Merry Schema!

The culturally recognized chunk of
perceptual experience known as: The
Jello dessert at a Xmas party.

Usually my blog posts are about stories related to my work. But for Christmas, I decided to deviate just a bit…mostly because I hate Christmas. I mean, I don't hate the fact that I get to hang out with my family and celebrate the birth of Christ, but why does that have to coincide with the most tacky, annoying, over-commercialized time of year? I guess because Western society made it so.

Sometimes I just hate Western society. And that's one reason why I loved my Cultural Anthropology class last semester. It reminded me that our little North American bubble is tiny. There are millions and billions of people out there who do not live the way we do. Their still are cultures out there that do not celebrate greed and materialism. Plus, in class I learned that Christmas is a schema! That is, in my opinion, the perfect way of looking at it. From my textbook: "Schemas are patterned, repetitive experiences. People living in North America cannot avoid a schema called Christmas, a chunk of experience that recurs once every year. The Christmas schema can include features such as snowy weather and activities such as baking cookies. It involves public events in secular spaces such as the annual rush to complete holiday shopping in the last days before Christmas." How perfect a definition is that?

And how perfect would it be if we turfed the schema we experience every year and replaced it with something entirely different. I don't know, maybe we pick a date in the Spring, and instead of giving gifts to our family members we bought and gave things to the homeless. Maybe we invited an immigrant family over for dinner, or even our neighbours! And screw the turkey dinner, make it BBQ and beer. I'm just a Scrooge I guess, but in the Spirit of the Season: Merry Schema!!

Forget the stats. Have a lightbulb instead.

When it comes to the shortfalls of the current First Nations education system in Canada, the mainstream media loves to quote stats and make comparisons: i.e. “Graduation rates for Aboriginal students in Canada are substantially lower than for the Grade 12 student population as a whole.” etc. etc.

Then, the other day, I came to a realization, call it a light-bulb-finally-turning-on moment. Being constantly told how much less Aboriginal students are accomplishing made me actually believe that, as a whole, they don’t really want to succeed academically. (How could I have thought that and not realized that I thought that??!). By always being told the negative, I had been subconsciously conditioned to believe that Aboriginal students don’t really care deeply about their education.

And then I visited Southeast Collegiate.

Southeast Collegiate students taking virtual high school math

I’m writing a story on virtual high school classrooms for my work’s upcoming newsletter, and got to meet and chat with some grade 9 and grade 11 First Nations students who are taking online courses. And boy, do these kids work hard! One was taking Pre-calculus (something that I wouldn’t have a hope in heck of completing) and the others were doing grade 9 math. Let me tell you, it takes a LOT of dedication to complete an online course. You have to sit in front of a computer for an hour and a half a day, listen to a lesson, stay focused, committed, ignore distractions…I know some adults who would not even be able do it. But these kids do. Because they care. And they all had goals they wanted to achieve after high school, academic and career plans that they knew needed the credits from these courses.

So never let it be said that Aboriginal students don’t care about their education. They do! Sadly, we just don’t hear enough about it, and don’t do enough to change the system that they are unwittingly a part of. But at least I can change my ignorance. I guess that's something.

Bolivia & North End MC for Prime Minister

Uh oh. Haven’t written in awhile. Need to be better at consistency.

In my defense, I’ve gone back to school to take a couple of classes so my free time is largely taken up with that. But, one of those classes is Cultural Anthropology (I absolutely love it, completely fascinating). And a couple of weeks ago we had a guest speaker from Bolivia who talked about the indigenous people of that country. Bolivia has a huge indigenous population, with 55% indigenous and 30% mixed European and indigenous heritage. As well, in 2005 they elected Eva Morales, a popular indigenous leader, as president. That got me thinking…what if, one day, Canada had a First Nations Prime Minister?

*pause for the sound of crickets chirping*

Flag of the Plurinational State of Bolivia

Many First Nations people do not identify themselves as Canadian and some seem to have a not so high regard for the leadership of this country. So whether an indigenous person would even want to govern a place they do not see as “theirs” is open for debate. Yet, it’s interesting to think about…

I even have an idea of the kind of indigenous leader I’d want to see in power. Oh, as an aside, I have great contempt for all political leaders (of all races). I don’t care how noble your intentions are, once you have that kind of power I believe it’s inevitable that you’ll be sucked into the disdainful vortex of that power and begin to forget about the people you are supposed to be serving.

However, I’ve been following a young, indigenous leader in Winnipeg. His name is Michael Champagne.

He is on the ground at the grassroots trying to bring change to the North End of Winnipeg. And he's succeeding! He has won awards, speaks at conferences and, from what I can tell, truly cares about “his people”. What if a guy like Michael was Prime Minster of Canada? Could someone like that bring the kind of changes to this country that we so desperately need? Could he help to mend First Nations and settler relations? Could he help give high school students on reserves economic opportunities? Could he focus more on healing the land rather than just taking and taking and taking from it? Maybe he's the only kind of leader who could.

So what do you think? What if a First Nations person was Prime Minister of Canada? If Michael ran he'd get my vote. :)

Triumph Over Tragedy, Little Saskatchewan First Nation

The hostility and ignorance that is directed towards our country's First Nations people astounds me. If I can do something to combat it, even something small, I have to try.
Here is a positive story I wrote about a reserve that's gotten nothing but negative attention due to a variety of factors. The main one being a flood in 2011 that forced hundreds to evacuate, and the fact that many of these people have still not been able to return home.
Please take a second to read it. I wrote it for my place of employment's newsletter. My goal is to showcase positive stories about Manitoba's First Nation run schools. With so much negativity out there, it's time to start telling the uplifting, hopeful stories. There are just as many of them too. And I'm making it my job to find them and spread the word.
Thanks and enjoy!

Triumph Over Tragedy

Rwanda in Canada?

After reading this article, "Is Harper trying to provoke a confrontation with First Nations?" I got scared. This is because my mind immediately leapt to the Rwandan genocide. Neighbour killing neighbour. Sister slaughtering brother. Hutus against Tutsis in one of the bloodiest events the world has ever seen. And I thought, 'Is it even remotely possible that something like that could happen in Canada? First Nation against White?' My husband is Oji-Cree. I'm White. Could we one day be waging war against each other just because of our different backgrounds? Sounds impossible. Not in Canada. I'm just over reacting. Yet, with the amount of ignorance and racism I read every day, from both sides, the terrifying answer is "yes". I do think something like this could happen in Canada. I just pray to God our Creator that it won't.

Me and my beautiful hubby.

Moss Bag Babies

Safe, snug, secure.

I work in the Communications Department of a First Nations Organization. I love my job! Every day I get to write about what our org. is up to; attend events, workshops and conferences that we host in order to document and write stories about them for our website: www.mfnerc.org.
Yesterday I took part in a workshop that truly spoke to my spirit. And the woman who was presenting said that if your spirit is stirred, then you know it’s the truth. It was a workshop on the traditional teachings of Moss Bags or Tikanaugan. She spoke of how, traditionally, women carried babies on their backs (girls over their shoulder, boys on their back facing out) so the babies could develop their 4 sacred gifts – Sight, Smell, Taste and Hearing.

As I said in one of my previous blog posts, I’m one of those people who believes that, when it comes to how we should live in the world, the First Nations people had it right. Baby girls watched their mothers gathering berries, tanning hides, smoking meat, and tending the fires so they could see, smell, taste and listen to what was going on. So they could learn how to be a woman in their tribe. Boys faced out so they could watch the world around them, the sun and stars, the animals, and other members of the community. So they could learn how to be a man in their tribe. Yet the whole time, both boys and girls felt safe and secure, senses on alert, upright in the world, while completely attached to their mother.

What a beautiful way to start life in this world! I'm not doing it justice with this small post so I encourage you to google "Moss Bags" or "Tikanaugan", but the teachings made perfect sense to me...And I even got to make my own Moss Bag Baby. The workshop presenter told us that she often gets asked by young First Nations parents: Did we lose our parenting skills because of Residential Schools? And can we get them back? With beautiful, truthful teachings such as this, the only answer is a resounding yes. 

My own Moss Bag creation.

Always learning.

I think I have the best job in the world. Part of what I do is navigate and post to Facebook and Twitter on behalf of the Manitoba First Nations Education Resource Centre. Through this I've been able to learn so much about First Nations people, #IdleNoMore, Canada's true history and what my relationship to the afore mentioned should be.
It would take me pages and pages to list all that I have learned; so instead, I'm going to post some links to some of the best blogs I have come across that debunk Indian stereotypes.
It's my hope that one day my blog might become as intriguing as these!

apihtawikosisan.com
Some of the most informative and insightful articles: "Canada it's time. We need to fix this in our generation.", "The natives are restless. Wondering why?" and "The stereotype of the drunken Indian." to name a few.
wabkinew.ca
He's smart, funny and shows up everywhere! Presenting awards, giving speeches, sitting down for interviews, spreading the word.
northendmc.wordpress.com
Closer to home, from Winnipeg's North End, I think this young guy is what hope looks like!

So there's my top three. There's a lot more out there! All you need is a bit of time, some curiosity and an open mind.

Idle No More. It's for ALL Canadians.

The other day my husband and I went for dinner at my parents. Since both he and I work for First Nations organizations it has been easy, not to mention exciting, to keep abreast of the #Idle No More wave that has been sweeping across the country. I love the movement. I love that it was started by four women. It uses social media. It engages youth and elders alike. And it raises legitimate concerns that are relevant to all Canadians. I was curious though, what had my parents heard? They are a somewhat typical white, middle-class couple. Don’t get me wrong, they are as cool and savvy as they come, and have done many amazing things in their lives; however, they watch the “regular news” and read the local paper and sometimes listen to CJOB and that’s about the extent of their media exposure. When I asked my mom what she had heard about Idle No More she responded, “Well, we’ve just heard that a lot of people are upset with the blockades that are stopping traffic.” And that was all…That was all?....Seriously??! I was quite shocked.
And then I thought, what if this is the typical mainstream experience? And if it is, we – media, society, native, non-native – need to change. We who are lucky enough to know the history, read the stories, update the tweets and post the pictures need to let white, mainstream society know what is going on. We need to let people like my parents (open, honest, non-racist people) know how Bill C-45 will affect First Nations Land and the fact that First Nations people were not even consulted on it. I know people like my parents would be interested in what the Harper government is doing. And maybe, just maybe, once they know, they’ll change their vote come Election Day. Or perhaps they’ll tell their friends about Idle No More or search for it on the Internet or maybe even participate in a protest. The information is out there! We just need to let the white folk know.