There was a good turnout for the IWD rally and conference last Saturday, March 6, 2010. There was singing and clapping, speeches, and drumming.
A wide spectrum of groups was in attendance.

Laura Holland, from AWAN (Aboriginal Women’s Action Network), spoke from the “Nothing to Report” report submitted by the BC CEDAW group which is
Committed to Eliminating Discrimination against Women and ensuring the
BC government complies with its human rights obligations to women. By
the end of 2009, Canada was to have reported back to the United
Nations’ CEDAW group on steps it has taken to implement two central
concerns:

• Women’s poverty and inadequate social assistance rates, and

• Police and government failure to prevent or effectively investigate violence against Aboriginal women and girls

To date, there has been no government response.

The number one concern is the murdered and missing women and girls. There are 520 known, documented cases of Aboriginal women and girls who have
gone missing or been murdered across the country over the last 30 years.

Walk 4 Justice has carried out a walk across Canada each summer for the last four years to talk with Aboriginal families and communities about
missing women. From anecdotal evidence, Walk 4 Justice believes that
there are many more cases of missing and murdered Aboriginal women and
girls that have gone undocumented by police or media. Most Aboriginal
and human rights organizations agree that the count of missing and
murdered Aboriginal women and girls is likely much higher, likely in
the thousands.

Laura went on to say that the issues are of Olympic proportions and she called for justice, a public inquiry, closure for the grieving families, and an end to the systemic racism
that is creating this situation. She said that racist and sexist
violence against all women must be stopped. That there have been no new
charges since the Pickton trial and the fact that Pickton was not fully
prosecuted is a reflection of the systemic racism in British Columbia.
More women and children have disappeared since Pickton’s trial. It is
an inadequate and embarrassing police and government response for those
who have long been aware of the pattern of racist violence against
Aboriginal women and children.

Laura closed by calling for the political will to create a change, a commitment to investigating charges of violence immediately, a basic correction in
the system, justice and dignity.

Jerilynn Webster sang her poem, “It’s Too Late to Apologize.” She said Indigenous women in Canada are dying. Stephen Harper’s apology to Aboriginal peoples is too
late and it was only given so there would be no Human Rights charges
laid against Canada. 50,000 Aboriginal children are unaccounted for
since the residential school system was implemented. The residential
schools taught parents and grandparents a violence that they passed on.
Aboriginal peoples can’t speak their own language. Although the system
worked hard to install shame in Aboriginals, Jerilynn closed by
singing, “Today I can freely say my Indian name.”

Later at the “Women’s Voices at the Table” conference, it was pointed out that violence against women cuts across all stratas of society. In
Canada, women’s rights are under attack with funding cuts, failure to
establish a National Child Care program, targeted violence against
Aboriginal women and on and on.

Participants went into break-out discussion groups with the task of generating collective, doable action on issues to pressure MPs with and to present to the
G8/G20 Summit this coming June.

At the Indigenous Peoples table, hosted by Kat Norris, there was a call for an inquiry into Frank Paul’s death and a public inquest into Harriet Nahanee’s
death. Harriet Nahanee was a Native elder and activist who died after
serving jail time for her role in the Eagleridge Bluffs protest over
the Sea-to-Sky Highway expansion. Harriet passed away as a result of
complications from pneumonia after being arrested and spending time in
a cold cell at the Surrey Pre-trial Centre. Betty Krawczyk, who also
served time for her part in this protest, gained wide-spread
recognition and praise for her stand while Harriet died unknown and
unthanked. This is an example of the insidious racism in our society.

There was an acknowledgement in the group that people cannot wait for government to make changes. People are the resources and people must
come together collaboratively to create change. A woman from
Saskatchewan said that people have to stop asking for permission to do
anything. Her father created the first casino in Canada on a reserve
without permission. She said it is easier to ask for forgiveness than
to ask for permission.

There were many other ideas presented: With so much sadness and anger around these issues, it was noted that humour is a powerful tool to have and to use. There was talk
of bridging across diversity to generate a common language, defining
what colonization is for all of us and ways of getting free from it.
The International Council of 13 Indigenous Grandmothers is a worldwide
healing network using traditional methods to move the world into
healing. It is gaining worldwide recognition. Some reserves are
teaching the old language and ways of being, re-uniting generations as
one and intending to force the government to get back to the bargaining
table and to recognize Indigenous rights worldwide. It was noted that
the Canadian government cannot recognize Aboriginal peoples because
that would be an acknowledgement that white people are illegally
occupying what is First Nations land.

Maori elder, Hinewirangi Morgan, created the meme “elegant racism” to describe the more subtle and sophisticated form of racism evident in today’s world
and at the Olympics. For example, while the Olympic organizers
pretended to honour the Four Host Nations as equals, they were not
treated like equals. Having First Nations peoples dancing at the
opening ceremonies seemed on the surface to be wonderfully inclusive.
In fact, it was an example of objectifying, depersonalizing,
dehumanizing and trivializing them. They were not portrayed as real
people and shown as who they truly are. It was also an example of
“whitewashing” the reality: the Olympic committee bought First Nations
support for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics with money and token
involvement so they would not disrupt the events with protests.

Misappropriation of the Inukshuk figure as a symbol of the Olympics is another example of elegant racism. No acknowledgement was made at the Olympics that the
Inukshuk is a venerated object of the Inuit peoples of Northern Canada.

From the web site www.inukshukgallery.com: ”Inukshuks are monuments made of unworked stones that are used by the Inuit for communication and survival. The traditional meaning of the
inukshuk is "Someone was here" or "You are on the right path."

The Inuit make inuksuit in different forms for a variety of purposes: as navigation or directional aids, to mark a place of respect or memorial
for a beloved person, or to indicate migration routes or places where
fish can be found. Other similar stone structures were objects of
veneration, signifying places of power or the abode of spirits.
Although most inuksuit appear singly, sometimes they are arranged in
sequences spanning great distances or are grouped to mark a specific
place.

These sculptural forms are among the oldest and most important objects placed by humans upon the vast Arctic landscape and have become a familiar symbol of the Inuit and of their homeland. Inuit
tradition forbids the destruction of inuksuit. An inukshuk (also known
as inuksuk) is often venerated as symbolizing an ancestor who
knew how to survive on the land in the traditional way. A familiar
inukshuk is a welcome sight to a traveler on a featureless and
forbidding landscape. “

No permission was asked of the Inuit for use of this symbol at the Olympics, nothing was shared about its meaning at the Olympics, and no monetary recompense was made to them
for using the Inukshuk at the Olympics. This is called "cultural
misappropriation".

At the Poverty and Income table, it was noted that 70% of the world’s poor are women. It was suggested that it was necessary to make an economic rather than a moral argument
against poverty in responding to the economic paradigm of North
American society. For example, it costs more to have a poor underclass
than to have a living wage. It was suggested that government be
sidestepped as they are not offering solutions. Instead, people need to
step up to offer their own alternatives to poverty like job sharing,
dropping rental rates, offering living wages, food sharing through
community gardens, free stores, localized community power bases, and
voluntary job transformations changing jobs that are part of the
problem into jobs that solve those particular problems.

There is a showing of www.forthenext7generations.com/ film, about the International Council of 13 Indigenous Grandmothers, here in Vancouver March 9 at 7:00 at Ayurveda Studio 3636 West 4 Ave.

“Building a world that's free...When you want this done, call in your sisters because we hold up half the sky.”