Kwe'! Ni'n Teluisi Pam Palmater I'm from the Mi'kmaw Nation and member of Eel
River Bar First Nation in Northern New Brunswick. I'm also the Chair in
Indigenous Governance at Ryerson University, a practicing lawyer and an
activist and organizer for social movements. The really amazing thing about
Idle No More and how it got started is that it's been ongoing since contact
there have always been Indigenous leaders Indigenous women and grassroots
people trying to resist the colonization that was happening the interesting thing
about Idle No More however was that we took a little bit of a different
approach. We'd always look to leaders and chiefs and organizations to do the
organizing and the rallying and we decided it wasn't enough so we
decided to educate the grassroots people and say we need to be the ones that rise
up and we need to actually engage our treaty partners and say hey stop being
idle and rise up with us and you know take this country back for the people.
How the Idle No More name came about it really was just a tweet when we were
engaging in some of our teach-ins so at the very beginning we decided how are we
going to get people mobilized and we thought they need the information and so
as we were doing teach-ins and as we were meeting in different communities we
just kept using the hashtagIdle Idle No More, Idle No More so that it would
be attached to the things that we were doing and there were other names that
were being used at the same time but Idle No More seemed to be the one that
really caught on with the grassroots people and that's how it started.
Some of the core values of Idle No More was first and foremost not to be a
movement that was led by one person that was being controlled by any particular
political organization or that we look to the traditional male leaders to do it
we decided that there are so many educated and active and traditional
Indigenous women across the country that we are already planted in our
communities we're already working at the grassroots level all we have to do is
share that information and empower everyone else to join us in
the movement and I think that's why you saw that it was Indigenous women who led
it in the beginning. We are trying to stop all of the things that we don't
like that's going on in this country so undemocratic laws lack of consultation
or engagement with citizenship and First Nations the destruction of our
environment really we've gone so far beyond what real democracies are
because democracies are a governing by the people for the people and it has
become something that's in just the hands of a few so we decided let's
empower not just ourselves as Indigenous peoples but other Canadians to see how
our issues impact them as well. Poison water for us equally impacts poison
water for Canadians and so that's what we thought really was about engaging
everyone and not just an Indigenous movement. I think this the whole Idle No More
movement and the rising up of Canadians and Indigenous people really
changed the relationship between Indigenous peoples Canadians and the
government in the sense that they realize that we have reasserted our
power that we've never given up our power our sovereignty our treaties our
laws and our traditions that have kept us alive and we were reasserting it in
two different ways one we were asserting our rights, boots on the ground and in
the courts and in the political realm but also withdrawing from
processes that weren't working for us and I think that's just as key to making
sure that we don't legitimize processes that aren't working for Canadians or
Indigenous peoples. I work with a lot of different First Nations and First
Nations political organizations and also grassroots organizations and communities
like here in Toronto, there's lots of organizations that do a lot of different
things and movements from Black Lives Matter and anti-poverty groups and
anti homeless groups environmental groups and we have found through Idle No More
that we have a lot of allies in all of these organizations especially unions
and teachers and women's groups and we've found that by acting in
solidarity not only do we reinforce what they're advocating for, but they can help
reinforce what we're advocating for and there's a lot of lessons learned from
that best practices if you want to call it that and that's really
been the strength probably the best thing that's come out of Idle No More
movement was to make these connections and then work in solidarity on a
go-forward basis. So one of the things that we found post Idle No More was that
it was a lot easier to organize and rally around issues and events that are
happening because we had already made these huge connections both in Canada
and the US so one of the things we were able to do very quickly was rally around
the Dakota Access Pipeline in a wide variety of ways so there was us doing a
commentary in the media we were reaching out to people who could provide services
who could provide supplies. We were sending people so that there would be
boots on the ground, we had lawyers involved we had everything that you need
to support a movement around a single community who wouldn't have the
resources to do it themselves and as you can see it has turned out to be one
of the largest movements in American history, in recent times with regards to
Indigenous peoples. One of the best things that has happened since Idle No More
is the connections that we made because now they're permanent, now
when Black Lives Matter needs to organize on the ground we already have
the connections there we can work with them be it in Toronto or in whatever city
and it's the same with Union issues or environmental issues we have all of the
connections in place and we continue to foster them even when there's no events
happening in between and the other really important thing for us as
Indigenous peoples is that we we got informed and now that empowerment
that we did by going around and visiting communities and little groups of people
saying here's what's happening here's what the implications are that those
same people and more want to know more, want to stay
involved and they don't just accept the answer that we see from politicians
anymore we don't just accept the really five-minute blurb on the media everyone
challenges everything and that's probably for me the most impactful
because it was like we were all just accepting what we were seeing and
hearing as if it was true yes the government has good intentions but when
you really look behind and look at the research and see the facts and data
that's the important part and we've found that that's now spread within our
communities so the people that we were help informing are now helping inform
other people and we're reaching younger and younger people so now it's about
empowering kids in high schools and junior high's and elementary schools and
some people may think that that's too young but in fact there are so many
children who are actually actively engaged in environmental issues it's not
a far stretch to also say well here's what's happening with Indigenous peoples
and here's what's happening in you know the anti-poverty movement and issues
around racism and what they can do about it and I think the younger that
you get these children the far more likely it is we're going to be able to
create and empathetic, compassionate, kind loving caring adults the kind of people
that we want to be as are our neighbours and friends and colleagues. I think when
you go out into the community you have to expect something different
than lawyers speaking at a lawyer's forum or people involved in unions
rallying each other because we're all preaching to the converted
you know Indigenous leaders talking to other Indigenous leaders when you go out
into the community you have to first and foremost take people where they are,
they're not all going to be at the same information level they're not all going
to have had the same experiences and there's going to be a lot of anger and
one of the things we realize as organizers is whether or not that anger
was directed at us or other issues we actually have to accept that and take
that and understand that when we're talking about murdered and missing
Indigenous women little girls that this impacts hospitals
it impacts teachers it impacts professionals it impacts communities and
we have to be able to sit there and understand the concerns and where
they come from and that there's going to be a wide range of people and on a wide
range of concerns and we have to really listen and not always be so quick to
respond sometimes as a form of empathy we want to say oh I totally understand
what you're saying and that can actually work against you. Sometimes just
listening is the best when you're going out into communities
and the other thing that we have to keep in mind is when we go out to communities
sometimes the people that we're meeting
with are the same people that always show up
to community meetings they're always actively engaged we need to find ways to
reach those people who don't engage who are disengaged for lots of reasons and I
think that's going to be extremely important when teachers go out and try
to engage in communities. What about all the peoples who aren't there? How do you
engage with them? I think one of the lessons that's important in
organizing is to be open that this is about including everyone and everyone's
voice and everyone's perspective. One particular voice might not be the one
that leads the way in a particular strategic direction or in a piece of
litigation or in a decision that's made but we really can't be making community
based decisions without hearing what everybody has to say and really trying
to work towards consensus as opposed to the default of the 51% is the
way to go, that we have to find ways of even if we're going to go in a
particular direction there's always a way to incorporate the concerns and
the requests of other people that might not be in that same direction but
there's ways to mitigate the issues that they're talking about for example.
Five steps to organizing, the first two are the most important because they're
the ones you don't do with anyone else but yourself. The first thing you have to
do is decide what do you have to offer. One of the most difficult things for
people who are actually actively involved in a movement of any kind is to
be inundated with hundreds and hundreds of phone calls of people saying "hey I'm
here". You really need to know what it is you have to offer. Are you offering
financial support? Are you boots on the ground? Are you the kind of person that
does support behind the scene? Are you providing food for people? Are you doing
something as invisible as babysitting for the people who are going to be in a
march or helping people do research for a court case that's coming up that's
part of your movement? All of these things don't get any media attention
there's not a lot of celebrations around it but it's those supports around the
people that are in the movement doing the boots on the ground stuff that is
probably the most important it's what sustained Idle No More. Number two
is we have to self-educate so there's lots of really interested allies and
people who are really eager to help in different movements but they haven't yet
taken a few minutes to actually educate about the issue that we're talking about,
and because organizers are so few and far between and because those who put
their lives into you know supporting social movements have to put so much
time into it they can't be expected to be the one to educate the whole world on
these issues so we have to take some responsibility and say okay I want to be
an ally of the Indigenous movement instead of asking someone to explain the
Truth and Reconciliation Commission to me I'm gonna go online download the
report and read it myself there's lots of things that we can do, and you can say
that for any environmental issue and those two things are the most
important what you do for yourself before you contact anyone.
And then the third step is when you do contact someone you're able to say
here's what I have to offer, here's what I know
tell me what you need in terms of either organizing or litigation strategies or
PR, or social media whatever it is as opposed to telling people how it's going
to be, because for any movement there's already people engaged in it why not
come in as a support person and say hey I can help you organize or I can help
you do these things in these particular ways and I think that's important asking
what they need, especially when we're talking about allies so for us has
Indigenous peoples in the movement, the worst thing that could happen is
for people to come in and be our saviours instead of respectful allies. We don't
need anyone to tell us what we want or what we need and what would make the
world better, what we need our people to stand beside us and offer all of these
supports. So number four in the five steps is really about strategic planning
and the thing about strategic planning is that not everything has to be
pre-planned out really really well I mean what we found with idle no more was
that it was so organic we didn't have to tell people what to do we would just put
a call out or we would say this is what we're doing and there would be
solidarity events all across the country so I don't think people should be
obsessed with making sure every single thing is planned out to allow some of it
to come out organically but things like what kinds of issues are we going to
raise in the media who are we going to get involved how are we going to do any
damage control about negative media, all of those things I think are good to
happen upfront and to have some plans around if this happens do we have
lawyers on call in case people are arrested or we want to do litigation or
we need a judicial review those kinds of things
it's helpful if that's in place but also to allow it just to happen
organically and sometimes you might start organizing community events and
the new communities might just take it off on themselves and host their own
corresponding events in solidarity events and and people who aren't active
in another area might say "Hey well here in Nova Scotia we want to do this too!"
and it's about making space for that organic movement part to come and the
last one is really never forgetting that any social movement is a conversation
with the public and that it always has to be with the greatest of integrity and
respect because we are dealing with the Canadian public so that everything we
say and do has to be factual no matter how emotional it is no matter how
intense it is no matter how much we want something the best way to engage with
the public is with the facts and so having researched ahead of time facts
and figures that support your position are incredibly convincing. We found
during the Idle No More movement that it was very easy to counter anything the
government or those against our position had to say by having the countervailing
fact and the resource document or the research right at hand and I think
arming people who speak in the media with those facts and figures and having
that available on on the Internet and social media that was one of our most
effective weapons in convincing people who weren't traditionally our allies to
be our allies because some of it really is eye-opening there's a lot of myths
and stereotypes about every profession, teachers, doctors, lawyers you know in the
environmental movement anti-poverty movement what people think these things
are about and whether or not it impacts them we have to show them that it does
that everything we're doing impacts you in your future. I think the only other
thing that I can think of that really would apply to elementary teachers
trying to organize especially in the community
is engaging with everyone, even people that you think might not be related to
how do we get better schools how do we get better education
the key to any social movement is to not just build relationships for the purpose
of that social movement but to maintain those relationships for those people
that you're working with and their social movements so really even though
sometimes we see our movements as individual, its environmental, its
Indigenous, its union based, in fact they're all the same we all end up in
the same place we're looking for social justice and we can't do that if only one
movement is strong and we're weak on all the other fronts but that requires that
people who are in social movements have time to give to their partners who are
helping them and that can be difficult but that being said you gain so much
back if you're the kind of person that's there when people call on you so that
when you need people they'll be there for you and it might not always be the
same people so trying to rely on particular individuals over and over and
over and over again doesn't work that's why we have to be so inclusive we have
to be so diverse and broad and find different ways of staying involved in
all of the other movements that are that are helping your particular movement.