Building bridges between all communities
Issue link: http://publications.winnipegfreepress.com/i/73121
PAGE 8 • JULY 2012 SHOWING SOME Doing it right ' R E ZPECT' BY DREW TAYLOR MOST PEOPLE in Indian country are fa- Dedicated to fostering relationships w th ou First Nations communities withi ourr FirstNations communities. NOWACCEPTING Pre-Paid Debit&Credit Cards miliar with the Seven Grandfather teachings, as presented in Anishinaabe tradition. It's sort of a guide book for human conduct towards others. All together these teachings include wisdom, love, respect, bravery, honesty, hu- mility and truth. Sort of the 'greatest hits of human nature'. Of late, I have been thinking about these teachings and wondering how they influence my life, and the lives of others I come across. It's been said that 'do unto others as you would have them do unto you' is the cornerstone of practically all religions, not just the Bible. It's just phrased in different ways. I think the same could be said about the Seven Grandfa- thers. What made me think of this was an incident that happened a few weeks ago in my own community of Curve Lake. It was something unfortunate and unpleasant, and made me want to focus specifically on the con- cept of Respect, or as I like to call it around here, 'Rezpect'. To me, it's one of the most impor- tant of the seven teachings. A very good friend of mine Another way of looking at this event, paraphrasing Shakespeare, is that all the world's a playground and we're just kids in it calling each other names. building projects both large and small. Wework with you to design your • Residential • Commercial • Industrial • Contractor Pricing available. RONA Home&Garden Winnipeg Central For Commercial Sales contact Ward Hinton at 774-7389 or email: commercialsales489@rona.ca 1333 Sargent Avenue 774-7389 | Toll Free 1-888-680-7389 | Commercial Sales 979-7389 who owns a cottage here and her partner were out biking one day, taking in the landscape we were blessed with. She is a successful wom- an with a shock of blonde hair and her part- ner is African-Canadian. They had stopped to adjust her helmet when a white (how ironic) truck full of Native guys drove by and shouted at them, the 'N' word! Hint – it rhymes with Winnie The Pooh's tiger friend, Tigger. And then it was shouted a second time as they drove away. Though it all happened so fast, they seemed positive the occupants of the truck appeared drunk. Needless to say, my friends were greatly astonished that things like this still happen in 2012. In Curve Lake no less. I was too. Worried about their safety, they reported it to the village police who coincidentally told them he knew exactly who they were and had just come from their place for some other incident. Evidently these erudite and sophis- ticated men had called the police constable several names too, though probably not ones that 'rhymes with Tigger' word. I hope I am not the only one noting the obvious lack of rez- pect in this incident. I was embarrassed and upset for my friends. Trying to understand such actions, I pondered it. There are several ways of looking at this incident and breaking it down. A soci- ologist or political scientist might say that it is a form of lateral violence that takes place in a lot of our communities – an oppressed group lashes out against others who are oppressed rather than at the oppressor. Who says you can't learn anything watching Oprah? Howev- er, understanding that this lateral violence has a long history with colonialism, the Residen- tial School system etc. does not make dealing with those situations any easier. Or excuse the behaviour of idiots. All it does is make life a little more difficult for everybody. Another way this of at event, Shakespeare, is paraphrasing that all I guess the Seven Grandfathers were absent from those gentlemen's lives. I found myself in the unique position of apologizing for the stupid actions of these people, whom I may or may not know. Luckily these friends have made many acquaintances in our community, so they already know this definitely was not reflective of the community as a whole. As the old saying about racism goes, you can cut the tree down but the roots grow pretty deep. Every winter as Christmas comes clos- er, I look forward to one of the side benefits of the season. I love Christmas nuts; almonds, filberts, walnuts etc. Supermarkets are flood- ed with them. But unlike some people, I pre- fer them still in their shell. To me, they seem fresher and more time consuming (therefore I eat less) if I crack the shells myself. However, for the last ten years or so, I've noticed a growing scarcity in supermarkets of my favourite nut still in the shell, it's called he Brazil nut. And when I would lament its disap- pearance to older people in my community, some would get a conspiratorial look and lean over to me to whisper "do you know what we used to call those kinds of nuts when I was a kid?" Of course I do, I am hitting half century mark myself this year. They were called 'Tig- ger toes', again you'll understand the poetic license I took with the name. And don't get me started on 'eenie, meenie minie moe, catch a….." This one, depending on your rezpect, could include either a tigger or a tiger. looking the world's a playground and we're just kids in it calling each oth- er names.