Tag Archives: Idle No More

#IdleNoMore social movements #ubc #occupyed

CBC News, October 24, 2014– Idle No More was one of the largest Indigenous mass movements in recent history, sparking hundreds of teach-ins, rallies and protests across the country. On Friday night in Saskatoon, a group of educators and grad students learned about how it all came together.

People involved in the movement addressed members of the Canadian History of Education Association. Lynn Lemisko with the Association says there’s a history of teach-ins, like Idle No More, being used as a resistance movement.

“It’s a powerful example in the way in which resistance can be done in a peaceful way through dancing and just gathering together and demonstrating,” Lemisko said.

Lemisko says mass social movements can be successful even if they don’t result in clear, measurable outcomes, such as legislative changes. She says they heighten awareness and help develop critical thinking. And she says educators are interested in how the Idle No More Movement changed the social and political landscape in Canada.

“Is this something that we can borrow and use in our own lives in our own ways that we want to support social justice resist and reconcile?” Lemisko asked. Lemisko says a similar effort could be hard to duplicate. She says some mass movements just happen because there are forces that come together at a particular moment in time for whatever reason.

Read More: CBC News

#IdleNoMore anniversary sees divisions emerging #occupyeducation #bced #yteubc

Daniel Schwartz, CBC News, November 10, 2013– Idle No More, the indigenous movement that began a year ago today, says it has a database of 254,000 supporters. Some, however, are concerned about the direction its founders want to go.

A Saskatoon teach-in on Nov. 10, 2012 marked the founding — by Jessica Gordon, Sheelah McLean, Sylvia McAdam and Nina Wilson — of Idle No More, which initially focused on opposing a federal omnibus bill, now law, and its perceived threats to land, water and aboriginal rights.

Nevertheless, Idle No More hit a chord and, by also making skillful use of social media, quickly became one of the most significant protest movements Canada has seen in a long time.

“Our biggest strength is that we always left it open,” Pam Palmater, who was a spokeswoman for Idle No More in its early days, told CBC News in a recent interview. “Idle No More was to individuals whatever they wanted it to be.”

Palmater is the chair of indigenous governance at Ryerson University in Toronto, and was a candidate for national chief of the Assembly of First Nations in 2012.

“The movement became so successful, because there was no leader.”

Now, she and others are critical of some prominent members for trying to control the notably leaderless organization and its name.

“[We] don’t want to get caught up in copyrighting the Idle No More movement or setting up an office or an organization, really going down the road that is what has really killed every other kind of movement,” she said.

“For me, it’s never about the name or who started it or who owns it or any of those things,” Palmater explained. “For me it’s about the spirit of the Idle No More movement.”

Palmater said another group, the Indigenous Nationhood Movement, is headed in the direction she’d like to see Idle No More go.

That group “is talking about action on the ground, real resistance, going out and living on the land and protecting territories and exercising jurisdiction and reclaiming and reoccupying, so it’s not just about protest anymore, it’s changing,” Palmater said. She considers herself part of both movements.

Gerald Taiaiake Alfred of the Indigenous Nationhood Movement wrote earlier this year that “the limits to Idle No More are clear, and many people are beginning to realize that the kind of movement we have been conducting under the banner of Idle No More is not sufficient in itself to decolonize this country or even to make meaningful change in the lives of people.”

Read More: CBC News

#IdleNoMore second wave planned for winter #occupyeducation

Charles Hamilton, Saskatoon StarPhoenix, October 13, 2013– Supporters of Idle No More say the movement is stronger than ever, even though it has largely disappeared from the media spotlight.

“Idle No More is not dead. It never was,” said Max FineDay, president of the University of Saskatchewan Students’ Union.

“Just because you don’t see flash mobs in the middle of the street or in malls doesn’t mean the First Nations community isn’t working toward nation building, revitalizing language and culture, and all these things Idle No More stands for.”

FineDay was one of about 200 supporters who showed up Oct. 7 for a round dance on the university campus, which was organized via social media. The Idle No More movement spread to communities across Canada last winter, as aboriginal groups protested the federal government’s omnibus Bill C-45, which they say infringed on their sovereignty and relaxed important environmental protections. It passed, but organizers at the round dance said the movement is bigger than any one bill.

There are still bills going through Parliament that affect indigenous sovereignty and affect the lands and the water and that will affect all of us

“There are still bills going through Parliament that affect indigenous sovereignty and affect the lands and the water and that will affect all of us,” Sylvia McAdam, one of the four women who founded Idle No More, told the crowd after the dance.

The Saskatoon event was one of more than 50 actions that took place across the country and in the United States to mark the 250th anniversary of King George III’s Royal Proclamation, which set out policy for the Crown’s relationship with aboriginal people in North America.

The 1763 proclamation set rules for European settlement in North America, recognized First Nations’ land rights and laid the groundwork for the treaty process. Even though the Royal Proclamation was of special significance for aboriginal peoples living on the land that would become Canada, supporters and organizers say Idle No More now has global reach.

“Over the summer, the movement gained momentum on a global level,” said Alex Wilson, an Idle No More organizer and professor at the University of Saskatchewan.

“I think one of the strengths of the movement is that each community can look at those global issues and can take action in their own way.”

Read More: Saskatoon StarPhoenix

#IdleNoMore torches still burning : : Sovereignty Summer events planned

Jonathan Charlton, The StarPhoeinix, June 17, 2013–  The Idle No More movement may have slipped off the front pages, but there is still support below the surface.

“I think we’re at a place where we’ve generated momentum, got people around the world excited, have people active in their own communities and on a global level,” said Alex Wilson, an education professor at the University of Saskatchewan.

Wilson, Sheelah McLean, Erica Lee and Sylvia McAdam, leaders of Idle No More, gave a seminar about the movement and their personal experiences at the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA) conference Saturday.

It was one of the best-attended talks of the week and they received a standing ovation. Other academics posed for pictures with them, bought Idle No More T-shirts and asked the women to sign them.

The movement is ambitious and wide in scope, but the women said it focuses on environmental, democratic and social justice issues.

“The end goal will be the day after there is no racism, the day after there’s no sexism, the day after there’s no homophobia, the day after there’s no systemic inequalities in society. It’s ongoing and ever changing,” Wilson said.

Idle No More has more events planned for what’s being called Sovereignty Summer.

“Really Sovereignty Summer is about encouraging people to do events in their own communities in their own way,” said Lee, a 23-year old youth representative, “because part of Idle No More is about encouraging people to break out of this idea of pan-Indianism, like we’re all the same monolithic tribe.”

But they also want to educate the Canadian public about aboriginal issues and improve relations between the two groups.

“For so long, we’ve only been told one side of Canadian history – so it’s not people’s fault for being ignorant of indigenous issues, because they’re not taught in school,” Lee said.

 

Read More: The StarPhoenix

First Nations leaders demand apology for nutritional experiments

CBC News, July 17, 2013– First Nations leaders are demanding an apology from the federal government after it was revealed that Canada ran nutritional experiments on malnourished aboriginal children and adults during and after the Second World War.

Recently published research by Canadian food historian Ian Mosby has revealed that at least 1,300 aboriginal people — most of them children — were used as test subjects in the 1940s and ’50s by researchers looking at the effectiveness of vitamin supplements. [See “Administering Colonial Science: Nutrition Research and Human Biomedical Experimentation in Aboriginal Communities and Residential Schools, 1942–1952″]

The research began in 1942 on about 300 Cree in Norway House in northern Manitoba. Plans were later developed for research on about 1,000 hungry aboriginal children in six residential schools in Port Alberni, B.C., Kenora, Ont., Shubenacadie, N.S., and Lethbridge, Alta.

Vivian Ketchum, whose mother attended St. Mary’s Residential School in Kenora, told CBC News that hearing of the experiments has brought her sorrow and anger to a new level. “Immediately my thoughts were to my parents. Like, I thought the residential school issues [were] bad enough, and now this on top of it?” Ketchum said Wednesday.

Mosby said his research puts the spotlight on a little-known event that was perhaps one of the most disturbing aspects of government policy toward aboriginal people. “It shows Canadians the mentality behind Canada’s Indian administration during this period,” he said. “It seems that little good came out of the studies in terms of scientific knowledge.”

‘Abhorrent and completely unacceptable’

In a statement, the federal government said officials are looking into the matter. “If this story is true, this is abhorrent and completely unacceptable,” the statement read in part.

Read More: CBC News

We Too Are #IdleNoMore : UBC’s Non-Indigenous Scholars and the Politics of Engaging Indigeneity

We Too Are “Idle No More”:
UBC’s Non-Indigenous Scholars and the Politics of Engaging Indigeneity

Monday
May 27, 2013
8:30am to 5:30pm

FREE and open to the public

A Centre for Culture, Identity and Education (CCIE) Project; in collaboration with the Office of the Associate Dean of Indigenous Education

RSVP : http://tinyurl.com/cwvyqoy
DATE:  Monday, May 27, 2013
VENUE: University of British Columbia, Longhouse, Sty-Wet-Tan
1985 West Mall
Map: http://bit.ly/aiSPhB
TIME: 8:30am to 5:30pm, 5:30 – 6:30 Mingler and further discussion

Welcome:  Elder Larry Grant

Opening Plenary Panel: Blye Frank, Dean of Education & Jo-ann Archibald, Associate Dean of Indigenous Education.

Closing Plenary Panel: Anna Kindler- Vice Provost, Academic & Linc Kesler- Senior Advisor to President on Aboriginal Affairs

This symposium will involve plenary and regular panels composed of non-indigenous administrators, faculty, graduate students and staff from a variety of units across UBC addressing the details and politics of engaging Indigeneity, with responses from Indigenous administrator and scholar discussants. While the project originates from the Faculty of Education, the aim is to provide an overview and details of work on academic and administrative topics and projects on indigeneity across UBC.  

Symposium Details:

Co-sponsors: Faculty of Education – Year of Indigenous Education, Indigenous Education Institute of Canada, Department of Educational Studies, Department of Language and Literacy Education, Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy, First Nations Studies Program, Department of English, Department of Anthropology, Department of Art History Visual Art and Theory and Belkin Art Gallery, Office of the Provost and Vice President, Academic

Edmonton students’ views on symbols of #IdleNoMore, Occupy expressed in artwork

Heather McIntyre, Metro Edmonton, April 18, 2013 — The use of symbols in relation to movements, such as Idle No More and Occupy, have become pieces to admire at the Art Gallery of Alberta. The AGA Ledcor Theatre Foyer currently holds art from students in the Modern Languages and Cultural Studies department at the University of Alberta.

The students’ assignment initially was to focus on Occupy – hence the exhibit being called Occupy The Gallery! – but as the Idle No More movement grew, many students turned to it, including Erin Hunt and Mohamad Mahfouz.

“It’s just taking a movement and what we were learning as symbolism and symbolic interaction, and looking in our own community and engaging with things that were happening in our own community,” said Hunt. Hunt’s piece is four photographs of nature within a sanded wood frame.

“The part of the Idle No More movement that I identified with the most was environmental protection,” said Hunt. “I’m giving people the opportunity to identify with nature through the pieces I chose through the photographs I took, and to almost challenge them to take on the same kind of declaration that I did.”

Mahfouz focused on land, but chose to do so through a video, which consists of a woman wandering through the woods, “appreciating it while also lost.”

“Then a feather magically falls from the sky and she picks it up… and then eventually she finds her way, and reaches the downtown view and holds the feather up saying ‘This is where I belong,’” he said. “Then the feather lands on the ground firmly, to symbolize roots.”

The exhibit opened earlier this month, and will remain at the gallery until April 28.

Read More: Metro Edmonton

Phil Fontaine speaks to University of Winnipeg students on #IdleNoMore

CBC News, March 13, 2013— It has been weeks since Idle No More protests have made headlines, and now a former national chief is saying the movement needs to change direction to get things moving again.

Phil Fontaine, the former chief of the Assembly of First Nations in Canada, spoke to University of Winnipeg students alongside federal Liberal leader Bob Rae on Wednesday.

Fontaine lauded the efforts of the Idle No More movement while speaking to students but said those behind the grassroots movement should now try to align with chiefs to move forward.

“I think it would be a mistake to marginalize the chiefs in this very important process, and so the point I was making is, I think they have to work together,” said Fontaine.

The Idle No More movement was sparked by opposition to Bill C-45, an omnibus budget bill that had far-reaching implications for the Indian and Environmental Assessment Acts.

The grassroots movement said the bill endangered the environment and infringed on treaty rights.

But the movement was at times at odds with aboriginal leadership, pointing to quick progress made by Idle No More protests that took chiefs years to achieve.

Indigenous Studies students Carl Balan and Allan Cochrane attended Fontaine and Rae’s talk Wednesday but said they weren’t convinced the movement should change direction.

“I was extremely optimistic to hear some of these ways forward, but it was the same old talking about the past,” said Balan.

Cochrane said he wasn’t impressed with Rae’s suggestion the movement lacked focus.

“To close in on any one issue opens up the possibility for the federal government to come up with a quick fix,” said Cochrane.

He said what’s more important is a change to the status quo.

For now, Idle No More organizers are maintaining their focus on grassroots protests, with more events planned for next week.

Conestoga students kick off final weeks of term with #IdleNoMore powwow

Linda Givetash, The  Record — To give students a boost in the final weeks of the academic term, Conestoga College hosted a powwow Saturday.

The annual event, held at the recreation centre at the Doon campus, brought a sense of home to the campus for aboriginal students and taught non-aboriginal community members about the culture.

“The powwow is a really good time for (students) to bring their families together and a lot of students do better after this powwow,” said Myeengun Henry, manager of aboriginal services for the college. “We have students from way up north and they miss their families … so when their families come and visit them, they get rejuvenated.”

Members of aboriginal communities from across the province and even the U.S. came to the event. It included traditional ceremonies, food, dance, crafts and more.

The powwow comes right at the end of reading week for students, marking the final half of the term. Henry said it brings students back to campus and gets them in the mindset for school after the week off.

Keeping an eye on her four-year-old son running around the recreation centre, community and criminal justice student Tina Allardyce, 28, said she has volunteered with the powwow for the last three years to help promote her culture on campus.

“It’s great that it’s a part of Conestoga College … and that we can bring our community and the Native members of the community in Kitchener-Waterloo here,” she said. “The more people that come out to learn and experience the aboriginal traditional culture is amazing.”

The education the powwow provided for non-aboriginal visitors reflects the current state of the Idle No More movement that launched in November. Henry explained that although the movement is no longer in the spotlight, activism and public awareness is ongoing.

“Idle No More has moved to a different thing now,” Henry said. “Instead of being on the streets and doing rallies, we’re starting to take them to institutions and schools to allow people to ask questions on what is about.

Read More: The Record

#IdleNoMore Lecture Series at U Saskatchewan

Idle No More Discussion Series
What’s it all about?
University of Saskatchewan
Weekly, February 25 – April 3

INM Poster4

#IdleNoMore Teach-in Week (March 2-8) at UNBC

 Idle No More Teach-In Week at UNBC
March 2-8 2013

http://www.womennorthnetwork.com/images/stories/idlenomore.pdf

Idle No More as a Social Movement has been prominent in media and social media within the last several months, and is generating a great deal of interest in students and faculty both here at UNBC, across post-secondary institutions in Canada and worldwide. It is a grassroots movement begun by four First Nations women in Saskatchewan in response to the ecological and socio-political challenges generated as a result of Bills C-38 and C-45 and other actions recently initiated by the current federal government.

Idle No More has quickly become the leading voice for indigenous and non-indigenous Canadians speaking out against the government’s drastic and unilateral modifications to treaty and environmental legislation. Specific areas of concern include changes to the regulations governing environmental assessment of proposed resource developments, fisheries, protected waterways, and private ownership of treaty land. Three Idle No More Rallies have been held locally in Prince George on January 12, January 26 , and one February 14 @ 4:00 at City Hall.

Many universities and colleges are sponsoring or have sponsored teach-ins on Idle No More in an effort to have actual realistic educated opinions on the issues at stake. These teach-ins have involved faculty and students from different disciplines, as well as key politicians and Indigenous community members addressing issues arising from the omnibus bills. Some forums have been interdisciplinary and some have been discipline specific.

We are organizing an Idle No More Teach-In Week at UNBC to be held March 2-8 2013. We plan to create places and spaces on campus to have informed faculty and students, both Indigenous peoples and allies, share their research, programs, experiences, stories, poetry, music and art, focused primarily on our responsibility to honor and defend the lands and waters at this time. The academic and artistic events will coincide with other campus events for the first week of March being sponsored through the First Nations Center, NUGSS and The Women’s Center. All members of the UNBC, including the Regional Campuses are welcomed to attend these events in person or through distance delivery. As much as possible events will be video recorded and made available for viewing through social media like utube.

The preliminary Schedule of Events is available here:http://www.womennorthnetwork.com/images/stories/idlenomore.pdf.

If you want to get involved or want to chat about how you can become involved in Idle No More UNBC Teach-In please contact Fyre Jean graveli@unbc.ca.

Read More: PovNet

#IdleNoMore @ Douglas College

New Westminster News Leader, Grant Granger, February 19, 2013 — The Idle No More First Nations movement arrived at Douglas College’s New Westminster campus on Tuesday.

At a rally organized by the Douglas Students’ Union, speakers called for the federal government to abandon its omnibus Bill C-45 that many First Nations leaders believe will pave the way for pipelines and other infringements on native land, native rights and the environment throughout the country.

“This act is pretty much going to erase all of our strides as aboriginal people,” Mique’l Dangeli, a UBC doctoral student doing a PhD in First Nations studies, told the gathering. “They pretty much clear the way for Enbridge to exploit our lands without consultation with the First Nations especially on our reservations.”

Dangeli grew up in Metlakalta, Alaska on Annette Island just south of Ketchikan while her husband Mike was raised a short distance away on land that straddled the U.S.-Canadian border. They now live in Burnaby.

“These huge (omnibus) bills bury the issues,” said Mique’l.

The Idle No More Movement was started in Saskatoon in November by Jessica Gordon, Sylvia McAdam, Sheelah McLean and Nina Wilson to call attention to the damage the legislation could do to First Nations rights and lands, as well as to the environment. It has spread across the country and also received international attention with solidarity protests supporting the cause in the United States, Stockholm, London, Berlin, Auckland and Cairo.

“It took meticulous reading by those four women to realize the implications,” Dangeli told the audience of about 200 in the Douglas College atrium.

Dangeli’s husband Mike, an artist, carver, dance group leader and business manager, said the legislation should concern everybody because Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government wants to be able to make moves however the Conservative majority sees fit.

“They’re getting rid of protected lakes and streams to make way for pipelines,” said Mike, whose powerful voice and loud drum boomed throughout the cavernous atrium as he spoke, and performed a traditional song and dance. “It’s not about yes or no [to the projects], it’s about asking. How would you feel if they wanted to put it right through your backyard or your front yard for that matter?”

And it could be even in the backyard he lives in now, considering Kinder Morgan is proposing an expansion of its Alberta-to-Burrard Inlet pipeline which could mean coming right through Robert Burnaby Park, he said.

Douglas College student Sheena Wong, one of the event’s organizers, was dressed in a traditional red-and-black cloak as she rallied the crowd.

“They’re selling our land to foreign countries,” said Wong. “I will not stand by and watch him (Harper) sell our land out from underneath us.”

Organizer Madison Paradis-Woodman said the intent of the event was to educate everyone of how the changes in social and environmental policy will affect all walks of life. He estimated there were 350 people throughout the day who absorbed the positive energy of the speakers, the drummers and the singers.

“I have never felt so proud to be an indigenous person. If anything this movement is proof of the power we can receive when we stand not behind people but in front of people and stand for environmental and social justice,” he said. “Just seeing people from all walks of life come out and participate and take something out of it, that made me feel good inside.”

Read More: New Westminster News Leader

#IdleNoMore @ U Maine: Building multi-ethnic and multi-generational networks of women

“We have reached a nexus point where Indigenous land rights, environmental justice and human survival all collide.” “It is here, at this point of collision, that we have the opportunity to facilitate real change as the various collectives — like we’re seeing around this room — of effective parties are thrown together in a literal fight for human survival.” Sherri Mitchell, Director, Land Peace Foundation

The Maine Campus, Dominique Scarlett, February 18, 2013 — On Wednesday, Feb. 13, the Women’s Studies program hosted “Idle No More: Building Multi-Ethnic and Multi-Generational Networks of Women,” the third in a series of their Women in Curriculum, or WIC spring lunch lectures, in the Bangor Room of the Memorial Union.

Sherri Mitchell, the director of the Land Peace Foundation, and Maria Girouard, assistant coordinator for student development at the University of Maine’s Wabanaki Center, presented the lecture, which focused on the “Idle No More” movement, recent controversial Canadian legislation and the need for supportive allies within the movement.

“Idle No More” is a grassroots movement that protests legislative abuses to the rights of aboriginal and indigenous people in Canada, which consist of First Nations, Metis and Inuit people.

“We have reached a nexus point where Indigenous land rights, environmental justice and human survival all collide,” Mitchell said during the presentation. “It is here, at this point of collision, that we have the opportunity to facilitate real change as the various collectives — like we’re seeing around this room — of effective parties are thrown together in a literal fight for human survival.”

The movement was formed in late 2012 by a group of female activists who organized a series of “teach-ins,” a form of non-violent protest where participants engage in free discussion about a controversial topic, to protest the induction of Canada’s C-45 bill.

The activists believe the controversial bill weakens environmental protection laws — particularly those that protect navigable waterways, many of which surrounded land that belongs to the First Nations.

“We have one planet. The type of destruction that we are facing respects no boundaries, it knows no division,” Mitchell said. “Therefore, if we hope to survive, we must eliminate all divisions between us. We must be allies and work collectively to stop these archaic practices of domination in the greed-driven industry that is threatening our planet and destroying all life.”

Mitchell argued that several policy measures, led by Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, violate the rights of the indigenous and aboriginal people of Canada.

“[Harper’s] goal is to completely get rid of all people that identify as indigenous or aboriginal in Canada so that nobody has that status, because there are certain protections that are afforded under the law as a result of that status,” Mitchell said.

She spoke of the implementation of a three-tier policy strategy that, through several proposed and passed policy measures, negotiates with First Nations to sign new agreements that terminate their status as First Nations, eliminate funding and remove all funding for legal consultation.

She spoke of the steps that everyone could take to become involved in the environmental, indigenous and aboriginal rights movements.

“Educate yourself about the issues, attend informational sessions, do the research, talk to people, seek advice from the group for which you’re being an ally [and] listen to their critique of what you’re doing,” Mitchell said.

Read More: The Maine Campus

UM Student union throws support behind #IdleNoMore

Winnipeg Free Press, February 14, 2013 — The University of Manitoba Students’ Union (UMSU) endorsed the Idle No More movement and pledged to provide resources and supports to local organizers, an UMSU news release said today following a teach-in at the U of M by the aboriginal student representative.

“Students recognize and understand that Indigenous people and communities continue to confront the systems of colonization and oppression established by successive Canadian governments,” UMSU president Bilan Arte said in the news release.

“As an organization committed to social justice and increasing access to higher education, it is natural for UMSU to support the Idle No More movement in its efforts to educate and inform the rest of the country on the issues facing Indigenous people in Canada.”

UMSU is the largest students’ association in Manitoba with more than 25,000 undergraduate student members.

Ryerson University professor Pam Palmater, key spokesperson for Idle No More, said in an interview with Postmedia News:. “We’re in this for the long haul. It was never meant to be a flashy one month, then go away. This is something that’s years in the making,”

U of Toronto Student Torbold Rollo on #IdleNoMore

Georgia Straight, Torbold Rollo, February 1, 2013 — IT IS SOMETIMES quipped that democracy is like two wolves and a lamb voting on dinner. This Darwinian image of vulnerable minorities falling prey to a “tyranny of the majority” is why few believe that democracy can be reduced to participation in elections. If democracy has value it is because it allows people to have a meaningful say in the rules that govern them. Anything that precludes or impairs this “voice” is anti-democratic by extension.

The Idle No More indigenous rights movement is a democratic movement par excellence. It seeks to challenge those mechanisms of Canadian governance that preside over the lives of indigenous peoples and in this sense their demand for self-government—what ancient Greek theorists called “autonomy”, from auto (self) andnomos (rule)—is a genuinely democratic aspiration. Canadians are coming to see this more clearly as the movement articulates its recommendations. (No surprise, then, that “Idle No More” was just voted “Best Democratic Moment of 2012” in a poll conducted by the research group on democracy, Samara.)

What exactly precludes and impairs the autonomy of indigenous peoples? The Indian Act stands out as the most glaringly anti-democratic impediment to self-government. Not simply because it shatters the 60 or so original indigenous nations along with their traditional governments and traditional territories into the 614 arbitrary “bands” now scattered across Canada on tiny “reserves”, but also because band leadership has no real say in political and legislative life on those reserves. Although they are elected, chief and council have no democratic authority to govern because they are constrained from above by the Indian Act rather than from below by their people. They are replaceable managers, in essence, not law-makers. Real authority resides in the enforcement of the Indian Act by Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada. The whole arrangement is insultingly arbitrary from a democratic perspective.

Read More: Straight.com

#IdleNoMore alive and well, University of Alberta forum hears

Edmonton Journal, Alexander Zabjek, February 8, 1013 — The Idle No More Movement is not dead, dying, or dormant.

That was the message at a University of Alberta forum Friday that attracted more than 300 participants and nine speakers, including Chief Theresa Spence of Attawapiskat in northern Ontario.

Spence, via video link from her home community, was making her first major public appearance since ending her six-week fluid-only diet in Ottawa two weeks ago. Spence started her protest around the same time as Idle No More gained speed but the two protests were separate entities with separate tactics, although Spence often seemed to dominate headlines.

On Friday, however, Spence urged First Nations leaders to work with the Idle No More movement and other grassroots organizations. She said she was glad to be back in her home community and spoke relatively briefly, alongside Danny Metatawabin, her spokesperson during her protest,

“In retrospect, I see (she) really drew attention to Canada’s indigenous people, not just in Canada but outside Canada. People started to hear about this First Nations chief in Canada who is on a hunger strike in this country that is supposed to be such a great place to live,” said speaker Tanya Kappo, of the Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation, after the forum.

Kappo was the first person to use the Twitter hashtag #idlenomore in December and has spoken extensively about the Conservative government’s Bill C-45 and the effect it will have on laws governing navigable waterways. She addressed the crowd with personal stories of activism, including the time she explained to her young son why she couldn’t in good conscience attend Alberta’s centennial celebrations.

Read More: Edmonton Journal

#IdleNoMore UNBC students in action

Rolling Stone, Brooke Jarvis, February 4, 2013— As members of Canada’s House of Commons returned to work last week in Ottawa, they found several hundred protesters waiting for them under a heavy snowfall on Parliament Hill. Many were dressed in traditional clothing of Canada’s First Nations….

Similar protests took place in Halifax, Calgary, Winnipeg, Montreal, Vancouver and other cities across Canada and in the United States. They were part of a “world day of action” organized under the banner of Idle No More – a native rights movement that has been heating up since October, when the Canadian government proposed a bill, known as C-45, that included provisions to undermine environmental protection and indigenous sovereignty.

C-45, which passed in December, changes the way that First Nations approve the surrendering or leasing of territory, making it easier to open indigenous treaty lands to development. The law also reduces the number of development projects that require environmental assessment and dramatically changes the nation’s Navigable Waters Protection Act – which, since 1882, has made it illegal to “block, alter or destroy any water deep enough to float a canoe without federal approval.” Now, only specifically enumerated bodies of water have that protection….

Shalane Pauls is a 24-year-old biochemistry student at the University of Northern British Columbia and a member of the Tsimshian and Tahltan nations. In the last few months, she has organized three Idle No More rallies. She is in the process of planning a teach-in to discuss what she calls myths about the movement, primarily claims that First Nations receive unfair government support. But the biggest myth, she said, is that water pollution only matters to native people. “It’s not just a First Nations issue,” says Pauls. “It’s a human rights issue. It’s a Canadian issue. It’s not just aboriginal children we’re looking out for; it’s the children of the nation.”

Idle No More has been subject to many of the same criticisms as other social movements: that its purpose isn’t sufficiently clear, that tactics will turn off potential allies, that infighting and tribal mismanagement mar the message. There’s no way to tell how long its momentum will last. Still, Pauls sees the movement as a turning point in the political involvement of Canada’s First Nations. “For so long, we haven’t been heard. And so, for so long we just sat, idly. But the title in itself really wakes people up. To be like, ‘Hey, I don’t want to be idle anymore – this is what I want to see, this is how I feel.’ There’s always going to be something worth fighting for.”

Read More: Idle No More: Native-Led Protest Movement Takes On Canadian Government | Politics News | Rolling Stone.

Power of #IdleNoMore movement lies in direct action, says UBC prof

Georgia Straight, Yolanda Cole, February 6, 2013 — THE IDLE NO More movement is undergoing a moment of “pause and critical reflection”, in the view of one participant.

Speaking at an Idle No More “teach-in” event at the University of British Columbia on February 1, Coulthard addressed the potential impact of direct actions staged by the movement.

The political science and First Nations Studies faculty member argued that grassroots forms of protests such as blockades have historically led to changes on indigenous issues.

“Historically, I would venture to suggest that all negotiations, over the scope and content of aboriginal people’s rights in the last 40 years, have piggybacked off of the assertive direct actions, including the escalated use of blockades, spearheaded by indigenous women and other grassroots elements of our community,” Coulthard told a crowd of more than 300 students and members of the public at the First Nations House of Learning at UBC.

Coulthard, a member of the Yellowknives Dene First Nation, disputed what he said is an assumption that official negotiations among leadership are the “most productive means to forge real change in the lives of indigenous communities”.

“I think that there’s a latent understanding that the negotiations aren’t about making the transformative changes that indigenous peoples need in order to live healthy, cultured lives, and if you look at the history of negotiations, they’ve always come in order to placate the transformative energy that has emerged in more grassroots forms of protest actions,” he said in an interview.

In fact, he argued, inquiries such as the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples and the B.C. missing women inquiry wouldn’t have occurred if sustained direct actions led by indigenous communities hadn’t brought attention to the issues.

Coulthard noted it wouldn’t surprise him if Idle No More demonstrations escalate to “more assertive” forms of peaceful protest. Idle No More actions in Ontario have included railway and highway blockades.

“I think that it’s pretty clear that the federal government is maintaining its stance on the problematic pieces of legislation that have upset indigenous peoples so much,” he stated. “And if history has taught us anything, these cycles of anger and pent-up frustration will tend to be played out in activism.”

The demonstrations were initially sparked out of opposition to federal omnibus legislation that included changes to the Indian Act and the Navigable Waters Protection Act.

Coulthard noted that the movement has gained unprecedented sustained attention from the general population.

“I think it’s because Canadians, nonindigenous peoples, are seeing their own interests perhaps better represented by indigenous peoples, especially concerning environmental sustainability and the land,” he said in an interview. “These legislative changes are also violations of nonindigenous peoples’ aspirations with respect to the integrity of the land, having it shared more equitably.”

In Coulthard’s view, movements like Idle No More “have within their sights, now more than ever” a restructuring of the relationship between indigenous peoples and Canada. But he added that changes to that relationship are a “distant, long-term goal”.

“The impacts [of the movement] will be long-term, and they will eventually compel Canada to come to the negotiating table on equitable terms, honor its treaty obligations, and correct the colonial relationship between indigenous peoples and the state,” he said.

“The inequalities and the privileges that have built up are centuries old now, so it’s not going to happen overnight.”

Red More: Georgia Straight

#IdleNoMore Teach-In and Demonstration at #UBC

Well over 300 gathered this afternoon for an Idle No More Teach-In at the University of British Columbia. This followed a late morning and afternoon INM demonstration yesterday with 100+ in attendance at any given moment. Today’s Teach-In at the First Nations House of Learning was broadcast by CITR (101.9 FM), the student run (since 1974) radio at UBC. If you were unable to attend, I encourage all to listen to the podcast for today and view videos from yesterday’s demonstration, as these were truly memorable and significant events at UBC. On a campus that has become renowned for apathy, Idle No More is a welcome and extremely promising change of both outlook and power dynamics. If you’re on the Board of Governors at UBC, you are likely proud and anxious at this point: Proud in that students are waking up and organizing demonstrations and teach-ins such as Idle No More and anxious in that none of this bodes well for business as usual and continuos expansion into unceded Musqueam territory and lands endowed in trust about 100 years ago (Musqueam home from time immemorial to “Crown Land” in late 1800s into “Endowment Lands” in 1910). Thank you to all who organized and participated these past two days in Idle No More at UBC!

#IdleNoMore Demonstration at UBC

Lee Brown Speaks wisdom to power at Idle No More Demonstration at UBC

Thank you to Idle No More student planners of the extremely important demonstration at the University of British Columbia yesterday (31 January). This was the first of many to come at a University that has grown irresponsible in its expansion throughout the unceded Musqueam territory on which it is settled. This was a refreshingly catalytic exploration of the varied and complex issues represented within the Idle No More movement for a campus waking up from a decade of messages from the University that an inactive and idle student body is the best student body.

The Idle No More Teach-In at UBC this afternoon at the First Nations Longhouse will work from yesterday’s demonstration to generate next steps for this decreasingly idyllic, but no longer idle, campus.

Most videos from the Idle No More Demonstration at UBC (31 January 2013) are accessible: