Why should my HARD EARNED tax dollars go to support the welfare lifestyle in Toronto

Occasionally (who am I kidding...constantly)I will see in the paper or on various news sites (usually CBC) stories about First Nations people getting a free ride. Usually this is accompanied by the usual "angry taxpayers" who are tired of all their money going to support the welfare lifestyle all of us "Indians" are used to living. Perhaps if these taxpayers would spend a little more time getting the facts instead of believing every biased piece of new they hear, they would understand just a bit more of the reality. According to Stats Canada, there are 1,172,785 people in Canada who identify as Aboriginal. There are 623,780 First Nation people in Canada, of which 237,000 live off-reserve (386,743 on reserve) Of these 623,780 First Nations people, 249,970 have working income of an average of $23,273. That works out to 40% The national average at the same time is $36,616 with a population of 17,662,915 working (57%) Now keep in mind that the average age for non- First Nation is 44, and 40% of the First Nation population is under 25 years of age and normally would not be working. So, when you subtract the 245,575 people who are under the age of 25, AND the 249,970 people who have a working income, you are left with 128,235. Also keep in mind that First Nations people living off reserve would not qualify for "native welfare" anyway. According to the real numbers, a lager amount goes to non-aboriginal welfare than does to native welfare. For example in Toronto alone there are approx 400,000 recipients of Social Assistance. If every First Nation person living on the reserve were to get welfare, that would be only 623,780 people. However, only approximately 128,235 would even qualify. Please consider these numbers the next time you complain about YOUR tax dollars going to support welfare in First Nation communities.

Honour Who?

Here are the words to a poem I wrote a couple months back for a workshop I am developing on the use of FN images by sports teams. Once I figure out how to post a video on here, I will put that on too..


Honour Who?

Atlanta Braves, Cleveland Indians, Washington Redskins.

Names to honour the gladiators of the day, powerful names.

Names to make you picture the Brave First Nation, the powerful Native American, the strong Indian.

Mascots wearing fluorescent yellow, orange, blue, and green feathers in their headdress, leftover acid trip hallucination, or was it the mushrooms?

Dancing wildly, wielding that ever so famous foam-filled tomahawk, a weapon that makes you…well…giggle, just a bit

Dancing, beating its mouth making that familiar sound that draws you back to your childhood, you know the sound, think back to Saturday mornings and the Bugs Bunny show.

The stands come alive.

Thousands and thousands of nerf tomahawks cut the air up and down in unison,

as the tens of thousands of fans for a brief second, relive the fond memories of playing cowboys and Indians in their innocent youth.

Guess which one I always was!!!

Cowboys and Indians, funny the games kids play.

As I look back in vaults in which I keep, catalogue, and categorize my own childhood memories, I wonder…

Funny how I can’t seem to recall the neighbourhood kids playing

Blacks and KKK,

little white caps made from newspaper,

Mom’s best white bed sheets,

knotted up skipping ropes for a noose.

Nope, can’t recall that game at all,

but I do remember kids coming back from K-mart with those

GOD DAMNED fluorescent feathers, guns and hats.

Remember the rolls and rolls of red ticker-tape caps….mmm…mmm…mmm the sweet sulphur scent of our youth.

But I digress.

The sea of fans with their cute toy tomahawks,

and there is always that one person, scratch that…

hundreds of people,

with the fluorescent face paint, that would make a clown jealous,

matching headdress from birds caught just a little too close to the latest nuclear fallout, that somehow instantly are transformed into the almighty brave,

after all,

isn’t that how it worked with the REAL INDIANS?

News flash folks.. don’t tell anyone, but,

that’s all make believe.

Seriously, now this might be hard for you to get through your media, no SOCIETAL, brainwashed melon, but picture it.

How the hell could a Mi’kmaq, Passamaquoddy, or Mohegan walk trough the dense brush wearing a nuclear reactive turkey on their head?

But wait…

There is one nation that looks like the brave, the warrior, the noble savage, of whom you idolize.

He is from the most well known tribe in the Americas,

as seen from coast to coast, the tribe that’s known the world over.

This brave you so eagerly honour and strive to be is from the Hollywood Tribe.

Yes, that fictitious character created from the imagination of two popular Americans we all know,

famous “what sells”

and his older, more famous brother, “Let’s keep a race down”

The racial stereotypes these two brothers have perpetrated and perpetuated

have caused a rip in the fabric of time,

in the quilt of culture,

in the identity of…us

I have seen these stereotypes weave their way into the collective culture of my people, my Mi’kmaq Brothers,

Mohegan sisters,

Walula, Tillamook, Coos, and Tututni cousins.

Cultures implanted, borrowed, and shared,

impregnation, assimilation..working just fucking fine.

You want to honour us?

Remove these names from your teams.

Begin to realize, using them,

the Braves, Indians, Redskins,

is no honour..

DISHONOUR!

Forget the Hollywood tribe, the circling of the wagons made popular by movies,

first introduced by the great showman and metal of honour winner

Buffalo Bill Cody.

Back in his day, white folk would dress up as the Hollywood Tribe

and circle the pioneers’ wagons in the show.

Not because that’s how it was, but because

that’s how it HAD to be.

You see… they performed in a ring, horses going round and round.

Amazing how Hollywood blurs the line between fact and fiction…

culutralistic facts, naw..Eurolistic fiction.

White guys, dressing up as Natives, 100 years ago,

interesting how time stands still when you want it to.

So,

next time you stand in line,

tomahawk in one hand,

ticket in the other,

fluorescent face paint with matching headdress,

pounding on you face to make that goddamn sound,

do me a small favour…pound just a little bit harder,

cause you sure as hell are not honouring me.H

Happy Canada Day

Happy 143 birthday to our free country. Free, let us look at this word. I live in a country where if I wear traditional regalia to a gathering or any other public place I can be assured one out of three people I meet will say "nice costume". However, bluenotes and teeshirts are considered clothes. Any clothing not considered mainstream is relegated to costume status, something one might wear on Halloween. I live in a country that embraces other cultures. Embraces them for a weekend in various cities around the country, usually for a weekend, but only if the 5 D's are involved; dress, dinner, dance, dialect, and drum. We call them multicultural festivals. They are a time where people can go and watch the entertainment and feast on exotic foods..because anything outside of mainstream has that exotic label. In other cultures, it is called just food. A country where if my children qualify for a scholarship targeted for strictly their culture, I can be assured that the comments in the audience will consist of "great use of MY taxpayers dollars" or "where are the scholarships for the white students?" Based on a the systemic and institutional racism that plagues not only our schools, but the curriculum itself, the majority of scholarships are designed for whites only (but to come out and say that would be considered racist, but the comments of taxpayers dollars and on designated scholarships is not...it is freedom of speech. A country where, speaking of freedom of speech, our federally funded broadcasting corporation, will allow racist comments to be posted on any story relating to minorities, but refuse to post comments from someone who points out the truth about topics such as racial profiling, racist attitudes to minority communities, the abuse our elders faced in the government sanctioned residential schools, and the continued legacy they carry. A country where the government loves to announce the billions of taxpayers dollars that goes towards the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs, without mentioning the majority of that money goes to the bureaucracy that it is. That money goes to White folks who run the department, not us. And it is not only you tax dollars, mine go there too. A country where a racist action from a white youth can be brushed off as a confused person, who in most circumstances, was just carrying on..kids will be kids. But when a Black or Native youth lashes out because they have dealt with upwards of 40 racial incidents...by lunch, they are considered violent, dangerous to society, angry, disrespectful, criminals, and example of whats wrong with their race. A country where if a white community has water problems, it is a disaster and the government will help right away. After all, clean water is a basic human right. However, we still live in a country where over 112 First Nation communities do not have access to water clean enough to wash their hands.
Happy Birthday Canada, you do not look a day over one when it comes to racism. Do not get me wrong, I love my country, I only wish it would love me back

Does not quite fit, but too funny to pass up

Ok, rule number 1 when you write a blog is only add things that pertain to the subject. However, I have to break that rule because of something I read this morning that puts all of my other CBC blogs into crystal clear perspective. I have been writing for some time now about the ignorant and racist comments to article on the CBC website. After a reader's response to an article about the government's new rules for mink...yes...mink farms, I started to think "Ahh..this explains EVERYTHING!" Are you ready for this? I am still shaking my head at this one:
"I am so glad that chicken, pork, beef, lamb, fish etc that I purchase at the supermarket don't cost the lives of any animals like happens if I purchase from a farm. All farms that raise animals for food or any other reason should be outlawed, they're not needed in this modern world when we can just go to one of the bigger stores and purchase our meat there."
I had to read this 3 times, go have a shower (to make sure I was awake and not dreaming) and come back to read it once more...yup..still there, I am awake. This sheds a little more light on where all these other comments are coming from

Keep Stepping Constance

Close your eyes. Imagine your senior prom soon close at hand. Tux, check. Fits perfect and you look amazing in it. Your girlfriend has picked out a beautiful dress and she looks stunning. The day is getting closer and you can not wait. After all, is prom not suppose to be the most important time of your teenage life? Suddenly the prom is canceled. Will no longer be held. The Itawamba County School District reports it is "Due to the distractions to the educational process caused by recent events". Everyone at the school is extrememly upset. What events could lead to the cancelation of the most important night in a students life? In case you have not heard, the distraction is 18 year old Constance McMillen. Did she threaten anyone at the school? Did she bring weapons to school? Did she tell someone she was planning something for prom night? Well, actually yes. The "distraction to the educational process, was nothing more than her wanting to share the importance of the prom with her date, who happens to be her girlfriend. Constance simply wanted to wear a tuxedo to the prom and be accompanied by her date, her girlfriend. The school has stated this goes against policy and has decided to cancel the prom instead, leaving many of her classmates extremely mad at her. As if it is not hard enough for the torment and ridcule many young LGBTQ people face in society already, a school has to throw another log on the fire by making, no, provoking, her classmates to turn against her. Thankfully, this will not stop here. The American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi has filed a lawsuit in order to force the school to hold the prom. Good luck Constance. You are a role model for many people. Do not give up, and be proud of your stand. For those of you who are thinking this is a south thing, I can not really blame you. Was it not in Mississippi that a school still found it neccessary to hold segregated proms, one for Black students, and one for White students? However, please keep in mind that the only thing that seperates Canada from the US is the largest imaginary line in the world. Think back to 2002 when a gay student in Toronto wanted to bring his boyfriend to the prom. Seems to me it want the same way. The school refused based on his sexual orientation. The courts forced the school to hold the prom, and forced them l to let him attend. It is the small fearful steps taken by youth like Constance that make the biggest change...keep stepping.

For those who say racism is a thing of the past, please stick you head deeper in the sand

Recently in Winnipeg and add went up in the classifieds that, I am hoping, will be investigated as a hate crime. There is no excuse for it.

Native Extraction Service
Have you ever had the experience of getting home to find those pesky little buggers hanging outside your home, in the back alley or on the corner???Well fear no more, with my service I will simply do a harmless relocation. With one phone call I will arrive and net the pest, load them in the containment unit (pickup truck) and then relocate them to their habitat.It doesn't matter if they need to be dropped off on Salter (Street, in Winnipeg's North End) or the rez, I will go that extra mile. The North End of Winnipeg is where many city dwellers of First Nations descent live.My service is free because I want to live in the same city you do, a clean one.

I am sure many will agree there is no excuse for this ad, no justification for the treatment of aboriginal youth as nothing more than animals. But wait, maybe there is. After all, our government still produces maps with two distinct features. If you look closely you will notice on government produced maps, the symbols WRxx and IRxx (where xx are numbers). These stand for Wildlife Reservation and Indian Reservation. Our communities are identified THE SAME as wildlife reserves. If our government still sees us as animals, maybe that is an excuse for such a hateful ad.
Thankfully, there are good people out there. Folks at UsedEverywhere.com removed the ad after complaints. They also issued an apology and will be turning over all information to the police. To them, I say thank you

Avatar and the perpetuating myth of White Supremacy

So I finally broke down after down right refusal and went to see Avatar. It was extremely difficult for me to bring myself to walk into the theatre and buy the tickets. As a matter of fact when I was at the ticket booth, the words "two for Avatar" took just a bit longer to roll off my tongue. I have been talking about the underlying messages of this movie for some time now, but figured I better see it so I can justify my reasoning. I was told going into the movie that I was coming into the experience (movie watching) with a predetermined mindset. With this I agree. However, every white person going to see this movie is going into it with a predetermined mindset as well. One carved out with such media events as Pocahontas, The Lone Ranger, and Indian in the Cupboard. The completely false and damaging movie Disney put out in 1995 depicted a love affair between Pocahontas and John Smith. The movie shows a beautiful, tanned woman (who seemed to look very Mediterranean) and the tall fit John Smith. The entire movie focused around the love between the two, leading up to the white guy (Smith) becoming somewhat of a savior to the "savage natives". No mention of the fact that Matoaka (Pocahontas' real name) was only 11 at the time and was indeed captured, raped, etc. The Lone Ranger was friend and protector of the "savage native". They can not protect themselves so a white hero (ironically wearing a white hat, after all, white is good and black is evil) has to do the job, because his mastery of their skills is so much better. As Pocahontas helped seal the false story, so too did the Lone Ranger seal the countless people I have met over the years who put their hand in the air and say "HOW". Which leaves the Indian in the Cupboard, a children's movie based on the book of the same name. This books takes things one step further in the whole natives can not take care of themselves mindset, by creating a scenario whereas a very young white child becomes more than a protector to the native, but in a sense a deity. He, after all, provides Little Bear (a name that sounds of inferiority) with all of his needs for survival. If you are familiar with Maslow's hierarchy, you can follow the pyramid from the bottom to the top throughout the movie, without missing a step.
So that is how white folks too are going into this movie with a predetermined mindset. Back to Avatar. As everyone knows, this movie reeks of colonialism. In particular, the colonialism that has been felt on the shore of North America for over 400 years. Some of the script in the movie used "savage natives" "we have given them education, drugs, what more do the want" "this place is covered in trees, they can move to another one". I found as I got deeper into Avatar, I got more and more angry. Not so much because of the colonialism and forcible taking of the land from an indigenous people (that is all too familiar and ingrained in my mind already) but from the deity role once again given to a white guy over the people. Amazingly, he was able to master all the skills of Na'vi in just three months, pulling on the strings of white superiority. Not only did he master these skills with ease, but he went one step further and excelled to the point of mastery that only 5 Na'vi have ever achieved in the collective history of the people (once again, an even harder pull on the white superiority strings) In the end the movie turns out dramatically different that the colonialism faced here in North America, the one positive note to the movie. However, as the Na'vi homeland is being destroyed for the ever precious unobtanium (how corny is that??), the natives/Na'vi quickly realize they are unable to defeat the colonizers with out the help of their new white deity. Ironically this is after a speech where he declares himself "one of them" and refers to the place as his homeland.
So after losing so much sleep last night due to the thoughts running around my head, here I am. Angry? yes. Saddened? yes. Surprised? no. Did I go into this movie with a predetermined mindset? Absolutely. Has it changed? Drastically. This entire movie is a package. It has all the beautiful adornments one might expect from a package, beautiful wrapping paper and bows in the form of a lush beautiful scenery with glowing flowers, scantly clad slim native women, wonderful 3-d animations, and amazing special effects. But like any package, it is what's inside that matters. And if you unwrap this package to its core, it is all about white supremacy and the dependence of all others cultures/races on them.