Finding the Peace Path: “Our people are over symbolism” (Peter Buckskin) WIPCE PART 4 (research notes 3)

On this page you will find my notes on:

1) Tauli Corpuz, Victoria , et al. (2017), ‘International Perspectives on Reconciliation Panel Session’, paper given at WIPCE 2017, Toronto, 28 July 2017.

2) the bibliographical references of all sessions I attended

3) the link to my Indigenous Languages Related page. 

Friday morning session, July 28, 2017

Victoria Tauli Corpuz, UN Special Rapporteur Indigenous leader from Philipines.
Catherine Hopper, South Africa Truth and Reconciliation Commission
Peter Buckskin, Former Chair of Reconciliation Australia, Adelaide
John Ralston Saul, Essayist and Novelist
Wilson Littlechild, Cree Chief

Panel moderated by Rick Hill

Catherine Hopper. The truth and the TLC didn’t really deal with indigenous peoples. TLC surpassed tensions between races. Didn’t focus on Indigenous people but we seized on the avenues that had been opened. We wanted indigenous knowledge to come up to the fore. If we focus on culture, we would lose, so we focused on knowledges. We placed knowledges in order for indigenous knowledge to be recognized and picked on it

Buckskin: in Australia, we are on a discovery journey. We haven’t got anywhere near a reconciliation agenda. Our people are over symbolism, they want rights, reciprocity, the recognition of Australian’s racism. We see that the journey is growing and that more people want to understand and recognize the first Australians.

John: I regret that it is not called Truth, Reconciliation and Restitution. It seems to me that there is an enormous intellectual battle going on. Not simply indigenous but the NA theory has been moving from disaster to disaster. A lot of the answers lie in the indigenous knowledge to make change happen in our thought and talks. Gets worse with the footnoting of truths which does not work.

Wilson: First class action on Residential schools. Mandate was huge and difficult. It was about what happened to children you take away from their parents for 10 months out of each year through 10 years. It hurts me too much to tell you how much it hurts to be separated from your child. ‘Resilience is about getting up each time that you’re not down’ 7000 stories from Coast to Coast to Coast. One really captures a lot of the history. A 12 year old boy asked his dad why he always beat him up when he was drunk and he replied I remember my dad doing the same. So they went to the grandfather. The grandfathe couldn’t answer either and they went to the great-grandfather: I couldn’t run fast enough to run away from the RS and I ran to the bar. I waited for someone to buy alcohol and then I went home and beat up your great-grandmother. Cycle of violence because of RS legacy. They wanted to kill the Indian in the Child. Take their name away and replace it with number. My RS was 65 (“come here, idiot, 65”). .
You are resilient: The very thing that was used to hurt our languages and education, but it’s education that will take us out of this mess.

Moderator: the wounds go so deeply. What works and doesn’t work?

Victoria: I learned a lot from my visits, It shouldn’t focus on recent violation but we have to take into the historical context in which this injustice and abuse happened. Not focus only on written and archival material but also on oral rituals. There should be innovations in terms of looking into values of Indigenous people. In most of these processes, very little of the recommendations are implemented so far. So despite very significant recommendations, they are not taking into account.

Peter: Abo are the oldest culture of humanity. We don’t see ourselves as victims but as survivers and first Australia. We bring our knowledge to the forefront. In Australia, they still believe there’s only one knowledge system and it’s very british and white and academic. So the challenge for us is to enhance our own knowledge

Catherine: the disciplins try to mess up society. We need to identify people who are cognizent of the rules of these disciplins in order to come up with a deep project of transformation. Therefore we can become masters of our discourse and be the owners of the game.

? Realistic expectations? what did you think was going to happen and what really happen? One of our fears is that our recommendations were going to be put on a shelf like all others, collecting dust. We’ve had enough studies and recommendations. The easiest word to ignore when studies are done is recommendations, so we discided to call our report a Call to Actions to different segments of society. It’s about reconciliaction! I’ve been to 100 communities since we tabled our report and am happy of what’s happening at the Prime Minister’s level, Provincial level, Chiefs, our leaders. Positive engagement across the country. Private industry is using our CTA to alter their policy. Academic institutions: all the colleges of a Province gathered and came out with the 5 year plan on education. Much different set of circumstances since we’ve come up.

John: there seems to have been a breakthrough in the public atmosphere. Up to 2 years ago the public was unsure and suddenly they caught on. The barrier now is not the politics or the people but the Institutions. The ministers have changed their name but I feel it’s still the Ministry of Indian Affairs. The Indigenous have been incredibly patient, to put mildly.

Littlechild: We established a council to monitor the implementation but this still needs to be done. So despite the good results, this recommendation hasn’t been followed through. One potential opportunity is the new group of Ministers who have been assigned to examine how they comply with the UN declaration on Indigenous peoples. Good things are happening but no one is monitoring them.

Peter: Stolen generation, women are increasingly removed from home based on child protection based on the Report. There’s still challenges and priviledge of common laws that runs through our space. 3/4 of the Aussie population believe that they have to achieve reconciliation. My question is what are the key result? An action plan is good because it makes people feel good, but it’s not achieving what it should.

Catherine: I’m appointed by the SA Parliament to monitor the progress. What is my role? it is incombent on me to try and figure out what wolves are preying on my children. My children have to go further than me. Law, Science, Economy and Education are involved as approaches.

Victoria: let’s take it from the UN declaration, effective participation of Indigenous peoples is crucial. Acknowledging the pluricultural nature of any country.
Catherine: we have to develop tactics (to focus on challenges that surround you) and strategies (for medium and long term). and be on top of it
Peter: we want a more open and transparent conversation. Through our shared story, history and impact of settlement on our people. Knowledge system that sustained us from time immemorial
John: Education in this country needs to be indigenous led in the North and not an extension of the Southern model.’
Will: a friend told me: “I’ve been working on reconciliation for ten years but in fact, reconciliation begins with me”

This concluded WIPCE for me. Here are all the references you can find in my papers from the opening day, art considerations, first conference day, second conference day and third conference day (on the present page). I’d love to read your notes as well and find that the topic of Indigenous Languages in the City is definitely a topic I’ll keep an eye on. Thanks to everyone who made this incredible meeting possible. Hats off!

These references will be included shortly into my alphabetical bibliography I’m all too happy to share with you as well as on the Indigenous languages Related Page on this blog

Anonymous (2016), ‘Canadian Human Rights Tribunal Decisions on First Nations Child Welfare and Jordan’s Principle’, (Canadian Human Rights Tribunal).
Benett, Caroline (2017), ‘Keynote Speech at WIPCE’, paper given at WIPCE 2017, Toronto, 24-28 July 2017.
Canada, Government (2013), ‘BACKGROUNDER: Aboriginal Offenders – A Critical Situation’.
Halonen, Lars-Joar and Ingebringten, Ludvik (2017), ‘Challenges of language revitalization in an institutional context’, paper given at WIPCE 2017, Halonen, Lars-Joar
Ingebringten, Ludvik, 24-28 July 2017.
Hill, Rick (2017), ‘The Haudenosaunee Confederacy Chiefs Council’, paper given at WIPCE 2017, Toronto, 24-28 July 2017.
Jamieson, Rebecca (2017), ‘A celebration of Indigenous Resilience’, paper given at WIPCE 2017, Toronto, 24-28 July 2017.
Radio Canada, émission y’a pas deux matins pareils, Conférence mondiale des Autochtones sur l’éducation à Toronto: Rencontre avec Daphné Romy et Monique Castonguay (2017).
Rogers, Jessa (2017), ‘photoyarn: The power of Indigenous storytelling in Education: a New Zealand/Maori perspective’, paper given at WIPCE 2017, Toronto, 24-28 July 2017.
Tauli Corpuz, Victoria , et al. (2017), ‘International Perspectives on Reconciliation Panel Session’, paper given at WIPCE 2017, Toronto, 28 July 2017.
Te Hau-Grant, Rawhia (2017), ‘Te Ara Whakamua- the Pathway Forward’, paper given at WIPCE 2015, 24-28 July 2017.
Teale, Alan (2017), ‘New South Wales: Governance and its impact on education
‘, paper given at WIPCE 2017, 24-28 July 2017.
Trudeau, Justin (2015), ‘Statement by Prime Minister on release of the Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’.
Williams, Shayne T. (2017), ‘Localising aboriginal cultural education in New South Wales, Australia’, paper given at WIPCE 2017, Toronto, 24-28 July 2017.

Additional handouts:

Sami, Teaching ‘Web portal’,(click on the link)

Sami teaching material, information about Sami teaching including a collection of images, digital resources, as well as books, movies and CD that may be borrowed. The target group for the service includes nursery school teachers, and teachers in primary and secondary school. In the webportal you may find all materials about the Sami languages and the Sami people in other languages including a production tool for digital teaching materials to create your own web resources.
Web editor: Lasse Wigelius, tel. +47 90 54 66 81 lasse.wigelius@ovttas.no

Museum, Canadian Language (2011), ‘The Canadian Language Museum, Le Musée canadien des langues’, (Toronto: Glendon College of York University ), Museum.

The Canadian Language Museum was established in 2011 to promote an appreciation of all the languages spoken in Canada and of their role in the development of this nation. Few countries can match Canada’s rich and varied language heritage, which includes Aboriginal languages from coast to coast, the official languages of French and English and their regional dialects, and the many languages brought to this country by more recent immigrants. The Canadian Language Museum encourages dialogue on language issues that are central of the future of Canadian society, such as bilingualism, multilingualism, and language endangerment, preservation and revitalization.

Sami, Allaskuvla (2017), ‘Sami University of Applied Sciences and Sami language in education’.

The Sami University of Applied Sciences provides:
Sami language from beginner’s level to Ph.D. level
An indigenous perspective on all levels of education
Education of high quality and closeness to fellow students and teachers
An opportunity to experience a unique year of study at the gathering point for Sami yough
Possibilities to borrow technical Equipent.
Research activities are mainly: linguistics, history (including law history and history of religions), traditional arts, reindeer husbandry, pedagogy, cultural anthropology, and journalism. Research interests of the university staff also include biology, mathematics, philosophy, and entrepreneurship. The institute publishes a scientific publication, diedut and Sami diedalas aigecala (sami scientific journal).
Sami University of applied sciences was established in 1989 with the purpose to streghten Sami competence and cover the need of the Sami societies. Sami Univrsity of AS has a pan-Sami profile with students and staff from all around the Sami region. it has approximately 150-200 students and 100 employees. It is the only educational institution that uses the North Sami language in both research studies and management.
“We are a small institution that has an international environment. We educate so called “Sami ambassadors”, offer interenational indigenous studies and study tours to other indigenous areas. Sami University of Applied Sciences is also in the Arctic universities cooperation UArctic and is also accredited at the highest level in the network for Indigenous higher education World Indigenous Higher Education Consortium.

The University includes the Centre for Sami Language in Education:
national tests in Saami languages in Norway: Karen Inga Eira (karen-inga.eira@samiskhs.no) is project leader for these tests which are a part of the national evaluation programme of education provided by the Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training. It provides information on the pupils’ basik skills, and a basis for improvement and development in the school.

Facts about Saami language speaking pupils in Norwegian school system:
You can have Saami language as a first language (L1) or as a second language (L2)
Only pupils with L1 take the national test.
Pupils with Sami as a first language represent 80-110 pupils per year. Many of those pupils get their instruction in Saami language and most subjects and lessons at school. The vast majority hasNorthern Saami language as their native language.

The reason for separating national tests in reading in Saami language is that “we have our own Saami curriculum, which differs from the national Norwegian curriculum in many ways, we have different literature and teaching materials, written in Saami languages which the pupils are familiar with, the literatures used in Saami schools are grounded on Saami culture, history, communities and oral traditions -different from the literatures in Norwegian also concerning cultural references and world view. (…)

Aboriginal, Sport and Wellness Council of Ontario (2017), ‘Indigenous Youth Leadership Project’, in Sports and Tourism Ministry of Culture (ed.).

The Aboriginal Sport and Wellness Council of Ontario (ASWCO) is the Provincial Territorial Aboriginal Sport Body (PTASB) for Ontario and provides input and services around the North American Indigenous Games, National Aboriginal Hockey Championships, Multi-sport and cultural Camps, and in many regional games through Ontario and Canada. ASWCO promotes healthy living and offers training, certifications and support for coaches, athletes and other organizations in each of the 8 regions: Northwest, North Central, Northeast, Central, Southeast and Southwest Ontario.
Indigenous Youth Leadership Project
The ASWCO has received funding from the Ontario Ministry of Tourism, Culture and sport. This project has been divided into 4 compoenents:
1) A series of community-based discussions on Indigenous Yough Leadership and change for Indigenous Youths’ future.
2) An annual gathering for Indigenous yough and Ambassadors to learn and grow, Indigenous Yough Leadership Retreat
3) An Indigenous Leaders-in-Training Program
4) a series of Invitational Youth Leadership Stakeholders Meetings.