I Know More Than You Do!

I’m sure everyone watches the (hockey) playoff games. Man can it get pretty dirty- there is no limit to winning- its win at all cost. We are just about to enter into a new election on my rez, so the nominations are in, there is approximately 1 month till the actual election. I hope it aint a rendition of survivor or a playoff game for that matter. There are a lot of new books out on First Nations, seems the Indian Act is coming under fire- but is that just convention- I mean is that in vogue to put down the native system and sound like you’re giving good advice? Certainly we all know that the system was never concocted by the Natives themselves. If anybody should be accountable the government should fess up and try coming up with some sound governance or should I say “good government?” Two books come to mind, “Disrobing the Aboriginal Industry,” by Francis Widdowson and Albert Howard: the other one is entitled, “A New Look at Canadian Indian Policy,” by Gordon Gibson. So is this all different, I mean isn’t that the way it always is, non-natives knowing more about us than we do ourselves. Why does that dominating way always pass off as knowledge? If we (aboriginal people) have any criticisms we are ostracised and made to look like our opinion is weird, and out of line. So when do native people become free from the oppression of the dominant majority? This new pedagogy is probably more related to creating a knowledge that is oppositional to what today’s native knowledge is pumping out. Native epistemology is on its way, and you can’t fake your knowledge nor create something that is against the real truth. There are native people who know more than what is often acknowledged. It aint mystical, but it is an experience that being native does give you an upper hand. The battle of the intellects, is just beginning.
So when our leaders are standing up there they have to understand that they are in conflict with the Indian Act. So the leaders must know that the Indian Act has to be part of their platform. If they lack such knowledge, than they are leaders that truly lack.
You can check out one book on line:
http://books.google.ca/books?id=oWkWXRcqCM4C&pg=PR6&lpg=PR6&dq=gordon+gibson+-+A+New+Look+at+Canadian+Indian+Policy:+Respect+the+Collective+--Promote+the+Individual.&source=bl&ots=qVe-6Ymlwb&sig=t7vuGJofXDnnC0ZOYMHCMGk16nw&hl=en&ei=P4nqSbufJKaeM8qexOEF&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1#PPR5,M1