Idle No More and the mainstream
Regina - Friday, January 25, 2013
by:Stu Innes
I enjoyed your article on the Idle No More movement sort of. .
I think you missed an opportunity to describe the opposite viewpoint - that viewpoint of the mainstream.
We all recognize the horrific period of time when the church was entrusted with educating the natives and the corruption of so many indian agents.
The vote was far to long coming perhaps for the same reasons we as society continues to fail in our relationship with the aboriginal population.
I say population, because I believe the term native community has been used in error. Like the rest of Canada the native population consists of many diverse communities with differing needs. Lumping them together in so many ways does them all a disservice. Similarly, I believe the native leaders have fallen into the same trap of failing to recognize their own needs and consequently failing to move toward meeting their needs.
I do not pretend to know the native situation any better than anyone else, in spite of perhaps sounding like I might up to this point - I do however claim to be a part of the mainstream and an observer of the political climate in the country.
At first glance the usual things like native education problems; graduating a low percentage from high school on or off the reserve.
High unemployment on or off the reserve almost certainly a result of the low education numbers. Housing on the reserve being substandard as well as in short supply. Corruption at the leadership level and elected official level on and off the reserve. Crime numbers above the national average for any other demographic. At first glance, this seems bad and there is no doubt that it is bad, but is it unusual?
Across Canada we have housing issues, crime is rampant as is corruption and unemployment. It is possible that the difference between the mainstream and the native population; while evident, may not be as wide as it seems.
There are several glaring examples I can give that may reflect an additional similarity to the mainstream, but also fuel skeptics and observers of these issues such as myself and leave us shaking our heads in amazement.
Some northern reserve receive media attention for all the above reasons - housing - alcohol and drug abuse - crime - drinking water - unemployment. The solution: send in twenty prefabricated houses with no infrastructure to place them on and an accountant.
Lets review: we have high unemployment so we pay someone off the reserve to build reserve housing! This is stupid. Let’s send in a framer, a plumber, an electritan, a roofer and so forth and train a few of the unemployed.
However, the popular opinion is that if we sent in truckloads of lumber and materials that they would all end up sold on the black market and the problem would still exist.
How badly does the native population want to improve itself?
This may be the 64 million dollar question.
Lets review shall we.
I have seen the schools on several reserves and I can tell you, I never enjoyed the amenities that these offer - large gyms, computer labs, DVD and Tv in ever classroom. Of course we now have the native university here in Regina for any wishing to move forward.
So in short the native population wants all the benefits of a city lifestyle in every small reserve community no matter how isolated, but they don't want to be assimilated into the white mans culture!
Therein lies the problem.
They do want to be assimilated into the white mans lifestyle, but they are afraid, or too confused to recognize that they don't have to give up their culture to move into a future of better education, healthcare and lifestyle.
So they end up fighting the very thing they want, in order to try to maintain the culture they are losing, because they are so busy moving in the wrong direction.
It would be easy to blame the Canadian government, or history, treaty misinterpretation, racism, or the wind and the stars for all the problems surrounding natives.
What we need to see and understand is how today’s mistakes fail to meet the simplest needs and rules of common sense.
If the remote native communities want decent housing and a job, maybe they should get building. Log cabins are time tested as well as a modern accepted housing choice. Lots of small communities bring in drinking water and use rainwater, or dugouts and septic service for everything else.
Community kitchens and dining exist all through society today as we see in nursing homes, jails, hospitals, boarding schools, summer camps; why not small northern reserves? A community kitchen could be efficient and create employment and serve as a vehicle to maintain the native communal traditions (not to mention improve nutrition).
Call me skeptical Timothy, but common sense is free and I believe it could solve a host of issues without marching around the country on TV engaged in civil disobedience. In fact, if all these fine folks marched over to any reserve and built a house, wouldn't that make a lot more sense? And, they could get on TV just the same.
But then, they would have to worry about being assimilated into the housing for humanity mentality, instead of maintaining their culture of dependance.
I would be very interested in any comment you might have for me. As you may have guessed this issue has been bugging me for awhile.
Editor’s note: I set out to describe the issues and the history and like Stu I am certain that a wide range of actions would make things much better. If you have thoughts about this serious matter for all Canadians send it along so we can share that conversation.
Images on this page were taken by the editor today in and near Tisdale.