Decolonizing Dichotomies

While linear thinking and dichotomies do have limitations, sometimes they also serve a purpose in getting people to think outside the colonial box.  Here is a list of words, terms, and phrases to think through in helping you decolonize your mind and as such move deeper into the Indigenous paradigm.

Benefits / Rights
Extinguish / Sharing
Assimilation / Sovereignty
Relinquish / Retain
Land Claim / Treaty
Culture / Philosophy
Habit / Ritual
Song as Entertainment / Song as Prayer and Medicine
Volunteer / Responsibility
Environment / Natural World
Individual / Relational
Agenda / Vision
Mind / Body
Humour / Medicine
Reason / Wholism
Talking / Listening
Emotional / Women’s Wisdom
Child Rearing / Governance Teachers
Criticizing / Critical Thinking
Written / Orality
Economy / Morality
Seven Days of Creation / Four Orders of Creation
Owners / Settlers
Take / Give
Animals / Siblings
Periodic Chart of Elements / The Sacred Elements
Equality / Equity
Unlimited Growth / Subsistence
Religion / Way of life
Stephan Harper / Elijah Harper
Classes / Clans
Knowledge is a Commodity / Knowledge Unfolds
Superficial Meaning / Meaning is Layered
Soldiers / Warriors
Regime / Leadership
Seniors / Elders
Opinion / Wisdom
Gossip / Oral tradition
Competition / Co-operation
Humanistic Tradition / Naturalistic Tradition
Intelligence Quotation / Indigenous Knowledge
Provincial Federalism / Treaty Federalism
Resource / Respect
Line / Circle
Objective / Subjective
Truth / truths
Know / Perceive
Borrowing / Cultural Appropriation
Feminist / Indigenist

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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 Ontario Algonquin land claims and self-government process.  She has three books: Anishinaabeg Stories: Featuring Petroglyphs, Petrographs, and Wampum Belts, The Truth that Wampum Tells: My Debwewin of the Algonquin Land Claims Process, and Mkadengwe: Sharing Canada's Colonial Process through Black Face Methodology. You can reach her at [email protected] and see more of her work at www.lynngehl.com.

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