An excerpt of a letter............
I say “Anishinaabe” and not “aboriginal” intentionally, for this is who I am and how you should understand me. Regarding our relationship, I’m from Treaty #3 Territory. I’m a lawyer. I have a graduate degree from Yale Law School where last year I was a Fulbright scholar.
I am writing to you, all my relations Indigenous and other, because in all I have seen and felt in 31 years, now is the most afraid I have been for you and for myself, the most ashamed I have been of my Prime Minister and of my Governor General, and the most proud I have been of my Indigenous relations and so importantly, our settler allies who have surprised and amazed me. I am humbled by their good words and actions.
I want to explain these statements and to share my feelings with you about the historical moment we are witnessing. In so doing, I speak only for myself. Although I support many of the actions organized as part of the Idle No More movement, I don’t represent it. I’ve been as surprised and overwhelmed by it as have many of you.
I can think of many things of which Canadians might be fearful today: the impacts of global warming and climate change; loss of jobs, pensions or benefits; war; an ailing and inadequate health care system; increasingly authoritarian and antidemocratic domestic governance; federal indifference to the murder of Indigenous women. These are just a few of many serious issues we face together and I am gravely concerned about each. I am terrified, however, of what may happen if Chief Spence dies of hunger.
I do not want you to “go home”; this is your home and I will defend your right to be here. As partners in Treaty with Indigenous peoples, you have a treaty right to be here and I honour that. Feel no guilt about it. I have learned much from you and your ancestors and I am grateful. More practically, through my mother, who is not of Indigenous ancestry, I am you and there are many like me. I honour your presence here.
You, too, must honour mine. That means that you do not get to tell me to live like you, if this is not how I choose to live. Indigenous peoples are not minorities who moved here on your terms. We are not stakeholders. We are not an interest group. We are treaty partners and but for our partnership there would be no Canada today. My relations are buried throughout this land you rightly call home. They lived and died here long before you knew your present home existed. It is not for you or your leaders to decide how a life should be lived for both of us. This is what we agreed to. When your leaders presume to decide how my life should be lived or what values I should have, they have given up representing my interests and they are no longer my leaders too. This is my belief and I will defend it. To the best of my understanding, this is what Idle No More is about. Indigenous Canada wants a just and respectful relationship with the state and with non-Indigenous Canadians, not one premised on unacknowledged and tacitly accepted continuing colonial violence. All my non-Indigenous relations, if you accept less than an end to colonial violence, have you not quietly accepted that Indigenous Canadians are worth less than you?
all of it
An open letter to all my relations: On Idle No More, Chief Spence and non-violence | rabble.ca
I say “Anishinaabe” and not “aboriginal” intentionally, for this is who I am and how you should understand me. Regarding our relationship, I’m from Treaty #3 Territory. I’m a lawyer. I have a graduate degree from Yale Law School where last year I was a Fulbright scholar.
I am writing to you, all my relations Indigenous and other, because in all I have seen and felt in 31 years, now is the most afraid I have been for you and for myself, the most ashamed I have been of my Prime Minister and of my Governor General, and the most proud I have been of my Indigenous relations and so importantly, our settler allies who have surprised and amazed me. I am humbled by their good words and actions.
I want to explain these statements and to share my feelings with you about the historical moment we are witnessing. In so doing, I speak only for myself. Although I support many of the actions organized as part of the Idle No More movement, I don’t represent it. I’ve been as surprised and overwhelmed by it as have many of you.
I can think of many things of which Canadians might be fearful today: the impacts of global warming and climate change; loss of jobs, pensions or benefits; war; an ailing and inadequate health care system; increasingly authoritarian and antidemocratic domestic governance; federal indifference to the murder of Indigenous women. These are just a few of many serious issues we face together and I am gravely concerned about each. I am terrified, however, of what may happen if Chief Spence dies of hunger.
I do not want you to “go home”; this is your home and I will defend your right to be here. As partners in Treaty with Indigenous peoples, you have a treaty right to be here and I honour that. Feel no guilt about it. I have learned much from you and your ancestors and I am grateful. More practically, through my mother, who is not of Indigenous ancestry, I am you and there are many like me. I honour your presence here.
You, too, must honour mine. That means that you do not get to tell me to live like you, if this is not how I choose to live. Indigenous peoples are not minorities who moved here on your terms. We are not stakeholders. We are not an interest group. We are treaty partners and but for our partnership there would be no Canada today. My relations are buried throughout this land you rightly call home. They lived and died here long before you knew your present home existed. It is not for you or your leaders to decide how a life should be lived for both of us. This is what we agreed to. When your leaders presume to decide how my life should be lived or what values I should have, they have given up representing my interests and they are no longer my leaders too. This is my belief and I will defend it. To the best of my understanding, this is what Idle No More is about. Indigenous Canada wants a just and respectful relationship with the state and with non-Indigenous Canadians, not one premised on unacknowledged and tacitly accepted continuing colonial violence. All my non-Indigenous relations, if you accept less than an end to colonial violence, have you not quietly accepted that Indigenous Canadians are worth less than you?
all of it
An open letter to all my relations: On Idle No More, Chief Spence and non-violence | rabble.ca
