Aboriginal Canada Revisited

DE-COLONIZING CANADIAN ABORIGINAL HEALTH AND SOCIAL SERVICES FROM THE INSIDE OUT: A CASE STUDY-THE AHOUSAHT HOLISTIC SOCIETY

MarkneAtleo DE-COLONIZING CANADIAN ABORIGINAL HEALTH AND SOCIAL SERVICES FROM THE INSIDE OUT: A CASE STUDY-THE AHOUSAHT HOLISTIC SOCIETY INTRODUCTION Jhe colonization of Aboriginal bodies and life-worlds has been a long-term assimilation project that began legislatively with the British North America Act (BNA Act) of 1867—to which the Indian nations whose inherent rights had been recognized in the Royal Proclamation of 1763were not party (Morse 1999,16-19). Subsequent to the BNA Act, the new settler government in 1876 drafted the Indian Act, which gave the federal government fiduciary responsibility for Indian nations. Without consultation, the Indian Act turned Native people into wards of the state, excluding Inuit and Metis by definition (Morse 1999). It was not until the revisions to the Indian Act in 1952that a few small restrictions in wardship were lifted (Henderson, online), an interesting parallel to the post-wwn Zeitgeist that demanded democracy for the oppressed. While the Indian Act was not repealed, established BNArelationships were acknowledged and a new relationship was proclaimed through the Constitution Act of 1982,which repatriated the Canadian Constitution from Great Britain. In 30 T this Act; Aboriginal and treaty rights of First Nations, Inuit and Metis were recognized and guaranteed equally to men and women in the Dominion of Canada. In light of almost 400 years of engagement with English and French forces, resulting in Aboriginal colonization, this reversal of assimilationist policy is very recent. Consequently, the current process of decolonization of the life-world of Canadian Aboriginal people is an arduous process both for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people alike—arduous because it requires a mutual self-consciousness about the challenges created by the very processes of colonization that, in turn, requires a cooperative deconstruction of the institutionalizations ofthat process and a creation ofinstitutional forms that are more appropriate and mutually beneficial. The cultural dialectic (Read1995) that exists for First Nations today involves the interplay between Aboriginal cultures and the overlay of imposed culture. The processes involved in the renegotiation of First Nations' social institutions in the context of reclaiming the self-determination of their cultural life-worlds is painstakingly difficult, because such processes reach into the dark shadows ofhistorical assumptions and motives and require a conscious probing by all citizens to begin to come to terms with the past in a good way. This paper is a product of my observation of and participation in a decolonizing process that involved the creation ofthe Ahousaht Holistic Society in British Columbia and describes some of my experiences as a participant in the healing journey of one Canadian Aboriginal community. Inthis instance, de-colonizingincludesclaimingarightful placethrough the testimonies ofmembers and stories ofNuu-chah-nulth history that celebrates and affirms the survival of a people. Through the remembering of what was, there is an opportunity to see more clearlywhat is,to intervene in the oppressive forces, and move to revitalizeculturalpracticesin the context ofsocial and health programming in ways that reconnect people to the past in the realities of the present. Such a process comes about through a critical interrogation of present institutions through the input ofIndigenous scholarship and activism that represents the vision of a people in a grounded manner. Taking charge in such a way requires a reframing of social issues that reflects a local cultural reality. It is illuminated by a critical consciousness of colonialization in ways 31 THE AHOUSAHT HOLISHI SOCIETY MARLENE ATLEO that permit the restoration of life-worlds remembered; as well as a return to the territories and a repatriation of artifacts scattered through colonial edicts. Aprocess ofdemocratizing and networking canpermit gender barriers to fall, and in the process ofnaming, protect and recreate a cultural legacysteeped in millennia. Bysharing this project of decolonization with Indigenous people around the world, it can be consolidated, strengthened, and constructed in a mutually beneficial way. As a member of the Ahousaht First Nation, Nuu-chah-nulth, I embarked on post-secondary studies late in life, with a view to discovering ways and means to untangle the oppression of mainstream programs and institutions in a manner that values Nuu-chah-nulth culture and history. Post-secondary education permits a glimpse into the formal life-world of mainstream society on which social policy and programming of the federal and provincial governments is based. The theories, histories, and methodologies that form the assumptions of federal and provincial programming are, for the most part, understandable only with advanced education in...