The Writers' Collective

as an Aboriginal person, i am often asked by non-Aboriginal people to explain points of Aboriginality (yes it’s a word, it’s actually one of my favourites). tho i appreciate interest in my culture and honest, earnest questions, sometimes i grow tired of constantly putting on the “ambassador hat” as i call it. … but the last thing i want to do is discourage questions.

the Winnipeg Public Library has recently partnered with the Aboriginal Writers Collective to try and build up the library’s collection of Aboriginal resources. plenty of works, by and about Indigenous people and culture can be found at your local library. check it!

and now that my rant is done, let me introduce a poem that i think explains a lot of points rather well – thanks to Jordan Wheeler for this one….

Another Modest Proposal

 

Read an Article in the Vancouver Sun

Dude warned Canada that the situation was ripe

For an NDN uprising – military style

 

And I agree with him

Young population

Angry, unemployed

And many reserves straddle key infrastructure

Water supplies, hydro installations, railways

 

Take a big wrench, loosen two bolts, wait for a wind and that hydro tower will fall.

NDN’s know that

 

Never mind the weapons caches.

 

So yeah, trouble brewing.

 

His solution?

 

More involvement for NDN’s in the political process

 

And I agree with him

 

And I think we should take the Maori model in Aotearoa and adapt it

 

In the 2008 New Zealand elections the Maori had seven guaranteed seats in Parliament – seven seats out of sixty-nine, roughly ten percent.  Yet the Maori make up fifteen percent of the population.  Not a perfect model, but a decent one.

 

So let’s adapt it to this land they currently call Canada.

 

Except the Maori are one Nation, one language

 

On the land they currently call Canada, there are many nations and many languages

 

Therefore, each should be represented with at least one guaranteed seat in the House of Commons.

 

One for the Abenaki

 

One for the Assiniboine

 

An honourary one for the Beothuk that should always remain empty as a grim reminder

 

One for the Blackfoot… I guess

 

One for the Carrier

 

One for the Cayuga

 

One for the Chilcotin

 

One for the Ch(j)ipewyan

 

One for the Dakota

 

One for the Dogrib

 

One for the Gitskwan

 

One for the Gwitchen

 

One for the Haida

 

One for the Huron

 

One for the Innu

 

One for the Kootenay

 

One for the Kwakiutl

 

One for the Maliseet

 

One for the Metis

 

One for the Miq Maq

 

One for the Mohawk (though they’ll probably ask for two)

 

One for the Nuuchahnulth

 

One for the Oji-Cree

 

One for the Okanagan

 

One for the Oneida

 

One for the Onandaga

 

One for the Ottawa

 

One for the Salish

 

One for the Seneca

 

One for the Shuswap

 

One for the Slavey

 

One for the Sahtu

 

One for the Tlingit

 

One for the Tsimshian

 

One for the Tuscarora

 

One for the Wit’suni(t)in

 

Two for the Anishinabe (Plains Ojibway and Woodlands Ojibway)

 

Three for the Inuit (Western Arctic, Nunavut and Nunavik)

 

And four for the Cree (Plains Cree, Swampy Cree, Woodlands Cree, James Bay Cree)

 

Forty-four seats out of what would be three hundred and fifty two – roughly thirteen percent. Yet, according to the 2006 census, we make up only four percent of the population.

 

But worry not – I believe that percentage is much higher.  Many NDN’s, like me, don’t fill out the census.  And many of us were never registered at birth so they could be hidden from the Indian Agents and RCMP during the residential school roundups.  And give us a generation.  At the speed we’re procreating — we’re gonna be a hell of a lot more than thirteen percent of the population.

 

Not a perfect model, but a decent one.

 

Now I suppose the greater population would fear an all Indigenous party with the power to determine governments but that, alas, would require national Indigenous unity and that, my nervous, non-Indigenous friends, has never, ever happened.

~

Katherena Vermette