Friday, January 11, 2013






THOUSANDS MARCH IN OTTAWA
1-11-13



Photo credit: Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151320115773904&set=a.157369913903.114299.140961138903&type=1&theater



http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151336124956170&set=a.10151010360676170.454116.253555851169&type=1&theater


THE POWER OF THE ROUND DANCE
BY KRYSTALLINE KRAUS
"That's when the magic happens, when two strangers reach out their hands and connect to form a giant circle which spins around, made up of hundreds of new relationships of trust -- and then suddenly the group of dancers are now all connected to one another. And I hope that it is this connection between Indigenous Canadians and mainstream Canadians that lasts well beyond this day of action. No justice. No peace.

The language of human touch carries with it many lessons and instantly breaks down any social-political barriers between the Canadian nation and First Nations across Canada. Aided through the communication of the drum -- the thundering power of the human heart -- one hand grabs another and a new understanding is built. New alliances. New allies.

It's as simple as one individual reaching their hand out and having that hand grasped in friendship, and quickly a round dance circle is formed and you are now no longer you and I am no longer me but we are now one part of a bigger circle that represents the continuation of life."


http://rabble.ca/news/2013/01/power-round-dance?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rabble-news+%28rabble.ca+-+News+for+the+rest+of+us%29&utm_content=FaceBook

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=184300231715715&set=o.453702748027709&type=3&theater



RALLY OF SUPPORT FOR CHIEF THERESA SPENCE OUTSIDE OF ATTAWAPISKAT BAND OFFICES
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=360748787356351&set=o.117610195068827&type=1&theater





"There is a prevailing myth that Canada's more than 600 First Nations and native communities live off of money -- subsidies -- from the Canadian government. This myth, though it is loudly proclaimed and widely believed, is remarkable for its boldness; widely accessible, verifiable facts show that the opposite is true."

"Indigenous people have been subsidizing Canada for a very long time."

"Conservatives have leaked documents in an attempt to discredit chief Theresa Spence, currently on hunger strike in Ottawa. Reporters like Jeffrey Simpson and Christie Blatchford have ridiculed the demands of native leaders and the protest movement Idle No More. Their ridicule rests on this foundational untruth: that it is hard-earned tax dollars of Canadians that pays for housing, schools and health services in First Nations."

"The Algonquins of Barriere Lake have a traditional territory that spans 10,000 square kilometres. For thousands of years, they have made continuous use of the land. They have never signed a treaty giving up their rights to the land. An estimated $100 million per year in revenues are extracted every year from their territory in the form of logging, hydroelectric dams, and recreational hunting and fishing."

"And yet the community lives in third-world conditions"

"Attawapiskat has been in the news because their ongoing housing crisis came to the attention of the media in 2011. (MP Charlie Angus referred to the poverty-stricken community as "Haiti at 40 below.") More recently, Chief Theresa Spence has made headlines for her ongoing hunger strike. The community is near James Bay, in Ontario's far north."

"Right now, DeBeers is constructing a $1 billion mine on the traditional territory of the Āhtawāpiskatowi ininiwak. Anticipated revenues will top $6.7 billion."

"Attawapiskat is subsidizing DeBeers, Canada and Ontario."

"The Lubicon Cree, who never signed a treaty ceding their land rights, have waged a decades-long campaign for land rights. During this time, over $14 billion in oil and gas has been removed from their traditional territory. During the same period, the community has gone without running water, endured divisive attacks from the government, and suffered the environmental consequences of unchecked extraction."

"These industries are mostly taking place on an Indigenous nation's traditional territory, laying waste to the land in the process, submerging, denuding, polluting and removing. The human costs are far greater; brutal tactics aimed at erasing native peoples' identity and connection with the land have created human tragedies several generations deep and a legacy of fierce and principled resistance that continues today."

"Canada has developed myriad mechanisms to keep the pressure on and the resources flowing. But policies of large-scale land theft and subordination of peoples are not disposed to half measures. From the active violence of residential schools to the targetted neglect of underfunded reserve schools, from RCMP and armed forces rifles to provincial police tear gas canisters, the extraction of these subsidies has always been treated like a game of Risk, but with real consequences."

"Movements like Idle No More give a population asleep at the wheel the chance to wake up and hear what native communities have been saying for hundreds of years: it's time to withdraw our consent from this dead-end regime, and chart a new course."


"Prime Minister Harper once said that "we have no history of colonialism." This is simply false. When Europeans came to these shores centuries ago, they did not find an empty wilderness, a "terra nullius" where no one lived."

"Quite the contrary. Aboriginal people had been living here in vital, complex communities, for thousands of years. For millennia before the European settlement, this land was their land."


"Chief Spence's hunger strike, carried out with dignity and determination, and the broader Idle No More campaign, which has gone beyond the traditional politics both within and outside the Aboriginal community, are based on a deep sense of frustration, of promises broken, of conditions that no people in Canada should have to accept. Federal and provincial governments face a fire of resentment and anger not next time, but this time. To ignore it, as the Conservatives and some provinces have done, is to court disaster."

"The issues Chief Spence is raising -- issues of terrible living conditions, of deep neglect, of poverty and powerlessness -- will not go away, and will not disappear in the face of attack. They are the shame of our nation and they must be addressed."

"The Conservatives have rejected replacing the Indian Act with a real transfer of power, and the implementation of the self government agreements which all Canadian governments agreed to do in Charlottetown twenty years ago. They show no understanding of the significance of treaties and the meaning of a "nation to nation" relationship."

"They have offered nothing that even begins to address the issues, and we shall all pay a heavy price for this lack of leadership."


"The Idle No More movement arose as a response to what organizers call the most recent assault on indigenous rights in Canada: Bill C-45, which passed on December 14. Bill C-45 makes changes to the Indian Act, removes environmental protections, and further erodes the treaties with native peoples through which Canada was created."

"Even worse is the bill’s “weakening of environmental assessment and the removal of lakes and rivers from protection,” says Eriel Deranger, Communication Coordinator of Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, which is directly downstream from toxic tar sands mining. She knows firsthand the importance of protecting waterways from industrial pollutants. “Indigenous people’s rights,” she says, “are intrinsically linked to the environment.” She adds that the removal of such protections paves the way for resource extraction, bringing Canada closer to its self-stated goal of becoming a global energy superpower. This isn’t just a native thing, Deranger says; this is something that affects everyone."

"And so begins the largest indigenous mass mobilization in recent history. Native people and their allies from all over North America have gathered to peacefully voice their support for indigenous rights: they’ve organized rallies, teach-ins, and highway and train blockades, as well as “flash mob” round dances at shopping malls."

"With Twitter and Facebook as the major organizing tools, #idlenomore has emerged as the dominant meme in the indigenous rights movement. In addition to events across Canada, a U.S. media blitz tour has inspired solidarity actions all over North America, as well as in Europe, New Zealand, and the Middle East. Mainstream media and the Harper government are taking notice."

"Visit almost any reserve in Canada, and you’re likely to see third world social indicators in a first world country: high incarceration rates, inadequate housing and sanitation, reduced life expectancy—due in part to abnormally frequent suicides—lack of employment and education opportunities, and substance abuse. This, after more than a century of colonization by a government that refuses to acknowledge its identity as a colonial power. Meanwhile, native youth are the fastest-growing segment of Canada’s population, according to Aboriginal Affairs. Is it any surprise that they’re taking on repressive legislation and using social media to organize?"

"For Canadians—and potentially all North Americans—this is a moment of reckoning. Just as Chief Spence’s hunger strike forced the issue with Harper, Idle No More forces us all to confront the ugliness of our collective colonial history, and to recognize that colonization continues today."

"It holds up a mirror to our society, questioning the historical narrative we’re all taught to believe. It asks: On what values was our country founded? And, because identity is created out of that narrative: Who are we, really? And who do we want to be?"


IDLE NO MORE








IDLE NO MORE GLOBAL DAY OF ACTION
JANUARY 11, 2013








"Thus, the Hamlet Principle can be seen at work in a decidedly modern psychodrama, between Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence, on the one side, and all of Canadian conservatism, on the other.  Chief Spence is on a hunger strike, protesting the way in which the Conservative government treats First Nations.

And Conservatives, meanwhile, can lately be observed claiming – over and over and over – that Chief Spence is a liar and a fraud and a criminal, and even that she isn’t really on a hunger strike at all.  This is where the “they doth protest too much” part comes in.

Because, the more that Conservatives bray and screech that they don’t care about Chief Spence’s truly brilliant campaign, the more Canadians suspect that they do.  The more that these Cons insult her – calling her every name they can conjure up, including “c**t” on a Sun News web page – the more that they look, well, scared."

"If you pay any attention to conservatives, however, you would think Chief Spence is worse than Hitler, and that her hunger strike is a declaration of war.  Against her, the full force of the Conservative government’s army of propagandists have been deployed.  She has been called some of the most disgusting things imaginable, but she has not responded in kind.  Instead, she has been almost Ghandi-like in her dignity.

If Chief Spence is truly a threat – and, with her weakened body, and her failing voice, it is hard to see how she could threaten anyone – then Conservatives have pursued a genuinely idiotic strategy against her.  Instead of making her infamous, they have made her famous.

Instead of ignoring her, they have revealed themselves to be obsessed by her.  Instead of simply meeting with her, and making it a one-day story, their pig-headed stubbornness has made Chief Spence a folk hero who will be remembered for years to come."



"One thing that I have noticed within the reinsurance of the Idle No More movement and the campaign to support Chief Theresa Spence is the truthful, courageous use of ceremony in the struggle; fulfilling all four portions of a balanced medicine wheel of physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual understandings."

"Historically within Canada, there was a dark time under the Indian Act that made it illegal for First Nations, Metis and Inuit living within Canadian borders – as with the United States – to publically perform ceremonies."

"Now, ceremonies are serving as the strong, backbone of Indigenous resistance across Canada; from solidarity fasts to sweat lodges conducted in support of Chief Theresa Spence and the Idle No More movement."

"Ceremonies only became legal again – from the Potlatch to the Sundance – with changes to the Indian Act in 1951. That’s not too long ago."

"Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence has been on a fast ceremony since December 11, 2012.
I want to point out here that a spiritual fast is different than a hunger strike as a fast is spiritually and culturally located with specific Indigenous traditions and protocols."

"Chief Spence – who will finally be meeting with Prime Minster Stephen Harper on Friday January 11, 2013 (a global day of action for Idle No More) has said she is willing to fast until death and “meet her ancestors” if that is what it takes to defend her people and Mother Earth."

"Two other elders are also on fasts for their people. Saskatchewan activist Emil Bell (74) has been on his fast since December 12, 2012. Manitoba elder Raymond Robinson has also gone without food since December 11, 2012."


"Regarding Idle No More, there have been several call out for fasts in support of Chief Spence, including a Canadian wide call out for a twenty-four hour fast from food on January 11, 2013.
Idle No More has also encouraged First Nations communities to return to their land to perform ceremony. Call outs have been made to coincide with the full moon and the New Year."

"Reclaiming the traditions lost through colonization is key to the empowerment of First Nations communities across North America – Turtle Island – as Indigenous communities come together across the world in support of Idle No More. Ours is a strong fire."



"The First Nations concept of seven generations—of leaving the world as good, or better, than you found it for the children to come—is an old one. It was well entrenched in their society when Frenchman Jacques Cartier landed in what is now Quebec in 1535. It’s been almost five centuries since then and now over 30 million people live in Kanata—a Huron-Iroquois word for “village”. While on the surface Canada looks like a successful First World nation, underneath this veneer there are many inconvenient truths. Former Prime Minister Paul Martin didn’t mince words when he said, “We have never admitted to ourselves that we were, and still are, a colonial power.” In a recent interview, Martin also made the point that, as Postmedia News puts it, “Canada is starving its First Nations of the funding they need for proper health care and education and, even today, is fixated on assimilating aboriginals into a culture that is not theirs.” He also argued that the “Harper government is making serious mistakes by scaling back environmental protection,” according to that article."

"The colonial world view that landed on Canada’s shore centuries ago has been highly destructive for both the natural environment and the resident First Nations, who had lived in a remarkably sustainable fashion up to that time. The predominant view that “man is the centre of the world”, which replaced this, has since then recklessly clear-cut much of the natural capital endowment—forests, coal, oil and gas, minerals, fish, and countless other animal species. It has fouled air, water, and soil, and these destructive forces show no signs of slowing down. After the First Nations offered knowledge to the original settlers so they could survive on the land, the dominant classes in the new settler society, who profited from the exploitation of these resources, proceeded to marginalize and assimilate these indigenous people and blot out their rich and valuable culture. And, as Cree singer Buffy Sainte-Marie says, “it’s still going on here today”. The recent passing of Bill C-45 by the Conservative government of Canada, which is seen as further eroding First Nations rights, is just the latest insult in a long line of ill-considered and unconscionable enactments."

"The label “Idle No More” describes a grassroots movement which has risen up in the past few weeks. It has been supported by thousands of First Nations people, along with many of their fellow Canadians, to protest present-day government policies. They will no longer stand idly by as everything that they believe in is once again threatened. Enough is enough! At the same time, Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence has been on a hunger strike since December 11 to call attention to her people’s issues, and mainstream media has taken a long time to respond positively to her actions."

"Idle No More protesters are also very concerned with the recent, outrageous gutting of environmental protection. First, the omnibus Bill C-38 passed in June and, among other things, weakened the power of the Canadian Fisheries Act, a 144-year-old piece of legislation designed to protect fish habitat. This bill also vastly diminished the powers of environmental protection and assessment which have been slowly building since Confederation. The federal government then cut staff at the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. With the passing of Bill C-45 in December, the 130-year-old Navigable Waters Protection Act that protects the majority of Canada’s water systems has been shrunk to a shadow of its former self. And at the same time Canada now has the dubious honour of being the first country in the world to withdraw from the 1997 Kyoto Accord on climate change."

"The Conservative government’s continued undying support for fossil fuel production and the expansion of its gargantuan and intrusive infrastructure is killing our beautiful planet and ruining it for future generations. But this is the primary force that drives them—their belief in an outdated model for a human economy which they think Canadians need and want."



"MONTREAL – The aboriginal movement known as Idle No More continued to gain strength beyond Canada’s borders on Tuesday as activists embarked on a public relations blitz in the United States."

"Pamela Palmater, one of the leaders of the movement, travelled to Washington, D.C. to give interviews to the U.S. press. She said the goal of the media campaign was to raise awareness internationally and force Prime Minister Stephen Harper to act."

“The idea is to put pressure on the Canadian government to pay attention and come to the table,” Palmater said by phone."

"In addition to recent events held across Canada, rallies have already been staged as far off as Texas, Hawaii and New Zealand with plans for more in the coming days."

"Palmater said Chief Theresa Spence’s hunger strike, now in its fourth week, is part of a much larger protest movement."

"The initial spark was the federal government’s omnibus budget legislation but it has now become about broader issues like inequality and treaty rights, she said."

"Meanwhile, Spence’s hunger strike continued to gain support from across the country. A group of activists travelled from the Maritimes to bring supplies to her protest site, located on an island in the Ottawa River across from Parliament Hill."

"Dozens of demonstrators took to the streets of downtown Toronto on Tuesday afternoon in support of Idle No More and stopped traffic at one of the city’s busiest intersections."

"Actor Tantoo Cardnial was part of the Toronto rally and said she got into acting to tell the world the stories of Canada’s aboriginal peoples."

“The blueprint of who we are as a civilization — that was attacked by the church, by the government, by corporations,” Cardinal said."

"Spence is in support of the treaty rights and the “Canadian people have to understand there are two signers in the treaties,” she said."

“Those treaties were signed in a sacred way — they were signed through ceremony, through prayer … and it’s a sacred agreement."

http://metronews.ca/news/canada/493146/idle-no-more-movement-spreads-beyond-border

/http://warriorpublications.wordpress.com/2013/01/03/war-of-the-words-chiefs-issue-ultimatums-as-grassroots-dance-in-circles/

http://www.scribd.com/doc/117686499/IdleNoMore-Webdocument

http://www.riic.ca/2012/12/27/quick-round-up-of-idlenomore-reading/
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