Okay. So, with this video lecture, what I was hoping to do is address some of the Week 2 material and how, how it was chosen and how it relates to each other as we go through this week. There's a lot to cover. Really what I see the theme of this week's material is, is the relationship between indigenous and non-indigenous people and how it has developed over time. My focus is on Canada, and this is just because it's the area that I'm familiar with. It's what I know, the examples that I know. So I, I take examples from the development of the relationship between indigenous peoples on Turtle Island and the colonial powers initially European nations, and then the current settler nation states of Canada and the United States of America. Similar patterns of course can be observed in most commonwealth countries. And I'm not providing that discussion here but I think we'll certainly, people who are, are in places like Australia and New Zealand and other nations can certainly see the overlaps in the common themes. And we know what would be a good thing is, if people brought their own knowledge of examples similar examples to the forums to share with others. We'll get a bigger picture of how this relationship was developing elsewhere in, in different context and in different times. You know, one of the challenges with the relationship between Canada And indigenous people as breaking through the stereotypes. And so that's one of the reasons I, I started with, that lecture on stereotyping and, and, it's development and it's impact. Because there's just so much distance and misunderstanding of each other which is, you know, that happens in the absence of more informed and diverse experiences with each other. So, we tend to operate from stereotypes and assumptions when we don't have that direct experience to draw upon for our knowledge. The first lecture on stereotyping was meant to continue the discussion that was introduced by the film Barbeque Area. So, how does stereotyping work to reproduce more stereotypes? How do those ideas and notions become translated into attitudes and actions? Wab Kinew talks about some of those key stereotypes that Canadians have about Aboriginal people today. And so we see that the application and currency of stereotypes evolves and continues in the present moment and that's why I, I chose that clip. And so as noted in the lecture on stereotyping these polar notions of like the, the blood thirsty savage on one hand and the noble savage on the other circulated from earliest contact that existed before even meeting indigenous peoples of Turtle Island. So the notion of the wild man was certainly a myth that was quite prominent in Western Europe before setting, setting a way and making contact with the, the so called New World. As well as the various constructions of the Oriental subject, which would also play a roll in developing a notion of the Indian subject. Indian being the, the, the, the Americas[COUGH], and people there. So, this kind of, of orientalism which got applied to the new peoples. And Indianism, I think is what, what kind of developed from that. There's a lot to say about that but I want to move on to, in Canada, how did that relationship develop. And the development of that relationship is handily and breezily covered in Wab's walkthrough history. He describes how the relationship changed over time, and he references a number of key moments. The related resources attached to that video include a list of key dates in, Canada's history, vis-a-vis Aboriginal people. And also a, tongue and cheek overview of history from the acclaimed playwright and novelist, Drew Hayden,[COUGH], Drew Hayden Taylor. I want to address one of those real key moments in the relationship, and that is the Royal Proclamation of 1763. So, what's so important about this royal proclamation? Well, it basically set out the basis for recognizing Aboriginal title to the lands in, in Turtle Island as well as a basis for treaties with the crown going forward. So this, this interesting document this proclamation of King George [inaudible] kind of, at one point, acknowledges the fact that, that Indian nations are living here[COUGH] and it's their land. But then, in the same document kind of says that, that Britain has a right to these lands and that, that they have to treat for the lands through relationships with Indians. So that, that the crown is the body that has the right to negotiate land transfer that, that cannot be done through, through other means. You cannot do it with private citizens or, or other landholders. It has to be through the crown. So, what this essentially does is kind of acknowledges that everything that hasn't treaty attached to it is, is Aboriginal title. But at the same time, also says that the crown has to treat with Indians to have access to the lands, which happens to be seen as England's. So it's kind of a funny document that way. But[cough], without it we wouldn't have a treaty process as the regular legal channel for dealing with matters of land and resources. And Canada certainly inherited that notion when it confederated it in 18, when it confederated in 1867. And then, through the 1870s, you can see Canada starts to negotiate treaties with Aboriginal people across most of what is, is now Canada, from northwestern Ontario all the way to the Rockies. And so, the, the crown wanted the land. The Indians wanted to share the land in exchange for services in order to survive what they were seeing as a loss of lifestyle and to participate in a new economy. So really the chiefs who were entering into the treaties were thinking of long term survival for the people. They were seeing a change, was coming and they were you know, wanting to make the best possible deal that they could through the, through these treaties with, with, with the crown. You, you, we certainly have seen or heard the stories of how different languages and cultures coming together and entering into negotiation Resulted in some shared agreements but also, very different understandings of what was promised and we've seen that there's evidence of oral promises differing from the written text of the final treaties. And so, there there's a lot at stake with these treaties in terms of understanding the original spirit and intent of the oral agreements and then the also, what ended up being in the written text. And how there is a difference between these, there's also a difference in, world view coming together to talk about land. So, whereas Indians and turning into the treaties were, were thinking these were agreements about sharing of the land. You know, you too may use this land for your needs accessing resources and so forth. What becomes very clear in the written treaties as, as written up by the treaty negotiators after the fact of an agreement is the, the, the, the transfer of land was very much a part of what they were focusing on from that side of the party. As it, as it, applies to education, like one of the treaties say about education? The first seven numbered treaties. And I should mention, for those outside of Canada that in the 1870s the, the practice that was to start numbering the treaties. So treaty 1 and 2 were, negotiated and signed in 1871. Treaty 3 in 1873 and, and so forth, throughout the 1870s are a num, those first seven numbered treaties were negotiated. And they refer to the crown promising to provide schools and instruction or instruction would, you know, be a euphemism for teachers, I guess, to each community when it desired it or was prepared to receive it. So the wording of the treaties is, is that when the community is ready for it or, or desired it. So, this is why First Nations deem education as a treaty right. It's, it's laid out in those numbered treaties. And Canada, for its part, has historically maintained that its education obligations actually stem from the Indian Act, which has promised to extend education for. And this is a quote here. The purposes of civilizing, protecting, and cherishing this helpless race. So the, the Indian Act was first passed into law in 1876. Although a lot of the elements of the, the 1876 Indian Act actually were on the books throughout different regions of Canada prior to 1876. The Indian Act was a way of amalgamating and bringing together all of these different acts to deal with Indians. And consolidating it in, in some way. So what you see is, throughout the early 1870s, the treaties are being negotiated and promises are being made by the crown to the First Nations. And then the Indian Act comes about in 1876 and it defines things much more restrictively than, than the treaties do. So, it's kind of like the treaties are used to promise and to have, and, and retain the legal, you know, right to the land, and then the Indian Act comes and just sort of waters down all of the obligations that were promised in the treaties. It's really, the Indian Act is kind of a way of circumventing the promises made in treaty. So, in education as in most matters from the treaties, the, the promises made during the negotiations of treaties were ignored and circumvented by the Indian Act. And it, it's very important to kind of dwell on this for a second. The treaties were negotiated and agreed to by two parties. Now, putting aside all of those other problems in terms of differences of world view translating into different languages, and two different cultures. Meeting and talking about things and, and understanding these arrangements in different ways. Putting that aside, it was still a negotiated process where two parties agreed and this is very different from the Indian Act which is drafted and passed into law by just one of those two cultural parties. So really there was no consultation or input on the part of First Nations into the, the Indian Act and yet the Indian Act is you know, often used by Canada to say this is where our obligations stem from, not from the treaties. So really, the Indian Acts becomes this instrument of control and intense colonial power and sets the education relationship down a path of, of what we'll see as simulation and genocide, especially through the residential schools. So in Week 3, I provide a brief history of aboriginal education in Canada using this wheel, as an organizing principle. The, the wheel that, that divides up our history of relationship into precontacts, early contacts, Colonial period and Contemporary period. In Week 2, my goal was to use that, that wheel to talk about the relationships development. And I take some time in one of the video lectures to explain where this dividing up of history comes from. It, it comes from the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, which was a really important commission that existed in the early 1990s in Canada. So, I give a bit of context to that for, in one of the, the week's video lectures. Another one of the video lectures this week deals with indigenous knowledge. And I'm looking at it because it's important to have a sense of what it is today and how it has been marginalized by this development in the relationship over time. And I provide some examples of these teachers who attempt to maintain traditional practices, in a process of remembering and restoring how things were done in previous generations and they're included in the related resources. So, you can get a taste of how Jan Longboat from Six Nations is taking up her work and how Greg Cajete from Tewa Pueblo is doing this work as well. So, we, we get the sense of how, how you can work with the knowledge that's passed on from previous generations, but doing it in, in a contemporary moment. And so, it's, it's impossible, really, to kind of share a precontact understanding of indigenous knowledge and education. We can still get a sense of how revered traditional knowledge is. And how it gets taken up in the contemporary moment. To represent that early contact period, when indigenous people were still valued as important allies, both militarily and economically. I want to, to provide some examples of the recordings of that relationship between indigenous people and newcomers or settlers, to show what our understandings of the relationship were in the time between the Royal Proclamation of 1763 and the, the war of 1812. So what I've included is a resource here about Wampum and Jennifer Wemigwans created this resource for Parks Canada commemorating the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812. And she's done a great job introducing us to some of the really key Wampum agreements that recorded what the relationship was understood to be between, uh,different indigenous nations and you know, the, the in British Canada. And just to, to kind of change things up a little bit, I invited, Angela Mashford-Pringle from the Aboriginal Studies program at the University of Toronto, to talk a little bit about the relationship between health and education for Aboriginal people. So, how did the health and education status of aboriginal people get to be where it is now? And, and in doing so, we can see the impact of the Indian Act. We can see how treaty rights we circumvented. So our, our conversation while it's about making the links between health and education, touches on a lot of this history of the relationship's development from those, those early treaties up until today. And then finally the, the last piece of material for this week is an interview with Wab Kinew, sharing his families story of surviving residential school and how they are working on that relationship in the current moment. And, I gotta say, in all of this material through week, Week 2, we are still only just scratching the surface. But some important concepts begin to emerge, this notion of indigenous knowledge traditional knowledge, residential schooling, the 60s scoop treaty rights, and all of these things that, that are such an important part of the indigenous world view today, and how we experience education as indigenous people. So wait through it. There's a lot of things to get through. And there's a lot of learning we can do on the forums, too. So please pick an appropriate subforum post your questions, post your comments, post local examples of these, these concepts notions and issues. And we'll all learn from each other. It's been great to see everyone's comments and I really look forward to what people have to say.
