Friends, the matter of education is not only about finding out information, or things you need to know. The main – and most valuable part – is to learn to read in between the lines, to what a story is really saying.
You begin to know how to think for yourself.
Stories in News/North, for instance, of the recent largesse in the form of monies allotted to women's groups – in total almost half a million dollars (“Feds fund Indigenous women's prosperity” Aug. 6), make you want to jump for joy inside.
What with all this talk of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women these acts of benevolence are no mistake.
The populist Trudeau Government, for instance, plays a clever game, basically pitting the public off against Indigenous Peoples.
A recent rather large federal government sum granted for women at first certainly sets the government in a very positive and glowing light.
But when you think of the timing, just about when the Dene Nation is set for its Annual General Assembly, you have to ask yourself, ‘what are these monies, for housing and ‘economic gain’, really all about?'
As a continuing part of my Indigenous PhD Studies, one person who really knows how to make you think behind the story is Cree lawyer, Sharon Venne, who has ties to the Yellowknives Band.
She talks about a familiar pattern which the federal government has used right from the start, that of setting two parts against the middle.
In most cases this has to do with the government granting provinces the rights to power usually accorded to Indigenous reservations by treaty.
This political tactic is used just about every single day of the year, and to good effect.
The Dene Nation has been rendered ineffective, now virtually just another social interest group, because of these well-planned moves.
Even the president of the National Assembly of First Nations becomes a victim, being blamed for getting too cozy with government, when trying to make some progress.
The tactic of playing both sides against the middle is as old as any form of human encounter, especially used at times of election.
So, friends, when you hear of programs like the Native Women’s Association being on the receiving end of needed monies to operate, the idea isn’t just about goodwill, or righting past wrongs.
When you begin to appreciate what Venne has to say, about settler colonialism, for instance, the process of land settlements and ‘self-government’, too, fall right into place.
The idea is to lull us to complacency, forgetting that organizations like the Dene Nation are left to do as they have for the past half-century, hat-in-hand to the government.
Mahsi, thank you.