It is often said that one of the culprits of Western culture and the process of colonization is the way it converted larger communities and families into nuclear homes with individualistic and/or egotistical values.  Historically and traditionally here on Turtle Island we lived within communities where we were all related to one another and where we all had a role in teaching children values and morals.  For the most part these values and morals were embodied through teachings, songs, and rituals.  Once these values and morals were embodied, during times when our bodies and minds failed us, family and community members would remind one another of their collective obligations.  In this way family and community members were an important element of Indigenous governance tradition.

Oftentimes some people will actually excuse a family member’s lack of good moral judgement through statements such as, “I am not responsible for her actions” or “she is doing her job and she really is a nice person”.  This line of reasoning, though, is rooted in an oppressive governance structure that relies on individualistic and/or egotistical values, and must be reconsidered; this is especially so if one claims to be leftist.  Said another way, family and community members who remain silent as they stand beside violators of human rights are themselves complicit in the violation.  And further, through their silence they remain stuck within an oppressive governance system; an oppressive system that is comparable to the system that has forced many families to find refuge in Canada.
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The contradiction of a young family finding refuge in Canada, yet that same family then denies Indigenous women and children their land and treaty rights, exists in plain sight for all to see.

​​​​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

Men, have you encountered so called liberated women who told you that you cannot be a feminist? If so, no longer fret.  Go back and tell them the theoretical framework of old white feminism is not working anyway because it remains within the humanistic paradigm versus the naturalistic paradigm. Then tell them you are now Indigenist, which represents a genuine paradigm shift that we all need, a paradigm shift where men are situated, where the natural world that includes water and trees sits at the core not just women.

Afterall we are all Indigenous to the Earth and we all have Indigenous knowledge. Stand up for the water versus old white feminism that won't embrace you. The Indigenous paradigm will.

​​​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

On April 18th, 2018, I, along with several people who live in Ottawa, took the time to visit the National Gallery of Canada for a private showing of the art of Chaudière Falls and the Islands. In the Anishinaabeg tradition we ascribe stories to our landscapes. I was fortunate to learn from the late Elder William Commanda, a language speaker, Pipe carrier, wampum bundle carrier, and story-teller about the specialness of Chaudière Falls. William told me this was the place where Creator placed the first Sacred Pipe.

Our visit to the gallery was such a special afternoon. The visit began with a discussion of how it is that the Four Sacred Elements of Water, Rock, Wind, and Fire are inherent in the pipe ceremony, and further how the Four Orders of Creation are also inherent: Rock, Water, Wind, and Fire; the Tree Nation, The Animal Nation, and finally Human Beings.

As we collectively viewed the art we respected the need for us all to take the time and enjoy each piece before we began with the interfering ritual of the click, click, clicking of our cameras. We ended with a wonderful feast where we talked about our lives and we shared our dreams for a time when the sacred is honoured.

The inclusion of Indigenous Knowledge into the event made it a more joyful time for me. I encourage everyone interested to organize a private viewing of the art of  Chaudière Falls and the Islands.  Here is the object list of the items:
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6287                    1791 Davies, Thomas‒watercolour
18504.1-2            1821 Forrest, Charles Ramus‒watercolour
42324.81             1821 Woolford, John Elliott‒watercolour
42324.82A           1821 Woolford, John Elliott‒watercolour
42324.82B           1821 Woolford, John Elliott‒watercolour
42324.84              1821 Woolford, John Elliott‒watercolour
23440                   1821 Woolford, John Elliott-watercolour  
29214.13              1825 Young, John Crawford‒drawing with brown wash
29214.39              1825 Young, John Crawford‒drawing with brown wash
29214.40              1825 Young, John Crawford‒drawing with brown wash
42323.38              1828 Cockburn, James Pattison‒drawing with brown wash
42323.39              1828 Cockburn, James Pattison‒drawing with brown wash
42323.40              1828 Cockburn, James Pattison‒drawing with brown wash
42323.41              1828 Cockburn, James Pattison‒drawing with brown wash
28026                   1833 Pooley, Henry‒watercolour
15017                   1840 Bartlett, W.H.‒pencil
34856                   1857 unknown artist‒stereo view
2037                     1858 Krieghoff, Cornelius‒oil painting
32401                   1860 Notman, William‒stereo view
33380                   1873 Topley, William James‒stereo view
33383                   1875 Topley, William James‒photograph

Learn more about Chaudière Falls and the Islands and their further desecration despite the rhetoric and nation to nation and reconciliation at this link: https://watershedsentinel.ca/articles/akikodjiwan/

Below is a slideshow of the works.

​​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

All too often settler people say to me, “The Algonquin have to get it together and stop being so divided”.
 
Although I am Algonquin Anishinaabe, a person does not have to be Algonquin to carry a critical thinking lens or framework in understanding that the issue with the denial of Algonquin rights, the destruction of our land, the pollution of the Ottawa River, and the destruction of our sacred places is in fact a settler issue and a settler government issue.  It is not an Algonquin issue; not at all.
 
It is not too difficult to reason that here in what has become the nation state called Canada, settlers have benefited from colonization in enormous and lucrative ways; in more ways than the Algonquin have.  Through the construction of Canada settler people have had greater access to Indigenous land and settlers have benefited more from the resources mined and pilfered from the land.
 
There are more settlers on Indigenous lands, and it is their settler government that continues to spend millions and millions of dollars to ensure the Algonquin remain in hardship, in poverty, and divided.  Let’s face it, as long as the Algonquin remain divided Canada can, and will, blame us for the very divide Canada has manufactured ‒ again through the resources pilfered from Indigenous land.
 
Through the settler court system, from the 1973 Calder decision through to the 2017 Tsilhoqot’in decision, Indigenous people have won the recognition for our rights yet Canada continues to deny these rights to us.
 
Indigenous people have also placed their bodies on the land over and over and over again.
 
It is about time settler people stop with the practice of blaming Algonquin people for the ongoing desecration and pollution of the land and water that we all need; trees and animals included. Said another way, the time is ripe for settlers to stop blaming Algonquin ancestors and fellow Algonquin who walk the earth today for what their ancestors did and their current settler government continues to do to the Four Orders of Creation.
 
Too many so called friends and acquaintances continually say ignorant things to me over and over again about the Algonquin.  They blame us.  This has to stop. Settlers, you own this situation.  It is time for you to put your bodies on the land and on the line.  Mortgage your homes; sell you summer homes too; then there is the content of those homes, it can all go too. Really serve the cause.  You can do this.  Whatever steps you take to generate the change you seek and the change we all need, stop with the excuse of blaming on the Algonquin for the continued pilfering of the land that you mostly benefit from.
 
Settlers stop externalizing your responsibility.  Settlers, you own this; not the Algonquin Anishinaabeg.

​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

Miigwetch Senator Marilou McPhedran and all the wonderful helpers and sponsors for such a wonderful day! April 18, 2018.

​​​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

Settler people must stop judging Indigenous women in petty and dismissive ways such as nasty name calling.
 
Recently, I had a few experiences that were really telling of questionable settler thinking and a sure indication that they remain unaware and ignorant of the legitimate manifestations of structural oppression and how best to address it.
 
One individual called me “needy”, another called an Anishinaabe women “a wimp” and further “too angry”. There is so much I could say that is wrong about settler people name calling, regardless I will remain with offering a bulleted point list as I am sure I can make my position succinctly.

1. Settler people need to remember that they have lived the privilege of colonization and that their privilege has come off the backs of Indigenous people.
2.  Settler people need to remember that your homes and all your material possessions stuffed within it are on land, and off the land, that we were and continue to be denied.
3.  Settler people need to remember that in the summer, it is you who go off and vacation in your summer homes that also reside on Indigenous lands.
4.  Settler people need to remember it is Indigenous women and their families who are dealing with pedophiles and sexual offenders at a higher rate in our collective communities.
5.  Settler people need to remember that Indigenous women are missing and murdered in much larger numbers.
6.  Settler people need to remember that it is the sons of Indigenous families who are filling up Canada’s jail industry in much larger numbers.
7.  Setter people need to remember that Indigenous families have a higher rate of disability, both physical and mental.
8.  Settler people need to remember that it is the poverty that has been imposed on Indigenous people, and again that settlers gained from and continue to gain from, that result in us making decisions that in many ways harm us in the long run.
9.  Settler people need to remember that it is our families that continue to be destroyed and divided so Canada can thrive.
10.  Settler people need to remember that it is our communities that lack clean water and who live boil water advisories.
11.  Settler people need to remember that it was our culture that was criminalized, and further it is our culture that continues to be appropriated by settler people.
12.  Settler people need to remember that it is members in our communities that are pooping in buckets.
13.  Settler people need to remember that is our family members who are dying homeless on the streets.
14.  Settler people need to remember that it is Indigenous knowledge that continues to be reduced to “elderism” and that Indigenous knowledge holders and intellectuals continue to be ignored and dismissed through “elderism”.

 Morals move through the heart, they take the same path the human spirit does, and the same path emotions take. The people we should all fear are the people who lack the moral, spiritual, and emotional intelligence to speak up about the injustice Indigenous women face on a daily basis. It certainly is not Indigenous people who are righteously sad or angry. In short, look out for the “nice” accommodating, subservient and obliging people.
 
If you lack the intellectual ability to understand Indigenous women and ALL the knowledge we have, have the intelligence to listen versus silence them through name calling.

​​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

 It is now clear to many Indigenous women that Maryam Monsef has been co-opted by the Liberal Government’s need to continue to deny Indigenous women’s rights. Monsef is ignorant of Canada’s history and she follows blindly while Canada continues with its policies of Indigenous genocide.

As a refugee to Canada Monsef's loyalties are misguided where she lacks the ability to understand that this Land is Indigenous Land, and it is Indigenous women she should be loyal to, not the power wielding nation state called Canada. It seems her university education has let us all down. Is Trent University proud?
  
Rights are Rights; We Do Not Negotiate Rights with Men
 
    While Canada enshrined the Charter of Rights and Freedoms that states Canadians are protected from sex discrimination, Canada refuses to eliminate all the sex discrimination in the Indian Act. This discrimination bleeds into, shapes, and undermines Indigenous self-governance efforts when developing our own membership and citizenship codes. This is an act of genocide through insidious cultural means. Without a doubt, the Minister of Status of Women Maryam Monsef, Member of Parliament for Peterborough—Kawartha, is complicit in this genocide.  Read more here:
http://www.electriccitymagazine.ca/2018/02/on-reconciliation/
 
Cultural Genocide with a Lovely Smile
 
    All too often patriarchs, colonizers and oppressors actively seek out nice, obliging, accommodating, compliant, young people who have lovely smiles, to carry out their oppressive, sexist, racist, and genocidal agendas.
 
Why is it that this person cannot see the reality that is right in front of their eyes? Is it because, as I suggested, they are blind to the cultural genocide; is it because Monsef does her political work with a kind and polite smile that people enjoy; is it because I have less to smile about in the context of oppression and cultural genocide? Read more here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/lynn-gehl/canada-is-carrying-out-cultural-genocide-with-a-smile_a_23204482/
 
Monsef’s Vote Perpetuates Sex Discrimination
 
    Despite the efforts of the Indigenous Famous Five – Mary Two-Axe Early, Jeannette Corbiere-Lavell, Yvonne Bedard, Sandra Lovelace Nicholas, and more recently Sharon Donna McIvor – the 160 year (as of 2017) history of blatant sex discrimination in the Indian Act continues.  Read more here:
https://journeymagazineptbo.com/2017/09/21/persons-day-the-indigenous-famous-five-contingent-updated-version/
 
KTRSG Chair Unhappy with Minister of Status of Women Maryam Monsef
 
    It has become clear to members of the KTRSG that the liberal government is not the feminist government Prime Minister Justin Trudeau claimed it to be in 2015. A genuine feminist government would not appoint female cabinet members and then proceed to remove from them their agency to vote in a way that was more in line with their own conscience and consciousness and sense of justice for all women.  Read more here:
http://anishinabeknews.ca/2017/09/05/open-letter-kawartha-group-disappointed-with-monsefs-voting-position-on-bill-s-3/
 
Pam Palmater on Genocide and Sex Discrimination
 
    Listen to Dr. Pam Palmater’s Woodrow Lloyd Lecture titled “Truth and Reconciliation in Canada: If It Feels Good, It’s Not Reconciliation”.  Move to the 32:00 and the 45:00 minute marks to hear what she has to say about Canada’s refusal to end the sex discrimination in the Indian Act. Listen here: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89s3l2mYGWg&feature=youtu.be

​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

​​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

While within the Indigenous paradigm and worldview all land and waterscapes are sacred, Indigenous people hold particular locations as especially sacred. One such place is just upstream from Canada’s Parliament Hill, known as Akikodjiwan where Akikpautik is inherent. Akikpautik is the land and waterscape where Creator placed the First Sacred Pipe, the ultimate symbol and ritual of reconciliation between father and son, between peoples, and between nations. The larger landscape of Akikodjiwan includes three sacred islands: Chaudière Island, Albert Island, and Victoria Island.

These islands are a special meeting place where different peoples and nations come together to rekindle and reconcile relationships through smoking the Sacred Pipe and associated rituals such as talking, feasting, prayer, song, and dance.

Indigenous people live more deeply within the naturalistic tradition because we value that natural processes exist closer to Creator’s original power. Said another way, Indigenous people respect natural law, and know that living within a respectful relationship with it is far more sustainable than the destruction of the human-created economic paradigm that is currently ravishing Mother Earth.

Regardless of this time-honoured Indigenous wisdom, Canada is claiming to “green-up Ottawa,” allowing a wealthy corporate developer to further desecrate Akikodjiwan and Akikpautik. Presently Canada, Ontario, and Ottawa are opening the doors that will lead to a private condominium and commercial complex where wealthy sports enthusiasts, boaters, and canoers will gain privileged access to the great waterway. This is a clear act of genocide.

The Minister of Environment and Climate Change Catherine McKenna, Member of Parliament for Ottawa Centre, is complicit in this genocide.

​Read about more fake feminists here: ON RECONCILIATION

​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