sabotabby: raccoon anarchy symbol (fighting the man)
sabotabby ([personal profile] sabotabby) wrote2011-12-09 07:11 am

Attawapiskat: What is to be done?

Lots of comments to my last entry to the effect of, "Okay, so what do we do?"

There's some obvious ones, like donating to the Red Cross, and some fun ones, like sending Harper to Mars. (Which might not help the people of Attawapiskat, but it certainly can't hurt.)

I feel that we are creative people, though. If Kalle Lasn can make an offhand suggestion in Adbusters and have it blossom into OWS, you'd think the great minds of the intertubes can help out here.

(Actually, one of my critiques of OWS is that it mostly dropped the ball on indigenous rights issues. The situation in Attawapiskat was well known before the Canadian Occupy camps were raided; here is this big group of people that could have been occupying government offices demanding that they do something. Instead they had drum circles. Anyway.)

Whenever there's a disaster in another part of the world, I see the internet doing stuff. Fandom raises money for earthquake and tsunami relief. Anonymous hacks the bad guys. The word gets spread around FB and LJ and Twitter with those little repost buttons.

This isn't any different. This is a humanitarian catastrophe and our government is making it worse. Let's put our heads together and come up with a way to do something.

Open thread: List your ideas, no matter how ridiculous. Maybe one will catch on.

[identity profile] audrawilliams.livejournal.com 2011-12-09 08:34 pm (UTC)(link)
Elect Romeo Saganash as the Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition.

[identity profile] queerasmoi.livejournal.com 2011-12-11 06:19 am (UTC)(link)
I like Saganash as an idea, but the reality is he's not a particularly strong speaker in English right now and can't carry a debate comfortably. But he is amazing and I hope he has a long political future.

Nathan Cullen's huge riding includes a lot of First Nations (notably the Gitxsan which is currently wrangling over the pipeline). He seems to know his constituent nations very well. I don't know that he'd win the leadership but he's very charismatic and he knows his issues - a strong combination that actually allows him to be very convincing. If Cullen and Saganash are prominent members of an NDP cabinet, the whole country's relationship with FN would be considerably different.

[identity profile] audrawilliams.livejournal.com 2011-12-12 03:52 pm (UTC)(link)
I feel like in the next few weeks, Romeo can work on his public speaking skills. It would take Nathan a LOT longer than that to come anywhere close to Romeo's knowledge and experience with First Nations issues.

[identity profile] queerasmoi.livejournal.com 2011-12-12 04:08 pm (UTC)(link)
I would like to think Saganash could work on it, but he doesn't seem significantly improved from his level of public speaking at the June convention. His French is very fluid, mind you, but in English he seems to seize up and get physically uncomfortable.

Cullen can of course only speak from the people he represents and interacts with, and not personal lived experience. But what he knows at this point is impressive. Considering his massive riding appears to contain more distinct FN language groups than any other in Canada, it comes with the territory.