Colonial Symbols

Public Symbols of Colonial Subjugation of Indigenous Peoples

October 5, 2015

For those unfamiliar:

here is the Wikipedia entry for Sleeping Giant...Wikipedia/Sleeping Giant

the entry for Nanabozho...Wikipedia/Nanabozho

and for Alpini...Wikipedia/Alpini,

for military history...Arditi,

for the founder of the Alpino newspaper...Italo Balbo

and a story on Alpini fascist monuments...Ethiopia Surprised by Fascist Monuments in Italy

October 15, 2015

Sorry guys, no those aren’t the Alps....

The following letter was submitted to the Thunder Bay Chronicle Journal regarding the above story Monument respects freedom fighters, October 5th, story.

letters@chroniclejournal.com
re: Monument respects freedom fighters, Chronicle Journal, October 5, News A5

Sorry guys, no those aren’t the Alps.

The above article reports that the local Roman Catholic bishop blessed a rock which St. Anthony’s parish priest claims is the heart of the Sleeping Giant and which Bruno’s Contracting deposited on parish property to be held in the clutches of a symbolic eagle, representing the Alpini regiment of the Italian national army.

Why are Catholic officials in Canada celebrating the fallen soldiers of a foreign national army by blessing a monument inside Canada, which fought against that army and the Axis powers?

I have no problem with immigrants to Canada pining for home or celebrating their culture, but a military symbol of colonial domination over Indigenous Peoples is a blatantly provocative symbol.

Given that contemporary Alpini web sites acknowledge the fascist affiliations of the founder of the Alpino newspaper, the mind boggles at just what the local bishop and parish leadership were thinking when they, presumably, called the press to cover their triumphalist celebration of the Alpini eagle plucking the heart of the first Ojibwe man and carrying it off to their little parish to memorialize fallen soldiers in the Italian national army. Is this a psychotic fantasy of irreconcilable symbols?

I realize that cultural dislocation can be deeply disruptive, but Italian immigration was voluntary and largely economically motivated. Immigrants were not being dragged out of their parents arms by the Canadian state the way “Indian” kids were forced to attend residential schools. Given the claim to have been working on this project for 25 years, it’s difficult to believe it lacked forethought. Rather, as reported, it looks more like the sustained fantasies of a last redoubt and asylum of suffering, unrepentant patriots for whom “home” is impossibly far away, and “here”, a bewildering reality of otherness, emotionally repudiated by the psychosis of religion-inspired delusion, violation and righteous domination. In other words, the old colonialism.

Here are some suggestions for reconciliation:

a public ceremonial apology to Indigenous Peoples for the desecration of a cultural symbol

have Bruno put the rock back where he found it

a public renunciation of colonialism by the local bishop and by all local Catholic parishes

If immigrants can’t find it in their hearts to respect Indigenous Peoples, culture and symbols, they should not expect their symbols of home to garner anything but Indigenous contempt.

Gigawabamin minawa, chi miigwech.

October 24, 2015

How the local media edits Indigenous Peoples out of our story!

The letter in the post above (Oct. 15: “Sorry guys, no those aren’t the Alps”) was sent to the editor of the Thunder Bay Chronicle Journal.

It was responding to the newspaper’s earlier report (Oct. 5) about the recent blessing of a local symbol celebrating colonial domination over Indigenous Peoples.

Attached (to the right) is the version of that letter which the editors at the Chronicle Journal edited and published.

All references to Indigenous Peoples were removed!

As a result, the primary point of the letter (criticizing a public symbol of colonial domination over Indigenous Peoples) was transformed into a letter about World War II.

A subsequent letter was sent to the editors at the Chronicle Journal, which has not been published.

Here it is:

While I realize the CJ reserves the right to edit for length and style, I don’t recall any mention of the need to eliminate any direct references to Indigenous Peoples. Is this a symptom of the psychotic colonial refusal to recognize the reality of Indigenous Peoples in their own land?

Judge for yourself, what follows was removed by the editor’s pen:

Sorry guys, no those aren’t the Alps...a military symbol of colonial domination over Indigenous Peoples is a blatantly provocative symbol.

Given that contemporary Alpini web sites acknowledge the fascist affiliations of the founder of the Alpino newspaper, the mind boggles at just what the local bishop and parish leadership were thinking when they, presumably, called the press to cover their triumphalist celebration of the Alpini eagle plucking the heart of the first Ojibwe man and carrying it off to their little parish to memorialize fallen soldiers in the Italian national army. Is this a psychotic fantasy of irreconcilable symbols?

I realize that cultural dislocation can be deeply disruptive, but Italian immigration was voluntary and largely economically motivated. Immigrants were not being dragged out of their parents arms by the Canadian state the way “Indian” kids were forced to attend residential schools...

Here are some suggestions for reconciliation:

a public ceremonial apology to Indigenous Peoples for the desecration of a cultural symbol,

have Bruno put the rock back where he found it,

a public renunciation of colonialism by the local bishop and all local Catholic parishes

If immigrants can’t find it in their hearts to respect Indigenous Peoples, culture and symbols, they should not expect their symbols of home to garner anything but Indigenous contempt.

Gigawabamin minawa, chi miigwech.

October 13, 2015

The email below was sent to various community leaders in Thunder Bay: the local Roman Catholic bishop and priest involved in the original story, the mayor and aboriginal liaison department, university and college leadership, and the Fort William First Nation leadership and their local parish priest. It included the original letter to the editor and the original Chronicle Journal article to which the letter was responding.

Below is a letter submitted to the Chronicle Journal in response to a story they reported recently of a local memorial celebrating a symbol of colonialism over Indigenous Peoples. To this point the report appears to have garnered no public response from community leaders.

I realize that symbols may appear to take second place to the more pragmatic tasks of education, health, economic well-being and the organization of governance. Nevertheless, public symbols and ceremonies represent the embodiment of collective intent and, as such, a clear public demonstration of intent on the issue of colonialism would send an important message to the community regarding the leadership prospects for those more pragmatic tasks.

Is this really the occasion for public silence on the part of the collective leadership in our community? Or does the occasion afford an opportunity for setting the collective compass of intent with respect to colonialism.

The community awaits your response with studied attention.

Commentary

What is perhaps most remarkable about all this, is the universal wall of silence with which this discussion was received.

How are we to explain this curious consensus, this colonial cone of silence?

Is this simply the predictable response of a colonial society's fundamental incapacity to confront the manipulations and distortions, the duplicities and deceptions of its own psychosis, the self-denial of colonialism as violence?

In the face of all the public attention that issues of racism have received in Thunder Bay, of violence against Indigenous women, of inquiries into how the local justice system treats First Nation youth, when the local Catholic leadership publicly stands up and celebrates a military symbol of colonial subjugation over Indigenous Peoples, why would the local community leadership say absolutely nothing publicly?

How are we to interpret this?

No one wants to jeopardise their position inside the colonial system?

...well, again, be your own judge!

-- editor@sdemocracyskitchen.ca