A year ago, after the community of Attawapiskat had been dragged through the racist lens of the media for more than a month, I began to write about the situation. I wrote two pieces. One that was published in Briarpatch magazine that was political, and one that was a spoken word piece using the music of Cree cellist Cris Derksen. I am not from Attawapiskat and I've never been there. I wrote because I felt a strong sense of solidarity with the community because like most indigenous peoples, I have personal connections and history that link me to all of the same issues. I felt a sense of responsibility to speak out not only about the way the issues where playing out in the media, but also about the response of Canadian society. I feel the same way again this year.
I am not going to correct all of the slander designed to discredit Chief Spence and her hunger strike -- my friends and colleagues have already done a fantastic job of that. Check out the work of Chelsea Vowel and Alanis Obomsawin's The People of the Kattawpiskat River if you haven't already.
The past few weeks have been an intense time to be Anishinaabeg. There is a lot to write about and to process. I felt overwhelmingly proud on #J11 with tens of thousands of us in the streets worldwide, with the majority of our Indian Act Chiefs standing with us in those streets. I also felt the depths of betrayal on that day. But it was during the local #J11 actions in my community that I started to think a lot about fish broth. Fish broth and Anishinaabeg governance.
Fish broth has been cast by the mainstream media as "the cheat." Upon learning Chief Spence was drinking tea and fish broth coverage shifted from framing her action as a "hunger strike" to a "liquid diet", as if 32 days without food is easy. As if a liquid diet doesn't take a substantial physical, mental and emotional toll or substantial physical, mental and emotional strength to accomplish. Of course this characterization comes from a place of enormous unchecked privilege and a position of wealth. It comes from not having to fight for one's physical survival because of the weight of crushing poverty. It comes from always having other options.
This is not where indigenous peoples come from.
My ancestors survived many long winters on fish broth because there was manitou giigoonnothing else to eat -- not because the environment was harsh, but because the land loss and colonial policy were so fierce that they were forced into an imposed poverty that often left fish broth as the only sustenance.
Fish broth. It carries cultural meaning for Anishinaabeg. It symbolizes hardship and sacrifice. It symbolizes the strength of our ancestors. It means survival. Fish broth sustained us through the hardest of circumstances, with the parallel understanding that it can't sustain one forever.
We exist today because of fish broth. It connects us to the water and to the fish who gave up its life so we could sustain ourselves. Chief Spence is eating fish broth because metaphorically, colonialism has kept Indigenous Peoples on a fish broth diet for generations upon generations. This is utterly lost on mainstream Canada, as media continues to call Ogichidaakwe Spence's fast a "liquid diet" while the right-winged media refers to it as much worse.
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Not Chief Spence, but Ogichidaakwe Spence -- a holy woman, a woman that would do anything for her family and community, the one that goes over and makes things happen, a warrior, a leader because Ogichidaakwe Spence isn't just on a hunger strike. She is fasting and this also has cultural meaning for Anishinaabeg. She is in ceremony. We do not "dial back" our ceremonies. We do not undertake this kind of ceremony without much forethought and preparation. We do not ask or demand that people stop the fast before they have accomplished whatever it is they set out to accomplish, which in her case is substantial change in the relationship between the Canadian state and Indigenous nations. We do not critique the faster. We do not band wagon or verbally attack the faster. We do not criticize because we feel she's become the (unwilling) leader of the movement. We do not assume that she is being ill-advised. We do not tell her to "save face."
We support. We pray. We offer semaa. We take care of the sacred fire. We sing each night at dusk. We take care of all the other things that need to be taken care of, and we live up to our responsibilities in light of the faster. We protect the faster. We do these things because we know that through her physical sacrifice she is closer to the spiritual world than we are. We do these things because she is sacrificing for us and because it is the kind, compassionate thing to do. We do these things because it is our job to respect her self-determination as an Anishinaabekwe -- this is the most basic building block of Anishinaabeg sovereignty and governance.
Fasting as a ceremony is difficult. It is challenging to willingly weaken one's body physically, and the mental and emotional strength required for fasting is perhaps more difficult than the physical. So when we fast, we ask our friends and family to support us and to act as our helpers. There is an assumption of reciprocity -- the faster is doing without, in this case to make things better for all indigenous peoples, and in return, the community around her carries the responsibility of supporting her.
A few days ago I posted these two sentences on twitter "I support @ChiefTheresa in her decision to continue her hunger strike. The only person that can decide otherwise, is Chief Spence." Within minutes, trolls were commenting on Chief Spence's body image, diet jokes, calls for "no more special treatment for Natives" and calls to end her hunger strike. One person called her a "c**t".
I understand we need to be positive, I do. We also need to continue telling the truth. The racism, sexism and disrespect that has been heaped on Ogitchidaa Spence in the past weeks has been done so in part because it is acceptable to treat Indigenous women this way. These comments take place in a context where we have nearly 1000 missing and murdered Indigenous women. Where we have still have places named "squaw." Where indigenous women have been the deliberate target of gendered colonial violence for 400 years. Where the people who have been seriously hurt and injured by the back lash against Idle No More have been women. Where Ogichidaakwe's Spence's voice has not been heard.
Ogichidaakwe Spence challenges Canadians because no one in Canada wants to believe this situation is bad enough that someone would willingly give up their life.
Ogichidaakwe Spence challenges me, because I am not on day 32 of a fast. I did not put my life on the line, and that forces me to continually look myself in the mirror and ask if I am doing everything I can. This is her gift to me.
Idle No More as a movement is now much bigger than the hunger strikers and Bill C-45, but it is still important to acknowledge their sacrifice, influence and leadership. I want my grandchildren to be able to live in Mississauga Anishinaabeg territory as Mississauga Anishinaabeg -- hunting, fishing, collecting medicines, doing ceremony, telling stories, speaking our language, governing themselves using our political traditions and whatever else that might mean to them, unharassed. That's not a dream palace -- that is what our treaties guaranteed.
We now have hundreds of leaders from different Indigenous nations emerging all over Mikinakong (the Place the Turtle). We now have hundreds of eloquent spokes people, seasoned organizers, writers, thinkers and artists acting on their own ideas in anyway and every way possible. This is the beauty of our movement.
Chi'Miigwech Theresa Spence, Raymond Robinson, Emil Bell, and Jean Sock for your vision, your sacrifice and your commitment to making us better. Chi'Miigwech to everyone who has been up late at night worrying about what to do next, and then who gets up the next morning and acts. I am hopeful and inspired and look forward to our new, collective emergence as a healthy and strong Anishinaabeg nation.
*This post originally appeared on the blog DividedNoMore
Follow Leanne Simpson on Twitter: www.twitter.com/betasamosake
Fact: her intake involves liquids only.
Definition of the word diet (as per Merriam-Webster dictionary): a) food and drink regularly provided or consumed, b) habitual nourishment, c) the kind and amount of food prescribed for a person or animal for a special reason, d) a regimen of eating and drinking sparingly so as to reduce one's weight
In summary, yes, she is on a liquid diet. and there is nothing ignorant about it. It DOES, however, fail to acknowledge the subjective opinions of those on either side of the fence...
I get the point, though. Let's get people thinking past what she is doing and why she is doing it. So let's do whatever we can to cause a paradigm shift; let's call those people ignorant right in the title of the article and watch, on the edge of our seats, as they all change their mind just like that.
oh, ya, that was sarcasm.
Rule number 1: know your audience.
Please ... If you want to go back to that way of life, by all means that could be easily made available. Instead of having to walk or canoe great distances, live animals can be sent in. Anyone who accepts this way if life is a far better human than I am, and I am full of admiration for living off that land. However please remember, those ancestors had no steel, guns, even wheels. Spence is crying foul, life is hard for my people, while she has also had the benefit of thousands of years of toil, invention, industrialization and backbreaking work that was made available only because of immigration. Most people immigrated to a land that brought great hardships and changed the country to its modern day wealth. Please cheifs, if you want to live your life of 200 years ago, it would be a snap to make that work and a great deal cheaper.
Value is all about what it is worth to replace it.
If it is not used by anyone, it has no value.
Empty square lot in the middle of nowhere .... Barely 3 figures
Empty square lot in downtown Toronto .... A touch higher.
Value added is what immigration did.
Although waterfront by being available may be a problem
Leanne I support IdleNoMore but right about here....
"It comes from not having to fight for one's physical survival because of the weight of crushing poverty."
Is where I tell you to go sit on something intrusive and sharp. You're a classic velvet racist. You seem to think zero "white" people ever had to do this and came up winning.
Clearly, if the natives were able to survive entire winters on a diet similar to Spence's the nutrient value of the diet is a lot closer to that of a "liquid diet" that to that of a hunger strike, despite what here supporters are saying. I suspect that the broth likely also supplements in to to ensure she is not missing any vital vitamins and minerals her body may miss in an unbalanced diet. So it is no surprise that she is not looking any worse for wear after her diet. Based on the history of her peiople, she likely went into this knowing that she could live on this diet for quite a few months without suffering any serious side-effects. So calling it a hunger strike is a bit of a con job. Say it is a hunger strike is just more dramatic that saying that she is survivingon the diet followed by her ancestors when food was short.
Again, I'm sympathetic to Chief Spence's aims, and I'm sick of the racism that's raised its head in response to what she's doing. But she looks deceptive calling it a "hunger strike".
For a start the cultural mix of Canada would be unrecognizable to that which existed when many of these sacred "treaties" were signed back in ancient history. Talk to modern Canada. The Canada of 2013. Talk to the Sikhs, the Chinese, the Japanese, the south east Asians, the immigrants from the Caribbean, and tell them how much they need to treat you as a separate nation, with all the rights and privileges attached thereto. From what you have written, I don't see you ever getting very far along that path. You all "owe" me because your ancestors, or in these cases, not your ancestors, "owe" me. In 2013, nobody "owes" you anything.
Should we continue race based legislation simply because it was written into our laws before we were all born, at a time when non-white races were viewed as less-than people and could be legislated to specifically as a result?
Would you tell the slaves who were legally purchased or perhaps were born into a legal slave situation that they should honor the commitments that someone made for them with no consent on their part?
Do you think the natives are the slaves in this situation?
Why should non native Canadians settle for being discriminated against and made to be slaves to a group of people simply because we are not the "right" race as spelled out in documents written at a time and in a way that was meant to be racially discriminatory?
Damned straight I do.
Land treaties were signed, or should have been signed, with Anishnabee, Haudenosaunee, Cree, etc. NOT with Chinese, Africans, Poles, or Arabs.
You betcha I believe in keep one's word!
Live up to two centuries of sacred promises Canada, or your word doesn't mean a thing.
What do you mean should have been signed? Were they or were they not signed with those particular groups? What do you say about the treaties such as treaty 9 where all the native groups agreed to give up all right and ownership to the land in exchange they would be able to live on it in their traditional way until such time that the crown wanted to use or sell the land at which point they would receive no compensation for their displacement? Should that be honored?
Would you tell the slaves who were legally owned at the time these treaties were written that they should just suck it up and accept that they were on the crappy end of a business deal because someone thought to draft up a bill of sale for them?
I have so much sympathy for your position /sarc.
The FN people deserve to benefit from the resources located on and under their reserves. It is wrong that the government can take those rights at will. In Attiwapiskat the DeBeers diamond mine makes millions and the First Nation gets very little benefit. All FN across our country need to have the treaty unfairness addressed.
I support Cheif Spence. Her First Nation deserves decent conditions. Let's not lose sight of that point.
2) When will they respect that the money they are demanding is OUR money? It's MY money that I earned? If you want to live off the land, do so. No one is stopping you. If you want to live like the rest of us - get an education and get a job in the real world. Contribute to the economy of Canada.
I respect those chiefs and those communities that have created a viable economic life; I do not respect those who claim they want to live "like their ancestors". It's a lie. They want to live like the rest of the western world, but expect me to pay for it.