9/12/2022 0 Comments Cultural Appropriation DetectorKnow your rights! Since the arrival of the new comers to Turtle Island, explorers, cartographers, botanists, lumber men, trappers, linguists, anthropologists, and sociologists have appropriated Indigenous knowledge for their own interests without regard for the wellness of Indigenous people or the Land. Unfortunately, the appropriation of Indigenous knowledge continues to this day. Prime ministers, corporations, journalists, academics, and many Canadians continue to think the Indigenous mind and our knowledge systems are an entity they can mine, take from, and modify to their liking without requesting permission, or offering respect and remuneration to Indigenous Nations and people. In this way colonization continues. That said, there is a relationship between intellectual property, copyright, fair dealing, plagiarism, and cultural appropriation. Here are some detection tools that will prove useful in identifying it. First though, a disclaimer: I am not a lawyer. It is important that you do your own research, your own critical thinking, and hire a lawyer if required. . . . Read my biographical note: www.lynngehl.com/biographical-note.html
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When Justin Trudeau relied on a platform/promise of truth and reconciliation and nation-to-nation to come in to power, I found myself in a sad and miserable state. What made this feeling worse for me was how so many people were falling for it. I knew it was a political lie. I knew he had no plan to meet Indigenous people on a nation-to-nation basis. I knew he was not going to share the land and resources on an equal basis. Although I knew this what made me sad and miserable was that he was manipulating the hopes of Indigenous people. This I felt was a violation of the worse kind. I know too many Indigenous people who have killed themselves because they had no hope. And I know what it is to live without hope. I do this every day of my life. As a child all too often I felt and observed my hope being manipulated by other people; people who knew better but could not come through for me. Recently I have had another experience of this manipulation of hope. This time it was more of a bizarre form of appropriation. I must caution you though that reading the paragraphs below may cause within you extreme cognitive dissonance, extreme enough for you to project hatred toward me, or maybe it may deepen that hate you already feel. I will take that risk though because ultimately I know I am going to die alone; die alone without all the pretenders who claim to care about Indigenous people. Indigenous people have been speaking up, petitioning, and protesting for our land and land related economic rights since the early 1600s. Our more recent protests include challenges to the 1969 White Paper, and in 1982 when the Constitution was re-patriated. And of course there have been numerous court challenges such as the 1973 Calder decision, 1990 Sparrow decision, 1997 Delgamuukw decision, 2004 Haida decision, 2014 Tsilhqot’in decision … . Indigenous people have done our work over and over and over again. It is clear as day we want our Land Back. Again we have done our work. The latest Indigenous uprising is on the matter of the Wet’suwet’in Nation’s demand that their rights be upheld and honoured. Many Indigenous and settler people across Canada protested in solidarity with them. During these protests I had an odd experience, again a feeling, and an insight when I heard an older white woman share her joy that she, in her old age, was finally able to experience Indigenous people rise up against the colonial state. This older woman expressed her glee where people around relished along with her. I experienced this collective glee perplexing and disenfranchising because it seemed to me that she was making the protests all about her and her need for a happy story and ending. It seemed like the only thing that was important was how she felt experiencing the protest and the hope it gave her. To me this was a bizarre experience of appropriation of hope somewhat analogous to when a wealthy person appropriates the ‘culture of poverty’ as a part of their persona. Indigenous protests are not about settler Canadians and their need to feel good about themselves. It is foremost about Indigenous people and our need to address in concrete and practical ways the hopelessness that many of us feel and experience. As many know, many Indigenous people feel hopelessness every day of our lives and for good reason. We wake up with this feeling of hopelessness, every step we take is with this feeling of hopelessness, and we go to bed with this feeling of hopelessness. For me, and many Indigenous people, it was a sad situation when Juno award nominee Inuk singer Kelly Fraser ended her life on Christmas Eve. She was only 26 years old and for many she held hope. I have always felt that there is the need to allow Indigenous peoples the space required to express this very hopelessness. I do this bravely as I soldier on. We need to keep in mind that suicide is only one manifestation or response to living with hopelessness. We need to allow people the right to talk about hopelessness when they want to versus quell and silence it. My commentary here is not so much about living with hopelessness, rather it is about how it is that our protests are not about a settler’s need to feel hopeful especially considering that most settlers do not really understand what the issues are and what it is that we want: Our Land Returned to Us. We want more than Church charity; We want to live as well as Canadians on our land and from our land with structures that are meaningful to us such as health care, education, and law. It was my experience that this older woman appropriated the recent Wet’suwet’in protest as hers for her need to feel good. To me it was bizarre because I know that it will not be until settler Canadians stand up en masse to their government regarding Indigenous rights that anything will change. Once this happens, Indigenous people will genuinely experience the joy and glee associated; then settler people can stand behind that. Until this happens there really is nothing for settlers to feel joy about. Please Creator make them stop these bizarre forms of appropriation. The hopelessness and hope to be felt is not at all, all about them. When it is, the hopelessness sinks deeper for Indigenous people. It sure does for me. While after reading this, while some people may be prone to act and think into a place of cognitive dissonance and hate the messenger, as settler Jean Koning has stated several times, “Settler people need to shut up and listen” and I will add stop stealing hope that is not really there. © Lynn Gehl, Ph.D. is an Algonquin Anishinaabe-kwe from the Ottawa River Valley. She is a published author of Claiming Anishinaabe: Decolonizing the Human Spirit and The Truth that Wampum Tells: My Debwewin on the Algonquin Land Claims Process. You can reach her and see more of her work at www.lynngehl.com. I decided to take the time and write this Algonquin Anishinaabe land acknowledgement. Go ahead and print it out and use it when you are opening an event in Algonquin territory. Currently we are on Algonquin Anishinaabeg traditional territory. The Algonquin were one of the first Indigenous Nations that Champlain recorded as he travelled up the Kichesippi, now called the Ottawa River. Algonquin territory consists of 48 million acres inclusive of rivers, lakes, boreal forests, rock, trees, four legged, winged, and finned. Through the creation of Upper and Lower Canada, now Ontario and Quebec, and through the French surrendering and ceding land that they did not own, the Algonquin Anishinaabeg have been divided along the very river that once united us. Through the overlay of Canada the nation state and the imposition of a provincial federal order, the Algonquin are divided by language, law, and religion. While 39 million acres is in Quebec, 9 million is in Ontario. Through processes of genocide inherent in processes of colonization, which continues today, the Algonquin have been relegated to small plots of land. There are ten federally recognized communities made up of registered status members: one in Ontario and nine in Quebec. As suggested these communities reside on only small fractions of the larger Algonquin Anishinaabeg traditional territory. Pikwàkanagàn First Nation’s land base consists of a mere 1,561 acres; Barriere Lake only 59; while Wolf Lake has been denied a land base altogether. There are also many communities in Ontario, made up of mostly non-status members, that have been more formally organized to accommodate the federal government’s need to define Indigenous rights in narrow terms and they all lack their own collective land bases known as reserve lands. The Kichesippi has been subject to the logging, hydroelectric, nuclear power, and the fishing and sport hunting industries. These industries have clogged the Great River, flooded important landscapes, and are currently dumping radio-active particles in the river. What is more, the nuclear industry is also warming the river using the water to cool down nuclear reactors. Although the Algonquin Anishinaabeg were emissaries during the 1764 Treaty at Niagara, and many of the men fought on the side of the British during the 1776 American revolution, and during WW1 and WW2, Algonquin were and are continually denied the jurisdiction to their land and resources. Indigenous knowledge philosophy is a life way that situates humans within a broader context of the natural world versus a religion selectively practiced. Within this philosophy, the Four Sacred Elements ‒ Water, Rock, Wind, and Fire ‒ are valued as more intelligent. As such, places where they intersect are sacred. In addition, while many people think Indigenous people of Turtle Island lack a tradition of symbolic literacy, in actuality the Anishinaabeg inscribed stories, knowledge, and important messages within the land and waterscapes of their territory. Akikpautik is where Creator placed the First Sacred Pipe, the ultimate expression of Reconciliation between Nations, Humans, and the Natural World. Today there are more non-status than status Algonquin and many of us reside outside of our traditional territory. Lynn Gehl, Ph.D. is an Algonquin Anishinaabe-kwe from the Ottawa River Valley. In 2017 she won an Ontario Court of Appeal case on sex discrimination in The Indian Act, and is an outspoken critic of the Algonquin land claims process. Recently she published Claiming Anishinaabe: Decolonizing the Human Spirit. You can reach her through, and see more of her work, at www.lynngehl.com Who is historian Lindsay Lambert? Who is film maker Andrée Cazabon? Who is lawyer Michael Swinwood? Who is the group Free the Falls? Who is the group Stop Windmill? The Algonquin Anishinaabeg are in pretty dire conditions. We have never had a treaty and our nation has been divided by imposed British and French laws, imposed English and French language, and imposed religions, as well as imposed provincial borders. The situation of the Algonquin was largely accomplished through do-gooders also known as people with so-called good intentions. One example is the residential school system imposed by Canada and the churches. Another example is and continues to be “helping” Indigenous people become more civilized through the land tenure system. In addition there are all the earlier anthropologists who were actually agents of the state. Through decolonization and Indigenous awareness of these do-gooder agents of the state, and the birth of theoretical frameworks such as feminism, critical theory, anti-colonialism, allyship, and more recently Indigenism many people are now asking tough questions about people who come in to our communities claiming to be a helper. Being a shkaabewis or in English "a helper" is a place of honour and a place of humbleness where it is now expected that they must tell us: Who are they? Who are they related to? What do they want? Why do they want it? How did they determine and define the help they seek to offer? Who is funding their efforts? How do they plan to meet our needs? What are their unstated political affiliations? What is their strategy? Who are they accountable to? How will they allocate funds the process may generate? How are they assuring that friends have not biased them? Asking these questions are now the accepted way to protect community members and assuring the community’s needs are paramount, but also as a way of assuring that the effort being taken is indeed genuine and legitimate. In terms of the latter, if the effort is not viewed as legitimate community support for the effort and the mobilization of the effort will be hindered. This would be counter-productive to the goal. Contrary to what many may think I ask these questions not to be harmful. Rather, I ask for valid reasons. I ask because I want the larger Algonquin Anishinaabeg to be able to trust these people if they are indeed worthy, and I also ask these questions as a measure to assure what they are doing is a good thing. As I have said legitimacy is important. If Algonquin do not see the person or the effort as legitimate this is not a good thing. If these helpers are genuine they will appreciate the need to assure that their role and effort is genuine and legitimate. In short, they will value the questions. We have all heard of, and many of us personally know, individuals who come into our families and into our communities offering us help, such as giving us their services, time, shelter, food, clothes, and money. Unfortunately, what some of these “helping people” count on is for members to be too busy where as such they are unquestionably grateful for the help being offered. This is the ultimate of vulnerability. As a result of the great need, and the imposition of the survival mode imposed on them by Canada, many of us cannot stop, think, and ask these hard questions. But some can and this is a good thing not a bad thing. Poor families and Indigenous communities are particularly vulnerable. We all know this and so do others. Even today our families and communities continue to be infiltrated by outsiders who are selfishly seeking research needs, the need for a spiritual experience; the need to be perceived as a good person; and there are people who want to sexually exploit the exotic and young girls and boys, persons with disabilities, the elderly, sometimes even babies. As suggested helpers are not limited to what is obviously evil. Some are sociologists and anthropologists; where others are reporters, journalists, and media and film makers. They are all looking for their stories to fulfill their own needs. Still further, others are activists, both charitable and social. But of course the worst are the pedophiles. There are also the land claims and legal industries where people are seeking and gaining huge financial rewards and/or media fame in the realm of legal precedent from the Aboriginal law industry. They all want something, some more sinister, some less sinister. Our Needs Matter More! The point is, Indigenous families and communities have been the fodder of much questionable practice. Fortunately academics are now more ethical in their research where many, if not all, now allow us to shape the research process, its goal, and the direction of the knowledge produced. But there is more work to do in our journey forward to liberation, freedom, and self-determination. Indigenous families and communities need to put in place within our minds and practices the confidence that we do indeed have the right ask hard questions. Helping people who claim they wish to serve our families and our communities, yet who fail to tell us: Who are they? Who are they related to? What do they want? Why do they want it? How did they determine and define the help they seek to offer? Who is funding their efforts? How do they plan to meet our needs? What are their unstated political affiliations? What is their strategy? Who are they accountable to? How will they allocate funds the process may generate? How are they assuring that friends have not biased them? – are potentially dangerous people. If they are genuine people with integrity they will be respectful of our need to know the answers to these questions, and they will appreciate that they need to be transparent on these issues and respect our need to know. We have a right to protect our communities and assure all political and legal actions are legitimate and will be perceived as legitimate. When helping people respond to our questions in a way that implies they are insulted and possibly say things such as: “I am volunteering my time, be grateful”, or similarly with “No one is paying me, be grateful”, these are individuals who are not deserving of the privilege of being “helping people”. Another more disturbing response is they may move into a character attack or assassination of the person who has taken on the hard job of asking the questions. The helping person who takes this reactionary response should be avoided. To be a Shkaabewis is a place of honour and humbleness. Please like and share this blog. Chi-Miigwetch! Lynn Gehl, Ph.D. is an Algonquin Anishinaabe-kwe from the Ottawa River Valley. She has a section 15 Charter challenge regarding the continued sex discrimination in The Indian Act, and is an outspoken critic of the land claims process. Her book The Truth that Wampum Tells: My Debwewin of the Algonquin Land Claims Process offers an insider-Indigenous analysis of the Algonquin land claims process in Ontario. You can reach her through, and see more of her work at www.lynngehl.com. 1. A colonized ally stands in the front. A decolonized ally stands behind. 2. A colonized ally stands behind an oppressive patriarchy. A decolonized ally stands behind women and children. 3. A colonized ally makes assumptions about the process. A decolonized ally values there may be principles in the process they are not aware of. 4. A colonized ally wants knowledge now! A decolonized ally values their own relationship to the knowledge. 5. A colonized ally finds an Indigenous token. A decolonized ally is more objective in the process. 6. A colonized ally equates their money and hard work on the land as meaning land ownership. A decolonized ally knows that land ownership is more about social hierarchy and privilege. 7. A colonized ally projects guilt. A decolonized ally knows it is their work to do. 8. A colonized ally projects emotions. A decolonized ally knows Indigenous people have too much to deal with already. 9. A colonized ally has no respect for Indigenous intellectuals. A decolonized ally knows Indigenous people have their own intellectuals. 10. A colonized ally has no idea they need to decolonize. A decolonized ally understands they have to continually decolonize. 11. A colonized ally has no idea of the concomitant realities of Indigenous oppression. A decolonized ally understands the many, layered, and intersectional oppressions Indigenous people live under. 12. A colonized ally speaks for Indigenous people. A decolonized ally listens. 13. A colonized ally takes on work an Indigenous person can do and is doing. A decolonized ally takes on other work that needs to be done. 14. A colonized ally makes things worse. A decolonized ally understands. 15. A colonized ally says, “It is time to get over it.” A decolonized ally realizes one’s relationship to the harm is subjective. 16. A colonized ally appropriates another nation’s Indigenous knowledge. A decolonized ally does the hard work to uncover their own Indigenous knowledge. 17. A colonized ally will loath this truth offered. A decolonized ally will recognize the hard work telling this truth is. Additional ally resources are available here Lynn Gehl is an Algonquin Anishinaabe-kwe from the Ottawa River Valley. She has a section 15 Charter challenge regarding the continued sex discrimination in The Indian Act, and is an outspoken critic of the Ontario Algonquin land claims and self-government process. She recently published a book entitled Anishinaabeg Stories: Featuring Petroglyphs, Petrographs, and Wampum Belts, and her second book, The Truth that Wampum Tells: My Debwewin of the Algonquin Land Claims Process, will be published in March 2014. You can reach her at lynngehl@gmail.com and see more of her work at www.lynngehl.com. Please like and share this blog. For years I have been listening to, and subsequently thinking about, questions such as, “What does the sound of a crow – caw, caw, caw – mean?” For the most part I have found that these questions come from people who are not Indigenous to Turtle Island. I have always found these questions perplexing. Unfortunately, my response is conceptually tough; regardless I will give it my best shot here. The fundamental difference between humans and other animals is our dependency on cultural teachings and the deep meaning inherent. As an example, other animals, as is the case with trees and water, simply do what they do. Humans cannot; we need cultural teachings, and the meaning inherent, to guide us toward the good life. Given this, one has to ask, “Where and how do humans achieve these cultural teachings and the deep meaning that is inherent?” All human knowledge and inherent meaning is constructed and passed on through cultural teachings. The knowledge and meaning serve to help us understand our location within the broader cosmos of the universe, as well as give us guidance and direction in moving forward. These cultural teachings are passed on to us from our ancestors. Contrary to what many people may think, all ethnic groups had and continue to have a rich tradition of cultural teachings that serve them in living the good life. The Indigenous people of Turtle Island do not have the monopoly on cultural teachings and meaning. Please don’t make this mistake of thinking we do. As a matter of fact, knowledgeable Elders suggest that all people’s cultural teachings must be respected. This is what is meant when Anishinaabe Elders offer, “All Creation stories are true”. Quite simply, without cultural teachings and meaning humans are disenfranchised and lost in a world of chaos and disorder. It is Clifford Geertz’s argument that without culture, humans are nothing more than “mental basket cases” (The Interpretation of Cultures 1973, 40). This is a profound statement of how much humans are dependent on culture and the cultural meaning. Conceptually speaking, it is best to think of our collective cultural teachings as analogous to a “cultural meaning field” that we exist within, and that serve us as we move around the world. Just as there are many Indigenous or ethnic groups, there are many cultural meaning fields. Interestingly, cultural meaning fields are not rigidly defined, but rather are open to change through acts of borrowing and sharing from other ethnic groups, as well as through the ebb and flow of our larger ecosystems within the greater cosmos. In this way it is best to think of cultural teachings and meaning as consisting of a fluid body of knowledge rather than a body of knowledge that is static and frozen in a particular place at a particular time. While today some people’s cultural traditions may be laden with meaningless materialism and refuse production, we all are born into a rich cultural history and tradition. Before industrialization and capitalism swept over the earth, all people held a cultural meaning field that they were proud of and that guided them forward. People need to return to this place of being. Anishinaabe spiritual leader Jim Dumont has suggested, “Go back to your own Indigenous knowledge,” be it Russian, Irish, Danube Swabian, Haudenosaunee, or Anishinaabe (personal communication). Furthermore, as Grandfather William Commanda said, “We all need to learn our own teachings the Creator gave us,” as this is where you will find your cultural teachings that will lead to a good life (personal communication). That said, people who do not go back to their own cultural teachings and meaning, and who continually impinge on the culture of the people of Turtle Island, do great harm. While indeed cultural meaning is fluid and open to change, the pressure to provide meaning for too many people outside of our cultural tradition causes our cultural meaning to wear away and therefore become meaningless. There is a limit to what a culture can sustain in terms of remaining meaningful to the Indigenous members of a group. It is for this reason that my only response to, “What does it mean?” can and will always be, “What does it mean to you?” This is my way of suggesting people need to return to their own cultural knowledge and the meaning inherent. Schultz, Emily A. and Robert H. Lavenda (eds). Cultural Anthropology: A Perspective on the Human Condition. 4th ed. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield, 1998. Lynn Gehl is an Algonquin Anishinaabe-kwe from the Ottawa River Valley. She has a section 15 Charter challenge regarding the continued sex discrimination in The Indian Act, is an outspoken critic of the Ontario Algonquin land claims and self-government process, and she recently published a book titled Anishinaabeg Stories: Featuring Petroglyphs, Petrographs, and Wampum Belts. You can reach her at lynngehl@gmail.com and see more of her work at www.lynngehl.com. Please comment on, like, and share this Black Face blog. Constructs, models, theories, and policies while never offering universal truths, serve humans in that they guide our emotions, thoughts, and practices as we move forward. All human groups need them. To be without them, is to exist in chaos and thus go nowhere. After years of participating in the Algonquin land claims and self-government process in Ontario where experts were guiding the process, eventually it became apparent to me that I was situated in an awful context. Assisting state nationalism as they were, these so-called experts offered no real discussion, commentary, or teachings on the difference between the treaty process and the land claims process. Rather, they cleverly employed terms such as “government to government” versus “nation to nation”. Some even promoted the land claims and self-government process and the pitiful settlements through comparing the process to class action law suits against an employer such as the grocery store FRESHCO for example. Eventually, I realized these lawyers, anthropologists, and so called friends of the Algonquin Anishinaabeg were really serving Canada’s colonial agenda. I realized that the land claims and self-government process is about the government of Canada gaining access to and exploiting Indigenous lands and resources while at the same time giving Indigenous Nations mere crumbs and dirty water to subsist on. Canada does this, I learned, through unilaterally constructed and genocidal polices such as the Comprehensive Land Claims Policy and the Inherent Rights Policy. I was floored, as I had so hoped that the Algonquin land claims and self-government process would result in viable and meaningful self-government for the Algonquin. Not so. Recently the offer was tabled: 1.3% of our land and a $300 million one time payment. Eventually I found I had to do something constructive with the knowledge that I gained from this awful experience and so I once again pulled myself off the floor, gathered some of my thoughts, and compiled them into my Ally Bill of Responsibilities. I felt the people assisting the Canadian state’s agenda needed to know that I knew full well that they are not really allies, but rather they are agents of a genocidal colonial agenda. I compiled my Bill quite some time ago, publishing the first version in Canadian Dimension magazine. Many allies have emailed me since this time to let me know that they found the Bill useful, and to tell me that they rely on it to guide them in their emotions, thoughts, and practices of allyship. Many Indigenous people have also informed me that they find the Bill affirming and useful in their work. Still further, students have emailed me to let me know that my Bill was a reading in one of their university courses. While I know the issues put forward through the passing of Bill C-45 into law are not just an Indian matter, in my need to offer something constructive to the IdleNoMore movement I have taken the time to post a more recent and accessible version my Ally Bill of Responsibilities on many Facebook event walls as well as in groups. In my decision to do this I really have to credit Barbara Low for instilling in me the value of my Bill and for encouraging me to give it more currency. For this I am grateful. Posting my Bill on Facebook is a reasonable and constructive practice in that, after all, we have experienced a social media revolution. In fact, it is the social media revolution that is credited for the Canada wide, America wide, and now global wide IdleNoMore movement. Through this effort, once again I have been receiving positive feedback from both allies and Indigenous people who are finding the Bill useful in guiding their emotions, thoughts, and practices. Some people have even requested permission to translate the Bill into other languages. This makes me very happy and through this heart knowledge a flicker of hope is birthed. My Bill is available here at this link: http://www.lynngehl.com/my-ally-bill-of-responsibilities.html Other people, though, have pointed out that they do not like the words “behind” and “secondary” that are in my Ally Bill of Responsibilities. I address these concerns through explaining that in any social stratified society, people on the lower rungs of society – such as young Indigenous mothers and persons with disabilities − require allies to stand behind them in the process of collectively challenging oppressive regimes. Let’s face it, in a socially stratified society people are not equals, and real and effective change will only happen when people understand that those who are worse off require allies to stand behind them in their movement forward. It is my view that those people most denied need to lead the way forward, that is if emancipation for all is the desired outcome. I then point out that to stand behind and secondary to others is indeed a place of honour, and that they should reconsider their process of ascribing negative meaning to these words. Further, although I do not use the terms “settler ally” and “descendant of settlers ally” in this Bill, I do hear these terms and I rely on them too. I have found that some people do not like these terms. I find this interesting and wonder why they once again ascribe negative meaning to these terms. Many people offer that they were born in Canada and that they are proud to be Canadians. They also say that their family has been in Canada for many generations. I do hear what these people are saying, and I do value what they are saying. In response, though, I also offer that when I hear people use these terms to describe their location in the Canadian mosaic, I attribute to them as having a critical perspective. That is a critical perspective of state nationalism, its limitations, and the propaganda that the Canadian state and its education system has so carefully planted in the hearts and minds of everyday Canadians as a measure to control their emotions, thoughts, and practices. I further interpret the use of these terms to also mean the door is still open for these people to return to the rituals and ceremonies of their ethnicity and their Indigenous knowledge. After all we are all Indigenous to the earth and we all have our own Indigenous knowledge that we can draw from to guide us forward. This interpretation of mine makes me feel very happy and helps me move forward to a dreamed future. These people who think of themselves as “settler allies” or “descendants of settler allies” offer me hope, and they lift me off the floor that Canada’s genocidal policies and practices have thrown me to. When I think critically about how the Canadian state continues to undermine Indigenous people and our treaty rights, I realize that in passing Bill C-45 Prime Minister Stephen Harper has taken on the action of an agent provocateur where his goal is to disrupt the ally relationship between Indigenous people and the average Canadian. What I mean by this is that while certainly Harper has passed legislation that will harm all Canadians, he has strategically placed Indigenous people and their ally relationship with settler allies at risk. In doing this Harper has shifted the real focus of Bill C-45 to being an Indian thing where consequently Indigenous people become targets of anger and racism. Through this process, Harper gains angry and reactionary support in fulfilling his economic political agenda. I have learned there is the need for Indigenous people to nurture our relationship with allies. In my needfulness and hope that more and more Canadians are waking up to the methods of propaganda that the Canadian government uses to control their emotions, thoughts, and practices, I asked “allies”, “settler allies”, and “descendants of settler allies” to send me their photographs as IdleNoMore supporters. I offer this collection here for others to experience. Please take the time to like, tweet, and share this blog.
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