Chelsea Vowel

Everyone should read this book. Especially Canadians. Whether or not you care about Indigenous people in Canada. If you do care, you need the information in this book. If you don't care, you need the myth-busting provided in this book. (If you don't care, what's wrong with you?)

The book is written in a very engaging style. Ms Vowel decided to write it as if she was sitting with you in the pub having a chat about the issues. Every so often it feels like she leaned over the table and show more grabbed you by the lapels; but the material being dealt with in this book deserves that treatment.

It's a very thorough examination of, and introduction to, the issues facing Indigenous people in Canada. It deals with education, land, residential schools, government policy and programmes, stereotypes about Indigenous people, racism, assumptions that settlers make about them, and much more besides.

The references in each chapter contain suggestions for further reading, especially the conclusions of RCAP, the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, which produced a report in 1996. This report concluded that everything done by colonial governments up to that point was wrong. Sadly, governments since then have continued to implement these same wrong policies.

I knew bits of the information contained in this book from having followed the 150 acts of reconciliation programme last year. What the book did was to fill in the gaps, add a lot of detail, and provide an overview of the whole picture.

One of the things I didn't know about, that illustrates the disastrous and damaging policies pursued by colonial government, is what happened when the prairies were "opened up" for settlement. After the buffalo population had been decimated, Indigenous peoples were given reserves and farming implements. They made a great success of farming (in spite of all the obstacles placed in their way) by farming collectively. This success was then taken away by the government and Indian agents preventing them from farming collectively, forcing them to only have family smallholdings, and preventing them from leaving reserves to sell their produce.

When Indigenous peoples are left to organize things for themselves, and given adequate funds, the outcomes are much more successful. For example, the Mikmaq have been running their own education system for a while now, and have an 88% school graduation rate (higher than the rest of Canada).
This book gives detailed evidence of how Indigenous peoples have been set up to fail by previous attempts to organize their lives, and debunks the damaging stereotypes that get bandied about. It's vital reading.

You can order the book from amazon.ca (I tried to order it from England and found that I couldn't). show less

This is an excellent, thought-provoking collection of stories in the genre of “Métis futurism”. Vowel grounds her work solidly in the place she is from and provides commentary after each story to explain how they came to be and what references she used to pull them together. The stories themselves contain footnotes as well. Some of the stories share characters and it’s interesting to identify those connections. I highly recommend this if you’re looking for something new in show more speculative fiction and want to read work by Indigenous authors. show less

Oct. Women of the Future group.

Brilliant, admirable, important, enlightening. But I'm really having trouble feeling 'em, especially because the other members of the group are not on board yet (as of the 21st).

Here's what I said in group:

I've now read all three introductory pieces, and two stories, and the notes for both stories. Let me tell you, all that supplementary material is very helpful! I'm sure you-all, with more experience reading literary and diverse SF, would have less show more difficulty with this, but I'm feeling challenged. I look forward to your insights!

then:

The first story is so lo-ong. I dunno if I'd start a collection with that, I think I'd rather grab the reader with something concise and catchy. Or maybe it's the most important story to Vowel, and she wants us to read it before giving up on the collection or running up to the due date?

then a note that I was still having trouble' then:

Well! I decided to finish after all, and the last stories were, imo, the best of the lot. I, Bison def. has the Sense of Wonder that I appreciate in SF, and Unsettled has the What If which is even more interesting to me. Both were engaging to me, too.

So, can't rate. I, personally, didn't 'enjoy' the stories. But that's not always the point of reading, is it? I do wish someone else were actively reading. I'll probably forget them before discussion happens, at this rate, because I really do have to return them soon. show less

** spoiler alert ** Important book. Although Vowel argues passionately for her cause, she is overzealous in her support of the indigenous peoples of Canada. I do not say she is wrong...she is almost fully correct in her assessments of the current situation. The one point on which I believe she is off target is her discussion of the problem of alcohol and the natives. Yes, there are indeed many indigenous individuals who have no problem with alcohol (was that ever in question?) But the single show more fact of the rate of fetal alcohol syndrome speaks loudly to the incredible dysfunction among many alcohol users within that population. She does bring up the canard (which I did not realize was a canard) that "the Indian cannot handle alcohol due to genetic predisposition." As she has studied this question, it becomes evident even here that her knowledge is more complete than that of many others, including me. But, her desire to whitewash her peoples (not just her specific group, the Metis, but all indigenous peoples) overrides common sense. A major, significant issue that destroys untold numbers of lives is the plague of alcoholism. It is not unique to the aboriginal populations, but it is likely at a higher degree of impact due to the percentages involved.
This one point makes me wary of giving a blanket approval of her conclusions, although her advocacy has convinced me in the vast majority of her concerns. The Bible says clearly that when one hears the first speaker, one is often convinced UNTIL the opponent has a chance to present his/her case. However, even granting that word of wisdom, it remains difficult (nigh on impossible) to credit the opposing side with any serious chance of significantly modifying her position which, to me, seems to hold both the center and the high ground, both morally and factually.
It does not seem to me, though, that she has much in the way of concrete solutions. She would scream in frustration at this. But, more talks, more agreements, more words will, in my opinion, be of little worth. Again UNTIL there is a good faith determination on the majority side to ACT. Vowel does have some vital points...the most important one being, in my mind, that decisions about native issues must be made in consultation with the various players...including the "non status" players, both native and Metis and Inuit. This is an extremely vexing situation where much good will needs to be earned, especially by the majority side, before other attempts at resolving these longstanding issues is begun. For me, one expensive but incontrovertible place to start would be to provide clean drinking water and state of the art sewage treatment plants for all reserves in Canada. Clean water and a clean environment unspoiled by human waste would begin, but not establish, good will. show less