“White Privilege: Unpacking the invisible knapsack” by Peggy McIntosh (1988)

http://www.amptoons.com/blog/files/mcintosh.html

Both Module 3 films (the trailer March Point and film Fraser River) allude to the feelings of marginalization and powerlessness that is the backdrop to the lives of many Aboriginal youth. I was reminded of the article “White Privilege: Unpacking the invisible knapsack” written in 1988 by Peggy McIntosh, a white American woman. Her work as an educator in women’s studies brought her to a recognition that while those with power and privilege may recognize people who are disadvantaged, they often do not recognize themselves as advantaged. McIntosh suggests that whites are carefully taught not to recognize white advantage, but are taught “to think of their lives as morally neutral, normative, and average, and also ideal, so that when we work to benefit others, this is seen as work that will allow “them” to be more like “us.”

In the article McIntosh lists 50 “daily effects of white privilege.” Reading this list as a Canadian white woman living in multicultural Toronto in 2010, I think that too much of it is still accurate.

Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) in Aboriginal Contexts: A Critical Review

Prepared by Wenona Victor (Sto:lo Nation) for Canadian Human Rights Commission, April 2007 (41 pages).

http://www.chrc-ccdp.ca/pdf/adrred_en.pdf

I came across this document when one of our discussion threads led to sharing meanings of “Indian Time.” The title also caught my attention as I had recently read this statement in John Ralston Saul’s book A Fair Country (2008): “our courts are far ahead of our political scientists, politicians and philosophers…[they] have now understood the First Nations’ assumptions at the time of the treaties” (p. 64).

In discussing alternative dispute resolution (ADR), Wenona Victor draws on current studies and reflections about Aboriginal contexts related to the role of power, language, women’s voices, culture and land; and the contrast of worldviews including concepts of individuality, unity of life, time, societal organization, leadership, reciprocity. “By posing both theoretical and practical questions, the text is a means by which colonial assumptions maybe be deconstructed. This analysis is helpful in shedding light on several colonial assumptions that often feed, and in many instances impede, the proper resolution of disputes between two often diametrically opposed worldviews” (p. 7).

This document informed me on other matters in addition to “relationship building in ‘Indian’ time” (p. 29). For example, my thinking was challenged in the section about the “elicitive” approach to mediation (i.e. an approach requiring the mediator to take the lead from the parties involved and recognize the process as both a functional and political one) and the Western cultural presuppositions involved in the belief that “the best mediator will be an outsider, impartial and unbiased” (p. 30). As an example that “claiming Western norms and values as universal undermines” a process like mediation, the author writes, “oral tradition within Indigenous communities…often dictates who can and cannot speak on a subject. Those who are considered impartial and neutral are also disconnected and lack personal involvement; they are therefore not authorized to speak” p. 32).

“Chapter 4: Mission and Power” (2010). In Edinburgh 2010 Volume II: Witnessing to Christ Today (Daryl Balia & Kirsteen Kim, eds). Regnum Books International, Oxford, U.K. pp. 86-115

http://www.edinburgh2010.org/fileadmin/files/edinburgh2010/files/Study_Process/reports/E2010%20II-whole-final.pdf

To commemorate the Centenary of the World Missionary Conference, held in Edinburgh 1910, an intercontinental and multi-denominational project developed, now known as Edinburgh 2010. Part of the project was a process of collaborative reflection on nine study themes and seven transversal themes identified as being key to mission in the 21st century.

In 2008, representatives from approximately 20 Christian organizations in Canada met to identify a Canadian contribution to Edinburgh 2010. An interest emerged in the theme of Mission and Power as expressed in the churches’ relations with indigenous peoples.

The study team proposed an approach featuring information and reflections on Canadian residential schools. “The study team wrestled with the subject of the ‘power’ of the pen, recognizing that in choosing writers, power would be given to some over the many others who could have contributed. Since indigenous peoples’ voices are underrepresented in the literature, the team invited three indigenous authors to write their stories drawing on material from their personal and family’s experiences of residential schools.” The fourth story comes from a Canadian clergyman of European origin from one of the churches which ran the schools.

The stories are followed by excerpts of twelve international responses to these stories from individuals (indigenous and non-indigenous) who compared and contrasted experiences of mission and power in their contexts (e.g. Wales, South Africa, Gaza, Peru). These responses can be found in full at: http://www.edinburgh2010.org/en/study-themes/main-study-themes/mission-and-power/core-group-work.html