Do I Have a Colony in My Mind?

            Just after I went to bed a little after midnight on Monday the sheet that I’ve used for years ripped apart. A couple of months ago my upstairs neighbour had given me a set of bedding which were still in the package and so I got up and opened it. I think the new sheet is of synthetic material because it’s stiffer and less comfortable, and it’s also white, but it’ll serve its purpose until I can replace the soft purple sheet.

I memorized the first verse of “Tata Teutonne” (Teutonic Tata) by Serge Gainsbourg. Once I wrapped my head around the rhythm and the way he’s playing with word sounds I had to make adjustments to my translation. He’s using words that when put together sound like a machine gun firing.

My Word program acted up again and closed down on me a couple of times “for editing” and so I had to close it in the Task Manager and re-open my documents.

At 9:30 I took a siesta so I’d be fresh for class but I couldn’t really sleep. I think I dozed a couple of times just enough to briefly look in on a couple of dreams, but for the most part I just laid there and so I got up after an hour.

            While I was in the lecture hall waiting for the Indigenous Studies lecture I was thinking that the Métis are a culture that rose out of the sex trade. The Cree gave women to French fur traders in exchange for trade loyalty.

A young woman that sits behind me but has never spoken to me arrived and commented about the blackboards. It was full of what looked like complex formulas and she said it didn’t look pleasant. I told her about the Knowledge and Reality Philosophy course that I took five years ago and how there were formulas. She said she took Early Medieval Philosophy but it turned out to be an Early Medieval History course in which they looked at some early medieval philosophers. I asked her what she thought of our Indigenous Studies course and said she thinks it’s too focused on the United States and very repetitious.

Robin called to us from the back and told us that she took this course with Vern Harper last year and it wasn’t repetitious at all. I looked Vern Harper up afterwards and maybe I misunderstood what Robin said. Vern Harper died two years ago and he never taught at U of T.

Before class Robin and Namee made an announcement that they are part of a committee organizing a powwow here at U of T in March. She said they are looking for male head dancers and heard there is one in this class. If he was here he didn’t put his hand up.

We had yet another lecture about the two-row wampum belt. I don’t White is even aware how much he repeats himself both with his lecture information and with his personal anecdotes.

This was about the two-row as a guide to influence research partnerships.

Indigenous communities and universities are often in conflict. One student expressed the opinion that there should be a separate university for Indigenous Studies.

The woman of South Asian descent who sits directly behind me said that it’s a necessary contradiction.

U of T is involved with the telescope in Hawaii in its capacity as a member of the Association of Canadian Universities for Research in Astronomy, which has funded the telescope that would take up eight acres of what is considered by the Hawaiians to be a sacred mountain. U of T has not funded the project and does not support forcing the building of the telescope. The university is ready to benefit from the telescope’s research opportunities if the Indigenous Hawaiians finally approve it. I don’t see how any of this interferes with Indigenous Studies.

Robin said that Indigenous people were deliberately given HBC blankets infected with smallpox. Sir Jeffrey Amherst had suggested that blankets could be given to Natives and the following spring there was an outbreak of smallpox. But there was already smallpox going around and so there’s no evidence other than Amherst’s suggestion.

            At the Superbowl the cameras didn't pan the audience doing the tomahawk chop, but it could still be heard.

            He says Indigenous knowledge sometimes surpasses western knowledge because it blends things.

            The Deyohahà:ge Indigenous Knowledge Centre wants to be the focal point of knowledge for the Six Nations.

            Does a culture have a right to not share its knowledge? Indigenous knowledge is meant to be shared but it’s a slippery slope. It has to be shared within reason. The knowledge has to be learned first by Indigenous children. Even parts of some Indigenous communities do not share knowledge with the rest. Somebody mentioned Indigenous copyright but White pointed out that ownership is not an Indigenous concept.

            William Fenton was adopted by the Seneca. He promised not to publish but he did so anyway.

            The silver chain covenant is silver because those connected by it must polish it to renew their relationship from time to time.

            It’s getting lighter every day and our mood is changing.

            He says that our ears get plugged when we are upset. I’ve never had that experience.

            One is fed before negotiations and given time to rest after travel to them.

            Haudenosaunee, Haudenosonand on and on blah blah blah.

            Extending the rafters is to knock down one face of the longhouse. It is to integrate outsiders and to extend generations.

            About this idea of keeping things secret so they won’t be misunderstood, why not just keep everything secret?

            No witnesses allowed at Trump impeachment trial.

            What is the good of speaking a language that no one understands?

            We read in isolation and we tend to hear stories in a social setting.

            We don’t think the same way we did ten years ago.

            Modern generations are more visual.

            He thinks George Lucas and Stephen Spielberg are great storytellers but not Martin Scorsese. He was bored watching The Irishman.

            Sometimes we understand things later.

            Extraction colonialism or exploitation colonialism contrasts with settler colonialism in that people come to take rather than live. Examples include South Africa and India. The Spanish tended to exploit. The Dutch had no empire and are painted as benign but they weren’t.

            Empires are expensive. The United States has bases all over the world. They don’t have a base in Canada.

            Indigenous scholars that consider themselves authorities.

            He’s talking about himself again and who recognizes him as Indigenous.

            The Haudenosaunee are one of the most well documented nations.

            The push to hire Indigenous scholars is why he is here.

            He said some arguments between Natives on #NativeTwitter are very sad and disturbing.

            Indigenous communities were more inclusive in colonial times but now they are more exclusive.

            Elizabeth Warren apologized for claiming to be Native but just to get out of trouble.

            He says that George Lucas stole from Indigenous people for Star Wars. I always saw the inane good versus evil dualism of Star Wars as very Christian. Leia’s hairstyle in the first movie is like that of a Hopi princess. Indigenous audiences like Star Wars because they see it as a fight against colonialism.

            I’ve noticed that almost all of the Indigenous students in this class sit at the back.

            A handshake can be broken quickly but not an arm lock.

            Champlain was the first to fire upon the Six Nations and so it was quite a culture shock. This is probably why they never trusted the French. The Dutch had no qualms about giving the Haudenosaunee guns and so they became the first Indigenous people with firearms.

            Some academics say that re Dutch two-row wampum belt is a fake. Some say that the treaty with the Dutch never took place. Dutch trade history with other Indigenous groups on other continents indicates that there were agreements but never real treaties.

            How do we navigate forward if we cannot co-exist? An Indigenous woman in the back who I think was a teacher and not a student said that there is a third space of interpreting artistically. That was the most sensible that that was said in the whole lecture.

            Move from either/or to think about and.

            Protocols for treaties were Indigenous on both sides.

            Human nature is vengeful as is exampled with Trump’s killing of the Iranian general.

            The smoke of the peace pipe pierces the sky.

            The dish with one spoon: take what is needed, keep it clean, leave some for the next.

            At the tutorial Robin and Namee (or Nana) were talking more about the powwow.

            Safia once again used the easy way of running a tutorial. She had no lesson plan but rather just had us write out what we considered the main thesis of the lecture; what we think is the purpose of the two row wampum in research; and what is the silver chain covenant and why is it critical in discussions.

            I wrote:

            The main thesis was about the two-row wampum and how it represents a way of reconciling distinct cultures by allowing them to exist side by side in such a way that they are accessible to one another if one chooses to step across.

            There was also the idea that some knowledge must be held back because it can be misunderstood. But that’s true of all knowledge and of anything anyone might do or say, including the expression or lack of expression on a person’s face. The point is to be objective and to not be an asshole about other people’s stuff. To be objective involves not being sure you know and not jumping to absolute conclusions.

            The silver covenant chain is about the idea that silver tarnishes and so those connected by the chain must come together to re-polish it from time to time.

            Polishing the chain renews the relationship.

            Who conducts the research and on whom?

            She says Indigenous worldviews are non-hierarchical and cyclical while the western view in linear. But again, the Aztec and the Mayans had an extremely hierarchical worldview.

            Indigenous people have been over researched and misunderstood.

Safia said that she had originally wanted to become a cultural and social anthropologist but she was discouraged because of her professors. One of her professors had gone to Papua New Guinea but talked of the Papuans as if they were objects.

            Safia declared that Indigenous researchers have to be decolonised. I really don't get that. Is there a colony in my mind? The term "colonialism" has been a catchword for a concept far beyond the meaning of colonialism. If every colonial culture had lived harmoniously with Indigenous people and honoured every treaty that was made, those settlers living in harmony with Natives would not have stopped being colonists. There has to be the use of adjectives to qualify colonialism. If colonists stole land they were being thieves rather than colonists. If they imposed their culture on Natives they were being evangelical, manipulative, domineering and racist but not colonialist. They may have been empowered by their position in their colonies but the choice to be assholes about it was not in itself colonial. Say “negative colonialism"; greedy colonialism, imperialist colonialism, self-righteous colonialism but colonialism itself is neutral. You could hit me over the head with a stick every time you see me but the stick is still neutral.

            On my way home I stopped at Freshco where I bought three bags of cherries and pretty much their last three bags of grapes.

            I had a can of chickpeas with olive oil and garlic for a late lunch.

            I felt sleepy but I didn’t want to screw up my sleep pattern by taking a late siesta.

            I worked on typing my lecture notes.

            I had one of the pork chops that I'd cooked in orange chipotle sauce, a potato and gravy for dinner while watching Zorro. In this story Anita (played by Annette Funicello) is about to be sent back to Spain when Alejandro sees her wearing a brooch that he had given to his late wife many years ago. He had years later gave it to the church to auction off for charity. Anita says that her father sent it to her from Los Angeles. This proves that Anita really does have a father in Los Angeles. Diego says that Father Vicente must have a record of the sale in his journal and so they go to ask him. Meanwhile the two crooked cowboys that work for Alejandro are ransacking someone’s room in Los Angeles and find Anita’s letters, proving that the man is her father. They are waiting for him to extort money. When he arrives he is the cloaked figure with the wide brimmed hat. They knock him out. Meanwhile in Father Vicente’s journal the page Diego needs has been torn out. A boy comes to Anita with a message to meet someone for news of her father. She rides to the mountains where the bad guys have her father tied up. He is the Los Angeles stable master. Anita gives the men her gold but they plan to kill them both anyway. She has a gun and they escape to the rocks but the men come after them. Zorro arrives and Anita and her father emerge to help in the fight. One man is captured and Zorro pursues the other up the mountain. The man is at the top and about to throw a big rock at Zorro but he loses his balance and falls down a chasm. The story ends with Anita and her father leaving for Spain.