Carrying placards won’t improve natives’ plight
There is no cause more worthy of a national uprising in this country than aboriginal rights. I applaud the participants in Idle No More for trying to do something about a shameful situation that is neither natural nor inevitable, and can be fixed.
I’m not sure the way to fix it, though, is by demanding that the government of Stephen Harper start behaving differently. For one thing, this government is more stubborn than my two-yearold, even when it’s blatantly wrong. And for another, not all of its ideas about Indian Act reform are blatantly wrong.
The problem isn’t that the government — the democratic government, duly elected by all voters, including aboriginal people — is amending the laws of this country.
The problem is that the laws of this country are racist and perverse. The Indian Act is an abomination that should be off the books as soon as possible — tomorrow, if we can.
The Conservatives seem to favour a legislative approach to reforming the act that nibbles away at its worst bits. Many members of First Nations have objected to this unilateral and piecemeal approach, cautioning that this doesn’t respect aboriginal rights and that there could be unintended consequences. Fine. If First Nations don’t want the government controlling every aspect of their lives, the answer is to let the Indian Act die. That control is what the Indian Act is for. It exists for no other reason. Make it irrelevant, as many nations have already done, through new governance arrangements. Make that the urgent priority — not carrying signs urging Harper to stop being Harper.
Yes, the Conservatives were wrong to sneak changes to the Indian Act into their omnibus budget bill. They were wrong to sneak all kinds of things into their budget bills. This isn’t just how the Conservatives deal with aboriginal affairs — it’s how they deal with everything.
A protest, such as the Idle No More event planned for Friday in Ottawa, is not going to get this government to change its attitude about how democracy should work. If you don’t like the way Harper passes laws about how things work on reserves, then take away his power to decide how things work on reserves.
Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence is on a hunger strike on Ottawa’s Victoria Island. She wants a meeting with Harper and the Governor General.
Metis blogger Chelsea Vowel recently wrote a post about Spence and Idle No More, with the headline “I’m in a life-threatening abusive relationship . . . with my government.” Yes. Exactly. And when you’re in an abusive relationship, you don’t ask for a meeting with your abuser. You don’t starve yourself to get his attention. You leave that relationship.
So long as the relationship between First Nations and the federal government is dependent and one-sided, and governed by the Indian Act, it will be abusive. By definition and design. It’s holding aboriginal people back. The situation in Attawapiskat is dire, and this government should be ashamed for its cowardly part in it. Having a meeting, becoming personally involved, would be the least that Harper could do. Imagine if Harper treated the crisis in Attawapiskat with the same seriousness as Barack Obama has shown toward the killings in Newtown.
But you know what? Even if he did, that wouldn’t be much more than symbolic. There have been meetings before. There was a CrownFirst Nations gathering less than a year ago.
Imagine if First Nations were able to come to the negotiating table as a collection of viable, functional communities. Communities that are not stuck in this awful limbo, hating the Indian Act while fearing to let it
The problem is that the laws of this country are racist and perverse.
go. Communities that could say to the federal government: We are not coming to you cap in hand. We are coming to you to discuss how we should all live together. What governance arrangements and partnerships make sense for all concerned? What rules will favour good stewardship of land and resources?
Many aboriginal communities are already there, already viable and functional. Some are not, and that’s the problem that faces aboriginal leaders and activists. They’re starting from a position of weakness imposed by generations of racist rule. It won’t be easy to shake it off and start working toward prosperity, but that’s the only way out.
“Blacks no longer seek to reform the system because so doing implies acceptance of the major points around which the system revolves,” said Steve Biko of the black consciousness movement in South Africa. “Blacks are out to completely transform the system and to make of it what they wish.”
That’s the kind of revolution this country needs — an end to the racist system, not a demand for Stephen Harper to run the racist system a little differently. Nonaboriginal people should be involved in that change, in every way in which they’re welcome and needed. But holding signs sniping at Harper is not going to get us there.