Reading and Meaningful Conversations about Canada and the Fourth World

Books have a resonating energy to find its way to communicate to me - teach, entertain and guide me on this journey of inquiry, mindfulness and education.  They jump at me as I browse through a bookshop or recommended to me, show up as presents or they just appear. 

 

I finished the thought provoking novel Ishmael by Daniel Quinn which appeared on my bedside table mysteriously.  I was intrigued by the subtitle, “An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit”, yet did not get to it.  A friend, Julie Westeinde referring to Ishmael in an interesting conversation about our organizational transformation work finally prompted me. 

 

Currently, I am reading multiple books; The Orenda by Joseph Boyden; Earth into Property, Colonization, Decolonization and Capitalism by Lethbridge University Professor Anthony J. Hall; Tap Dancing to Work on Warren Buffet by Carol Loomis and Neville William’s Sun Power – the story of solar energy coming of age and The Book of Life, J. Krishnamurti’s daily wisdom. 

 

As I switch back and forth, I marvel at how these diverse books speak to me through the common thread of humanity to find balance in our relationship with this planet.   

 

Yet we seem to perpetuate the perilous, inequitable, material world teetering on our treadmill, finding it difficult to slow it down to get off and reflect. In the next blog, I focus on three of the books, Ishmael, The Orenda and Earth into Property, as they address the Fourth World of the marginalized aboriginal people, as Canada reconciles with the past for the 21^st century. 

These books have a profound influence on me as I returned to rediscover Canada after 27 years of living in a stormy yet exciting South Asia (Sri Lanka).

 

In my quest to assimilate into Ottawa life, I met one new person a day for a meaningful conversation.  These meetings opened up a whole new world for me.

 

With an introduction by my long time friend and mentor, former Ontario Legislator Alvin Curling, one such conversation was with Hany Besada, one of Canada’s foremost experts on Natural Resources Governance.

 

Knowing my interest in sustainability, corporate responsibility and grass-roots experience in Asia and Africa with renewable and rural energy, education and leadership, he introduced me to the mining industry and community engagement space.

 

What excites me is the emerging need for these huge corporations to engage with small indigenous communities that surround the mining properties for mutual benefit.

 

These communities are becoming more assertive, especially with communications technologies, to relate their stories to the world.  When the narrative is negative - of human rights violations or environmental damage to land and water impacting on their livelihoods, the corporation’s image can be tarnished risking investor confidence and potential law suits.

 

This is an opportunity for aboriginal people on Turtle Island to gain acceptance for their call to protect culture, traditions and the natural ecosystem that supports it, as the mineral resources industry spreads across the country.

 

In March 2012, I was privileged with an invitation to participate at the Private Public Partnerships for Sustainable Development: Toward a Framework for Resource Extraction Industries - International Conference at McGill University, Montreal organized by the Institute for the Study of International Development (ISID).  

 

At the opening, in a moving speech starting with his own childhood experiences with the Indian Residential School, Steven Kakfwi, aboriginal Dene leader and former Premier of North West Territories said, “We are not against development. We just do not want you to come to our land and say we are encroaching on 'your land'.  We want to be treated with respect so we also have a say on how to balance between development and protecting this land for all Canadians”. 

 

The "inebriated and diminished indigenous person" stereotype from my formative years in the 1970s Toronto was thrown out in one fell swoop.   

 

The rest of the conference, at the intimate sessions and meals, I had enlightening conversations with Marie Wilson, journalist, teacher and Commissioner of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission for the survivors of Canada's Indian Residential Schools as thousands courageously come forward to tell their stories of abuse and what the absence of family and love did to their esteem and spirit;  Willie Littlechild of the UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples; Jerry Asp former Chief of the Tahltan First Nation, British Columbia and co-founder of the Canadian Aboriginal Minerals Association (CAMA) and Steven Kakfwi – I thought, only if every Canadian had this opportunity, the myth of the “Indian” may change to pave the way for a true plural and a multicultural Canada.  

 

In another one of those expanding my universe with meaningful conversations, introduced by UN's Neil Buhne, I met Howard Whittaker and Robert Chitty who head the Ottawa media company The Gordon Group.  Robert Chitty has a long association with the Grand Council of the Cree from James Bay, Quebec, who fought the onslaught of hydro power development in the 1970s, which would divert rivers and destroy their traditional lands and the ecosystem. 

 

Chitty produced three documentaries for the Grand Council to record this struggle and success, showing their focus and resolve to defend what is right and just, their strategic foresight, creativity and skill as tough negotiators to win their autonomy and aspire as they state on their website to be “masters of their destiny”.  Information on these  documentaries can be accessed through this site https://gordongroup.com/2020/06/25/grand-council-of-the-crees/.   

 

I have since made it a quest to learn more about the North American aboriginal people and cultures by reading, meeting elders in places like the Iskotew Lodge at Health Canada offices in Tunney’s Pasture, in Ottawa.  

The Medicine Wheel

I am awed at the similarities between Eastern and Aboriginal philosophies.  From the elders I learned about the Medicine Wheel, a physical manifestation of spiritual energy.  The wheel depicts the interconnected and interwoven thread of life between all beings on this earth. The “Whole” world thrives in the tapestry and interdependence between each organism in its diversity.     

These books, among the conversations and inquiry, teach me in my quest for knowledge and history of the intricate and sensitive relationships between distinctive cultures, as I try to understand the dynamics of the New Canada I encounter - in conflict between exploiting natural resources for the future wealth of the nation and protecting nature that sustains all of us - as represented by two distinct cultures – the colonizer and the colonized.  I try to suspend judgment as I learn through these stories, the history leading to current events.

This knowledge is important in the work I do as a "bridge builder",  organizational change agent, trainer and consultant.  

 

Transformation to meet the challenges of the New Canada has to come with “Deep Tissue Change” for people, the organizations and the nation we all make up. 

As the old paradigm of management and leadership is challenged by people seeking to find meaning and alignment in their values in both personal and professional lives, Canada as a nation also has to move to reconcile with its past, especially as Canada’s Fourth World rises with its own distinctive culture and values.     

My next blog will weave this thread comparing the three books - two fiction and one, a historical account to add to the rich dialogue that continues as Canada evolves.

"When Native peoples come into their own, on the basis of their own cultures and traditions, that will be the Fourth World."     Mbuto Milando, First Secretary of the Tanzanian High Commission in Canada in a conversation with George Manual, Chief of the National Indian Brotherhood of Canada.