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ah [Music]
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hey
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[Music]
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i am [Applause] [Music]
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[Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]
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hey [Music] [Applause] [Music]
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hey [Music]
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hey [Applause] [Music]
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hey [Music]
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[Music] hmm
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[Applause]
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thank you nathan hi everyone welcome to the art gallery
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of hamilton um welcome everyone who’s here with us in physical space uh i
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really appreciate you taking the time to come here and uh brave the viral stew that we have uh
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that seems to change every day um but doesn’t prevent us from connecting
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as human beings so i really appreciate you taking the time tonight and joining us for this amazing event
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uh it doesn’t mean that i like you more than our amazing attendees uh through
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zoom so i’d like to welcome everyone who’s joining us digitally tonight as well for
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speakers of truth and for making the time for
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these amazing conversations let me start by acknowledging that we are here at this gallery on the
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traditional territories of the erie the neutral the huron wendat the hauden nashoni and the mississaugas this is
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land that’s covered by the dish with one spoon wampum um agreement between the haudenosaunee and otishinabe nations
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an agreement that charges us to
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not only share the resources of this land but to share them consciously generously reverently
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and uh in deep partnership with those around us um we further acknowledge that this land
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is covered by the between the lakes purchase of 1792 between the crown and the mississaugas of the credit first
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nation um we read uh we give land acknowledgements
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at all of our public events here at the art gallery of of hamilton and uh
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it’s um something that we try not to do in a way that’s rote we we try to situate it in
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the events that are happening tonight obviously is uh an important piece of the gallery’s
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growing understanding of what it should be in a time of reconciliation as a public institution
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um one of the things that i think this gallery needs to be is a place for urgent
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uh sometimes difficult conversations and that we
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offer space for um indigenous voices a space that’s safe
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uh space that’s free from hate um i’m bringing this up because tonight’s
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event has already been marred by some online uh trolling and hatred we’ve had to bump up
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our security and involve the police just to just create a circumstance where we can deliver
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this talk which is to me it’s uh it’s shocking only in that
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uh we are trying to make space for conversation and for for uh to create a space where where
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people can speak honestly from their hearts which it’s amazing we live in an era
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where that gets that wrankles and angers people so much that
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it can make these these situations unsafe so um we’re gonna we’re going to have
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speakers uh truth as always it’s a it’s uh it’s it’s an unfolding conversation
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after which we invite people to offer questions or comments um we will feed uh
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and reflect comments uh that will come in online as well uh to
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make sure everyone can participate i just urge everyone um to
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maintain and honor the the space that we’re in treat it reverently and
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let’s make tonight absolutely a magical discussion
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we have four amazing speakers and thank you all for taking the time tonight to be with us
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i will let you all introduce yourself at further depth but
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furthest away is danielle wassenau alesnabeg she is a multi-disciplined
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artist she very recently published a chat book with the hamilton artist inc called bury my
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heart at king and james and she’s a self-described rabble-rouser
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which perhaps danielle will further define for us tonight
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uh beside her and who kicked off our amazing event is nathan
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and i’m going to try and say theron taxti
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mohawk a youth advisor educator activist uh who works with nawasa kendawas and
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teg um beside nathan is audrey davis hodneshone mohawk strong woman executive director
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of the hamilton region indian center and beside audrey is kenny kirkwood
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ally musician fulctivist which i will leave it to kenny to define
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fully and a juno juno award winner thank you all for participating tonight and i give the
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floor to you for speakers of truth perhaps
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[Applause]
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okay so we had a discussion about who was supposed to start i don’t think we ever got to
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[Laughter] that you never do yep i don’t know if
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i’m being heard here but i can start i’m audrey davis um as i was introduced i’m holding shoney
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from six nations turtle clan and i’m just here doing what i do
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um and that’s advocate for my people um and and be a voice that many of our
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people don’t have and haven’t had so so that’s what i think we’re all here doing is being that voice and
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and and getting truths out there about the our realities you know um
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regardless of what other people think our realities might be we know what our realities are and that’s what we’re here
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to speak to so that’s that’s why i’m here
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nathan young
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on the go so hello everyone i’m happy to be here my name is taron duck’s day but my
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english name is nathan don’t try the other one as torah tried um i come from the mohawk nation and i
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come from here in hamilton ontario born and raised i also
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identify as two-spirit non-binary and much like audrey here i
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stand here i sit here to advocate for the betterment of our people to be a voice for our people
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and but also to inspire all those young people out there that are watching us tonight
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hopefully my being here me being the youngest member on this panel no offense everybody
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[Music] but i hope to inspire those young those
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youth in our community indigenous non-indigenous lgbtq 2s
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all those young people yeah let me go hi thank you
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uh
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hamilton [Music]
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hi everyone my name is danielle i’m from a beautiful place called garden
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river ontario but i’ve been living in hamilton for the past 20 years or so of my life
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and you know i never thought i would fall in love with this think city but i have and
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here i am talking to you all about my experiences within the borders of this
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city i’m a mother and i’m a first generation survivor of
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residential schools so my mom attended shinwalk residential school so
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the the topic of conversation tonight is very close to my heart because
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it impacted me so deeply um [Music] and i love sharing space with people and
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having conversations with community members and getting to know the different perspectives that we all
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have to share about this very important topic because i think that what we have in common is that we
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all have to live here and you know when tor was talking about our wampum belts like
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our ancestors had the brilliance within them to know that these devices would inform the way that we should have
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relationships with each other and i think that you know the tools are already there we just have to remember how to use them so looking forward to
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the conversation
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i’m humbled and honored to be here i’m a musician since many lifetimes maybe but certainly for
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most of this lifetime i’ve already had a keen here and i love languages and i grew up in i’m
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from toronto since i was 10 but before that i spent my formative
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years in zambia central africa living with the nyanja people and the bambas
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people so most of my friends lived in villages i went to a rural public school and that really gave me a different
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perspective on what i gather most of my canadian friends who haven’t traveled as much or grew up
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in formative years have in terms of perspectives and understandings of the balance of power
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the balance of energy the dominance of of english thought of english uh culture of french
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belgian the dominance that that competitive aspect that greed aspect of colonialism
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that that goes throughout it’s part of my lived experience so to sum it up i usually tell people i’m not the kind of
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white guy you might fear that i am but uh that’s enough for my introduction
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so i come from all over the world i say i come from zambia i come from toronto i was born in harlem in
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1966 so when my parents were studying there so real diverse experience and i’m here
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as an ally today honored to be asked because now that i’ve made friends in the community and have
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some families that that consider me an uncle to their child to their children you know and um
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i see that my friends are hurting and i see that the ongoing the genocide is ongoing and the oppression is ongoing
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and as an educator i see that in our education systems we’re still doing a really bad job of telling canadians the
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truth of really what’s what the reality is and also as a dreamer artist
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visionary i see so much hope in what could be possible for all our children to be able to to see uh things in
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without fighting without without growing up with hate which is the the the that
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tension that’s around us tonight as people are out there hating it’s taught you know we can’t forget that so my i
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work to teach all the children generations and pick up languages as as well as i can
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that’s me using my gifts but we all got to do what we got to do but it’s really worth it i’ll speak more
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later about the benefits of being an ally now i’m not going to talk so much
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all right let’s let’s get to this um [Music] let’s get to this so let’s get down and
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dirty so i think for me one of one of the the main starting points for me around
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this conversation was uh when the graves of the 215
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children were found um [Music] i felt sick to my stomach
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and i immediately was like what to do how
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do we achieve justice and i think when tor um
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mentioned that i was a self-described apple rouser i think what i mean by that is that i’m not the kind of person that
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goes with the flow because that’s the way the flow is going because i’m a mother i have like a responsibility to disrupt the systems
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that have violently eradicated violently tried to eradicate my people
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because we’re still here and and i want to make that really clear and i think the people at the table here know that we’re still here and we’re not going
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anywhere and you know i think the thing about being a rabble rouser is that
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i’m also a creative person so i think one of the main things for me is
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understanding how destruction can also be a part of a creative process right even when we’re painting
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or we’re writing right it’s almost like when the words are being
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on the paper or when we’re thinking about them or when we’re painting that even the materials that we’re using are coming about from the
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um scattering of materials right so the destruction of some really yeah you
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get really down to it yeah absolutely and you know so that that
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space between destruction and creation i think is one of uh that we should explore more
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because i think it’s really obvious that what has been happening lately doesn’t work so who’s going to be brave enough to
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think about ways that will work and you know i don’t know i feel like we’re a great group to say
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that yeah we’re a couple of those uh see that and
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uh acknowledge that there’s something wrong and we understand like
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the system as it was built sure it helps some but the people it really ought to be
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helping it doesn’t help yeah and i’ve worked in non-for-profit social services for my indigenous
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brothers and sisters for a number of years now and and i also am a mother and
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that’s what’s always kept me in the work because it’s it ain’t easy you know trying to
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trying to move things forward for our people in an oppressive society although
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canadians like to deny it that there isn’t you know it’s not that way that is the
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reality of it and it goes right up it’s very systemic right so when the when the kids were
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um first um when when their burial sites were their
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unmarked graves were discovered they’re not discovered located recovered recovered yeah i never know even myself
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their proper term because we knew they were there we’ve always known they were there you know and when and when it came
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out it was like i i got mad you know that was my first emotion was
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anger because it’s like see we we’ve told you they’re there now you can’t deny it
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um and and this ongoing struggle that we have to have our voices heard
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and tell them that there are still many oppressive things going on and you know it takes one person at a time
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to make the changes you know and and if we can get those voices those those people at city council
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to hear our voices you know in regards to the monuments and and the other memorials the statues
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you know uh last last year it was last year right london yeah it was our first rally and that was
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a unity rally because it was it was the mayor state and well i
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shouldn’t say anything like that because we’ll get called out on it but it was stated that that we weren’t united as
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indigenous people we didn’t have one voice our voice wasn’t being heard in regards these
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memorials and how they impacted us telling us that they didn’t impact us they needed to hear more so we show the
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rally was to show them that we were reunited and then our allies came along
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and and and they hurt us because our allies took down that statue you know and that only
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empowered us more you know not that we were weak we’re far from weak
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we’re still here after everything that’s been tried to eliminate us um
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but but i guess like it again it’s one person at a time and
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when you hear about the haters it’s like it’s still going on you know and and we’re gonna fight till our dying day and
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probably our children will too our next generations will too to fight for for
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equality and equity and and recognition that that we are equal and that our
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culture does matter you know i don’t have my language i love hearing my brother’s sister sitting here news and
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language i don’t have it i’ll never have it but but i’m gonna fight my ass off to
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make sure that the next generations do have it
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and you know and you know like flooring politics aside here and i’m
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kind of challenging everyone in this room and everyone watching here today let’s throw the politics aside
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um how hard is it just to be a human being you look back at our languages when we
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call ourselves the honoshone or the anishinabe or the nehio or whether in
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turtle island our people your people come from or even if you’re not from turtle island
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if you’re from europe if you’re from asia wherever you come from somewhere in your language
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in our case we are what we call ourselves always refers back to the people
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when we say you call ourselves honor we’re people of the long house when we call ourselves a nishinabe we are the
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people when you call ourselves we are the people it always comes back to that the people the people the people
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how hard is it just to be a human being and have some compassion
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and that’s not just a sacred teaching coming from our line of
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the world that’s something all across the world that’s in religions all across the world
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so why is it hard to look at someone who’s different than you and tell them you’re not good enough you
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need to be like me i just want everyone to think about that
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because who why is it anyone’s job to tell me what i am is not good enough
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thanks nathan i mean i think it’s important that we do talk about the politics of the
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situation in the sense of politics being the study of power
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and who has power and who does not have power and the role that residential schools have played in these systems it’s a
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systemic inequity that was built and facilitated by the creation of these schools
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and these schools were created explicitly for the purposes of removing indigenous peoples from the land so that
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the canadian government can get access to the landed resources and that is a political strategy and i
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think that by acknowledging that it is indeed a political strategy we’re understanding how to take our power back
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and that’s through our languages and through connecting to the land and by remembering our kinship systems
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our clan governance systems and i think that that’s exactly what canada doesn’t want and when we talk
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about a monument like sir john a macdonald’s statue that used to be in gore park
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that’s a symbol of colonialism and it’s the symbolism
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that provides legitimacy to the canadian government so by removing this statue
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the people are are saying that we are also taking back our power to see what is and what is not
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in the streets of this city when we do these things we’re reclaiming our power
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and i think what happened at gore park when our allies took that statue down like i remember we were at the unity
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rally and i was so impressed because there were so many people and i was so so happy and i remember lyndon inviting me and i was i brought my daughter with
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me and my daughter’s like wow there’s so many people and i was like i know right and like we’re kind of amazed because it
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was like also during covet and the pandemic but everyone was safe and but we had to leave early because i had
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to bring her to work and then so um we were down by center mall
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at this pancake place it was just me and her and then i got a phone call
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someone’s like look look and they sent me a video of it coming down and i cried at this restaurant i
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cried because i was just like it’s down
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it’s it’s down and i didn’t have to facilitate this process i didn’t have to be there pulling on the
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ropes and then it was at that moment that i felt so so grateful for the solidarity
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of the people in this city to recognize that that was what we needed you know we talk about petitions we talk about like
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you know delegating to city council and things like that but what we have to recognize
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is that we have the power and that lives in our heartbeat and when
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nathan was singing earlier like the drama is representative of creator’s heartbeat
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and when we hear it i think everybody in this room was probably like struck by how powerful it was and your voice is
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just so amazing you know like the acoustics in this room and everything was just like this is you know my spirit is like
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reveling in the joy of this sound and we’re brought here today all together because
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of the removal of that statue and like that the aesthetic of that statue was not
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nice anyway so we can all agree that it was not the best looking statue in the world so you know at least there’s that
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right yeah and we we had planned i was you
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know working with lyndon and um jordan and part of the plan was we were all going to walk down to the statue and
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and turn our backs on it as symbolism that it wasn’t you know that we were still strong and we were
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going to stand up and and when i got there and and it was like oh what’s that banner what
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did they put up there and then next thing i know it’s like being pulled down i was like yeah and i went live on
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facebook it was like look at this it was awesome it was really an awesome
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experience and i do still um appreciate our allies you know for
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for that i i was there there both days the unity rally and the day that it came down uh
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both days i was in my traditional tire as well my regalia so i also knew in
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that aspect i couldn’t get myself directly involved because immediately i’m
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the way i’m dressed i’m immediately going to be a target and it hurts having to know that though
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it hurts having to know that still in this day in hamilton ontario canada that i can’t just be an indigenous person
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walking down the street in my regalia and i’ve done it before too like when we
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used to host the powwow at gage park i used to live nearby i would get dressed at home and walk
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over in in regalia and i knew i was taking a risk doing that because
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that is putting a target on my back and but when that statue came down like it
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was that rush of relief and even even to this day every time i walk by it because
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i’m downtown pretty often it’s just that rush of relief like i don’t have
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that individual staring me down each time i’m walking by because everyone in the room needs to remember too like
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like yes canada is in a lot of ways a great country but
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it’s for us indigenous people unfortunately there’s always that added notion that
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this whole territory was stolen out from underneath us
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new brunswick ontario manitoba saskatchewan
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all these wonderful places and they’re all beautiful places and our territory is the most
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precious gift that creator could have given to us and that’s why we still fight because
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first of all it’s still in our teachings we’re taught of very young to continue the seven jared narrations
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going seven generations back everything that they did was to ensure that us today have all these things
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available to us right that drum this wonderful that we we’re drinking today
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and now it’s our job to ensure that our great great great great great
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grandchildren i didn’t count has access to this nibby to this drum to
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the land out there everything in creation and we’re taught that through our thanksgiving address
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we’re taught that through our giving of our sema or tobacco like everything
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revolves about that giving of thanks and how grateful we are as indigenous peoples
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yeah and i look forward to the day when all canadians recognize and know that there are
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sovereign nations within this country every first nation territory is a
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sovereign nation uh there are agreements treaty agreements are legal binding contracts
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between the canadian government and the first nations uh territories
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uh peoples so so i look forward to the day when people see this and recognize us and realize
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that that we belong here just as much as you
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belong here and we understand our roles and responsibilities to the land to each
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other to our previous generations and to our future generations and that uh hopefully
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more people will take up their responsibilities as people not not
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necessarily indigenous because we all have roles and responsibilities as people to care for and take care of the
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land and we have obligations to those treaties and i look forward to the day like i said it won’t be in this
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generation i know it won’t be um it probably won’t be in the next generations where people all know what their treaty obligations are and and
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uphold them and then we’ll all live in peace and harmony until then we’re going to continue to fight and we’re going to
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continue to talk about these monuments that that cause harm the things that cause harm and and i spoke this too
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to a third politician was that uh you know if the statues need to come down those
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memorials need to go away because if it causes harm to one person it’s our
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responsibility to stop that harm and we know that it causes harm to more than one person
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it causes harm to me that that people won’t acknowledge that that
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the tainted history of canada and what it tried to do to to my people
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you know and and what what the ongoing implications are all those policies
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and and the systems that that still continue to promote that
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oppression you know so so we got to keep fighting and we got to keep you know
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gain more allies to to recognize that that those things are
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harmful because if there was something out there hurting you hurting your children you would take action and
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that’s what we’re doing uh jimmy glitch thanks i feel like i want to just chip in for a bit about
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my own journey as an ally as a canadian was realizing i was raised to be proud to be a canadian and our
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the reputation we had in the world was a certain thing and over the last decade and more since i’ve gotten to know more
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of the deeper truths that um you know we’ve got to be more than canadian and and it’s a real there’s so
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much i always uh when people ask me about why i was interested why i had this curiosity for learning first of all
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i recognized that was a privilege that i had because i had my mother was a teacher
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it was a safe place for me at home i had a soft place to land so that gave me a privilege of being able to explore in
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the world and ask questions and and so forth and i recognize that not everyone has that privilege
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but i would often say early on that learning about medicine wheel changed my life
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one of the teachers at a school in toronto in that community said to me well what’s your background and you i said i was scottish and he said so you
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have clans we have clans let’s start there so we’ll look at the celtic
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start to research that and of course it’s so long ago that those people were you know
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genocided against i don’t know how to say that right but the uh our language was lost
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um you know or or tried to be tried to be taken out and um
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but we have medicine wheels too there’s a celtic medicine wheel right and so there’s all these connections when i was
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a child in zambia they have a folk in the oral language talking about the counsel of the animals
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and i come here to listen to anishinabe elders and they talk about the counsel of the animals that talk about how the
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humans have lost their way and so if on the opposite side if i reason that on opposite sides of the planet you have
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this common oral tradition on completely separate continents what does that mean
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what what you know what is it in asia is there in that direction what is it in pre-european you know europe
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um that that continental shelf what are the uh what do we have in common there’s
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so much beauty on this earth it’s such a miraculous place they come in they listen to teachings and do ceremony the
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first time you smell that sage smudge it’s not for everybody we all have different relationships with plants but
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we’re all meant to have a relationship to the earth it comes through the plants and the central teachings are simple the
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ancestors say take care of the water take care of the air take care of the land share with those who don’t have
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enough they have a sophisticated and beautiful system of reciprocity of
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making amends of even traditional enemies like the anishinabe the nashoni being territorial enemies
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they still had ways of of getting of getting back right and
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every time i’ve asked people about that when i started to go to six nations they’re like yeah we got over that too we had a common enemy against us right
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but just one thing i want to acknowledge as whether native or non-native we’re all raised pretty much in a colonial system
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that teaches our minds to think a certain way in a competitive way in a pyramidal way in a in a piscean way of
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win and lose dichotomy good and bad white or black which rich or poor and
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that that’s it’s not sustainable i just don’t think that’s a sustainable paradigm for humanity on earth at this
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time so medicine will change my life chi miguet for those teachings as ancestors and and keep on doing that i’ll support
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however however i can because i know my celtic ancestors had many of the same teachings i know the druid path has two
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one is that nature is everything and the second that use your gifts to help others and that’s
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what they teach their children to have a successful life and it’s oral tradition so simple i stand with you thanks
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kenny it’s kind of crazy just like it’s funny how different things are around the world yet everything kind of
34:22
you know stays the same isn’t it just everyone has their own uh
34:28
way of looking at the world and doesn’t mean anyone’s right or wrong about it just your unique way
34:36
and that’s your that’s the path that’s always how the path goes even amongst our own communities there’s
34:42
so many differences like even in our our community of six nations like i mean mohawks and oneidas were similar
34:50
but there’s differences right and that’s what makes us what’s up
34:57
okay well when when nathan when you were
35:03
talking about compassion um [Music] it reminded me of something
35:09
you know when we talk about colonialism that happened in canada i think part of the thing that we have
35:14
to recognize is that colonialism happened to people in europe first and that absolutely you know
35:22
i have immense pity for non-native people because you’re so far separated from
35:29
your original teachings that now what is socially acceptable is
35:36
violence whether it’s structural or in your face that it’s normalized
35:42
you know and and so far disconnected from community that individualism is celebrated you know and that goes
35:49
against everything that we’re taught as indigenous peoples is that we rely on each other we rely on the land and the
35:55
water and it’s not us that um it’s not the land and the water that
36:01
needs us it’s us that needs the land in the water you know and it’s these understandings that you know even
36:08
looking at my kids curriculum as they study because they brought me home something
36:14
so they brought me home something i teach my kids at home because i know that they’re not going to receive a proper education at school so i teach my
36:21
kids at home and they brought home something that was like mom look what this says they’re like it
36:27
says the native women stayed home and cooked and the native men went out and hunted like what is this and like they
36:33
were questioning it right and it made me feel so happy as a parent to to be able to you know give my kids
36:40
those critical skills but at the same time not let it taint their outlook on life because my kids still know that there’s
36:47
love in this world but they find it through our ceremonies and they find it through our language and those are
36:53
things that i’ve had to take on the responsibility of doing because i know that the canadian system is not going to
36:59
provide that for my kids the canadian system is going to give my kids shame they’re going to teach them shame
37:05
about who they are they’re going to teach them that you know we’re not good enough
37:10
and that we have to assimilate into this culture of colonial capitalism to succeed right but what is success
37:17
you know and i think that success for me was when i seen the style i seen a photo
37:23
of the statue afterwards um on the ground the nose was off which was brilliant whoever did that
37:29
thank you um but the nose was off but to me what was beautiful about this was that there was
37:36
cedar and tobacco all over it and that this statue went down but it went down in a beautiful way that
37:42
honored our connection to spirit and that we were offering this statue as a way to say this time is over for us
37:49
here and we’re reclaiming our power you know and i think it was so beautiful like i
37:55
wasn’t there but like i’m getting chills actually so i wasn’t there but whoever did that
38:00
did it from love you know and i think that’s the thing that a lot of people don’t understand is how can we still have so much love in
38:07
our hearts after how much violence we’ve endured and i don’t know i certainly don’t teach
38:13
our teachings exactly teaching our songs yeah our family our family
38:18
our songs our stories um our experiences i mean just touching on like what you
38:24
were saying about them it’s not about us as the individual it’s about our community yeah we still have that spark of
38:30
individuality but it’s not built to support
38:36
just our individuality it’s built to support our community as a whole like
38:41
when i go out and sing i’m not just singing for myself i’m singing like even
38:46
just here and today tonight opening us up like i wasn’t just singing for myself here i was singing for everyone in
38:52
attendance we’re even just everyone sitting in front of us here you guys are in circle with us
38:58
if you really think about it and already that’s a sacred indigenous way of being
39:05
none of us it’s okay uh none of us are above one another i’m not above danielle
39:11
uh danielle’s not above me and goes for everyone else at the table we all bring
39:16
a unique set of skills to the table and we acknowledge each other’s weaknesses
39:23
but we don’t point out the finger towards that we help each other with our weaknesses
39:29
and we teach each other to strengthen our weaknesses that’s what community is really about
39:36
yeah it’s recognizing that you know we all do have weaknesses and we all do have strengths and skills and
39:42
um but recognizing that we’re here for each other you’re not put on this earth for
39:48
yourself to service yourself you’re here for that’s what roles and responsibilities you don’t have roles
39:53
and responsibilities to yourself you have them to others you know and and to take that seriously and recognize
40:00
um that we’re here for a limited time and and we have to carry
40:06
carry on those principles um that that are taught to us
40:12
again like how how did we how are we still here and how are we still here in the way we are and and i do believe it
40:19
is because of our communities our families you know many of us i was raised urban
40:25
but every summer i was back on the reserve with my family you know and and
40:30
they they’re the ones who would build me up again to come back out you know back out into mainstream each year
40:37
and and be able to endure because that’s what it was and when i
40:43
was a child going to school walking down the street you know
40:49
i’m obviously mohawk from six asians like i’m it’s plain i’m dark
40:56
and it’s clear that i’m that i’m indigenous and and i i did grow up with a lot of racism and discrimination and i
41:03
did go through times of anger and and where things would impact me you know um
41:10
and like like it’s not it’s not that actual stone thing itself
41:16
there that impacts me it’s the message that that those things still be in there are
41:22
people still wanting them there is is send into to me and my people you know
41:29
that we don’t matter that our feelings what happened to us doesn’t matter but it still happens
41:34
you know and and i’m at a space where it’s like you know it doesn’t
41:40
impact me personally that way i know who i am i know you know i’m quite comfortable and quite proud to be
41:46
indigenous but i’m thinking about those kids who don’t have that
41:53
space to go to to get rejuvenated to to get acknowledged for being who they are
41:59
being proud of who they are you know and to be beat down and then to have a society
42:05
that continues to want to do that to them that’s that’s
42:10
you know that’s the experience that i don’t want to happen anymore you know i want it to stop and the way that stops
42:17
is when society says it’s not acceptable it’s not acceptable to put on pedestals
42:24
those not only those people but those practices and those policies the indian
42:30
act and everything that come along with that that put indigenous people in the space where we have to be
42:38
on the battle lines right put us put us in residential schools exterminated the buffalo for our
42:45
brothers and sisters out on the plains that statue being up there was a constant reminder
42:52
of that and of everything that was taken from us
42:58
and now that we’re trying to reclaim those things you don’t need to agree with us
43:05
by any means but i believe i’m right in saying that we have a right to those things to have those
43:12
things back and to reclaim our spaces this we may have signed treaties but this
43:17
land still theoretically belongs to us we’re still here
43:26
i think when i realized that children once i’d uh saw that the history of indigenous
43:33
peoples on turtle island made made sense to me and the science behind how
43:38
sustainability was managed for 10 000 years is it’s it’s incredible and the the um
43:46
the uh the understanding after showing up as an ally after learning first studying and
43:52
learning and then sharing and then realizing what the progressive steps are that were available to me
43:58
you know to show up at rallies to show up at ceremony to listen at the grandmothers to understand how politics
44:04
works it’s really powerful it’s really life-changing and i found personally there’s so many rewards to that i’ve
44:11
it’s changed my life in a good way and i see the ways because i think about community because i grew up where i grew
44:17
up where music and community and and was all in an oral tradition uh it’s it’s really exciting to me when
44:24
i think about the potential of what canada can do what canadians can learn how we can connect and build
44:30
relationships even using just the english language through um through understanding
44:38
the words like reciprocity like um reconciliation like relationship and
44:44
humility and those are things that have given me such a relief in my own personal life from from the away from
44:51
the mental stress of the way that i was living my life thinking i have to scramble up this ladder so i can
44:56
scramble to this ladder and what happens if i’m 50 and i get a heart attack halfway up that letter
45:01
that ladder or are these colleagues trying to backstab me or you know all of it and property like okay i can own land
45:08
so how much how much do i need you know reminding of that old art film from the 70s i don’t know if you guys
45:15
watched it in the uh i’m a gen x but we watch this film about a per uh it’s the fable of a
45:20
a man who’s told that he can have as much land as he can walk around in a day and he’s standing at the top of this
45:26
hill this mountain and he tries to walk the countryside and at first he thinks well i’ve just got a little family and
45:32
i’ll just need like 10 acres and i’ll just do this and i’ll come back by lunchtime i’ll be back and i’ll have a little picnic and of course as he starts
45:38
out on his journey he he sees the next valley and the next ridge and he keeps walking he thinks oh i got all day i can
45:44
make it around that whole river valley and then come back and i’ll have i’ll be rich for generations and all he’s
45:50
thinking about his own seven generations but at the end of it he doesn’t make it back to the starting point and he loses
45:56
everything because he has a heart attack so if anyone can like add in the socials
46:02
like i’d love to remember the name of that video but it’s um yeah it’s it’s just the the rat race is
46:08
not worth it the the our systems teach us to to look at each other as competitors nathan when you spoke about
46:14
the lateral violence i’ve seen it within my friends in the community but i know it reminds me of my experience as a gay
46:19
man in the 80s how we had to band together to fight against hiv aids
46:25
the fear of that the isolation from society that the institutions were not giving us the uh the empowerment or the
46:32
funding or the attention that we needed and um you know it’s just uh
46:38
it’s uh we said to ourselves then we felt very insular well we need to do this all ourselves we can’t trust anyone we don’t
46:44
need our allies and as we learned we do we because we’re all related
46:51
it’s not so it’s not it doesn’t have to be so difficult so much futile energy wasted on on
46:57
division on conflict thanks yeah um as as you’re sharing kenny um
47:05
i was thinking about something that my i mean i was listening what you were saying but i was also thinking about um
47:13
i was i was also thinking about so so something about covet actually is that
47:19
um during the time that the pandemic is happening my language teacher opened up an online learning opportunity
47:27
so every day at 11 a.m we gather together and we learn the language online over zoom
47:32
so so i mean within negative and positive situations there’s a nature will find a way to make a
47:39
balance right so anyway what i learned was um
47:45
somebody in the class asked and i think that this is poignant because we’re in our art gallery but um they were like um
47:51
isidore how do you say art in our language and then he was like um
47:57
[Music] he said something that described um painting and then he said something that
48:02
described writing and and then those person is like so so like
48:08
but how do you say artist and then is it i remember this i’m going to remember this for the rest of my life but he has like looked up and he’s like
48:15
there’s no word for art in our language um because the way that we lived was artful
48:21
right so so particularly within the grammar of the language you might see the word dipway win
48:28
and that would translate to the art of truth and i think that’s what we’re doing today
48:34
is that we’re talking about the artistic merit of truth and that within that artistic merit we
48:40
have the ability to undo the harm that’s been done within this country if we look at it through a creative
48:46
process because we can see the harm that’s been done and then when we recognize that then we
48:51
can start to create new ways forward and you know particularly when i think about
48:58
the harm that canada has done it’s also done harm to canadians
49:03
you know particularly like everyone i think the constitution is great you
49:09
know the excellent we have rights right
49:14
but i’d like to challenge everybody in this room to think about what would happen if this constitution was made up of our
49:20
responsibilities right because we’re all so concerned about what our rights are but what are our responsibilities
49:26
and i think that what happened with our allies in gore park
49:31
when they took down that statue was that they weren’t thinking about their rights that day they were thinking
49:37
about their responsibility as people in this country whose government has done act of harm to
49:43
our people and their responsibility in that time was to remove this symbol of hate because that’s what it is
49:51
we have to be honest about what’s happening here when we look at sir john a macdonald and and the active role that
49:56
he played in the demise of my people’s kinship systems and languages and cultures and ceremonies so
50:04
you know we have a lot of work to do and i think that we can do it in a creative way
50:10
and that is full of energy you know when we talk about creating with each other
50:15
and the way that creation even happened that it was from a loving place
50:21
you know i think that fear and hatred is one way to drain energy for sure but you know if we’re able to gather
50:26
together and laugh about stuff and you know think about you know what are we going to write
50:32
about or like how are we going to create something beautiful and even earlier we were talking about like
50:37
powwows two-spirit powwow you know and this is really new to our communities right is like this is the idea of the two square power i’m really hyped
50:43
because it means that our symbology is coming back in an unfettered and beautiful way
50:50
and that’s winning and i think that’s something we have to remember and say to ourselves over and over again is that we will win
50:55
period we will win period yeah i mean i think we can all win together
51:02
too like when the the closing point of earlier was that when i realized that the science was right and your history
51:08
was sustainable that you weren’t just standing up for your own kids you’re standing up for my kids too standing up for everyone’s kids and
51:14
children could see the logic of that i saw that every child matters day last year i was so encouraged that so many i
51:20
saw so many more canadians in toronto of all nations wearing orange shirts and bringing their children and
51:27
that’s a key part of the educational thing is we need to teach the kids to love the earth and model kind
51:33
adult mature conflict resolution so that they can see how that works instead of
51:38
going around raging wasting energy pulling down this stat you’re pulling down this one it’s not your guy’s job as
51:44
isaac murdoch says canadians have to fix canada you guys like you have your language in your land that
51:50
needs that you have your own work to do so but i really again encourage canadians to keep learning and and and
51:56
listen and step up because there’s so we could all be really all our kids could really
52:02
succeed i gotta say i really love my nationalities brothers and sisters for the seven grandfather’s
52:08
teachings it is the most transparent clear um
52:15
concise message of how people should treat each other and how they should act it is culture
52:22
in seven teachings right you know humility you know imagine if the canadian
52:29
government and leadership practiced humility we’d be a lot further ahead but but yeah
52:34
i just wanted to say that and uh i’ll give somebody else that connected me to another thing can i just jump in
52:40
is that the um that humility teaching reminds me of another teaching which i often hear
52:45
which is um to be uh not there’s no experts
52:51
in what in india in in i know anyway from uh nashoni uh educators i’ve heard
52:57
from and memes on poke facebook as well the idea that you’re not an expert
53:03
is opposing way of thinking from the colonial view of education and the idea that uh even a child can be a teacher
53:10
even animals are teachers for us in fact that’s who guide us on our on the governance anishinaabe
53:17
government’s system clan system so um yeah the uh
53:23
i’ll leave it at that last i’m gonna jump i’m gonna jump in on that because you made a good point there ken um because like i work in a school and so
53:31
i’m responsible for a whole slew of a number of kids who are all going through different
53:38
walks of life and who all bring a lot of different things to the table including traumas and including uh some painful
53:45
memories and stories but i i’ve really come to lately to notice
53:51
that each time i work with a new individual like like you just said there’s no such thing as experts i’ve
53:56
been saying that a lot recently actually too it’s funny that you bring that up but
54:02
every new student i work with i find that i’m learning something new from them not just sometimes it’s about them
54:08
but sometimes it’s about the experience of what we’re doing that relationship
54:14
of what we’re trying to achieve we’re trying to achieve this student being successful in this
54:22
institution that was not designed for them but yet we’re still introducing them to their ways
54:28
which is not a very easy thing to do and in some circles it’s looked down on even
54:34
let’s not sugarcoat it because it’s hard as i say to walk into with yeah your
54:41
feet in both canoes with the anishinaabe language many oral languages around the world are more
54:47
verb based and talk about the action of what you’re doing mohawk’s the same and so with the with the idea of memorial
54:53
what i’ve learned to do also as an ally is when i see an issue going on in colonial worlds that uh
54:59
you know for example canadians may be struggling with hey i’ve always liked that statue why are these people trying to pull it down it feels violent to them
55:06
but they don’t have the education the background the history to know what’s going on right so
55:12
the uh that teaching of like um from uh the
55:18
about humility and about not being an expert or not being a gatekeeper when i think about the statue i think
55:24
this is an external representation of something that a society a generation has been taught to look up to and it’s
55:29
an external relationship it’s an ideological relationship whereas the more i hang out
55:35
with anishinaabemowin language mohawk language guyakono kyuuga language
55:42
the in within the language is the tells you the actions of relationships of internal relationships
55:48
you know grandmothers say well you drink the water you know you know i’ll go uh uh
55:54
we’re thanking the water we’re thanking that relationship to ourselves the spirit as adam peltier says the there’s
56:01
water has a spirit she was taught that by her grandmother and i’m sure that teaching is 10 000 years old and i’m
56:06
sure my celtic ancestors you know have have that same that same ability what if the i mean it
56:14
by my extension all of our ancestors everyone who’s ever lived every creature who’s ever lived is in the spirit
56:20
there’s our spirits are in the water and you die and you’re buried you go into the groundwater or you’re cremated you
56:26
go up into the but you’re back in the water system and we live on a w where water beings on a water planet isn’t
56:32
that memorial enough if we take the ancestral teachings of protect the water for the next seventh generation and of
56:38
every canadian resolve to do that and say you know what i did love that statue but it’s down i’m not going to waste my
56:43
energy like blogging online in protest and being angry and living living an angry life because that’s the essential
56:51
that’s what keeps bringing me back to being an ally because you go to ceremony you hear a grandmother say love kindness
56:57
you know sharing humility so the idea of uh we don’t have to waste our energy on being gatekeepers on being memorializing
57:05
ourself mike a longhouse friend she said you know we’re taught we’re not supposed to leave anything behind so i remember
57:11
like when you go hiking and they say just take pictures that’s kind of how i tell my
57:17
primary classes when i’m talking to children about ways of decolonizing one’s mind and re-indigenizing your
57:24
sense of awareness of the earth is is to like is to teach them that gratitude
57:29
right which is also similar to what i learned from the eastern philosophies when i studied karate chi gong
57:35
there’s there’s it’s common to many parts of the world so yeah let’s do it
57:40
you know keep keep connecting in a relationship for the kids
57:46
yeah and i gotta say i appreciate kenny and all our other allies who take it upon themselves to learn and understand
57:52
the world from our perspectives you know we’ve had to learn to like i said walking foot in each canoe you know it’s
58:00
like how do we be who we are with our values and principles and walk in a
58:05
society that operates counter to that you know but we’ve learned to do that
58:11
and we’ve learned to do that by observing and understanding what it is expected of us in this culture right and
58:17
also balancing our own principles and values with that in making sure that we stay on the right path
58:24
well on on the flip side as a non-indigenous person if you want
58:29
to take up your responsibility you know you want to tie to the trc you know because that’s the actual
58:36
term for for trying to make amends right um in my mind it’s like yeah
58:43
it uh to me it’s the government’s acknowledgement in a sense that they
58:49
take some responsibility for what’s up yeah obviously they’re not taking full responsibility because those statutes are still up and different symbols are
58:56
but but taking responsibility for taking up that work yourself just like
59:02
kenny has and many others to educate yourself you know we go out here and we speak our voices we speak our words
59:09
and we advocate and and we continue the fight for our people
59:14
um but honestly you get tired i get tired
59:20
i’ve educated of talking about the impacts of colonization you know um
59:27
um i know i have a purpose in life and i don’t think that’s all of it i got other
59:32
stuff i got to do where do you draw the line exactly exactly it’s it there comes a way you
59:39
got to pick up that you got to pick up that torch and run with it and educate yourself under you know educate you don’t have to
59:46
embrace indigenous culture you don’t have to embrace our principles but you have to
59:52
be open enough to realize that we do have history you know and it’s in there was history
59:59
there’s there’s such terms as pre-contact you know where our ideal world was
1:00:06
you know but what we’ve learned you know and and you know
1:00:11
there’s you have a responsibility you know as people as a person to a
1:00:17
person put aside the color put aside you know whatever those cultural
1:00:23
beliefs difference religious beliefs are that doesn’t matter we’re all people and
1:00:30
we all have a responsibility to each other and to respect each other and to honor each other
1:00:35
to do that it’s on non-indigenous people to educate themselves about
1:00:40
why why they need to hear our voices about these things that cause harm and
1:00:47
take action or at least not stand in the way of moving those agendas forward that we
1:00:54
need to move forward i think the critical thing is the environment right now that’s why this thing has the
1:00:59
medicine wheel was so timely in my life was always been a kid who was raised to be thinking about the environment from
1:01:04
parents who were pioneers small town ontario people they taught me the value of
1:01:10
getting knowing how food gets to the table of of of farming and having a relationship to the earth so that i
1:01:16
is why i fight for it now but as we all know that crisis is is is critical right now for our
1:01:22
children so again yeah it’s true whether or not you are i was good at languages so i get into the language of it if
1:01:28
you’re good at sports or warrior you know learn learn learn the ways we’re supposed to be learning from each other
1:01:33
that’s what treaties are saying right but but we need to yeah we need to be able to move forward with that
1:01:40
i really wish i could spout off every single thought that’s been on my mind for the last 20 minutes but we’re just
1:01:46
simply just not gonna have enough time here oh i’ve been listening i’ve been
1:01:52
listening because it’s it’s actually been like jumping off of what all of you have been saying but like uh one of you had said
1:01:59
like um uh we’ve done the work of learning to live
1:02:05
in a colonial world and we’ve suffered for it but we’re
1:02:11
surviving through it we’re living through it and for some of us we are thriving through it
1:02:17
what about the other side though what about all of you what if you tried to learn
1:02:23
about our side of things look at the world from our point of view
1:02:29
right um sorry i was in ceremony one time and
1:02:35
so this one time i was in ceremony beautiful segway
1:02:41
um and i was talking to one of my aunties actually and we were talking about jt
1:02:47
justin trudeau and i was like you know what i was like i bet you if you put him out to fast for
1:02:52
four days and four nights he might actually change the way that he like operates you know and then this andy
1:02:58
just laughed real hard i was like who’s gonna go get him and then
1:03:03
but yeah i mean i think that if road trip road trip ottawa yeah i mean and
1:03:09
like the thing about ceremony i think is that we have to know why we do it right and then we’ve lost that connection so
1:03:15
you know i think the idea behind that whole suggestion was that maybe if we share how we learn to love life
1:03:20
that a person like justin trudeau can also learn that and when i say that i’m like there’s a
1:03:26
part of me that’s like no you can never learn but i think that that’s my own learning journey as well too right is is
1:03:33
extending that compassion to non-native people um and you know it’s not to say that every non-native
1:03:38
person has caused harm to our people because that’s not true but i think that part of my unlearning process is that i
1:03:45
don’t have to feel defensive around everybody you know but my socialization and my upbringing is my has meant that
1:03:51
sometimes i don’t feel safe around you know certain like like
1:03:56
non-native around white people okay so but but like that’s not to say that
1:04:04
it’s you know hashtag like not all white people are not whatever but i think that what i’m really trying to get at here is
1:04:10
that someone mentioned earlier like we’re all spirits in a body you know and that and
1:04:17
that we all have a purpose here and that my
1:04:22
part of my understanding and my learning is that um you know that there’s more
1:04:28
there’s more to what’s happening here than what we can see like we’re anishinaabe people like we’re
1:04:34
living in a time of prophecy you know and some people say it’s like the end of the
1:04:39
seventh fire we’re starting up the the beginning of the eighth fire and and in our language we have a word
1:04:46
um ashkamatazig and it’s the people that are bringing the new life and and when these people
1:04:52
start to come that it’s symbolic that this time is coming that things are going to change
1:04:58
right and it’s these people these new people you know and i and i truly believe it’s the young people it’s the
1:05:04
two-spirit people it’s the neuro-diverse people that these are the people who are bringing a new way of life back and then
1:05:10
when we see these people and we uphold them and then we start to let go of the old way of thinking like what you were
1:05:15
saying kenny about this piscean sort of because i think you’re referring to like the age of aquarius yeah yeah aquarius
1:05:21
is supposed to come in it’s supposed to be dawning now right exactly so so we have to embrace this you know and like
1:05:28
really like engage with possibility you know and i think that’s part of the reason that people who are upset about
1:05:33
the statute coming down is because they lack engagement with possibility and i feel pity for those people so
1:05:41
i’m quoting our uh honorable justice marie sinclair here
1:05:47
but education is the key and
1:05:53
in our circles we start them young just like in your circles we you start
1:05:58
them young and it always comes down to that like how how are we educating
1:06:05
are we doing are we hitting the right things uh what needs to be improved on what needs to be um
1:06:10
[Music] looked at again and thought about re-thought about
1:06:16
like is this causing more harm that it’s causing good and like as kenny said i’m no expert
1:06:23
but there’s things that need to be changed there’s a really beautiful way i saw a presentation from dakota brandt on
1:06:32
ways of raising children and the the uh it reminded me of a definition that i learned as an educator that to to
1:06:38
educate means to induce uh a juice from someone and it’s again
1:06:44
it’s the opposite way of thinking from the western world the mind is an empty bowl and the expert with all the books
1:06:50
is to fill it with knowledge and the actual uh my understanding of the word induce is
1:06:56
to draw out from something what is intrinsically in there and so in dakota’s presentation she’s talking
1:07:02
about children as being seen as already formed beings and you’re here to guide them and keep them safe but there’s no
1:07:09
respon there’s not all this effort that has to go on for 13 years of your life through grade grade grade grade and
1:07:16
subject subject and this whole scaffolded model of like we need to assess whether
1:07:21
you have you know who is the a plus students who are going to be the writers of of the laws and who are going to be
1:07:27
the accountants of all our gold that that whole system speaking as an educator seems driven to to decide that
1:07:34
we need to know who’s going to be able to sit for a long time and count our gold and protect it
1:07:40
and um it’s just it seems like a futile waste of human energy you guys have such a
1:07:45
much more simpler way easier way of having a deeper relationship so i hope
1:07:51
that our kids in the future won’t necessarily be given a statue to look at as as a as a
1:07:56
way of putting their hope or faith in that statue but to to to embody it within themselves to
1:08:02
internalize it right have a practice of a really healthy relationship with food
1:08:08
you know that we’ve all been it’s all been taken from all of us you know last couple of years we’ve had to see grocery stores with no supplies all of a sudden
1:08:15
and i never seen that since africa since zambia 20 years ago so yeah the system is crumbling and
1:08:21
let’s jump into aquarius it’s a new paradigm one of the main things i hear from traditional people my
1:08:27
friends my age too who uh walk in the two worlds of being raised in a traditional longhouse but also you know
1:08:33
wearing a leather jacket riding a motorbike like we all kind of have to walk in two worlds too but they often
1:08:38
just say when i’m problem solving about these things they’re like you have to stop thinking about money
1:08:44
we didn’t think about money we didn’t have crime we took care of each other we didn’t have homeless we didn’t have poverty it wasn’t about what is it isaac
1:08:51
murdoch always talks about it’s not about programs and services that’s not going to save things
1:08:56
right her indigenous like guides and treaty partners
1:09:02
don’t need fixing we need to like follow the lead and they actually take a lot of lead from the animal nations
1:09:08
around us they’re very respectful what a beautiful beautiful way to live life yeah
1:09:14
and you know um there’s something to be said about and this is coming i forget which elder this came from
1:09:21
but there’s something to be said about the spirit of anger too and it affects all of us it affects us
1:09:27
as an indigenous people it affects you as non-indigenous people it affects everybody
1:09:32
but like anger is an emotion like any other it’s meant to be there it’s a healthy emotion
1:09:38
we’re allowed to feel it but it’s what you do with that anger and if you choose to stain that anger
1:09:46
then that’s when it becomes a problem and that’s the issue we’re seeing with like
1:09:52
all this anti like all these racist regimes going on
1:09:57
because they’re angry about something it at first glance it may look like just
1:10:04
oh they just hate us but and sometimes that is the case sometimes that is the case but sometimes it’s not
1:10:11
sometimes there’s a reason behind it and my hope is that maybe one day
1:10:19
they can sit down and listen and realize like we’re acting out of anger instead of compassion instead of love
1:10:26
like they they have things that they love too they do
1:10:32
and i don’t know why they feel threatened by us coming together
1:10:38
but if they understood that they’re acting the way they are out of anger
1:10:44
and process that anger and be able to let it go then maybe they’d be able to understand and open
1:10:50
their minds to new possibilities like you were saying danielle my first interaction with anishinabe was
1:10:57
mostly around medicine wheels seven grandfathers teachings 13 grandmother moons i’m just sharing that for anyone
1:11:02
out there who’s wondering about which pathways are there and those are ones worked for me when i started work uh
1:11:08
learning from hora neshoni people one of the key stories that changed my life was ionwata and the peacemaker the story of
1:11:15
the guyana lagoa the great law of peace is grounded within the democracy of of of
1:11:22
the founding of the united states and it’s a very powerful piece of information that i think could change
1:11:27
your life too in a good way it’s talking about the the the good mind the choice we have between making choices between
1:11:34
good mind and in talking about conflict and anger there is this whole uh i believe that’s what i always
1:11:41
imagine what what what were the words that peacemaker you know talked with ayanwata about how are you going to get
1:11:47
these five nations that are at war to resolve it right and and so
1:11:54
yeah it’s uh it succeeded didn’t they it’s essential that we find ways to talk peaceably together and resolve resolve
1:12:00
conflicts that you know we don’t need to be fighting over statues we need to be protecting water for our children we need to be modeling for our children
1:12:07
good conflict resolution and stewardship of of the earth otherwise there’s not going to be any earth is anyone star
1:12:13
trek fan out there start like if like you as if you’re on the star trek enterprise and it’s like
1:12:19
the the everyone’s like oh i wonder what this ship is made of and they’re like starting to scrape away the ship and
1:12:25
take pieces of away and analyze it without realizing that you’re you’re gonna die in space
1:12:30
if you destroy it right the crew would never allow that and look at the multicultural crew we have like i’m you know i’m earthling you
1:12:38
know and you’re it seems to me that gene roddenberry was a visionary when he said
1:12:44
uh maybe all the different species are potential what humans could evolve into and it seems in my analysis as a
1:12:50
passionate trekkie that that uh we could be evolving into vulcans the vulcans had
1:12:56
their dark time just like hodon and shoni talk about their dart times where they had to get their emotional intelligence together to learn to speak
1:13:04
instead of fight and look at how songwaya diso the creator had given the creator’s game lacrosse to the people as
1:13:11
an alternative to to to war and fighting and unfortunately instead of turning
1:13:16
more into vulcans which is how i often think of frame my indigenous mentors and friends uh you know as peacemakers as
1:13:23
people who have teachings like that it seems like the ferengis are the ones that are seem to be dominating the world
1:13:30
everyone’s evolving into ferengi’s i’m like there’s not going to be a world left there’s the store is like black friday every day it’s just it’s so let’s
1:13:37
become more vulcan is my thing is it bad that i know i’m on your like i’m on your level right now
1:13:44
no because it’s really good yeah
1:13:49
yeah and i always say it’s like i say this to my kids i say it too whoever i feel needs to hear it is that
1:13:56
you know before you act and before you speak
1:14:02
what’s your intent you know is it good intent is it intent that causes harm
1:14:08
or is the action that’s going to cause harm and maybe step back and rethink
1:14:14
what you’re doing you know and and um you know that will make things much
1:14:20
clearer you know people get you know this society’s so fast-paced
1:14:26
you know you gotta you gotta go to work you gotta work you gotta work you gotta do this you gotta do that you know you gotta just
1:14:32
fit into society um that people forget
1:14:38
to find their purpose and then when opportunity strikes and it
1:14:43
you know it’s like oh they’re taking out the statues what’s that statue oh sir johnny who is he oh yeah okay no i don’t
1:14:49
want that you know i have a purpose now i’m gonna fight those damn indians you know and keep it
1:14:56
up you know but it’s like really what is the purpose behind what you’re standing up against because
1:15:04
i know for a fact many people who are out there now standing up against us against
1:15:12
you know saying these monuments and statues need to be there
1:15:17
five years ago couldn’t have told you who he who john a macdonald was and what his impact was on indigenous people are
1:15:24
the country so i think it’s like we really need to stop and think you know um
1:15:30
our actions have reactions you know um
1:15:36
and that’s not a new concept um but but people need to to go back and and reevaluate
1:15:43
why they’re doing what they’re doing and and if it’s not with good intent well maybe find something else to do
1:15:50
let us move on
1:15:56
do we have a time check yes
1:16:05
sure what would that be in stardate
1:16:11
all right now you’re pushing it
1:16:16
oh here comes london [Music]
1:16:28
my name is longfeather i come from the chippewa as a kettle and stony point first nation i’m a national anishinaabe
1:16:33
ojokwe which is our turn for indigenous queer this topic tonight that we’ve been
1:16:40
we’ve been trying to educate canadians on is a result of canada
1:16:45
failing all canadians and not educating all canadians on who we are as indigenous people
1:16:51
so it then becomes part of our role and responsibility to share our stories about the harm that gets done
1:16:57
through things like residential schools and monuments and statues etc
1:17:03
this topic specifically is something that although i work as the indigenous justice coordinator for the hamilton
1:17:09
community legal clinic and so i talked to many relatives on different topics and different matters and the matter of
1:17:17
residential school has certainly has always been part of our conversation
1:17:22
ever since they instituted residential schools through many generations we’ve talked about it in our families and in
1:17:29
fact the calls to action and the calls for justice that have been delivered by the murdered and missing indigenous
1:17:34
women trans to spirit inquiry and the calls to action from the
1:17:40
truth and reconciliation commission those are just parts of our conversations that we’ve been having as
1:17:46
indigenous people around our fires around our tables for many years and it wasn’t until the federal government
1:17:52
appointed these very specific groups or committees to develop these conversations and have these
1:17:57
conversations across the country that good-minded wonderful allies canadians
1:18:02
like yourself who are taking the time to listen to our sturdy stories to learn from our stories that this actually
1:18:10
happened because these conversations certainly were not happening 20 years ago so the conversation around statues that
1:18:17
i know in many circles both indigenous and non-indigenous is very controversial and for many canadians it’s hard for
1:18:23
canadians to understand why statues why take them down now
1:18:29
part of our response is that because people need to understand the harm that
1:18:34
is done by indigenous people having to look at these horrible reminders of of a painful
1:18:41
history that was pushed on indigenous people and this so that that journey
1:18:46
kind of looks like this many people also don’t understand intergenerational trauma and what it looks like and how it
1:18:53
manifests in each one of us is indigenous people although it’s going to manifest differently it will manifest
1:19:00
through us somehow so the matter of the sir johnny mcdonald
1:19:05
statue downtown where my office is located is just one story and it’s my
1:19:10
story and this is how it manifests for me
1:19:17
it’s a trigger for me and it’s a trigger for me to have to continue to have this
1:19:23
conversation about why these statues need to come down i am a first generation residential
1:19:29
school survivor my mother is the survivor and my mother was sent to the mount
1:19:35
elgin residential school outside of london and when her and my auntie my second mom
1:19:41
were found talking the potawatomi language they were beaten and they were separated and my mother was then sent to
1:19:49
the mohawk institute in brantford and she was sent to the mohawk institute we believe because there would be
1:19:56
indigenous children there who probably didn’t speak to pottawatomie language so my mom was already a stranger when she
1:20:03
was sent to the mohawk institute and i want each of you watching here in
1:20:09
in person today and each of you watching at home in the comfort of your homes to
1:20:14
think about your mother each one of us have a mother and think about her indulge herself for a minute
1:20:20
and think about her as a five-year-old girl going into a school and already being separated by language
1:20:28
now think about her being raped by somebody who was over 70 years of old
1:20:33
age and who was representative of a church system in an education system that was
1:20:40
designed to take the indian out of the child
1:20:45
and that in 2022 that we should never be here to even tell these stories or talk
1:20:50
about these stories so when i come downtown to my office and i have to pass
1:20:56
that sir john a mcdonald statue constantly reminded
1:21:02
that my mother was forced into the school and that she was raped at the age of
1:21:08
five years old from a man who was over 70 years of age and that her story is not unique
1:21:15
that there are hundreds of thousands of indigenous children little ones
1:21:20
who suffered the same kind of consequences that my mother suffered
1:21:26
and why would anybody want us to have to be harmed every time we look at those
1:21:32
triggers why is nobody trying to understand the harm that’s done every time we have to look
1:21:39
at that sir johnny mcstuff sir john a mcdonald’s statue are why would the harm
1:21:45
isn’t continued by us continuing to having to look at the queen
1:21:50
whose statue still stands in gore park how would canadians how would camotonians feel
1:21:57
how would members of the burlington and halton communities feel if we erected
1:22:02
statues of paul with paul bernardo
1:22:08
and his partner who murdered many indigenous girls or many girls in around
1:22:13
this territory that’s a trigger for people that’s a that’s a horrific past
1:22:19
because they were murderers we have to be reminded that those agents of the crown and the
1:22:27
agents of the church were also murderers and rapists and that they participated
1:22:33
in a process of genocide that’s the realistic realistic values of
1:22:40
that are given to intergenerational trauma and how it affects us of indigenous people so i just wanted to
1:22:46
share that with folks so that you have a better understanding that this trauma is real and it does affect
1:22:53
us as indigenous people and that we all have treaty responsibilities here living
1:22:58
in indigenous territories and that there’s much work that canadians can be doing
1:23:05
to elevate the understanding in the education of who we are as indigenous people and that
1:23:11
when we when we stand up and we use our voices
1:23:17
we’re using them not only for the benefit of indigenous people but we’re also using them for
1:23:23
all canadians as well and indigenous people when we stand up for things like
1:23:29
clean water we’re doing that not just for indigenous people we’re doing it for
1:23:34
all people when we stand when autumn palsier gets up and she starts fighting for better climate control this young
1:23:41
woman isn’t doing it just for herself or for her family or for her community or her nation she’s doing it for all people
1:23:49
across canada so i just wanted to provide you with my story yes people around the world
1:23:55
so you have a better understanding of what intergenerational trauma looks like and harm that’s done by these monuments
1:24:01
and statues to mcgwatch
1:24:13
i’m going back to my seat now
1:24:19
we have uh space for a few comments if people want to make them
1:24:26
ask away
1:24:38
turtle clan from the united nations six nations more commonly known as daryl dockstader
1:24:46
graduate of mcmaster and osgoode hall
1:24:52
the in terms of uh public public art uh dave general is a
1:24:58
tremendous artist from six nations and we were discussing one time to um
1:25:06
he’s going to do a submission for the uh battlefield house in stoney creek
1:25:14
and i told them for god’s sakes the last thing we need is another white man on the horse
1:25:22
and he said well what would you want then i said well i think
1:25:28
the world needs to see the mothers of soldiers crying
1:25:35
that would have a greater impact and would allow people to recognize that
1:25:42
war is not the solution he said well
1:25:47
rather than mothers what if we do four eagles with their heads about
1:25:54
and we can do four directions and the teachings of the four directions and the colors
1:26:01
and i said well if you can do it that’d be a great project
1:26:07
and of all the submissions uh in the competition
1:26:12
uh dave’s was selected and afterwards i talked with some of the
1:26:18
judges and they said that one was the most unique submission of all
1:26:24
and i told her it’s probably because it was one of the few from an indigenous perspective
1:26:32
when we do ceremony it’s not to elevate anybody above
1:26:39
the rest of us but it’s to remind us of the teachings
1:26:44
and to do a public work a public artwork which stresses the four
1:26:51
directions and the teachings and it’s such a powerful piece you could go
1:26:58
down there and take as much time as you need whether or
1:27:04
not it’s a little kids and do a quick teachings on the four directions
1:27:09
or university crowd and spend an hour down there discussing all the meanings
1:27:15
within that but i think it’s important to see it’s much more than just
1:27:22
another dead white man on a horse now
1:27:36
are there any other comments from the room comments questions if not i’m going to
1:27:42
read two uh comments that have come through the chat
1:27:47
the first one is just specifically for
1:27:55
kenny so that you don’t lose sleep tonight the film is
1:28:00
how much [Laughter] how much land does a man require and
1:28:06
that’s uh the name of an 1886 uh story by leo tolstoy
1:28:16
this is a good question for our humans i think in our age i don’t necessarily think that 8 billion
1:28:22
people on the planet is too many if they all had a good mind if they all had gun and go
1:28:27
if they had that that that sense of love and gratitude uh you know the learning
1:28:33
languages is so so such a good way for me to do it but every one of us in the 94 calls to action from trump you know
1:28:40
from the truth and reconciliation commission only obviously only academics would read
1:28:46
through the whole thing and i think most canadians feel inundated by well who’s got time to to read all that but
1:28:54
find your use that druid teaching of using your gifts to help others and connect to your own deboen your heart
1:29:00
truth your intuitive truth that says yeah i love to do art or music or dance or drama or sports or community or food
1:29:07
find our hearts purpose our soul’s purpose for why you’re here and share that with others
1:29:12
and and commit to more life time in your life to to share that with with others within the community you know at this
1:29:18
point in my life i’m i’m lucky this year i have a bit extra i’m able to help a
1:29:23
single mom a friend of mine with her cell phone bill this this year so i was delighted
1:29:28
to be able to say hey i can put this into my budget that’s one of the ways i’ve found in as an ally to share my
1:29:35
privilege with others and it’s so rewarding i didn’t need that money for the other stuff i was going to spend it
1:29:40
on anyway you know yeah so learn listen share let’s keep going let’s work out
1:29:46
reconciliation together i think i really can hello hi thanks very much
1:29:53
um i it’s a hard question to ask and i want
1:29:58
to just personally say thank you very much to everybody for sharing your truth and your story and
1:30:04
being absolutely generous with your words i um
1:30:09
i’m curious about it’s hard to ask the question because i don’t want to like incriminate anybody
1:30:14
or what but i’m curious what is the work that still needs to be done specifically in this city in hamilton with monuments
1:30:26
wow we got some rope
1:30:32
a couple cranes oh you know
1:30:37
i would hope that um our city council they failed us in the past unfortunately
1:30:45
but with recent events i would hope that
1:30:51
they would actually open their ears this time and actually listen because the last time they didn’t and
1:30:57
look what happened and that’s because they went into that
1:31:02
meeting immediately with the thought we’re not going to do this they they went into that their mind
1:31:08
closed already and you can’t do as accounts counselors you can’t do that
1:31:14
you represent a community each one of them i don’t like i’m not familiar with how many awards
1:31:20
are in hamilton even though i’ve lived here all my life but each one of you
1:31:25
represents awards each one of you is the voice for that
1:31:31
ward and more likely than not the voices in that ward are saying
1:31:38
we want change and that’s for a variety of things not just monuments
1:31:44
that can go towards housing [Music] food everything
1:31:49
language everything so they have a responsibility there’s
1:31:55
that word again word of the day is responsibility everybody they have a responsibility to their
1:32:01
constituents and i think i just wanted to expand on that is
1:32:08
because there’s been more than one occasion where decisions that have come out of city council
1:32:15
counter um good relations with the indigenous people
1:32:21
of this community um and not only indigenous you know counter a lot of recommendations exactly exactly where
1:32:28
the minority voice isn’t being heard you know um so i think it hamiltonians
1:32:35
need to step back and look at there’s an election coming up do you want those same voices there
1:32:42
the people can make the change of what’s who’s representing and how their voice
1:32:48
is being projected and heard out there
1:32:54
um [Music] so so back to being this rabble rouser um
1:33:00
i i personally have no faith in city council i think that
1:33:06
um the system is broken um [Music]
1:33:12
you know i remember being in a first year political science class and we were in a tutorial and we were talking about
1:33:18
how politicians you know are just going to do what they want you know and then i was like what i’m like this is
1:33:25
exactly what democracy is not right so we have to understand that when the politicians are the people who are
1:33:31
supposed to be representing our needs are not doing their job it’s because the system is broken
1:33:36
so then what do we do what is our choice and i think that what’s essential is that each individual has to remember
1:33:43
that we have the power within ourselves to create change you know when it starts with relationship building it starts with
1:33:50
building trust with people and you know how you may or may not decide to do that i think is is a part of your
1:33:57
own journey and you know if we are going to talk about city
1:34:03
council and what they need to do i think reparations is is important whether that be
1:34:08
financial or um actually land back you know we hear that
1:34:14
a lot and it’s probably overused at this point to like actually it may have lost a bit of its meaning but
1:34:20
what we’re actually talking about here is the ability for indigenous peoples to be living in relation with the land and
1:34:26
where can we do that here in the city we can’t right so so that could be a meaningful
1:34:32
thing you know and it’s not just the city that owns land it’s people that own land you know and what does it
1:34:38
mean to give land back you know there’s there’s things that we have on our end that we have to figure out right like does it go to band
1:34:45
council does it go to traditional council does it go into trust like that’s things we have to figure out
1:34:51
but i think the intention has to be that there has to be like financial reparations made because what’s happened
1:34:57
is that my people have suffered so that canada can grow financially and
1:35:03
and that has to be acknowledged i think one more thing to add to this bit of a
1:35:09
parable that comes from our honor shoni culture but and the way our society
1:35:15
works if you are a chief and the clan mothers
1:35:21
find you to be in contempt of your role they have the power and the authority to
1:35:27
de-horn you aka remove you from office
1:35:34
and that usually only ever happens if the people all speak up and say the chief is not reflecting our needs and
1:35:41
he’s not reflecting his responsibilities and that’s honestly what’s
1:35:47
and that’s the case with most politicians these days they don’t take the responsibilities
1:35:52
to the utmost degree there’s a lot of [Music]
1:35:59
there’s a lot of selfishness that goes along with politics where with us
1:36:06
i mean we weren’t alive back then but somehow they were able to keep
1:36:11
that selfishness out of that because clearly our system is still here
1:36:17
but i’ll leave that [Music]
1:36:24
i think i’ll just uh um sheila from online says perhaps make a
1:36:30
delegation to the city’s arts advisory commission i know that uh um
1:36:38
uh lyndon had also mentioned that there’s legislation there’s a proposal to the
1:36:43
city that’s going uh next week is that correct to city council
1:36:49
to discuss monuments and statues and i think that in combination with which what the panel has said about the
1:36:54
upcoming election i mean there’s lots of ways that we can pull it out into the light put pressure on it and
1:37:00
and hopefully change it change things at election time one of the thoughts i had with the
1:37:06
memorialization or when i look at the an issue comes up like a memorial i think
1:37:11
okay this is the way that we’ve for thousands of years have memorialized people from the western world and so
1:37:20
because of that curiosity for lifelong learning i always turn now almost instinctively to how do the people who
1:37:26
are here in this land first memorialize people and as you said earlier nathan and started out our session with a song
1:37:32
beautiful song the stories and respect for the materials that you’re using in the moment like this the wawashiki the
1:37:40
skin of the drum the matigue you know the from the trees you know the wood that
1:37:45
comes from the trees you have this very mindful way of moving through life that’s memorializing things
1:37:51
all the time so i’ve not been ever someone who’s that been that emotionally attached to
1:37:57
statues personally i get that many other people are but i’m i am want to share
1:38:03
that in my lived experience as an ally in building relationships in a good way
1:38:08
it’s uh there’s memorials all through your day if you’re being thankful thank the waters every day people that’s
1:38:14
really key you know when you drink it when you cook with it when you wash with it it’s it’s it changes your life
1:38:21
and i guess here’s the thing too that statue those statues those monuments they’re not living things
1:38:27
like our water is like you and i are and yet you’d rather
1:38:35
keep that non-living thing that doesn’t have feelings that doesn’t have really any sort of meaning other other than
1:38:41
that it’s up there uh you’d rather give that the floor than a real human being a real spirit
1:38:48
yeah it’s worth it i i it’s just i don’t understand and please no one explain it to me
1:38:54
i was on tour with a i was on tour as a musician with a
1:38:59
children’s choir in london england and um there was a war memorial for soldiers
1:39:05
fallen soldiers that’s a big big uh granite a piece of wood that’s quite low grade
1:39:12
like shallow so the kids it’s at height so kids can get up there and it’s got water flowing all over it and kids were
1:39:20
playing on it and our group of of the adults in the choir there was
1:39:25
an interesting split and we’re all canadian and we’re looking at this everyone’s
1:39:30
like proud to see buckingham palace and the golden gates to all these other nations um not very humble but it was a bit
1:39:37
overwhelming for me but the interesting split in this war memorial was that uh some of the people looked at the kids
1:39:43
playing on this sloan stone slab for veterans and saying well that’s really
1:39:48
disrespectful they should they should be standing there looking at it reverently and being taught you know this what that is they they’re
1:39:56
and um and the and the the coach the uh our tour guide who is from england said you know
1:40:03
i’ve thought about this a lot he says i always bring groups here and there’s always a split in the crowd because some people think it’s it’s fine the kids are
1:40:09
playing in the water on a hot summer day and um and and others are like have this sense
1:40:15
of like you know those kids should be put in their place and told and he said you know i reflected on on
1:40:20
the soldiers who lives their souls who are actually looking down if you believe in heaven
1:40:26
you know at that at that site and i wonder would those soldiers be happy that the kids are playing on their
1:40:31
memorial and he says i believe they are i believe that’s what they fought for so i think
1:40:37
if canadians we look at why our soldiers fought for and what or what the people
1:40:42
in your direct family what the connections were to different places around the world let’s build memorials
1:40:48
that help children play together and respect water and and
1:40:55
food and learn something about seeds and seed sharing and build like lifelong
1:41:00
like pen pals but in real life in real time in real proximity
1:41:08
just an idea thanks i think that uh
1:41:14
well on behalf of the gallery thank you danielle and nathan and audrey and kenny
1:41:19
can we show our appreciation for this [Applause]
1:41:28
this has been an amazing night and i i really appreciate you speaking with such
1:41:33
intelligence honesty sold about this about this topic i also will thank noah kagishi miguan
1:41:41
longfeather very much the genius behind speakers of truth um and uh i just so
1:41:48
honored that you continue to work with us and continue to bring these great
1:41:54
of events to us thank you to everyone who’s joined us online
1:41:59
i didn’t get to read all the comments so tara williams i’m i’m sorry
1:42:04
um tara was just i wanted to remind everyone that when we were talking about the age
1:42:10
of aquarius that uh this change is is still with us like it’s it’s
1:42:16
happening right now pandemic should be evidence of of that um
1:42:24
i sense kenny are you are you leading us out i didn’t have any calls
1:42:38
well i wish everyone a good night and thank you all for coming to us in person thank you everyone for coming
1:42:44
online uh we are doing this all again on june the 14th i believe we’re trying to do
1:42:49
them every every second month so uh when the next event comes around and is posted share it as much as you can let’s
1:42:56
build build build community around this amazing series thank you so much
1:43:03
[Music] [Applause] [Music]
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