Chatter

AUTHOR, EDUCATOR AND SELF-DESCRIBED
activist Gerald Taiaiake Alfred has posted a review of the book Disrobing the Aboriginal Industry (Widdowson and Howard) on his Web site at www.taiaiake.com. Readers will remember this work as the hymnbook that columnist Margaret Wente was singing from when she wrote her notorious article that stated pre-contact First Nations were less than their European counterparts on the evolutionary scale. Alfred said in reading Disrobing he was prepared for a hard-hitting critique of the injustice of Canada/Indigenous relations in which white lawyers and consultants and "sell-out Aboriginals" get rich on the misery of the people they claim to serve. What the book delivered, however, was disappointment, Alfred contends. "[A] collection of distortions, omissions, and exaggerations... Widdowson and Howard get up in the morning and eat a dog's breakfast of outmoded communist ideology and rotten anthropological theories washed down with strong racial prejudices inherited from their own unexamined colonial upbringings." Alfred said Disrobing relies on a decade-old concept-the "Aboriginal industry"-that Métis writer Howard Adams (Prison of Grass published by Fifth House) and Alfred (Peace, Power, Righteousness published by Oxford University Press) both advanced in their books. In Disrobing however it is used to argue for the "dissolution of Indigenous culture and the assimilation of Indigenous people into the whitestream."
Alfred pulls no punches about the contents of the book ("[If] you're a person who rejects the notion of global warming and doesn't believe that the Holocaust ever happened, you'll really enjoy this book," he writes), nor about the writers, who he refers to as "ignorami." In fact, the skewering of the authors of Disrobing is so scorching that a Web reader comments Alfred did himself a disservice by "engaging in personal attacks." Not to be chastened Alfred responds "People need to know just what kind of racist haters McGill-Queen's is passing off as scholars and what kind of low-class right-wing stooge scholarship the federal government is supporting with its funding for academic research. I don't think it's a disservice at all; to serve back what they dish out is just what is needed more in Canada. People don't stand up for themselves and for what is right."
The Web review is long, but vitriolic, so well worth the time, even if one has no intention to pick up the book. N.B.: So reviled is the book that a protest against it was scheduled for Jan. 30 at the Winnipeg Convention Centre where the authors had been invited to speak.

ON JAN. 6, THE GLOBE AND MAIL
published a story about the "transformation" made by Stephen Harper in the days leading up to and after the June 11th apology he made in the House of Commons for the Indian residential school system. Quoting newly released internal government e-mails, reporter Bill Curry wrote the apology had a significant impact on the PM, changing his worldview regarding Aboriginal issues. Subsequent comments on the story from readers accuse the paper of printing Conservative spin that belonged instead on the shelf with the infamous blue sweater from the election campaign, saying the story was intended to portray Harper as having a warm and fuzzy side.
Peter Kells from Bytown wrote: "The Globe is so desperate for copy that they are now printing CPC spin-doctored material espousing the merits of our new 'touchy feely' Prime Minister."
Johanne Szpak from Fredericton said the article "is a total political spin," adding that Harper should have long been aware of the dark residential schools legacy.
janfromthe bruce writes Harper and his crew have learned nothing from the past, ignoring the plight of on-reserve First Nation schools, such as the fight for a school for Attawapiskat.
Kevin Desmoulin from TO said: Talk is cheap. Action speaks louder and is more practical. He went on to say that the Conservatives killed the Kelowna Accord. "Go figure, plenty of mixed messages from these people."
KT Ocean writes: Something is up if the PMO is digging through emails from six or seven months ago to see what they can get the Globe to publish.
The Wight writes: The entire point of this article is a PR piece for the PMO. They are attempting to sway the public perception of their guy in advance of Jan. 26 because they've seen the Ipsos poll that shows over half of Canada don't trust him and think he has a secret agenda."
David McLaren from Wiarton asks if Harper has had such a change of heart regarding the situation of Aboriginals in Canada, then why is his party right now looking at killing the funding for post-secondary education for Aboriginal students?
Now that's a good question, David.