Happy New Year

We head into the end of one year and the start of a new one. It is symbolic, really. Indigenous peoples this year have been moving ahead, gathering strength, and finding their feet and courage slowly but surely throughout the year of 2011.

Champions of Indigenous people have stood up and are achieving results:

• Sharon McIvor won her court case on the discrimination against First Nation women within Indian Act registration policies
• When Canada responded to the court case with greater discrimination, Sharon McIvor took it to the UN
• Canada was taken to task on missing and murdered Indigenous women and through the efforts of many Indigenous women and organizations, the UN has now stepped up to investigate Canada
• Chief Theresa Spence stood up against a goliath of bullies, Canada. Pamela Palmater has summarized this succinctly here
• The UN is now monitoring Canada's horrid treatment of First Nations people and housing, specifically in Attawapiskat
• Indigenous people have won victory after victory in the courts this year:
• Victory in the Caribou case
• Victory in a Tax case
• Victory regarding probe into lack of Aboriginal jurors
• Victory against Canada's secrecy
• Victory regarding unwanted resource developments
• Cindy Blackstock is leading the charge against internationally condemned Canadian practices of inequitable funding for First Nation children on the grounds of pure racism. Details can be read here.
• Pamela Palmater, champion of Indigenous people and Indigenous nationhood, released the book "Beyond Blood: Rethinking Indigenous Identity" as well as spoken on the behalf of Indigenous peoples on national television:
• 8th Fire Q&A
• Book Presentation during Edmonton tour
• On The Agenda
• On CTV
• There are many others, but I will not list them all.
• There have also been many joint ventures and new businesses and success stories from Indigenous communities building economies

The new year will prove to be interesting. It is poised to be an awakening for Indigenous people in Canada. It will also awaken those Canadians who have been far too comfortable hoarding the nation's wealth to themselves. These lands were meant for all to enjoy and benefit from... AND to care for sustainably.

In the new year, let us draw together even closer. Let us pool our minds and energies. Let us awake from hibernation together with fire in our eyes, passion in our hearts and freedom in our minds.

Happy New Year.

Solution Based Pursuits

I was recently reflecting on the challenges in the world today and how to go about making positive change. The Attawapiskat issue has been big on my mind, for a whole host of reasons. It got me thinking to the broader concepts of change, challenge, focus, and economic development.

For anyone involved in economic development, it will not be much of a surprise to state that much of economic development is based on problem solving. Unlike business development, which takes advantage of opportunities a specific economic environment provides, economic development is the process by which we work to create an environment of opportunities.

What greater example of the challenges we face as economic developers than to consider a community such as Attawapiskat. To introduce you to the community and issue here are some points:

·         Located in Northern Ontario, on the shores of Hudson’s Bay, Attawapiskat is a fly-in only community

·         Food, construction materials and goods must be transported via winter road (of which the window of use is shortening due to global warming) or air at high costs

·         There are about 2,000 residents

·         There are limited employment opportunities and very few businesses and employers (mostly public agencies and Band administration)

·         Like all First Nations, Canada discriminates with its funding levels and provides as much as 50% less funding for First Nations people on basic services such as, water and sewage infrastructure, education, child welfare, health care, and housing to name a few.

·         Canada intentionally excluded the people of Attawapiskat from obtaining any form of compensation for De Beers diamond mine operating in their traditional territory. The result is that De Beers is making billions in profits, while the people of Attawapiskat live in the depths of poverty equalled only by the most impoverished regions of Africa.

·         For a community of 2,000 people, there are only 300 homes, 5 large tents, 17 sheds without heating, electricity or running water.

Here is a timeline that was compiled in Wikipedia, of the most severe issues:

·         1979 30,000 gallons of diesel leaked from underground pipes was spilled underneath the J.R. Nagokee School (houses grades 1-8) recently built (1976). It was the largest spill in Northern Ontario. ("Education is a Right: Fighting for Attawapiskat". http://www.attawapiskat-school.com/Information.html. Retrieved December 3, 2011.)

·         May 11, 2001 J.R. Nagokee School Elementary was closed because of health problems related to 1979 diesel spill. Since then the elementary school students are in portables. (Linda Goyette (December 10, 2010). "Attawapiskat: The State of First Nations Education in Canada". Canadian Geographic. http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/magazine/dec10/attawapiskat4.asp. Retrieved December 3, 2011)

·         2000 Minister Robert Nault agreed in 2000 to begin plans for a new school. Two successive INAC ministers, Andy Scott and Jim Prentice also promised a new school for Attawapiskat. You can read the full chronology of seven years of negotiations on the departmental website. On April 1, 2008, the new minister, Chuck Strahl, informed the Attawapiskat First Nation Education Authority AFNEA that Ottawa would not finance the new school after all.

·         2004-12-08. During his 2004 mission in Canada, Rodolfo Stavenhagen, UNESC Special Rapporteur, observed first-hand the substandard conditions of on-reserve housing which included deteriorated units, lack of heating and insulation, leakage of pipes and toxic mould. (UNESC. 2004-12-08. "Human rights and indigenous issues: Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people, Rodolfo Stavenhagen: Mission to Canada.")

·         December 2007 The new Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl cancelled the plans for a new school claiming there were other communities who took priority and that there were no health and safety concerns in Attawapiskat.

·         May 2008 – Hundreds of people are evacuated from the community after a state of emergency is declared. The threat stems from the possibility of ice jams in the Attawapiskat River and subsequent flooding. ("More evacuations expected in northern Ontario due to flood fears". Canwest News Service. MAY 9, 2008. http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=8ee4b129-90d3-44b7-b876-1903d4aa6078. Retrieved December 3, 2011.)

·         2007-11-01 UNHCHR Special Rapporteur, Mr. Miloon Kothari, noted that overcrowded and inadequate housing conditions, as well as difficulties to access basic services, including water and sanitation, are major problems for Aboriginal peoples. He called for changes in federal and provincial government, legislations, policies and budgetary allocation for Aboriginal people (UNHCHR. 2007-11-01. "United Nations Expert on Adequate Housing Calls for Immediate Attention to Tackle National Housing Crisis in Canada." Geneva.)

·         2009 Members of the Attawapiskat First Nation blocked a winter road block near the DeBeers Victor Mine to protest the fact that the Attawapiskat First Nation live in such impoverished conditions alongside this billion dollar project.

·         July 11, 2009 A massive sewage flood dumps waste into eight buildings, which house 90 people. De Beers donated and retrofitted two construction accommodation trailers intended as a short term stop-gap measure, until the homes could be remediated or replaced. They continue to house 90 people who share the four stoves and six washrooms. (Ryan Lux (November 10, 2011). "Hundreds homeless in Attawapiskat MP says, ‘people will die if nothing is done’". Edmonton: The Daily Press. http://www.thedailypress.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3363844. Retrieved December 3, 2011 AND Rebecca Lindell (November 29, 2011). "Putting Attawapiskat on the map". Edmonton: Global News. http://www.globaltvedmonton.com/timeline/6442531868/story.html. Retrieved December 3, 2011)

·         August 21, 2009 Community members traveled to Toronto to confront De Beers Canada about the growing prosperity of the company and the growing poverty in the community.

·         October 14, 2009 – Chief Theresa Hall raises concerns about the federal government’s lack of response to the housing crisis in Attawapiskat caused by the sewage back-up. The government claimed it had committed $700,000 to repair homes.

·         October 28, 2011 – Attawapiskat First Nations leadership calls a state of emergency for the third time in three years. Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan claimed that officials in his department were unaware of Attawapiskat's housing problems until Oct. 28, despite having visited the community many times this year. (CBC (December 1, 2011). "Attawapiskat crisis sparks political blame game". http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/story/2011/12/01/attawapiskat-thursday.html. Retrieved 2011-12-03)

·         2011 December 1 The Canadian Red Cross mobilized to help meet immediate needs in the community of Attawapiskat. The Red Cross continues to work closely with public authorities and the community to identify and address urgent, short-term needs. At the request of the community the Red Cross will also take on a donation management role to support these needs as identified. ("Canadian Red Cross to support immediate needs in Attawapiskat". Toronto. November 26, 2011. http://www.redcross.ca/article.asp?id=41678&tid=001. Retrieved December 4, 2011)

·         CBC journalist Adrienne Arsenault visited Attawapiskat to assess the situation on December 2, 2011.  Alarmed at Attawapiskat's housing problems, she dismissed claims by Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan that on an emergency basis there was adequate clean, dry shelter with running water and electricity available in the community, citing public buildings such as the healing centre and sportsplex. Adrienne Arsenault was particularly concerned about the most-at-risk groups, which include elderly people and children: the healing centre building is five kilometres out of town and has neither running water nor phone lines. (CBC (December 3, 2011). "Adrienne Arsenault Reporter's Notebook". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adKggXHA1uM. Retrieved 2011-12-03)

Much can be said about what is NOT being done or about Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s callous response to the emergency situation whereby he ordered the community into third party management instead of sending any aid at all. For any of you who are familiar with what third party management is, you will know that it is a process to make white financiers rich off the misery of First Nations peoples. With rare exceptions (I know of a few accounting firms that actually do have ethics), they do not build community capacity to eventually get out of third party management – doing so would mean they no longer get a lifelong cushy contract at $1,300 per day or more of community money that could be going toward programs of the basic necessities.

However, this brings me to my main point. The tendency of humans is to spot the injustice (which is a good thing to be aware of), but then get caught into a shoving match in an effort to deal with the injustice. The shoving and pressure, is clearly important, but it cannot be the only action taken. We must still pursue what solutions, however small they may seem, that we can.

Let us assume that the Canadian Government will never help this community and that they will continue to intentionally ignore the discriminatory funding deficits. How can we, as economic development professionals, find tangible solutions for the many challenges that this community (or any other similar to it) faces?

In my last post (http://indigenouspeopleintheeconomy.blogspot.com/2011/12/motivation.html), I discussed the importance of motivation to economic activity and I defined economic activity very broadly – including the process of acquiring food to eat. Another blog post I had recently read (http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/how-to-motivate-yourself/) discussed the importance of a tangible focus in the development of motivation. If I am hungry, rather than focus on the pain of hunger, I should focus on forming a plan on acquiring food to meet this need. That, then, becomes my motivation and offers me clear concrete direction.

So, on the ground level, we have motivation stemming from our needs and on the top level, we have the ultimate goal of a thriving sustainable community where people’s needs are met and they have opportunities to reach for their full potential. Before I begin to talk about solutions I will explain what this has to do with economic development and then I will build from the ground up the discussion of motivation from the very basic needs to the highest level of need.

Economic Development and Solution Based Focus

As I had mentioned before, economic development is essentially problem solving and creating an economic environment that encourages entrepreneurship and business development. When viewed in this light, a community such as Attawapiskat is the ideal community for economic developers to consider. If our theories and experiences cannot help communities like Attawapiskat develop, then they are meaningless and only offering an illusion of success in cities or communities that already have economic capacity built. Just as we would not praise an architect for drawing a building that was already constructed, why would we praise an economic developer for developing an economy that is already developed?

This is the reason a discussion such as this is critical to economic development. The creative energies of the economic development profession need to be directed in the right place.

Motivation: From Basic to High Level

By now, most people will have heard about Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs. Fulfillment of these needs are often our primary motivators. Maslow laid out this hierarchy as follows:

·         Physiological needs: breathing, water, food, clothing, shelter

·         Safety needs: security of health, body, family, employment, resources

·         Belonging needs: friendship, family, belonging to a larger group, sexual intimacy

·         Esteem needs: self-esteem, achievement, respect of self and others

·         Need to know & understand

·         Aesthetic needs

·         Self-actualization: the drive to meet your own potential

While there are critics of this perspective, I believe they can still be valid for discussion. I do not believe they are strictly a pyramid where one must be fulfilled before the next. I also believe that this can be applied to individuals, as well as communities. I might map it to communities as follows:

·         Basic needs

·         Community safety

·         Sense of community/engagement

·         Community pride/marketing

o   Sense of pride in the community

o   Knowledge of past, present and visioning for the future

o   Community clean-up and beautification

·         Community-actualization

In Attawapiskat, they struggle to deal with the basic needs (housing, access to water, food) and community safety (threat of funding cuts from Government of Canada, threat of third party management, personal safety of community members). Often the discussion revolves around comments, such as:

·         “Why don’t they just get a job?”

·         “Why can’t they just fix up their own houses?” or “Why can’t they build better shelters?”

·         “Why don’t we just privatize their land and allow the people to get mortgages?”

·         “Why don’t they start some businesses?”

What these questions, and others like them, fail to address is the foundational influence of motivation and misplaced energies. There are no jobs in the community. There is no Rona’s or Home Hardware to purchase housing materials, even if the people had the money to do so. There are no roads to transport materials in. Mortgages for the people would be useless since they have not the income to support mortgages – it would only result in wholesale giving lands and territories into direct possession of the banking industry.

The last question may have some of the answer, but not in the traditional sense. If they community created social enterprises or co-ops that could respond to the needs they have, they may be able to venture down the road to greater sustainability. Certainly, this could not happen without some sort of an initial investment (perhaps government funding or private sector donations), but here are some potential ideas:

·         Start a sizable greenhouse to begin growing food to supply to the community – it can either be sold in a store run by the community. (Not only would an investment of funds be necessary to build the greenhouses, but training/mentorship in running greenhouses)

·         Request that universities send engineering students to create/innovate some housing/shelter concepts that could be implemented using the resources around the community

·         Request that the military consider the community for practical field exercises

·         Communicate with companies like GE regarding water filtration machines – perhaps a donation or discount price or government support at full price

·         Consult the Elders on the viability of setting up a rabbit farm or perhaps a sheep or alpaca herd

·         Consult with traditional medicine men and women about reintroducing this health option, which has the potential of using natural medicines of the traditional territory

·         Consider establishing a construction company as a joint venture with an experience company and a clear exit strategy to take advantage of housing funds that do come into the community. This builds capacity and opens the potential of the community making use of the resources around them to build further houses (perhaps using Frontier Foundation’s program of establishing local sawmills). This construction company could also take on the work to build the new school (if Canada ever offers the funds).

·         Start a grassroots program where community members gather regularly to clean up around the community as a team, or to conduct basic repairs. Already, being as a group makes things more fun, but also offer a free meal/feast and perhaps some entertainment while people are working through the community. The concept here is that no person should have nothing to do.

There are other ideas that can be thought of, but these are merely examples. When we begin to take our energies and focus them on something more tangible, like a specific solution, we make, what we once though unattainable, attainable. Focusing these solutions to meet our needs today, we fuel them with the energy of the proper motivation and, in the process, build the necessary capacity to rise to the next level.

Will there be other challenges? Absolutely, but the confidence gained in rising past one will encourage us to move beyond the next.

Knowing the problems and challenges is one thing, but if we do not start dreaming up the solutions we enable and perpetuate the problems.

So, as economic developers, let us work with the communities that truly need assistance; walk in with both ears open to find out what their needs are and how they would like us to help; put on our thinking caps and build an economic environment in the community that matches their values, their needs, and their hopes and dreams for the future.

Hope for Indigenous people?

Our peoples face unprecedented challenges and have for a long time. When the Vikings first set foot in North America, their first act was to attack our people for blood. Our peoples drove them off. Then came christopher columbus (and yes I wrote his name in small letters, because his does not deserve capitalized names), whose first act was wholesale slaughter of every Indigenous person he could find, approximately 250,000 by conservative estimates.  But by then, we could not drive them off fast enough as other “explorers” came in droves.

Those who came after columbus came less violently and gained friendships with our peoples. Our first mistake. After contact, we were subjected to purposeful biological warfare, “ethnic cleansing”, genocide, unending war, land infringements, residential schools (aka death camps where nearly half of all children sent to these schools died of torture, starvation, beatings, freezing, etc. with those that survived being subjected to degradation, sexual, physical, emotional and psychological abuse), sixties scoop (where mothers were lied to that their babies were still births, and then the babies, very much alive, were adopted out to white families), the Indian Act legislating reserves to become concentration camps where people were arrested and beaten if they were caught leaving the camps and many were intentionally starved to death, outlawing of our languages, outlawing of our cultures, etc.

The list can go on and even today our struggles are no less:

·         Our children are denied equitable access to education – often funded and 50% less per pupil that white children

·         We are denied equitable access to health care – often forced off our own communities for treatment

·         Our babies suffer the highest infant mortality rates in Canada

·         Many of our communities have no running water and many that do are chronically underfunded by the Federal government so that they are under “boil water” advisories

·         We have some of the highest rates of TB in the world – primarily due to Federal underfunding of adequate housing causing multiple families to live in houses that are often no more than shacks

·         Some of the highest rates of suicide in the world

·         High rates of chronic diseases due to lack of access to healthy foods

·         Shorter life expectancies

·         A  rate of incarceration that is 5-6 times the national average; filling up to 50% of Prairie prisons even though we make up less than 15% of the population.

·         Our peoples are often judged harsher and given stiffer sentences

·         We suffer police brutality unparalleled by another group in Canada

·         Our lands are raped by transnational corporations for mining and oil, leaving us with NO benefits, NO equitable royalty payments, and devastating pollution causing disease and illness

·         We face continuous racism and prejudice by the public and media

·         We have higher rates of unemployment and economic exclusion

Reading all of that is depressing. However, there is one important fact to remember.

WE ARE STILL HERE!

That is a powerful fact. Despite 300 years of genocide, we are still here. Despite all the challenges levelled against us, we are still here. In the face of everything that the colonial government seeks to do to us, we are not only still here, but we are gathering strength.

The colonial governments are teetering on the verge of economic collapse:

http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2011-11-05/news/30363948_1_barack-obama-debt-crisis-financial-crisis

http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1083622

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204224604577027560761445968.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

http://seekingalpha.com/article/305746-an-economic-recovery-that-s-moving-sideways

The Occupy movement gathering around the world is an example of the failure of the colonial system. The global recession, started by greedy colonial men in Wall Street, is an example of the failure of the system.

http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/sunnews/world/archives/2011/11/20111106-095133.html

Yet, there are more and more examples of our Indigenous peoples beginning to rise up in strength. Some examples include:

·         Westbank First Nation

·         Oosoyos Indian Band

·         Tsawwassen First Nation

·         Membertou First Nation

·         Buffalo Point First Nation

·         Opaskwayak Cree Nation

·         And many more

Our path to victory and to strength will come from DOING the right things and not waiting for permission or approval or funds from the Federal government. Yes we will fight for those things, but we must not wait for them to be concluded before doing anything. Our destinies lie in our own hands. If we have survived 300 years of oppression, then really, nothing can stop us.

This is the irrational fear that has Canada ordering spies and military monitoring of our peoples.

http://www.socialist.ca/socialistworker/SW2011/issue533/NAT-Spying.html

http://www.stopracism.ca/content/spying-first-nations-harper-prepares-unrest

http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/515.php

http://indigenousnationhood.blogspot.com/2011/06/secret-agent-harper-conservative-spy.html

Harper, the conservatives, the elite, the colonials all see that we are beginning to rise to our feet and they fear it. They are afraid that they will no longer be able to sit upon the top of the teetering ladder. They are afraid of losing their privileged, exclusive position. They are likely afraid of the tables turning and becoming oppressed themselves.

It is an irrational fear because we are not seeking to oppress them, despite all that they have done to us. We are not seeking to impoverish them or take anything away from them. We simply seek our rights, fairness, and control of our own destinies. We seek respect for our peoples, our land, our rights, our cultures, our sovereignty.

We are not asking to make them our enemy, even though they see us as theirs. We have a higher vision of the spirit of cooperation, friendship and human harmony.

Is there hope for us? Yes. We must support one another and support our young generation rising up. We must mentor them, encourage them, and stand with them as we lift the yoke of oppression from our backs.

We are still here.

Miigwech