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Module 9 Introduction - “A nation is not conquered until the hearts of its women are on the ground. Then it is done, no matter how brave its warriors nor how strong their weapons.” (Cheyenne Proverb) ● Powerful assurances and statements, such as the above quote, acknowledge and recognize that Indigenous women remain the backbone of Indigenous communities. - This lesson explores the resilience and vitality of Indigenous women, girls and genderful folks and celebrates the influential roles and responsibilities shared with Indigenous men as nation builders. - However, as much as this lesson seeks to examine the strength of Indigenous women, we must first take into consideration why there is an entire lesson devoted to this topic at all. - Indigenous women currently live in an appalling state of extreme marginalization, and oppressive state policies such as the Indian Act, genocidal tactics like residential schools, and sexist policies have all worked to police and shape attitudes surrounding Indigenous women, girls, and genderful folk. ● Including the examination of colonial history as it applies to Indigenous women does not dishonour the resiliency and strength that they represent today, but it is required in order to return to our rightful position and equal status in the world today, as healers, hunters, intellectuals, nurturers and leaders. - This lesson begins with Indigenous concepts of gender and explores some of the understandings of gender and sexuality across a range of Indigenous cultures, which leads into a discussion about the ways that Indigenous women traditionally held critical roles and responsibilities within their communities. - One of the key messages of this lesson is how colonization is a gendered project. This lesson outlines the ways that the Indian Act discriminated against women and discusses the issue of violence against indigenous women, the ways Indigenous women in Canada have fought to defend their rights, and Indigenous feminism. Section One: Indigenous Concepts of Gender Gender and Sex - Sex as a concept is used to refer to the kinds of biological differences that exist in terms of genetic makeup, anatomy, hormones, and physical characteristics. - Commonly, sex is seen as a binary consisting of male and female, but scientists now recognize that gender and sex are not always so easily categorized, which is a fact that many Indigenous peoples have always understood. - The concept of gender is used to describe the culturally constructed categories that reflect ideas about a person’s role, traits, and position within society, depending upon how they present themselves as male, female, or another category. - The concept of gender is related to the concept of sex, but these two concepts are not the same. - Social scientists often talk about gender as a spectrum, with male and masculine on one

end, and female and feminine on the other. - An individual’s gender identity is how much they see themselves as either male or female, or somewhere in between. - Some cultures view gender as being limited to being either male or female, but in other cultures, gender is seen as much more fluid. - Indigenous cultures across North America have different definitions and expressions of gender than are found in Western cultures. - Gender variance is a concept used to refer to the cultural construction of multiple genders. Multiple genders and a wide variance of gender roles existed in many tribal societies and communities. Gender Roles - Gender roles are the culturally defined duties and responsibilities that people are expected to carry out depending on their gender identity. - Gender roles in Indigenous cultures were traditionally clearly defined, and men and women would have different responsibilities to carry out within their communities. The roles of men and women were complementary, and each was seen as important and essential. - An individual’s gender identity determined the associated gender roles they would perform, such as hunting, smoking the meat, or performing certain ceremonies. This was based on the cultural teachings about gender roles within each distinct Indigenous society. ● For example, Inuit women’s roles and responsibilities within their community traditionally include sewing and food preparation, while men’s roles and responsibilities include hunting. ● However, in her article, “I’m not the great hunter, my wife is”, Barbara Bodenhorn describes how within Iñupiat worldview, women are more influential to hunting than men are. They are more influential, because it is women 5 who are responsible for attracting the animals so that men will be able to hunt them successfully. - While noting that many tribes were egalitarian and held complex clan systems, gender roles were unique to each tribe - Indigenous women often held spiritual, political, and economic power equal to men. Roles of women and men were different but equally important. - Through their participation in community and women’s councils, Indigenous women held a high degree of political power when it came to the management of land, nomination of chiefs, and tribal governance. - Women elders chose the best suitable individuals for tribal leaders and made important decisions that benefited the well-being and livelihood of the whole community. Cross-Gender, or Third and Fourth Gender Identity - The roles of cross-gendered individuals varied for each tribal society. Sometimes gender changes were strictly occupational, meaning gender changes occurred in order to perform

certain roles and duties in the community. ● For example, there were individuals that cross-dressed only for ceremonial purposes, such as a cross-gendered individual holding a specific task in the Sundance ceremony. - In some cases cross-gendered people would be the only ones able to perform certain ceremonies. - Cross-gendered people often conducted naming ceremonies, while others were mediators to the spirit world, or often healers. - Many tribal societies recognized individuals who took up opposite gender roles and responsibilities. These individuals would sometimes fall under a third and fourth gender category, neither male nor female, which would have different obligations and duties to community than gender statuses of other men and women. - Their roles are sometimes understood as bridging the genders, or having a combination of both. Indigenous peoples recognized gender as fluid. Examples from Indigenous Languages - Taking a closer look at Indigenous languages is helpful when trying to understand Indigenous concepts, including the different concepts around gender. - The literal translation of the Navajo word “nádleehí” means “a person in a constant process of change.” - Nádleehí is a Navajo word for a person with an unclear physical description of being male or female. ● The first part “ná” translates to being continuous. ● The Navajo origin story tells how the very first people born were hermaphrodite twins with undetermined sexes, this and story underlies the entire basis for understanding the spiritual role and high status of the nádleehí. ● The nádleehí was highly regarded in Navajo society and was often an integral part of ceremonies and other events. - Another example is from the Nuxalk, also known as Bella Coola, of the Northwest Coast ● The Nuxalk have an oral story of newborn children that go through sex reversals. It is unclear which sex and gender the children are identified with. - Similar to the Navajo, many Indigenous gender systems like the Navajo and Nuxalk emphasize the idea that human beings may have both masculine and feminine gender characteristics. - There are many terms in different tribal societies that were used for cross-gendered individuals, such as Heemaneh’ for the Cheyenne, Agokwa in the language of the Anishinaabe, and Tainna wa’ippe for the Shoshone Conceptualizing Gender - Oral tradition describes how Indigenous peoples conceptualized gender. Children were raised in flexible ways that allowed them to discover their gender identity. ● For instance, a child may have physically male traits and later take up a women’s role after they have exhibited their preferred and most befitting gender identity.

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- This gender system not only gives children the freedom to express their personalities but also contributes to the community by capitalizing on the skills of each individual and utilizing each community member’s intelligence and passion to the fullest extent - Choices about gender and the responsibilities attached to that gender may happen after a vision or develop over a series of childhood and adolescent milestones that confirms the person’s choice. - Gender transformations could happen before or during puberty. Indigenous oral traditions also pass on stories about women warriors, people that performed the traditionally male role in warfare. Sometimes, a female warrior would then hold a traditionally male status within their community ● There were a number of women who partook in war from various tribal communities, such as Cheyenne, Choctaw, Cherokee, Crow, Ojibwa and Blackfoot. - Other stories are about males who dressed in female clothing and performed duties of a woman. They then held a gender status that was completely separated from either male or female. Two-Spirit Indigenous people - today, youth in particular, are involved in a movement to reclaim lost ways of understanding traditional gender systems and have introduced the term “twospirit” to describe cross-gendered people. - Two-spirit is a term that has only come into use in contemporary times and originates from the Northern Algonquin word “niizh manitoag” meaning two spirits. ● The t erm twospirit represents the presence of masculine and feminine traits within an individual ● This newer word includes Indigenous understandings of kinship, sexuality, and gender that are often more complex and fluid than mainstream perceptions of sexual orientation and gender Sexuality - There are key differences between the concepts of gender and sexuality. - Gender roles, performance, dress, demeanour, and sexual preferences may be seen as separate categories and one does not necessarily link with the other. ● For instance, an individual may wear clothes of the opposite gender, but this does not necessarily codify their sexual preference. - Most of the time individuals who crossed genders were encouraged to enter a relationship with someone of the opposite gender. ● For example, if a biological male who took up a woman’s roles had a relationship with another man who performed a conventional man’s roles, this would be accepted. An individual’s sexuality and gender were often viewed as different things. - Sexual and occupational preferences were placed into different categories. Women’s Roles and Social Status Indigenous

- women were known as the community caretakers and primary teachers of children. - Women held a great deal of autonomy in many Indigenous societies. They were respected and valued partners their communities. - In many cases, women were able to choose what role they would take within their community. - Relatively matriarchal social systems and matrilineal kinship or clan systems were found in Indigenous cultures across North America - The term matriarchy describes a society where women hold the positions of leadership. ● In Haudenosaunee society women were responsible for choosing the political leaders, but this society might not be described as strictly matriarchal, because the leaders were usually men. ● The Haudenosaunee clan system was matrilineal, which means that hereditary clan membership followed the mother’s line ● For example, if the father was Deer clan, and the mother was Wolf clan, their children would be Wolf clan. Colonization and Gender Settler - colonialism in North America was a gendered process, as it imposed European patriarchal social systems. - The term patriarchy describes societies that are male dominated. In a patriarchal system, men hold the positions of power in political, spiritual, and domestic spheres. - Colonialism was a gendered project, because it reproduced the sexist beliefs held by Europeans. - Mainstream North American society today can be seen as a heteropatriarchy, where the superiority of patriarchal beliefs and heterosexuality are seen as the norm. - Colonization disrupted the balance of complementary gender roles and shared power in Indigenous societies. - Europeans introduced new values and ideals steeped in white male superiority and suppressed the leadership roles of women held in many Indigenous societies. - The result created an imbalance and inequality within Indigenous communities and upset the fluidity of gender roles. Colonialism as a Gendered Project - There are specific examples of colonial strategies that were aimed at reconstructing Indigenous societies to fit into a patriarchal structure - Government policies institutionalized gender inequality and led to the internalization of patriarchal values within Indigenous communities. - Consequences of colonialism include the disempowerment and devaluation of Indigenous women’s participation in the political, economic, social, and cultural realms of the community. - During the treaty negotiations, Indigenous women were excluded from political interactions due to Western customs where women did not step into a political realm and remained within the private sphere performing domestic duties.

- The Indian Act further institutionalized gender discrimination. ● Through Indian status, band governance, access to band services and programs, and band membership, the Indian Act established provisions that exclusively gave men positions in political, economic, and social power. Indian Act and Gender Discrimination - The establishment of status Indians is considered a process of racialization by minimizing the scope of what it means to be an Indian. - One of the methods was in the ways that the legal category of status Indian was determined. Under Section 12(b) in the 1951 Indian Act, women who married non-status men would lose their status and therefore were unable to pass on status to their children. - Indian status has no connection to social or cultural aspects, and this has resulted in issues for women and their children in obtaining a sense of identity and belonging. - The Indian Act introduced a Eurocentric government model with the “Chief and Council System” that prevented any influence or participation of Indigenous women. - The Indian Act created power imbalances in band politics and governance where men dominated Chief and Councils and where women were unable to vote. - Indigenous women were also prevented from holding title to property, as European customs dictated that only men were able to have possession of land. ● This diminished the influence women had over the distribution of goods from the land. - Many First Nations and Inuit women traditionally held positions in community governance and politics. Federal law discriminated against Indigenous women in multiple ways, and gender and race were important factors in the establishment of colonial policies. Section Two: Indigenous Women Stereotypes and Representation - Many historical recordings express views of Indigenous women as overly sexual, according to the sexist and repressive sexual mores of those doing the documenting. - This helped to create a stereotype of Indigenous women that, along with prejudicial forms of settler sexuality, continues to exist today. Explorers wrote prolifically in their journals, often going on tirades about the deviant acts of the Native population. - Terms like polygamy, female chiefs, hermaphrodites, and cross-dressers were seen as unnatural. - As was the norm of the day, notes and papers of male ethnographers and archaeologists demonstrate overt sexism that often denigrated or trivialized the female experience. - Therefore, indigenous women were denigrated in particular ways within a broader application of settlers’ repressive cultural ideas about sexuality. - When we examine the way Indigenous women have been shown in the media or pop culture, it is often ones with negative connotations or leads to such ideas. - The consequences of these images are that they develop and maintain social stereotypes of Indigenous women. - Representations of Indigenous women create harmful beliefs about them, which are

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closely connected to the gender violence that occurs. Indian Princess - The image of Pocahontas in American folklore created the idea of the Indian Princess who was seen as innocent and in need of protection - The story would become romanticized, and later there would be the creation of Disney’s tragic love story of John Smith and Pocahontas. - The image of Pocahontas would be highly commercialized and then used for merchandising purposes. - The idea of the “Indian princess” versus the “immoral women” creates a misrepresentation of Indigenous women as being one of these polar opposites. - This can be harmful for young Indigenous girls who view these images in the media as the way society views them, and they internalize these social stereotypes. - In many ways, the image of Indigenous women has become culturally appropriated in Halloween costumes. - During Halloween, some people dress up in Pocahontas costumes without considering or knowing how they contribute to these oversexualized representations - Many do not understand the harm it eventually does to Indigenous women. - These negative representations have led to the acceptance of stereotypes, which diminishes the respect for Indigenous women. - The oversimplification of this marginalized population into one-dimensional stereotypes and caricatures has resulted in the oversexualization and dehumanization of Indigenous women. Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) - This societal issue also impacts Indigenous children and two-spirited people. Across the country there have been efforts to create awareness and push for an inquiry into Missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and two-spirit. According to a 2013 RCMP report there have been 1200 known cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women. This figure does not include unreported cases, and the number of women affected may be understated. - Many unresolved cases compound the problem of missing and murdered Indigenous women. Many times, victim blaming has occurred for Indigenous women, especially in the sex trade. ● In other ways, Indigenous men have been targeted as the perpetrator. - Simultaneously, in history there have been misrepresentations for women as well as Indigenous men being naturally violent. - When general society is shown this in the media, what is often left out is the historical trauma Indigenous peoples have endured. ● Most times it does not explain the cycle of poverty many Indigenous women face because of Canada’s history of colonialism. ● As a result, these stereotypes create greater chances of the internalization of these false beliefs by Indigenous peoples.

- Indigenous women have been the target of oppression in multiple ways, and assimilation efforts in the past have included the sterilization of Indigenous women. - This tactic was used to prevent the reproduction of Indigenous peoples and the growth of their population. - Today Indigenous people’s lands have been destroyed and polluted from the resource extraction industries, which has also done serious harm to a woman’s reproductive health. ● The toxins produced eventually come into contact with women’s bodies while stored in fats and breast milk during pregnancy. ● Breast-feeding directly impacts the growth of newborns. ● This is another example of the harm done to Indigenous women’s and children’s bodies. - Some research shows how violence against women is linked to violence against the land. - Destruction of the land and wildlife gets equated with violence against Indigenous women’s bodies, as both are disregarded and devalued in a society that functions on capitalism and patriarchy. - Patriarchal settler colonialism is also bad for Indigenous men, undercutting their complementary roles with women in helping as caretakers in Indigenous communities. - Patriarchy has had an insidious effect on Indigenous men, producing misogynistic notions of male superiority that have become embedded into every aspect of their lives. - These attitudes devalued and undermined entire systems of governance, education, and economies and excluded half the population from decisions regarding the cultural and spiritual aspect of life. - Since the onset of colonization, the land continues to be threatened, taken and abused by development industries, and this is parallel to what we see occurring with Indigenous peoples. - In many ways, Indigenous women have been invisible or overlooked. Indigenous women’s traditional positions in society have been removed, their images have been misrepresented, their cultures mocked, and they have become devalued in the process. - However, Indigenous women have continued to fulfill traditional caretaking and mothering roles, even within the colonial context. ● For instance, Minnie Grey shares her memories of her strong Inuk mother who continued to live a very traditional lifestyle even after her husband’s death, and she was forced to provide love, food, shelter, and clothing for all of her five small children ● This accomplished Inuit woman was able to work her dog teams, hunt and fish, as well as act as a midwife and caretaker to her community. - Indigenous women were skilled and proficient caretakers long before contact, and although the ongoing processes of colonization continues to undermine and dismantle their traditional lives, they continue to be resilient and determined to attain social justice along gender lines. - Over the decades there have been efforts to reclaim the rights of Indigenous women in the

court system to establish their rights for Indian status. Court Cases Confronting the Indian Act - There have been efforts by Indigenous women to have representation in politics and obtain equal treatment, specifically the battle for Indigenous women’s equal rights for Indian status. - The gender biased provisions in the Indian Act created issues of sexual discrimination for obtaining Indian status and band acceptance. - The three main court cases that confronted the patriarchal structure of the Indian Act with respect to status were 1. Lavell v. Canada (1971), 2. Bédard v. Isaac (1972) 3. Lovelace v. Canada (1981) - From a legal position, marital status classifies people as married, divorced, single, or widowed. - For Indigenous women, marital status also largely determined Indian status, band membership, access to band programs and services, and the inheritance of property. - These court cases challenged the fair protection of human rights and constitutional protection for women’s Indian status. Lavell v. Canada addressed the Indian Act’s provisions on status using the argument that it went against Canada’s Bill of Rights by sexual discrimination. - Jeannette Vivian Corbiere, an Anishnaabe woman from Wikwemikong Reserve, lost her Indian status by marrying out when she married a male without Indian status, and she was no longer able to reside on her reserve. ● The provincial court ruled that it did not go against any human rights or freedoms. ● Corbiere then petitioned the Federal Court of Appeals about her case. ● In Corbiere v. Canada, it was found that the Indian Act did go against the Bill of Rights. ● This court case was significant, as it was the beginning of the legal acknowledgement that the Indian Act held gender discrimination. - Yvonne Bédard, an Iroquois womAn from Brandford Reserve, married out. She lived off reserve for six years. When she later divorced, she could not return to her reserve, based on the 1951 amendment to the Indian Act where bands had the opportunity to create their own membership rules for residency based on Indian status. ● Bédard v. Isaac followed the same argument in the Lavell case that it violated Canada’s Bill of Rights. ● The case went from the Ontario High Court to the Supreme Court ● At this time, Lavell and Bédard faced criticism from within Indigenous communities, the National Indian Brotherhood, and band leaders. They were accused of putting individual rights before collective rights, because Indigenous peoples in Canada were already fighting for sovereignty. ● Fighting for Indian women’s rights was seen as interfering with the chances of

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achieving sovereignty. ● In 1973, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled against Lavell and Bédard, which also dismissed the argument that the Indian Act provisions went against Canada’s Bill of Rights. - The case of Lovelace v. Canada, which was eventually brought before the United Nations, gained international attention for Indigenous women in Canada ● Sandra Lovelace, a Maliseet woman from Tobique Reserve, married a non-status man, thereby losing Indian status. ● Once she divorced, her situation was more apparent. She did not have Indian status and no longer had band membership. ● She argued her loss of status violated Canada’s Bill of Rights and the United Nations Human Rights. ● Canada did in fact violate the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, because equal treatment was withheld from Lovelace. - McIvor Case Sharon McIvor’s court case, McIvor v. The Registrar, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (1985), pushed for legal changes to the Indian Act’s discriminatory provision, which eventually led to Bill C-31 ● Initially, McIvor’s case had three positions: 1. to remove discriminatory parts of the Indian Act; 2. to allow band control over band membership; and 3. to restore rights to individuals who lost Indian status. ● While these were successful victories, the amendments through Bill C-31 did not did not reconcile all the injustices surrounding status that were found in the Indian Act. ● Indigenous women’s concerns about status and loss of status were not addressed until later with Bill C-3 Gender Equity in Indian Registration Act, which went into effect on January 31, 2011 ● This legislation addressed what was known as the double mother clause, where the great-grandchildren of women that married out could not receive Indian status, which was not the case for men. - Discriminatory policies and practices of the Indian Act, through the regulation of status and band membership, severed important kinship ties. When Indigenous women lost their status due to marrying non-status men, they and their children were separated from extended family networks and communities. - Often when Indigenous women divorced, they found themselves not only with familial support, but in financial hardship. As a result, many of these dispossessed women and children struggled with issues of poverty, unemployment, domestic violence, and lack of adequate housing. - The long-term consequences of the discriminatory practices of the Indian Act reverberate even today as generations of Indigenous children and families continue to struggle with poverty and issues of identity and belonging.

Indigenous Women’s Groups - The lack of representation of Indigenous women during the proposal of the White Paper in 1969 initiated an Indian sovereignty movement where Indigenous groups formed in order to address their rights. - Later in the 1970s, two Indigenous women’s groups formed – the Indian Rights for Indian Women and the Native Women’s Association of Canada – as a result of the lack of representation for women’s concerns and perspectives in government debates, politics, and legal reforms. - The Charlottetown Accord of 1992 addressed Aboriginal peoples’ inherent right to self- government, which led to constitutional negotiations with the government. ● It involved Indigenous organizations and leadership that were largely male- dominated. ● This process meant that Indigenous women’s voices had to be filtered through and approved by these male-dominated organizations that negotiated with the Crown. ● As a result, the Native Women’s Association of Canada challenged the Charlottetown process in order to push for the inclusion of women’s input ● This challenge demonstrated there was still, at this point in time, the need to incorporate Indigenous women in government debates. - Over the years, there have been efforts to restore Indigenous women to a place of honour with the inclusion of their voices, perspectives, and traditional roles in their communities. ● This process must begin with analyzing Indigenous feminism, how it emerged, and what makes it different from discourses of mainstream feminism. ● There have been efforts to decolonize and restore Indigenous women and two- spirited people to a place of respect and honour. Indigenous Feminism - While current mainstream feminism in Canada addresses the needs and concerns of many women, Indigenous women’s interests are often distinct from other women in North America - Mainstream feminism is generally described as having three distinct movements. ● The first movement is identified by the suffragette movement at the turn of the 1900s, where a group consisting of largely wealthy white women was focused on gaining the right to vote. ● The second wave of the early 1960s to the 1980s ushered in the women’s liberation movement and dealt with matters of family, sexuality, and work. ● Beginning in the 1990s and continuing to the present, a third wave of feminism illuminates the multifaceted experiences by women of all ages and races. Often known as contemporary feminism led by Generation Xers, this period focuses on issues that deal with gender, race, economic, and social injustices. - For non-Indigenous women, feminism began with a fight for equality and human rights against firmly established patriarchal structures. - Indigenous women came from tribal societies that were egalitarian in nature. As a

consequence, feminism is a return to their full participation and inclusion in decisions regarding land, politics, laws, and nationhood that Indigenous sovereignty and governance systems were built upon. - Feminism for Indigenous women began in 1492 when they resisted the imposition of European gender systems based on the heteropatriarchal views of the colonizer. - For Indigenous women, feminism must include the diversity of their cultural, social, and political experiences. - Indigenous feminism is a response to racial and gendered violence and oppression that Indigenous women, girls, and genderful people face. Indigenous feminism then is more than just a struggle for equality; it is the return to egalitarian principles based on systems of interrelatedness and accountability. - Today, Indigenous feminism must take into account Indigenous women’s perspectives, their histories, cultures, tribal societies, and values. - The establishment of the Native Women’s Association of Canada and the inclusion of women’s councils at the Métis National Council, the Assembly of First Nations and the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami demonstrates the success and work of these feminist efforts Conclusion - Although there has been an increase in efforts and changes over the decades for Indigenous women’s equality in Canada, there is still work to be done in the political, social, economic, and cultural realms. - Indigenous peoples’ traditions surrounding gender roles and sexuality are being remembered, reclaimed, and restored. - There are gatherings and organizations that create safe spaces for the acceptance and remembrance of teachings about third and fourth gender categories in Indigenous cultures. - These movements work toward a greater appreciation and understanding about the values of equality within Indigenous peoples’ gender roles and sexualities. - The well-known Cheyenne saying “a nation is not conquered until the hearts of its women are on the ground” acknowledges the importance of Indigenous women in the community. - Indigenous women today take up a diversity of roles as mothers, grandmothers, community leaders, university students, university professors, lawyers, entrepreneurs, writers, and filmmakers, and so much more. - These successful stories demonstrate the resiliency of Indigenous women and two- spirited people after a long history of oppression, racism, and gender discrimination. Module 10 Introduction - Inuit, Métis, and off-reserve First Nation individuals constitute the fast growing segment of the population in Canada. Today, over half of all Aboriginal people live in urban areas. - This module discusses Indigenous individuals’ and families’ movement into urban spaces over the last number of decades, how the relationship between Indigenous people and the

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urban environment has been shaped and continues to evolve. - There are prevalent ideas that most Indigenous people in Canada live on reserves or in rural areas; however, we can see from the census data that more than half of all Indigenous people in Canada live in cities or towns ● For example, 70,000 Indigenous people live in Winnipeg, which is the same as the entire Northwest Territories. - This module also touches on notions of what is deemed authentic Indigenous culture and how Indigenous people living in urban spaces are often thought of as disconnected from their land, culture, and tradition. - This module explores where these ideas come from and gives alternative perspectives on urban Indigenous identity, culture, and the growing presence and power of urban Indigenous populations. Section one: Urban Indigeneity What is Identity? - Cultural studies theorist Stuart Hall suggests thinking about identity as being the essence of who we are, as linked to an underlying way of being, shared cultural norms and history, and also what we may become as a people - This last point acknowledges that identity is somewhat fluid, changing and evolving while remaining grounded in core ways of being and common histories. As discussed in previously, Indigenous identities are often tied to place and the land - Part of the challenge with understanding urban Indigeneity is that Indigenous people living in cities are not always connected to a land base, but does that make them less Indigenous? Death of a Culture OR Engines of Cultural Power? - Urban spaces and Indigenous people can be regarded in two broad ways. 1. First, urban places are often thought of as neither safe nor comfortable spaces for Indigeneity to flourish, such that cities are where “Indigenous culture goes to die.” 2. Second, an alternative way to think about urban spaces is that they are what scholar Renya Ramirez calls Native “hubs” and what Métis scholar Chris Andersen refers to as “engines” of Indigenous cultural power

- In short, cities are spaces where Indigenous culture and society can and does flourish. - Previous modules covered a number of historical government policies, including the Indian Act, that intentionally forced, or at least encouraged, the migration of Indigenous individuals and families off of reserves and into urban centres - Government officials thought that removing Indigenous people from their traditional subsistence lifestyle and culture would make them more likely to assimilate into settler society - This approach is based on the notion that Indigenous culture and urban life are incommensurable or mutually exclusive, and that Indigenous culture simply cannot exist in an urban context. - However, there are ways in which Indigenous culture everywhere has been enriched by modern urban places, and the coming together of diverse Indigenous cultures has influenced urban Indigenous identity. The Unique Experiences of Indigenous in the City - Although most people are likely used to thinking about “real” Indigeneity as existing on reserves or in rural spaces more generally, urban Indigenous communities have a number of distinct characteristics that make urban life different from that of reserves and other rural areas. - Some of the research of Métis scholar Chris Andersen aids in identifying and discussing key elements of the complexities of the urban Indigenous experience Economic Marginalization - Urban Indigenous residents are likely to be poorer than their non-Indigenous neighbours ● This varies from city to city, but the trend is demonstrated in nationwide data. This economic marginalization, existence on the economics fringes of society, can contribute to other elements of urban life. - Indigenous urban residents tend to experience higher rates of unemployment, single parenthood, homelessness, domestic violence, and more ● While this is not completely different from the experiences of Indigenous people living on reserve, the urban context within which it occurs, in a majority of non- Indigenous residents, is different. ● On reserve, the lower socio-economic status of Indigenous peoples is equated to lack of opportunities and other reasons. ● However, Indigenous people in the city are just as likely to experience disproportionate economic and social outcomes, even though there is a perceived increase in economic opportunities that are enjoyed by non-Indigenous people within the city. Growing Professional and Middle Class - More recent research into the social and economic status of urban Indigenous people has shown that there is a growing professional and middle class - Data from the 2006 Aboriginal Peoples Survey and the 2006 Census indicate that about one-third of Aboriginal people were considered middle income earners or those with a

household income of between approximately forty and eighty thousand dollars. - While on the surface this seems promising, the same data indicates that Aboriginal people were more likely than non-Aboriginal people to be low-income earners and less likely to be high-income earners. ● Low-income earners are those earning less than $40,000, and high-income earners are those earning more than $80,000 - In addition, there are still significant income disparities between Aboriginal people and non-Aboriginal people. - A current estimate suggests that it would take more than sixty years for the gap to close Cultural Diversity - Urban Indigenous populations are highly diverse. Indigenous individuals and their families arrive to urban centres from many different types of Indigenous communities, whether from reserves, smaller towns, or other cities - Indigenous people who live in urban spaces have noted that they feel as much connection and attachment to other Indigenous people living in their city as they do to their home community or cultural group Legal Diversity - Urban Indigenous residents fall into a complex mix of status Indians, non-status Indians, Métis, Inuit, registered Indians including those who belong to Indian bands and those who do not, treaty Indians, non-treaty Indians, and numerous cultural groups that are the product of the effects of what is often called out-marriage - This intricate legal diversity creates real challenges, such as responsibilities of the federal government and other levels of jurisdiction, in terms of providing programs, services, and funding. Status Blindness - The notion of status blindness refers to the idea that in the context of urban Indigenous service delivery, all services are available to any Indigenous person regardless of their legal identity as status, non-status, Métis or otherwise. - Urban spaces result in a sort of melting pot of Indigenous cultural practice and traditions, and urban Indigenous organizations and institutions welcome all Indigenous residents to participate and share their unique cultural practice Urban Aboriginal Policy Ethos - Policy ethos refers to the general approach taken in the development of public policy. There has been much discussion about the policy vacuum in urban places around the delivery of programs and services - The federal government is generally responsible for providing funding for Indigenous programming, but this obligation largely concerns on-reserve First Nations programs. ● Federal dollars are also provided to provinces and municipalities for the delivery of a variety of services. ● There is a lack of funding and administration for Indigenous people living in cities and towns.

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- From a policy perspective, this was not something that the federal government expected, given their assumption that Indigenous people who moved to cities would not need specific programs and services unique from non-Indigenous residents. - However, it has become clear that Indigenous people require culturally relevant programs and services related to education, healthcare, and other social supports. - The establishment of the many urban Indigenous institutions is a testament to that need, but the funding and policy development is still trying to catch up Informal Networks - Informal networks with family and friends play a powerful role in the general quality of life for urban Indigenous residents ● For example, informal networks play a crucial role in preventing the move from “hidden” to “absolute” homelessness, especially for those moving from First Nations reserves into cities. ● Unlike on reserves where social networks might be comprised mostly of extended family, informal urban networks are more likely to consist of friends. - However, the presence of second- and even third-generation urban Indigenous residents, family, especially extended family, continues to play a role in meaningful social attachments for urban Indigenous people. - This is evidence of the continued connections between urban and non-urban locales. Attachment to Non-Urban Communities - Indigenous peoples migrate between cities and between the city and the reserve. ● Reasons for this are complex, but there are a number of push-pull factors. ● A continued connection to longstanding cultural communities is important to urban Indigenous residents’ well-being and overall sense of identity ● Such migrations can be interpreted in the context of attachments to land, as discussed previously. ● They can also be understood as part of a revitalization of political and economic ties to other places. - Surveys show that urban Indigenous residents maintain links to their home communities for a variety of reasons. These continued ties, though valuable for a number of reasons, have become strongly linked to more recent struggles over political representation. As such, Indigenous peoples are asking questions about who represents their people, home communities, and urban Indigenous institutions. Political Representation of Urban Indigenous People - A unified political voice for urban Indigenous residents does not exist, in part because of their diversity - Urban institutions also sometimes clash with more longstanding political organizations, such as the Assembly of First Nations, the Métis National Council, and the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami. Indigenous Women in Urban Indigenous Social Relations - Generally speaking, slightly more Indigenous women than men live in urban centres.

Specific policies contributed to the forceful or encouraged migration of Indigenous women in particular, including provisions in the Indian Act that devalued the traditional roles of Indigenous women and forced them out of their First Nations communities - Indigenous women have a disproportionate vulnerability to violence; however, there are some positive statistics as well - Indigenous women are more likely to be involved as decision-makers in the institutions of urban Indigenous community development, as compared to Indigenous men. ● It has been suggested that Indigenous women have been the main drivers behind community development work within the urban context, an improvement on the far lower rates of women’s political power on reserves Section Two: Impact of City Life Racism in Cities - Historically, Canadian government policies and actions have resulted in deep systemic institutional and personal racism against Indigenous people, such as the residential school system. - It is important to understand that there are differences between racism and prejudice, between institutional and personal racism, and between conscious and unconscious racism - Briefly, racism is often said to refer to the processes through which certain aspects of humanity’s physical and cultural differences are emphasized, elevated, and distinguished in ways that privilege certain groups while oppressing others. - Because of this structural element of racism, scholars suggest that individual acts should be understood as examples of prejudice, while the term racism should be reserved for more structural examples, such as court cases, legislation, and grade school textbooks. - Likewise, Canadians can often act in ways that reproduce racism without knowing they are doing so, which is unconscious racism. - Various forms of racism develop through the common social, educational, and institutional narratives of a society. - Most of the research on urban Indigenous people over the last number of decades has been focused on the exclusion of Indigenous people, where many Indigenous residents continue to live on the fringes of Canadian urban society at a much higher rate than other cultural groups - There is some evidence of a growing middle class of Indigenous urban residents; however, the underpinning racial prejudice, based in ideas that Indigenous people do not belong in urban spaces, continues to exist - The history of colonial policies in Canada over the last 150 years has resulted in the creation of deep and lasting stereotypes of Indigenous people in perception and treatment. - Many Indigenous people living in urban centres experience many forms of racism, often on a daily basis ● They may be denied applications while in search of a place to live or a job once they meet in person, or if they have a noticeable accent over the phone.

- Indigenous urban residents have reported that they have intentionally and frequently hidden their identity and monitored their appearance and behaviour to avoid the experience of racism in their daily lives. - Racism is also experienced through the ongoing sexual violence and degradation of Indigenous women and often by police and the judicial, health, and social services systems ● Examples of the sometimes-intense hostility displayed by police and the justice system towards both Indigenous men and women have become well known in some western cities. - One of the most notorious cases was the murder of Neil Stonechild and the Stonechild Inquiry into the so-called “Starlight Tours”, a practice by which police officers would transport Native men to the edge of the city, remove their jackets and shoes, and direct them to cool off or walk home in the middle of winter (Reber and Renaud 2006). ● Neil Stonechild’s frozen body was found on the outskirts of Saskatoon in November of 1990. ● He was last seen alive in police custody. ● After ten years with no resolve for his family about the circumstances of his death, three other young Indigenous men were found dead in the same area, and one Indigenous man, Darrel Night, managed to make it to safety from the freezing temperatures - Another example that has become symbolic of the violence against Indigenous people and the failure of the judicial system is the 1995 murder of Pamela George, a young Saulteaux woman. ● She was killed in Regina by two white male university students who were not charged with murder but a lesser sentence of manslaughter with the reasoning that, as a sex worker, Pamela’s high-risk lifestyle contributed to her death. ● This ruling symbolizes the deep systemic racism, marginalization, and justified violence against Indigenous women - These accounts are two glimpses into the hundreds of testimonies of racial violence that is a harsh reality of historical and modern Indigenous experience, an experience that has been formally documented in various studies, inquiries, and during the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples process in the 1990s. Cities are Where Indigenous Culture goes to Die - Is it true that cities are “where Indigenous culture goes to die” - Specific government policies were developed to force or encourage the migration of Indigenous people to cities with the intent to finalize their assimilation into Canadian society. - The expectation was that cities were the places where Indigenous people would go to assimilate and become civilized, and Indigenous culture would slowly fade under the growing dominance of mainstream Canadian society. ● There is some truth to this notion.

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- Traditional subsistence culture and connection to the land influenced the identity of many Indigenous groups, and urban environments could be disconnected from this Indigenous identity. ● For example, Dene and Inuit from the Northwest Territories, Nunatsiavut, Nunavik, and Nunavut often express their culture through their retained practices of hunting, fishing, trapping, whaling, and otherwise harvesting and preparing traditional foods. ● Being on the land is deeply connected to northern Indigenous identity, and northerners often report feeling alienated in urban settings. ● That being said, identity is somewhat fluid and is grounded in shared history and ways of being. - Indigenous peoples have embraced modernity, engaged with urban spaces and western institutions, and adapted cultural practices to honour Indigenous ways of being while acknowledging the realities of modern life Southern Inuit Communities - Many Inuit living in southern cities have come together to form social, health, and educational organizations that have resulted in the creation of southern Inuit communities within urban spaces. ● For example, there are over 735 Inuit who call Ottawa home. ● Inuit organizations based in Ottawa have become the main gateways for Inuit who come from the eastern Arctic for medical treatment, to seek higher education, and in search of alternative employment opportunities - Many Inuit maintain strong connections to their home communities, and extensive food sharing networks mean that Inuit living in the south frequently receive traditional northern foods like fish, muktuk or whale blubber, caribou and muskox meat from visiting relatives. - There are also strong language and culture programs in Ottawa along with the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK), the national Inuit organization that represents the four Inuit regions – Nunatsiavut (Labrador), Nunavik (northern Quebec), Nunavut, and the Inuvialuit Settlement Region in the Northwest Territories. ● The ITK is an advocacy group that speaks to Inuit interests across Canada Engines of Cultural Power - Urban environments have been unsuccessful at extinguishing Indigenous cultural practices and ways of being. Instead, in some ways urban centres have become engines of cultural power - Numerous institutions and organizations deliver services to the urban Indigenous population, such as the Inuit community in Ottawa. - Many other types of urban Indigenous organizations, grounded in Indigenous worldview and culture, represent and serve the diverse Aboriginal communities of Canada’s cities. - The Friendship Centre is one of the most well known and longstanding urban Indigenous organizations.

Friendship Centres - The concept of Friendship Centres began in 1951 as increased numbers of Aboriginal people were moving from reserves and other rural areas to urban spaces. ● Individuals pushed for the establishment of organizations to help address some of the needs expressed by First Nations, Métis, and Inuit communities. ● At first, Friendship Centres relied on volunteers and were funded by small grants, churches, and fundraising efforts ● Over time, the centres began to organize first into provincial and territorial associations, and eventually in 1972 the National Association of Friendship Centres was established to represent Friendship Centres nationally. - Friendship Centres are often the place where many Indigenous residents will go first when moving to a new place. ● The centre can connect people to the local community, provide cultural support, and is a place to learn about how to access services that support employment and housing searches or perhaps local educational opportunities. ● Many Indigenous residents in cities report feeling just as connected to other Indigenous people living in urban spaces as they do to their home community, and the Friendship Centre is a hub of Indigenous culture - Friendship Centres and similar institutions play a central role in providing culturally based programs and services for urban Indigenous residents. ● Such programs often aim to bridge some of the gaps between Indigenous and non- Indigenous people in urban settings. ● The centres draw from multiple Indigenous worldviews and teachings representative of the Indigenous people who access their services. ● Indigenous residents may visit a Friendship Centre as they are looking for employment and training support, educational information, health services, and to connect with other community organizations - The National Association of Friendship Centres represents 118 individual centres and seven provincial or territorial associations across Canada. Neechi Commons - In 1990, Neechi Commons began as Neechi Foods, a grocery co-op in Winnipeg’s inner city. ● It is a worker co-op, and employees are co-op members. - Neechi is Winnipeg’s largest commercial employer of Aboriginal people, and they also provide quality foods and produce at reasonable prices, offer a subsidized fruit basket for kids, and purchase fish, berries and wild rice from Aboriginal producers. - Now in a newly renovated heritage building, Neechi has expanded its services and community profile to include a restaurant, catering, fruit and vegetable market, and arts store. ● “It is truly a community store, based around the principles of an Aboriginal owned and operated worker cooperative.”

- It works in partnership with the Local Investment Toward Employment and Social Purchasing Portal to encourage development and employment in the local community. - Nonetheless, Neechi Commons faces the challenges of competing with large grocery retailers. - Neechi Commons serves as a place of cultural power, reaching out to local artists, designers, musicians, and other community members by offering space for community projects. ● For example, Rebecca Belmore’s community based project called Trace, which is now part of the permanent collection at the Canadian Museum of Human Rights, is comprised of handmade clay beads. ● Belmore used a corner room in Neechi Commons as an accessible collective space for people to participate in making of the clay beads. ● Neechi Commons facilitated cultural power in the form of public engagement and activism by providing the time and space for community to participate. Section Three: Governance What is Governance? - Governance is generally understood to describe the social structures that determine how decisions are made and how individuals are represented in societal decision-making - For instance, with the governance model in Canada, individuals elect Members of Parliament representatives at the federal level, and decision making takes place in the House of Commons. - Indigenous worldviews are foundational in the development of Indigenous governance structures, including concepts of law and legal principles, which are different from European models - However, through pieces of legislation, including most notoriously the Indian Act, the Canadian government has imposed state governance practices upon Indigenous peoples. ● As a result, the current way that most First Nations, Métis, and Inuit communities govern their communities is based in a model that imitates the Canadian federal, provincial, and territorial governments. Governance of Urban Indigenous Communities - The governance of urban Indigenous communities has been challenging, as there is not a clear structure or idea of what level(s) of government (federal, provincial, or municipal) should be involved - There are a few ways that the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP) identified for improving urban Indigenous governance. 1. First, existing public institutions could change to accommodate urban Indigenous residents who want to be more involved in urban governance and decision- making. 2. Second, options based in Indigenous self-government would be considered, including the need to consider the objectives of Indigenous selfgovernment and how they might be achieved, given the diversity of urban Indigenous populations

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Changing Existing Institutions - Reforming existing governance structure to be more inclusive of Indigenous representation could help to close the policy gaps for urban Indigenous residents. - Some possibilities highlighted by RCAP for addressing issues at the municipal level include: 1. having Indigenous members for school boards, boards of health, hospital boards, police commissions, and other institutions whose work affects the lives of urban Indigenous people; 2. having permanent Indigenous affairs committees for municipal councils, school boards and other agencies, boards, and commissions; and 3. looking at co-managing urban initiatives, particularly in areas where federal, provincial or territorial legislation has recognized a role for Indigenous governments (Royal Commission of Aboriginal Peoples). Self-Government in an Urban Setting - Changing existing institutions alone will not address the complex challenges in urban Indigenous communities. - RCAP also outlines a model that would collectively represent diverse Indigenous communities in urban spaces, communities that would create themselves through voluntary association. - The urban community of interest model is discussed in detail in RCAP as a possible way forward in urban Indigenous governance that would work with existing levels of municipal, provincial/territorial, and federal governments. Urban Reserves - There are two types of urban reserves 1. those that already existed with urban centres having grown up around them, 2. those that have been newly created within the boundaries of cities - There are differences between these two types, and there are examples of both across Canada. - In some instances, reserves have been encroached upon by urban sprawl. ● For example, the Tsuut’ina Nation is located just southwest of Calgary. Because the city has grown over the decades, the reserve is now located at the city limits. - This urban growth has in some cases created conflict between expanding municipalities and First Nations. ● In the Calgary example, there was a long and somewhat contentious negotiation over the development of a ring road that needed to pass through the Tsuut’ina Nation. ● A final agreement was reached in 2013 between the Government of Alberta and the Tsuut’ina Nation for the transfer of 428 hectares of reserve lands to allow for the construction of road and utility corridor ● The total cost for the land and compensation for the impacts of the road was $340.7 million dollars, and the province has until 2022 to build the road under

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these terms. ● This deal was not necessarily supported by all band members, even though there was a referendum on the decision. ● Each band member will receive approximately $60,000 as a portion of the sale. ● These payouts to individual band members are viewed by many non-Indigenous Calgarians as just another hand out, playing into the stereotyping of Indigenous people as living on government support. Newly Created Urban Reserves - The mid-1980s saw the creation of a number of new urban reserves in Canada. The primary driver behind this was federal policy (developed in 1987 and consolidated in 19 1991) – the Additions to Reserves Policy, and in western Canada, the Treaty Land Entitlement process. - The Additions to Reserves Policy is intended to fulfill existing legal obligations including Treaty Land Entitlements and negotiated settlements. - The Treaty Land Entitlement process acknowledges that the land allocations that were agreed to in treaty have not always been honoured - Some First Nations that have established land entitlement through this process have sought out urban locations for their land holdings for economic development purposes - This process allows First Nations to buy parcels of land with federal funding based on treaty entitlement, but this does not automatically make it a reserve. ● In order for the land to become a reserve, the First Nation and the federal government have to go through a process that can take many years, including environmental assessments prior to being able to officially designate the land parcel as a reserve. ● Usually the creation of an urban reserve is not for groups of Indigenous urban residents. ● It is a territorial extension of an existing band’s parent reserve in a rural area. ❖ In Winnipeg, the Long Plain First Nation, located some 100 kilometres west of the city, now has a 1.4-hectare urban property with reserve status ❖ In this case, the urban reserve is an extension of the parent band, governed by the rural chief and council, providing an urban land base and often urban economic opportunities for its members. ❖ In Saskatoon, Muskeg Lake First Nation entered into a business relationship with the city through the creation of an urban reserve that contains a number of different business interests. ❖ By developing a relationship with municipal leaders in Saskatoon, Muskeg Lake First Nation was able to extend their economic potential to a large investment space, despite being located more than one hundred and thirty kilometers northwest of the city itself Conclusion: Spaces of Protest - Urban places have become hubs in the development of modern Indigenous culture,

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identity, and economic growth. - Urban Indigenous identity can be seen as distinct from other forms of Indigenous identity while remaining connected to foundational elements of cultural practice, history, and cultural norms grounded in Indigenous worldview - There are many Indigenous people in urban places that are connected through informal networks, such as extended family, urban-based Indigenous institutions, and social media networks. - These connections make communication and mobilization around social issues easier. Indigenous people are connected better than ever before, sharing common worldviews, common experiences of racism and marginalization, and many are highly motivated to stand up against their continued oppression. - The concentration in urban centres allows also for the reclaiming of certain areas in the city, making the Indigenous presence in the city more visible. - Urban spaces as hubs and engines of Indigenous cultural power have influenced the extent to which Indigenous people have become increasingly engaged in social movements and protesting in urban spaces. - There are countless examples from the last two decades of urban protest led by Indigenous community groups and individuals. Module 11 Introduction - This module begins by taking a theoretical approach to the notion of community and exploring what community means in relation to Indigenous peoples’ values. - Often the formation of a community is a natural progression that evolves and adapts to the needs of the people involved. It is based on a shared sense of unity amongst a group of people. - Amalgamating as a group can consist of multiple reasons that are valued to enact this collectivity - There are various kinds of communities with different functions. - Building a sense of community can take multiple forms that can be more figurative, social, or based on geography - For many Indigenous societies, there is a great emphasis on the value of community, the community’s relationships and the practice of reciprocity within it. - Relationships among the members of a community follow a practice of respect and may involve specific elements and rules on membership. ● For example, one cannot just choose to become a member of Montreal Lake Cree Nation, as there are membership guidelines one must adhere to. ● The practice of reciprocity requires members to give back to the community when they take something, or when they need some form of assistance - There are multiple ways in which to understand community. - Indigenous nations are peoples with complex political, cultural, spiritual, and social systems that were in place prior to European contact.

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- These rights, responsibilities, and freedoms are further recognized by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples - An Indigenous nation may see itself as a community, but there are many types of communities that are not nations in this respect. - Nations may be communities; however, mythic, temporary invented, and ongoing invented communities may not form nations. Section One: Community Mythic, Sited, Temporary Invented, and Ongoing Invented Communities - One way to look at the various kinds of communities can be divided into mythic, sited, temporary invented, and ongoing invented communities. ● There are also multiple levels of communities. ● As a result, the formation of any kind of community creates a sense of identity - A mythic community consists of a range of people who have shared values or experiences. ● For instance, an Indigenous global community includes Indigenous peoples across the globe that share commonalities and experiences based on their histories of colonialism ● This creates a sphere of commonality that comes from similar forms of oppression, dispossession of land, and fights for Indigenous rights ● However, the concern with this kind of community is that it creates a broad unifying category. ● This large grouping of a community can diminish the distinctions among members that erase or override other important aspects about a group of people. ● In other words, an Indigenous global community risks overgeneralizing Indigenous people based on this one common principle theme of unification. - A sited community is a group of people that already share a sense of unity either by location, by functioning under similar operations, or by thriving for a common goal. ● An example of a sited community united by location would be Nehiyawak from the Plains, or Inuit from the northern Tundra. ● For Indigenous societies that lived a mobile lifestyle, they were still connected to an area, which was known as their traditional territory ● An example of a sited community united by an operational function is the Native Studies Student Association at University of Alberta. ❖ This group represents students in Native Studies and builds a sense of community on campus. ● Finally, an example of a sited community united by a common goal would be people coming together for social or political activism. ● Each of these scenarios creates a community based on different ties of unity. - A temporary invented community creates a one-time feeling of unity, a group or organization that is considered operational ● It is formed based on a shortterm project

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- ongoing invented community, which is similar but remains functioning overtime. ● For example, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) created an ongoing invented community, bringing together residential school survivors, family members experiencing intergenerational trauma, and others indirectly impacted by Indian residential schools. ● These historical memories and experiences of intergenerational trauma from residential schools mobilized this ongoing effort to acknowledge, share and heal. ● Even though the last TRC event was held in 2014, the mandate to carry out the recommendations and initiatives given in the TRC report still remains - Community is based on a common unity, which brings together people of various and distinct backgrounds. - Communities form for multiple reasons and actions that provide a place of belonging and identity. ● Specific examples of Indigenous peoples coming together based on traditional structures, and contemporary formations as collective activisms, can provide a fuller understanding around the formation of communities. Formations of Communities - Indigenous peoples’ traditional formations of communities come in many shapes and forms. - They can be divided into cultural, tribal, clan, or even kinship relations communities - One way of understanding a community is based on the continuation of collective memories and histories that uphold their connection of unity. - Lesson One told the oral creation stories of Wisacejack and Sky Woman and how the practice of retelling stories over generations helps Indigenous cultural communities sustain a sense of unity over time. - Indigenous kinship systems are another form of community. Many Indigenous societies have blended families that integrate persons who are not necessarily an immediate or extended relative, giving this member access to what this family community has to offer. ● This allows everyone to benefit from a family community, which functions as treating one, or loving one, as their own kin ● Another example of this family community is seen in the Inuit kinship system where families lived together and relied on one another in order to survive in northern regions. ● Inuit families created their own communities where they depended on the networks of family by performing specific roles - Settler colonialism dismantled Inuit extended family kinship systems and replaced it with the nuclear family structure a system of heteropatriarchy and capitalism. ● Throughout the process of colonization there has been the pressure to adapt to such nuclear family units. Indigenous people’s kinship systems, such as Inuit families, are dynamic and complex and better fit the notion of a social community - These are a few examples of social communities that many Indigenous peoples may have

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in common. - There are cultural communities that share collective memories through the practice of oral tradition. - There are also other characteristics of communities that distinguish between Indigenous peoples, such as specific territories, tribes, and clans. - Examining more contemporary examples through Indigenous people’s collective action for social justice and environmental activism, one can begin to understand how and why social communities form. Influences Building Communities - The above examples of traditional social communities in Indigenous societies help with understanding community from an Indigenous perspective. - Contemporary examples of social and environmental activism illustrate some of the reasons in which social communities form. ● These upcoming examples show that individuals can share a common goal and purpose, building relations among a diverse group of people coming from different backgrounds - Many social justice and political activist movements form social communities that bring people together to fight for specific causes. - The many protests and marches for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and Two-Spirited Peoples (MMIW) have aligned many Indigenous and nonIndigenous people to push for social justice against gendered colonial violence. - Over the decades, marches and vigils held for MMIW have created a social movement - Participants who are currently involved and socially active hold a communal memory of the past and demand call to action for the present colonial violence. - This social issue has brought people inside and outside the Indigenous community together to commemorate the missing and murdered victims. - For environmental activism, a collective group is made up of people’s shared values, whether they’ve come together to protect the land or demand clean water ● Building of alliances within a group of people creates unity, because it involves being around likeminded individuals who share a common view about a certain cause. ● The Idle No More movement founded in 2012 is another example of collective engagement, as it is a large social community that has expanded beyond national boundaries and gained international support. ❖ Idle No more has brought people together from across the globe who share a common belief and goal to protect the land and Indigenous rights. ❖ This is an example of a figurative community, based on a collective support for the environment, through social media, protests, roadblocks, round dance flash mobs, and other events that took place this movement gained traction. - Many scholars have connected both social and environmental movements, how control

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over and violence against Indigenous women’s bodies and the land have been an ongoing colonial conquest. Societal Concerns - In 2014, there was a People’s Climate March that took place in New York City with thousands of people that formed solidarity to advocate for the protection of the environment and to stop climate change - This march, described as an Indigenous climate activism mobilized by Indigenous peoples from different parts of the world, created a figurative social community that united voice. ● It engaged this Indigenous global community that created a form of social community based on alliances with non-Indigenous peoples protesting for environmental protection. - Often social media outlets have been utilized to form a social community in these forms of activism, especially media campaigns for defending the land and work against climate change. - Social and environmental concerns motivate people to come together as a community. ● This form of activism is based on Indigenous collective memories that reflect experiences of colonial oppression. ● In some cases, this political activism, as a form of social community, involves the building of relations with Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples. - Although Idle No More began as an Indigenous social movement, it soon expanded to include non-Indigenous allies Section Two: Resistance Grassroots Resistance - Communities can come in the form of Indigenous resistance through grassroots movements. - A grassroots movement can be a community-driven effort aimed at bringing attention to social issues ● They begin at the local level with a few passionate volunteers, and sometimes they gain national or even international attention. - A grassroots resistance may involve following one’s own Indigenous legal orders and cultural approaches when dealing with political or social conflicts. ● For instance, in 2012 the Apache Corporation planned to install the Pacific Trails Pipeline on land that included a First Nations group’s unceded territories. ● Chief Toghestiy of the Wet’suwet’en intervened by offering an eagle feather to the crew leader of the surveyors, Can-Am Geomatics Company, telling them to leave ● This act of giving an eagle feather is a practice of the Wet’suwet’en law to peacefully warn trespassers. ● Chief Tohestiy was following Bi Kyi Wa’at’en, which is a specific Wet’suwet’en Inuk nu’ot’en (law) where it is the husband’s duty to protect his wife’s territory, as this is seen as her sovereign territory.

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● In general, efforts to stop pipelines from being developed on Indigenous peoples’ traditional lands have often involved in this type of grassroots resistance. - The five clans within the Wet’suwet’en nation are meant to manage and protect the lands in order to ensure that future generations will have a healthy and well-sustained environment. ● The Unist’ot’en Camp creates a resistance community that has the mandate to serve and watch over the lands of the Wet’suwet’en ● In 2012, they were able to block off the Apache Corporation from building the pipeline with the communication between Unist’ot’en and Wet’suwet’en. ● In the end, Unist’ot’en built an actual community right in the area of interest for pipeline companies as another tactic of prevention Oka Crisis - In 1990, an Indigenous grassroots movement took root in Quebec that quickly took centre stage on newscasts throughout the country and became known as the Oka Crisis - The Oka Crisis involved forceful and armed tensions among members of the Mohawk nation (Kanienkehaka, meaning people of the flint), the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP, Canada’s national police force enforcing federal law), and the Canadian army - The catalyst for the crisis was the announcement of a golf course development by the mayor of Oka, Quebec. - The plan included the expansion of a golf course and construction of a residential area on Mohawk reserve land and was approved without consultation or the consent of the Mohawk people - The site in question was a part of a longstanding land claim that encompassed a Mohawk burial site, which had been a controversial topic for decades. - In 1961, before the first nine holes of the original golf course were built, the Mohawk people had fought unsuccessfully to stop it - In 1989 when the expansion plan was first announced, it brought back bad memories for the Mohawk. - This spurred the Mohawk to set up a small protest camp in the spring of 1990 on an area of the property known as the Pines. - The group of protesters began to grow, and even though the Minister of the Environment and the Minister of Indian Affairs echoed the Mohawk’s concerns, construction was scheduled to begin - The Mohawk decided to launch a more vocal protest, as well as setting up a blockade on the access road to the property. - People took notice, because development was being threatened and costing people money. - Lines were drawn in the sand, people took sides, and suddenly a crisis was born that would result in major political repercussions. Oka Crisis Intensifies - As the Oka Crisis grew in intensity, the Mohawk were supported by members of two

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other reserves, the Kahnawake and Akwesasne - After two court injunctions failed to persuade the protesters to remove the blockade, police were called in. - On July 11, 1990, tear gas and concussion grenades were employed, and gunfire was exchanged - A police officer was killed, which compelled the police to retreat. - The resistance grew and became increasingly hostile when members of the nearby Kahnawake reserve blockaded the Mercier bridge - The blockade had two major impacts. 1. The first major impact was that access to Montreal was cut off from the southern suburbs, making it difficult to get around. 2. The second impact was that food trucks and basic supplies were not getting to the protesters. - Though the Mohawk had non-Indigenous supporters, tensions continued to grow from others who did not support them. - Many people blamed government and police for the trouble - Eventually through negotiations the Mercier bridge was reopened, but residents attempting to leave the reserve area were treated with hostility. Oka Crisis Conclusion - The Québec Minister of Native Affairs at the time, John Ciaccia, supported the Mohawk, but the Mayor of Oka did not heed his suggestions - Demonstrations took place across the country in support of the Mohawk, which had the upside being an increased awareness of the plight of Indigenous peoples with respect to land and treaty rights. - The end result of this conflict went in favour of the Mohawk, as the golf course expansion plans were cancelled, and the federal government agreed to buy the land and give it to the Mohawk - What makes this Indigenous protest fall under the lines of a grassroots movement was that it called upon the Mohawk clan mothers to intervene on the front lines of the protest. - This movement relied upon their traditional matriarchal system to mobilize and organize - The threat of construction on their traditional territory called on the Mohawk’s traditional practice of women taking care of the community. - The significance of the women elders’ participation is an act of fulfilling their responsibility as clan mothers who look after the entire community by making the decisions. - Other members of the Kahnawake and Akwesasne joined in on this protest, establishing this as a community of resistance - The local police were unable to dislodge the Mohawk because of the presence of the Mohawk Warrior Society. - The seriousness of the confrontation of Oka was intensified when the Canadian army deployed

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- What began as an act of resistance by the Mohawk became a nationwide story. This was about much more than a golf course. - Indigenous people had been repeatedly denied their land since first contact. ● Many of promises had been broken, and respect had not been given to the people to whom the land rightfully belonged. - One of the outcomes of the Oka Crisis was the sweeping Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, which conducted intensive research and reported in 1996 ● These examples of grassroots movements involve the practice of Indigenous peoples’ ways of dealing with conflicts and disputes. ● Each one shows how members of a specific tribal nation, clan, and neighbours of a surrounding traditional territory formed a community of resistance. It demonstrates the allegiance of Indigenous peoples to prevent the further dispossession of lands Idle No More - The Idle No More movement was born on November 10, 2012, by four women from Saskatchewan. - They were prompted to act because of the introduction of Bill C-45, which contained several troubling provisions - Jessica Gordon, Sheelah McLean, Sylvia McAdam, and Nina Wilson were fed up with existing within government-sanctioned structures that continued to restrict the sovereignty and rights of all Indigenous peoples, and they decided to take a stand. - They wanted Indigenous lands to be protected and knew that someone needed to step up, or soon there would be nothing left to save - Gordon, McLean, McAdam, and Wilson wanted to reframe the relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples. - They wanted to exert pressure on the government, raise awareness of inequalities across the country, and most importantly retain and strengthen their cultural values (Coates 2015). - The impact of colonization on Indigenous culture has been immeasurable. - Idle No More is as much a movement for social justice as for political equity. - The issues of Idle No More concerned amendments to three major pieces of legislation – the Indian Act; the Navigation Protection Act, and the Environmental Assessment Act Bill C-45 - At first glance, Bill C-45 would not appear to be overly controversial. - However, considering the implications of the specific amendments, there were major areas of concern that catapulted Idle No More into action - One area of concern was proposed changes to the Indian Act. - A proposed change to the guidelines around voting to lease designated reserve lands was very controversial. - This shift changed from a double majority rule, which means if there is not a majority of members at a first vote then a public notice needs to be posted in the community.

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- A vote by the people in attendance happens at the second meeting, and only a majority vote of those in attendance is needed. - Any unilateral amendments to the Indian Act, specifically these changes, without any consultation from Indigenous peoples would leave existing treaties and Indigenous rights in a vulnerable and perilous position. - Another proposed change was to the Navigation Protection Act ● Major pipeline and power line project advocates would no longer be required to show proof that their projects wouldn’t cause harm or destruction to a navigable waterway that it crosses, unless that waterway is on a list prepared by the transportation minister. ● Idle No More claims the change leaves 99.9% of lakes and rivers in Canada without necessary protection, exposing everyone to the risk of contamination of this precious resource. - Finally, there was a proposed amendment to the Environmental Assessment Act that would speed up the approval process for projects by significantly reducing the number of projects that would require environmental assessment ● Obviously all these changes had the potential to cause a great deal of impact on Indigenous lands and the environment - Year after year government changes to laws and policies reinforced the notion that Indigenous rights had no meaning or value. - Gordon, McLean, McAdam, and Wilson stood up and were heard. - They did not stand idly by and let others control the agenda. - As they stood, others stood with them, drawing national attention. - With a strong will, a grassroots social movement was created to draw attention to the plight of the Indigenous as well as the common threat to Canada’s natural wonders Section Three: Social Media Social Media Benefits - As much as anyone across the globe, Indigenous people participate and engage with online cyber technologies. - From blogs to Instagram to YouTube and other platforms, Indigenous people use social media to express themselves. - Social media platforms have become forums for Indigenous peoples to create virtual online identities, from a singular individual identity to online communities and large networking organizational identities. - Indigenous cyberspace activism has increased exponentially in the last ten years - Increasingly, Indigenous people turn to social media to raise awareness, advocate, and mobilize strategies for organizing and carrying out activist projects. - Extremely accessible, online social networking sites serve as a digital platform that enables users to participate in politics like never before - Digital technology and the social media phenomenon profoundly changed the implementation and execution of Indigenous political and sociocultural activism.

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- While conventional forms of activism, such as writing letters, sharing information about rallies and protests, word of mouth, and signing petitions by hand are still common, many events today are only promoted through social media. - Communication and transference of knowledge and information through Facebook groups, hashtags on Twitter, photographs on Instagram, and electronic petitions is unrivalled in agility and velocity - The cyberspace of digital media offers Indigenous political activism many advantages, including the organization of information to plan protests and events and mobilization and coordination of actions - These platforms further the opportunity for people to unite in solidarity and encourage more people to engage in political discourse. - Indigenous people are accessing the platform of online digital media to grow grassroots political movements from small, localized areas to large national and international movements. ● For example, due in part to the mobilizing proficiency of social media, Idle No More became one of the largest Indigenous mass movements ever recorded. ● The Idle No More movement began with four women in Saskatchewan and expanded globally. ● The lengthy, interactive discourse from the chronological feed from the hashtag #IdleNoMore on Twitter reveals the massive engagement of this media campaign. Examples like Idle No More reveal the potential for Indigenous people to capitalize on the use of social media platforms Shifting Focus - Indigenous peoples’ use of information communications technologies facilitates dialogues on nationhood and self-determination between Indigenous peoples across the nation. - Social media platforms have enabled Indigenous peoples to establish wide networks to communicate concerns or conflicts with governments, industries, and corporations. - The proliferation of digital technology allows Indigenous peoples the opportunity to resist and develop strategies to overcome oppressive social conditions. - For Indigenous peoples, social media has opened up new ways to socially interact with likeminded individuals locally and globally. - Indigenous peoples coordinate networks of communities to form unique bonds of resistance and social mobilization - Twitter is an example of internetworking in which academic scholars, political figures, activists, organizers, and Canadian citizens voice their thoughts and opinions. - These accounts can be seen across a wide variety of social issues. ● From accounts like Reconciliation Canada (@RecCon), who promote reconciliation between Indigenous people and all Canadians, to @hgCoASt, an informal group of people living on Haida Gwaii who are opposing the Supertanker traffic in BC waters, Twitter becomes an information superhighway.

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- Indigenous activists create decolonial social spaces online, and often these websites, listserves, blogs, and channels become major informational hubs for Indigenous-related politics and grassroots social media. Social Media Critics - The critics of social media have argued that there are risks involved in online Indigenous activism. - While social media has been extremely successful in promoting and advocating for Indigenous rights, it may have detrimental long term effects. - Some critics question the ways in which Indigenous people may view their activism and political engagement. - While there are multiple levels of political and social online activism, many people may participate only minimally by, for example, joining a Facebook group or sharing a link - While still involved, this engagement in online activism may give a false sense of accomplishment and have very little overall effect. - The long-term effects of low-level online engagement on social media may be seen if it becomes a replacement to offline participation. - For any permanent beneficial changes to take place for Indigenous peoples, activism in cyberspace and activism on the street are equally important. Neither should be a substitute for the other. - As well, the self-centered media production of a self-promoting individual could distort or undermine the collective message. - Previous lessons have explained that successful Indigenous communities have systems of accountability and responsibility embedded within the fabric of the community. - Indigenous systems of accountability are rarely practiced or are absent online, making online communities and forums challenging to moderate and control. - Comments on public forums can become battlegrounds for attacks on Indigenous people. - Anonymous commenters, often known as Internet trolls, spew inflammatory remarks meant to provoke arguments. - Trolls fill the comments section of online Indigenous themed stories with hateful and racist opinions and ignorance. ● For example, the vitriolic hatred and racism displayed in the comments became too difficult for CBC online to moderate, so in November 2015 they made the difficult decision to close all the comments sections for any stories related to Indigenous peoples - Mainstream media is controlled by the dominant society that produces colonial discourses and upholds power structures. Conclusion - Acting as a form of resistance, social media creates democratic engagement and conducts political participation allowing individuals to join in otherwise inaccessible conversations. - Today social media gives Indigenous activists the ability to create a space for meaningful

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discourse. - Social media also increases an individual’s agency and autonomy to participate in communication platforms. - The new social world of Indigenous resistance relies upon traditional and online forms of communication. - Cyberspace expands the ability to promote social activism and engage in political debates in order to mobilize the political will of Indigenous peoples. Module 12 Introduction - Indigenous art and culture is as varied, complex, rich, and vibrant as the people themselves. - This lesson celebrates that diversity and examines how Indigenous artists are challenging mainstream understandings of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit expressions in art. - As well, Indigenous expressions in pop culture and art have been spaces of de-colonial struggle and showcase the ways in which Indigenous people seek to indigenize, rename, and reclaim histories, cultures, and language. - The 1491s are a group of Indigenous comics who use sketch comedy to comment on social and political issues going on in Indian Country. ● Utilizing a wry wit and often dark satirical humour, these Native Americans have pushed the boundaries of stereotypical understandings of Indigenous culture. ● Their performances exaggerate and poke fun at the one dimensional, romanticized, and clichéd representations of Indigenous people. ● The 1491s are just one excellent example of how current Indigenous writers, artists, and performers are infusing their contemporary artistic visions into the popular mainstream. - Indigenous people continue to thrive and flourish despite colonial attempts to appropriate, assimilate, and colonize. From technology to theatre, this module demonstrates that Indigenous writers, artists, musicians, playwrights, and designers are taking back control of their images and stories—and doing so in powerful, transformative, and brilliant ways. Section One: Indigenous Art Trading Networks - Across North America, all Indigenous societies participated in various artistic traditions and created culturally distinct works of art. - The extensive trading networks allowed artists to explore new and innovative materials. - For thousands of years on North America, there were vast highways of trade and commerce that linked communities and enabled intertribal and intratribal trade ● For instance, these wellestablished networks of trade had routes carrying items like Coast Salish shell beads and dried fish from the coast into the prairies. - These trade networks also helped to maintain political alliances while fulfilling material needs and wants. ● Sometimes material wants included items for artistic endeavours.

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- Artists would utilize the materials and technologies as they became accessible and readily available. ● For example, trading systems allowed inland artists to access novel paint colours made from shells on the coast. ● In fact, dentalium shells from the Pacific Northwest and catlinite from Minnesota were traded widely all throughout the plains from more than 2000 years - Geographical location, breadth of trading networks, and the distinct worldviews of each nation influenced the type of art that flourished in any given area ● For example, settled communities like the Iroquoian or Northwest Coast peoples had clan systems that facilitated permanent villages. ● Unlike many of the Plains Indigenous peoples, these settled communities did not have housing structures that were easily transportable. ● The large longhouses were permanent structures and consequently could have substantial, permanently installed monumental sculptures and carvings. Art Forms Can Vary - Migratory cultures of the Nehiyawak and other Plains cultures, of course, did create art as well. - Often art was functional, small, and easily portable. - Items like personal adornments, clothing, weapons, and tools were decorated and infused with cultural meanings. ● For instance, decorated footwear in the form of moccasins or boots known as mukluks had very specific designs connected to each family or tribal group. ● The beadwork, quillwork, or embroidery could indicate the person’s spirit, their spiritual colours, the clan they belonged to, or any creatures that may have spiritual significance to them. - From the gorgeous bentwood cedar boxes of the Haida or the intricately woven baleen baskets of the Inupiat, Indigenous art could be as practically functional as they were spiritual and ceremonial Past is Always Present - Indigenous arts are a potent way of presenting, representing, and passing on knowledge. - With contemporary Indigenous art, we understand that the past is always present. - Indigenous artists today push the boundaries with new art practices and materials while still retaining and passing on cultural, spiritual, and historical knowledge. - The idea in Indigenous art, the past is always present, is exemplified in beadwork and beading. ● This art medium, still practiced today, has been around for thousands of years on North America in ● In fact, the oldest known bead from North America was found at an archaeological site at Tule Springs, Nevada. ● This bead, made of white caliche – a sedimentary rock made of hardened calcium carbonate – is believed to date back to 11,000 BCE

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- Although each Indigenous group created and decorated objects that were specific to their beliefs and customs, each had a great appreciation for beads. - While the majority of beads they used were made from the materials found locally, Indigenous people sought out imported stones, shells, and bone to make rare beads - In some tribes, fashioning and working with beads was a sacred task. - Long before glass beads arrived on North America, Indigenous peoples used both nonglass beads and porcupine quills, either plain or dyed. - Quill and beadwork were the primary way that many Indigenous peoples of the Plains, Woodlands, and West Coast decorated every day and special occasion items such as cradles, log carriers, chair seats, clothing, and boxes - Quillwork is especially time consuming and requires great patience and meticulousness. - Usually quills are collected from porcupines during the first months of the year. ● In fact, one porcupine can provide 30,000 to 40,000 quills. ● Porcupine quills are gathered in three ways – from ones that are killed for food, harvested by throwing a blanket on the back of a slow-moving porcupine, and today quills are sometimes harvested from porcupines killed on the road by vehicles. Quillwork - Examples of quillwork have been found from Newfoundland to the Yukon territory. - The earliest known quillwork was found in Alberta and dates back to the 6th century. The - Mi’kmaq were often referred to as the Porcupine People due to their skilled and intricate quillwork - Both traditions of quillwork and beadwork continue today in a multitude of creative and imaginative forms. - Yvonne Walker Keshick, an Odawa artist uses knowledge passed down through the generations to create porcupine quills and birch bark boxes. - Many people see Indigenous quill and beadwork as beautiful works of art, and yet not many people know that beadwork often functions as a means of communication. - Bead and quillwork often told a story and could be deciphered in the materials and designs used. - Generation to generation, parents and grandparents used beadwork to illustrate stories and pass on knowledge - This ongoing collective consists of the language and cultures of past generations and acts at the communal language and memory that is shared within each of our communities. Beadwork - Teri Greeves, like Yvonne Walker Keshick, is a contemporary artist who uses traditional materials but employs a contemporary flair - A Kiowa Indian raised on the Shoshone and Northern Arapaho Winder River Reservation in Wyoming, Teri began beading at eight years old. - With encouragement and support from her mother and the women in her family, Teri has taken beadwork to another level

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- Like many artists, she brings the past and the present together with her lived experiences. - While some artist’s work like Greeves and Walker Keshick relay critical cultural knowledge and ensure the continued vitality of traditional arts, artists like Nadia Myre demonstrate how some beadwork functions as a way to comment on current social realities and events - Myre is of Algonquin ancestry and a member of the Kitigan Zibi reserve in Maniwaki Quebec. ● Her work entitled Indian Act consists of all 56 pages of the Federal Government’s Indian Act mounted on stroud cloth and sewn over with red and white glass beads ● Each white bead is sewn on the stroud cloth and replaces one letter in one word, while the red beads replace the negative space. ● Over four years, between 1999 and 2002 the artist asked over 200 friends, family, colleagues, and even some strangers to help her bead over the Indian Act. ● Not only were others enlisted to help bead, but workshops, beading bees, and presentations were also organized. ● This shared community of work speaks to the realities of colonization and to the lasting effects of the Indian Act policies. ● Enlisting others to help and attaching workshops and presentations to the work speaks to the idea of the power of community. ● The practice of beading becomes politicized as an art form. - These beading and quill working artists continue to celebrate traditional forms of Indigenous art, but also manage to incorporate contemporary materials and ideas. Changes - Indigenous art has gone through incredible transformations since the arrival of settlers over 500 years ago. - Not only have Indigenous artists managed to maintain culturally distinct art forms and content, but Indigenous art has also become a site where Indigenous resistance flourishes. - In a realm where settler colonialism continues to insist on the appropriation and subsummation of Indigenous voices, more than ever Indigenous artists are utilizing a diversity of art media and materials to reinscribe an Indigenous presence in the arts. - Earlier modules discussed the effects of colonialism on many aspects of Indigenous peoples lives; this module shares some examples of the influences of colonialism on Indigenous art. - Since contact, art of Indigenous peoples has been coveted, appropriated, misrepresented, bought, sold, stolen, and even destroyed ● For instance, when the explorers, fur traders, and missionaries arrived on the West coast, they were captivated by the bold and abstract designs of the Indigenous Northwest coast people. ● Explorers like Captain Cook and Captain Alejandro Malaspina collected a plethora of items they deemed mysterious and exotic from the Northwest coast demonstrating a fixation that is still evident as these “curiosity” pieces continue to

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sit in museums and collections in Europe. ● Items like bentwood cedar boxes that were originally created for practical purposes to hold items such as food, instruments, tools, clothing, and ceremonial objects were coveted by missionaries, explorers, and travelers for their great aesthetic and exotic appeal - During the latter part of the 19th century the establishment of anthropological studies encouraged the classification and study of art objects of Indigenous peoples of North America. - Through the European lens of the colonizer, and with minimal understanding of the meanings, Indigenous art objects were then studied and classified out of their cultural contexts. - Classified and labelled, Indigenous art objects were seen as identifying markers for the “evolution and progress” of Indigenous peoples. - Indigenous art objects became identified and documented as “primitive” as opposed to European art, which was “civilized” (Phillips 2011). Truth and Agency - The government really wanted a positive image in that pavilion [Montreal’s world fair of Expo 67] and what they got was the truth. That’s what really shocked them the most. Expo 67 - Let’s begin our discussion about the reclamation of Indigenous art by Indigenous artists and curators and the struggles for recognition in the national and international art world with Expo 67 in Montreal. - Called the “Indians of Canada Pavilion” this project was to be a highlight of the 100-year anniversary of Canada’s confederation. - Organizers of this celebratory pavilion had expectations of the Indigenous artists to highlight the survival and resilience of Indigenous people thus affirming the great and beautiful cultural mosaic of a confederate Canada - However, just as Harold Cardinal’s 1969 response to the White Paper motivated and galvanized First Nations nationhood, the pavilion project was also a formative activist movement that vitalized and energized Indigenous artists and curators - The exterior of the pavilion relied upon the amalgamation and romanticization of the Plains and Northwest Coast tribes with the use of the iconic tipi for the architectural form and the familiar totem pole to draw in crowds - As well, the exterior also had artists such as Anishnaabek painters Norval Morrisseau, Carl Ray, and Francis Kagige composing large murals created from their cultural stories and spiritual beliefs. - These paintings supplied tourists with the expected and traditional understandings of Indigenous art as they were recognizable as distinctly Indian - Parts of the exterior, however, displayed more contemporary and abstract works of artists like Alex Janvier (Dene Suline and Saulteaux), Gerald Tailfeathers (Kainai), and Jean- Marie Gros-Louis (Huron/Wyandot) disrupting the more familiar and comfortable broad

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public visions of Indigenous art - These modernist abstract pieces of art would alert the world that Indigenous art had the will and the propensity to not only maintain traditional forms of artistry, but also to express indigeneity in a modern context - Expo 67 brought together a diversity of Indigenous artists, activists, and organizers from across Canada to compete on an international stage with contemporary Western art. - According to Tom Hill, Seneca artist and curator, the pavilion project, “brought a sense of the power of the artists, people all of a sudden realized what they could do, as artists, to communicate ideas” Tell It Like It Is - The Expo officials’ original intent to present history from a colonial perspective became irrelevant for two particular reasons. ● The process of a broad consultation across Canada revealed a desire for Indigenous peoples to present a different version history between Indigenous people and Canada. The artists, contracted for Indigenous art were steadfast in their visions for their art and ignored officials’ suggestions for more appropriate topics for art pieces - This break in the expected narrative of Indigenous art and culture shifted ideas of Indian art from being one that embodied a pure, bygone era to one that emphasized diversity and multi-tribalism. - Prior to the Indians of Canada Pavilion, nothing else compared to the project’s ability to bring Indigenous artists together from across the country from different generations. - While the pavilion did not entirely break away from the colonial patriarchal discourse of the Canadian government, it did act as a catalyst for further examination of the dominant discourse and as a precursor to groups such as the Professional Native Indian Artists Incorporated (PNIAI) and the Society of Canadian Artists of Native Ancestry (SCANA) Daphne Odjig - Before examining SCANA or PNIAI, it is vital begin by discussing the influence of artist Daphne Odjig (Odawa/Potawatomi). - Described as “Picasso’s grandmother” by Norval Morrisseau (cf. Barnes 2017), and known even more widely as the grandmother of Indigenous art, Daphne Odjig was born in 1919 and was originally from Wikwemikong (Manitoulin Island). - Odjig’s art experimented and pushed stylistic boundaries. - As one of Canada’s most celebrated Indigenous artists, her work exposed issues of colonization, the marginalization of Indigenous women and children, and other political issues. - In 1972, her work was exhibited at the Winnipeg Art Gallery. ● This was a significant turning point, as this was the first time any Indigenous artist had their work exhibited as art pieces in a gallery and not as relics in a museum. - Two years later in 1974 she opened the New Warehouse Gallery in Winnipeg, a place that

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supported emerging Indigenous artists PNIAI - Odjig and six others co-founded the Professional Native Indian Artists Incorporated (PNIAI) in the early 1970s and became incorporated on April 1, 1975. - This collaborative group organized and fought for inclusion of their work and other Indigenous artists’ work in mainstream Canada (Lavallee 2014a). - Original members also included Norval Morrisseau (Anishnaabe), Jackson Beardy (Cree), Alex Janvier (Dene Suline Saulteaux), Eddy Cobiness (Anishnaabe), Carl Ray (Cree), and Joe Sanchez (Pueblo descent, Spanish and German). - Although the artists don’t often refer to themselves as the Indian Group of Seven, they are often called and remembered as such. ● In fact, when Alex Janvier speaks of this group, he talks about the collective as the Group of Eight and includes Haida artist Bill Reid (Lavallee 2014a) - PNIAI formed during a particularly tumultuous time in history. - Then Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, Jean Chretien and the liberal government had just introduced its controversial Indian policy known as the White Paper. - Political leaders such as Harold Cardinal were not the only ones who took notice. - PNIAI fought against the idea that Indian art was merely handicrafts or artifacts to be put in museums ● They worked together to establish credibility and respect as artists who happened to be Indigenous, and together they faced colonial attitudes, racial barriers, and systemic racism. - Alex Janvier discloses that as a burgeoning artist in the 1950s, he was forced to obtain a “pass” or permit from the Indian agent to leave his reserve in Cold Lake to go to art school - Restrictive measures such as the inability to travel freely and to participate in the mainstream contemporary art world as equals compelled members of PNIAI to work together to have their voices heard and to challenge the oppressive social and political nature of Canada. SCANA - Previous modules in this course discussed residential schools and “Red Power”, highlighting that Indigenous peoples were impelled to control their own education and overall destiny. - In 1973, the Manitou Community College was created, which is an art college dedicated to supporting and educating Indian artists in the arts, literature, media, and history. - This was the first community college of its kind to be under Aboriginal control - The creation of SCANA in 1984 was the result of the actions and coalition of Indigenous artists from Expo 67. ● They were a collective of Indigenous artists advocating for more inclusion for Indigenous artists in contemporary western galleries museums. ● Their primary aim was to be included in the National Art Gallery

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- It was not until 1986 that Carl Beam became the first Indigenous artist to be included in the National Art Gallery’s permanent collection. - The first major solo exhibit in the National Gallery by an Indigenous artist was Norval Morrisseau. - SCANA’s successor, the Aboriginal Curatorial Collective, started in 2005, because there continued to be a lack of opportunities for publishing and curating - Galleries were just starting to work with Indigenous artists and not treating them like curators. - Again, Indigenous artists were reaching out, taking control, and having their voices heard. - No longer would they settle for one art show or a one-shot deal. There were many educated people who could curate, but they were not given the opportunities. - The Spirit Sings “The Spirit Sings: Artistic Traditions of Canada’s First Peoples” is an exhibit that can also described as a critical event for the transformation of museum patriarchal colonial policies and relationship with Indigenous people and their art and culture - The Calgary Winter Olympics of 1986 showcased an Indigenous exhibit housed within the Glenbow museum and sponsored largely by Shell Oil. - This exhibit, which showcased over 650 collected items of Indigenous art from other museums across the globe, caused a huge outcry amongst Indigenous peoples, including artists, scholars, and curators. - The controversy and subsequent boycott had two underpinnings. 1. The first challenged the universal practices of western museums of using ancestral remains and sacred and ceremonial objects as displays and spectacles 2. The second controversy involved the Lubicon Cree Nation and their quest to be recognized as the original inhabitants and caretakers of a traditional area of land in northern Alberta. - These traditional lands were never officially assigned or surveyed as reserves in the 1900s, and subsequently, without a land base, the Lubicon Cree were never federally recognized as a band. - Ironically, Shell Oil was not only the corporate sponsor of The Spirit Sings exhibit but was one of the oil companies benefitting from resource extraction on the traditional territory of the Lubicon Cree. - The exhibit provided the Lubicon leaders with the perfect venue to gain international attention. - Across Canada this pivotal event changed the approach of museums when working with Indigenous art and culture, including more consultation with Indigenous peoples. Reimaginings - There are instances of Indigenous artists working and interacting physically with the land. - One example is Marianne Nicolson (Dzawada’enuxw Tribe of the Kwakwaka’wakw First

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Nations). ● Her contemporary expressions of Kwakwaka’wakw concepts reimagines space and time, bringing the past to the present with powerful actions and imagery. ● In her “Cliff Painting” video, Nicolson’s decolonial actions are clearly seen on the dune coloured cliffs. - Accessible only by boat, Kingcome Inlet is a lesser principal fjord on the west coast near Vancouver; her traditional Kwakwaka’wakw community sits close, only a few kilometres up the river. - Nicolson revisioned and “re”-covered over a fading traditional design with fresh red ochre paint. ● This “re”-covering of the existing design is imprinted on the cliff in a type of a naturalization process. - Nicolson is reclaiming the territory, the space inhabited by her ancestors. - In this way, we see a reclamation and revitalization of traditional tribal art within a new contemporary context. Section Two: Aboriginal Voices Aboriginal Voices - Indigenous voices come from a diversity of backgrounds and are deeply complex, exploring issues related to personal histories, cultural conditions, and current and relevant cultural events. - Once such voice is Métis artist Christi Belcourt. Even though Belcourt’s images and artistry have won critical acclaim both in Canada and on an international stage, her fundamental belief system is immersed in humility, and her paintings demonstrate the interdependence we have as caretakers of the land. ● Most recently she has collaborated with House Valentino to create visually dynamic Indigenous-led haute couture, or high-end fashion. - Prior to this venture, in 2013 Belcourt began a seven-year-long collaborative venture with Indigenous and nonIndigenous people across Canada. - Like many other Indigenous women, Belcourt often thought about the missing and murdered Indigenous women. ● To honour these missing and murdered sisters, she reached out to fellow artists, friends, and relatives to help create an art installation that would become a memorial. ● Walking With Our Sisters (WWOS) memorial art installation was born and became a powerful medium with which to honour these women ● This collaborative art installation includes handmade moccasin vamps (usually the most decorated part, the tops of moccasins) exhibited together to commemorate and honour the missing and murdered Indigenous women of Canada. Relationships and Community - Prior to the first stop of WWOS in Edmonton, Alberta, in October 2013, Belcourt reached

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out in 2012 through the vast space of social media and word of mouth and called out for help in creating an installation that would honour the 600 or more Indigenous sisters, mothers, daughters, cousins, and granddaughters in Canada that have gone missing or have been murdered in the last twenty years. - Belcourt sent a call out to everyone across Canada, and anyone who was willing to create an original pair of vamps was invited to participate. - The vamps were to be sent to Belcourt for compilation and organization for the collaborative art installation. ● However, three months before the deadline of July 17, 2013, the goal of 600 pairs seemed unlikely. ● However, no one needed to worry about the numbers, because in true community spirit the promises to send in vamps were kept. ● People finished their vamps and sent them to Belcourt in Espanola, Saskatchewan. ● The final tally came to over 1818 pairs of moccasin vamps created by over 1400 individual artists. ● Participants from eight different countries and from many walks of life added to the collection. - Many communities across Canada have hosted what is often referred to as a “sacred bundle”, and there have been significant benefits amongst the hosting communities. - A sacred bundle is a collection of items of a sacred nature, a small or large package that carries with it stories and protocols in which to handle and care for it. - A sacred bundle often has knowledgeable caretakers who make sure it is handled in a respectful way. - As the bundle is being installed, the volunteers and organizers are swept into ceremony. - Throughout the organization and preparations, strong bonds and powerful relationships are formed with the volunteers and participants. - For WWOS, often volunteers stayed long after their shift was over, or they would inevitably come back to volunteer again. - This became a testament to the galvanization of community that had been built. - While the focus had not been to create a community within WWOS Edmonton exhibit, it happened all the same. - The main priorities of WWOS continues to be twofold – 1. to honour the missing and murdered Indigenous women and their families, and 2. to also maintain a safe and respectful place for families, friends, and participants to experience them. - Guests included many families and friends of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Sisters. - This exhibit demonstrates the power in Aboriginal voice to build relationships and communities on a grassroots level. Rebecca Belmore

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- Another exhibit that exemplifies Aboriginal voice is Rebecca Belmore’s “Trace” - Belmore is an artist living in Winnipeg and was Canada’s official representative in the 2005 Venice Biennale, an international contemporary art show. - She is an Anishnaabek woman who says that she is “living in the continuously colonial space of the Americas.” - The Canadian Museum of Human Rights (CMHR) located in Winnipeg commissioned Rebecca Belmore for a signature piece to be a permanent installation in the Museum. - For over a year, Belmore was set up in Neechi Commons, a community co-op for Indigenous peoples in Winnipeg, to create a gigantic blanket out of more than 10,000 clay beads shaped in part by members of the public, including schoolchildren and elders. - Interestingly, it is the excavation process for the museum itself that inspired the work. - During the excavation process over 400,000 Indigenous artifacts were recovered from the building site lands, as well as archeological evidence of 200 fire pits. - The museum, much like the rest of Winnipeg, is also located on the land full of clay historically called Red River Valley clay gumbo. - Belmore used the idea of fire and clay as the premise for her ceramic project. - Ironically, pottery shards were amongst the many artifacts found on the site. - She came up with the idea of community making the beads with the very land that they occupied. - Much like Belcourt, Belmore appealed to the public for help in creating this public piece. - The entire project used the natural clay gleaned from under Winnipeg streets and sidewalks. - Blanket Motif Responding to the historical significance of the territory, Belmore’s projects carried a statement reminding the public that the area has been a meeting place for thousands of years. - Centered between two great rivers, Winnipeggers participating in the project may then begin to acknowledge the long history of the original inhabitants of the land. - In the physical creation of the clay beads, participants perhaps thought about the history of the land, the people who were here originally, and their relationship with both. - Belmore has been quoted as saying she hopes that the act of creating the beads will involve “the act of pressing this clay, this land, and at the same time thinking about the future. The people who help create this blanket or sculpture will leave their trace for those [yet to come].” - Belmore invited anyone who wanted to participate to come to her temporary studio set up in Neechi Commons, to shape and create clay beads. - Perhaps related, but certainly not by the artist’s admission, the Canadian Museum of Human Rights had come under a great deal of criticism for refusing to use the word genocide in the title of an exhibit that critiqued the assimilative policies towards Indigenous peoples. - Belmore’s use of the blanket motif outlines the government’s genocidal actions of distributing smallpoxinfected blankets to Indigenous peoples in the 18th century.

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- This particular blanket represents Indigenous community action and political agency. - “What I’m hoping is that the work I’m making will somehow make sense further down the road. I’m hoping it will stand the test of time and somehow acknowledge the land the museum sits upon and the city itself… I think it’s really about some kind of acknowledgement of each other, and an acknowledgement that all of us have to live someplace, and that that is complicated in the world we live in today.” Community Art - While public art may work to intentionally distance the viewer, it may or may not indicate what it means or how it has come to be. - A viewer may not have any idea of the social comment it may or may not be making. - Community art such as with Belcourt and Belmore has helped change this. - These community works are often about breaking down the barriers between artists and the audience, often wanting and hoping to bring about social change. Modest Livelihood - Brian Jungen & Duane Linklater’s collaborative film “Modest Livelihood” is composed of two silent films and was first presented in 2013 ● It is a remarkable example of how artists’ voices can inspire and explore issues related to personal histories, cultural conditions, and current and relevant cultural events. - Born in Fort St. John, British Columbia in 1970, Brian Jungen is a mix of European and Dane-zaa and is from the Dane-zaa First Nation. Co-collaborator Duane Linklater is Omaskêko Cree, from Moose Cree First Nation in northern Ontario and is currently based in North Bay, Ontario. ● Both Linklater and Jungen are internationally and critically acclaimed artists, and are both winners of the Sobey Art Award for Canada’s most prominent contemporary artist under 40, Jungen in 2002 and Linklater in 2013. - These two silent films were exhibited simultaneously at the new Logan Centre for the Arts at the University of Chicago in 2013 under the title called Modest Livelihood. - The larger project – a 50-minute film in which we watch as the artists undertake two offseason hunts in the late 2011 on Dane-zaa territory – is derived from the smaller of the 20 two films named Lean. ● Lean was shot at the Banff Centre in 2012. ● The film shows both artists hunting off-season on Treaty 8 territory. ● Modest Livelihood offers no words from either hunter/artist during the entire film. ● There aren’t any artist statements that accompany the films, nor are there signs that would help audience members interpret the films. ● Some have critiqued the film for its silence and have said that any controversial arguments or political statements are not heard. ● Audiences quietly watch the films, both devoid of conversation and sound, and there are very few physical exchanges or gestures between the men. ● The action is too fragmented to pursue any kind of narrative.

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- So how does one interpret this film? What understanding can we derive from these pieces? ● Perhaps we can take clues from the title, Modest Livelihood. ● Jungen and Linklater’s Modest Livelihood is a twist on the infamous notion of a “moderate livelihood.” A Moderate Livelihood - In 1999, the Supreme Court of Canada upheld the rights of Mik’maq fisherman Donald Marshall Jr., affirming the treaty rights of First Nations to be able to provide for their families by hunting, fishing, gathering, and trading - It was also decided that First Nations could not pursue any more than a moderate livelihood. - Jungen and Linklater attempt to answer the question, “When living in extended family kinship systems, with values of accountability and sharing, where does moderation end and excess begin?” - There are powerful and compelling undertones in their documentary-like film. ● The title of Modest Livelihood relates to the legalese phrasing of “moderate livelihood” that undermined First Nations Treaty Rights to freely hunt, trap, and fish. Marshall could only sell enough to constitute a “moderate livelihood”, and this questionable term became precedent setting. ● It was a benchmark decision for resource management among First Nations. - As Jungen and Linklater hunt, kill, and butcher a young moose, the audience follows along. ● As they carve up the flesh and bone of the moose, we see a large compressor, cables, and oil pipelines in the background. ● This scene is a strong reminder of the resource extraction and development that continues on traditional territories often without the agreement of First Nations peoples. - [Hunting] “It’s a family thing,” Jungen says. “I think for most Indian folks, hunting is really just going hiking, but with rifles.” Connection to Land - What viewers of Modest Livelihood begin to see is an unmistakable connection to the land for each hunter. - The hunters travel the land in ease together within the assembled close and intimate scenes. - Viewers are alongside the hunters, always there, not participating but yet still observing. - The viewer and artist/hunter relationship actually progresses through to the end of the film as Jungen and Linklater begin to clean, skin and carve a moose. - As Jungen and Linklater are connected with the land, so too, are the viewers with the hunters. - We are suspended in sustained closeness, and, as such, witness the skill and respect needed for this venture.

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- We are so close to the animal as it is being dismembered and carved that our perspective is almost intimate. - As viewers travel and hunt with Jungen and Linklater, the film fosters a feeling of familiarity and connection. - It communicates the idea of how Indigenous communities are deeply connected with the land and demonstrates the interdependency that we all share with each other. - It appalls us that the West can … claim ownership of our ways of knowing, our imagery, the things we create and produce, and then simultaneously seek to deny us further opportunities to be creators of our own culture. - It angers us when practices linked to the last century, and the centuries before that, are still employed to deny the validity of Indigenous peoples’ claim to forms of cultural knowledge. Conclusion - Of course, Indigenous artists, curators, and the writers who speak about Indigenous art are speaking a new language formed with a new combination of text and visual references stemming from Indigenous territories. - We must create and develop an Indigenous language to speak about Indigenous art. - Essential elements of reciprocity, kinship, relational accountability, responsibility, connection to the spirit world through ceremony, mnemonic devices, memorialization of events, and understanding of protocols work to create a language of critique to transform and centre Indigenous concerns, worldviews, and perspectives. - Linda Tuhiwai Smith states, Franz Fanon's call for the indigenous intellectual and artist to create a new literature, to work in the cause of constructing a national culture after liberation still stands as a challenge.

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NS 201 3

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