Transcript Social Justice - Mellow Star Consulting

SOCIAL WORK:
TRANSFORMATION
BRENDA ST. GERMAIN
MSW, RSW
IN THE BEGINNING… PART 1
BEHI ND THE COLONI A L WA LL:
7 PROPHECIES AND COLONIZATION
Today’s agenda – June 16
 Purpose: Understand Canada Pre-confederation:
 Defining and describe colonialism & colonization; Doctrine of
Discovery & genocide intent
 Goal: Awareness of impact from societal values
 Review: contextualize and identify philosophical
values in two different cultures and concept of
“colonizer & the colonized” ; white privilege
 Discuss: Pictures tell the story; Societal Values,
Ideologies and Influences = government & media
* I was attending events where speakers were
presenting themes resembling “alarms” in both
worlds where I walk: Native & mainstream - Wake
up! and Stop! Get up and don’t ignore the
destruction anymore – go back to the “old ways”
* But few are moving towards those philosophies in
either world and I kept wondering, “Why?”
* If the original Native ontological way of life is
valued – “Why weren’t more communities
incorporating the philosophies into their own
schools?” “Why was mainstream society controlling
the destruction but had others who were worried
and joining my circles?”
* Discussions (large & small groups) to encourage
dialogues
*
WARNING & DISCLAIMER
• Every Picture Tells a Story: a form of fusionmethodology that blends Indigenous with Western
• Pictures capture the history of Aboriginal people in Canada
• This workshop will be used as documentation to record
Indigenous perspectives of the history of our people
(Aboriginal)while Settlers transformed from visitors to
colonizers in a new land
WARNING: THIS WORKSHOP CONTAINS PICTURES OR CONTENT
THAT SOME VIEWERS MAY FIND DISTURBING. THE OPINIONS
EXPRESSED IN THIS WORKSHOP DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT
THE VIEWS OF THE CASW CONFERENCE ORGANIZERS OR ACSW
– please monitor reactions and implement self-care if
necessary (breathing, prayer, counselling, de-briefing,etc.)
Colonial Language & Propaganda: Tools to maintain racism
Pre-Confederation Images to
promote - Indians as cruel savages
Reality of colonization
 CAPTION READS:
IGNOBLE: not honorable in character or
purpose
synonyms:: shameful, contemptible,
despicable, dastardly, vile, sordid, mean
Physically imposing with a
thirst for destruction, the
savage indian with his
menacing cry will kill, rape,
burn down, steal and
destroy all in his path. This
is what the propaganda
would have you believe
about Native Americans
whether they be provoked
or not.
COLONIAL CLEANSING
• Great Britain & British colonial officials recorded in minute detail
the horrors they committed in their cleaning goal with close to
95% of the people (Indigenous) exterminated
• “one gets the impression that they were proud of the barbarous
crimes against humanity they were committing while
appropriating the properties of sovereign First Nations Peoples” (2006,
Paul, “We Were Not the Savages)
• Paul argues, “systemic racism instilled in the majority of Caucasians by
colonial demonizing propaganda, which depicts our ancestors as the
ultimate sub-human savages, is still widespread…witnessed by the level of
discrimination still suffered [today].
• SMALL GROUPS: Discuss whether or not your organization deals with
racism or share situations where you have witnessed racism against
Aboriginal peoples. Provide a brief description of situation, action/words/
behaviors & reactions – and what was outcome? Feelings?
COLONIAL LAWS NEVER REVOKED
Reality of Colonization
Pre-Confederation
Colonial Laws Still Exist
 Gov. Cornwallis hated Canada & the
 Province passed off
Indians. He introduced the “British
Scalp Proclamations” in 1749 & 1750
– to solve problem against the
Micmac Indians when they were told
their land was going to be settled by
British
“to all His Majesty’s Subjects..do
promise a reward of ten Guineas for
every Indian Micmac taken or killed, to
be paid upon producing such Savage
taken or his scalp (as is the custom of
America)… This bounty law remains in
effect & Aboriginal chiefs are having
hard time getting government to revoke
and apologize for it (Foot, 2000,
National Post)
problem to Ottawa
officials – Proclamation
is probably a federal
matter….
 Laws & legislation are
never “deleted” – simply
revised or amended
(repeal is to annul or
abrogate an existing law)
CANADIAN COLONIAL LAWS
•
1867: British North America Act which gave legislative responsibility for Indigenous peoples to
Canada; responsibility was referred to as the “Indian Problem” and policy of assimilation was
adopted.
•
1869: Gradual Enfranchisement Act which assumed the inherent superiority of British ways, and
the need for Indians to become English-speakers, Christians, and farmers.
•
1876: Indian Act which made Canada responsible for “Indian” education; goal was to educate
students to prepare them to function in mainstream society; they would move into mainstream
communities and eventually there would be no one left on the reserves.
•
1879: Nicholas Flood Davin Report noted that "the industrial school is the principal feature of the
policy known as that of 'aggressive civilization'....Indian culture is a contradiction in terms...they
are uncivilized...the aim of education is to destroy the Indian."
•
1883: Canadian federal government begins building Residential Schools far away from reserves
to ensure children are educated in European ways
•
2014: Bill C-33 Education Act did not offer long-term funding guarantees, FN control over
education and a recognition of their languages and culture in curriculum.
•
There was never a full consultation and inclusive process with First Nations by the government: only AFN
approval
RESIDENTIAL SCHOOLS –
ABORIGINAL RECORDS OF HISTORY
•
•
•
•
•
1827: Excerpt from the Diary of Egerton Ryerson (Known as the Father of Residential Schools): "[I]
attended the great annual meeting of the Indians, and opened the Gospel Mission among them. In my
first address, I explained to the assembled Indians the cause of their poverty, misery, and wretchedness,
as resulting from their having offended the Great Being who created them, but who still loved them so
much as to send His Son to save them, and to give them new hearts, that they might forsake their bad
ways, be sober and industrious; not quarrel, but love one another,…I contrasted the superiority of the
religion we brought to them over that of those who used images…It is of the last importance to
perpetuate and extend the impressions which have already been made on the minds of these Indians.
The schools and religious instruction must be continued; and the Gospel must be sent to tribes still in a
heathen state.”
1840’s: The first Residential Schools were set up in Ontario (they were called Industrial Schools initially);
the Federal Government became involved in the running of the schools in 1844, after the findings of the
Bagot Commission were reported.
1842-1844: The Bagot Commission was created to do a two-year review of conditions on reserves. It
reported “half-civilized states” and gave several recommendations including residential education.
1847: Excerpt from a report on the study of Native education commissioned by the Assistant
Superintendent General of Indian Affairs: "There is a need to raise the Indians to the level of the
whites...and take control of land out of Indians hands. The Indian must remain under the control of the
Federal Crown rather than provincial authority, that effort to Christianize the Indians and settle them in
communities be continued,....that schools, preferably manual labour ones, be established under the
guidance of missionaries....Their education must consist not merely of training of the mind, but of a
weaning from the habits and feelings of their ancestors, and the acquirements of the language, art and
customs of civilized life."
1857: Passing of the Gradual Civilization Act (Act to Encourage the Gradual Civilization of Indian Tribes in
this Province, and to Amend the Laws Relating to Indians) which required enfranchisement of any male
Indian over the age of 21
Government, Colonial Language & Propaganda:
Tools to maintain superiority
The RCMP in residential schools
Government controls
Aboriginal education
 The RCMP played a part in the
Indian Residential School system
which ravaged First Nation
communities for more than a century
and left once-vibrant cultures to
die…”authority figure who takes
members of the community away
from the reserves or makes arrests” –
parents were arrested if they tried to
stop their children from being taken
away from the families or
communities. Children were told
their parents died of small pox or
vice versa
(Stasyszyn, 2011. Retrieved June 1, 2014 from http://www.yukonnews.com/news/the-rcmp-in-residential-schools)
INTERNMENT OF OUR ABORIGINAL
CHILDREN
Foster Care
• Involuntary
• Removed from
home/community
• Loss of culture
• No contact parents/family
• Monopolizing of perception
• Granting occasional
indulgences (motivation for
compliance e.g. WEM, etc.)
• Opportunity for “education”
Residential Schools
- Involuntary confinement
- Removed from
home/community
- Loss of culture
- No contact parents/family
- Monopolizing of perception
- Granting occasional
indulgences e.g. Candy,
food
- Opportunity for “school”
FOSTER CARE/RESIDENTIAL
Children likely to suffer serious physical & mental health problems
• Long-term and intergenerational impacts
•
•
•
•
•
Personal loss of culture, language, traditional modes
Deep-rooted feelings of humiliation, shame, abandonment
Communication barriers, inability to express self
Ongoing triggers from sounds & smells
A brief system that denies the value and importance of women
Based on systems with messages
1. YOU ARE DEFICIENT/ I AM PROFICIENT
2. I have the right (duty, privilege, responsibility” to perform
prescribed operations upon you with/without your consent
3. These operations are undertaken for your own good
(2007) Richardson &Nelson. A Change of residence: Government schools and foster care homes as sites of forced Aboriginal assimilation –
A paper designed to provoke thought and systemic change. First Peoples Child and Family Review 3(2) pp 75-83
 The 17-year-old, who had been
Richard
Cardinal
The report contained 22
wide-ranging
recommendations
addressing the courts, the
provincial government,
schools, hospitals,
aboriginal organizations
and even the media. It
called for child care
workers and foster
parents to be better
trained in aboriginal
culture, suicide and
depression, and for the
government to establish
mental health facilities
for children. It also called
for the recruitment of
more aboriginal child
welfare workers and
foster parents.
placed in 28 different homes
during his 14 years in the child
welfare system, hanged himself
from a cross bar he had nailed
between two trees near his last
foster home in Sangudo,
northwest of Edmonton. The
documentary, Cry from the Diary
of a Métis Child, lamented that he
“never got what he needed most
— to go home.”
FOSTER CARE SYSTEMS SAME AS
RESIDENTIAL SCHOOLS
• APTN National News 2013, May
(http://aptn.ca/news/2013/05/08/)
Of the 30,000 children under 14-years-old in foster care in
2011 nearly half were Aboriginal children despite
representing about four per cent of Canada’s
population says a report released Wednesday.
• As of 2011, there were 14,225 Aboriginal children who
were listed as wards of the state according to the
Statistics Canada report Aboriginal Peoples in Canada:
First Nations People, Metis and Inuit as part of the
National Household Survey.
• READ AND DISCUSS: “ABUSE IN RESIDENTIAL SCHOOLS –
BIDERMAN’S CHART OF COERCION” – AHF, 2005, P.5
Media uses images: justifies superiority
Scary images of “Indians”
in media & in curriculum
Myths: All Natives drink
Stereotyping reflects racism and prejudice
Romanticizing Natives
Misconceptions
DEROGATORY TOWARDS WOMEN
? in “society & culture”
website about “squaws”
Answer from a Native
woman
 I didn't think anyone
 yes. it comes from the word in my
thought this was a
derogatory word until I
looked it up on Wikipedia.
I find it doubtful that many
people have a problem with
this word, but I'd like to
know the opinions of
Native Americans.
Does this mean people are
against the names Squaw
Valley and Squaw Bread?
language which refers to female
genetalia, otsiskwah. the french
shortened this to simply skwah or
squaw when they wanted to be clear
what they were after. it is the
equivilant to calling a woman cu**.
Native people have also been fighting
to have place names using the words
as well. they succeeded in having
Squaw Peak renamed to Piestewa
Peak, after the first Native American
woman to die in combat while
serving in the U.S. military.
Aboriginal Women
BEFORE CONTACT


Iroquois: If the clan mothers later found that
they did not like their selection, they had the
right to revoke a chief’s power and assign it to
someone else. Therefore, male chiefs
ultimately had to answer to women, who
clearly held the balance of power
Cree: okicitaw iskwewak – women warriors;
laws of nation or Natural Laws. Clans of 9
women had responsibility to ensure Natural
Laws were being followed. Chief &
leadership consulted and received approval
Pre/post Confederation
 Government agents operated
from patriarchy system and
only obtain signatures from
males in nations/tribes: the
women were not consulted or
included in the signing of the
treaties. ?.... Are the treaties
legal
 Missing/Stolen Sisters: laws &
legislation do not protect
women e.g. stalking law,
domestic violence, unsolved
murders
British ideologies towards women
 British social values and norms immigrated into the Canadian government
when it was created under the British North America Act. These foreign
values influenced the foundational beliefs incorporated into the legislative
system. The legal system in Canada created laws through the lens of a
patriarchal societal structure, which has had a negative impact on
Aboriginal women in Canada. Canadian laws and legislative branches
encouraged assimilation of Aboriginal women into society and removed
Aboriginal status through discriminatory laws applied only to Aboriginal
women.
 Aboriginal women in Canada have experienced oppression under the
domination of a male-centred legal system that devalues the female
population and offers little or no protection against domestic violence,
rape, or murder. Harry (2009) presents at the Battered Women’s Support
Services Aboriginal Program and challenges, “Aboriginal women as a group
have been largely ignored in the processes for Aboriginal sovereignty as
well as women’s rights/or feminist activism.” Harry (2009) asks, “How can
government creating laws, having established women’s rights on a feminist
foundation, claim inclusion for Aboriginal women within the established
women’s rights when feminism has largely excluded Aboriginal women?”
Linguistic Manipulation
puts “a picture or idea in our heads”
Pre Confederation
First: Indian princesses
Post Confederation
Then: civilized women
 To sell the idea that

“new land” was exotic
and profitable to the
Queen

British women were against British males
involved with Native women; now called
whores, dirty “squaws” …. Has continued to
today towards Aboriginal prostitutes
"The dirty squaw emerged, conveniently
taking the blame for the increasing poverty
on reserves and deflecting attention from
government and public complicity in the
devastation of Indigenous peoples. If Native
women were constructed as "squaws," dirty,
lazy, and slovenly, it was easier to cover up
the reality of Native women who were merely
struggling with the increasingly inhuman
conditions on reserve" (Anderson, 2000, p.
103).
"The dirty squaw image
was also used for racial
purity through
marginalizing Indigenous
women in early settler
society" (Anderson, 2000,
p. 104). This image was
created as a social
segregation tool "to erase
the acknowledgment of a
contemporary existence of
Indigenous women"
(Pitawanakwat, 2007).
This next sentence shook
the very ground that I
stood upon. "The dirty,
dark squaw not only
justified the deplorable
treatment of Aboriginal
peoples, she also created a
gauge against which white
femininity could be
measured and defined"
(Anderson, 1000, p. 104).
British men were to protect their
women & included distancing their
relationships with Native women
*
*
*
*
The four-hundred year pattern of genocide in the name of capitalist profit was begun
with the search for furs. After dipping their big toes into the waters of the fish trade of
the Atlantic Coast, French colonists began to explore the land and offer objects in
exchange for beaver pelts. Says one writer,
In 1534 the Indians along Canada’s eastern coast already knew what the whites sought
in North America. Cartier, in that year, described how Indians held up a beaver skin
attached to a stick, indicating their willingness to trade. They also kept their womenfolk out of sight.
Along with the colonizers came their ideologues, the Jesuit missionaries. Soon the
British too were exploring, and the Hudson’s Bay Company was founded in 1670 and
established trading posts up into the eastern Arctic as well as more and more into the
plains areas. In 1784 the North-West Company was founded and competed with the
Hudson’s Bay Company, but the amalgamation of the two in 1821 ensured the virtual
monopoly of the Hudson’s Bay Company over the fur trade right across Canada. On the
Prairies it had a legal and official monopoly over all forms of trade, serving in effect as
the law itself in that hinterland; in the East, its monopoly was legally limited but those
limits were not enforced
A key tool of the Hudson’s Bay Company thievery of furs was the liquor
trade
Malcolm & Paul Saba. (1975). Nationhood or Genocide: The struggle of the Native people against Canadian and American Imperialism. Canadian Revolutions No. 4, Nov/Sept.
Retrieved June 13, 2014 from www.marxists.org/history/erol/periodicals/canadian-revolution/19760402.htm
*
Mascots & Costumes: Regalia linked to culture
Sports - unacceptable
Costumes sexualize,
demoralize or devalue
Advocacy for social justice: Factors to consider
 Historical influences affecting society
 Elizabethan Poor Law: deserving / undeserving
 Euro-centric philosophies: European colonial policies;
empirical science & methodologies (epistemological
foundation in academics); Age of Enlightenment, etc.
 Societal ideologies
 Patriarchal and hierarchal ideologies:
 Colonial policies
 Chattel Property included women and children
 Laws, Legislations, profession, agency policies
* Are the 7 Prophecies reflected in the history
between Indigenous peoples and Settler
populations in Canada (Turtle Island)?
* Is there a transformative change beginning to
occur that will unite all people together, as
predicted by the 8th Fire?
*
and other stories about Rainbow Warriors,
Sacred Tree, (foretold the day would come when people would
awaken, as if from a long, drugged sleep: they would begin timidly at
first, then with urgency to search again for the SACRED TREE)
*
4TH FIRE: LIGHT SKINNED PEOPLE ARRIVE
5TH FIRE: Our people abandon old teachings & accept
promise from light-skinned people – will struggle for
generations
6TH FIRE: Our people turn against teachings & block
children from Elders – creates imbalance and loss of
purpose/ will for life
7TH FIRE: new people retrace their steps back to Elders,
but some are still sleeping; some lost knowledge &
others keep silent cos no one asks them
8TH FIRE: time of rebirth after people start to “WAKE
UP” - all races have time to return to good path – away
from destructive path
*
DISCUSSION
1990 – 2012
VIEW: TINA SCOTT
video
VIDEOS & SLIDES
• http://deadspin.com/heres-the-anti-redskinscommercial-that-will-run-during1588597037?utm_campaign=socialflow_deadspin_f
acebook&utm_source=deadspin_facebook&utm_
medium=socialflow
• MELLOW STAR CONSULTING WEBSITE – mellowstar.ca
or
Academia.edu - https://www.acaDemia.edu
(search Brenda St. Germain) will need to create
identity to login and access articles