A Criticism of Gord Downie's Work on Indigenous Issues - Printable Version
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A Criticism of Gord Downie's Work on Indigenous Issues - potsie - 06-28-2017
Posted on cbc.ca on June 28:
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Gord Downie, when it comes to collective Indigenous resilience, let us speak for ourselves
In order to be truly effective, Indigenous allies must not take up space meant for our own front-line voices
by Clayton Thomas-Müller · for CBC News
Canadian icon Gord Downie was handed the Order of Canada last week, one of the country's highest honours, in recognition of his work on Indigenous issues. Along with 28 First Nations, Métis and Inuit leaders, including activist Sylvia Maracle and NHL star Jordin Tootoo, the Tragically Hip frontman was honoured for raising awareness about the history of Canada's residential school policy and for "moving the country along the path to reconciliation."
Like many First Nations people, I appreciate our allies in the entertainment industry lending their fame in order to elevate First Nations' voices. This kind of activism has a rich history, such as when Marlon Brando refused his Oscar for The Godfather via Sacheen Littlefeather's iconic speech at the 1973 Academy Awards. Or more recently, during Canadian director James Cameron tour of Canada's controversial oilsands, when he lifted up the perspectives of First Nations fighting its expansion and the health impacts faced by Cree and Dene peoples.
But there are also countless examples where the voices of the very communities these celebrities are trying to support are drowned out, if not left out completely. When it comes to this kind of solidarity, we must understand that these front-line voices must be prioritized. At the Governor General's ceremony, I saw a white man honouring another white man. One was the official spokesperson of the Queen of England. The other was being honoured for his work on Indigenous issues in a space meant for our residential school survivors and the very best of our Indigenous leaders. To top it off, in this 150th year of Britain's colonization of our peoples' collective lands, the Governor General referred to Indigenous peoples as "immigrants." Hours later, on CBC's Power & Politics, host Rosemary Barton had four white men dissecting the incident — with no First Nations' perspective.
Indigenous people do not need white interpreters for the world to understand our stories, our traditional knowledge or its value. The attention given to such grassroots movements as Idle No More and more recently Standing Rock has shown us this. Settler allies can do effective work when teaching others how to increase understanding toward reconciliation and reparations with Indigenous peoples. But these allies must not take up space meant for our own front-line voices.
The Secret Path, Gord Downie's album and graphic novel about an Ojibwa boy escaping from an Indian residential school, is a powerful and tragic story about one of the thousands of our children that never made it home. My challenge to Mr. Downie is to have him push forward the stories of our living survivors: Let us speak for ourselves about our collective resilience. Today, in this era of reconciliation, it is time for the push for social change to come from within. Our communities need inspiration and hope that comes from the narratives of other Indigenous people, in order to mobilize the rest of our population into taking mass political action.
In order to be a truly effective ally, Downie needs to widen his circle of consult on First Nations matters to be more representative than government-dependent, arm's length institutions like the Assembly of First Nations. (These institutions tend to be much less confrontational and more pragmatic in their approach, because any national chief who has stood up to the government has had their funding slashed.)
My second challenge for Mr. Downie is centred on accountability. At the final Tragically Hip concert in Kingston, Ont., last year, when Downie patted our Prime Minister on the back and proclaimed to all of Canada that Trudeau was the man to lead the country to reconciliation, I reeled. The photo-op was completely disconnected from the reality of so many First Nations who feel betrayed by Trudeau's charms. Virtually every big promise the prime minister made to First Nations on the election trail just two years ago is in shambles or broken. Trudeau has proven so far to be nothing more than a handsome Harper when it comes to equalizing circumstances between First Nations and Canadians. The latest Liberal debacle is proof of this. The Trudeau government is countersuing the Canadian Human Rights Commission's ruling in favour of the iconic First Nations child advocate Cindy Blackstock, who successfully argued that the federal government was, in part, responsible for the suicide epidemic of First Nations children living in care because of chronic underfunding.
Ultimately, I write these words from a place of respect and admiration for Mr. Downie's contributions to the reconciliation discourse. I encourage him to continue doing this hard work, including building up the capacity of The Gord Downie & Chanie Wenjack Fund, which directly supports residential school survivors. But it's also important to remember the difference between intention and perception; any star principally working on the issue of reconciliation as it relates to Indian residential schools must always be pushing Indigenous voices toward the microphone instead of themselves. To my fellow Indigenous peoples, perhaps Arthur Manuel, the late Secwepemc chief and founder of the Indigenous Network on Economies and Trade, said it best: "You have to stop crying on the shoulder of the guy who stole your land."
Re: A Criticism of Gord Downie's Work on Indigenous Issues - direwolf74 - 06-29-2017
Just a couple of comments on this:
I certainly get where this guy is coming from, and I fully agree with many of the points that he makes in the piece. But Gord was given the Order of Canada just as much for his songwriting, lyrics, and artistic contribution to Canadian culture over the years as he was for his work on Indigenous issues. From my standpoint it was more of a "body of work" award and wasn't solely for his Secret Path project, as the writer suggests.
Also, I think Gord's comments at the Kingston show were entirely selfless and clearly came from the heart. Just because Trudeau happened to be in the building doesn't make it a "photo op". Gord took the opportunity with 20 million people watching to shed light on an important issue in the only way that he knows how. The fact that Trudeau has not kept his promises in regards to Indigenous issues has absolutely nothing to do with Downie. That's completely on J.T. and his government for not following through. The writer seems to imply that Gord is hogging the mic so to speak, and this is just not the case in my opinion. He's simply trying to raise awareness through his music/lyrics and using his status as a CanRock icon to help spread the word. Even Pearl Wenjack herself said that Gord's celebrity is helping raise awareness in a big way by reaching such a wide range of people across the country.
Re: A Criticism of Gord Downie's Work on Indigenous Issues - thebends - 06-29-2017
"In order to be truly effective, Indigenous allies must not take up space meant for our own front-line voices"
The argument that Indigenous allies take up space is fair and should not be dismissed. However GD has done exactly the opposite, he's opened a country of space for those front-line voices.
Re: A Criticism of Gord Downie's Work on Indigenous Issues - schaggs - 06-29-2017
I'm having trouble understanding this. Gord, as an "indigenous ally" has increased their audience perhaps a hundred-fold for the rest of the front-line voices. This seems like a good thing.
Re: A Criticism of Gord Downie's Work on Indigenous Issues - rocketsan22 - 06-29-2017
Think they are saying it took an aging white hipster to get some of us to finally hear their voice...long...and short.
Re: A Criticism of Gord Downie's Work on Indigenous Issues - schaggs - 06-29-2017
rocketsan22 Wrote:Think they are saying it took an aging white hipster to get some of us to finally hear their voice...long...and short.
Would they rather be unheard? I think the ends justify the means.
Re: A Criticism of Gord Downie's Work on Indigenous Issues - thebends - 06-29-2017
Think the writer's point is that a call to action by GD should not be needed, I get it and agree given the brutal violation of Indigenous rights. But I'm now more engaged in the cause and hope to make a difference. Thanks GD.
Re: A Criticism of Gord Downie's Work on Indigenous Issues - andrew sharpe - 07-06-2017
The writer has a point. There should be an indigenous solution to the indigenous problem. But I don't think he had to include GD in that point. All GD is doing is raising awareness, and I'm surprised that a front-line worker like Thomas-Müller wouldn't embrace the exposure that comes with that type of star power alliance. His loss.
Now I mentioned this in another thread, but I don't agree with GD getting The Order of Canada. One album and a year of advocacy is a comparatively small contribution to indigenous rights. It should have been for the band as an entity. The Tragically Hip's 30 year contribution to our country's arts & culture, now that's more than worthy of The Order of Canada.
Re: A Criticism of Gord Downie's Work on Indigenous Issues - direwolf74 - 07-06-2017
andrew sharpe Wrote:Now I mentioned this in another thread, but I don't agree with GD getting The Order of Canada. One album and a year of advocacy is a comparatively small contribution to indigenous rights. It should have been for the band as an entity. The Tragically Hip's 30 year contribution to our country's arts & culture, now that's more than worthy of The Order of Canada.
The Hip ARE receiving the Order as a band. The rest of the guys are just getting theirs at a later date.
I watched the ceremony, and maybe it's just me, but I got the sense that Gord was most definitely being recognized for his career/body of work as well as for Secret Path, and they specifically mentioned the Hip and his contribution to Canadian culture. It makes sense that they'd want him at that particular ceremony, as he's had a pretty huge impact on the reconciliation issue.
Re: A Criticism of Gord Downie's Work on Indigenous Issues - carebread - 07-06-2017
If the band are getting the Order based on their long history of environmental and social activism, they should have all received it at the same time. Gord's only been the face of FN/reconciliation issues for 10 months, versus 30 years. Although it's at the forefront now, it's a very small portion of his career.
Re: A Criticism of Gord Downie's Work on Indigenous Issues - rivum - 07-07-2017
thebends Wrote:Think the writer's point is that a call to action by GD should not be needed, I get it and agree given the brutal violation of Indigenous rights. But I'm now more engaged in the cause and hope to make a difference. Thanks GD.
I agree that it should not take GD for the story to get heard, but the fact remains that it did. At the end of the day, I'd not heard much (if anything) about the issue in my 40+ years, but I know about it now, specifically because he brought it to my attention.
I don't think he's taking up indigenous peoples' space at the microphone. Maybe the onus is on them to take that step towards it, now that it's been turned on.
Re: A Criticism of Gord Downie's Work on Indigenous Issues - edgoffin - 07-07-2017
rivum Wrote:I agree that it should not take GD for the story to get heard, but the fact remains that it did. At the end of the day, I'd not heard much (if anything) about the issue in my 40+ years, but I know about it now, specifically because he brought it to my attention.
Same here. We're in the same age range, I was never taught anything about residential schools. I even majored in history in university, with focus on North America and Canada, and it was never covered.
Now both my kids have had some exposure to that period of history in elementary/high school, and I suspect GD is a big part of teachers being aware and having the resources to teach (at the Secret Path shows one area of focus was teaching tools for schools).
Re: A Criticism of Gord Downie's Work on Indigenous Issues - potsie - 07-07-2017
When appraising Downie’s work on Indigenous affairs it is very difficult to find fault, and thus I take issue with most of this writer’s commentary. I had only a peripheral awareness of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission prior to Secret Path and that would almost certainly have remained the case without his solo project. He raised consciousness on the issue of residential schools for thousands, if not millions, of non-Indigenous Canadians. I’ve got two sons, 8 and 10, that I’ve sat down with and discussed Secret Path and at their young age they now have more knowledge of the issue than I did a year ago.
Downie has done all this while letting his art doing the heavy lifting. He’s not spoken publicly more than 10 cumulative minutes on the issue, and this includes the Secret Path concerts. To criticize him by stating that “the voices of the very communities these celebrities are trying to support are drowned out, if not left out completely” is misguided. Far from projecting himself as a white saviour and hogging the spotlight, he has let the music and the fantastic film be pushed to the forefront, giving ample opportunity for members of the Indigenous community to pick up the torch and run with the message. In fact, Pearl Wenjack has had much more time with a mic in hand than Gord.
The writer comments that Downie needs to “widen his circle of consult on First Nations matters” and “push forward the stories of living survivors”. I attended both the Toronto and the Halifax Secret Path shows and he gave voice to many different leaders in the Indigenous community. In fact, before the Halifax show there were 20-30 minutes of speeches from the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami and Mi’kmaq communities as well as others. I believe the fact that he hasn’t given a stronger voice to living survivors (a valid observation), instead focusing on Chaney and the collateral damage the residential school system has brought upon the Wenjack family, was a strategy to communicate one powerful story. To speak of many stories at once would risk non-Indigenous Canadians not hearing a story that resonated with them. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission documented many stories and there probably aren’t many on this forum that can speak in any great detail on any of them. This is a shame but sometimes you need that one story, even if it is about a boy that died 50 years ago, to cut through all the white noise in the world. Perhaps it is now time to turn our attention to the living survivors.
Re: A Criticism of Gord Downie's Work on Indigenous Issues - andrew sharpe - 07-10-2017
Wow potsie you should consider emailing this to Mr. Thomas-Müller, the author. You make some excellent points.
Re: A Criticism of Gord Downie's Work on Indigenous Issues - direwolf74 - 07-10-2017
potsie Wrote:When appraising Downie’s work on Indigenous affairs it is very difficult to find fault, and thus I take issue with most of this writer’s commentary. I had only a peripheral awareness of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission prior to Secret Path and that would almost certainly have remained the case without his solo project. He raised consciousness on the issue of residential schools for thousands, if not millions, of non-Indigenous Canadians. I’ve got two sons, 8 and 10, that I’ve sat down with and discussed Secret Path and at their young age they now have more knowledge of the issue than I did a year ago.
Downie has done all this while letting his art doing the heavy lifting. He’s not spoken publicly more than 10 cumulative minutes on the issue, and this includes the Secret Path concerts. To criticize him by stating that “the voices of the very communities these celebrities are trying to support are drowned out, if not left out completely” is misguided. Far from projecting himself as a white saviour and hogging the spotlight, he has let the music and the fantastic film be pushed to the forefront, giving ample opportunity for members of the Indigenous community to pick up the torch and run with the message. In fact, Pearl Wenjack has had much more time with a mic in hand than Gord.
The writer comments that Downie needs to “widen his circle of consult on First Nations matters” and “push forward the stories of living survivors”. I attended both the Toronto and the Halifax Secret Path shows and he gave voice to many different leaders in the Indigenous community. In fact, before the Halifax show there were 20-30 minutes of speeches from the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami and Mi’kmaq communities as well as others. I believe the fact that he hasn’t given a stronger voice to living survivors (a valid observation), instead focusing on Chaney and the collateral damage the residential school system has brought upon the Wenjack family, was a strategy to communicate one powerful story. To speak of many stories at once would risk non-Indigenous Canadians not hearing a story that resonated with them. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission documented many stories and there probably aren’t many on this forum that can speak in any great detail on any of them. This is a shame but sometimes you need that one story, even if it is about a boy that died 50 years ago, to cut through all the white noise in the world. Perhaps it is now time to turn our attention to the living survivors.
Excellent post, Potsie. Nice work!
:thumb: