The Global Citizenship Conference (GCC) is typically held in March, but this year’s has been re-scheduled for September. For the conference’s planners, this reflects a long-discussed need for change.
Founded in 2006 by McMaster students, the GCC aimed to engage students in global and local issues and develop passionate activists and advocates. In its inaugural year, Dr. Phil Wood, Associate Vice-President of Student Affairs, referred to GCC as “the most impressive student event I have seen in my past 30 years at McMaster.”
Past speakers at the GCC included Council of Canadians chair Maude Barlow, AIDS activist and former McMaster Professor Stephen Lewis and former Liberal Party leader Michael Ignatieff.
Shanthiya Baheerathan, GCC Co-Chair of Logistics, explained how over the years the March timing has just not fit well into the student calendar and leaves little room for follow-up after the conference.
“The idea of having it at the beginning of the year is to build a community early on and to have a thread of student involvement continue for the whole year.”
This year, GCC has been hosting smaller but regular panel series on topics such as Idle No More and Think Global, Act Local. On March 5, they will host a panel on Refugee Health.
Shahana Hirji, Co-Chair of Programming, described how the GCC wants to put a higher emphasis on grassroots forms of engagement. Recent panel topics and local activists and instructors chosen to be on the panel are a result of the community focus.
Baheerathan also discussed funding issues that may have precluded a large-scale conference from occurring this semester. She reiterated that in addition to faculty-based funding, the GCC team will be looking to apply for external funding and community grants for the September conference.
In the past, the GCC promoted to other universities and high school students, which attracted more conference attendees.
Baheerathan wants to try to attract more students in a new way by leveraging the already large network of student clubs on campus.
“We want to establish GCC as a hub for social justice clubs on campus. Mac has a lot of different groups, and the GCC wants to create a more cohesive movement where the GCC supports clubs,” said Baheerathan.
But in order to do this, the planners recognize they will need to rebuild the GCC’s brand on campus.
Fariha Husain, Co-Chair of Networking, described how there has been diminished support for and knowledge of the GCC. Husain also emphasized how the current group is working hard to expand the GCC base and recruit students for the conference team.
“We will be looking for conference team planners around mid- to late-March for the September conference. We want to promote heavily through social media to make it a staple event. This is something that requires student interest and a robust discussion amongst student members.”
With its close proximity to the Six Nations of Grand River, Canada’s largest population of First Nations, and an independent ISP with a sizeable number of First Nations students, McMaster should be considered an accessible campus for Aboriginal students.
But is our student population aware of the issues that Aboriginal students experience in accessing their education?
At the Feb. 6 SRA meeting, Huzaifa Saeed, MSU VP (Education), introduced a new position paper that the MSU has drafted on Aboriginal Students. The paper proposed a set of 12 recommendations that primarily urged the provincial and federal governments to increase their funding allocation and remove the barriers to education that indigenous students face.
Saeed prepared the position paper in consultation with the Indigenous Studies Program and using data from focus groups held through OUSA, the MSU’s provincial lobbying body.
“In the MSU, there is a tendency to forget about groups within the larger student body. And according to OUSA and CASA, certain underrepresented groups, such as Aboriginal Students, need to have their issues better addressed.”
In light of the recent Idle No More rallies, Saeed felt that the educational challenges facing indigenous students have been relatively underrepresented in the mainstream media.
The paper also emphasized how, historically, educational institutions have not acknowledged the legitimacy of Indigenous knowledge and systemically discriminated and alienated Aboriginal students. Another recommendation proposed providing more resources to Aboriginal student services to help to improve student transition and experience.
The paper outlines how federal funding, through the Post-Secondary Student Support Program, has been capped at an annual two per cent increase since 1996.
Jennie Anderson, Aboriginal Recruitment and Retention Officer at McMaster, described how the federal cap on funding presented a problem for Aboriginal students because it does not accurately reflect the growing Aboriginal youth population, and it is not set to inflation.
Federal funding is distributed to Aboriginal students from their band councils in their respective communities. However, because the funding comes from a set amount, Aboriginal students will experience increasing difficulty accessing funds for post-secondary studies.
“Communities face tough decisions in priority sequencing. While we already work with students to find alternate means of funding, this will only increase [as funds continue to dwindle relative to the population],” said Anderson.
Brandon Meawasige, a third-year Communications and Indigenous Studies student of Ojibway, heritage explained how in his first year he studied at Laurier Brantford, he struggled to complete all the necessary paperwork because the university process was overly complex.
“At Mac, I filled out one form, sent it in and it was processed right away by Student Accounts and Cashiers. I didn’t need to qualify how I was Aboriginal or have a back-and-forth conversation with my band council to prove my status, like I had to at Laurier.”
The Indigenous Studies Program is currently housed in the basement of Hamilton Hall, but unlike other programs, its student services is just another part of their program but does not have separate employees or independent funding.
The program will soon be receiving an enhanced office space in the new Wilson Building, and program staff have been enthusiastic to promote the introduction of a full four-year Bachelors in Indigenous Studies.
Tara Campbell, Program Administrator, remarked upon the positive impact of the new MSU position paper.
“It was the first time in a few years that we were approached by the MSU, and I was pleasantly surprised by the knowledge [of Indigenous issues] that came up. This is a mutually beneficial relationship, and we hope for more allies like the MSU so it isn’t always just us knocking on doors.”
Saeed also re-iterated the importance of strengthening the relationship between the MSU and Aboriginal students and creating more awareness among the student body of educational disparities.
“The MSU should have a repository on all significant PSE issues to build for future years to detail our stance. I hope my successor will vote for CASA to continue lobbying on behalf of Aboriginal issues.”
Politics and music go way back.
In the 1980s Public Enemy challenged the assumption that music should be a form of entertainment and, as writer Mark Fisher points out, instead saw music as a way to define a new revolutionary history. Even earlier the legendary folk musician Woody Guthrie gave a voice to the Great Depression as he travelled across America carrying a guitar that famously displayed the words “This Machine Kills Fascists.”
Though music’s grand promise of leading revolutions has faded, it seems that now more than ever we need artists to shake up our assumptions about how we see the world. That’s what the music of A Tribe Called Red is all about – subversion. But also dancing.
Based in Ottawa, A Tribe Called Red are a native-Canadian group that combine traditional pow wow and electronic dance music. “It started as a party called electric pow wow,” said DJ NDN, one of group’s three members. “We played for the crowd, which was First Nations students, and people went crazy for one track that sampled pow wow music so we thought we should try more of it.” People in clubs were so ecstatic that they cheered after the songs. Their first show to a mostly non-native Canadian crowd in Montreal even had people chanting the group’s name before they went onstage.
It seems like A Tribe Called Red have become really popular really quickly, but the members of the group have actually been at it for a long time. “I used to be in punk bands,” said DJ NDN. “I played drums with Canadian punk rock legends the Ripcordz and we got to open for the Misfits.”
“I was probably in 12 bands growing up and just killed the high school battle of the bands scene,” said DJ Shub.
“You gotta remember that he’s way older,” added NDN, “so he was the DJ in the metal bands when the Limp Bizkit thing was really hot.” Shub’s rap-rock (remember that?) abomination was called Flush Bucket. Flush Bucket. “It was the best battle of the bands ever,” said Shub.
“I found out really early on that I wasn’t going to play an instrument,” said DJ Bear Witness. “I got pushed into DJ’ing by my friends.”
A Tribe Called Red didn’t start out with any sort of political aspirations but quickly found that it was pretty much impossible to not be involved in politics. The group recently released a song called “The Road” in support of the Idle No More movement, and their music and live show often features clips of hilariously racist representations of native people.
“A really good example is a video made by Bear of Super Cat, a Jamaican dude, singing about Indians from all directions and a clip from a 1960s British variety show,’” said NDN. “You had these British white people dressed as what they thought Indians were supposed to be and a Jamaican singing about Indians – everyone’s showing you what they think Indians are but nothing’s native about it. Until we took it and decolonized it.”
The story of native-Canadians is so often something told by people who are anything but native. The “indigenizing,” as NDN calls it, of Native representations is about trying to make our understanding not limited to what we already know. “We see it as a very good way to subversively pass these messages on,” said NDN. “It’s better than if we sat down and said ‘this is racist’ because it gives people a chance think about it on their own.”
It’s about time we all tried to figure out the complicated thing that is the relationship between native and non-native Canadians.
Nolan Matthews,
Senior ANDY Editor
A group of more than 30 students, professors and community members gathered on campus this morning to raise awareness for the Idle No More campaign. The rally was organized in solidarity with community action in 25 cities across Canada opposing Prime Minister Harper's leadership on various issues.
The rally at McMaster, organized by members of the McMaster First Nations Students Association (MFNSA) and the Indigenous Studies Program, began at the Cootes Drive parking lot. Participants carried signs with messages including "Stop Carbon Emissions Before It's Too Late" and "Where is our democracy?"
The group moved toward the centre of campus and congregated outside Mills Library, where Lester Green, a speaker visiting from Six Nations, addressed the crowd about the environmental concerns and educational goals of the movement. Following Green's speech, Idle No More supporters participated in a dance-around.
Christa Jonathan, President of MFNSA, said the campus demonstration follows in the footsteps of similar campus rallies. The Indigenous Studies Program has also held teach-ins over the past two weeks in the Student Centre.
"We just want everyone to know that everyone's treaty people. The Bill [C-45] doesn't just affect aboriginal people - It affects us all," she said.
"It goes back to education," said Green, after the rally. "You have to understand the past, present and future in order to have that better future."
Some members of the campus demonstration joined the larger Idle No More Hamilton initiative downtown later in the afternoon.
As the Idle No More movement continues to gain steam across Canada, the McMaster First Nations Students Association (MFNSA) hosted its own event in solidarity with the movement, hoping to address the many questions that have sprung up in the student body.
Students, staff and faculty filled up the seats in the MUSC Atrium, leaving others to stand and listen to the panel of professors discuss issues facing the indigenous peoples in Canada. The panel included Daniel Coleman (English and Cultural Studies), Vanessa Watts (Indigenous Studies), Jeffrey Denis (Sociology), Rick Monture (English and Cultural Studies) and Amber Dean (English and Cultural Studies).
The event was meant to share information on campus and to show solidarity with the expansive and still-growing Idle No More movement. The issues discussed ranged from violence against First Nations women to the limited number of Indigenous Studies faculty at McMaster. The panel discussion was followed by a round dance, which students were encouraged to join.
Christa Jonathan, MFNSA President, noted that there is a multitude of views on campus, and that the event aimed to "re-educate people in appropriate ways so that they know about the current issues indigenous peoples face, and to encourage students to learn more."
To mark the National Day of Action on Jan. 28, MFNSA plans to hold a march on campus and potentially more teach-ins, as well as a flash mob round-dance.
By Ryan Sparrow
Across Canada, tens of thousands of first nations people and their allies have protested against Bill C-45, claiming it would be an unprecedented oppression of indigenous peoples by the government.
Ahmad Al-Amad, a third-year philosophy student, has gone to several of the demonstrations after hearing about the effects that C-45 will have on the environment and the impacts on treaty rights.
Ahmad says students should take interest in the protests "because it is not only respecting indigenous people and the land that at the very least deserve recognition of their nations and the genocide by the Canadian state but because of the destruction of our ecosystems.”
The Idle No More protests sprung out of opposition to the Omnibus C-45 bill “Jobs and Growth Act,” which focuses mostly on Tar Sands development.
“We are facing an apocalyptic future for the next generation. This is a cry for the environment which Harper is disregarding and neglecting,” said Al-Amad.
The Omnibus Bill C-45 made sweeping legislative changes to Canada, most notably changes to treaty rights and scrapping environmental protections on Canada’s water ways.
Rick Gunderman, a second-year history student who attended the demonstrations says that the Bill enacts a “freedom to pollute.”
While the bill is very broad in its scope, its primary focus is the expansion of the Tar Sands and the violation of treaty rights in order to build oil pipe lines.
“The Treaties are the last line of defense to protect water and lands from destruction,” stated Oren Lyons, a Faithkeeper of the Turtle Clan for the Onondaga Nation Council of Chiefs in a press release.
The attention to the Idle No More movement grew with the subsequent hunger strike by Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence.
Last year Spence brought to light the impoverished conditions that many Aboriginal communities face after declaring a state of emergency due to the housing crisis at the Attawapiskat reserve.
According to an Idle No More press release, Attawapiskat has wealthy mining companies on its land that do not share any of the wealth and resources with the community.
Over the past month, there has been a wave of protests in Hamilton as part of the Idle No More movement, starting with a protest in front of City Hall.
This was followed by a flash mob inside Limeridge Mall on Dec. 24 that had more than 300 indigenous peoples and supporters attend. Inside Limeridge there were speeches followed by a pow wow and drum circles. Demonstrators held numerous creative signs.
The mall demonstration was not unique to Hamilton. On Jan. 13, West Edmonton Mall in Edmonton was packed with well over 2,600 demonstrators.
Hamilton protestors also gathered on Jan. 5, with more than 350 people rallying at King and Dundurn. Protestors proceeded to march on Highway 403 around the Dundurn Plaza. The demonstrations lasted about two hours.
Several McMaster students also participated in an “unwelcoming” of Prime Minister Stephen Harper when he visited the Ford plants in Oakville by a spontaneous demonstration organized with very little notice.
Idle No More also gained momentum at the Jan. 11 Art Crawl, which started with a smudging ceremony at the Green Smoothie Bar with drumming and singing inside. This was followed later with a march to the abandoned lot where a DJ played music, flags were flown and leaflets were passed out to people attending Art Crawl.
Organizers have set up an Idle No More teach-in at McMaster on Jan. 18 in the MUSC atrium.
