INDG 1100 Introduction to Indigenous Studies (Treena Chambers)

Midterm 2 (Week 9 - 12) practice. Covers the following topics: Elusive Justice and NDN Civil Rights: Direct Action, Helper Beings, The Sacred the Spirit and Spirituality Homeland Environmental Justice Direct Action, and Reservation, Reserves and the Urban NDN.

Enfranchisement

means to give up Indian status and become a Canadian citizen, and a method of assimilation of First Peoples into Canadian settler society

Voluntary and Involuntary Enfranchisement

It was voluntary, but Indigenous activists that fought the system were threatened with involuntary enfranchisement.

This would get them banished from their community
Indigenous peoples do not want to give up status because it gives them and protects their rights as Indigenous peoples.

What two acts is the Indian Act made up of?

Gradual Civilization Act of 1857 and Gradual Enfranchisement Act of 1869 consolidated into the Indian Act, in 1876

Status (Indian)

those are perceived as Indigenous under the law, and receive a card that can be used to prove their status

Women and Status

Was historically taken away from Indigenous women that married a non-Indigenous man, and given to non-Indigenous women that married an Indigenous man.

Aboriginal

means un-original, and is only used in a legal sense, where stated

What section of the Canadian constitution do Aboriginal rights come from?

Section 35 of the Constitution (1982)

Omnibus Bill

a proposed law that covers a lot of diverse topics in one go, instead of individual debates for each topic

Bill C-38

Jobs and Growth Act of 2012 (omnibus bill)

457 page bill that changed over 70 federal acts without the proper discussion within parliament

Changed Canada’s environmental legislation, removed protections for water, fish, and the environment

Bill C-38 Impact on Indigenous Peoples

occupying Fish Farm cabin for 254 days (direct action), resisting BC renewal of fish farm licenses, open nets spread diseases, and fish farms located on wild salmon runs spread viruses

Bill C-45

omnibus bill

removes fish habitat protection and does not recognize Indigenous commercial fisheries

changes the Navigable Waters Protection Act by reducing the # of lakes and rivers that need navigation and federal environmental assessment to 37,000 to only 97 lakes, and 2.25 million to only 62 rivers

Indigenous peoples were not consulted

Section 25 (1982 Constitution)

guarantees that no rights protected under the Charter will be used to abrogate or derogate from right belonging to Aboriginal people (including land rights and rights under the Royal Proclamation)

Section 35 (1982 Constitution)

Aboriginal rights come from here, more of a promise than real legislation

Section 92 (1867 Constitution)

In each Province the Legislature may exclusively make Laws in relation to Matters coming within the Classes of Subjects next hereinafter enumerated

Federalism = split of powers between different levels of gov’t, and they will reign supreme about that issue

Honourable Harvest

11 unwritten guidelines for receiving from Mother Earth

- Never take the first one (it could be the last one)
- Ask permission
- Listen for the answer
- Take only what you need
- Use everything you take
- Minimize harm (don’t use a shovel when a stick will do)
- Be grateful
- Share what you’ve taken
- Reciprocate the gift (scatter the seeds)
- Defend them & love them
- Take only that which is given to us

TEK (Traditional Ecological Knowledge)

This way of live assumes that everything is interconnected and interrelated

Therefore, TEK cannot be compartmentalized or removed from the knowledge holders or the environment to which it belongs

TEK Indigenous Examples

Haudenosaunee = offerings of tobacco when travelling across a large water body + when water is needed for medicine, should be collected when the sun and moon are both up

Anishinaabe = being close to water is important for the well-being of the community (it heals them) + abusing water = losing water, only use what we need

TEK Indigenous v. Western perspective

TEK was coined by academics in the 1980s to describe and new and burgeoning field of research

HOWEVER, they took the knowledge of Indigenous peoples and used it for themselves, without permission from the Indigenous groups it belonged to

Takes a lifetime to understand the world from an Indigenous perspective, and there is always more to be learned 9learning is continuous, it does not end)

TEK Indigenous Perspective

- Thousands of years old
- Indigenous understanding of relationships to Creation
- Action oriented
- One does TEK
- One lives TEK

TEK Western Perspective

- Approximately 3 decades told (1980s ish)
- Involves colonial attitudes towards Indigenous peoples and
their knowledge
- Body of knowledge
- TEK consists of defining/transmitting this body of knowledge
- One studies TEK

TEK intellectual property rights are to teach non-Indigenous peoples about what can and cannot be read by them, if they can profit off of it, and more

3 Sisters

- The name for corns, beans, and squash
- Are an example of how good relationships allow us to grow
- Teach us to support one another
- Sophisticated way of farming that looks at what we can do to
contribute to a smaller environmental footprint

Controlled Burns

small fires lit and safely maintained (an example of TEK)

Indigenous Peoples and Controlled Burns

- Indigenous peoples use “controlled burns” to take care of
forested areas
- Has decreased # of uncontrollable wildfires because it burns
away rotted wood on the forest floor, and some burns
forestry around homes to prevent them from burning up
- Indigenous peoples were prohibited from doing so because
of the forestry industry and colonial legislation that banned
these practices
- Canadian governments punished “fire prevention” and used
campaigns such as “Smokey the Bear” which deflected
environmental responsibility

Unsettling

physically removing Indigenous peoples and all signs of Indigenous peoples from an area (see False Creek and Kitsilano peoples in Stanley Park)

Erasure

removing all traces of First Peoples’ ways of being, doing, knowing (physically, emotionally, spiritually, and intellectually) from Indigenous homelands

Indigenous narratives, history, and legal policies that were created to disadvantage Indigenous peoples - these are often left out of the stories of Canada, by the dominant culture

Sanitized Indigeneity

things to relating to indigeneity that are approved by settlers, and “sanitized” by making them more palatable (easy to digest/accept), far removed from real life

This sanitization happens by removing the parts of the culture that are considered contentious or “too much” for settlers to deal with

“Indian Village” at Brockton Point - totem poles which are a “sight-seeing location” in BC. In this case, it is appealing to keep totem poles up at Brockton Point in Stanley Park to stand in for an “example” of the artwork of “a long-lost culture” pre-dating colonial settlement.

Impunity

means an “exemption from punishment or freedom from the injurious consequences of an action” (online)

“Crimes of impunity” is a reason for femicide = some people believe women commit crimes that go unpunished

Why is it an issue with police vehicles using Indigenous art on their vehicles?

They aren’t doing anything stop profiling of Indigenous peoples, but using this “art” to say they support, but they aren’t changing anything real (VPD)

Settler

someone that is not Indigenous to the area, and has settled on the land

NOT a racial term

There has been some push to recognize the word “migrant,” which would be used to identify someone who is now on another person’s Indigenous territory, but because they were also colonized

Decolonization

ridding of the colonial perspectives that have been placed on us, and recognizing Inidgneous peoples on this land, and being an ally