to get sick anyway you got to think positive you can get anything you want as long as you put your mind to it 248

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I think that’s what some of us are trying to do about education you know trying to change it so that it’s not what’s going on right now you can change someone’s thoughts by doing a bit of voodoo there without them even knowing you’re doing it (laughs) I do it to arohia all the time (laughter) ‘how the hell did you get her to change her mind’ (laughter) it’s funny this wasp came into the house the girls were going [she gestures] uh you know and they were calling out to me so I grabbed it like this [open hand] and pushed it out the door they both went aah you didn’t get a bite or anything you don’t fling at it otherwise it’s going to bite you cause it thinks you’re going to attack it just lift it off this western interpretation gets in the way looking at signs instead of just trusting yourself allowing yourself to know some part of you gets in the way and says you got to figure out what that means learning by watching if you’re not back in the village you can bring your village into the city that’s maybe what you’re doing bringing your community into frances’s house so you don’t necessarily have to take them back they learn by the example of how you are yeah mainly by how you are what you model like you say walking your talk (sounds of birds chirping wings whirling) that’s the ones we call him pihi pihi are those the ones you catch like this fry them but you need to have heaps in order to get a good feed the wood pigeon the kèreru the female your mom or whaea she eats it first she gets the first serving (airplane returns) everyone else is after whatever is left over that’s it even if just one leg that’s all you’re going to get but the puku [abdomen] side of it is the best food for the stomach it’s got the purple berries [miro] that’s just what the kererù eats eh little berries purple good for the stomach if you want a good clean out eh thank you [coffee arrives] here you go you’ve got an easy day today no teaching you [to agnes] were teaching early this morning we’re doing school oh what are you studying (laughter) being human beings oh that’s cool . . . are you out at massey too are you in maori studies department but I’m the only maori there you’re joking (laughter all) the only real one (laughter) I remember the first year they opened before hardly any maoris were on campus then they opened maori studies and it got quite big we used to get heaps in so did you learn maori when you were there oh yeah kia ora are you from here? I’m from tuhoe oh okay do you know where that is no north in the bush 249

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wanganui or up north whakatane oh okay up there it’s interesting did you watch that program the other night documentary ‘inside new zealand’ it was a good documentary eh the hokianga [harbour] way out there north you know tame iti is that the guy (gestures mokos on face) that’s where I come from oh out there that’s my cousin oh reallly oh okay so what are you lecturing out there I’m at the Kura kaupapa total immersion oh good how long have you been out there five years really hiding (laughs) well the sooner they make it compulsory to take maori in school the better better than french I’ve got two boys and there was some program on where they were speaking in maori I said to them do you understand that (to peter) hey you should be taping this and they didn’t I think it should be compulsory learning french in a supposedly bilingual country [maori and english] learning bloody french and spanish what are you going to do with french what’s the point I mean if you’re living in new zealand you should know maori and if you can be bilingual in this country it’d be a real feather in your cap feather what kind of feather not mine any job if you can say yes I’m fluent in maori I’m not fluent in english you’re not well your english is good why thank you (laughter) I got an accent I got an accent too I reckon you’re the first one to notice (musical bridge sound of maori flute) peter and I want to do what we can so that western knowledge and western ways are not overwhelming the conversation in the world because of what’s happening to the earth and what we’re doing to each other as human beings and all this capitalist stuff (whale sounds) indigenous knowledges can no longer be backgrounded colonization is really hard to unlearn once you’ve learned how to be that way it’s hard to undo (sound of clock ticking) I hope that you meet a friend of mine (sound of african drums birds elephants) who’s from kenya she’s a lot like you she grew up in the village and she’s got her phd did a lot of work with the people back in her community she’s got that spirit that you have 250

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I only came out here cause I’m going to get what I can out of this lot and take it back to my people help them it’s a different world totally different from ours we only just starting to establish our own whare wananga university they want me to go back as a moderator cause they’re doing a course like what I’m doing now total immersion maori they wrote a letter to arohia she says oh they want you to go as a moderator I don’t want you to do it cause you got all this work I says oh it’s like this arohia if you don’t send me back it’s my reputation on the line plus massey you’ve got to send me there do you think you could do it twice a year it’s not any big thing she says it looks like something political I says ah no it’s all right everything’s political arohia (laughs) we were the first tribe to do that you know we got our own embassy our own school system maori schools within the boundary of the tribe taught by maori yeah our own people teaching our own people we got our own highschools and now we got our university it’s just started up like a training a teacher’s training plus they’re doing degrees and postgrad papers in a sense you having the qualifications that you have with your master’s degree and maybe going to do your phd then I can go back and help them you’re also recognized in the western world the people here know that you know both it’s a really powerful position to be in we know who she’s meeting with in Canada people who are just like her the apples going in there and the spuds going out spud meeting apple (laughter) that’s who arohia’s doing her research with in canada the ones that’ve been colonized and who are now colonizing their own people one of those big machines that does four rows at a time (sound of automated potato digger) yeah those potato diggers just go out and pick them out and shake them like this and maybe (laughter) knock some sense into them put them back in the ground again maybe they’ll grow up it’s like she doesn’t want to get her hands dirty I get pissed off when I see maoris with makeup these maori language nests kohanga reo yeah I mean before we weren’t even allowed to speak maori in schools this is a political statement them putting up kohanga reo they took out our reo our language it’s now turning around really good arongatahi so the disaster has turned into something we’re not there yet that’s only part of it see we went from kohanga to bilingual schools now kura kaupapa schools now we got whare kura schools now we got whare wanaga all we need now is our own we’re the first tribe to be like that setting the example for other tribes our tribe is the only one that didn’t sign the treaty but you’re not allowed in there unless you got a passport they’ll stamp it before you go unless you want to get eaten (laughter) so if we get you to canada do you come on that passport yeah it’s recognized over there when I was talking to the dean he pricked up his ears and sat forward when I said I was interested in having an indigenous intercultural conversation 251

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strengthening indigenous knowledges so if you came over and spoke in maori and and mutindi spoke in kikamba you’d understand one another just being together she’s got those eyes that you know she just has to give a little signal with her face and you know what she’s meaning mutindi does she have words to express herself she’s got such a heart I mean (gestures) this means a lot and you know they might think I’m out of my head (laughs) this lady asked me when I went to the hospital but she said it in a way that was quite you know what did she say to you she says m you’re part indian ‘m noo’ she said you better go home and ask your mother and your dad your grandparents you’re sure’ she says ‘you got down here maori and samoan and scottish are you sure you haven’t got any indian in you you look like one’ (bird chirping) you’ve got a lot of that because of the knowings the way you were raised a lot of history with you that a lot of people have lost you’re more connected to it and you’re passing that on to frances and other people your students m give them a little what they can take otherwise they’re gonna choke on it don’t want them choking just like giving someone a piece of bread to chew on and they got no teeth (transition music) do you have a word in maori for change? te hurihanga is there another way of translating it besides ‘change’ another word as a ‘reflection’ a turnover there’s a curtain you’re either on this side or that side what we’re in now we call it ao hurihuri ao is the world now hurihuri means it’s turning changing the changing world we’ve got another term for the old world today is called ao hurihuri like we’re in now it’s the changing world you’re coming into another world huh? if they were to raise up now and walk over here they’d be in shock watch tv they’d be in shock they’d have to learn all over again I’m conditioned in western education that’s what I’ve learned I’ve got mohawk ancestry but I was kept away from it I’m trying to find out where my roots are when I go back that’s part of what I’ll be doing try to be prepared for the skeletons in the closet (rattle rattle) the museums have got most of them I’m just wondering what you think someone like me can do in education to fight colonisation and do my part imagine you’re the only person on this earth no one else knows anything (laughs) I get in trouble in all of my classes because I don’t teach to the curriculum because it’s a racist I invited helena and diane to come and talk to the students about maori technologies in my classes what you need to do is write something that you think suits your way of thinking 252

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rather than saying oh I don’t want to do this do the stuff before you actually go into the classes here this is what I think I should do it like this this is what my heart tells me I have to do because my heart is not happy just give me a chance to try a little on this side see if it works and I’ll come back to this but you know you’re not going to come back never that’s just the way to get around it we’re not going to go back there I say yeah yeah I’ll do this but I don’t (laughs) I have been getting in trouble for it you’ve got the stuff you’ve looked at this I think some of the stuff is good but could I try this out first and if this doesn’t work with the students can I come back to that but you know you’re not going to go back but they don’t know that but that’ll give you a chance to put your stuff across because I’ve got the credentials that say I can do this yeah because the maoris look at it he mana te kupu every word’s got a powerful spiritual thing behind it and that’s how I sort of got arohia to turn around in that hui when I did it in (external noise) maori there’s a lot of power behind it (sound of maori haka) and there’s no one can come in because they don’t understand me and there’s only one person in there that can understand me and that’s kahu and he’s like this (thumbs up) I bet he’s right there with you that’ll make him strong too the others are sort of what the hell’s happening because you’ve done that it may take them a while but they’ll start getting strong and standing up because you’ve already done it (whispers) but in maori once you say something you can’t go back on that that korero once you’ve said it that’s it kua mana ne it’s got power so that’s why you didn’t want to go back to that meeting and if you say to someone that’s it you don’t go back and apologize once you’ve thrown it off to the person that’s it why take it off and then you get sick chuck it back on to the person if someone says it to you you say it back ‘cause it’s going to go round in the circle so you’re not wearing it yeah you just push it back I mean that’s that’s maori witchcraft that’s makutu and you make sure you’re looking at the person when you do it I hope the others are strong with you because you’ve taken that step I don’t say much I just listen to their to their bullshit (A and Pa laugh) what about talking to people wearing sunglasses that’s all right I just have to see your face I don’t need to see your eyes I asked you about change because I thought to myself you can’t turn sadness into happiness they’re different and you can’t change a person sometimes sadness is happiness that’s a good point I mean you can see someone you haven’t seen for years and you cry that’s not ‘cause you’re sad instead of the word ‘change’ I think about ‘layering’ 253

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you’re talking geography now (A laughs) but that’s the way language works sometimes you know you tell maoris korerohia te reo ataata this is how we learn that’s what they haven’t got yet they’re trying to figure out what is maori methodology a way in which maori children can learn we learn by graphics you got to show us before we believe you a pakeha comes in front of you and they write it on the board (sound of chalk on board) it’s just a word you got to know what that word looks like I always draw a picture on the board for my students so they can see the word where it is we’re visual people when you talk about a person you talk about them like they’re a tree you’ve got to make them look like a chief you call them a totara ‘cause a totara is a big tree a person thinks he can make out of that tree you know a waka a marae carvings and if you want to make someone like a rangatira like a big chief when they pass away you call them totara you don’t call them big chief or anything in speech they’re always referred to by totara see there’s a visual image I see geography and language as the same and people shale you know you walk in it it’s all loose so you slide that shale exists in language and in people like your haka is in your words it’s in what you know it isn’t separate you’re not just having your body for the sake of it eh (laughs) when you do this when you turn sideways there’s something in your language that turns sideways too (bird chirps) that’s where the bird language comes in when you’re doing the movements of the haka you’re doing the movements that a bird does (throat sounds) a lot of our talk comes from here (points to throat) esophagus so you’re swallowing it yeah a lot of what they call glottal stops ohh oh yeah like the samoans fa’a f’a goodbye it’s almost like stuttering I asked one of the elders how would you say that if you had to yell it to somebody down there ‘cw’ and they said you don’t yell in indian you just throw stones that’s a good one (A laughs) the mohawk language is really beautiful to hear it has a rhythm it sounds like a song like water hey what’s your time oooh I better go to the big hui eh do you have that meeting with arohia no I’ve got a meeting with our program it’s supposed to be half past twelve but I’ll go maori time half past twelve (Pa and A laugh) how do you get the haka into the words not very easy (laughs) every movement has a meaning behind it do you think words should have something behind it ki raro means below your actions going to go down there you don’t know your actions going to go up here (sound of haka in distance getting closer) that is walking your talk gesture and talk together I mean if you’re talking about someone and your mate’s talking to you about that

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person and they’re on that side you gotta just do it right so that they’ll stop talking have you done that? look say you’re here okay you are talking to me about her and I can see her coming (laughs) is that your stuff (A and Pa laugh) you create the presence of that person with your talk I don’t have to tell you she’s coming it’s all in the face you know (all laugh) paddle paddle paddle paddle paddle stroke swooooooooooooooosh

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belize: filiberto’s story turning that canoe toward the south island te wai pounamu otago country setting that sail right with a little help from my maori friends with respect to navigation and protocol visiting with filiberto and bertha ex patriot mayans from belize I return to our conversations at waikato otago the larnach castle outside dunedin near the albatross protectory conversing with people and texts talking about meso mestizo identity the m and the s of mestizo using rhizomes to look for roots interlineating trans locating I discover that raven and coyote have transformed themselves into paddles and for their own amusement brought wes(tern methodology) along in an oil lamp filiberto offers an historical portrait of the mayan P F

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ola filiberto you say your work is about circles circularity and culture located at the centre of two concentric circles, the smaller circle relates to the stories of the two participants’ ethnic identity being mestizo mayan and spanish and the larger relates to how ethnic identity affects the preservation and revitalization of a community’s culture. The study is guided by a participatory mode of research which addresses the concerns and needs of the researched and involves the participants in all aspects of the study. participatory hm I thought all research was your study deals with your own sense of community loss and disconnection It identified misrepresentation of Maya in history, the amnesia effect of the Mestizo classification has on the Mayanness in it, as issues that affect the participants’ identity. It identified the issue of disconnectedness as the meta factor affecting both the lack of identification with the Mayan heritage of both the participants and the community. There seems to be great concern and interest in the preservation and revitalisation of the culture in the village of Succotz to enhance and preserve cultural heritage, and to teach the Maya language. this is what the community itself is doing? The goals or part of the goals of these groups is to encourage people to be proud of their Mayan ancestry, and hold on to some of their cultural values, and practices. corn beans squash writing and astronomy

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These efforts have only been partially successful people do not identify themselves with the culture in question. Many community leaders believe that people do not consider themselves to be Mayan and that many are ashamed of being indigenous. It is very likely that if people do not identify with the Mayan culture they will not participate in efforts to enhance and preserve such culture. I have participated in a number of these organisations this has lead me to ask several questions both about myself and the community, namely: what is my ethnic identity? how do people identify themselves and how does this affect the life of the community? Why and how did we lose our language? What is my ancestry? How can we imbue people with pride for their heritage, and preserve the Mayan culture of Succotz, and how does the absence of language affect identity or more important how can we recover the Maya language? good point language identity and heritage are often closely tied together [The Mayas] occupied southern Mexico such as Yucatan and Chiapas, and other countries of Central America such as Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, and Western and northern Honduras, of course such boundaries were then nonexistent. According to Shoman, the Mayas were divided into several groups occupying different parts of this region without any central political control. The area occupied by the Mayas was colonised by the Spaniards in the 16th century which gave rise to the present political boundaries. In the case of Belize the colonial history is more interesting with the Mayas first being in contact with the Spaniards and then with the English. According to most historians eurohistorians the Spaniards never settled in Belize but still exercised control of the area. The English roamed the coast of Central America pirating the Spaniard ships transporting palo de tinte or logwood which was used as a dye by the wool industry in England. After the 1670 Treaty of Madrid which banned piracy the English pirates were out of a job and thus began looking for places from where they could extract the wood themselves leading them to settle in Belize. In Belize the settlement was not intended on a permanent basis, given they were in Spanish controlled land. Having depleted the supply of logwood, however led the English men to the cutting of mahogany which required more manpower which lead to the introduction of African Slaves and expansion of the settlement. ah the freedomloving english yo ho ho and a bottle While logwood could be mainly found in the coastal region Mahogany led the English further into the jungle and into contact with the Maya. As a result the Maya were pushed further into what is now Guatemala, not without resistance and bloodshed of course. The Spaniards on several occasions attempted removing the English from Belize but since they never settled there the English kept coming back eventually securing the colony with its present boundaries for England. caught between competing evils belize must be very multicultural sure there are jaguars monkeys ocelots tapirs coatimundi toucans macaws egrets iguanas crocodiles tree frogs what about people

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Creoles [European and African] the Mestizos [Spaniard and Maya] Garifunas [African and Caribbean Indian] the Mayas [mostly pure Maya] and more recent immigrants Chinese and others. what about coyotes and more advanced avian tricksters [T]he groups that inherited the power were the Creole who were closer to the English and the well off Mestizos. These two groups constitute the largest portions of the society with Mestizos being 43.6% and the Creoles 29.8% and thus in modern society have the strongest political power. [B]eing Mestizo puts an individual with the majority and increases his/her political power and status. interesting your use of statistics to a tenth of a percentage point to describe the population I assume succotz is an ancient mayan village The Succotz village according to local oral history was established late in the 19th century by migrants from the Peten area in Guatemala who may be the one time Mayas of Belize returning. The population consists of approximately 3000, most tracing their roots to the first migrants. I assume the mayan language has at least some vitality in the area Everybody in Succotz has Spanish as his/her first language. it’s like when coyotes are raised from pupdom by human beings they forget a lot of their language and culture How was the Maya language lost or when has not been documented, but according to the oral history of the people who settled here a great number spoke both Maya and Spanish to a lesser degree. In my family for example my maternal grandparents spoke Maya fluently and Spanish with some trouble, my parents however can understand Maya to a limited degree but cannot speak it, while I cannot do any of the two. Most of the second generation went through school in Belize where the language of instruction was English and hence, they also have an understanding of English. In the case of the third generation, Spanish is their first language with English as their second but increasingly becoming more important. people are self-sufficient The settlers of Succotz according to my father and grandfather consisted of chicleros and milperos and their families. Chicleros were those who tapped the Sapodilla tree for a resin which was used for chewing gum before synthetic gum was invented; while milperos are those who used to do farming, namely of beans and corn. selling the blood of the trees The people of Succotz appear to have adjusted and adapted to participate in the mainstream system; this however seems to have been at the price of their language and culture. success itself can be failure in a larger sense [K]ekchi Mayas of southern Belize, who still hold their language and culture . . . remain one the poorest groups. sounds typical of what happens traditional indigenous means poverty [T]he Mayas have a 28.7% poverty incidence and Mestizo have the lowest makes one wonder what is in the classification Mestizo.

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I wonder how the people of succotz feel about where they fit in [M]any people consider themselves to be of mixed ancestry, although the village has been referred to as a Mayan village. I can imagine a lot of contradictory feelings with respect to heritage With the Mestizo category, where Mestizo means of Mayan-Spanish background this choice is not evident no you mean they have to think in order to choose If we consider that an ethnic identity is not only a category but refers to a culture, then being Mestizo is having a culture; this leads to the question what is the Mestizo culture? is it a mixture of Maya and Spanish culture? predominantly Maya or Spanish? sounds complex It is naive to believe that Mestizo is a clear and neutral mixture of two cultures, it is more conceivable that the new culture will have allegiance to one or the other, it will uphold one and downplay the other. either/or rather than both/and I argue that such is the case where to choose to be Mestizo is to deny a Mayan ancestry and put forward a Spanish side, more so because of the image that was perpetuated by the Spanish hegemony. Shoman quotes the following passage from Eduardo Galeano, relating an interchange between Spanish soldiers who are surrounded in a fort and Maya attackers who are asking them to surrender. The Spanish having refused to surrender the Maya says, “then you will die!’ “So we die”’ says Bernal and yells: “But in the long run we will win the war! there’ll be more and more of us!” The Indian replies with a chuckle “How? With what women?” he asks. “If there are no Spanish ones, we’ll have yours,” says the captain slowly, savouring the words, and adds: “And we’ll make the children on them who’ll be your masters!” Within a few generations, the Mestizo children of Spanish and Maya parentage would adopt attitudes toward the “pure’ Maya that reflected those of the Spaniards in the contact period. It is apparent then that to be Mestizo has the connotation of being better than indigenous. It implies forgetting the indigenous ancestry. forgetting it or losing it that’s very sad The following poem for example accuses the Mestizo race of precisely this raza mestiza olvidadiza forgetful mestizo race que traiciona al Indio que siente por dentro that betrays the Indio he feels inside y oprime al Indio que ve por fuera and oppresses the Indio he sees outside by Felipe Duran my translation hm that’s a very telling story Fuentes says We have always congratulated ourselves in Mexico on our extraordinary Indian culture which we display in museums and through imposing monuments along our boulevards. We say we are proud of being the descendants of that culture. In actual practice, however, we have treated the Indians with more cruelty, perhaps, than Cortez. hm the classification of ‘indian’ and indianness is not completely clear to me The implications of the connotation of the Mestizo classification are tremendous; most people will classify themselves as Mestizo. I would argue that classifying 258

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ourselves as mestizo we no longer consider the fact that we are descendants of the Mayas. interesting connotation the marginalized lost in hybridity This also applies and more so to the classifications Latino and Hispanic. The classifications Latino or Hispanic follow a similar trend as Mestizo and further dilute the Maya aspect of a person’s heritage. [Murguia] notes neither term emphasises the preColumbian heritage of the peoples of the Americas, but refers instead to their European heritage. [Latino] has been used to describe people of Latin America where Spanish or Portuguese is spoken, while Hispanic stresses. “of Spanish descent.” and mayan? The Maya Institute organisation, has claimed that the term Maya was a name given to the people by the colonial powers. They claim that the correct name of the people is Masewal. Tzul explains the origin of the word Mayan in the following, “The legend goes on to say that after the lengthy discourse by the Spaniards, the king replied to the Spaniards in this manner: “Min wuy ka tan” meaning “I will not listen to you.” Later on the Spaniards returned with some articles of gold and inquired where these could be found. The batab or King and official replied, “Ma yan” meaning “there is none.” with these two curt and terse answers, the Spaniards began calling the land Yucutan and the people Mayan.” misrepresentation is not always as accidental as it might seem The people called themselves Masewal. The term Masewal is not widely used and it is doubtful that it will gain wide circulation. it’s not as though mainstream society encourages correcting it To fully understand the roots of this issue however necessitates a documentation of the history of the Mayan people from a Mayan perspective involvement of the whole community in rediscovering and re-identifying with that past. I am interested that you use the work of russell bishop dame professor eveyln stokes mason durie the indigenous alliance the maori connection [T]he type of research that has been done within the Maori is not different from what the Indigenous groups of Belize have experienced. the pratec people of peru identify the newcomers and their practices as ‘a plague’ Extensive research has been done to document historical background of the people, folk stories, medicinal plants, why people are not receiving any benefits from tourism, but to date except for those that did the studies, nobody else knows what happened to the results. who benefits Some of these studies have resulted not only in books but also in marketed products, such as packaged medicinal plants, traditional pottery, traditional housing in tourism etc. The views of people concerning research are further reflected in their conceptions of researchers; there is a common belief that researchers just want information to make money. In a conference in February this year, it was noted that people believe that archaeologists are just searching for Mayan treasures. If we consider that these studies in no way benefit the people, and are of no interest to them then we begin to understand why they refuse to participate

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more and more indigenous people are demanding benefits for themselves from research done on them rather than with them It is essential that if research is to be carried in the community or any Mayan community, it must be culturally appropriate and produce results that will benefit the people. In archaeology for example research that answers the researcher’s questions or reports knowledge in foreign journals which is inaccessible to the indigenous population, must be changed to answer questions of interest to the Maya people of the region and improve their lives. In recognition of such state of affairs in this study I attempt to approach research relating to the people in a non traditional manner. but often even researchers who are indigenous forget this in many ways the whole idea of research or study for me is problematic if it is not of mutual benefit This study in smaller context attempts to describe how two persons experience their identity or lack of identity. interesting idea ‘experiencing’ identity as though it were apart from oneself In the larger context it relates these stories to the issues of, the lack of pride in being Maya, the lack of participation in cultural revitalisation and preservation and how these issues can be addressed. In the smaller context the mode is one of collaborative participation in the second context of the research the mode is one of empowerment through outcomes that are of interest and beneficial to the people. so how about empowerment how does it figure in your research This relates to the original questions and provides information that Maori themselves want to know. In the smaller context this study is located within a participatory mode of research using what Bishop has defined as Participant Driven Empowerment Research. This kind of research requires that issues of initiation, benefits, representation, legitimacy and accountability be addressed. by indigenous people He emphasises that questions such as whose concerns, interests and methods of approach determine define the outcomes; who will directly gain from the research, and will anyone actually be disadvantaged, whose research constitutes an adequate depiction of social reality; what authority we claim for our texts; who are researchers answerable to, who has control over initiation, procedures. evaluations text constructions and distribution of newly defined knowledge are you saying this model is expandable to include your community This kind of research is native to bi-cultural research and has been designed for the New Zealand Maori context. what about the ‘models’ from within your culture filtered through western systems of knowing invest igating invasive social science engineering what about your own study? Is it not bi- or multi-cultural looking at ethnic identity of mayan descendants? [It] involves the Succotz community, it mainly deals with two members of it. you and your partner your wife The goal was that at the end of the exercise I would confidently be able to state my identity. I concluded that for this I needed help from somebody who had travelled such a path, perhaps in what Bishop has described as a Tuakana/teina, where the participant, tuakana, in my study would tell his /her story to reflect on it and share that 260

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knowledge with me, teina, in an effort to help me through the path and document the experience for those who share a similar experience. This however requires participants from members of my community who are unavailable in New Zealand. In May 1995 on a trip back to Belize I took the opportunity to talk with some of the leaders of the community, namely Victor Rosado and David Magana my father and mother my uncle and others. it is interesting that you undertook these conversations it’s as though rather than working within clarity you were working towards clarity or at least towards a space where focus of participant/researcher is relative to the biophysical context of the study I wonder if your partner bertha is on a similar journey to your own She said that she felt no urge to look for an ethnic identity that she thought she had one and was quite satisfied. This situation threw off my plans I realised that my idea would not be effective. However, I related to her my experiences and my interest in ethnic identity. I also shared the ideas of a participant mode of research that may be useful for Belize. During this initial period even though she expressed no interest she pointed out relevant issues to the study which became the founding ideas for the literature review. Given this situation I decided to cut my research to fit her interests. I asked her if she would like to participate by discussing further the themes that she had brought up. Her response was that she could probably benefit from this experience, because she had never thought about these issues and thus would participate. you spoke earlier about benefits derived from research what about bertha The participant came out of this study with a heightened awareness of her heritage and a greater interest. These benefits are not those that the researcher thinks the participant gained but those that she herself has described. the participant? the researcher? bertha and filiberto perchance with respect to representation I am curious about the inter-relationships between community members and you in all of this The researcher is not detached from the researched and the researched is involved in interpreting not only her story but the story of the researcher. There is no expert there is only the voice of the participants, who tell their stories to each other, giving and receiving feedback and making meaning of it together. hm sounds nice in a way the study is almost a living in the real non social science world and the research is created or rather anticipated but only enacted retroactively in preordained retrospect what is that supposed to mean he’s confused too but he’s clear about his confusion In this research study the knowledge of the participants is recognised. what about the methodologies and epistemologies dancing together here especially your social science vocabulary and whether your experience at otago has been somewhat controlled and linear or at least positivist in terms of deviation from indigenous ways of speaking learning legitimizing validating and interacting within an academic community 261

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mm maori is indigenous but is it aboriginal in your understanding of who you are maori is not first nations is not african is not asian in terms of experience and validity legitimacy What constitutes truth is not determined by external criteria but by the interpretation of those involved in the experience. It attempts to reverse the process whereby Mayan culture was undermined portrayed as inferior, by legitimating a different story a story from a different perspective from the Spanish. you demonstrate accountabilty to your co-researchers your co-participants Because this study in the end was more a consciousness raising an exploration of and reflection on personal experiences, participants were committed to the research process, from the initiation where both had input in the direction of the study. the books and journals you looked at were chosen very carefully I take it The literature review was guided by what the participants needed to become more aware and better understand their experiences. While the written report is part of the results of this study the main achievement has been to raise the consciousness and dignity of those involved, something that cannot be put on paper and is only available to the participants, and only evaluated by those involved. wonderful and your method of data gathering has been interesting This research has made use of unstructured interviews as used in narrative inquiry described by Connelly & Clandinin where they function as directed conversations with the goal of sharing experiences and constructing meaning. together In this study participants served more as an audience, a source of feedback and questions that both lead deeper and clarified the stories. The way feedback was used in this study is in a manner that is consistent with its use in reflective research, to, “provide useful information and be a powerful stimulus to rethinking.” c&c In addition to interviews comments from conversations not specifically pertaining to this study were also used. your conversations with your partner bertha There were three interviews in this study. The first was during the initiation period. First I shared with Bertha my urge to look at my identity and what had lead me to this, to which she responded by sharing her views that she felt no such urge and how she differed from me and a brief speculation of why she had that view, there followed a brief discussion of the themes that she and I brought up during the interview. The second interview was carried on until after the literature review had been completed. Bertha read the lit review so was aware of the discussion in this part of the research. In this interview the themes from the first were discussed and further detailed. a transcription or a memorial reconstruction? The third interview which was the only interview that was recorded, consisted namely of Bertha explaining her identity as she felt in the past and then describing how the experiences in this study influenced her. This interview was in Spanish as were all the rest, and was transcribed by the participant herself, the content of the 262

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transcription was then rewritten to be read more like a personal account of her identity development. fascinating really creative did you use analysis with your data or did you deal with it other/wise through narrative synthesis serendipitous exegesis The data analysis and data gathering cannot be separated, because they occurred together as the participants told their stories they became aware of the important issues and themes that had influenced them and were pertinent to the reality. However the presentation of the results follow a different pattern; first the experiences of the participants are related, and then a discussion of the common themes follows with a final discussion of the implications it has for the community. perhaps we could move on to the identity stories what western academia refers to as data you talk about identity and your search for it I think I have always classified myself as a Mestizo, I was however very aware of my Mayaness from quite early. While growing up I recall my parents telling stories about the past, about the cultural practices the food, the hardships and happy moments, about where my grandparents came from and so on. I can recall my mother saying that she was an India, that she ate all kind of native herbs etc. In school one of the things I recall is our contact with the students of Benque Viejo during sports days, we used to have fights and they used to call us ‘Indios’ or ‘apaches’ or ‘comelones de macal sin sal ’ would you care to translate Eaters of macal without salt. that clarifies everything Macal is a kind of ground fruit that is believed was grown and favoured by the Mayan people. It was taken that if you eat Macal was a sign of your indianness. Later on, I was sent to school in Benque and I made friends, even though I was considered to be different from the rest of Succotzenos. I think this made me feel less Maya and was one of the reasons which led to resigning from a traditional dance group. those first steps are often brutal reminders I can recall being member of a dance group in my village, called The Mestizo dance group and also recall participating two times in El baile de los Moros a dance that relates the story of war between the Moors and the Christians. This dance seems to be one introduced by the Spaniards, but has become part of the Succotz culture. interesting connections certainly the culture of spain is much influenced by arabic islamic culture the arabic language when I was at school in Benque I would dance but was always concerned and worried that friends from Benque would see me. When I started high school I gave up the dances completely. Going to high school increased the need not to be considered a Maya or “Indio” a more degrading name. To be called an Indio by Spanish speaking school mates or bush-buay bush boy by the Creole speaking was not something to laugh about. If people noticed that my last name was not Pech, Chi, Can, Cal or Tzib but was a Spanish name, gave me quite a degree of satisfaction. a name can be something to hide behind or inside shame is a strange creature My circle of friends were selected, Creole, mestizo etc. it made me less Mayan. My attendance at St. Johns College Sixth Form made things worse. Most students came 263

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from well to do Mestizo and Creole families. My brother and I were the only ones from our village the first year and in the third year a woman much older than me attended the school. I think this made me more aware that I was different and led me also try to change, to be less different. I met Fernando who became a good friend, he came from San Antonio where the Maya language is still spoken and the Maya culture still is strong. He called himself a Masewal Maya in fact corrected the people who called him ‘Spanish’ and would speak Maya with friends whenever possible, it made me feel left out. In Belize City which is predominantly Creole African-European mixture everybody who is brown and speaks Spanish is called Spanish. it is not easy being face to face with one’s own private self There were two major things that influenced me, the first was that he considered me to be a Maya. This time to be considered a Maya made me feel different because it did not carry the negative connotations. In addition he made me aware of the way Maya people were treated in the colonial days and still are today and more important what needs to be done. Furthermore he invited me to join the efforts of an organisation of which he was part to revitalise, preserve and protect the Mayan rights, and culture. that’s how it starts isn’t it with little changes During my last year at high school I became a founder member of the Youth Environmental Action Group. It made us in a sense more patriotic and more concerned and involved in the community. what a wonderful development for you at that time in your life. It lead to participation in other voluntary groups involved in the preservation of culture. In February, 1995 I attended a workshop, Planning for the Future of Xunantunich a Mayan temple. The attitudes of the archaeology department, the American archaeologists, the bureau of tourism seemed to undermine the value of my people’s involvement in this sector of what involves part of their heritage. At one point I got red hot, stood up and challenged the archeological commissioner. This experience touched my core, my Mayanness. good for you and you bertha as co-researcher in this search for identity En casa de mis padres nunca hablamos de identidad ethnica. Por lo tanto creo que es por eso que yo nunca me interese en eso. care to translate plus ou moins más o menos I have never really been aware of my Maya heritage, my parents never spoke about their ethnicity, in fact I don’t know what my father classifies himself as; maybe that is why I’ve never had an interest in culture or ethnicity. En la escuela primaria no recuerdo que me hayan ensenado cual es mi indentidad ethnica. As for school, well they don’t teach you about your identity. my experience is they often try to reforge it or downplay it Luego cuando pase a la escuela secundaria no nos ensenaban historia nada mas Estudios Sociales lo cual es similar a historia. I remember they taught us about the Mayas and about history but they never told us they were our ancestors it’s in the national political interest to lay aboriginality to rest

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Cuando los maestros me ensenaban historia hablaban acerca de la civilizacion Maya, de las guerras que hubo entre los espanoles y los Mayas ; pero no recuerdo que me hayan ensenado que ellos son mis antepasados. Maybe they told us and I don’t remember. Tambien no recuerdo que me hayan ensenado acerca de los Mayas. Quizas me lo ensenaron pero no lo recuerdo. you certainly feel strongly about your indigenous identity In high school it was worse, at least in primary they taught us some history, here they only taught us social studies, which is related but not the same. the square of the sum of racism peer pressure ignorance and shame is equal to the sum of the squares of the property owners and those who benefit from them if I remember my mathematical geography accurately En sixth form fue cuando tuve un pequeno interes en la historia de mis familia, de adonde vinieron, de adonde eran originalmente, como se llamaban etc. Sinembargo, siempre no tenia interes en mi identidad ethnica. Pero para entonces ya me clasificaba como Mestizo porque siempre que algien me preguntaba de que raza soy yo siempre respondia que soy Mestizo. No se como llege a clasificarme como Mestizo. Tambien lo hacia sin realmente pensar en la conotacion que esta palabra lleva. Quizas me llamaba Mestizo porque para entonces ya estaba conciente que los Mayas pertenecian a la clase mas baja de mi pais y especialmente por el appellido espanol (Valencia) que llevaba. which basically in english becomes As I can remember it was until when I was in sixth that I had a little interest in my family’s history, where they came from, from where they were originally and what was their original name etc.. However I still did not question my identity, I used to classify myself as a Mestizo when anybody asked me. asked you? I don’t know how I arrived at the conclusion, that I was Mestizo in fact I don’t know, but I always thought that everybody was a Mestizo. I did not think much about the meaning and connotations of the classification. Maybe I used to classify myself as Mestizo and not Maya because of my Spanish title, Valencia, or maybe because I was aware that to be Maya was to be of a lower class. Ahora que vine a Nueva Zelandia y quede de acuerdo con mi esposo que voy a participar en el research que esta haciendo estuvimos analisando en la situacion de mi identidad ethnica. He llegado a la conclusion que soy mas Maya que Mestizo por lo tanto me clasifico como Maya. I bet you wish you could say that in your indigenous language It is not until we came here to New Zealand and became involved in this project that I have started to question my identity now I don’t think I can really consider myself a Mestizo I feel more Maya. thank you bertha see you later it’s been wonderful so filiberto you journeyed through being mestizo and mayan both of you did indio I was aware of a degree of Mayaness in my identity due to my parents influence. This became problematic as I grew up, first as a negative in fitting in at school and later on as a point for re-identifying myself. In the case of Bertha, she considered herself as Mestizo without any consideration for the origin and nature of this classification.

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For her, Mestizo always existed and had nothing to do with the historical past, nothing to do with Maya or Spanish, as she noted in one conversation, this classification was probably given to her. and school did nothing to make you want to feel more mayan In both our experiences the way history has been presented at school has had an impact, further distancing us and disconnecting us from a Mayan past. It presented the Maya as uncivilised and the Spaniard and English as good. Implicit in this says, even if your ancestors were Maya you should not be, you are smarter and better, certainly you have Mayan ancestry but more important you are Mestizo, a descendant of the Spaniards. your discussions with bertha must have been helpful for both of you in this regard An important theme that springs out of our discussions is the impact of participation in the efforts of the community, and becoming aware of connection with the past. For me I am certain that my experiences in my involvement in cultural activities enhanced my awareness of my Mayanness. We became aware that Mestizo is a word that taken to its purest meaning means a mixture of Spaniard and Maya. so in a way the terms mestizo or latino or hispanic were diversionary they led you away from your indigenous identity Mestizo fades away the indigenous heritage and highlights the Spanish. This is achieved by the presentation of Mestizo as disconnected from a historical past. so mestizo as a kind of unconnected genealogical ambience interesting how things tend to get lost in the past tense or changed [T]he term Mestizo has gradually continued to disconnect people from their Mayan heritage. Bertha for example pointed that she understood from history she was taught that nobody knew what ever became of the Mayas. we were told that they had disappeared The absence of history that tells the story from a Mayan perspective has produced what Shoman calls ‘historical amnesia’ “Unless that past is rescued, there is very little hope for success in struggle, because the burden of the mythology which glorifies subservience and defeat. Until we can celebrate slave revolt rather than slave faithfulness to masters, what hope is their for resistance?” you spoke of metathemes Disconnectedness. From the moment of contact with Europeans it was made clear that to be Maya was to be inferior, uncivilized, savage and barbaric. This picture has lead people especially those of mixed heritage to enlarge the S in mestizo spanish and diminish the m maya The way history has been written and taught contributed greatly to this situation, the stories are told as if the Mayas were waiting eagerly for the arrival of the Spaniard who brought good and well being to everybody but those who failed to recognize or were too dumb to see these good things. If he does not change and adapt to the hegemony of society then he is simply a dumb Indian. encouraged to be mestizo 266

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Forget the Maya inside. We indeed can no longer see Mestizo with the S larger than m but recognise that we have an indigenous heritage which we have been cheated of and disconnected from. If the Mayan culture is to be revitalised and preserved we need to feel connected, we need to feel that we belong to that culture and that it belongs to us. We need to tell a different story of how history was made, we need to tell the story such that both heritages have at least a fair chance. I see you have to go perhaps in closing you might like to recite the poem you sent me called ’school stories’ The first year The Miss gave us a shiny coke stopper with a red emblem Coca-Cola in beautiful handwriting, She showed us how to perfectly circle our pencil around the stopper. For me, an impossible mission With my finger holding the stopper in place I drew my finger in it gave my circle a bump. Without my finger to hold it the stopper moved. My perfect circle looked deformed abnormal. I think the Miss said it was to learn to move my hand to learn proper handwriting Or was it to learn to write Coca-Cola? Perhaps I did not know how to move my hand but I knew my way home and so I went. I told the Miss I was going to the toilet. I don’t remember whether mom punished me but she did send me back I can’t remember what happened after but I still can’t write Coca-Cola. Mom sent me to a bigger town school To get a better education, I think she said to get a higher score in the national examination to get a scholarship to get a better job a better life The truth was I did not want to go I was happy where I was moreover, all I needed was a longer list of words to spell of numbers to add 267

of dates to remember of names to recite when Christopher dis(cover)ed America when the slaves shoulder to shoulder with their masters fought the Spanish. All I needed, really was be like panchito the parrot, he could sing the national anthem and that I was doing well already I could say “lorito bonito” like very few in my class could. I suppose “education” was better at the new school I learnt that I was a “comelon de macal sin sal” and by the sound of it I was better off not eating I learnt that rice is not aroz but arroz although it did not taste any different I learnt that I was an indio P

my response was in part I like your use of line breaks the clearness and the ambiguity the oscillating understandings the straightforward detouring the storytell ell ell ll ll ing g it confirms to me that our stories our poems write us when we are ready yet being written is not a passive act nor an active one it is a mutuality criar y dejarse criar (Apffel-Marglin, 1998) a phrase grimaldo rengifo uses I am thinking that language and the users of it engage in a mutual sculpting but more than just (visual) shape built in to each trans/form/er/ee are taste scent sound feel and other senses I like how you use printing to talk about writing ortho/graphizing of the logo cocacola tries to capture in writing and in printing in so many other ways cocacola must have done much harm in your community your poem is beautiful and very important it makes me think about the genii in the lamp the stories of arabic people of capture and release containment escape how we all constantly move between many things and that we are our journeys the canoe moves on paddle paddle across the tasman sea to melbourne paddle paddle stroke stroke swooooooooooshhh

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school that great den of camaraderie we were speaking of your experiences there I started attending primary school at the age of six, with no introduction to preschool. My teachers spoke highly of me often because I was doing well in class. This could have been one reason why my peers did not seem to like me. the tall poppy syndrome they didn’t like me either and I wasn’t even doing particularly well in school In standard 7 the class teacher selected me for class captain. interesting use of military designation My duties rather than responsibilities as captain included policing sfx sirens blazing enter police captain holster unclasped shades in place I had a class register the big book in which to record “noise makers.” arroooooooo I hope you rewarded them for their spirit my relations value ‘noise’ as the sound of community wrrackkkkk awwrrrkkk taken in moderation of course (paws over ears) sounds like an apprenticeship in control mechanisms My tasks as class captain seem to have been more about class management and control, and less about enhancing effective learning. I was told to ensure the presence of (erasure) a blackboard duster and a clean blackboard at all times. ammunition for colonialist exploitation custodial trade unionists note janitorial duties being taken on by unpaid student I was expected to collect teaching and learning materials from the school office or teachers’ houses houses courier role without union membership I hope they had insurance on you going off school property like that anything could happen look what happened to red riding hood and the canis latrans horribilis that was a wolf we may share certain physiological anatomical similarities but we are not the same this species profiling is really getting out of paw I also collected my peers’ work for marking I was responsible for ensuring that the classroom atmosphere was favourable for teachers to proceed in their work. after all who is school really for? This had little to do with ensuring that our learning needs were addressed. As class captain 269

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hut two three four fivesixseven eight o’clock rock around the crock don’t touch that dial I was responsible for the maintenance of order and reporting of disorder. the big snitch allied with the big bang Teachers also expected me to remind them if they were running late or had forgotten to come to class. office management temporo-spatial strategizing triple time We repeatedly read through copious notes and examples copied from the blackboard. predigestion followed by regurgitation welcome to the canada food guide milk milk? how did milk get on the cfg? We were expected to use these examples to guide us in solving exercises assigned by the teacher. Although this procedure generally worked, it was never interesting nor appropriate when the problems deviated from those previously given by the teacher or seen in the textbook. I vividly recall teachers deliberately setting hard problems in a test to ensure that no pupil got all the questions correct. setting indigenous people up for failure Certainly, the teacher favoured solutions from the above-average pupils. Once a learner had shown they were doing well, the teachers were more likely to assess those learners’ work favourably. never expecting the unexpected In Malawi, standard 8 is the senior year of primary school. I entered standard 8 with a good reputation amongst teachers and peers. for following orders and not challenging authority My parents expected me to continue to do well and advance with my education. They hoped I would be able to achieve a better life through education. My first try I was not accepted into secondary school. Neither were any of my peers from school. Rather than despairing for me, my parents determined to send me to a neighbouring school which had produced better results. My career in the new school was clearly motivated by a wish to secure a place in secondary education. your new school was to your liking? Because of its competitive reputation, this school attracted many pupils. your honour the witness is not answering the question Although my new school had sent many pupils to secondary school, the reasons for this had little to do with the quality of teaching. Most of the pupils who passed the primary examinations had repeated standard 8 at least twice. Hence, their learning was about “learning the same things again and again.” The more materials, tests, notes and examples they had worked through, the more experienced they became at tackling exams, so that’s what it was about test writing skills and consequently, the more likely that they would pass. We formed “study groups” consisting of three to four pupils, teamed up and shared books and test papers in order to “refresh our brains.” In Arithmetic lessons, we had an assessment strand called “Mental Arithmetic.” Mental arithmetic consisted of twenty short-test questions to be done in twenty minutes. The teacher would ask us to write mostly numerical answers only without showing the procedures for getting the answers. 270

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seems to contradict your other teacher showing how you got the answers The emphasis in our way of working in the classroom seems to have centred on getting through the questions quickly. This “speed and accuracy” notion was reflected in the instructions accompanying national examination papers and syllabus guides. sounds interesting I was selected to do secondary education at a school run by the missionaries. welcome to mission residential school you are here to learn [I]t was referred to as “The School of Champions” since many of its students graduated to the University of Malawi. so a champion is seen as someone who goes to university not somebody who stays at home lives a fulfilled ‘traditional’ life helps others There was competition among students, and we were continually urged to work hard and obtain higher grades. I was an “all rounder,” and once again selected as class captain in Form 3. sounds like the continuation of your earlier military career We were required to solve as many problems as possible from the textbook. In Form 4, the mathematics teacher advised students who were not doing well in mathematics to join the “dull man’s club.” shaming them into ‘excellence’ not too nice Students attending this club worked together and sought help from the more able students as well as the mathematics teacher. seems like your teachers were all from the same mold The Form 4 mathematics teacher seemed to have an excellent command of the subject matter. When approached with a problem, his solution would often be accompanied by a remark such as “You do not need to go to school to know this.” but you have to go to school in order to learn you do not need to go to school “to know this” isn’t it always the way so you moved on Bachelor of Education studies at the University of Malawi. Within the teaching methods course, we planned lessons and taught other students in micro-teaching sessions. We did a three-month teaching practice in the third year of our training. ‘training’ rather than ‘education’ sounds like that trend’s been around a while Our teacher education courses seemed to separate teaching theory from practice. Whereas we had four years of teacher education, we had less than five months of practice in schools. your university experience sounds quite rewarding right off the bat In my second year, I received a t-shirt and calculator from the mathematics lecturer as prizes for being a good student in mathematics. On the t-shirt was written x = b+/-√b2-4ac, the formula for solving the quadratic equation ax2+bx+c = 0. 2a sounds like something that could be really useful in traditional village life In my fourth year, I was one of the recipients of the National Bank of Malawi Achievement Awards given to students who had performed well. but all was not well I take it I had observed two inconsistencies in our training. First, lecturers who taught us academic courses were not the ones who taught us teaching methods. The approaches of 271

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these lecturers tended to differ and sometimes contradicted each other. The methods courses would advocate discussion among students while the academic courses would be teacher-directed, with very little student participation. they were required courses [A]s education students, we were not allowed to register for any other courses apart from those recommended by the education faculty. We were not allowed to do any computer-related courses. The timetable for education courses was planned in such a way that classes coincided with those of the computer-related courses. control seems to have been the order of the day and after your education degree? My one year Master of Science course at the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa was a discussion of the claim that “the nature of a person’s knowledge is inextricably tied to the situations in which that knowledge was acquired.” The main readings for this discussion came from the work of a number of authors in the area of situated cognition. I assume the list included scholars from throughout africa As a result of this discussion, I became interested in understanding how street vendors in Johannesburg coped with mathematics in their street-selling practices. This resulted in a small project in which I investigated the use of mathematics among street vendors. sounds fascinating Irrespective of age and qualification, all the vendors involved in the study demonstrated great success in mathematically managing their business. In the street context, computations are done to monitor the sales – to make sure that the sellers do not make losses. These computations are not done for their own sake, they are done with a specific purpose. Traditional classroom tasks, however, tend to be disconnected from everyday life. Children are asked to solve mathematics problems which may not have any connection with what they do or observe in everyday life. The escalating failure rate of children in school mathematics worldwide has been reported by various parties concerned with improvements in students’ learning. What needs to be noted, however, is the observed tendency for the same children (who are not successful in school mathematics) to succeed in mathematics-related activities in their everyday lives. that’s an important finding In general, school children have been reported to be more successful at solving problems that are related to their everyday activities. I was interested in the meaning making which takes place in those humble and largely well understood problem-solving situations. The problems or goals emerge from the activities in which the individuals are involved. They know the purposes or goals of the activities. Their actions are collaborative. are you hinting this is unlike ‘formal’ educational experience My experience in the street vendors research projected me to reflect on the learning situations I encountered as a learner in Malawian classrooms. and perhaps nonlearning situations which themselves must have been quite plentiful I think that forgetting itself is an important learning that improves with practice This experience made me aware of the absence of deliberate attempts on the part of 272

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my school mathematics teachers to link, through their teaching, what we were learning in school and what we saw or observed in our everyday lives. There is evidence that shows that the major aims of primary and secondary education in Malawi were to train individuals for paid employment and to enable them to gain access to further and higher education. ‘paid employment’ hm sounds like mathematics as a socio-economic control mechanism part of the western knowledge project numbers racket Not only is there catastrophic failure in mathematics among Malawian school leavers, but even for those who manage to pass the subject, neither succeed in gaining employment due to a tightening of opportunities nor do they succeed in gaining a place in further education. there seems to be a certain amount of fail-sure activity going on maybe high unemployment is a primary goal or policy of the government Society still wants young people to succeed in school. If the goals to which they seem to aspire are not being met, then what is going wrong? If students do not succeed, then what do we need to do? perhaps we need to look at what we mean by ‘succeed’ and ‘education’ and ‘we’ As a teacher, I want to show my students a broader purpose in learning mathematics. I wonder if it is mathematics or the contexualizing of it which is the real difficulty I am struggling with the data analysis. Part of the story I am to tell will come from the meanings I make of the dialogues I had with my Malawian teachers and students, who I believe, have a more grounded knowledge about the current realities of education. It should be a story of what I have learned from my countrymen and children which should be more important for my thinking about what can be done to improve their situation rather than the dominant mode of discourse prevailing in the literature. Malawi became independent from Britain in 1964. What happened was that some political leaders in Malawi elected a president who they agreed should rule for life. This president ruled, under One Party, Malawi for the next 30 YEARS! incredible People lived in fear, no one was allowed to criticise anyone. There was even fear in households: a man would not do/say anything “bad” to his wife. The matter would be reported to the president, who made it clear that all women belonged to him. They sang for him, gave him gifts when he was at political rallies. Briefly speaking, his party was the government, and the government was his party. amazing perhaps the leaders learned only too well the lessons of colonization If we look at the education system in that period, there is only one word which can describe it: no academic freedom. We only had one university. Prominent and well educated lecturers were considered a threat to the ruling class. As a result, we have many Malawian professionals who have not found it safe to return to their country after their education abroad. I am now inclined to believe that it was considered a threat to educate the masses. The secondary education system only allowed 10% of secondary going kids. and the others The rest were abandoned and wandered in the villages selling biscuits if they could 273

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afford to. I can go on and on, but the story for Malawi was pathetic. Now we have what you call “democracy.” There are several political parties. We have a new government, and somehow, people seem to enjoy more freedom to participate in their development activities, etc. sounds like things are a lot better now or at least less worse What is missing, from my point of view, is a framework in which this freedom of participation can be operationalised. most coyotes go to post-secondary education it’s called survival everybody’s gunning for us I know how you feel we’re treated as avis non grata or res no thanks It’s like people woke up the next morning and found that they are allowed to speak “without a language” with which to use to make them heard and understood. A language to voice their reactions to corruption/manipulation and to their history. it doesn’t sound as if the shape of your education was related to your culture We had a british style of education. Textbooks had an English/British context. English as medium of instruction and offical language. As far as I can remember, none of my mother languages were allowed in the official curriculum. English was considered a must for everyone to know, without which they would not do well in the system, especially if they wanted to go further with their education. As a matter of fact, English was and is still compulsory in both primary and secondary curricula. In fact, the president himself, a Malawian, always spoke English wherever he went. When he was attending a rally in a remote village, there would always be someone to TRANSLATE his English to the language that the villagers would understand. all coyotes speak coyotec wrrrrackkk try and translate that Things have changed a little bit now. I recall that there was a policy to allow kids to be taught in their mother tongue. But how does that operate when NO READING MATERIALS/SYLLABUSES exist in their mother language? Maybe this will force people to start writing their own materials, their own stories. mountains to climb hills first We were living in a society which was very unreflective. We were just being told to do things without any reasons. People were not allowed to speak out. where were your revolutionaries Even in English literature, none of the textbooks were Malawian. It was mostly all Shakespearean. Any story/poetry written by a Malawian would be thoroughly screened for any political references. on the other hand shakespeare could be used politically in malawi in reference rather than deference to the government We are living in a society which has been submerged in this historical past. How do we get to the surface and see other possibilities? This is the question I always ask myself. Let me break it here, and hope that we get something for a continuing and ongoing dialogue from this. before the world becomes a more caring place, there will be a lot more suffering suffering is the way of the world not different from it 274

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indigenous leaders fill in templates prepared by colonizers I suppose your teachers were a mixture of indigenous and colonizer All my primary teachers were indigenous. However, at secondary school, my English teachers were American and British. In History and Bible Knowledge subjects, we were taught by American teachers. My teachers for the other subjects were mostly indigenous a mixture of indigenous and western/european teaching I am not sure if I benefited more from one than the other. do you hope to go back home soon I hope to go back to Malawi and see my family up there. I do not quite see any possibility of getting work here yet so raven things have been much the same in africa and british columbia people are people thank you andrew (silent interlude followed by music of drumming singing mime dancing) the colonizing experience has been similar in british columbia as in other colonized places schools were places of propagandizing not to mention of murder rape genocide different times different values the last residential schools closed in the 1990s 80s the last residential schools haven’t closed yet haven’t opened yet if we’re talking about lifelong education school as life then it seems to me colonization is residential schooling like I said times have changed the murdered are still dead the raped raped the shamed shamed you’ve got to move on it was a different time people thought differently besides others suffered as well not just first nations peoples my point exactly from the first conquering footfalls of whiteness genocide began biocide mercantilism blossomed into fully fledged capitalism as arlo guthrie said kill kill kill kill kill kill KILL KILL I never killed anyone you didn’t have to the avant garde of the white machine was very efficient or as ward churchill says the eichmans seem so innocent because the triggers they pull are contextually hidden from those of other parts of the genocide machine my people never stole land from you it was prestolen by other generations passed on or sold by people who didn’t own it get your culture back your languages who’s stopping you that’s where we’re going all aboard get back into your oil lamp stuff stuff paddle paddle stroke stroke whooooooooooooshhhhh!

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mexico: ricardo’s story we turn our canoe from southeastern australia toward canada again from an unpublished poem comes a story in a canoe filled with unseen ellipses with many ghosts paddling in the margin written in ink these words “lived by ricardo rodriguez villalosso written by kathleen rodriguez” partners living in western canada we move through many lakes and rivers and streams until we reach west central alberta near the bible belt below I record some of her/his/their story replacing sections with ellipses “I am Ricardo, son, daughter, grandchild of the Indio mejica. I am the thirteenth child of Mexican parents. Mexican parents for whom Spanish is a second language. French, spanish and cora indian blood flows through my veins ... I am Ricardo, poor, dirty little boy, from the mountain of greased paper houses. I am Ricardo, looking out, and seeing inequality, seeing that I am treated differently, because of where my house stands . . . I am Ricardo, eight-year old boy. One warm June day, Some men come. They are coming for something new. They want to take a census. ... Two days later, in the very early dawn 276

we are wakened by frantic parents The air is thick with smoke. The barrio is on fire. The bourgeois have set us on fire! ... That evening we all sleep under the stars. . . so many families . . . ... The adults shush our questions about the fire. about the things that we have seen. They have been told to be quiet. To talk about this to no one. They have been threatened. To talk will mean that bad things will happen to us. ... We are assigned a home. Nearby are homes that have been constructed over a garbage dump. Many of the people are frightened. Bodies are buried here. Are they sleeping over bodies? Some people do find bones when digging in their courtyards. Some people call in the sorceress. They want the spirits of the dead to be at peace. Uncle Izaac calls in the sorceress to heal his dying daughter, but still My papa says that no, We have left the ways of the Aztecs and their cousins far behind. We will go with the faith 277

that the white man brought to us, when he came with Cortez. We say the rosary. No witches for us . . . At school, I am taken to grade three when I have almost completed grade four. It seems that my poverty must also be a statement about my ability to learn? ... I am Ricardo, teenager, ... I, Ricardo march. We march. The army is called in. We are a disturbance. Using fire hoses hooked to the sewer system We are sprayed ... We march, and are at a university. The army is outside but we are not worried. These men are our brothers. . . The door of the gymnasium is blown open. Those nearest are injured and killed. Confusion . . . we are of the same blood . . . And later, my neighbor, and friend comes over to tell of the day. He was one of the army Doing the job that he was ordered to do. ... 278

We march into La Plaza de Las Tres Culturas in Tlaltelolco. There are snipers on the roofs of the buildings. The blood of my people pours down the sewers as we are shot down. Directives from the president. He wants peace No matter what the cost. The Olympics are soon to begin in my country, and we are like flies irritating him and those around him. ... I am living in a time of unrest. The people hear the call of Hidalgo, Juarez, Pancho Villa Zapata. . . it is in our blood. We cannot accept. We feel the unrest of centuries in our blood. ... I am Ricardo, struggling to find a way to make a difference in this country whose people I am. Choir boy, altar boy, I wonder if through the priesthood, I can help my people. I study, 279

I work with priests. ... How can I sleep in a comfortable bed, while my people are on the cold hard ground. These people, are me. They are my history, they are my future. They too, are Ricardo. ... I leave my white robes, troubled, bitter. ... I am Ricardo. I have come, looking for purpose, to this country. I have come to learn, what humanity is, what I am, how I can be. I come, desperate to become one, with these people, whose past and future are so fragile. ... I meet guerrilleros, I hear their words, and want to be one with them. But also I am afraid, and I return to the land of my birth. I remain silent about the love I have felt in these dirt-floored homes. ... While I will spend my life 280

trying to understand, I will never become completely one of these people. ... I am Ricardo, leaving not one, but many families as I move to Canada. ... I leave the community of zapatistas in the making, ... But my heart is not heavy, for I know that I join a woman who loves me, who will be by my side. ... We marry, and I feel a cold, unsure wall from her family. The wedding feast is complete with Mexican jokes. Everyone laughs. I do not understand how derisive the jokes are that her brother tells. “How much do you want for my seester, meester . . .” I shrug . . . perhaps this is the Canadian way. ... I clearly make these men uncomfortable. In my desire to talk, I find they turn away, and so I become silent in their company. ... At Grandmother’s funeral the brother Craig comments that my little Spic son knows his place ... We are Ricardo. 281

We do not respond. We have become the despised, the scum, the dirty Mexicans. ... I am Ricardo, who is given the gift of a visit to my father’s homeland when I am thirteen. ... I feel my Mexican ness. My blood tingles with the knowledge of who I am, of what I have come from and of what I might become. My head rises from my chest, and I look with awakened pride at the land, at the people of whom I am a part. My brothers . . . We are Ricardo. We struggle. We know, however, that our struggle is small, compared to that of so many. ... We will make a difference.”

(Rodriguez, 2000)

remembering meeting kathleen and ricardo their children that summer 1999 reading his/her/their epistle of beauty being amazed and awed at the strength the courage the words the actions knowing there are so many working together the ellipses in the story above are moments filled with pain but also hope and they are what cannot enter language so must define it the canoe has much blood on it in it of it and the waters weary worn we continue into the waters that lead us to other stories I gather up my paddling buddies and we paddle paddle stroke stroke paddlepaddlepaddle stroke 282

kenya: mutindi’s story this journey to speak with mutindi of the mkamba leads to south carolina there are navigable rivers there from central alberta I didn’t have to cross oceans to kenya to speak with her or have coffee with her ideas wes(tern methodology) inserts the odd comment more often than not in the form of voice under (VU) and from time to time coyote lets out raven too invites her/him/self to supply tricksterisms M WES C M P M

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Habari zenu ndugu zanguni english please we are in america wes you are a guest on this continent learn your place how are you my brother and sister? You see ndugu in swahili has no gender! we are well and miss contact with you your paper has a temperature mutindi the font looks tired maybe you should give it some bed rest i feel as though i am contacting the flu. i just hope i don’t because the work is too much. Anyway, i would rather share with you about my education and my visions of a liberatory education. liberatory well then I’ll come in handy I’m a liberator by profession I’ll liberate you mouthboy the knowing colonial academic wanting to liberate oppressed ‘other’ anyway mutindi you were talking about your brother you call this data collection this is just conversation Well, i must say that i am grateful that my brother gave up his education for me. he had earned a scholarship to do international law, he was excited, ready to leave his country to go abroad and pursue his long term dream. My brother is a brilliant man; very articulate; fair, caring. (light jazzy transition music and Voice Under (VU) of Wes) it is my duty to inform you that your son has been stealing soap you are now speaking of soap you do move around in conversation My brother started “stealing” soap for my mother when he was small. He didn’t understand why my father would buy so many bars of soap for my step mother and none for his mother. My brother, whenever he visited my father in the city, he would help himself with the soaps. ‘help himself’ I like that turn of phrase petty theft leads to corporate welfare the gomery inquiry the ceo’s office he did not consider that stealing even though my stepmother accused him of stealing. he was simply carrying out equitable practices that should have been there in the first place. righting wrongs unwronging rewrighting I’ll iron out the epistemological wrinkles leave it to me go home relax take two bars of soap and call me in the morning

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Anyway, my brother, got all his visas and travel documents ready to leave. He left his bank job. his job in the bank But, as his departure date drew nearer, his conscience refused to let go. He felt that he would go away, come back the only one educated and find my mother dead, his siblings herding cows, his sisters married with several children. The image was ugly and he gave up school for us. he must have a very powerful allegiance to you to family allegiance should be to the state to corporate hq how would you like to spend the next century in a lamp My brother Fred right now sits at home without a job because he never got a degree in finances which is the area he ended up specializing in. but, what do i think of education? I think that education as it is is no good. Why do i say that? This is because when i look at the sacrifices that have been made so that i can get the education i have and the fact that i can’t still be of much help to those who sacrificed for me i then wonder whether there is not a hidden agenda in education. another conspiracy theory A few people get rewarded and they are highly rewarded, the rest of us toil to put bread on the table even though we have the highest degree in our areas. Why? Why do we have to run across the globe to find bread? because bread is not free anymore not made in each home not shared but for sale you have to work for money to buy bread in a capitalist/free enterprise system nobody ever offers me bread all I ever get is hassle please your humour is puerile sit down pooof ! you’re a duck kwaq qweq because you have been rude could be an evolutionary step up kwaq qweq your ducktalk is abyssmal I’d better make you ‘human’ again If we are running like this, what about those in our class who have less education than us? Where will they emerge? qwak I mean working as unskilled labour as befits their station watch it or you’ll be waddling again When i worked with the women in my village, i felt so sad to hear the horror storiesthe sacrifices the women were making to give their children education. These included not eating, walking long distances with heavy loads on the back, not seeing doctors because that is not a priority, women who do not have a minute for themselves even to examine their breasts for cancer i mean women who don’t know themselves because there is just not enough time to be. it’s a terrible tragedy I was and i am still very sad about this. it is even worse because the children they are educating will not find a job anywhere. So, what is the point? the point is that the kinds of jobs they will be looking for are the kinds of jobs that the western world is shaping us for 284

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The world bank seems to be happy with women getting some little education to be able to know when to swallow family planning pills—let’s control their reproduction— that’s it. keep the populations down less chance of famine now this one’s an expert on hunger it seems to me that education is used as a bottomless pit that has been dug for parents/guardians to fill. They are cheated that after 12 years of schooling the pit will be full-a big lie. It is fraud i think. do they expect to find jobs instantly they must become qualified i think i value education for self-reliance. Mwalimu Julius Nyerere of Tanzania preached and lived self-reliance. His paradigm worked quite well but he couldn’t stand the challenges of capitalism-creating a large underclass. My goal is to be selfreliant. What is the point of educating people who can’t use this education to put bread on their tables for one day? Always so busy you know to do the things we like to do, to sit and talk and walk in the narrow paths of Ukambani my village and meet someone and stop and talk-exchange greetings and get an update of the people in the other ridge/village? Yes, i’m really re-thinking my experiences of education and academia and the bull. Anyway, we need to be financially independent-honestly it is not holy to be poor!! I too keep praying for the best for all of us who care you know, the African philosophy was that “I am because we are and since we are therefore I am.” tell it to those in charge of educational policy and finances Poverty is unjust and I think that we have to look at this squarely. Being paid peanuts will not help in this struggle. Education can and could but we still have to start at the bottom of some hierarchy-with the kinds of the pro-vice chancellor feeling as though they are indispensable. I don’t like our vulnerability-somebody feeling as though they control the very air we breath. It is interesting that the group that we are having great difficulties with are the skinner/pavlov gang-commonly called “special education experts.” BORA UZIMA are words spoken to me by a young Tanzanian woman who helped me when nthenya was born. She always told me not to worry as long as I was physically, spiritually, emotionally and mentally healthy because I would live to do whatever I needed to do. trusting your own self but keeping one eye on the rearview mirror Hey, i have to go-many greetings and love, hugs, loving prayers to you two and those who, like yourselves do not sleep to dream, but dream of making the world a better place to live. thank you sister mutindi well everybody time to head up to vancouver again another crosscanada run paddle that is paddle paddle paddle paddle stroke whoooooshhh

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inter/viewing texts: writing paddling along the coast of vancouver we come to false creek false memory the homeandnativeland of first peoples since time past memory in recent years it was discovered/takenover by white persons whereupon the original people were exiled [1877] onto a few acres of land designated kitsilano indian reserve number 6 36 years later in 1913 the kitsilano people were evicted from their prime downtown vancouver real estate property following bigtime colluding and palmgreasing amongst powerful greedy white people can’t have indians living downtown uptown in town any town so they were placed on a barge and shipped off to the north bank of the burrard inlet they were informed that their land had been sold “you have to go live someplace else” like capilano reserve north van “it wasn’t for sale” they replied but that didn’t seem to matter much now that the city of vancouver had secured 72 acres of downtown beachfront and they’d gotten rid of those ‘dirty goddam indians’ the lawyers got the money and the land of more first peoples fueled the booming vancouver real estate market welcome to early 20th century democracy and social justice racism bc style so much for international laws relating to ab/originality and sovereign nations the rights of ‘discovery’ christianity the invaders and capitalism take precedence even with ‘settlements’ in court over other injustices the kitsilano grab has not been wholly dealt with

despite the claims of government and indian affairs bureaucratized ‘indians’ there are other voices yet to hear other first peoples to accommodate the unborn exhausted from yet another transcontinental journey we pull into the granville island marina tie up our canoe and head over to the bread garden for a coffee and something to eat we have a schedule to keep so our stop has to be brief later as we were paddling up past the new westminster quay we saw ghosts of oldtime aboriginal people walking with the tourists and the locals coyote and raven were there kicking their heels and other peoples’ too we were so caught up in watching this incredible sight we weren’t watching where we were headed coyote was supposed to be navigator and raven was steering anyway out of nowhere a giant text appeared it opened its covers and swallowed us poof without even chewing none of us could believe what was going on it didn’t make any sense but lots about our trip has been like that we managed to keep our heads and even tried to rationalize what had happened this must be a dream we figured a collective hallucination maybe we ate ergotty croissants or drank bad water as we went further into the words and spaces I noticed the text’s name (Kelley, 1992) Give Back: First Nations Perspectives on Cultural Practice we were a bit put off at this turn of events because up until that point we had been making good time but you know we weren’t surprised the text hadn’t shown up on our radar screen which had actually been a fishfinder mounted on a flagpole because modern technologies don’t work well in imaginative spaces our gls wasn’t working at all inside the alimentary tract of this book funny thing too the acid from the appendix ate all the ellipses some of the other punctuation too left spaces how does punctuation get into transcribed conversations anyway and whose call is it after some time dealing with digestive eructations we met five first nations women and we got to talking with them via their edited words maria campbell (MC) doreen jensen (DJ) joy asham fedorick (JF) jeanette armstrong (JA) and lee maracle (L) from time to time coyote (C) and raven (R) intervened and wes(tern methodology) (Wes) interrupted vo (VO) had a few things to say and I (P) ended up doing most of the facilitating because as far as I knew I was the only one who had talked to books before to the words of them that is

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1969 was a tough time for you maria I didn’t fit in any of the places people hung out I was a long way from home. I needed someone to talk to and there was nobody around. I decided to write. and Halfbreed emerged It helped me to go through a healing process, to understand where I was coming from to stop blaming the victim, and start blaming the criminal. sounds painful It helped me to realize that it wasn’t my fault, that racism was real, that you could reach out and touch it a lot of what happened in my life was a result of racism. I bet the colonisers loved you Right across the country, a lot of white people wanted to take me under their wing and help me, because they felt bad about what they read. whiteguilt whiteguilt But I found that when I started to speak out, when I started to get strong doors were closed to me. I wasn’t able to get back into them again. I’ve heard this story before That’s our first song. you talk about writing in english power relations When I was writing I always found that English manipulated me. Once I understood my own rhythms, the language of my people, the history of storytelling, and the responsibility of storytelling, then I was able to manipulate the language. I understand you participated in a film dealing with clear-cutting and its effects on community you must have had some interesting experiences doing that “But Maria, we’ve got to have some fucking in here,” the director said. I asked him, “What does fucking have to do with clear-cutting?” He wanted to take the relationship between the father and the daughter and change it into an incestuous relationship. He wanted a rape scene. I refused to write it. good for you We went out and started shooting. sfx rifle sounds whew that was a close one almost got dingoed I hung around, because they had put in the contract that I would be an adviser— whatever that meant, because nobody listened to me. One afternoon I was gone, and that afternoon a rape scene was made a part of that film. (sings) welcome to the mainstream welcome to the mainstream hands up shootfuck shootfuck shootfuck shootfuck The girl was made to wear a dress without a slip underneath, and that changed the whole story. It changed the whole feeling of the show. It not only degraded her, but it made her community, her whole people, seem like they didn’t care about anything. definitely not nice you also speak of the importance of humour It’s really important to try and maintain a sense of humour. I’ve had to learn to be funny, to see the humorous side of things. meegwetch maria thank you for that now doreen jensen perhaps you’ll share some of your thoughts about first nations art 288

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In my language, there is no word for “Art.” Because Art is so powerfully integrated with all aspects of life, we are replete with it. would you replete that please As Aboriginal Artists, we need to reclaim our own identities, through our work, our heritage and our future. We don’t need any longer to live within others’ definitions of who and what we are. For too long our Art has been situated in the realm of anthropology by a discourse that validates only white Artists. you were saying they don’t include sea grass baskets quill work moose hair tufting ceremonial robes woven and appliqué as being art Not surprisingly, these exquisite works of Art are mainly done by women. Attitudes towards Art reveal racism. The first Europeans called our Art “primitive” and “vulgar.” Today, people of European origin call our Art “craft” and “artifact.” call us artifacts too Art is essential, for all of us culture is the soul of the nation. the united states government has been racist in its treatment of native americans yet takes up indigenous cultural attributes like the iroquois symbol of the eagle with five feathers in its talons in its official insignia theft of intellectual property as its insignia and cultural identity. racism is part of the fabric of canada too look at the oka crisis going to war over white people wanting to make a first nations sacred burial site into a white golf course Canada’s mask slipped to reveal the ugly and treacherous face of racism. what about creativity art making and inspiration The act of creativity comes from the cosmos I have been told by the old people. When I’m making Art, I am one with the universe. You can see it in the work, if you look with your heart pay attention, you can “get the message”—and make it your own, without diminishing it or appropriating it. When I diminish others’ “belongingness” in the universe, my own “belongingness” becomes uncertain. canada has worked long and hard to diminish our belongingness it would be a lot easier for them if we belonged elsewhere but canada is our west bank our northeastsouth bank and our credit union in fact our belonginglessness has been legislated in at the same time as the selling off of ‘crown’ land has been legislated in I mean that gordon campbell in bc where’s his brain at I know I know don’t answer ‘yes yes oh yes landclaims you have a right to make claims but BUT we can’t wait for that process to be completed so we’ll just sell off the land in the meanwhile and you can fight with the new owners’ all this malarkey about ‘holding land in trust’ for us sovereignty is not about holding anything in trust and in the first place we don’t trust them’ you’re getting off topic off topic I thought we were having a diversation Canada is an image which hasn’t emerged yet. Because this country hasn’t recognized its First Nations, its whole foundation is shaky. Our Art is our cultural identity; it’s our politics. you talk about the basis of first nations cultural identity George Manuel said, “This land is our culture.” I add to that, “Our culture is this 289

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land.” The land and the culture are one. Land claims have to be settled, before Canadians can look at themselves in the mirror and see an image they would be proud to see. cultural claims too There is still white water ahead. and red water My dad told me, ‘Learn the tools of the white man—but don’t forget who you are.’ thank you doreen enjoy your trip to kispiox now joy fedorick will speak about her experience as an artist and teacher joy ooh I have to wait until she emerges from the text joy you have been described as a cultural activist you speak of writing a participatory article of three-d reading and of paint-by-number reading experience could you elaborate Analogies, footnotes, boxes full of examples, quotes, anecdotes are used to reinforce themes and scatter your linear, herded thought patterns into a right-brain intuitive mode. you’ve had some interesting experiences with white ‘indian experts’ I was at a feminist dinner one night, when sitting across from me was a Caucasian female sociologist. She was practicing Cocktail Anthropology on me and badgering me with endless questions about “what is it really like to be a Native woman.” I was hungry and wanted to eat. I assume you didn’t respond to her baiting Sometimes we evade these questions, you know But finally, figuring if I ever was going to eat in peace, I’d better answer. I told her what it’s like in this skin, the good, the bad, the perceived ugly, and once more picked up my fork. “That’s not what it’s like at all,” she said. hm sounds pretty arrogant which is normal for indian experts you also have an interesting relationship with literary genre and the english language “I have coined the term “literary hierarchy” to refer to the literary structure known as “beginning, middle and end.” The parallel in Western theology is Creation through Apocalypse. the judeochristian model as it was is and ever shall be amen awomen trinity trinitron triceratops tripoli Our stories reflect long-term planning. They do not necessarily have a beginning, middle and end When it is essential for us to understand the wisdom of the recounting, that piece of knowledge will be there. And it is. that’s been my experience too wisdom just pops up everywhere all ways raven you got so many feathers fluffed in your thoughts I don’t know Our stories are not “formula” oriented. There is no beginning, there is an always was, and with no end there is an always will be. sounds like coyotec semiotics we live in an eternal present very unscientific and romantic The spiritual nature of the concept of the Continuum is addressed through style and with language that is relationship-oriented rather than thing-oriented. English, with its noun predominance, does not allow, within rigid hierarchical style criterion, for

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relationships to be explored, relationships that help us to understand our place and value in the Big Picture. you indians entered into economic and political relationships bought in sold out (sings) do you know the way to mumbai delhi calcutta pondicherry indians? (sings) I’ve been away so long what indians? you made historically documented bargains for mutual benefit mutual benefit wraaakk is that the new euphemism for rubricocide aboriginocide massacring the first peoples continental theft hemispheric theft When the Mohawk Nations first exchanged commitments of cultural respect with representatives of the British Monarchy, they honoured the British with gifts of double wampum belts. The belts, in the wampum beadwork, always included two parallel lines of coloured work. beads shmeads what has this to do with education and history These parallel lines represented two canoes gliding along the same waters, not interfering with each other, yet going in the same direction. Such was meant to represent the two cultures: sharing equally of the Creator’s gifts, but not imposing on one another. wampum has no punctuation no nouns no words no signatures romantic piffle imagine that no words written or other/wise capital offence void of auditory aud of voiditory you speak of oral documents we want things we can see sounds vanish they join the kreb’s cycle Dominant culture of North America dictates the use of reliance on eye contact as a means of determining sincerity, honesty, self-confidence, etc. Yet, to the Swampy Cree, etiquette required that you avoid direct eye contact as much as possible, as the eyes were considered to be the Windows of the Soul, sounds like they were reading too much descartes blanche très For one to stare into your eyes was an intrusion, and to focus on another’s was earnestly avoided the person who practiced such avoidance was considered to be both respectful and humble. not meeting someone’s eyes is considered a sign of dishonesty shifty-eyed foreigners haven’t you ever heard that expression foreigners hm you mean like you my people have been here for 10 generations like I said foreigners survenants meeting the eyes and staring are quite different seeing is not looking if you don’t keep up with the times you’ll never progress you’ve got to compete Sometimes, progress requires more than etiquette—that is, the reaching out and welcoming of others—it requires competition to be set aside and cooperation to be put in its stead. no competition no motivation no progress

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how long have you been a teacher Eight hundred years give or take give or take what use it or lose it you might want to consider early retirement as an option it might be too late to deny tenure how about verdure maybe retroactive denial they’re good at that ‘we will take away the rights you had yesterday tomorrow’ retroactive legislation the alberta government strikes again Dominant society has narrowed the focus of life to be strictly material achievement (ie. dollars and jobs) and has funneled students, Native and non-Native alike, into dizzying heights of technical and professional expertise that has excluded the more generalist and spiritually-oriented, holistic, analogous thinking process one can achieve from not just one teacher or area of specialty, but from many. without specialty everything sinks into mediocrity mediocrity’s a safer place to be most of the time but it tends to be crowded if it keeps us away from white ‘indian’ experts sign me up indios albionensis alleswisseni what’s with the final i genitive what sense is there being an indigenous indigenous expert when there are already so many white indigenous experts we’re superfluous extranumerary I’m not Don’t force us over the buffalo jump to cultural extinction, either through watering down our cultural integrity or making us survive culturally anemic. put away your pen and paper your digital camera your omnidirectional microphone no more researching thank you research yourselves next question we have the right to research you is that enshrined somewhere in your texts perhaps the bible the torah the koran When you have let us write our own hundreds and thousands of books, filled concert halls, galleries, stages with our cultural expression, then, and only then, when our culture surrounds us, living, breathing, acting, developing, secure: tell us then not to use your words, look at your art, use your tools to paint and play. your lack of reason just confuses everything you deny us our privilege We are told that confusion always precedes periods of understanding. you talk about ‘artwords’ the product of creating art with words. you can’t invent words language police! arrest her somebody said to ask about your cat jim She taught me this: if one only treats with respect and kindness those who can confer a benefit that respect is conditional and is of little value.” mmmmmrrrooowwwrrr you speak of English having ‘noun-predominance’ how this affects the speaker in a language that primarily gears our thoughts to things, we become trapped in a value system of materialism. 292

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so the english language is an ally and a foe fee fi fum As an Aboriginal writer, I set out on many excursions to find the thing lacking in linear English: the visual texture of so many of the experiences, personal and real, popular and ethereal, that trigger the feelings of oneness with the reader, the feeling of occupying the same eyes and ears of the one experiencing the story—these things I find so elusive in the literary hierarchy of beginning, middle and end. beginning middle end it’s obvious but you just can’t perceive it where’s your common sense it’s as plain as white justice The elusiveness stems from the construction of English: it is a noun-based language with immense material vocabulary, but it is poor in its content of verbs, adjectives and adverbs. Both the linear structure of the language and the formulae developed to use it, restrict the ability of a writer to express emotion, relationships, texture and depth, unless, of course, one deals with things instead of people. nouns aren’t things they’re the names of things and the names themselves are not things? not nouns? then what are they verbs? I like slow verbs they’re easier to catch and chewier than those fast ones you seem to be looking elsewhere for meaning Verbs, adjectives, adverbs replacing nouns, movement and time-motion relationships replacing rigid technical formulae. we need names for things otherwise there would be confusion chaos Do you really need words for things you don’t need? consumerism consumerism need more need more wraaaakkk ‘em up you keep talking about story story story isn’t story about words? Now, I thought, somehow, my father, in English could transmit these things. Was it the way he told his stories? was it his vocabulary? Was it how he used stories themselves as analogous examples? Was it the unpredictable and sometimes confusing structures and structurelessness? Was it how, in the process of analogy that transferability of teachings occur? Yes, yes to all. she’s not answering my question directly no but also you’re not listening you were speaking of pseudo-speciation as eric erickson called it This is a process used to desensitize us, to make the enemy less-than-human in our eyes The most profound and insidious form of pseudo-speciation today is contrived through statistical reporting We become desensensitized by statistical proliferation, no faces or human characteristics are assigned in the numbers. we use numbers and statistics to understand make sense of the world to compare delineate to graph and make bell curves it works wonderfully Pseudo-speciation has two effects: it dehumanizes the victims of gross atrocities, but its lasting impact is on the spirits of the millions who read about such things and dismiss them. These people become dehumanized through the loss of compassion. I don’t dehumanize anybody I simply categorize like any good scientist mm aren’t you the ones who measured peoples’ heads to determine which ones were superior and which ones needed leeches seems to me the history of science is 293

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about chance as much as it’s about anything racism is not any nicer when it’s a passive default position If an Aboriginal person is not seen as a human being, it is easy to deny rights. It is easy to allow us to die thirty years ahead of the rest of the population. eat better stay away from alcohol sugar drugs and violence be careful what you say in indian country is that a threat? that is sound advice what about the circle in your work vis á vis beginning middle end If I believe in a continuum, the Circle, then I don’t have to opt in at the Beginning, muddle through the Middle, and be victimized by the End. I can join the Circle at any time, in any place. on a related note you have experimented with holographic writing Holographs have always fascinated me: they say that if you break one, any of the parts include the whole image. more indigenous epistemology couched in obfuscation that someone from cultural studies assigns signification to you have expressed difficulty with certain kinds of thinking A thinking that allows hierarchy to govern and injustice to prevail. speaking of hierarchies you talk about returning to this plane When my spirit re-enters this plane, I hope I don’t come back as a herd animal. Not because I don’t like our Brothers and Sisters, but because I like them best one or two at a time. any particular reason This way I can get to know them, know their struggles and solutions, know their discord and how they find peace. thank you and goodbye joy moving along to jaune quick-to-see smith from the flathead reservation in montana now living in new mexico she wants to talk about myths myth number one first nations people of the western hemisphere had no written language it’s a well documented fact of what the absence of proof or the burden of nonproofiary evidence The Mayan [collection] when it was burned by the Spanish, was housed in a library equal to the library in Alexandria. myth number two first nations had no wheel We had a wheel; in fact I am working on a public art project with the Duwamish people of Seattle to rebuild a six-foot water wheel which was an automatic fishing machine. factory fishing that’s not nice indians in fact deinvented the wheel we knew what a problem it would turn out to be highways parking lots road rage accidents pollution and figured it was more trouble than it was worth in the long run or walk amble jog myth number three the western hemisphere was empty except with a few savages 294

We had vast populations, estimated at fifty to eighty million in 1492, calculated to be equal to that of Europe at the time. R and that’s just north of panama C add the south and we far outnumbered europe R and s/he’s not even counting the buffalo C or the coyotes R or ravens C or passenger pigeons R or mosquitoes C or blackflies P have indigenous people anything worthwhile to offer the world now JQ Today, the industrial world’s mismanagement of the environment has led scientists around the world to seek out and research indigenous people’s knowledge—farming in the desert without irrigation, farming inside the rainforest without disturbing the ecosystem—and their vast knowledge of the medicinal properties of plants. P any advice for young people today JQ Listen to our elders. Use teamwork. P anything for young aboriginal scholars JQ Research America by going into the field, not the library shelves, or archives or storage. Do your research first hand. P you have a lot of faith in collaboration face to face JQ Teamwork will get the job done. P thank you for contributing jaune now we will speak with jeanette armstrong through retroactive textual intervention we will converse with her through her essay Racism: Racial Exclusivity and Cultural Supremacy JA For albeit, I speak English to you, rather than my own language, I might as well speak my language, because the meanings of the English words I use arise out of my Okanagan understanding of the world. P maybe you could recap your ideas about ‘tree’ness again for the readers JA Each of us might therefore share a kind of sensory composite, symbolic of trees in general for recognition purposes. The meaning that trees have to each of us, however, seems to be bound up in how we each relate to trees. WES oh come on now tree is a tree is a tree C one two R&C tree speech ssssssh listen JA A person who has never walked under trees in forests and heard breezes rustling through leaves as birds filled branches, filtering sunlight and rain, will never truly know a tree. To the person whose direct survival depends on trees, the tree has a deeper cultural meaning—steeped in an essence of gratitude toward the creation of the tree, and therefore enveloped within a unique cultural expression of reverence toward creation. WES objective versus subjective denotation versus connotation get on board JA Consider the extreme difference between a logging conglomerate president’s meaning and one in whose culture trees are living relatives in spirit, though the word might be referred to, by both, in English. Can we say that these are two different trees? Or JQ

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might it be possible to understand that this is only one tree that has two different meanings? this is primitive semantic deconstruction existentialist wrangling piffery piff off Words have a covering of meaning derived from unique relationships to things, beyond the generally accepted descriptive sensory symbol. Thousands of generations of relating to things in a given way give rise to cultural meaning attached to words. Thus, even though I might translate tree into an English word, my cultural meaning remains intact as though spoken in my language while your cultural understanding of the word remains locked within the context of your culture. Unless you also speak my language, or permit me to fully interpret my meaning, the tree of which I speak remains a tree cloaked in my culture and language which excludes my meaning. the words have different connotations Words, in being shaped through language emerging out of culture have a rootedness in meaning which renders them exclusionary. if you want to converse with me speak english otherwise you are trapped in your own culture My very real situation is that I am here speaking not my language to you, and in doing so, realize that it is I who must frame my thinking into another language. A language which excludes all of my Okanagan cultural understanding as though it were non-existent. you don’t expect me to learn your language the bottom line is everybody has to learn how to howl haaawwwrrkkkkk tree is a tree pine is a pine in whatever language pinus arboraticus it’s there in plain latin Words seem to be standardized out of common experience and therefore out of the common thought of a people. you’re dreaming Spoken language is only one system of expression. One which is least dependent upon anything outside of the human body and most efficient in not interfering with other activities of the body. your point being assuming you have one Spoken language, therefore, has developed the largest vocabulary of symbols which represent understanding. so? Spoken language, then, is one system which signifies meaning and therefore contains thought. Many other complex systems of expression carry cultural meaning which cannot be expressed in words. where are you going with this do you want me to beat drums dance and wear hides don war paint is that a threat or an instance of recidivism appropriation Expressive arts can thus be seen as symbols devised to transmit ways of thinking and 296

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ways of doing things. The ways of thinking and the ways of doing things being a process of everyday life experience. In this way, culture can be seen as a process, and language can be seen as one of the receptacles and vehicles by which the process is shared, transmitted and learned. it’s been a while since I’ve seen a curriculum encouraging coyotec as a second language or ravening birdtalk kraaaaooooockkk watch it high flyer birds prefigure mammals who’s a mammal who’s a bird learn english it’s the only thing that makes any sense what has sense to do with it sounds like a song Language plays a powerful role in information transmitted as a carrier of thought or a world view of a people. The thought or the world view, however, is the shaper of cultural process. so so not allowing first nations children to speak their own language in school is genocide take it from me learn what ‘tree’ means in english and you’ll get along a lot better Racism entrenches itself through coercive acts devised to suppress and replace the culture of other peoples. Racism as such is no more than cultural imperialism arising out of an inability to overcome ethnocentrically disposed views maintained out of tradition. my way of perceiving ‘tree’ is not itself racist it might not be your view but it is valid as my cultural expression are white children forced to learn first nations languages forced to throw away their own culture are they taken away from their parents and fostered out to strangers who might be sex perverts torturers murderers lawyers politicians don’t blame me for what the priests did am I a priest a nun I didn’t take your culture away blame somebody else blame attitudes of the past bad judgement Racism might then be seen as a form of cultural rigidity, characterized by a cultural blindness to all its own processes. An inability, so to speak, to perceive knowledge outside of the narrow limits of a culture bound racial type. A refusal to enrich and grow beyond one view of the world. we have different takes on the world it’s as simple as that maybe neither is right but they’re both worth considering your tree is not mine and mine is not yours This might lead one to refuse to see a tree as more than a commodity because accumulation of material wealth might have been once a necessary tradition of survival, in a culture where material wealth was restricted only to an elite. for heaven’s sake get real if you want to be validated by my culture then jump through the hoops if you want to remain in ignorance of my culture and of mainstream ways of being in the world then just stay with your people and talk your language and pray to your gods just don’t get in my way okay I’m moving forward into the future hoo I’m glad I live in the present won’t run into him again 297

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haaaawrrrrooooo get off the tracks Such culturally supremacist racism could then justify countless inhumane measures of conquest—including massive military annihilation, enslavement and control—under the guise of civilization. this is not happening today nobody is using those old coercive indoctrination methods to convert you to the epistemologies of the modern world we have given you all the freedoms that we have we even gave you freedom of religion freedom cannot be given if its free it’s free dom and if it’s true it’s true dumb the great syllogist returns freedom isn’t do x or else y Freedom of religion does not mean freedom of thought and absolutely excludes freedom of choice, when people are ordered to submit their children to the hands of another culture for educational and religious instruction to the utter exclusion of their teachings. Nor is it any different when the power to choose is removed through economic and legal control. I see no large-scale massacres of your people by the dominant culture no coercive thought experimentation we haven’t been charged with crimes against humanity war on iraq war on afghanistan war on sudan war on the arabic islamic world not to mention crimes against aboriginal humanity promotion of hatred against First Peoples Refusal to understand the true nature of oppression may make guilt easier to bear because there are no bloody corpses. But death is the same, whatever the means. you go on and on about education and religion and mass media as if there were a conscious worldwide conspiracy If we see racism in this light then we can see attempts to wipe out differences as a denial of cultural relevance outside of the cultures dominating through conquest. We can then see cultural intolerance for what it is. I have sat on antiracism boards see what I mean I am aware of others I am doing my part yet you throw these words these accusations at me In light of these observations I ask a question that you may not choose to ask of yourselves. When you set out to combat racism, what is your goal? Do you mean that your task is to find better ways to assimilate others into your world view? that’s preposterous and unfair I’m an enlightened despot datpot dosepots A question which you might ask yourselves is: What fuels conquest? What is the central driving force contained within the nature of aggression? How does it manifest itself as a cultural value which can allow subjugation, exploitation and continued oppression? 298

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this all stemmed from talk about the word for ‘tree’ Perhaps it is a time to see that, regardless of number, all branches from one tree are dependent on the whole tree for life. I’m not going to listen to any more of this I am not racist and I am aware of my prejudices and my shortcomings you’re baiting me de bating it takes one The larger question that I bring you is this: Might racism be a symptom of a deeper, more damaging disease to humanity and to the Earth? such as what My question relates to intolerance. And, perhaps deeper than intolerance, my question relates to the basic and fundamental values which allow aggression and domination to occur. It relates to the exclusionary measures which are commonly expressed as racism. My question relates to the nature of the concept of supremacy, a perceived prior right above others and other life forms. My question relates to the possibility of tolerance, harmony and cooperation. My question relates to the condition of trees and the condition of humanity at this time. Perhaps it is a time to nourish the great tree of peace that our peoples have been shown, so that its roots might spread outward to all lands and its branches to shelter all life. that’s asking a bit much for the near or even intermediate future Perhaps it is in that future that we will reach our full potential as thinking creatures. Creatures whose sacred gift is the power to manifest thought and therefore change its external world. Creatures whose task it is to learn to use those gifts to live and continue rather than to conquer, destroy and perish. Perhaps it is a time to learn to appreciate and to love creation. okay I love creation what’s that going to do? will a white light come to me is white light white Perhaps it is time for knowledge. Perhaps it is a time to learn the meaning of trees. thank you jeanette we really appreciate you taking this time to speak with us now we will participate in intertextualizing lee maracle’s oratory: coming to theory lee is going to talk today about words and ideas and their interrelations There are a number of words in the English language with no appreciable definition. Argument is defined as evidence; proof or evidence is defined as demonstration or proof; and theory as a proposition proven by demonstrable evidence. None of these words exist outside of their interconnectedness. Each is defined by the other. sounds like my kind of language haaarrrrrooo so what the same is true of the word ‘axiom’ it defines without being definable except by default it is the very root of definition the ground to you maybe We regard words as coming from original being—a sacred spiritual being. primitive romanticism ‘original’ is not accessible it’s an idealism wes does not exist s/he’s an idealism pooooof wes disappears Words are not objects to be wasted. They represent the accumulated knowledge, cultural values, the vision of an entire people or peoples. howls represent that too 299

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wrrraaaawkkks too We believe the proof of a thing or idea is in the doing. Doing requires some form of social interaction and thus, story is the most persuasive and sensible way to present the accumulated thoughts and values of a people. raven winks at coyote who brings wes back from invisibility but without science and the social sciences methodologies to show the way you have nothing but speculation and generalization anecdotal evidence is speculative at best not subject to rigorous validation ratification I’ll tell you about rat ification just hold still for a moment do you think s/he would look good as a rat m no you would be giving rats a bad rap Among European scholars there is an alienated notion which maintains that theory is separate from story, and thus a different set of words are required to “prove” an idea than to”show” one. Yet if you take the story out of any school textbook the student is left without proof for the positing of any information. In a science textbook they refer to the story as “an example.” that’s a very simpleminded way of looking at science mathematics is not like that at all ravens have numbers one two three and enough you mean four we don’t have four a lot of the time any number is too much coyotes are not numbers though we are often enumerated numbered their days that is The component parts of every example are the same: there is a plot line, tension (conflict), a climax and a conclusion. Mathematical “problems” have the same components. The tension in math is one number versus another, whether they are added or subtracted, multiplied or divided, the tension is resolved into some sort of conclusion different from the two numbers representing the original tension. that’s an absurd oversimplification The numbers have names and the plot line (what to do next) is provided by the theorems and formulae which the student accepts by custom. you generalize Numbers lack character—human form. But when we propose them as a problem, confronting real people, they take on a character and human content—social interaction. The number of trees cut to make one edition of a newspaper, for example, or the number of hungry children in a large Canadian city. I was always good at harrrrooooo which is kind of like science that’s why I never studied it I studied harrrrroooo at nightschool which was why I was no good at it are you about done with putting down science and scientists if you can’t improve on something what sense is there in criticizing it we were critiquing that’s badmouthing with a q rather than a z I am a gentle speaker I speak not to dis prove but to offer the benefit of my experience it’s not everyone gets to see what I see from my vantage point 300

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a coyotec view of the world may be without numbers but it counts just the same Academicians waste a great deal of effort deleting character, plot, and story from theoretical arguments. By referring to instances and examples, previous human interaction, and social events, academics convince themselves of their own objectivity and persuade us that the story is no longer a story. this deconstruction of the number system is meaningless and antisocial harrroooo/wraaaaaaak (laughter and high five) Likewise, the concept of zero means nothing. that’s interesting makes sense to me It is represented by a circle devoid of all life. This has no meaning for the living or the dead, but it is useful in teaching young children to interact in a positive social fashion. A child learns that if she doesn’t obey the laws of the people, she will suffer great nothingness in her interaction with women and men. your comparing mathematics and science and story are ridiculous and meaningless you’re just not conversant with science There is a story in every line of theory, not in our capacity to theorize. It seems a waste of words to dispassionately delete character from plot line, tension, and conclusion. It takes a great deal of work to erase people from theoretical discussion To delete passion from our lives leads to a weird kind of sociopathy— a heartlessness What is the point of presenting the human condition in a language separate from the human experience: passion, emotion, and character? thank you lee and everybody else now grab a paddle and put your words into actions and maybe we’ll get out of this text the tide is going out and the moon is on the wane stroke stroke paddle paddle paddle swoooooooooossshh stroke paddle splash paddlepaddle

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paddle stroke ssshhhhhh paddling into the transmontane rockies world of performance we ease our canoe from the alpine lakes into the bow river shooting the falls much to the delight of banff springs guests and tourists who don’t realize it wasn’t planned no encores early morning mist hangs the canoe now battered and held together with prayer and haywire we turn toward the textual world of chinook winds through whitewater ideas and redwater spume water stone as any cold we run it up into the margins tie it up with a nearby conjunction to a sturdy gerund all the prepositions being used up the beach below bow falls is mostly consonants with the odd indefinite article protruding we decide to relax for a while recover from our journey coyote and raven pop up out of nowhere as usual after all the paddling and portaging is over with 301

along with wes(tern methodology) in tow(n) we hear voice over hovering somewhere doing voice warmups together we get into the chapters to which the dancers’ words were relegated and there we interlineate with one another interpaginate agents de/en papier as much as that is possible for characters citations readers writers suddenly the weather changes into a translucent text or perhaps the text holographizes itself in/onto the sky it reads slowly like it’s being written into an overhead transparency we become textualized into the choreographed now scripted world of (Elton, 1997) Chinook Winds: Aboriginal Dance Project this is getting to be althut jerry longboat (JL) meets us as we walk up from the beach he is cayuga/mohawk from the iroquois confederacy six nations of the grand river turtle clan we walk with him up toward the banff centre always on the lookout for those pesky town elk that don’t take too kindly to human presence we hope they don’t eat our canoe in our absence we enter into conversation with the edited transcriptions of the participants in the five-week workshop of november/december 1996 P C R P JL C R C JL C R P JL

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we’ve been journeying all over rivers lakes great lakes oceans clouds dew we came here to learn about dance as aboriginal epistemology don’t get academic on us now we’re just feckless quadrupeds speak for yourself I only have two knees and no peds so what about dance and knowing Aboriginal dance is a spiritual expression through which we travel to the ancestral world a doorway to powerful wisdom. so is silence what would you know hmmm Its motions express the ancestral memory in our bodies; it is the voice of all our relations. we coyotes have dances too you should see us ravens when we get together whoop whoop you speak of dance as voice Aboriginal dance is a true voice, one that rang clear and strong long before we called it a “traditional” voice. It exemplifies oral tradition as story and myth combined into forms of expression through which elders, faithkeepers, healers, and young people speak from their inner selves, their centres. it is not so easy dis/covering this inner self western ways have covered it eclipsed us with alien ideas The elders say we must first own ourselves before we can truly obtain self governance. We must own the bundles that are our languages, songs, stories, art, and dance. In achieving this, our personal and communal circles are completed and our way of living is made harmonious. The power of dance is a significant ingredient in achieving this balance. 302

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you seem really excited in your introduction to be part of this This collaborative dance experience establishes a contemporary expression in the thread of our cultural narrative a place to claim our voice, a manifestation of our will for self determination and original artistic direction. This is rebirth. coyote and I have our own dance troupe we win first prize every time In our teachings, knowledge comes from is shaped by, the natural world and all its cycles The beginning, or the root, of the culture is the story. wraaaack/arrooooo you connect dance to story to life In the telling of our personal stories, in whatever language or creative form we use, we are expressing our connection to creation. Through this process we sense and experience the depths of this natural knowledge with the sharing of story. The stories are the very crux of healing. but story is different from storytelling Dance is a primary form of our storytelling. Its variety of forms are an integral aspect in nurturing the health, well-being, and harmony in Aboriginal communities. dance takes us to those special places outside of language raven I thought this was a conversation a flowing together of streams yours is pretty dominant right at the moment Dance is an expression of prayer and story, of our relationship to Mother Earth and to one another. It also includes the unspoken records of previous generations, those yet to come, our families, nations, and all creation it is “in the bones.” And, when we dance, our timeless oral narratives possess the ancient stories of wisdom and understanding. you have an interesting way of obliquely relating to questions A wise one once said that we must understand that sometimes the questions are more important than the answers. a dance is just a dance don’t make so much of it These dances contain the innermost cultural stories. please don’t give me that they’re stories for heaven’s sake They combine the migratory borders of the mind and the heart into a communal experience. To dance, and then to write about the experiences of these stories, makes the process new again and revisits the creation process. hogwash you cannot revisit what is done it’s gone finito This place in the creative process marks a point of return. It takes us towards a place of balance, within our centre, our place in the community of all things. (enter ghost of duncan campbell scott sits to write) enter mr scott a letter in form of a circular from Duncan Campbell Scott, Deputy Superintendent General of the Department of Indian Affairs sent out from Ottawa 15th December, 1921 Sir, It is observed with alarm that the holding of dances by the Indians on their reserves is on the increase, and that these practices tend to disorganize the efforts which the Department is putting forth to make them self-supporting. I have, therefore, to direct you to use your utmost endeavours to dissuade the Indians from excessive indulgence in the practice of dancing. You should 303

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suppress any dances which cause waste of time, interfere with the occupations of the Indians, unsettle them for serious work, injure their health or encourage them in sloth and idleness It is realized that reasonable amusement and recreation should be enjoyed by Indians, but they should not be allowed to dissipate their energies and abandon themselves to demoralizing amusements. By the use of tact and firmness you can obtain control and keep it, and this obstacle to continued progress will then disappear. (exit DCS ghost) try dancing to that tune sandra laronde (SL) of the teme-augama-anishinaabe is a dancer we speak about dance and mirrors it is difficult holding a conversation with a proper noun or pronoun because they can only say what has already been published so my questions have to weavewiththeirintentions and my understandings sandra quotes raoul trujillo “You need to look into the studio mirrors to ensure that your eyes see out and communicate an inner life when you look into the front mirror, you can also see into the mirror behind you these are like your ancestors behind you—dancing with you at this moment in time.” what about your own body your own experience in and with it When dancing traditional there is a downward rhythm of the body towards the earth, which acknowledges our connectedness with Mother Earth. Aboriginal dancing, like martial arts, uses the body’s natural abilities and momentum. It does not go against the grain of natural movement. In contemporary dance, and classical ballet in particular, it is more about reaching upwards. In order to get the proper form, you have to close the bottom of the rib cage, lift the chest, and lengthen the spine. oiii I don’t think that’s my thing sounds like pilates or yoga (enter raoul trujillo (RT) a mixed-blood apache mexican french canadian from new mexico) tell me about the name chinook on the cover of this book During a chinook, the tree tops form what is known as a “red belt.” This red belt has occurred since the mountains have been standing. It will always exist. We are like that red belt. you speak of how dance first came to first nations communities In the past, dance came into the community because of a hunting expedition or something that happened, and the dance makers came forth and said “There’s a dance that came to me in a vision,” we’re doing the same thing today. We have that responsibility, and therefore shouldn’t listen when people say “You can’t do that.” what about fusing contemporary and traditional dance forms that many choreographers and dancers try to do? You can’t truly merge them because they’re so distinct. mhm I give a class that is not just about technique. I mean, I warm them up really quick. Get them on their feet and then take them beyond learning the steps into the realm of understanding what performance is about. about? 304

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about what’s that I ask them to reflect on being in the moment and get them to take responsibility for the material and then project that out to an audience. in the moment or about the moment in the about you were saying something about the face of the dancer The slow motion section where their faces are used like masks reminds me of my work because I always felt that dancers’ faces were neglected. thank you raoul now we will speak with alejandro ronceria (AR) so alejandro you are from bogota and trained in classical ballet in Colombia, the Soviet Union, and NY. you seem to have enjoyed chinook winds Even though the performance was a big success, the most beautiful thing was the process The conception of the piece was already there before I arrived. but you didn’t know all the participants what they could do I asked the dancers to try things and if it didn’t work I would do something else. I had to see what bodies I had to work with and see what their potential was, but because I knew who the participants were I started thinking about who could do what and how to get the best out of them. Often I had to choreograph four different sections at the same time. m sounds demanding must have been uh fun I have been learning to work with a lot of pressure; with no budgets and no time you are forced to manage your time really well. I am reading on his face it has not all been only fun I’ve worked with trained professionals with a certain attitude that they can’t do certain things outside of their particular training. It is very difficult to work with people like that because they refuse to take chances. So, when you have people who have never been trained, they sometimes do amazing things because they are open. you speak of being trained to treat the stage as a sacred space is this is related to the idea of chinook During the chinook wind that happens here in Alberta the pine cones in the tops of the trees turn red because they receive different information from the warm wind. (exit AR) sounds delightful here comes russell wallace from the stl’atl’imx territories (enter stl’atl’imx musician and composer russell wallace) (RW) who speaks of studying performing arts at spirit song theatre school and information technology at capilano college in vancouver ama sqit russell so you were going to talk about singing in your culture There were social songs about going out and picking berries or fishing that were sung mostly at social gatherings, funerals, and weddings. If you were asked to sing, you got up and sang a song. nobody ever encouraged me to sing out loud On the west coast, because songs are sacred, they had to be sung a certain way with no room for error. But within the Lillooet, because there wasn’t that restraint with the ceremony on certain songs, it became more open there are a lot more songs that 305

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have harmony in them, which is not really present in a lot of other cultural groups in that area. you mentioned that your whole family sings [W]omen play a strong role in the music and kept all the songs going. My mom is the song keeper. I don’t remember those ones having a lot of instruments they mostly banged stones and sticks and skin drums The hand drum is the most important instrument logs were used for percussion as well. The music was all vocal and percussion. your music for ‘residential school for boys’ is interesting I used a song my mother sang I sampled one section the residential school you were forced to speak another language couldn’t sing your songs do dances the memory is still there. I can remember my mom talking about when the nuns weren’t around, they would teach each other songs. the score for chinook winds must have been a challenge Each project I do is very challenging because I don’t have training in music. that’s pretty amazing must have been pretty complicated A song my grandmother sings, there’s a part in the middle where she sang one word and it goes on beyond the 4/4 time, then in the middle of the song it goes over to a different rhythm, it goes back in two to get that phrase in. That one is difficult to sing Our language has about 56 different consonants and a lot of it is guttural or throatal, a lot of the tongue. hmmm wrraaakkkkk what’s time got to do with music one happens inside the other I would call myself a hereditary musician in the same way that some people call themselves hereditary chiefs or hereditary medicine people I think a lot of Native people have it in them to sing. arrroooooo thank you russell jeff tabvahtah (JT) who will speak next hales from arviat m I know that place waaay north of churchill manitoba 200 kilometres as the raven flies a very traditional community you were talking about drumming arviat and its social function It was also used by shamans when they were calling for help, from their helping spirit, which might be a bear their Tornga. a drum has that kind of power Shamans would go into an igloo or tent and use the drum to help get them into a trance so they could travel to different world to ease or conquer demons or spirits that troubled their tribe When you drum, the reason you start off slow is because you’re like this mythical Inuk beast that flies and drops caribou from the air and they die when they hit the ground. I wondered why those caribou flew so funny mothership mother ship [T]hat’s what it’s like using the drum; starting off slow is like the beating of your wings faster and faster. 306

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I understand the christians got around to converting your people but you still have shamans so you have newagers up there apprenticing Only shamans understood the way of life of the shamans. They even had their own language. The community I come from is still very traditional, but it’s also very religious. It’s kind of intertwined with Christianity, so shamanism was thought of as demonic. there’s been talk comparing inuit people and first nations people Inuit have a very different view of life and culture from other Native groups in Canada. In the Inuit culture, there is no Creator because everything is equal. You are no more important than any other living animal because that animal serves its purpose and you serve a purpose. There is no one powerful being; everything is the same. what exactly does this have to do with education who invited that one about the drum interesting size In the eastern Arctic the diameter of the drum is about three feet. as I was saying about this singing We never drum silently Where I come from, drumming is a form of storytelling. You write your own song about your experiences. I suppose you’re going to bring everything into the storytelling genre probably The whole rule behind drumming is that you start off slow, and build it to whatever speed you want. It doesn’t have to match the beat of the song, as long as you feel that you’re with the drum and making music It’s the whole mixture of drumming and dance at the same time. mmm I like that fascinating thank you jeff karla jessen williamson (KW) also inuit will discuss face masking saskatoon is an interesting place for someone from greenland to be during the workshop you spoke of the colour black and the universe The colour black signifies what we as human beings do not know about the universe. Inuit believe that the universe is where knowledge exists and is the home for the eternally existing creative forces. which is why it’s my colour mine too at night dark of the moon One of these creative forces is manifested as soul, in all living beings. Human beings have individual souls, which are individual names. names? Names and souls, being the same, carry human potential and could not arbitrarily become segmented through separate male and female entities. So traditionally Inuit did not have genderized names. no tom no harriet this conversation is not academic it’s cultural it doesn’t belong The mask, then, has to show female and male characteristics The red colour signifies the femaleness [vulva] and can be on the forehead, or on the nose Red evokes blood 307

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that, together with the white lines, represents the bones and life-lines of our ancestors and the bones of animals upon whom the Inuit depend for life. sometimes they jump out of the bush bush up there? okay they so jump out of the tundra when you weren’t ready hey it’s not that far north Traditionally, the masking was performed when people least expected it, and real surprise is very much one of the key elements. Life in the far north is at times very unpredictable and sudden events may call for immediate evaluation and action to save lives. At an early age, youngsters are encouraged to face up to fear and to come to terms with it. coyotes too I thought you were supposed to be fearless thank you karla jerry longboat has come back to speak with us jerry as a traditional maskmaker perhaps you’d be interested in sharing your experience Making a traditional mask begins by centring and preparing yourself praying, making an offering, then communing and approaching the living tree from where the mask is birthed or carved. This is a process of actually carving the mask, removing it from the tree, and finishing it, and providing a welcoming feast for the mask. feasts are very important in your culture ours too I am wondering about masks from the point of view of art and knowledge making carving is not epistemology it is technique and training We were talking earlier about the use of traditional masks in contexts other than their original purpose, which I don’t find appropriate at all. These masks were created out of specific needs of the community over time. They came for the spiritual well-being of the people. They have a specific life purpose that must be honoured as sacred. so using them for other reasons is not treating them as being sacred These original teachings must be respected from a traditional perspective and to distort this purpose in a contemporary context is disrespecting them. there is a relationship between mask maskmaker and what the mask is used for Those who own them and use them in a spiritual context use them spiritually at their discretion. The community knows who these people are and individuals go to them for spiritual assistance or healing. your parents gave to you a mask that your great-grandfather made When I was about three or four, at specific times during the night I would be called by the mask. I would get up and go over to it and stand there and just look at it in the shadows. the whole idea of sacred and traditional is puzzling to me because these terms compartmentalize our cultures into white categories the idea of traditional being only from the past and not being ‘modern’ or postmodern or poststructural postpost [M]aking a traditional mask there are specific types of faces and specific carving gestures in the wood that have been established over hundreds of years. These specific traditional shapes, forms, and types of expression create the integrity of the traditional

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mask. It is very important to stay in line with that when making a traditional mask and work towards revealing its true spirit. the energy of those masks it makes me tired just looking at them m and listening to them listening to the mask? to the grain? listen ing to their rhythm their intrinsicness their intrinsicity The energy comes from the wood and through me; it mixes, and the mask emerges. It’s born in those moments where the energies come together. does the tree tell you how to make the mask I approach mask-making with a design in mind, but I have to be open to let its own flow happen, and then the form comes forward. You need to take time to approach the mask, because it has its own spiritual journey to be fulfilled. including performance where will this end It’s very much like any kind of creation in that you surrender yourself to be a vessel for the energy coming through, you develop your abilities to respond to this wisdom, and so when you come together with the mask, you’re trying to open a doorway for that life to come through and be expressed when you surrender to the process it feeds you. you seem to enjoy powwow dancing oh yeah arrooooo Powwow dancing is about personal power and personal style and you express this to feed the nation. I like men’s traditional even when they wear raven feathers awwwrkkk don’t get personal ‘person’ al? This is where the outfit or regalia is so integral. It is an acknowledgement of my relationship to the winged creatures, to the four-legged and the wisdom they carry, even to the sense of colour and design to acknowledge balance, flow, and harmony in life. as a haudenosaunee you dance this plains dance powwow is contemporary an expression of self, of the gifts that you possess. sharing those gifts with other first nations Powwow is a modern expression of those historic connections. when you dance you are an echo of the past I express what resonates with me. you wear many feathers My bustle is made of eagle feathers and I carry a raven staff. These teach us that life comes from the darkness and is born into the light. for heaven sakes this is tripe I’ve always had an appetite for tripe must have gotten it from us romantic drivel it’s all cliché if that’s how you feel why are you hanging around we didn’t invite you

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I you have elected to set us right because we are lost in our how would you say it ‘cultural wasteland’ pretty much somebody has to be the guardian of the public morality yes that’s it you’re catching on so you appointed yourself watchwhite I’ve heard that some of our relations which perished trying to cross the roads you use them in your outfits hmmm For sure. I’ve done so much with hides and furs, using tails, bones, hooves, toes, and teeth. I make spiritual things like staffs, wing fans, rattles, and drums, all to support the continual process of life. maybe we could move on to contemporary dance wraaack shuffle shuffle hop dance not prance Contemporary dance is different because it mixes movement languages. movement languages hm read this raven [gestures] translate this coyote [gestures] ha ha ha you two are something else It needs to be universal because you’re telling a story to a whole range of people in the audience. When you dance at a powwow, the energy is specific and my expression originates from a different place than it does in the theatre The songs are there to direct the energy. direct the energy sounds newagey well pass the incense how would you like to be turned into a piece of plastic you’ve also had experience with non-aboriginal dance companies Karen Jamieson Dance Company, we also have circles and do cultural sharing. So , she has a similar philosophy. We share how we feel. We check in. So there is a sense of that sacred space and that feeling of ensemble in circle. sharing how you feel sounds like a personal growth workshop weekend healing whoooeeee sign me up! wes please find some other place to unload your lack of human feeling we do not want it here it contaminates community take your antisocial science ideas elsewhere hear hear oie oie so about your ensemble There is a strong connection in taking care, honouring, and respecting the ways of the others in the group. That’s how we are raised so it’s very natural for us. what has this to do with education where is the examining committee where is the assessment what kind of scalable graphable feedback can you provide numbers I need numbers you can have mine mine too 310

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(musical transition indicating inundation of numbers) don’t let them get into the canoe they’ll sink it for sure they reproduce like like numbers oh! I feel relieved I’ve wanted to get rid of those numbers for centuries m five centuries longer the vikings and those other boat people all brought numbers and the anthropologists who came over the bering land bridge sorry to interrupt the historical numeracy but don’t but t in there are white people writing our stories using our ceremonies There’s a real danger in other people appropriating our stories and telling us who we are. We’ve begun to awaken to the effects of this through the telling of history and we are reclaiming our truth in our own words, in our ceremonies, through our stories. Dance is a prolific part of this healing and self-determination. (raven and coyote dance together blow horns shake throw streamers) thank you jerry karen pheasant (KP) ojibway from the wikwemikong unceded reserve on manitoulin island so how about those powwows hey been around for awhile on manitoulin island We just celebrated our 37th annual powwow in Wikwemikong [in 1996] ours started in 1958 the Lake of the Woods people near Kenora always had them. nice jingle dress I like the sound but you’re switching topics they say maggie white was involved in the origin of the jingle dress When Maggie was a child, her father had this dream about the dress. There was illness in the family. They had offered their prayers and asked for help. The dream came to the old man for his daughter and then she was carried off wearing the dress. Maggie White passed away two years ago at the age of 89. those jingle cones must be pretty heavy The 365 cones on a Jingle Dress remind us that each day we should offer prayers, and practice harmony and balance. it has a healing element attached to it carrying around all those heavy cones would call for a healing component resident chiropractor The healing aspect is a combination of the song, the drum, the singers, the dress, the dancer, the women. must make you feel pretty good being out there Dancing is my healing. the movement is exciting When I dance I’m not just executing movement, I’m dancing with passion. sure is different from western culture passion versus frenzy It must be something to do with western dance training as opposed to Indigenous dance. They were dancing with no centre, no energy. there is a very strong spiritual component 311

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When you talk to any strong powwow dancer who dances full-time, that’s not footwork, it’s their spirit dancing. you sometimes help new dancers I was telling the women, “Know your centre, this is where the song comes into your body Listen to the drum,” but they were still not catching the rhythm of the drum, the heartbeat. It was literally going in their ear and they were waiting for it to get to their feet So, I started to work with the chakras and energy systems, and talking about the heart and the song going through their back, and telling them to hear that song. I touched their back, behind their heart, and when the drum came they could feel it. The look on the girls’ faces when we did it that way was amazing. chakras! do coyotes have those you are one I see elements of other styles in the jingle dance All styles of dance sometimes borrow from other styles. you were talking with evelyn eaglespeaker from blood reserve She said, “You know, Karen, times change and if we were going by strict tradition women wouldn’t even be dancing” But times have changed and women started dancing. you became part of the circle First, we were allowed on the outside of the circle; that was a stationary dance. Soon, we were doing the Walk Dance. I remember that In the 1800s, during The Wild West Show, white people wanted more colour and more flash, so the Men’s Traditional turned into Men’s Fancy with more colours and two bustles, instead of the one bustle, with almost acrobatic movements. Of course, the women, not wanting to be left out of anything, started too. The women put on the men’s bustles and danced the men’s dance. ohh there was controversy about that and I bet you had something to do with that what about powwow drumming Powwows across North America tend to be staffed by northern people, with northern drums. (musical bridge of jingling moving away) a big hello to everybody out there from Siobhán Arnatsiaq-Murphy (SA) from the Inuit and Irish Nations born in Iqaluit, Nunavut. so siobhán we were talking about dance Dance has always been an emotional journey where I can find my spiritual self. and Sylvia Ipirautaq Cloutier (SC) is Inuk from Nunavik Northern Québec When I dance I’m in a different world, somewhere special where I can be myself. sounds like a good place to be here’s jonathan fisher (JF) ojibway/odawa from wikwemikong unceded reserve Learning more about the process of dance will not only help develop my craft as an actor but will also be a useful tool for myself if I ever feel the need to branch out into my own “physical-based” works. like adventitious shoots or rhizomes jeff tabvahtah (JT) from arviat nunavut again 312

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Dance is an expression of emotion shared with the audience. jerry longboat you might want to share some final words our canoe awaits us and the elk are getting restless Throughout my work as a performer, I have found that the most profound source of inspiration has been the body itself; the very thing that roots me here in this life. As such it has been taught to me by my elders that when we are born of our bodies we become a hereditary recipient of all the wisdom of our ancestors who have lived before us mmm beautiful in essence a vast body of experience and memory. With this I have come to understand the truest expression of a culture is in its dances and songs; the body never lies. Let us be bold and tell all. good thing we got all these strong dancers here to come back to the river and help lift the canoe back into the water funny how coyote and raven disappear when the time for erg expenditure comes up I wouldn’t be surprised to learn they’d transformed themselves into the body of the canoe just to make it heavier we’ve got a long way to go and we don’t even have a weather report no newspapers no radio no tv satellite communications devices meteorological forecasts so I guess we’ll have to take it one day at a time just like in the old days which these are if we’d just let them be salut banff paddlepaddle pad dle

interviewing texts: singing robbie robertson has lived hard he has travelled all over the world in 1996 he came home to six nations experienced worldwise ready to rock for his people paddle stroke Words of fire, deeds of blood Perhaps you think the Creator sent you here to dispose of us as you see fit If I thought you were sent by the Creator I might be induced to think you had a right to dispose of me Do not misunderstand me But understand me fully with reference to my affection for the land I never said the land was mine to do with as I choose The one who has a right to dispose of it is the one who has created it I claim a right to live on my land And accord you the privilege to return to yours Brother we have listened to your talk 313

Coming for our father the great White Chief at Washington And my people have called upon me to reply to you And in the winds which pass through these aged pines We hear the moanings of their departed ghosts And if the voice of our people could have been heard The act would never have been done But alas though they stood around they could neither be seen nor heard Their tears fell like drops of rain I hear my voice in the depths of the forest But no answering voice comes back to me All is silent around me My words must therefore be few I can now say no more He is silent for he has nothing to answer (Robertson, 1994) when the sun goes down.” paddle paddle paddlepaddle stroke stroke stroke whoooooooooo shshsh OOOOSSSSSHHH coyote aroooooooooooo raven wrrrrakkkkk rooock

dan smoke asayenes from the senica nation six nations a wise and caring man together with his partner marylou does so much for the first nations community feb 22, 2000 Ama sqit brother and sister. That’s great that our circle can re-energize and reconnect from time to time no matter where we are. We are only apart by degrees of separation. It made me think about the ‘Ripples in the Pond’ teaching. We are each part of the circle created by stone landing into the water. “Remember that you are responsible for what you put in your circle and that circle will also touch many other circles. You will need to live in a way that allows the good that comes from your circle to send the peace of that goodness to others. The splash that comes from anger or jealousy will send those feelings to other circles. You are responsible for both.” We choose the path of kindness, sharing, honesty (Smoke, 2000b) and strength as do you both. 314

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making room for aboriginal people and practices in aboriginal ‘studies’ C OYO T E :

I wonder how indians can get to design and teach aboriginal education aboriginal studies R AV E N : they keep saying there aren’t any qualified ‘indians’ or ‘natives’ last time I looked though there were more than a few hundred thousand who were experts at being natives and knowing about their relations C OYO T E : how about that endowed chair in first nations art and culture at that university in the national capital region another whiteman no qualified indians? no indian artists? I wonder how they justified giving it to him and how being aboriginal is not a required qualification of an endowed first nations chair R AV E N : white indian experts either don’t get it or don’t want to get it teaching and doing research at canadian universities in first nations areas is about collecting/appropriating and selling aboriginal intellectual property to students that’s some ethical system maybe sshrc and its sister white/wo/man agencies don’t know what to do C OYO T E : they know just like teaching they’re saying there are no qualified first nations researchers not enough qualified first peoples so we still need white indian experts to fill up half of the ssshhhrc review committees to see who qualifies for the indian industry big bucks white white white white get a new mantra R AV E N : I guess you’re right being aboriginal isn’t seen as being a qualification even for aboriginal funding C OYO T E : it’s actually perceived as being a drawback a threat to white hege/money

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how do you know so much about sshrc I was on a transforming mission transformed into a well that would be giving it away let’s just say I was in room x when decision y was made R AV E N : oh the raven on the wall trick C OYO T E : no a raven wouldn’t have lasted 2 seconds in that room you should have heard the ammunition go off R AV E N : I guess we’ll have to go down to ottawa and meet up with the head sshrcer C OYO T E : I have made suggestions over and over to sshrc that they work with first nations communities and first nations scholars to cocreate a national aboriginal council [nac] which would be composed of only aboriginal people who would decide who would be awarded first nations research funding R AV E N : you have to keep trying to have our voice heard keep pressuring them to give us a chance to selfempower ourselves C OYO T E : yes aboriginal scholars and aboriginal communities together R AV E N : where have all the native people gone long time passing gone to graveyards every one where have all the first nations graveyards gone long time passing gone to condos stripmall highrises university campuses golf courses every one C OYO T E : we also need a joint federally/provincially funded research chair on the ‘first peoples holocaust in every region of canada R AV E N : we also need aboriginal centres of excellence looking at the aboriginal history of the western hemisphere since 1492 and before C OYO T E : look at the huge numbers of nonaboriginal faculty teaching first nations this or indigenous that at canadian universities it’s an epidemic an infestation a plague R AV E N : I wonder how many muslims how many christians are teaching jewish studies in canadian universities or vice versa C OYO T E : how many men are teaching women’s studies in canadian universities R AV E N : there are white people who are ‘african’ experts some are head of african studies programs C OYO T E : really then that means R AV E N : right some cultural group or groups are being overrepresented in academic positions and it’s sure not first peoples or people of african heritage interesting story between the li/n/es about power and ethics tell me where did the white people get their qualifications on ‘aboriginal’ education ‘aboriginal’ studies C OYO T E : the way that employment equity and affirmative action works at many universities is that women are given precedence over all other categories so white women are hired instead of aboriginal men or women or other people of colour you can have 43% women faculty for example and still a white woman will be given a job over an aboriginal person or a ‘visible’ minority for being visible they’re awfully invisible in faculty positions hello?! don’t white women qualify as colonizers C OYO T E : how about the people who hire the white indian experts for first nations positions what’s that all about R AV E N : you mean over aboriginal candidates who aren’t even shortlisted C OYO T E : yes raven it appears that we’re battling against genocide in so many guises you have to find what works when there is such a huge power differential between C OYO T E :

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us indians and nonaboriginal people who make up most of the university and research granting committees there is no incentive to change they put up ethical protocols as a smokescreen they don’t walk their talk it’s all talk babbleomania R AV E N : the white hiring committees and councils say we don’t have credentials we don’t have rigour our ways don’t fit their western understandings and theoretical frameworks we don’t have experience as primary investigators or carrying out research and handling budgets we’re bush league C OYO T E : hurray for bush league so we’re being punished for being who we are for not being white for not being academic in a white way R AV E N : that’s right coyote without aboriginal people in control of all aspects of research and teaching about aboriginal people it will be just a continuation of the department of indian affairs model the indian act VO I C E OV E R : act i scene dxiii take lxvi roll’em R AV E N : where would the curriculum come from C OYO T E : we can write our own curriculum R AV E N : hmmm in the past our tribal council hired wie’s to do research on/for us because they thought we didn’t know how to do it ourselves and also because they would rather have an outsider come in someone who might not let the rest of the community know what’s going on with the money being borrowed or managed by the local indian indian agents d’ and who’s getting screwed and who’s holding the screw driver we’re moving away from that but we’re still willing to have limited partnerships with white allies who will do things our way C OYO T E : including linguists? R AV E N : even linguists can change C OYO T E : dream on but on the other paw we do have some caring white allies from all disciplines where to next? R AV E N : oz C OYO T E : you mean R AV E N : yes the west coast home sweet fraser valley burnaby mountain university endowment lands university indian burial grounds seaside recreation beaches false creek west end lord stanley cup park point grey cup paddle paddle stroke stroke paddlepaddle stroke swooooosh paddle swoooooooooosh pulling into vancouver and before you know it raven and coyote are deep into debate R AV E N : what’s up C OYO T E : speech from the drone R AV E N : now now coyote be nice C OYO T E :: I’m getting to the end of my leash with these nonaboriginal people who design and implement aboriginal teacher education programs without seeking community input they bring a few token natives on board who go along with their ideas R AV E N : oh those ones they’re perennials you get used to them come up every year C OYO T E : my idea is there can be ‘no’ aboriginal teacher education program’ (atep) unless it is initiated designed taught and controlled by aboriginal people C OYO T E : (aside) I told you he was living in another century expecting political will on aboriginal issues pretty far gone fartogo fargo 317

R AV E N :

interesting conjugation so I was invited to a meeting related to atep at this university by wies guys and collaborators (colonized elite) I was the only selfreporting aboriginal faculty member employed there at the time I expressed my views about aboriginal control of aboriginal education and that was the (first and) last time I was invited to be part of any ‘discussion’ relating to them ‘reaching out’ to first nations clientele/converts R AV E N : so are you going to tell us about their aboriginal education model C OYO T E : okay I received an email saying that the faculty of education was using its jewish education model as a template for its planned aboriginal teacher education program C OYO T E : you’re kidding right R AV E N : nope straight as the feathers on my tail C OYO T E : 21st century R AV E N : yep C OYO T E : I hope that their jewish model was at least designed by jewish people rather than by nonjewish jewish experts outsiders recruiters con scripters R AV E N : I wonder if the jewish model was modelled on a gentile model though the power relationship of colonizer/colonizee does not exist in that analogy at least in this country C OYO T E : I asked this same white atep committee how would the jewish community at your university feel and how would the local jewish community feel if 100% nonjewish people ie gentiles designed and taught jewish education and these same gentiles went out into the jewish community and recruited jewish children to take part in jewish education designed and taught by gentiles with a token jewish person included as part of the team to legitimize what they the gentiles were doing for instance if these gentile jewish experts seconded a jewish public school teacher someone without faculty power with just the right ethnicity they would have a token jew to legitimize their treading into jewish cultural space how would the gay and lesbian community at that aforementioned university feel having 100% straight people design and teach courses for and about gay and lesbian education then have the straights go out into the queer community and interrogate of course with a token gay/lesbian recruit someone who was without faculty power someone who is in a coercive situation on the downhill side of a power differential how would the women at that university feel having 100% men ie men only design and teach women’s studies with the men going out into the community to recruit women with a token woman included who was without faculty power R AV E N : have you ever read dale carnegie’s book about making friends and influencing people you might want to put it on your list how did they answer you these white indian experts C OYO T E : during my ‘conversation’ which was more like double solitaire parallel monologues I received no answer to any of my questions (no surprise) except for one when I asked how it was that aboriginal women students were not invited to be part of this aboriginal-white atec convers/at/ion? it seems they forgot and might in the future take it into consideration C OYO T E :

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R AV E N :

I doubt that their group will be looking for a strong aboriginal woman especially one who insists on aboriginal designing and teaching aboriginal education who resists the assimilation and genocide of our people C OYO T E : you’re not supposed to say that word out loud look what happened to ward churchill helen betty osborne sitting bull alanis obomsawin louis riel lee maracle kevin annett and winona laduke when they spoke out their the a truth about genocide R AV E N : but this creation of melmac indians teflon Indians meta para simulacrum indians is teaching aboriginal children to hate their own culture to look outside of their own traditions for their future to look to white culture as their future C OYO T E : we don’t need or want this kind of ‘help’ at least no-one I know wants it R AV E N : except for a few self-promotional tagalongs who are after a ‘career move’ white indian experts wouldn’t want real community involvement real aboriginal faculty involvement real aboriginal input and control because they would be facilitating themselves out of a job out of a career out of a tagteam match made in academia the backrooms no actually the front rooms C OYO T E :: in creating aap’s (aboriginal assimilation programs) which some ateps fnteps niteps are or were the white indian experts the wies ensure there is a huge power differential between themselves and the first nations hirees and to protect themselves from charges of opportunistic racism they bring token apples on board no matter what their qualifications are(n’t) as ongoing payment for co-op(t)erating helping to assimilate aboriginal communities how much is that apple in the window the one with the R AV E N : are you covering all indians with one blanket C OYO T E : I’m not talking about most I’m talking about some actually quite a small elite of apples a minority a powerful minority of selfselecting cultivars (ssc’s) R AV E N : and also a small elite of wie wie C OYO T E : no not so small but those with power are perhaps only a few hundred of the thousands R AV E N : my wings are getting tired from paddling and something down there is biting them or tickling them C OYO T E : we’re almost there I can see the horizon from here R AV E N : you and columbus that’s not the horizon that’s your nose C OYO T E : come on raven paddle don’t sshrc your duty R AV E N : I was just thinking C OYO T E : oh oh that’s dangerous R AV E N : what would happen if we got rid of all the white indian experts from academic positions and replaced them with aboriginal people let’s say add 63 more first nations faculty at york university for example to go with the 3 already there to make up 5% of tenured and tenurestream faculty to mirror our representation in the population of canada including those who dare not speak their race C OYO T E : depends on how much the power of the wie wies and the apples can be diminished or offset

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but we’re not doing anything wrong say the wie wie oh and neither are we say the malus fusca we’re just filling in a void R AV E N : yes a void they cocreate comaintain what do nonaboriginal academics see wrong with being academic in an aboriginal way with being educated in an aboriginal way C OYO T E : I guess they’ll have to join a twelve step program to figure it out aa ee oo ii uu why not deal with their addiction affliction delusion confusion before it spreads anymore R AV E N : I think a one step program would do to start ie just leave us alone C OYO T E : or research and teach about their own culture not the one you’re colonizing R AV E N : you mean postcolonizing coyote C OYO T E : right they’re colonizing posts still

the postresidential school the next step after residential school is conscripting aboriginal people into postsecondary education it’s called postresidential aboriginal education it’s a tool used by the settler crowd the jesuslovesme itsforyourowngood mob the shoveoffdegenerateindian crew to keep us ignorant of our own epistemologies methodologies protocols practices and fill us up with western knowings academic amnesiac innoculation with respect to aboriginal teacher education and what aboriginal people need I think about the unheard the ignored the unlistened to community members who do not want white universities to take their children away the refrain is don’t take them away to be colonized big city faculties of education and even medium sized city faculties of education are not going after the large urban aboriginal populations for their atep programs they are going after secure funding from reserves ready tuition dollars from the federal government department of indian affairs paid to universities for the education of aboriginal students and that money goes right back to the government aboriginal people are in fact paying for their own cultural genocide not to mention for their own intellectual property and at one university in particular over that way they want nothing to do with all the local first nations except to have them listed on boards councils committees as token comealongs just so long as they don’t actually show up and say something I was told by the top administrator to not invite chief so and so and so and so to such and such an aboriginal meeting full stop they want them on fa(u)x lists phone lists email lists christmas lists they have a first nations liaison who will ‘deal with’ them 320

but please uh I don’t want to touch them they might get oh you know on my two thousand dollar suit they might breathe on me cough on my car see me sweat they might sense my unease with them the anguish of aboriginal parents not wanting the children to become de integro de iure dei gratia white washed if there are no aboriginal faculty in a faculty of education to teach atep or design atep only say a parttime or seconded aboriginal teacher from the public school system who would be in a very compromised p/rop/osition her/him/self perhaps having been recruited for this or a similar (cross)purpose since this person would not be a fulltime tenure stream faculty member s/he would have no voting power on faculty council no power so if you can implement atep by bringing on board an aboriginal collaborator in a weakened position a parttime or oncall shiftworker aboriginal faculty contract worker split shift try them out for a spell to see whose side they’re on you don’t really need to hire a fulltime tenurestream aboriginal faculty member there would no longer be a crisis of legitimacy for the white indian education expert (wiee) because there would no longer be a need for tenure stream or tenured first nations faculty because the token parttimer fulfills the role of simulacrum acts as camouflage for affirmative inaction employment inequity on the other talon if a fulltime tenured or tenurestream first nations faculty member were hired that person would be given full faculty and union benefits including pension and access to academic freedom support from the caut [canadian association of university teachers] as for white indian expert faculty members they might then have time to study their own cultures one another themselves mirror mirror on the wall and that would cause a crisis of identity a crisis of legitimacy oh who am I whom are me identifying oneself according to how one relates to whose culture whose intellectual property one is collecting and selling of course the allies and the aboriginal ‘collaborators’ are rewarded for signing their names on the paper/treaties/curriculum documents grant proposals on behalf of the many aboriginal people in the community including those who do not want western based education even if it were free which is not to say that all education at all major universities is western cultural genocide is not something aboriginal people choose freely to subscribe to yet it is designed and implemented over the objections of those who will be subjected to it this act is in fact condoned rewarded by the university and by major granting agencies because 321

as elder barbara riley of walpole island says about universities and the larger society (Riley, 2000) “their well is dry that’s why they want us”

listening to the elders the elders remind us to not hold a grudge to find the positive places chief jake thomas recites from the great law of peace “You will always love your white brother because he is a person just the same as you are. We are all to care and respect one another.” (Thomas, quote in Buddle, 1993, p. 44)

the elders speak of moving on they say trust the creator be respectful to the earth to one another remember to pray and to fast be thankful they say remember the old ways but be ready for the new ones learn the traditional language but learn the other ones around us too they tell us to get in touch with the land honour all of our relations honour those in the spirit world our ancestors and children those to come my academic journey began with me wanting to do culturally respectful research I didn’t want to get caught up in the tene/men/ts of white legitimation and templature I searched for a culturally meaningful way of constructing a program of study so as to be acceptable to my community to academia and to myself as a person caught between across and through cultures a person with a mother of celtic (welsh/scottish) ancestry a stl’atl’imx father I wanted to help make it easier for other indigenous people but I didn’t want to engage in liberatory practices I will save you I will rescue you especially within my own stl’atl’imx community knowing that so many have gone on before me who continue to reach out making the journeying easier there are footprints already there handprints kneeprints scramblingprints clawprints pawprints dustbathprints and not all of them from human beings and many are prints but not of feet trackings and tracings we have to learn to read the tracks the traces again those which have always been around and those brought by newcomers we have to be careful to not get caught up in the discourse about postcolonialism because this is a white discourse we all know there is no post when it comes to colonialism no no post but a fence with barbed wire private property keep out the words of maurice blanchot when he talks about writing resound they haunt me or rather I am haunted by them The book: the passage of an infinite movement, a movement that goes from writing as an operation to writing as worklessness; a passage that immediately impedes. Writing passes through the book, completing itself there even as it disappears in the book: and yet, we do not write for the book. The book: a ruse by which writing goes towards the 322

absence of the book. (Blanchot, 1981, p. 147) I do not read him to understand but to listen without having to go through understanding I do not read to try to understand but because I appreciate [his] fragments and believe I can learn from them traditional western academic research practices are not in keeping with anything my culture practices traditionally academic talk is not our talk western epistemologies methodologies ontologies pedagogies protocols and practices are not our ways for us ethics and ethical action are not add-ons postordained bridges joining methodology is part of the weft and weave darn and logjam not just a backwards informing of practice a backeddy the backstop of method methodology includes what is absent not perceived not addressed it is a kind of en route montage still life running misant en scène my partner my father my mother my family my ancestors are everywhere in this writing though I do not quote them do not cite them continuously indeed the act of not quoting them is more powerful because they are more than the words I could put down to legitimize what I am saying they legitimize me we dance together as I move toward that theoretical place called objectivity I see myself circle and hover but not touch down because I am on the other/wrong side of the white verbs that science tries to make into some kind of grand narrative that sucks and blows like a blackhole that doesn’t know there are whiteholes redholes yellowholes and they are all full of human beings rich and whole and beautiful and before you know it you have the four colours of flagcloth the six colours the rainbow drums increasing in volume ah now I see our landing strip ahead ladies and gentlemen we have begun our descent or is it ascent conscent R AV E N :

into the present tense so please fasten your buttresses R AV E N : and put your thoughts into an upright position C OYO T E : and your actions and please do not be alarmed if you experience tectonic shiftings on touchdown R AV E N : we are expecting the occasional (dis)mantle plume paradigmatic turbidity C OYO T E : and cursive breakings of wind R AV E N : punctuated by low grade carminative C OYO T E : eructations C OYO T E & R AV E N : all my relations we thank you each and all for being part of this journey C OYO T E :

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paddle paddle strokestroke paddle stroke paddle paddle SSSSWWOOOOOOSSSSHHH

bilge pumping and looking after our friends

paddle stroke paddle it is time to make some repairs to the canoe dear dear forest friend and relation I look around and see only pat within the orison of this day we have paddled much together forever the others who have shared stories food paddling I can feel I can sense coyote and raven are not far off they have transformed themselves into other guises of reality whatever that is other forms of the creator waiting for more adventures but right now are up to their scampy ways kukwstumlhkacw partners all these journeys of solidarity and sharing are coming to a pause at least in terms of paddling beaching portaging lining repairing camping navigating gathering wood and sitting around the fire listening feeling smelling sensing pat did most of the navigating since she always takes care in everything she does as a matter of course rather than as addendum agenda not addenda now we can do some much needed repairs to the canoe look after our tree home put it away for a spell and prepare for the next journey as we beach for now the canoe and patch up a few abrasions on it and ourselves I think of my journey of journeys and feel them resonating in me re sounding I am grateful to be ‘home’ again though what home is keeps changing it always includes land water sky earth wind stories ancestors family friends nurturance warmth comfort rain sunshine flurries as the early spring light falls on it I feel again tsexox’s ribs the contours the grain I breathe in its scent its treeness think of its centuries in the rainforest breathing in the sky breathing out the sky cocreating sky ocean river and give thanks for and to those I have travelled with those I am yet to meet pat and I take the gear out of the stern hold spread it out to dry and turn the canoe upside down to drain ready now to spend some time looking after it so we can go on further journeys thank you for these safe journeys creator nia:wen coyote kukwstum raven unseen spirits relations singers dancers drummers speakers listeners readers cojourneyers kukwstum my relatives and relations ancestors and those to come kukwstumlhkacw creator paddle paddle stroke stroke swoooooooshshsh paddle plop ahhhh

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index

Aboriginal (native, indigenous) rights 29, 123, 124, 158, 185, 264, 294 Africa 14, 39, 54, 136, 146, 152, 157, 163, 231, 250, 256, 257, 262, 264, 272, 285, 316 Akwesasne184, 185, 186 Alcorn, Noeline 190 Alter/native 57, 71, 79, 99, 105, 111, 177, 225 Andean, Andes 6, 45, 158, 174 Anderson, Laurie 49 Anishinaabe(g) 40, 127, 138, 184, 304 Aotearoa xi, xiii, 5, 37, 38, 95, 125, 138, 190, 193, 203, 226, 228, 230, 239, 240, 241 Apache 154, 173, 175, 176, 263, 304 Apartheid 137, 141, 146 Apffel-Marglin, Frédérique 6, 125, 268 Armstrong, Jeannette 146, 147, 287, 295 Arnatsiaq-Murphy, Siobhán 312 Athabasca(n) 56, 171 Auckland 230, 231, 232 Bai, Heesoon x, 126, 127 Baker, Marie Annharte xviii, 119, 235 Bakhtin, Mikael 112 Bell, Betty Louise 172 Benton Benai, Eddy 138 Benjamin, Walter 167 Benque Viejo 263 Berk, Jim 179 Bhabha, Homi 167

Bighead reserve. See Joseph Bighead Reserve Bishop, Russell 118, 259, 260 Blackrobe 231 Blaeser, Kimberly 139 Blanchot, Maurice 322, 323 Boal, Augusto 119 Bomberry, Evelyn 181 Braidotti, Rosi 121, 122 Brant-Castelano, Marlene 179 Bringhurst, Robert 84, 91, 92, 93 British Columbia x, 4, 15, 17, 42, 54, 83, 88, 97, 104, 105, 111, 121, 132, 133, 136, 138, 142, 172, 177, 204, 208, 259, 275 Brown, Patricia Salas 183 Buddle, Kathy 149, 322 Burns, Ken 164 Cage, John 57, 122, 163, 304 Campbell, Joseph 175 Campbell, Maria 287 Carroll, David 120, 121 Cartography, cartographic 50, 120, 121, 122, 156 Casino Rama 124 Cayuga 20, 40, 178, 179, 180, 181, 184, 302 Charles, George 165 Cherokee 88, 165, 169, 172, 174, 176, 177, 178 China, Chinese 136, 156, 208, 216, 257 Charlie, Robert 18

Doll, William 100 Donmoyer, Robert 118 Dragland, Stan 142 Duran, Felipe 258 Durkheim, Emile 171 Duwamish 294

Chiapas 162, 165, 256 Chicano 165, 172, 184 Chilcotin (Tsilcoten) 15, 16, 44, 95, 107, 138, 204, 208, 286 Chinook 301, 302, 304, 305, 306 Choctaw 175 Clandinin, Jean 140, 262 Clearcut 13, 46, 48, 49, 115, 130, 142, 155 Cloutier, Sylvia Ipirautaq 312 Coahuiltecan 183 Cochabamba 174 Cole, Peter iii, 14, 97, 98, 121, 224, 225, 226; and O’Riley, 111 Colombia 305 Columbus 38, 98, 155, 172, 226, 227, 319 Commodification 86, 90, 130, 152 Communal 28, 108, 114, 118, 122, 153, 302, 303 Consensual, consensus 26, 49, 51, 114, 151, 174 Cook, Elizabeth 164 Coon Come, Chief Matthew 185 Cortez 258, 278 Coushene, Dave 149 Cowichan 16 Cree 22, 71, 181, 184, 185, 187, 188, 223, 224, 291, Creole 257, 263, 264 Curare 102, 103 Curriculum 3, 53, 60, 93, 94, 95, 100, 101, 102, 103, 105, 106, 108, 109, 110, 111, 120, 123, 125, 133, 139, 140, 144, 145, 149, 150, 183, 191, 192, 194, 207, 222, 225, 237, 241, 252, 274, 297, 317, 321 Cyborg 122, 134

Eaglespeaker, Evelyn 312 Ecology x, 151, 153, 155, 156 Elliott, John 174 Elton, H. 302 Epidemic 44, 68, 98, 316 Epidemiology 52, 68, 69, 133 Erdrich, Louise 139 Ethical, ethics 3, 7, 20, 31, 32, 41, 67, 76, 78, 88, 93, 99, 129, 131, 137, 148, 152, 154, 160, 169, 214, 315, 316, 317, 323 Ethnobotanist 4, 179, 186 Ethnographer, ethnography 16, 79, 113, 118, 119, 135, 174, 192 Evers, Lucy 172 Extinct, extinction 12, 13, 15, 17, 39, 45, 47, 50, 52, 86, 88, 91, 105, 133, 147, 148, 174, 292 Faragher, John Mack 175 (fetal alcohol syndrome) 137 Fedorick, Joy 287, 290 Fisher, Jonathan 312 Fitzgerald, Eljon 126 Flathead 294 Frankland, Richard 38 Frazer, Barbara 184 Freezing worker 232 F TA A 124, 137 FA S

Dakota 61, 182, 187 Deleary, Nick 165 Deleuze, Gilles 57, 120, 123 Deer, Ada 89 Deer, Tom 180 Deloria, Phil 165, 167 Dene 52, 169, 186 Derrida, Jacques 167 Dickason, Olive, 55

Galeano, Eduardo 258 Garifunas 257 Gene, genetic, genome 37, 54, 72, 89, 93, 97, 98, 103, 131, 145, 158, 159 General, Chief Arnold 178 General, Norma 180 Genocidal, genocide 6, 12, 13, 16, 28, 36, 50, 56, 65, 66, 73, 87, 88, 89, 92, 96, 129, 138, 140, 147, 148, 149, 176, 178, 205, 216, 218,

332

71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 77, 80, 81, 83, 84, 90, 91, 94, 117, 133, 148, 149, 214, 290, 315, 316, 318, 319, 321 indigeneity, indigenousness 45, 70, 90, 153, 169, 226 In-SHUCK-ch 14, 16, 98, 118, 135, 210, 212 Inuit 307, 308, 312 Inuk 306, 312 Invade, invader, invasion, invasive xiii, 7, 16, 44, 45, 48, 52, 55, 58, 63, 87, 89, 90, 114, 119, 144, 168, 260, 286 Irish 66, 102, 105, 312 Iroquois 142, 219, 222, 289, 302 Ishkin 87, 100, 209

275, 297, 316, 319, 320, 321 George, Peter 178 Global, globalization 6, 36, 41, 57, 58, 60, 62, 63, 84, 116, 117, 131, 132, 134, 152, 183, 194 Gorman, Wayne 42, 43, 77 Gough, Noel 100, 120, 122 Goulton-Fitzgerald, Francis 126 Green, Henare 126 Greene, Graham 163, 172 Grillo, Eduardo Fernandez 45 Grossman, Ken 132 Guattari, Felix 120, 123 Haida x, 84, 117 Halfbreed 162, 217, 218, 288 Halkomelem 71 Halmen collection 184 Handsome Lake 182, 185 Haraway, Donna 120, 122, 123 Harjo, Chito 172 Harrison Lake 15, 99, 204 Haudenosaunee 152, 176, 179, 309 He, Admiral Zheng 98 Henry, Marge 180, 184 Hermeneutics 169, 175 Herwitz, David 122 Hidalgo 279 “High” tech 30, 86, 135, Highway, Tomson 119, 172, 181 Hill, Tom 181 Himona, Ross 37, 38 Hopi 168, 186 House, Donna 52, 186, Hybrid, hybridity 73, 124, 162, 167, 196, 204, 259

Jacob, August 102 Joseph Bighead reserve, 187 Kanien’kehaka 77, 90, 219 karakia 138, 234, 235, 236, 246 Keetowah Cherokee 88 Kekchi Maya 257 Kelley, C. 187 Kidwell, Sue 177 Kikamba 252 Kills Straight, Birgil 180 Kilpatrick, Alan 165, 166, 172 King, Cecil 86, 100 King, Thomas 172, Kiowa 168 Kispiox 290 Kitsilano 15, 44, 95, 138, 204, 208, 286 Kohanga 234, 235, 251 Koori 35, 38 krklm 102, 104 kr7xlhm 102, 105 Lacota 154, 163, 165, 180, 181 Laduke, Winona 132, 319 Landbridge 136 Landclaim 14, 55, 95, 289 Laronde, Sandra 304 Leclaire, Carole 179 Lillooet 15, 16, 98, 99, 204, 305 Lilwat’ul 16

IMF,

International Monetary Fund 124, 137 Imperialism, imperialist 41, 49, 58, 88, 110, 116, 130, 131, 134, 137, 139, 164, 169, 170, 297 Indian Affairs 14, 29, 72, 72, 96, 97, 114, 134, 141, 146, 182, 214, 243, 287, 303, 317, 320 “Indian” expert ix, x, 4, 25, 44, 48, 61, 64,

333

235, 267, 271, 316 Mitchell, Cecilia 182, 186 Mixed ancestry, mixed blood, mixed heritage 189, 259, 266, 304 Mohawk 175, 176, 177, 180, 184, 186, 187, 188, 218, 222, 226, 227, 228, 252, 254, 291, 302 Mohican 174 Mojica, Monique 58, 161, 162, 165, 168, 171, 173 Momaday, N. Scott 70, 168, 177 Monture-Angus, Patricia 188 Mount Currie 15, 16, 56, 59, 204 Muskokee 165 Musqueam 124

Long, Harry 165, 171 Longboat, Harvey 179, 180, 183 Longboat, Janice 181, 186 Longboat, Jerry 302, 308, 313 Looking Horse, Arvol 36 Lovelace, Bob 123, 124 Lyons, Oren 151 Magana, David 261 Malawi xiii, 269, 270, 271, 272, 273, 274, 275 Manuel, George 289 Map 31, 48, 50, 57, 67, 70, 108, 117, 121, 158, 172, 178, 190 Maquiladora 129 Maracle, Lee 184, 287, 299, 319 Marae 126, 236, 243, 254 Martin-Hill, Dawn 178, 179 Masewali 259, 264 Mashantucket Pequot Museum 168 Matauranga maori 236, 248 Maya, mayan 157, 162, 185, 255, 256, 257, 258, 259, 260, 262, 263, 264, 265, 266, 267, 294 McGregor, Deb 184 Medicine 7, 24, 25, 45, 51, 58, 74, 88, 90, 124, 131, 132, 156, 163, 165, 166, 168, 173, 176, 179, 181, 182, 184, 185, 186, 187, 211, 217, 218, 243, 259, 295, 306 Melbourne, Hirini 138 Menzies, Gavin 98 Mercredi, Ovide 188 Mestizo 255, 257, 258, 259, 263, 264, 265, 266, 267 Métis 179, 188, 223, 224 Midewewin 138 Miles, George 163 Miller, Loren 158 Miller, Ruby 187 miller, s a 84 Minh-ha, Trinh T. 89 Min wuy ka tan 259 Mission, missionaries, missionizers xiii, 15, 16, 17, 36, 71, 96, 97, 98, 147, 156, 159, 160, 163, 175, 204, 205, 210, 211, 212, 217,

Nanabush, Nanabuzho 150, 172 Native American 62, 133, 139, 155, 161, 163, 164, 169, 177, 178, 289, 316 Navajo 163, 169, 170, 173, 176, 177, 186 ndunda, mutindi 106, 252, 283, 285 Nelly, A.J. 158, 159 Netowhow, Andy 187 Newage, newager 74, 153, 160, 162, 170, 171, 176, 307, 310 Newhouse, David 189 New Westminster 16, 226, 287 New Zealand (Aotearoa-New Zealand) 5, 37, 38, 40, 138, 159, 187, 190, 191, 192, 228, 230, 231, 232, 250, 260, 261, 265 Nishinabe 220 Nlaka’pamux 16, Noley, Homer 175 Nomad, nomadism 27, 45, 82, 107, 122, 139, 176 N’quatqua 15, 56, 110, 210, 212 Nunavik 312 Nunavut 312 Nunns, R` 138 Nyerere, Mwalimu Julius 285 Ojibway, ojibwe 149, 181, 184, 188, 311, 312 Onkwehonwe 124 Onondaga 152, 178, 189 Oral, orality 21, 31, 48, 51, 53, 63, 70, 78, 81,

334

136, 137, 138, 140, 141, 143, 144, 145, 146, 148, 153, 154, 156, 160, 164, 193, 194, 199, 208, 214, 215, 218, 222, 231, 252, 258, 265, 286, 288, 289, 294, 295, 297, 298, 299, 319 Refract refraction 3, 30, 50, 106, 108, 143, 196 Rengifo, Grimaldo 268 Residential school xi, xiii, 16, 22, 42, 71, 96, 101, 111, 120, 123, 125, 135, 142, 147, 148, 152, 204, 205, 206, 207, 208, 209, 210, 212, 224, 227, 242, 271, 275, 306, 320 Rhizome Rice, Brian 189 Richardson, Laurel 118 Richmond, Trudy 174 Riding In, James 165, 167 Rights 7, 15, 16, 29, 32, 38, 62, 85, 91, 123, 124, 138, 152, 158, 164, 177, 185, 198, 227, 238, 264, 286, 292, 294 Rigney, Lester Irabinna 183, 187 Riley, Barbara 322 Roach, Archie 35, 36, Robertson, Robbie 313, 314 Rodriguez, Kathleen 276, 282 Rodriguez Villalosso, Ricardo 276, 278, 279, 280, 281, 282 Ronceria, Alejandro 305 Rosado, Victor 261 Royal, Charles 126

82, 95, 118, 119, 153, 160, 161, 164, 168, 181, 220, 257, 291, 302, 303, O’Riley, Pat vii, xi, xviii, 226, 230, 241 Pakeha 37, 40, 95, 138, 192, 193, 194, 195, 197, 199, 201, 230, 232, 233, 237, 238, 241, 242, 254 Pashington 153 Patai, Daphne 118 Pathogen, pathology, pathologies 45, 68, 69, 141 Patten, Rochelle 119, 137 Pemberton Meadows 15, 16, 56, 98, 110, 204 Pequot 168, 174 Permission 22, 33, 47, 51, 65, 81, 82, 91, 92, 129, 152, 157, 158, 165, 185, 197, 212, 215, 237 Peters, Edna 7 Peters, Theodore 180 Pheasant, Karen 311 Piapot 124 Pierce, Roy Harvey 175 Pine Ridge 180 Pit-home 27, 65 Pitipiaq 174 Plateau 21, 25, 27, 69, 120, 168 Pleiades 158 Port Coquitlam 17 Port Douglas 56, 204, 216 Porter, Murray 36 Postmodern 60, 122, 150, 380 Poststructural 308 Potlatch 16, 142, 225 Powatan 163 Pratt, David 187 Precontact 14, 231 Prejudice 36, 73, 78, 299 Protocol ix, xiii, 3, 5, 19, 20, 26, 31, 46, 48, 50, 147, 214, 255, 317, 320, 323

Saks, A 118 Sakteen 15, 56, 96, 97, 98, 99, 110, 216 Samahquam 15, 56, 99, 110, 210 Sasquatch 14, 56, 68 Saulteaux 184 Scanakoot Nation 174 Scott, Duncan Campbell 45, 141, 142, 303, Secwepmec 16 Seneca 142, 149, 163, 175, 181 Shama, shamas 94, 214 Shaman 71, 214, 306, 307 Shanley, Kate 170 Shapeshifter 4, 14, 44, 47, 52, 60, 128 Shipley, Jenny 192 Shoman 256, 258, 266

Quipu 111 Race, racism, racist 37, 38, 41, 42, 47, 48, 62, 66, 72, 76, 79, 80, 81, 85, 87, 88, 93, 113, 120, 122, 124, 125, 129, 132, 133, 134, 135,

335

Stoney 187 Stirling, Kahu 126, 253 Stokes, Dame Evelyn 259 Storymaking 99 Storytelling xiv, 59, 65, 77, 80, 101, 118, 119, 127, 133, 186, 268, 288, 303, 307 stutter, stuttering 57, 69, 120, 228, 254 Sumas Mountain 15, 96, 204 Sundown, Ernest 187 Swamp, Jake 185 Sweatlodge 25, 59, 65, 87, 179 Sweatshop 129, 136 Syncretism syncrety 52, 167

Siah, Rose 18 Sioux 164 Skataquiak 174 Skatin 15, 56, 99, 110, 204, 210, 216 Skokee 165, 171 Skookumchuk 204 Skootamata River 227 Sleepy Water clan 169 Smallboy, Chief 185 Smith, Jaune Quick-to-See 294, 295 Smoke, Dan (& Marylou) xi, 142, 149, 314 Snauq 95 Solomon, Art 40, 127, 128 Sovereign, sovereignty 5, 17, 20, 41, 42, 55, 124, 133, 142, 164, 170, 193, 286, 289 Special education x, 101, 140, 141, 142, 143, 144, 146, 191, 225, 285 Special needs 101, 108, 117, 123, 140, 141, 142, 143, 144, 145, 146 Spirit 3, 13, 14, 19, 21, 23, 24, 25, 31, 33, 34, 44, 46, 54, 56, 65, 67, 79, 82, 86, 92, 99, 100, 101, 105, 107, 108, 110, 113, 117, 121, 124, 128, 129, 130, 135, 137, 138, 141, 149, 152, 155, 156, 157, 158, 166, 172, 173, 175, 179, 180, 181, 182, 183, 185, 187, 217, 218, 220, 223, 224, 224, 225, 226, 228, 239, 241, 242, 248, 250, 269, 277, 293, 294, 295, 305, 306, 309, 312, 322, 324, Spiritual xviii, 5, 7, 25, 32, 36, 40, 57, 86, 91, 99, 101, 109, 113, 115, 117, 121, 125, 127, 138, 146, 149, 153, 159, 166, 170, 175, 176, 179, 180, 189, 196, 203, 204, 211, 214, 215, 222, 224, 230, 253, 285, 290, 292, 299, 302, 308, 309, 310, 311, 312, Spivak, Gayatri 167 Squamish 124 S S H R C (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada) 48, 64, 72, 73, 84, 147, 148, 315, 316, 319 Staats, Linda 178 Starr, Floyd Favel 165 St Pierre, Elizabeth 38 Stl’atl’imx xiv, 15, 16, 56, 98, 135, 209, 227, 228, 244, 305, 322 Stó:lo 16

Tabvahtah, Jeff 306, 312 Talamantez, Ines 130, 154, 168, 173, 175, 177, 178 Technology 5, 28, 29, 46, 57, 58, 60, 63, 65, 66, 67, 86, 110, 111, 114, 116, 123, 129, 130, 131, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139, 144, 149, 151, 152, 153, 154, 159, 190, 205, 219, 223, 227, 228, 237, 238, 252, 287, 305 T E K (traditional ecological knowledge) 59, 60, 85, 86 Teme-Augama-Anishnaabe 304 Thomas, Dylan xiv Thomas, Chief Jake 20, 26, 40, 172, 179, 182, 223, 322 Thunder, thunder beings, thunderers 39, 154, 172, 183, 188 Tinker, George 163, 174 Tipella 211 Tohe, Laura 169, 172 Tohono O’odham Nation 172 Tonto 71, 162 Tookenay, Vince 181 Tornga 306 Toulouse, Georgina 220, 223 Tousey, Sheilah 172 Toxic, toxification, toxin 20, 67, 86, 102, 131, 144, 153, 154 Trachtenburg, Al 169 Trackings and tracings 14, 15, 68, 72, 119, 120, 130, 163, 164, 165, 170, 178, 209, 211, 257, 298, 322

336

Whitefish River 184 Whitlow, Rod 184 Wikwemikong 311, 312 Williams, Agnes 180 Williamson, Karla Jessen 307 Wilinsky, John 139 Winnebago 72 Womac, Craig 171 World Bank 124, 137, 153, 285 W T O (World Trade Organization 62, 116, 124, 137, 245

Traditional education 172, 193, 210 Traditional knowledge 132, 179, 185, 189, 236 Traditional ways 6, 204, 209, 212 Transform, transformation, transformative 6, 13, 19, 44, 51, 74, 86, 89, 93, 104, 154, 164, 255, 313, 316, 324 Transformer 56, 68, 95, 244 Treaty 14, 35, 41, 51, 55, 95, 137, 152, 192, 201, 230, 231, 251 Treaty of Waitangi 190, 192, 195, 230 Tribal 37, 38, 125, 139, 164, 168, 170, 171, 176, 231, 232, 234, 317 Trickster 22, 44, 48, 49, 56, 87, 97, 107, 108, 113, 117, 120, 122, 150, 170, 171, 172, 176, 230, 257, 283 Trujillo, Raoul 304 Tsal’alhmec 16 Tsil’qoten (Chilcoten) 15, 16, 44, 95, 107, 138, 204, 208, 286 Tuhoe 138, 245, 249 Turtle clan 186, 187, 302 Turtle Island, Turtle Islanders 153, Tyendinaga 179

Xa’xtsa 15, 56, 96, 99, 110, 124, Yorta Yorta Tribe 119, 137 Yothu Yindi 34, 35, 38, 39 Zapata 279, 281 Zapatista 281

Ucwalmicwts xiv, 17, 48, 49, 52, 57, 71, 78, 102, 104, 109, 110, 112, 161, 204, 211, 227, 243, 246 Villa, Pancho 279 Vizenor, Gerald 27, 118, 122, 137, 139, 140, 150, 172 Wallace, Russell 305 Wampum 111, 115, 177, 182, 185, 291 Wannabe 77, 89, 162, 176 Warrior 140, 162, 177, 183, 188 Warrior, Robert 139, 164, 169, 183 Weaver, Jace 164, 165, 172, 173, 174, 175, 177, 178 Weber, A. 84 Welch, James 172 Wescott, James 169, 171 West Bay 124 Whaanau, whanau 125, 126, 160, 237, White, Maggie 311

337