Why I Am An Ally In The Niagara Giant Two Row Wampum March

By Elizabeth Chitty

A Niagara Giant Two Row Wampum March will take place on Saturday, February 2 at 11:00 a.m. in downtown St. Catharines, Ontario.

The Two Row Wampum Belt

Native and non-native people will walk side-by-side, each “row” carrying a huge purple banner and a white banner. The banners represent the purple and white stripes of the Two Row Wampum belt, which was the symbolic record of the first agreement between indigenous people in North America and Europeans.

This action represents re-affirming the content of the treaty, which outlined a commitment to friendship, peace between peoples, and living in parallel as long as the grass is green, as long as the rivers flow downhill and as long as the sun rises in the east and sets in the west.

The March is part of a number of 2013 events commemorating the 400^th anniversary of the signing of the Two Row treaty. In New York State, the Two Row Wampum Renewal Campaign has embarked on an educational and justice campaign culminating in an enactment of the treaty on the Hudson River this summer. Here in Ontario, a Two Row March took place last April in Caledonia, site of significant tensions between natives and non-natives. (You can see images on the Christian Peacemaker Team website here.) Other events are planned or will arise fairly spontaneously like ours.

The Two Row treaty was made between the Haudenosaunee and the Dutch and the Haudenosaunee and their Allies are marking this anniversary. The Haudenosaunee are also known as the Iroquois, a word that probably has French origins, and by English language words as The People of the Longhouse or Six Nations Confederacy.

The Six Nations of the Grand River Reserve is the largest reserve in Canada, lies southwest of us and has 29 land claims disputes filed since 1980. The Haudenosaunee is a league of six nations: Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca and Tuscarora. This league was formed probably between 1090 and 1150 CE by five of the nations and the Tuscarora joined around 1720. Many scholars and others have made a case that North American democracy was influenced by Europeans learning from the Haudenosaunee. I am participating in the Two Row March as an Ally. Why honour a 400 year old treaty that wasn’t even signed in Canada?

I want to see the relationship between First Nations and Canada re-negotiated to a course of action addressing the difficult legacy of past mistakes and that is a new relationship of equals. The legislation created to “deal” with indigenous people created such misery (and then many non-natives turn around and blame the natives for the difficulties they face). I am an Ally because I want a better Canada where we stop colonizing our indigenous people, stop trying to assimilate them and make them “us”, stop approaching the relationship between “us” and “them” as conquerors and instead collaborate to create a stronger and gentler country than the one we have now.

Stronger because fair and wise decision-making always creates stronger bonds between people and creates stability. Gentler, because mainstream governance practices could benefit from the processes of aboriginal ways. I am so tired of the mud-slinging, attack mindset of our governments. When I first sat around a table working with native people, our meetings started with a prayer to do our work with good minds and hearts and to come together as one. When I have more recently been part of Idle No More planning, only kind and peaceful means and goals have ever been expressed.

I am an Ally because I care about environmental protection and social justice. These issues express themselves every day across the world and my personal priority is to act locally. Like in so many communities across Canada, Niagara Idle No More participants have spoken passionately about the environmental concerns resulting from the December passing of the Omnibus Bill. Ecological stewardship is part of the indigenous worldview and we have much to gain by working together. The removal of environmental protections affects us all. And we are affected when the federal government once again ignores and does not engage in consultation with aboriginal people when it passes legislation such as the Omnibus Bill. 

The only way to get educated on First Nations issues is to make an effort to learn. We can’t rely on the mainstream Canadian media or even our educational institutions to do it and it is stunning to consider how indigenous history and issues have been so neglected or downright misrepresented. Our self-directed education needs to be about both current affairs and history because history’s legacy manifests in our current affairs. During Idle No More, it’s been amazing to observe the way “facts” get misrepresented, but anyone with a modicum of media literacy can’t be too surprised. (If you are reading Niagara At Large you likely know that.) One of the many benefits of Idle No More has been how it has surfaced racism and deep hatred of native people. Many non-native people in Canada have never acknowledged this personal and social condition – as painful as it is to hear, bringing it to the light of day has to be the first step of change.

My own education began in the 1980s when First Nations artists opened my eyes with issues about cultural appropriation and it deepened considerably when I studied First Nations models of consensus while a university student of Peace and Conflict Studies. But my greatest learning took place working alongside First Nations people when I had the honour of serving as the only non-native member of the Steering Committee of the Three Fires Community Justice Program (Hamilton, Niagara, Fort Erie), a court diversion program launched in 1999. Around the same time, I drummed and sang with a women’s drum circle. In 2002 I visited Eskenoôpetitj (Burnt Church) to learn about a bitter fishing dispute with the federal government. (Self-promotion – it was part of a performance called Song For A Blue Moon). I am so grateful that Idle No More has brought me back with the Niagara native community!

A diverse society is rich with experience and opportunity to learn and live a vibrant and engaged life; it offers intellectual, emotional and spiritual depth. It requires our engagement because it is rich also with challenges – a vibrant democracy requires a level of participation that goes beyond entering a polling station every few years. Idle No More has awakened aboriginal people and Canadians – just in time to observe the teaching of the Two Row and let us guide us as we work for a better way forward.

Elizabeth Chitty is an interdisciplinary artist and change agent who was born in and lives in St. Catharines. www.elizabethchitty.ca and www.echittyconsultant.ca

Niagara Giant Two Row March: http://niagaratworow.wordpress.com .

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