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.