The Aboriginal Title and Rights Position Paper
An entry by Rajin Sidhu
The Aboriginal Title and Rights Position Paper (1979), is a document created by George Manuel, who was the creator and first president of the World Council of Indigenous Peoples (WCIP). The birth of the WCIP was instrumental in creating a set of guidelines that protects the rights of the Indigenous cultures. Manuel is an important figure in Canadian history as he continuously defended Aboriginal rights against assimilation from the Canadian government during his lifetime. Manuel created the “Aboriginal Title and Rights Position Paper” to protect the sovereignty of Aboriginal peoples of Canada, in matters concerning, but not limited to, the jurisdiction of Aboriginal land. The document emphasizes the willingness of the First Nations culture to form a mutually beneficial relationship with the Canadian government. It states the importance of maintaining their land, as it is fundamental to the beliefs of their culture. Unfortunately, this treaty has not yet solved the lingering issue between the First Nations culture and the Canadian government regarding the natural environment. The relationship between these two parties is still a work in progress. The different perspectives taken by both sides about the importance of protecting our natural environment is evident in disputes such as the recent decision about the expansion of the Sun Peaks resort into sacred First Nations territory.
This source is extremely useful in context with our research because it allows us to understand the cultural significance of the natural environment for not only the Indigenous peoples of the present, but also the future. It allows us to understand and conduct further research about the critical relationship that the natural environment has with powers of story and voice in the First Nations culture. This source also allows us to view land from a Western perspective, and how their policies and treaties have essentially silenced the voice of the Indigenous peoples.
Works Cited:
“Aboriginal Title and Rights Position Paper (1978).” Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 March, 2015. http://www.ubcic.bc.ca/Resources/atrp.htm#axzz3VukDlxf9
“An Approach to Aboriginal Cultural Landscapes.” Parks Canada –. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 March. 2015. http://www.pc.gc.ca/docs/r/pca-acl/sec4/index_e.asp
“WORLD COUNCIL OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLE.” WORLD COUNCIL OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLE. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 March. 2015. http://www.nativevillage.org/Messages%20from%20the%20People/world_council_of_indigenous_peop.htm
http://www.firstnations.eu/indian_land.htm
Hjalmarson, Lauren. Rory and the Coyote. Lake Country: Lake Publishing Society, 2015. PDF file. <http://bit.ly/1FwAJBw>
An entry by Lauren Hjalmarson
Rory and the Coyote is a chapter book for children that I wrote and illustrated in the fall of 2014 and that will be released by Lake Publishing Society this month. It tells the story of a golden retriever puppy who becomes friends with a coyote after getting lost in Kelowna’s Mission Creek Park. The story is an allegory, and Rory represents Canadian settlers. Part of my perspective in writing it was inspired by hearing a presentation about indigenous language loss and how the Okanagan Nation was able to live off the land through carefully maintaining their food sources before colonizers began their destructive practices.
Rory and the Coyote illustrates a mode through which settlers and indigenous people can work together to protect and recover what is being lost. The story demonstrates this mode in a variety of ways. For example, while Rory largely ignores the first indigenous word she hears (senklip, or Coyote), she incorporates the second one into her vocabulary because it is introduced after she and the coyote have experienced some bonding. The second word she hears is the name of one of the Okanagan peoples’ four food Chiefs – siya, the Saskatoon berry bush – and the timing of Rory’s acceptance of it demonstrates the importance of relationship between settlers and indigenous people as a construct for sharing and preserving knowledge. Also, after Rory learns that she and the coyote are family, she allows Coyote to teach her their common language – the one that they shared before their ancestral lines diverged. Because these characters are animals, the language is howling, but after learning to howl Rory recognizes the importance of sharing language as one of the deepest ways she and Coyote can connect on common ground. Ultimately, it is their familial bond and sharing of language that starts Rory on the path to a decolonized perspective on the region she inhabits and to embracing the value of, as Coyote puts it, the places “where there are rivers, where the trees don’t only grow where they’ve been planted…” (Hjalmarson 30). In essence, “Rory and the Coyote” presents relationship as the site where settlers can become allied with indigenous peoples in their struggle to preserve not only their languages, but also the perspective on and unique knowledge of Turtle Island that their languages carry; and I believe it is a very important site.
Works Cited
“Allyship and Solidarity Guidelines.” Unsettling America: Decolonization in Theory & Practice.” N.p., n.d. Web. 1 April 2015.
Grass, Starleigh. “Bitterroot as a metaphor for locally contextualized curriculum reform.” Twinkle’s Happy Place: Connecting Teachers to Aboriginal Curriculum and Pedagogy. N.p., 23 Dec. 2011. Wb. 1 April 2015.
Prodanovic, Konstantin. “The Silent Genocide: Aboriginal Language Loss FAQ.” Terry. U of British Columbia. 16 Oct. 2013. Web. 1 April 2015.
Westbank First Nation. “Siyaʔ – Chief Saskatoon Berry.” Westbank First Nation. Westbank First Nation, n.d. Web. 1 April 2015.
Denis, Claude. We Are Not You: First Nations and Canadian Modernity. Toronto, ON, CAN: Broadview Press, 1997. ProQuest ebrary. Web. 6 April 2015.
An entry by Florence Ng
On February 1988, Joseph Peters charged his fellow Coast Salish Aboriginal community members with assault and battery. The Coast Salish defended themselves with the claim that what they did was an Aboriginal ritual called “syewen,” but the court ruled in favour of Peters.
In the final chapter of Claude Denis’s We are Not You: First Nations and Canadian Modernity, he attempts to apply Foucault’s “limit-experience” concept to role of Aboriginal practices, like syewen, in the modern world. Syewen is an extremely controversial and complex issue, and under our court of law it was written off as a breach of ‘universal’ rights in the Peters case. The problem is that our ‘universal’ rights do not account for specific circumstances, especially in a colonial culture that cannot even begin to comprehend its significance or even its purpose. Limit-experience describes an experience that is “beyond linguistic expression” and is often associated with mysticism (Denis 15). This is especially complicated in the Aboriginal/colonial context. For the western world, the most recent occurrence of the kind of spirituality that is characteristic of limit-experience was in a specific branch of Puritanism in 18th century England (Denis 135). How can we even begin to understand the language of spirituality if we do not even have the thoughts, feelings, and emotions to attach the words to?
Part of Joseph Peters’s initiation required him to sing a song expressing his personal relationship with his guardian spirit. For the participants of this initiation, an initiatory song like this one, according to a Cree Elder, is “no song at all: it is a process of singing, and when you sing, you are where you are” (Denis 133-134). For those looking into the process from the outside, all we see is the sentence: “the initiate sings a song.”
The answer to the previous question of finding the experience to match the language is simple: we can’t. Trying to translate the spirituality of native culture, especially if we continue to treat it like mysticism, is at this point impossible. One look at the RCMP’s “Native Spirituality Guide,” with the whole of Canada’s tribes encapsulated in all of ten pages, and it becomes obvious that we our efforts to understand is still rather minimal.
Works Cited:
Denis, Claude. “Aboriginal Rights In / And Canadian Society: A Syewen Case Study.” Ed. Kenneth McRoberts. Citizenship and Rights 14 (1996): 12-34. Print.
Krebs, Andreas. “Chapter 5: Constitutional Patriotism and Cultural Difference: A Critique of Shabbani.” Cultural Practices, Political Possibilities. Ed. Rohee Dasgupta. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Pub., 2008. 122-127. Print.
“Native Spirituality Guide.” Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Canada.ca. Web. 8 Apr. 2015.
Armstrong, Jeannette C. “Land Speaking” in Speaking for the Generations: Native Writers on Writing. Ed. Simon J Ortiz. University of Arizona Press: 1998. 177-94. Print.
An entry by Ali Duncan
Written by novelist Jeannette Armstrong, “Land Speaking” (1998) explores the fundamental divide between the English language the spiritual and physical surroundings it aims to interpret. As a fluent speaker of both settler English and N’silxchn, Armstrong explores the syntactical and contextual differences between the languages which, she suggests, have a significant impact on the connection between people and the land.
According to Okanagan speakers, N’silxchn was “given to [them] by the land they live within” (Armstrong 175). The vocal sounds of the language mimic the rhythm and movement of nature: “The land constantly speaks, it is constantly communicating” (176). While English speakers have historically demonstrated their power over the land through imperialism and the destruction of nature, N’silxchn speakers are connected to the land, and reproduce this connectedness with each spoken word. Ultimately, these distinctive interactions shape the way the world is “viewed, approached, and expressed verbally by its speakers” (178-9).
Amongst several examples illustrating the inherent disconnect between English speakers and the land, Armstrong provides a comparison of the English and N’silxchn words for “dog.” She explains that in N’silxchn, the word is based on an experiential understanding, giving the physical dog an opportunity for individualism and agency (Armstrong 190). In English, alternatively, “dog” is a sweeping, lifeless noun that gives no insight into the experience, individualism, or consciousness of the animal. Armstrong concludes, “It must be a frightful experience to be a dog in English” (190). The English language, by this understanding, reproduces Western notions of human superiority with each written or spoken word; the assertion of power over nature becomes engrained and inevitable.
Conclusively, Armstrong’s piece can be considered an important source in sparking a discussion about the integration of N’silxchn and other Indigenous languages into Canadian environmental policy. Once English speakers develop a consciousness surrounding their connectedness to the land, it will become dramatically easier to protect it.
Works Cited:
Johnson Dupont, Jolene. “Jeanette Armstrong: Biography and Criticism” Voices From the Gap. University of Minnesota (2004): Web.
Kohn, Margaret. “Colonialism” The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Stanford University Press (2014): Web
“Acts and Agreements” Environment Canada: Canada Services Website: (2015) www.ec.gc.ca
Armstrong Jeannette C. “An Okanagan Worldview of Society” in Original Instructions: Indigenous Teachings for a Sustainable Future. Ed. Melissa K Nelson. Bear and Park Company: 2008. 66-74. Print.
An entry by Ali Duncan
Jeannette Armstrong’s “An Okanagan Worldview of Society” (2008) is a chapter published in a 2008 anthology which aims to approach the national conversation of environmental sustainability with Indigenous teachings, or, what editor Melissa Nelson refers to as the “Original Instructions.” Several Indigenous languages are translated into English in order to contribute effective ways of healing the natural environment.
Armstrong situates herself at home in the Okanagan, and reflects on her lifelong interaction with the land that not only “sustained her body and health,” but supported the crucial networks that encouraged the community to come together and survive: “We live on the land and we use the land, and in so doing, we impact the land: we can destroy it, or we can love the land and it can love us back” (Armstrong 68). By protecting and restoring the natural environment, it will produce the sustenance necessary to her survival; the relationship is dependent on mutual respect. Armstrong compares her symbiotic relationship with the land to current Western practices, and concludes “If I look around at how the land has been impacted by what I call the Western culture, one of the things I see is an overuse of resources by some people and a lack of access to those same resources for others. (69). This unbalanced relationship ensures the eventual destruction of a shared environment.
Armstrong promotes this “Original Instruction” by inviting settler populations to the reservation to restore the land: “They just love going out there, to gather seeds and pot them and replant the habitat. The process of being with people, out there on the land, has a healing impact. Its how the land communes its spirit to you: it heals people and it does this in an incredibly profound way” (71). By familiarizing the majority population with a mutually respectful relationship, Armstrong and her community succeed in what she calls the Okanaganization of settler populations. With this, Armstrong brings us one step closer to expanding Indigenous perspectives as a platform for protecting and restoring our natural environment.
Works Cited:
Nelson, Melissa. Introduction to “Original Instructions: Indigenous Teachings for a Sustainable Future” The Cultural Conservancy. 2008: Web
“Acts and Agreements” Environment Canada: Canada Services Website: (2015) www.ec.gc.ca
Armstrong, Jeannette C. “En’owkin: Decision-making As if Sustainability Mattered” in Ecological Literacy: Educating our children for a sustainable world” ed Michael K Stone and Zenobia Barlow. Sierra Clubs Books: 2005. Print.
Ball, Jessica. “Identity and Knowledge in Indigenous Young Children’s Experiences in Canada”. Childhood Education 80.5 (2012): 286-291. Web. April 03, 2015.
An entry by Rajin Sidhu
“Identity and Knowledge in Indigenous Young Children’s Experiences in Canada” (2012), is an article written by Jessica Ball, a professor at the School of Child and Youth Care at the University of Victoria. She is committed to exploring ways in which Indigenous children remain connected with their language and culture. Ball examines the negative implications that Westernized curriculum in our schools have on the development of Indigenous children in Canada. Canadian schools are not teaching Indigenous languages or presenting education in a manner that is conducive to the growth of these children. As a result, Indigenous children are losing touch with their culture and community.
Ball focuses on how colonialism and Canada’s Euro-westernized education system has contributed to the “cultural genocide” of First Nation’s communities. She emphasizes how important language and land are to the First Nation’s people; views that are different from the Western culture they reside in. As a result, Indigenous children are suffering because they are not able to gain the same spiritual connection to their land as their parents and grandparents. The oral tradition that is vital to the First Nations culture is slowly disappearing. This has happened before on a much larger scale, when Indigenous children were forced from their homes and taken to schools that taught them Western ideals.
First Nations culture believes in a deep, spiritual connection with their land, and it is fostered through language. Their education is different that Western education, and Indigenous children deserve to have programs that are fostered to their cultures sense of the meaning of education. Instead of being in a classroom learning how to speak French, Indigenous children are meant to be educated through experience with their connection to land. This article proves to be useful for our research because it gives us a present-day perspective about the impact that lost land and language has had on Indigenous children, as well as possible ramifications for their culture in the future.
Works Cited:
“Early Childhood and Education Services for Indigenous Children Prior to Starting School.” Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (n.d.): n. pag. May 2011. Web. 30 March. 2015. http://www.aihw.gov.au/uploadedFiles/ClosingTheGap/Content/Publications/2011/ctgc-rs07.pdf
“ORAL TRADITIONS”. FIRST NATIONS IN B.C. – BC ARCHIVES TIME MACHINE. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 March, 2015. http://www.bcarchives.gov.bc.ca/exhibits/timemach/galler07/frames/oralhist.htm
“Languages”. Aboriginal Languages in Canada. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 March. 2015. http://indigenousfoundations.arts.ubc.ca/home/culture/languages.html
News, CBC. “A History of Residential Schools in Canada.” CBCnews. CBC/Radio Canada, 07 Jan. 2014. Web. 30 March. 2015. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/a-history-of-residential-schools-in-canada-1.702280
Ball, Jessica. “Incorporating Indegenous Knowledge in Indegenous Early Childhood Programs”. Early Childhood Development Intercultural Partnerships. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 March. 2015. http://www.ecdip.org/culture/
Crichlow, Wesley. “Western Colonization as Disease: Native Adoption & Cultural Genocide”. Critical Social Work 3.1 (2002). Web. 30 March. 2015. http://www1.uwindsor.ca/criticalsocialwork/western-colonization-as-disease-native-adoption-cultural-genocide
Favel, Floyd. “Poetry, Remnants, and Ruins: Aboriginal Theatre in Canada.” Canadian Theatre Review 139 (2009): 31-5. PDF file.
An entry by Lauren Hjalmarson
“Poetry, Remnants, and Ruins: Aboriginal Theatre in Canada” is about “allying theatre with language and tradition as a means of revitalizing [aboriginals’] fractured cultures” (Favel 33). It is about breaking free from “the limitations imposed by the English language” (32) through “the development of techniques, methods, and exercises based on Aboriginal ritual and social structures” (34). The author of the essay is Floyd Favel, a theatre artist and writer from the Poundmaker First Nation in Saskatchewan who has been instrumental in the development of Native Performance Culture.
Within his essay, Favel provides examples of ways in which NPC is doing just what he describes. In the early 2000’s, Monique Mojica and Floyd Favel collaborated to create a research performance based on ancient aboriginal pictographs. Mojica studied these pictographs and then created a theatre piece in which her body became living versions of them. Also, in 2008, these two artists collaborated in bringing Cree shadow storytelling to the stage. This is a performance language that is known to very few, and was discovered by Mojica and Favel when they visited with the Elders of the James Bay Cree prior to developing their performance. Another performance language that Favel describes is that of the Inuvialuit Drum Dancers. Their dances are narratives that “express a theme or tell a story – themes such as someone expressing the beauty of the land or contemporary stories like the one of two brothers who died in a plane crash” (32).
For Favel and other indigenous people in Canada, Native Performance Culture is about “sitting at the knees and feet of our ancestors and elders” (35) and constructing poetry out of “remnants and ruins.” Favel’s essay is useful as an exposition of a way in which Canada’s indigenous peoples are working to recover their languages, cultures, and the perspectives on landscape and personhood that are inherent therein through the arts, as well as as inspirational material for those who want to join in the effort.
Works Cited
Battlefords News-Optimist. “Grant supports work on performance culture.” The Battlefords News-Optimist. Glacier Community Media, 22 July 2012. Web. 4 April 2015.
Fabiano, Adelina. “Review: Chocolate Woman Dreams the Milky Way (Chocolate Woman Collective).” Mooney on Theatre. N.p., 9 June 2011. Web. 4 April 2015.
“Indigenous Knowledge, Contemporary Performance.” University of Guelph. University of Guelph, n.d. Web. 4 April 2015.
Inuvialuit Regional Corporation. Traditional Drum Dancing. Inuvialuit Regional Corporation. Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, n.d. Web. 4 April 2015.
Hermes, Mary. “’Designing Indigenous Language Revitalization.” Harvard Educational Review 82.3 (2012): 381-402. Web. 31 March. 2015.
An entry by Qihui Huang
The article Designing Indigenous Language Revitalization by Mary Hermes, Megan Band and Ananda Marin suggests new ways about thinking about revitalizing languages – instead of thinking of language as an object that is concrete, perhaps it could be thought of as fluid moment, where the participant is an agent in the evolution of the language. In particular it focuses on the Ojibwe language which is spoken in Canada and in the United States.
Through community engagement, technology and design-based research, the researchers developed different methodologies to continue the evolution of language. They key here is realizing that languages cannot be saved in a way that an living being can be saved. It is not an object where once saved, retains the same properties as it did before the act of saving. The key is realizing that languages are constantly evolving through interaction. The continuation of language is dependent on the knowledge that the current speakers have of it; and the understanding that the new speakers have of it. What is required in the revival of a language is continuous experimentation, creative design and community engagement that will determine the trajectory that a language will face.
This article is useful because it suggests different ways in which we can encourage the resurgence of Indigenous languages through creative community engagement. In relating this article to Rita Wong’s Watersheds article in healing and protecting the natural environment, this article suggests a different perspective to our natural landscape and in changing our perspective, see new ways of reclaiming our connection to the environment. Rita Wong compares the revitalization of a language to weeds poking through the gaps in the cement, and to me represents that underneath all this cement/city/urban landscape, there is a living Earth, growing, breathing, existing. In the same way, languages in representing our connection to our native roots lie within us, albeit dormant in some, while active in others; and to reclaim our connection to these roots, we must somehow break through the cement that covers us.
Hinton, Leanne. “Learning and Teaching Endangered Indigenous Languages.” Encyclopedia of Language and Education. Springer: US, 2008. SpringerLink. Web. April 2015.
An Entry by Qihui Huang
In particular, this article comments on the Master-Apprentice program (MAP) held in California that relies on teams of 2 – one to teach and one to learn the Indigenous language. The goal of the program is the nurture new speakers through a “immersion” settings in a natural environment. The model really focuses on interacting about daily tasks or items. However, a few of the problems they encountered in the program was that because the objects and events that surround us never existed and hence the word to describe it does not exist in that particular Indigenous language. In the article, Hinton revealed how Hawaiians have chosen to “Hawaiianize” the pronunciations of English words, rather than make up completely new words or use English words. This also ties in to the article previously about the evolution of languages and how the users of a language or agents of this evolution. Hinton then talks about the future of language revitalization and refers to “success” stories such as Hebrew where it once was used only in the written form and in religious study, and now is used by a whole nation; and in Hawaii where Hawai’i is not an official language of the state.
Languages are such an important part of our heritage. Words that do not exist in Indigenous language, exist English, but also vice versa. There are many words in Indigenous and/or foreign languages that do not exist in English. Languages nurture and sustain the existence of cultures. It gives us the opportunity for a collective experience that includes a shared past, present, and a social future by shaping the way that we think. It is subtle, but languages do affect how we perceive the world. Languages are a story on their own and when languages die, the story, history, culture that is embodied within the languages also dies.
In this regard, the article that Hinton writes is hopeful and focuses on what we can do as a community of engaged individuals. In the article “Watersheds” written by Rita Wong, she writes “I think the word “kanata,” is a reminder to hear and value the original language(s) of the lands on which we live, the languages which are a gift from the land that humans can in turn reciprocate with gifts, be they poisoned and/or regenerative.” We live in a place rich of history and cultural meaning embodied in language. “Kanata” is indeed a reminder of where we came from and what we are at risk of losing.
Works Cited
Language Ideology, Loss, and Culture.n.d Web 9 April 2015. <http://www.uncommonthought.com/mtblog/archives/2011/02/08/language-ideolo.php >
Wong, Ria. “Watersheds.” Canadian Literature 204 (2010): 115-7. CBCA Complete. Web. 9 April 2015.
Perley, Bernard C., Defying Maliseet Language Death: Emergent Vitalities of Language, Culture, and Identity in Eastern Canada. Project Muse University Press eBooks, and Ebrary Academic Complete (Canada) Subscription Collection. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2011.
An Entry by Florence Ng
Bernard Perley, a member of the Tobique First Nations tribe of New Brunswick, has witnessed his first language plummet to near death and rise up again in his ethnography. The Maliseet language is one of many endangered languages in Canada, and there has been numerous obstacles in trying to boost the number of speakers in the community.
Language programs coordinated by members of the community have proven to be difficult due to the lack of interest (185). Elders who know the language do not speak it frequently to each other either. Though the older generation has a higher command of the language, they’re shifting the conversation to English. For those who do know the language, not everyone knows the story, and because of the disappearing language, it is becoming increasingly difficult to translate them, as Maliseet doesn’t have English equivalents for every word and vice versa.
When Perley asked a member of his community what is left of Maliseet culture, she replied, “There is no Maliseet culture. The only thing left is the language is the language but that’s disappearing too” (157). Perley and other linguists have called this language suicide, as the community is losing interest and shifting into other languages like French and English. However, Perley argues that “the concept of aboriginality is ‘essentially’ anchored in the aboriginal origins of the various indigenous peoples of Canada…The larger discourse of aboriginality is as similar to the distinct cultures stance that the Quebecois used for their claims to autonomy” (189). Language is an integral part of their culture and community, and most of all, their individuality.
Fortunately, with new media and new ways to inspire new learners, Maliseet is steadily gaining new speakers. For example, the community has now worked to translate the Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine,” “O Canada,” and “Silent Night” into Maliseet (190). Online resources offer many new ways to explore and learn the language and traditions associated with it. There is even a Maliseet dictionary! One website even partnered with the New Brunswick museum to post a collection of Maliseet stories. You can explore the website in Maliseet, and listen to Maliseet recordings of the stories being told.
Works Cited
“Passamaquoddy-Maliseet Language Portal.” Passamaquoddy-Maliseet Language Portal. Web. 8 Apr. 2015.
“Stories from Wolastoqiyik.” Koluskap. Virtual Museum Canada, 2005. Web. 8 Apr. 2015.
Tsunoda, Tasaku. Language Endangerment and Language Revitalization : An Introduction. Tubingen, DEU: Walter de Gruyter, 2013. ProQuest ebrary. Web. 7 April 2015.
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