Christmas. It's not our tradition but it's what we make of it.

I had an interesting chat today with my main man Ty. It's that time of year- Christmas and it's in the air in the valley. Well, about as in the rainy, foggy, overcast air as Christmas on the west coast can be.

Christmas is so commercial these days. You're socialized into buying into the holiday by others who have been socialized into doing the same. You spend yourself broke buying stuff for family and friends and then spend until next spring trying to climb out of the debt you accumulated buying stuff that the other person probably barely uses or has broken.

They say that Christmas is for kids but even kids are groomed by media and advertising to consume and spend all through their childhoods and teens into young adulthood. Groomed, victimized is more like it.

There's another aspect to Christmas, one that applies specifically to aboriginal peoples and that's Christmas was never one of our traditions until it was brought here by white people. Actually, Christmas is probably nothing like how even their own people celebrate it today. It's a tradition that we have bought into- literally. While I agree that Christmas was never one of our people’s traditions I am mindful of the fact that our people don't ascribe to all of our traditions anymore.

There's a dichotomy between Christmas and aboriginal traditions. I think the same thing about this that I do a great many other things that were introduced after contact: they are what you make of them. I don't think you can be, or should try to be a traditional puritan but this is not to say that you can't have respect for our traditions in concert with others. And regardless one's nationality there is a tenet which I think universal to all cultures-- respect for one another and it can be fairly applied here.

I said Christmas is what you make of it. I choose to make Christmas a time for family. It's a time for families to get together, be together and enjoy one another’s company. Maybe you cook a special meal like turkey, eat together, reminisce, have a few laughs and just enjoy one another’s company.

Every year is another year that you have one another and you have to embrace this because one day you're going to die. Yes there are other times throughout the year when you can get together and do this, true. But because of the pace of many peoples lives this is more easily said that done. Having said this, you can devote time and space to spending Christmas together with family. That's what Christmas is to me and that's all that it means to me: its a time for family to be together.

Being together and basking in the warmth of the company of family means more to me than any present I could buy or be bought. You can't take a Christmas present with you when you die. What you can take with you though are memories and experiences like being with family on Christmas.

I often tell this story in another context but it revolves around Christmas which makes it relevant here. In 1997 I went to visit and drop off a Christmas card at some relatives of mine, Allan and Rosie Ross. When I walked in the house I was taken back by what I seen and felt. All six of their grown children were there with their spouses. Also there were all of their grandchildren. Everyone was sitting about doing their thing and enjoying each others company, especially the parents. I often think they relished these times especially in their old age knowing there wouldn't be many more. The warmth and love resonating and glowing in their front room that Christmas Eve is something I will never forget.

The context I tell the story in has to do with the number of children I have- five. People often look at me in shock when I say how many I have and they wonder how we do it in this day and age. I tell them the story of the Ross's that Christmas Eve and how I felt like I was watching my wife and I 25 years from now, basking in the warmth and love of the company of our family.

Christmas is what you make of it. You decide.

Credentials or Experience?

The Nuuchahnulth Tribal Council revamped their political structure recently. Gone is the old three co-chair system and in is a leaner president and vice president system of representation. It's not all that its cracked up to be but it's a start.

When the terms of reference were crafted for the president and vice president there was debate about instituting a specific requirement for the candidates for both positions to have college or university degrees. Sounds reasonable, especially considering the day and age we live in. The people they will be dealing with in federal, provincial, and municipal government have that and more, not to mention a line ministry full of them.

Well, there was actually debate about this. Some felt the requirement was limiting and that candiates with years of political experience would be discounted. In the words of one chief "are we supposed to entrust our tribal council in the hands of some 22 year old kid?"

One guy in particular whose application was denied on these grounds was hopping mad. "What about all my political experience over the years?" he asked? "Do they expect me to go back to school or something at my age?" Nobody stopped him from running during "all those years of political experience" and if he was asked to step aside then that was a choice he made for himself. He could have run a long time ago but chose not to.

I have a confession to make. I ran for NTC vice president and my application was denied but I'm not bitter about it. I was three credits, or one course short of my degree, but I didn't have a degree then per se. The rules and rule makers said candidates had to have a degree.

I'm closer to a degree than the elected president for instance. If we hit the ground running I'd have my degree in three months while he would get credit for maybe 2 years of study. The same rules didn't apply to me but I'm not complaining. I wasn't so wrapped up in it that I put together a Junta and went on a Jihaad afterward. That's the way the ball bounced. I wasn't vice president before so it never bothered me to not be vice president after. Back to my life which I have no complaints about and on to other things.

The degree requirement was instituted and good on NTC and the committee who did it. It's about time. The bar has to be raised with respect to the way business is done in indian country. The days of on the job training and doing a job with no credentials or training is long over. We don't live in that kind of a world anymore and frankly we never should have. It held us back, stilted our development and hurt us in the long term.

NTC expects and demands their program managers, department managers, and employees who carry out particular duties have certain credentials ie. social work, accounting and biology. When NTC hires a lawyer they expect him or her to have a law degree naturally, auditors to have financial degrees, and nurses to have nursing degrees.

When anyone who's in NTC sees a doctor or dentist I assume they want someone who has doctors or dentists accreditation. They wouldn't want to see one who, just before performing a procedure, stated that "I don't have credentials but I do have years of experience at it." Yikes!

There shouldn't be a debate over this. It's time; in fact it was time a long time ago. Why would NTC encourage post secondary education if they don't want them to become leaders? That's like saying "Yeah, go to medical school but we don't want any of that operating on people stuff after."
People who have hung on and hung around the scene for years based solely on experience need to get used to the fact that a new age is upon us. The time and place for them has passed. They need to make way for the generation they encouraged to go to school and get a better education. At the NTC vice presidential election I noticed a handful of people around the table who had degrees and that was more than I'd seen in the past, a sign of things to come I hope.

Maybe education isn't all that its cracked up to be. Maybe it is. But it all has to start somewhere. I support NTC's decision to expect their political representatives to have college/university credentials and I hope they stick with it. It sets a good example to those we deal with that we set a high standard for ourselves. It also sets a good example to our own people.

You won't do any better if you don't expect more of yourself.

Reserve Grudge Holding Hillbilly's

While the idea of an aboriginal watch-dog agency is a good idea in principle it's not just the councils who have to get their act together. The people, or reserve citizens have to as well or this isn't going to work.

A rez can be a petty place. Yes there's culture, language, history, and a whole lot of other stuff to be proud of. Having said this, the side you don't see is the one that actually stands out the most. I'm speaking specifically of the pettiness, ugliness, cliques, gossiping, rumor-mongering, back stabbing, and throat slitting. Often times you're subjected to this for no more reason other than you're from "that family."

Rez life brings out the worst in people, and band council elections bring out the very worst. The only time people come out from behind their veil of bitterness and demonstrate tradition is when someone dies. Deaths are like a cease-fire, if only for awhile.

I heard a observation once that the best and brightest don't run for office. Take the recent NTC elections for instance. There were more than enough people with post secondary degrees to run for office but few chose to. Hugh Braker isn't the only Nuuchahhnulth with a law degree yet he was the only one who ran. What does this say? I think it says the best and the brightest take one look at how people behave in this environment and say "that, forget it."

If there were millions of dollars at stake, and false DIA budget aside there isn’t, then I could understand the motivation in eating each other alive. But there aren't millions of dollars at stake; there's nothing but false, perceived power. I say false because Indians are free to do what they want within the confines of the Indian Act which we had no hand in crafting or influencing, well not common people anyway. It's like being elected president of a council- a prisoner’s council in jail. There's nothing at stake on the rez to rip each other apart over and in some profound way that's probably the reason reserve citizenry does exactly this- because there's nothing.

While people on reserves are becoming more conscious and aware of band council corruption and are poised to take the next step and act on it, it's going to be all for naught if they themselves act like petty, grudge-holding hillbilly's who are no better than council members they want removed. Time and again I have seen this nonsense play itself out. Where this comes from I don't know. I doubt it was part of our culture or traditions before contact. We wouldn't have survived if that was the case, we'd have killed each other off.

My best guess is this has its roots in the post-contact period. What was left of us after contact was exposed to a litany of disease, removal, relocation, residential school, and being impoverished. Suffering these savage conditions and watching the rest of the province benefit from building this "new country" would do a number on anybody's psyche. There's the starting point but what and why we started turning on each other is a mystery.

This dysfunction is ingrained to the point where it is considered normal. If you don't exhibit it then you're considered abnormal. This has also caused reserves to be ripe for conflict and division, especially in the body politic. It's like politics has become the eye of rage and dysfunction. During band council elections people and familys rip themselves apart in an us-or-them tug of war. When the election storm subsides it doesn't go away, but instead reduces to a slow burn. The pot stews and until the next election people spend their time and energy convincing themselves and others especially that as soon as we throw out the band council that everything will be cool. What people fail to see is that just because one family's idea of band council is the opposite of the other family's doesn’t solve their problem. It is the problem.

Until we resolve this dysfunction then tribes will remain internally divided for as long as we allow it. All we have to look forward to is deeper, more embittered pettiness. Until and when reserves turn off the "that family" cartoon and start to treat each other with some regard, respect, and commonality of purpose then no idea, no matter how good, will ever work.

The aboriginal watch-dog agency is a good idea, and the timing of it is right. But if the people manning the agency are as petty and bitter as the people they are watching and monitoring, or worse pursue their work clouded by pettiness and "that family" insanity then forget it, it won't work and that’s too bad. An agency like this is long overdue.

Aborignal Band Council Watch-dog Groups: its time

I was reading a posting at another site recently. It was a long running string of posts that repeated an old but familiar story claiming band council corruption and disregard for its citizens. I say claimed because I don't know if it’s true or not.

This type of story is as old as band council administrations are. It's full of drama, intrigue, corruption, chiefs and councils feathering their own nests, filling their own pockets, exercising nepotism and favoritism as common hiring practices, family rivalries every election- you know, the whole cartoon. Half the time the stuff ends up being untrue, but the other half of the time it ends up embarrassingly true.

Band councils are supposed to represent the political and social interests of their memberships, ostensibly anyway. They're elected for two or four year terms under which there is no provision for recall incidentally. Checks and balances are supposed to be there to ensure that councils don't abuse their positions of office, that or governing bodies leave it up to tribal council bodies to police their own. Ideally this is the case but as with any ideal it is just that- an ideal.

Not every council is corrupt. Many churn away and do the basic day-today business of the tribe. Nothing fancy, no fanfare, no fights, just business. You never hear about them because they simply don't do anything to give anyone any pause for concern.

There are those though that are every bit of what I described to be earlier and more, and this is sad. You'd think the citizenry could do something about it but more often than not they do nothing more than gossip, rumor monger, get petty, and my personal humorous favorite "parking lot talk." They foam at the mouth and yell at meetings or make jokes about it. Either way, its time to quit acting childish, grow up, and start offering solutions.

With regulations that are toothless, no right of recall, and people acting defeatist as though they could do nothing about it but take it I began to wonder about what could be done.

In the string of postings I was reading somebody mentioned aboriginal citizens’ advocacy/watchdog groups. I think these would be of great service, especially now in this day and age where we are seeing provincial and federal governments are divesting themselves of obligations to First Nations.

I don't know that aboriginal citizens watchdog groups have been tried to any great degree. Opposition parties serve this function both federally and provincially for instance. Opposition "shadow cabinets" monitor the actions of the governing party and keep them in check. Finance critics are among the busiest and most well staffed with researchers for instance. There are various citizens’ watchdog groups who serve in this capacity as well.

These groups have teeth, and all operate within a system where there is no choice but to deal with them and that's that. It's not like the federal and provincial government can say to its citizenry "we're accountable, we hold each other accountable" or "we're all together and we have no need for that" or "you trusted us when you elected us." If the feds or the province, or city council for that matter said this in an attempt to insulate themselves from accountability they'd be given the bums rush out of office tomorrow.

While opposition parties and watchdog groups didn't stop the sponsorship scandal for instance they did bring it to light and the result was a government brought down and an election called. Also, the BC Liberals lost a big chunk of their majority in the last election precisely because BC citizens didn't like they way they had used their 78 seat majority with disregard for its citizenry. There was a need for balance, opposition, and accountability and the last election provided for that. I don't think I'm the only one who has noticed that the Liberals have sounded less smug after the election.

I think the time for implementing aboriginal citizens’ watchdog groups with teeth has come. I can't see how any reserve regime the province over could disagree or try to squash it. After all, you can't on one hand accuse a country of limiting or taking away your peoples freedom and on the other hand limit or take away your own peoples at the same time. If there truly is nothing wrong with the way reserve regimes treat their people or go about tribal business then there is nothing to lose with a watchdog group.

The Nisaga'a treaty instituted an administration decision review board where decisions made by village governments can be appealed and reviewed before a panel whose decision in turn has force and effect. The Board must be satisfied that the decision was improperly made for one of the following reasons: The Nisga’a Public Institution must have:
• acted without any legal authority or acted beyond its legal authority;
• refused to exercise its legal authority;
• failed to observe procedural fairness;
• based its decision on an erroneous finding of fact that was made in a perverse or capricious manner or without regard for the information before it.

The Board does not have authority to set aside a decision on the grounds that it disagrees with the decision made or that it would have come to a different decision in the circumstances.

I don't know that the board has been overly busy but I do know that it’s been used. They make it clear to both sides that this is business, that they are neutral and allied to no one, and that this isn't a place or arena for rival groups or families to pettily beat each other up at.

If we are truly going to self-govern ourselves then aboriginal opposition parties which would encompass other points of view should be created. Citizens from free countries the world over have and exercise this right. I've heard it said before that "we're all one" or when a dissenting point of view was presented "there's a crack in the unification" and when the matter is pressed "we have to have political discipline." We were never one, never. If that were true then there would have been no tribal wars. We may be one peoples but we have different views.

True accountability, opposition, and freedom are integral components of democratic societies across the world. They should also be part and parcel of reserves.

It all starts somewhere.