The Native Studies Graduate Students’ Association will be hosting an all-day Idle No More symposium, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. Friday, Mar. 8. It will be held in the UC 2nd floor Multi-Purpose Room.
There will be hourly featured presentations with open Q & A. The event is free and all are welcome; come for an hour or two or stay for the day, as you please, and refreshments will be provided.
This symposium serves to provide a space for public conversation about the purpose, meaning, and importance of the Idle No More movement. How has Idle No More moved you? What has its movement meant to you? We each have perspectives and have formed opinions about its surge over the past few months. Many of us have shared our views in our classrooms, around dinner tables, and in online comment sections attached to our daily headlines. Many of us have mixed messages and have maybe even wondered what it is all really about. Idle No More is many things, and they all come down to relationships – relationships with our fellows, with our environment, and with our ecologies.
If you’re concerned about climate change and ecological integrity, or clean water shortages, renewable agriculture, urban sprawl, or sustainable models, about clean engineering, renewable energies, the availability of medicine and nutritious food, about planning for the future – then we need to have that conversation. The solutions to these challenges are found in the way we relate.
Treaties between nations are about relationships, whether in Europe, Africa, or here in Canada. The Treaties are protected in the Constitution, the highest law of the land. Yet clearly, Aboriginal people harbour grievances about the failed relationship, which is evident in the disrespect for ethical Treaty implementation, and want the freedom to prosper. If you’ve found yourself wondering what Treaties mean, please come out.
Online comment sections have exposed a great deal of misinformation and miseducation about the place of Canada’s Aboriginal peoples in the grander scheme. It appears that there is a considerable lack of clarity as to the import of our Treaty relationships as solemn agreements to share the lands, waters, and decision-making powers when it comes to resource development in Canada. If you’ve found yourself wondering about the connection between omnibus Bill C-45, Canada’s environmental protection policies, and Treaties, then this conversation needs to happen.
Five members of the Native Studies Graduate Students’ Association and three Anishinaabe guest presenters invite you into their understanding of Idle No More so that these conversations can take place on our campus. As Friday, Mar. 8 is International Women’s Day, it is appropriate that this symposium is inaugurated by Anishinaabe women in prayer and song.
From 10 a.m., Helen Agger, Anishinaabe PhD candidate, and Judy Da Silva, longtime Anishinaabe grassroots activist from Grassy Narrows First Nation, Treaty 3, will introduce Idle No More and the meaning of decolonization for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canadians. From 11 a.m., Ryan Duplassie, Anishinaabe PhD candidate, and Charles Wagamese—Anishinaabe educator and former executive director of Treaty 3—will provide information about Treaties and how the Indian Act serves as a draconian set of legislation that not only abrogates Treaties, but has set First Nations peoples up to fail as a matter of policy. Residential schools are but one heinous example of how the Indian Act has attempted, through policy, to fracture Aboriginal relationships with families and sustainable economies. Following these talks—from 12 p.m.—is a relationship-building ceremony, a round dance. Come out and join us outside Migizii Agamik.
At 1 p.m., Shavon Sinclair—Anishinaabe from Hollow Water First Nation, Treaty 5—will speak to us about traditional Anishinaabe governance systems, and how the Indian Act has impacted the status of women in the Anishinaabe nation and in Canada. From 2 p.m., Métis PhD candidate Emily Grafton will relate to us the reason that all Canadians —Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal—should care about the impending impacts of Bill C-45. From 3 p.m., Métis PhD candidate Paul Murphy will bust some myths we have found rampant on online comment sections regarding Aboriginal taxation, housing, and education. If you’ve found yourself forming opinions on such, but weren’t sure you had the facts, we invite you to this session.
At 4 p.m., Charles Wagamese and M.A. student Alon Weinberg— long-time solidarity activist and Green Party member—provide some bridge-building strategies so that non-Aboriginal Canadians can meaningfully engage with Aboriginal peoples to move this country forward positively, ethically, and respectfully. The solutions to our constitutional, economic, and ecological challenges lie in these relationships. This is not an “Indian problem.” This is our collective problem, and decolonization and healing are imperative within all circles. It is easy to be complacent in these times, to put up walls and shut out uncomfortable discourse. But we all must be Idle No More. Please join us.
Ryan Duplassie is a PhD candidate in the department of native studies at the University of Manitoba.
