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Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Frustrating Teachable Moments

Lisa Charleyboy brought this video (http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/video/1741805410001)to my attention recently in a blog post (http://www.lisacharleyboy.com/first-nations-millionaires-club/) on her site. The piece is a video from Sunnewsnet pundit Ezra Levant and a commentary on the recent Assembly of First Nations election and his perception of privilege enjoyed by the Chiefs in attendance. Lisa pointed out that it flew under the radar of the Native twitterverse because we were distracted by the Justin Bieber brouhaha.

In a sense this is probably true, though I encourage you to look at my posts about that issue and you will see I am not questioning Mr. Bieber so much as challenging the education system to be better. I think that this particular comment was an excellent opportunity to bring attention to the ongoing misconceptions that exist in Canadian society and the lack of proper education available in the curriculum about Aboriginal people in Canada. Mr. Bieber's comment and his lack of acknowledgement of the online reaction and media reaction (at least as far as I know) are merely symptoms of the colonial mindset pervasive in our society and reveals the ongoing need to decolonize the education system and integrate knowledge of the Aboriginal experiences.

Justin Bieber's comment was a teachable moment.

Ezra Levant's commentary is a different matter completely and I am at a loss as how to speak back to it. I do not know why. The argument is, at best, misinformed; at worst it is designed to enflame and divide further an already divisive situation. Your thoughts please, I'm at a loss.

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