Chapter Eleven - “Indigenous Ideas: Diversity of Dignity”

In this chapter Judy recounts her experience working with two aboriginal communities in eastern and northern Ontario who were fighting to stop mining on their lands. Through the story of that struggle she explains what we can learn from indigenous ideas and practices in this time of change. The rise of indigenous leadership throughout the Americas in this time of crisis is no accident.

“Even though I had been thinking about these issues for a long time, I was deeply affected by his talk. Afterwards, I had to take a walk to let it really sink in. It has taken almost two decades to come to the point of understanding that not only do I have to listen to what people are saying, not only do I have to consciously use my heart as well as my head in the decisions that I make, but also that I might not have all the answers.
And I still have a long way to go. As Shakil Choudhury, a Toronto anti-racist educator says, “It’s a lifelong journey.”

Those of us with privilege have bought into the existing system—even me, and I’ve been a radical my whole life. The leadership of those who aren’t in the same place can inspire us to do what we need to do. Those who, as Evon Peter said so eloquently, have suffered terribly under this destructive system and survived are most likely to have the knowledge we need to get out of it. For me, there is no guilt in this at all. It is a conclusion I have come to after opening my mind and my heart to different ways of thinking and being, and seeing that often the people who are mostly likely able to resist the corruption of wealth and ego are the people who benefit least from the system as it is.”

Related Links:

Relevant Blog Entries:
http://transformingpower.ca/en/category/book-chapters/chapter-eleven

Ardoch Algonquins
http://www.aafna.ca/

Assembly of First Nations
http://www.afn.ca/

Bioneers
http://www.bioneers.org/

Chancoso, Blanca
http://www.narconews.com/Issue31/article864.html

Choudhury, Shakil
http://animaleadership.com/about-us/shakil-choudhury

CONAIE
http://conaie.nativeweb.org/

Gathering of Mother Earth Protectors (Clayton)
http://gatheringofmotherearthprotectors.blogspot.com/

Grassy Narrows: Resistance Against Clear-Cutting
http://friendsofgrassynarrows.com/

KI Six
http://freeki6.ca/

Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI)
http://www.bigtroutlake.firstnation.ca/

Lander, Edgardo
http://www.tni.org/detail_page.phtml?&act_id=17073&menu=13b

Mueller, Clayton, Thomas
http://www.dominionpaper.ca/articles/1458

Neetsaii Gwich’in (Arctic Village, Alaska) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gwich%CA%BCin

National Action Committee on the Status of Women (NAC)
http://www.nac-cca.ca/index_e.htm

North-South Partnership
http://www.northsouthpartnership.com/

Oka Crisis
http://archives.cbc.ca/politics/civil_unrest/topics/99/

Peter, Evon
http://www.evonpeter.net/

REDOIL (Resisting Environmental Destruction on Indigenous Land)
http://www.ienearth.org/redoil.html

Swain, Chrissy
http://www.envirowatch.org/chrissy.htm

United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/en/declaration.html

U.S. Social Forum
http://www.ussf2007.org/

World Social Forum (WSF)
http://www.forumsocialmundial.org.br/,
http://www.fsm2009amazonia.org.br/?set_language=en