Hi Friends
Today to once again tackle the topic of education, specifically Aboriginal education, the province of British Columbia is flirting with a tiered school system or segregation.Mini school for Aboriginal students considered.
Should we even be entertaining this notion? A people that have experienced segregation endorsing further segregation...
First we must ask ourselves what do we want or expect of the school system? Yes the Indigenous culture took some grievous hits in the past, and now in an misguided effort to rectify these lessons of old there seems to be a concerted effort by the school boards to address this. Today many schools are offering Aboriginal study programs, from elementary to university level. In my more cynical moments I look at this as a huge f@#$-you to the Indigenous people. Think about it. Ban the culture and outlaw the ceremonies, and then "sell" it back to them at $500.00 a semester! But lets move on from my cynicism and look at what is happening in the school system today.
To bring in culture the system must remove something else to accommodate it. What would be being removed to this end?
Aboriginal parents like all parents want their children to have access to their culture, as well as a pertinent education befitting the expectations of the modern job market. Can this be done? Yes! Have others done it? Yes!
My own husband is a first generation Canadian citizen. His roots are Ukrainian, with proud Ukrainian parents who spoke their own language at home. They also immigrated to Montreal and were located in a very French enclave. As they came here before the French language laws were entrenched, the family had the option of attending either French or English school board. Being as they were not Catholic, it was decided that the children would be sent to the English school.
My husband's father wanted his children educated in their (Ukrainian history and culture) and as this was not offered to them, my father- in- law and others from the community rented a building and set up their own Ukrainian school, to be held on Saturdays for all the Ukrainian immigrant children in the neighbourhood.
This was a very viable solution to this problem, that many immigrants have seen and solved for their own children with-in their own communities.
When our own children were young we like all other parents wanted the best for, and from, our own sons. To achieve this we began early to make them aware of them selves and the world around them. We fostered a sense of self worth that was knowledge based.
I guess what I notice missing from nearly every article on Aboriginal education issues is the parents. What are their responsibilities? What of the reserve communities, and what are their expectations, and responsibilities? Do they not have a vested interest? What could they be doing to aide the children? We call them our future, yet we are not getting involved enough to bring a brighter future for all. It is a huge burden to place on the shoulders of the young to call them the future, and then do nothing to help them embrace that future. This I believe has led to disillusionment in the young and thus high drop out rates.
I am not apposed to stealing a great idea when I hear one. Why are the reserves not setting up their own community run culturally sensitive learning centers for the children and our collective future?
Let the schools do their job and teach the relevant courses to prepare our young for the modern world. Let us take on the burden of teaching our young their culture, in their own languages.
Become that age old axiom of: "it takes a village to raise a child" for every ones benefit. Most especially the young, the future!
For an insightful and inspiring (true) story on underclass children, read Stand and Deliver by Nicholas Edwards. Or see the 1988 movie.
Regards Debra
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
A Simple Truth...Three Lefts Turns can make a Right...
Hi Friends
There was a rather disturbing report on APTN the other night over a Cree community in northern Quebec banning a sweat lodge and endorsing Christianity over Native spiritualism.
This was reminiscent of the mosque at ground zero controversy for me. I characterize it more as a tempest in a tea pot. But then I am not of any religious persuasion.
The usually, accepting Aboriginal communities from coast to coast, weighed in with what I can only describe as the usual intolerance of any other religious community.
read the comments as well...
To me this was more of a condemnation of Native spirituality than anything else I have ever heard, done by various First Nations' citizens and directed at other members of a First Nation community. We are no better than the haters from other religious factions within the global communities. For better or worse,... we are the same.
We share many of the same traits as the people we profess to be trying not, to emulate.
Our politicians lie to us. Our men abuse our women, our children are beaten and abused by their own parents, and our elders are every bit as ignored and shuttled off to homes as often as any others.
What is the ultimate lesson here? Have we attained equality, and is this the equality we want?
Now I could mention, "Stockholm syndrome" as a possible excuse, or call for an out right ban on religious practices, or even bully others into adopting my philosophies...but then I am left with another conundrum...exactly how many wrongs does it take, to make a right?
The fact that this story was in the news on Martin Luther King day was not lost on me, and in the words of another famous King I respectfully ask...
"Can't we all just get along?"
Rodney King ( L.A riots May 1992)
Regards Debra
There was a rather disturbing report on APTN the other night over a Cree community in northern Quebec banning a sweat lodge and endorsing Christianity over Native spiritualism.
This was reminiscent of the mosque at ground zero controversy for me. I characterize it more as a tempest in a tea pot. But then I am not of any religious persuasion.
The usually, accepting Aboriginal communities from coast to coast, weighed in with what I can only describe as the usual intolerance of any other religious community.
read the comments as well...
To me this was more of a condemnation of Native spirituality than anything else I have ever heard, done by various First Nations' citizens and directed at other members of a First Nation community. We are no better than the haters from other religious factions within the global communities. For better or worse,... we are the same.
We share many of the same traits as the people we profess to be trying not, to emulate.
Our politicians lie to us. Our men abuse our women, our children are beaten and abused by their own parents, and our elders are every bit as ignored and shuttled off to homes as often as any others.
What is the ultimate lesson here? Have we attained equality, and is this the equality we want?
Now I could mention, "Stockholm syndrome" as a possible excuse, or call for an out right ban on religious practices, or even bully others into adopting my philosophies...but then I am left with another conundrum...exactly how many wrongs does it take, to make a right?
The fact that this story was in the news on Martin Luther King day was not lost on me, and in the words of another famous King I respectfully ask...
"Can't we all just get along?"
Rodney King ( L.A riots May 1992)
Regards Debra
Thursday, January 6, 2011
A little Clarification...
Hi Friends
Today lets explore the real facts behind the racist comments usually found at the end of any and all newspaper articles about, or dealing with, Aboriginal issues, shall we?
As an off reserve member living and working outside of the community, and sometimes the only Aboriginal person they have ever come in contact with, it is usually on me to explain the Aboriginal side of the story to the many uninformed that I come in contact with. I'll start with the taxation thing.
Even new Canadians are told about taxes not being collected from the First Nations. I usually start by clarifying this false notion.
I live and work off reserve and as such do indeed pay taxes,(income, as well as property and GST) just as they do. This is usually met with skepticism as the Canadian government handbook, for immigration, has it stated right in there that Indigenous peoples of this country, do not pay taxes. This seems to be the one and only thing about the First Nations that the government, tell new citizens...my question is...why?
Does this seem designed to set up a divide between the First Nations and the new Canadians, or am I being just too sensitive?
Do the immigration hand books also state that churches are tax exempt as well?
On the subject of religion lets look at what the prevailing school of thought on Indigenous spirituality is, shall we?
Your culture is primitive and wrong and needs to be abandoned for your own growth as a people.
I also see our own people embracing Christianity over First Nations spirituality, for whatever reason: most likely residential school hang-over. It is somehow thought to be primitive to espouse the connectedness of our world.
We are living the upside down life of the colonized. We no longer cheer the collective, as was our way, but praise the individual a la the dominant culture.
We are no longer interconnected with mother earth, as we once were, but each is out for him/herself.
These are not our ways, but the way of the colonizer, as taught to us through the colonization process.
Indigenous spirituality teaches us that we are the least of the Creators gifts. Mother Earth is first, then the water, and the plant life followed by the animals and then and only then man...nothing NEEDS us to survive, but we most definitely need the all other of the Creators gifts to sustain us.
Our way is not to be so pompous as to believe that we are the top, or made in the image of our God, but neither born of original sin, one step away from eternal damnation...and by default necessary for the survival of all other things in our universe! changing Mother Earth to suit us, with no thought to the destruction we leave in our wake. Yet that is the way of the Christian religion, and they think we have it wrong and are savage.
I also believe that the tax issue is the same flipped around thinking being proffered by the governments of the day. They can not reconcile themselves with the basic fact that we as the original peoples, are the true proprietors, and further more, as we have never ceded our lands to them, that these resources belong to the Indigenous peoples and it follows that they are here through our altruism. They can't see the preposterous idea this is; to be taxed by a foreign government in our own land.
The real tax issue debated, weather it be chief's salaries, or tax exemption for the First Nations is: this is a constitutionally protected right of the First Nations here in Canada and must be defended as such.
It is not favored treatment of the First Nations, as so many seem to think it is. You can hardly blame the uneducated masses inability to understand what the Canadian government clearly spins as Indigenous greed. It is a lie, we the First Nations know it, and now so should everyone else.
Can I get an "amen" right here that, the Canadian constitution was brought home by an intellectual, and a leader, that understood that to lead in a democratic society, means the "will of the people must prevail" no matter what your personal opinion may be.
A far cry from the "my way or the hi-way" thinking of the dictatorial current government.
Indigenous issues are not easy to decipher or explain, nor are there easy fixes for us, but for sure we must never give up. To see the true picture some times it is beneficial to do as I do and flip things around...just remember to celebrate our ways while doing it.
regards Debra
Today lets explore the real facts behind the racist comments usually found at the end of any and all newspaper articles about, or dealing with, Aboriginal issues, shall we?
As an off reserve member living and working outside of the community, and sometimes the only Aboriginal person they have ever come in contact with, it is usually on me to explain the Aboriginal side of the story to the many uninformed that I come in contact with. I'll start with the taxation thing.
Even new Canadians are told about taxes not being collected from the First Nations. I usually start by clarifying this false notion.
I live and work off reserve and as such do indeed pay taxes,(income, as well as property and GST) just as they do. This is usually met with skepticism as the Canadian government handbook, for immigration, has it stated right in there that Indigenous peoples of this country, do not pay taxes. This seems to be the one and only thing about the First Nations that the government, tell new citizens...my question is...why?
Does this seem designed to set up a divide between the First Nations and the new Canadians, or am I being just too sensitive?
Do the immigration hand books also state that churches are tax exempt as well?
On the subject of religion lets look at what the prevailing school of thought on Indigenous spirituality is, shall we?
Your culture is primitive and wrong and needs to be abandoned for your own growth as a people.
I also see our own people embracing Christianity over First Nations spirituality, for whatever reason: most likely residential school hang-over. It is somehow thought to be primitive to espouse the connectedness of our world.
We are living the upside down life of the colonized. We no longer cheer the collective, as was our way, but praise the individual a la the dominant culture.
We are no longer interconnected with mother earth, as we once were, but each is out for him/herself.
These are not our ways, but the way of the colonizer, as taught to us through the colonization process.
Indigenous spirituality teaches us that we are the least of the Creators gifts. Mother Earth is first, then the water, and the plant life followed by the animals and then and only then man...nothing NEEDS us to survive, but we most definitely need the all other of the Creators gifts to sustain us.
Our way is not to be so pompous as to believe that we are the top, or made in the image of our God, but neither born of original sin, one step away from eternal damnation...and by default necessary for the survival of all other things in our universe! changing Mother Earth to suit us, with no thought to the destruction we leave in our wake. Yet that is the way of the Christian religion, and they think we have it wrong and are savage.
I also believe that the tax issue is the same flipped around thinking being proffered by the governments of the day. They can not reconcile themselves with the basic fact that we as the original peoples, are the true proprietors, and further more, as we have never ceded our lands to them, that these resources belong to the Indigenous peoples and it follows that they are here through our altruism. They can't see the preposterous idea this is; to be taxed by a foreign government in our own land.
The real tax issue debated, weather it be chief's salaries, or tax exemption for the First Nations is: this is a constitutionally protected right of the First Nations here in Canada and must be defended as such.
It is not favored treatment of the First Nations, as so many seem to think it is. You can hardly blame the uneducated masses inability to understand what the Canadian government clearly spins as Indigenous greed. It is a lie, we the First Nations know it, and now so should everyone else.
Can I get an "amen" right here that, the Canadian constitution was brought home by an intellectual, and a leader, that understood that to lead in a democratic society, means the "will of the people must prevail" no matter what your personal opinion may be.
A far cry from the "my way or the hi-way" thinking of the dictatorial current government.
Indigenous issues are not easy to decipher or explain, nor are there easy fixes for us, but for sure we must never give up. To see the true picture some times it is beneficial to do as I do and flip things around...just remember to celebrate our ways while doing it.
regards Debra
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