Both the United Nations and Amnesty International have commented on current politics between the colonial Canadian state and Aboriginal peoples.

What I find especially interesting within the coverage of these events is the inability of commentators to differentiate between the imposed political systems, that being the band council and AFN, and traditional leadership.

Conversations within the western, imposed, democratic structures are a part of the divisive project of the colonial state. It is within the limited scope of engagement that is the problem.

An ethical space of engagement is at stake here. It is time for political business to take place in the lodges and long houses across this land. I was proud to see Nathan Cullen seated at a feast I attended as a guest in Massett last year.

We are not talking about 'Canada's first nations'.
It is the numerous nations across this continent that host Canada.

let's redraw the maps in our minds and imagine a radically new ways of being with each other. The goal is of diversity, though our systems are of homogeneity.

Imagine an expectation that Canadian leaders inherit their leadership names through feasting and holding potlatch, or by being selected by their grandmothers and aunties who had watched them since infancy. Imagine having a political system imposed on us - it might just look a bit like things used to across the pond before the knowledge carriers were killed (witch hunt) and the land subdivided (enclosure) and god institutionalized (within the adopted eastern christianity).

what are our roots
when we dig in our gardens?

what are our roots
when we look at the old ways?

we've been disrupted from the places we've lived for a long time now.
and the archeologists can see it in the ruins.

our own earth based past is smiling at us
and the prayers of our ancestors remain largely unoticed

prayers of healing
that we live in good ways for our own
grandchildren's grandchildren

may the rivers always flow
and the grass always grow

beyond our years