Common Experience Payments

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The Common Experience Payment (CEP) is one element of the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement. The court-approved Settlement Agreement was implemented on September 19, 2007, and was negotiated by representatives from various Aboriginal organizations, church entities, legal representatives for former students, and the Government of Canada. The CEP is paid to eligible former students who resided at a listed Indian Residential School. Eligible former students receive $10,000 for their first year (or part thereof) of their attendance at a listed Indian Residential School plus $3,000 for each additional year (or part thereof).

There are survivors who were able to take advantage of this settlement. However, I am left to wonder what was the aim or purpose of remunerating survivors with cash? It seems like a blanket fix for the government to provide compensation for something they finally admit was wrong. According to the Settlement Agreement, Canada is the trustee for the $1.9 billion set aside for the CEP and accountable to the parties of the Settlement Agreement and to the courts. It is up to the survivors to come forward and provide proof in order to be approved. How much of this money is being spent on courts and administration where it could have been better spent? Why couldn’t specific First Nations be the trustees of the money for their own people? The settlement is definitely a step forward when compared to previous actions but is it the right direction?

Affairs and Northern Development Canada. (n.d.). Common Experience Payments. Affaires autochtones et Développement du Nord Canada / Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada. Retrieved October 14, 2013, from http://www.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/eng/1100100015594/1100100015595

Unsettling Cures: Exploring the Limits of the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement

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Below is the abstract from a Journal Article written in 2012.

Building on a cultural studies framework, this article addresses the implementation of the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement by cataloguing specific reconciliatory events, public forums, and media coverage that occurred in 2010. Revealing the contradictory nature of Canada’s reconciliation project, the author situates the IRSSA within a larger infrastructure of policies and procedures that have limited Indigenous nationhood and autonomy in the Canadian settler society. Specifically, this article identifies a need to trouble categories of trauma and victimhood that may engender outcomes of cure , which ultimately constitute a foreclosure on the past in Canada’s reconciliation process. While therapeutic language is less apparent in the IRSSA, the author suggests, it is still deployed under the guise of closure and “settlement.”

The article demonstrates that the implementation of the IRSSA has generated inequitable access to compensation and health supports (and, ultimately, health outcomes) as a result of the omission of particular schools from the official list. The author suggestes that the reconciliation process in Canada warrants further decolonization, since First Nations, Inuit, and Métis control over service provision has receded (thus minimizing the diversity of approaches to healing) with the closure of the Aboriginal Healing Foundation. The IRSSA’s focus on individualized trauma experiences undermines efforts to decolonize political, legal, and educational institutions and disavows any discussion surrounding restitution. Left unacknowledged, these elisions may ultimately compromise the efficacy of the IRSSA and of the reconciliation process writ large.

 

Green, R.(2012). Unsettling Cures: Exploring the Limits of the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement. Canadian Journal of Law and Society 27(1), 129-148. Cambridge University Press. Retrieved October 14, 2013, from Project MUSE database.

Module 2: Post 5 – Apology by Prime Minster Stephen Harper to the Residential School Survivors

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In June 2008, Prime Minister Stephen Harper officially apologized to the Indigenous peoples of Canada for removing children from their homes and forcing them to attend residential schools in an effort to assimilate Indigenous children into the dominant culture.

In his apology Harper acknowledges that the residential school system was created on the assumption that Indigenous languages and culture were inferior to the dominant culture. He noted that this assumption/belief was wrong and had caused harm to Indigenous communities.

Harper also includes in his apology statistics regarding the number of schools, locations of schools as well as the involvement of various Christian churches in the running of the school.

What is curious to me is Harper’s statement that ‘some’ of these children died whilst attending residential schools. In many reports the death rate at residential schools was of serious concern. It has been noted that due to poor sanitation, hygiene, and access to medical care, death rates at residential schools was on average around 25 – 30%. Often times, the practice was to send children who were critically ill home. In some schools the death rate of students who returned home was as high as 74%.

Harper goes on to recognize the damaging effects of the residential school system on individuals, families and Indigenous communities. He then apologizes for ‘Canada’s role in the Indian Residential Schools System.’

Harper ends his speech with a discussion of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and its role in educating all Canadians on residential schools and forming a new relationship between Canada’s Indigenous peoples and Canadians.

 

Module 2: Post 4 – Apology by the Prime Minister to the Stolen Generations

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In February, 2008, Kevin Rudd, Prime Minister of Australia, apologized to the Aboriginal peoples of Australia for the government’s policy of removing children from their homes and putting them into care in an effort of assimilate the Aboriginal children into the dominant culture. This apology was one part of the healing process for the thousands of people who had been affected by this policy that existed for nearly 100 years.

On the occasion of the Prime Minister’s apology, Lola Edwards, one of the Stolen Generations, shares her memories of being taken from her family at the age of 4 and then reunited with her mother decades later when she was an adult. Edwards has an interesting statement near the end of the interview where she does not seem concerned with the reaction of Australia to the apology, rather she is more concerned that all citizens are aware of the Stolen Generations – that they know this part of Australia’s history. She notes that she could feel ‘bitter and twisted’ because of what happened, but that she doesn’t. She goes on to say, “This is the history of Australia. This is the real history of Australia. This is what happened in Australia.”

Module 2: Post 3 – A Guide to Australia’s Stolen Generations

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Australia’s Stolen Generations refers to the unknown number of Aboriginal children that were forcibly removed from their homes and sent to live in Christian missions, foster homes or with foster families. This practise was in place from the 1890s – 1970s. The ultimate goal of this policy was assimilation of Aboriginal people into the dominant culture. This goal echoes that of the Canadian government’s residential school policy for Canada’s Indigenous children during roughly the same time period.

One seemingly different aspect of the Australian policy of removing children from the Canadian government’s policy of sending children to residential schools is the the Australian aboriginal children were permanently removed from their families. Unlike Canadian Indigenous children they did not return home during summer vacations. When Aboriginal children turned 18 they were released from care. Many could not remember their names or remember much about their families. Some were removed as babies and thus knew nothing of their families. Part of reconciliation in Australia involves trying to reunite individuals with their families.

In is interesting to consider that two similar policies occurred in two different countries, on two different continents during a similar period of time.

 

Entry 10: Fight to Save Endangered Languages

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This article, Native Americans Fight to Save Endangered Languages. was found in LiveScience , February 2012.  The author, Clara Moskowitz, discusses the possible disappearnace of many Native languages, and the methods used to try to revive the languages before they become extinct.  Moskowitz introduces Alfred Lane, the sole fluent speaker of the Native American language Siletz Dee-ni.  In response to the decline of this language, a group started teaching it in school twice a week.  It may yet survive, but the future is uncertain.

Molowitz also talks of a online talking dictionary sponsored by National Geographic’s Enduring Voices project and the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages,  This dictionary is a collection of the many endangered languages.

“As native peoples assimilate more and more into the dominant cultures around them, and as younger generations grow up speaking dominant languages like English in school and with their peers, fewer and fewer people are becoming fluent in native tongues.” With the loss of the native language, follows a loss of culture and a knowledge base of animals and plants.

Margaret Noori, a professor at the University of Michigan offers a suggestion to keep a language alive. She says that we must create in it . She teaches Ashininaabemowin language through the use of technology. She has websites about the language, and she uses social media, like Facebook, and Twitter, to spread the word.  The survival of the language is dependent on the younger generation taking up the cause, following the language and the culture.

 

Entry 9: Ancient tongues fade away

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Marie Smith knows that her language – the Alaskan tongue of Eyak – will die with her. And she mourns its passing.

On June 13, 2004 Dennis O’Brien , for the Baltimore Sun, wrote  Ancient tongues fade away: Languages: As roads, technology and the global economy reach once-isolated areas, old ways of communicating are dying off.   This article explores the disappearance of languages and possible reasons.  “Krauss and other linguists blame the losses on economic and social trends, politics, improved transportation and the global reach of telecommunications.”  Global economics pull people from the smaller isolated areas. And for those who don’t leave, the internet and WWW reach into their homes.  O’Brien relates that over half the world’s population  communicate using only 15 languages.  Thus many other languages are only spoken by handfuls (or less) of people.

“Krauss says that about half of the 200 languages native to North America will probably die out over the next century because so few children are picking up them up”  As the language dies , so too does part of the culture. “The fight to save other dying languages is more of an uphill battle. Critics argue that it’s a waste of time and money if cultural trends dictate their eventual demise.”  Yet some languages are being saved.  With great, effort people are recording and transcribing. While others are passing along the sounds and nuances to younger generations.

“Linguists say that a society’s culture and history die out when its language expires”  After all,  language is connected to culture.

Speaking of saving languages, here is a new article dated Sept, 2013.  It tells of  “Dr. Marguerite MacKenzie and her team are finalists for the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Insight Award in recognition of their groundbreaking work on the preservation of the Innu language.” The group created an online dictionary to translate from English to the Innu language.  All is not lost.

 

Module 2:5 – Terralingua

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http://www.terralingua.org

Terralingua is a group of academics and activists who study biocultural diversity – diversity of plants, animals, and nature as well as cultures and languages – and work towards building awareness of the importance of maintaining it. The Downloads section under the Publications tab has interesting articles such as “Biocultural Diversity & Sustainability”, and “Indigenous and Traditional Peoples of the World & Ecoregion Conservation Booklet.” There is also a link to a book co-published by the WWF, UNESCO, and Terralingua called Sharing a World of Difference: The Earth’s Linguistic, Cultural and Biological Diversity (2003). Their work is focused on educational initiatives, policy development, and documenting biocultural diversity.

Module 2:4 – Murder that is a threat to survival

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http://www.theguardian.com/education/2001/mar/22/tefl3

In looking for something to post about ethnobotany or linguistic genocide, I came across this short and simple Guardian newspaper article by Tove Skuttnab-Kangas. To quote from the article:

 “threatened languages store the knowledge about how to maintain and use sustainably some of the most vulnerable and most biologically diverse environments in the world. It has taken centuries for people to learn about their environments and to name the complex ecological relationships that are decisive for maintenance of biodiversity. When indigenous peoples lose their languages, much of this knowledge also disappears: the dominant languages do not have the ethno-biological and ethno-medical vocabulary, and the stories will not be translated.”

Skuttnab-Kangas says that just as the loss of biodiversity is a threat to our survival, so is the loss of linguistic diversity—monocultures are vulnerable. The author claims that the biggest weapon we have against linguistic genocide is to enshrine rights to education in the mother tongue much more strongly throughout the world than is currently practiced, and also to raise awareness about the great risks of language loss.

Module 2:3 – Library Services to Indigenous Populations: Case Studies

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http://www.ifla.org/files/assets/indigenous-matters/publications/indigenous-librarianship-2013.pdf

This publication from the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) was developed with two goals in mind: to guide practice, and to strengthen international networks of indigenous librarians. Case studies of library services for indigenous people are included from all over the world: North and South America, Africa, Asia, Australia and New Zealand. The PDF of this 117-page book is freely available on the IFLA website. Each case study is presented in a consistent form-like fashion, more a directory-type entry than what I would normally expect from a case study (I was expecting longer narratives). But a resource for contacts, and as a quick overview of things that are happening worldwide, it is useful.