Asymmetric Conversion

Success!

2011-06-21T15:05:00.000-07:00

Saturday was perhaps the most nerve-wracking day of my life (so far).

For those who might not know, I ran for re-election to my tribal government (the Huu-ay-aht First Nations) and I was fortunate to keep the trust of the people and be re-elected to our inaugural post-treaty government. I had a lot of help along the way, especially by that of my family and my very significant other, Crystal.

In the next four years, I hope to underline the importance of earning the trust of our people by showing them them that government isn't neccessarily a barrier to getting things done, that their elected representatives can be trusted to not only do their work but show their work and that there is, in deed as well as in word, hope for the future.

There will be a lot of work ahead, but I am eager to sit down with my colleagues and plan our strategy for accomplishing the dreams of our ancestors and giving our future generations a world better than it was when we inherited it.

I am a man of high ideals, perhaps focused too much on the larger ideas and the bigger picture. I am a dreamer, though I have learned much of the responsibility inherent in democratic representation. I see our community as a group of people before all other things, and as a result, I must weigh the effect a policy or decision will have on people with my own attitudes, values and beliefs.

I think we have a good balance of people in government and in the administration to check my top-down and ideological tendancies. I think I have much to offer and much to learn from those around me. If we remain focused on the good of the people and the best interests of the Huu-ay-aht First Nations as a whole, then I think we can accomplish good, maybe even great, things.

"We'll see," says the Zen Master... (Charlie Wilson's War)

Position Paper #3 - The Government Needs to Help Give People Hope

2011-06-08T14:06:00.000-07:00

In past writings, I've written about what I think we need to do as a community to improve our politics or our economic situation. Now, I write about the point of doing these two things. I'll start with a quick story about Canada and the United States, because I think it's closely related to what I'm about to write.

Standing Tall

Governments and Communities Have To Stand For Something

   Every country has a collection of sayings that represent the values of that country. For example, the translated motto of the Republic of France is "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity (Brotherhood)." In Canada, our motto is less inspiring: "From sea to sea." We have another saying that I think describes us perfectly as Canadians: "Peace, order and good government." These words are very different when compared to what I think describes the values of the United States: "Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

   When the United States was created, there was some debate about what the stated values were going to be. Some wanted "Life, liberty and private property" because they believed that it was private property was one of the core values that made up the best route to having a successful community. Others disagreed and suggested that "private property" be replaced with "the pursuit of happiness." I think this was a very good decision, but I'll explain that soon.

   Contrasted with the USA, Canada was created when the Americans were in the midst of the Civil War. Canadian leaders looked south and saw a country torn apart by disagreements so fundamental that it scared them to think that a people so similar could do that to one another. This was frightening to Canadian leaders at the time because Canada was much more diverse than then United States. We not only had English-speaking people, but French and native people as well. They asked "How could Canada survive in a world when a united people such as the Americans could divide and kill each other?" As a result, Canada was created on the principles of "Peace, order and good government."

   Now, say what you will about how things are now, but I think that the United States was created on a better set of values than that of Canada. I think it evokes more passion and more hope in people to read the words "Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" than it does them to read "Peace, order and good government." This is not to say that I dislike Canada, I think we became one of the best countries to live in despite our uninspiring founding principles, not because of them.

   So, that brings me to the point of this essay, what are the founding principles of the Huu-ay-aht First Nations?

Rebirth

Liberty
   For the Huu-ay-aht First Nations, the first day of April 2011 was a rebirth. As a community, the People of the Huu-ay-aht First Nations have pursued treaty for the sole purpose of improving their lives. We have taken control of our collective destiny in order to help make our individual lives better by working together and making wise decisions that will help as many of our people as possible.

   By pursuing a treaty, we have successfully gained for ourselves a measure of liberty that we had not possessed before. The treaty acts as a means to protect our community and our people as a whole from the neglect of the Crown and (sometimes) the ill treatment of those it governs. In this way, "Liberty" means the freedom from something bad rather than the freedom to something good. We have a treaty to protect our historic and rightful place in Canada from those who would take it away and to allow our community to act in its own interest.

   In essence, I think our Nation is founded on the principle of Liberty. The only thing we ever wanted was to be free to make our own decisions, to be free from the dependence of our People on the Crown. We want to be free from interference by groups and people who don't care enough about us or the things we value. This is Liberty, the freedom from neglect, interference and repression.

Unity

   Ours is a diverse people. Unlike other communities, we are known as the Huu-ay-aht First Nations. Nations. Plural. We are a collection of peoples, diverse and distinct, but still united in a common history and a common purpose. We must base our community on the principle of Unity. The idea that we remain united and speak as one despite the time and distance that separates us.

   This is important because we share a common origin, a common history and now a common purpose because we don't necessarily share a common place in time and space. More than eighty percent of our people live away from our territory, but we must believe and understand that distance does not matter when it comes to being Huu-ay-aht. No matter where you are, you're still Huu-ay-aht.

   If our community is united in a common purpose built on the foundation of a common origin, then the separations of time and space should not matter. Everyone has something to offer no matter who they are or where they live. When we are inclusive of all voices, we are a stronger community. In that unity, we can achieve truly great things.

Hope

Liberty, Unity and Hope.

   When things are hard, when our lives don't go the way we planned, how do we carry on? One simple word: hope. Often overused, sometimes treated as a joke, hope matters. Without a sense of hope, people can be driven to do very bad things; or worse yet, nothing at all.

   If we focus on all of the bad things that have happened to our Nation and each of our People, it would be easy to understand why we would have given up. But the amazing fact is that we didn't give up. We kept going, we survived and went on to improve our lives in so many ways. We were able to keep going because we had reason to keep hope alive.

   When I was young, I was often frightened by the possibility of failure and being branded a loser. It's a terrible thing, being thought of as a loser. No one wants to be associated with failure. So, it becomes harder and harder for someone to work their way out of that without a reason for hope. If you lose hope for your life, it's very hard to gain it back but it's often the only way to stay motivated enough to turn things around.

   In the past, it would have been very easy to give up on the Huu-ay-aht First Nations. We could have thrown up our hands and decided that we didn't have to call ourselves Huu-ay-aht. We could have nodded quietly to ourselves, doused that fire and headed for the exit. But we didn't. We had hope for the future.

   We need to keep that hope alive. As a government, we need to ensure that our people have the freedom to hope for the future. To do that, we need to keep going no matter the hardship and we need to keep that vision of a better life in our mind's eye. Building a better life takes planning, discipline and hard work, but in order for people to be able to get out of bed every day and work hard, they need hope for the future.

Liberty, Unity and Hope.

   When people trust their government, they have more reason to hope for the future. When people believe in the vision and ability of the government, they have more reason to hope for the future. When people believe that they have a fair shot at making a better life for themselves and their loved ones, they have more reason to hope for the future. When people have the time and resources to pursue things that make them happy, they have more reason to hope for the future.

   When people are convinced that all it takes to make life better is getting out of bed and doing it, then the Nation and our government has reason to hope for the future.

   I believe that we can do all of these things. I believe that we can achieve the dreams of our ancestors and give future generations a better world to live in. I believe that our government needs to earn the trust of the people to effectively use our newly-won liberty. I believe that we need to remain united in a common purpose for all Huu-ay-aht, not matter who or where they are. I believe that we have reason to hope for the future, but I think we need to do more to further convince our people that the future is, indeed, a bright one.

   Chuu.

Re-Elect John Alan Jack to Council.
Klecko, klecko. (Thank you, thank you.)

Position Paper #2 - The Government Needs to Create Opportunities

2011-05-31T15:26:00.000-07:00

New Opportunities for a New Era

   With the Huu-ay-aht First Nations having successfully negotiated the Maa-nulth Final Agreement and in the midst of successfully implementing that treaty, one of the most important factors that will determine our overall success as a Nation will be how we manage our economic policies. Gone are the days where it was expected that we merely get our people from pay-cheque to pay-cheque. Our People need to make a living. They need careers that they can plan their lives around. In this past term of office, I have worked with my colleagues in government, the administration and our advisors to forge a new way to take advantage of the new opportunities afforded to us through the treaty.

   For a government, the trick of successfully managing economic policy is to balance helping our people to be successful with staying out of their way when they have things figured out for themselves. Everyone knows the parable of teaching the hungry man to fish, but as I've said before, saying it and doing it are very different things. Our government has to do two things: (1) it has to ensure that there are economic opportunities for our People and our Nation as a whole and (2) it has to ensure that there are proven methods for our People and our Nation to benefit from those economic opportunities.

It's All About Creating Opportunity

   The key to independence is being able to do things for oneself. This is a truth that all youth find out for themselves and it's something that applies to groups like the Huu-ay-aht First Nations, too. When you're able to make decisions for yourself and act upon them, then you're truly free to do what you want with your life. Having been granted self-government and enough authority over our resources to do something about it, it is the job of government to ensure that our People and our Nation have the opportunity to make real improvement in our standards of living.

   Some time ago, the Huu-ay-aht government embarked upon a program of creating businesses for income and jobs. With businesses such as the forestry company, we accessed the value in our traditional lands without yet having control over them. Now, we have control over a substantial portion of our traditional territory; enough that we can now unlock the value in our lands and resources in such a way to help make the lives of our people better. This is the key to our economic salvation, this is the way by which we make our lives better, we must ensure that we have the full benefit of our lands and resources like it's enjoyed in the rest of this country.

   For the government, it's a balancing act. We have to seek harmony between creating job and career opportunities for our people with protecting our resources from total depletion. In addition to that, we have manage our businesses in such a way that we can access profit. So, our government needs to make decisions that give everyone the potential to access the value in our land and from our resources.

   This cannot be, and has not been, restricted solely to our own businesses through the Huu-ay-aht Development Corporation, it has to be accessible by individuals willing to take the risk on their own ventures. We need to ensure that business interests from around Canada and the world at large can come in and strike up partnerships with the Nation, its companies and interests of individual Huu-ay-aht. We can no longer afford to hold the world at the borders of our territory, in order to succeed economically, the government needs to be open to opportunities put forward by anyone.

It's About Ensuring Equal Opportunity through Equal Access to Education

   I have long held the belief that the vast majority of our people only need two things to succeed: (1) the chance to succeed and (2) the tools to do it. As a government, we can give them the chance to succeed by creating laws and making decisions that allow for people to work for themselves. As a government, we can give them the tools to succeed. Those tools should be familiar: comprehensive education for our children and youth, training opportunities for everyone and accurate and timely information for our people to make their own decisions in the market so they can work.

   There are two types of work: jobs and careers. Jobs are often temporary and get you a life of pay-cheque to pay-cheque. It's not all bad, though, since this is where we all start out in our youth. It's a learning process, we need jobs to learn what it takes to have longer term employment. Careers are less temporary and they are something that people can plan their lives around. Creating careers should be the goal of our Nation and all of our People. Jobs make rent, careers make lives. But earning a career requires planning and perseverence in the face of inevitable setbacks.

   If we imagine our working lives as some sort of race, then jobs are sprints and careers are cross-country marathons. We still need to help prepare our people for bi-weekly sprints, but we need to focus on equipping our people with the discipline and fortitude to run that marathon. As with most things, it all starts with knowledge. Success in primary school and secondary school should be the first priority of a government that concerns itself with the success of our future generations. We need our youth to graduate and then we need them to seek out the skills needed to move toward a career by seeking out more education or trades training.

   By focusing on education and training, everyone will have the same chance at making their lives better. Individual lifepaths will be very different, but if we can prepare our people for the trials and challenges of the long road ahead then our community can only benefit from that.

Business-Friendly Policies Create Jobs, Careers and Improve Lives

   In this era of independence, the Huu-ay-aht First Nations created the Huu-ay-aht Development Corporation (HDC), an arm's length company that oversees the business operations owned by the Nation. It was set up to ensure that the decisions it makes are strictly business-oriented. It was created to eliminate harmful practices like nepotism (favouring family and friends over other citizens) and keep purely political decisions from affecting the profitability of our businesses.

   When our businesses are successful, they provide income to our Nation that can be used to fund health, education and other programs vital to preparing our People for success. Providing income is their first function, the job and career opportunities come as a part of any business activity on our lands. We need to attract businesses to our land in order to create jobs and career opportunities for our People.

   We need to invest in our people so they have the same chances that everyone else has in this country. If we do our job right, we won't have to have job quotas for our People. They'll be qualified for jobs and able to earn career positions on their own merit. Of course, this will take time and we can enact policies to help give our people a leg up, and there should also be programs to help people who have fallen on hard times, but those programs must be oriented in such a way to get people back on their feet and able to help themselves.

   Only when I'm able to do things for myself am I truly free. I may stumble, I may fall, and I may need help getting up from time to time. But in the end, I have to be the one to learn from my mistakes and keep going.

   This is what was taught to me by my parents and my grandparents. The challenges we face now are ultimately no different than the challenges our ancestors faced decades, generations, centuries ago. Our people worked. They worked hard. We have inherited the fruits of their hard work. Now, we owe it to future generations to take what our ancestors left us and make our lives better.

   Chuu.

Re-Elect John Alan Jack to Council.

Klecko, klecko.

Position Paper #1 - The Government Needs to Build Trust

2011-05-29T23:10:00.000-07:00

A New Government for a New Day

    The Huu-ay-aht First Nations will be governed by a group of seven people. The Chief-Councillor is elected separately and acts as the head of government. He or she assigns portfolios, respresents the HFN to the rest of the world and sets the agenda for the coming year. The Members of Council are assigned portfolios based on various areas of responsibility: finance, economic development, citizenship, treaty implementation, health, education, forestry, fisheries, lands and so on. Then, all Members of Council work with each other, the administration and the people to make policy and other political decisions about how the Huu-ay-aht First Nations runs.

An Issue of Trust

    Before the Effective Date of the Treaty, the government had to abide by rules set out in the Indian Act. This is no longer the case. The HFN has established its own law and policy based on a long period of development that involved the people at all stages. It should go without saying that our government will be more effective at making better decisions for the people it serves, but I must say that this may not yet be the case.

    I think our people have experienced disappointment at the political level for a long time due to various reasons. While I believe that the future will be much brighter, I think it's important that our government shows the people that it can be trusted with the new authorities that it has been granted through the treaty. So what can we do?

We Need to Show Our Work

    The government has to work hard, and I have some ideas. I think our government needs to be more accessible to the people. We can do that in three ways: (1) regular office hours for Members of Council to meet with citizens, (2) compulsory question periods for Members of Council at the People's Assembly and (3) rotating regional portfolios.

1.    All members of our government should be available for face-to-face meetings with the people they serve. To do this, I think we need to go beyond newspaper articles, website entries and community meetings. I think our government needs to make themselves availabe at regular times every week in both Anacla and Port Alberni (to start). During this time, Members of Council will make themselves available at either of our offices to answer questions and receive input for any citizen who takes the time out of their day to meet with his or her representative.

2.    In addition, I think it should be mandatory for everyone in government to not only speak, but to take direct questions from citizens at every People's Assembly held. Having compulsory "question periods" will do a lot to ensure that all Members of Council know their portfolios and can show that they've added value the community.

3.    For too long, Huu-ay-aht from every community have felt as though they have not been represented by their government. Our election law allows for everyone to cast their vote, but I don't think that necessarily means that everyone gets to have their input. If we assign a Member of Council to represent our people in Anacla/TSL, Port Alberni, Vancouver Island, the Lower Mainland and Beyond, then we can better ensure that every voice from every place can be heard. These assignments would be rotated every year so that each Member of Council has experience with as many communities as possible.

We Need to Work Harder Than Ever

    Linked to these ideas is another. In the past, portfolios were held by one person for the entire term of office. This allowed for consistency, but I think there's a better way. I think major portfolios should be assigned to two people: a senior Chairperson who holds the position as long as the Chief-Councillor wishes and a junior Vice-Chairperson who would serve for one year before being assigned to another portfolio.

    Assigning two Members of Council to each major portfolio would ensure that everyone in government has a deeper understanding of all facets of the government. This way, each Member of Council would be a teacher and a student. This way, we retain the consistency of a long-term assignment and allow for new ideas at the same time. In addition, this ensures a measure of supervision of each Councillor by his or her peers. Finally, it allows for work to continue when the senior Councillor is unavailable due to sickness, emergency or a scheduling overlap.

Building Trust and Building a Nation

    When the government works hard and can show it, I think our people will come to trust it. If we can earn their trust, then we're that much closer to creating a community based in hope and opportunity for all. But it starts with trust, and I think this a good way to earn it.

    Chuu.

Re-Elect John Alan Jack to Council

Klecko, klecko.

Re-Elect John Alan Jack to Council

2011-05-25T12:08:00.000-07:00

Re-Elect John Alan Jack to

Huu-ay-aht First Nations Council

An Introduction

Hello, my name is John Alan Jack and I'm running to be re-elected to the Huu-ay-aht First Nations Council. My parents are David M^cIvor and the late Sandy Gallagher (Jack). My grandparents on my mother's side are Ernest Jack and the late Shirley Jack (Chester). I have two younger brothers, Richard and Jackson, and almost all of my family lives on the Island.

I grew up in the Parksville-Qualicum area. My grandfather and his family relocated there in 1969, and it is there that my mother met my father. I was lucky to have a loving and dedicated family where I had the good fortune to go on and do them proud by attending and graduating from university. In 2004, I earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree with Distinction in the field of Global Studies, which is a combination of politics and economics from an international point of view. I started to work with the Huu-ay-aht First Nations in the development of the Huu-ay-aht Constitution, the law that protects our rights and establishes our responsibilities as Huu-ay-aht citizens.

From there, I became more involved with the Huu-ay-aht. In fact, I followed in my mother's foot-steps by working for the Nation in pursuit of treaty. Before I was first elected to Council, I held staff positions such as Enrolment Coordinator, Assistant to Chief & Council and Communications Coordinator as well as being an active member of the Governance Committee.

My Experience and Accomplishments

Since being elected to serve on Council in June 2009, I have been assigned the portfolios of Finance, Economic Development and Communications. In addition to these important duties, I was still involved in treaty-related activities through the Governance Committee and continued attendance at treaty meetings between the HFN, the provincial and federal governments and other Maa-nulth nations where we worked together to get to the Effective Date.

As Chair of Finance, I oversaw the successful test-run of the strict new law created to ensure that we manage Huu-ay-aht public money in an efficient, transparent and accountable manner. Through the Huu-ay-aht Financial Administration Act, the government was able to create and publish a comprehensive three year strategic plan that set out our budgetary priorities and follow through in a detailed and accountable budget. This has allowed us to hit the ground running when it came to managing our finances after the Effective Date of the Maa-nulth Treaty.

As Chair of Economic Development, I worked with my colleagues to do things that are fundamental to success in business. In addition to work on development projects, we consulted with the people and created a robust strategic plan that would guide us in future projects. Then, we created the Huu-ay-aht Development Corporation: a company owned by the HFN but run as a business. By removing ever-changing politics from business decisions, we enable our companies to be more successful through better management decisions and greater profits. When our businesses are run well and run successfully, we will have more revenue to the HFN and our people will have a greater chance at having careers that can last a lifetime rather than jobs that can often be temporary.

My Approach and Priorities

Now that we are self-governing, now that we have control over natural resources and now that we have the money to make a real difference in the lives of the people we serve, it is my belief that our government should make the best decisions for the good of all Huu-ay-aht no matter who they are or where they live. First and foremost, the Huu-ay-aht First Nations is a community of people. If we are to succeed as a community, we must do what we can to give our people a real shot at making their lives better. This requires honest, open, and informed decision-making. We need to be able to make hard choices for the good of the community and we need to carry out our decisions to the best of our abilities.

Following this line of thought, it is my strong belief that our people are our greatest asset, especially our youth. While we do have successful business operations and other sources of revenue, these all fall short when compared to the potential we have within ourselves. Just as we need to unlock the value in our land and resources, we need to unlock the value within each of us.

To do this, we must have a comprehensive approach to education that ensures that our children and youth have the same opportunities for success that any other person has in Canada. As a Member of Council, I would push for increased education spending that would not only fund university degrees but accredited trades as well. In addition, I would seek new opportunities to improve basic education for students on our lands that involve parents and grandparents in the process with the ultimate goal of increasing the number of students going on to pursue post-secondary education and training.

Re-Elect John Alan Jack to Council

Having been on staff and in government, I have become familiar with all facets of the Huu-ay-aht First Nations. In my time with the Nation, I have developed a passion for this community and its people. And it is in the Nation that I find the center of my life, my driving force. I seek the honour of representing you, the people of the Huu-ay-aht First Nations, and it is to you that I promise that I will work to ensure that this treaty improves the lives of all Huu-ay-aht.

Chuu.

Klecko, klecko.

A New Photo of Me

2011-02-01T23:04:00.001-08:00

So I can link it to other websites...

October Update: Bringing Huu-ay-aht Together

2009-10-13T18:54:00.000-07:00

[The following piece is a expression of my beliefs as an individual Huu-ay-aht member. It is not necessarily the view of anyone in the Huu-ay-aht organization save myself.]

When I ran for Council in the month leading up to June 2009, I promised that I would work to bring Huu-ay-aht people together. I used the title above as a slogan and it has been in the back of my mind for the entire time that I have been involved with the people and organization of my tribe. In order to bring people together, one might suppose that they were separate in some way to start. In fact, I think we are somewhat divided and have been for quite some time. I wish to help reconnect Huu-ay-aht with each other, no matter their location or trajectory.

The Huu-ay-aht First Nations is a tribe that has been defined by its territory ever since we have been in contact with European settlers. When the Crown established the Indian Act and took over the "stewardship" of the Indian people, they defined native people by where they lived and not in any other way. In fact, native people in Canada were restricted from locating off-reserve until 1951. When that restriction was lifted, the effect was a slow but steady march toward city life. As time passed, our people moved away from the traditional territories of our ancestors in order to pursue a better life for themselves and their families.

Can we blame any of them for this? I'd like to think not.

This process created a divide within the Huu-ay-aht First Nations, just like it did with many other tribes in Canada. We came to know each other not as simply Huu-ay-aht, but rather as on-reserve or off-reserve.

Real Indians and Apples.

Has this helped us in any way? Of course not, but the notion that you have to live on-reserve in order to be thought of as an authentic native person has survived in the thoughts and words of far too many people.

If any form of Huu-ay-aht identity is to survive the test of time, we must redefine what it means to be Huu-ay-aht.

We must not base our identity solely on boundary or blood lines, but rather as a common cause, a common purpose. Our community must exist in the thoughts and words around the dinner tables of every household no matter its location. We are not defined by drops of blood or lines on a map, but rather by the way we connect with one another across all boundaries.

But how do we do this?

I read somewhere that the communities of native people in urban areas are a lot like the communities of foreign expatriates. Much like the Chinese and the East Indian people in urban places like Nanaimo or Vancouver, native people are visible minorities separated from their homelands by time and place. Does this make them any less Huu-ay-aht, Chinese or East Indian?

Many expatriates send resources back home to improve the lives of their families and native peoples do just the same in many ways. How many people do you know who send money back to their families back in our traditional territory? How many people open their homes so their cousins, nieces and nephews can go to school, go to work or get back on their feet?

The Huu-ay-aht First Nations are alive and well in those homes, no matter where they may be located. It is by allowing our community to be defined by its people, rather than by its borders that will ensure that our community will go on to exist beyond our own lifetimes.

What can the government do?

Government is not about nation-building. Rather, it is about creating systems for solving problems. It is the people who build the nation, who define what it means to be Huu-ay-aht. The government is meant to carry out the wishes of its people to the best of its ability. Every single person who identifies themselves as Huu-ay-aht helps to create what it means to be Huu-ay-aht. It doesn't matter where each person lives or what they look like, what matters is their connection to the community as a whole and their drive to make our lives better.

We are a people in transit, a mobile tribe in a modern world. We are strengthened when any type of connection is created and maintained between members of the Huu-ay-aht First Nations, formal or informal.

As the government of the Huu-ay-aht First Nations, we are obligated to help improve the lives of all members of the community. We can help to strengthen the connections between all members. We can create and cultivate networks to keep people informed of opportunities for employment, housing, education and perhaps most importantly, any and all forms of belonging.

As leaders of our community, we should know how our people relate to each other. We need to know what works, what can improve and what opportunities there might be in order to make our lives better. Our homeland is the root of our identity, it is our common origin and the basis of our history and culture. We need to be able to bring the benefits of our land, culture and common history to the Huu-ay-aht "expatriates" and allow for our people to access the benefits of city life -- employment and education -- should they choose to pursue that path.

Once we know what works, we need to provide support for those methods of staying connected. If this means that we need to have places for Huu-ay-aht in each major urban centre, then so be it. This may be an office, a home for the elderly, a dormitory for students or all the above, but we need to keep all of our people connected.

We need to bring Huu-ay-aht together, but not necessarily all at once or in the same place.

Chuu.

July Update: Council Responsibilities

2009-07-13T23:17:00.000-07:00

Since I started my term of office on 8 June 2009, I have occupied myself with getting up to speed on Huu-ay-aht First Nations (HFN) activities. We had our first Chief & Council meeting on Friday, 12 June 2009. During the first meeting, the specific responsibilities of each Councillor are assigned. These responsibilities are referred to as a Councillor's portfolio. They center on various aspects of the operation of our government and implementing the Maa-nulth Treaty. Examples of these areas are forestry, fisheries, finance, economic development, governance, lands & resources, education, health, community services and communications.

Currently, my portfolios are: Finance, Economic Development, Communications and overseeing progress on the Treaty Closing Plan. Also, I am a member of the Governance Committee. While these items are generally my responsibility, they are in no way my own personal fiefdom. The power to make decisions rests in the entire Council, not just in one Councillor. The Council has put their trust in me to oversee the operations and progress in these particular areas, however, and I aim to do my best. Making decisions that will alter policy or our practices take the agreement of the Council, and this is a hallmark of our democratic process.

Finance

(Committee Chair)

Honestly, I used to find the idea of finance to be more than a bit boring. It took me a while to fully realize just how important the management of money and wealth is in today's world. Like every well-run organization and most households, the Huu-ay-aht First Nations has a budget, a plan that looks at our sources of income and the things we decide to spend money on. Whenever there is a decision made by government, it is the job of the Finance Committee to find the money in the budget to do it. Nearly every decision made by government affects the budget and there needs to be people in place to assure that it is all managed properly. So far, I am glad to say that we have a good team in place.

Economic Development

(Committee Chair)

When I was in University, I specifically studied the concept of economic development. It's not just about jobs or money, but rather building a human environment where the rules allow for businesses to operate without undue interference from government, to provide the necessary opportunities for citizens to acquire the skills for a job and access enough information to find those jobs. My approach to building a stronger economy is comprehensive. While I understand the need for Nation-owned businesses to exist, I also want to build an economy where citizens can start their own businesses. Thus far, I have worked with the "EcDev" committee on the creation of a process for evaluating the opportunities that have been forwarded to our Nation from various sources. Our next job will be to work with members and experts on the creation of an economic development strategy that will guide us into the new era for more than the next few years.

Communications

(Committee Chair)

One of the reasons that our government has been so successful has been because of efforts that we have put into keeping our people informed. Through phone calls, community meetings, home visits and our newspaper (Huu-ay-aht Uyaqhmis), the HFN has made informing you one of its first priorities. Though I am no longer in the same position to help put the newspaper together, I am still the Chairman of the Communications Committee. Our first priority will be to find a suitable candidate to fill my old position as Communications Coordinator. Our next task will be to create a communications plan that will involve a plan for revamping the HFN Website as well as further involvment on the "New Web" such as Facebook and YouTube.

Governance

(Committee Member)

I retain my seat on the HFN Governance Committee. We work to create the laws that will be the rules of our government and the methods that we use to make decisions. We've done much work on developing laws such as the Elections Act, the Referendum Act and the Citizenship Act. In September, we aim to start work on one of our most important laws, the Government Act itself. Right now, we are working to take the input you provided during the last community information sessions and use them in the development of the previously-mentioned laws.

In Closing...

It's been a busy month. The coming weeks will be just as, if not even more, active. It's an honour to be a part of something so important.

Chuu.

Klecko, klecko.

Democracy, Progress and History

2009-06-12T14:28:00.001-07:00

On 6 June 2009, I was elected as a Councillor for my tribe, the Huu-ay-aht First Nations (Wikipedia Link).

I would now like to relate my thanks to the Huu-ay-aht people and those who decided to put a mark next to my name. Thanks to everyone for their words and input, and I vow to represent the interests of all Huu-ay-aht no matter their location, age, status or gender.

As things develop, I will endeavour to keep you informed on the progress that we have made to become one of the most progressive First Nations in Canada.

Chuu.

Kleko, kleko!

Pushback: Residential School Common Experience Payments

2009-02-17T16:02:00.000-08:00

On February 1, The Calgary Herald published an article titled "Residential school payments gambled away." It was written by Richard Wagamese and paints a stark picture about how the common experience settlements were used by native people. Wagamese wrote anecdotal statements about how our First Nations elders do not know how to use their money wisely and that many wasted it on gambling, alcohol, drugs and "vehicles parked in the yard that [settlement recipients] cannot afford to gas and drive."

Wagamese goes on to state that "a report last week indicated a significant rise in alcohol abuse, drug addiction, domestic violence, suicide and death as a result of residential school settlement money," though he fails to cite the name or source of the report in question. Such an article serves to reinforce racist stereotypes of native people, and though Wagamese might have intended for his article to be a wake-up call for the aboriginal community, The Calgary Herald was not a proper avenue to do so.

If Mr. Wagamese takes the time to refer back to his own article from The Ottawa Citizen on May 7 of last year entitled "The value of residential schools," he will no doubt agree with the notion that there are wildly different experiences in almost any situation and that some may be positive. Apparently, Wagamese fails to understand that his examples of settlement money misuse may be an exception and not the rule.

In the Huu-ay-aht experience, many of our elders attended residential school when they were young. Their experiences were varied, many were abused or neglected, but the simple fact remains: their freedom and the freedom of their parents to raise their own children was taken away by the Crown and Churches. This is the basis for the common experience payments, the subsequent abuse and neglect were tragic additions to an already sorrowful story.

As a result of their shared experiences in residential school, many Huu-ay-aht elders were given a Common Experience Payment from the federal government. What follows are more examples of how these moneys were used by our people and will serve to further inform the public.

Marje White was featured in the October issue of Uyaqhmis as our featured elder. She is a well-respected and active member of not only the Huu-ay-aht First Nations, but the entire provincial and aboriginal community. She used her common experience payments to pay off her vehicle and other debts, renovate her home, pay for her share of an upcoming family potlatch, go for a small holiday and invest the remainder.

Fellow Vancouver resident, Bill Ginger, used his settlement to secure a business loan from the Nuu-chah-nulth Economic Development Corporation to get his fishing charter off the ground. He will be out on our traditional waters this coming fishing season.

Ernest and Shirley Jack, a fisherman and homemaker married for over forty years, used their common experience moneys to pay down some of their debts and pay bills. Their eldest daughter, Myrna Macleod, did the same.

Huu-ay-aht member Robert Dennis Senior used his money to pay down debts and help out his children and grandchildren. As did Ben Clappis and his wife Clara, who both used their money to purchase a much-needed truck and help out family.

These are mere examples, a small sample of how the settlement money was used by our people -- a people more similar to their family, friends and neighbours in the rest of Canada than Mr. Wagamese cared to express in his article. In the end, how a person handles his or her finances is a personal matter. To say anything less is an insult to those native elders who used their money wisely.

Chuuch.

This article was originally published in the March 2009 Issue of Huu-ay-aht Uyaqhmis, a newsletter I help write and publish. Please visit the Huu-ay-aht First Nations website for more information. Kleko, kleko. (Thank you, thank you.)

What's the point?

2009-01-31T18:20:00.001-08:00

You have been charged with High Facebookery, how do you plead?

Not long ago, I took part in something of a social experiment that took Facebook by storm. I dubbed the exercise "Twenty-Twenty" but I'm sure there are myriad names for it. The point of the exercise is to do two things: (1) write a series of twenty "random" things about yourself in no more than a few sentences, and (2) tag twenty of your friends so they'll see that you've created the post and ask them to write a similar piece and tag you in return.

The idea is clever. It gets people thinking about various and varied aspects of themselves and begs them to post it for all to see. In addition to that you are guaranteed a limited audience for your self-expression, which is at once healthy and the engine that drives the entire experiment. The hypothesis behind it all is two-fold, "People love to talk about themselves. They like it even more when there is an audience to project and reflect themselves off of..."

I am not immune to this. I must admit something of an addiction to filling out questionnaires, personality tests and posting my own written pieces of self-expression. The mere existence of this blog is evidence of this, and I'm never really certain that many people read it.

I ask myself, "What's the point?"

Assymmetric Conversion is an ego blog. It's not claiming to report on events that you can't find out about somewhere else, and it doesn't claim some special knowledge or hints and tips for living. It's a personal site where I post my own thoughts for no other reason than I have them and have the time to write them down for the Internet to envelop and consume like so many sand castles before the tide. However, this does not explain why I continue to publish my thoughts and opinions. So, why?

It's not for personal reasons. It doesn't stand as my only record for my thoughts and experiences. I have a journal for that sort of thing, though I must admit that I don't update it all that often. As well, my personal diary contains much more than I'd like to let known. It's more a record of thought and emotion than a record of events and activities. I have an odd relationship with my emotions, and I have an innate mistrust of letting anyone know what I'm feeling and thinking.

"Anyone" usually won't get the nuances because I'm not yet skilled enough to express myself that way.

My blog isn't anonymous. I don't use it to express unpopular opinions. I'd like to think that I can stand in the Sun and let my thoughts known in one way or another. Communication is communication. It doesn't always have to be words.

The only alternative is exhibitionism. An altogether common cry of "Look at me! Look at me! I'm so very interesting!"

I'm not all that fond of my own physical existence. From the first time I was told that I was smart, I have been a being of thought and ideas. I judge myself on the quality of my thoughts, the results of my theories and my ability to gather, retain and synthesize information is all its forms. I wish to be intelligent, knowledgeable and wise; not strong, fast or possessed of great endurance.

I find that there are several reasons why people write ego blogs. One is validation. Another is self-discovery. The other is entertainment. I find that I blog here for all of these reasons in one way or another...

Calling Marcus Aurelius, Emperor Aurelius, are you out there?

I have a cynical side, some say it's an entire hemisphere, and it's been telling me that people only write to validate themselves in order to exorcise the aspects that they dislike about themselves. In writing here and in other places, am I white-washing my past as some temporary fix for my general malaise? No doubt people do this all the time and in different ways. How many times have you heard a group of people sitting around talking about their past relationships and it never seems as though they're willing to admit that they had a part to play in the downfall? If you were to go by how people present themselves, we have a lot of victims of fate, betrayal and greed. It's very rare to hear or see someone own up to their shortcomings in a private forum, let alone a public one. Do I seek validation? You bet I do. Do my logical sides think I should? Not really, no.

I blog because I seek feedback. I contemplate my life. I am introspective. I find that this only gets me so far. I cannot, in good conscience, take up a person's time face-to-face whining about my existential angst, nor could I afford the service professionally. Still, I blog becaus I wish to know more, not only about the world, but also myself.

If you're not powerful, entertaining or attractive, do people really want to know who you are? Even then...

The third option isn't likely a reason that I blog. I find that I'm not all that concerned with how entertaining I am as a writer. I'm not writing for The Office or The Daily Show. I'm writing for a blog that maybe a handful of unique visitors read in a year. My life just isn't that interesting.

My day-to-day life isn't all that interesting. I'm not a spy. I'm not knee deep in amazing adventures, political or sexual. I'm not a traveler, nor a journalist. I get up, I go to work, I come home and do chores. Sometimes, I watch a movie or consume other intellectual property. I react and respond, but not in any unique way.

My blog isn't a soapbox. You can load up more expert and eloquent men and women left, right and center. I offer no insights that haven't already been written or spoken by better people than me. I stand on the shoulders of giants, and I still have to stand on tip toes to see where I'm going because it's getting crowded up here.

Everyone has them, everyone loves them and hates them at the same time.

I've thought entirely too much about this subject. What do I have to offer that I'm fairly certain that people will be interested in?

The only answer I have are those little black diamonds that result from mistakes made and consequences unforeseen: secrets.

My secrets. Your secrets. Others' secrets.

The realm of secrecy is dangerous territory. You need only to remember your own secrets and what would happen if they were to find their merry way into the hands of the very people you keep them away from... we all have secrets, no doubt, but I think we hoard them too. What do you know about your best friend? Your spouse?

There's an economy of secrets out there. Holding them is like possessing something of value. Once cashed in, they lose much of their worth. They're markers, vouchers of trust. I wouldn't reveal others' secrets, for the repercussions of that are far too high. I like the people whose secrets I keep. I would never violate their ever-tenuous trust in me unless safety was at stake, and even then...

I find that my life is one lived with no more secrets than I expect you to have, but when I think of why I would continue to write this blog, I find that the only things of true value that I could offer are my secrets.

Am I going to do that?

I'm not sure yet.

Where would I start? What's interesting?

I'll be doing some research. Then, I'll get back to you.

Be seeing you,

- J.

A Year and a Bit

2009-01-19T13:15:00.000-08:00

As a writer and a speaker, I am keen on the use of analogies to aid in comprehension. Of course, the use of analogies does not confer much in the way of a complete understanding of a topic or issue, but it does suit my needs in most of my discussions. I find that they are a short-handed way of explaining something overly technical or overly complex. Analogies help, but perhaps I overuse them.

That being said, I will likely be using plenty of them in this upcoming article whereupon I ask whether and to what degree self-change affects one's relationships with others.

It's still the New Year, time to track my changes and my perceptions of others' perceptions.

Watch this site.

Musings on Political Development and Political Culture

2008-07-03T11:34:00.001-07:00

My tribe, called the Huu-ay-aht, is currently involved in a treaty with the Crown governments of Canada, the federal government and the province of British Columbia. We're in together with four other tribes and we call our group the Maa-nulth Treaty Society. As a people, we all speak roughly the same language and we are all members of a greater organization called the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council. Currently, the Maa-nulth Treaty Society has successfully negotiated and ratified the treaty and we're currently in a state of limbo between negotiation and implementation.

In any event, we have to prepare ourselves for self-government. We have done this in committees and I am a member of two of these committees: communications and governance. My current position with the Huu-ay-aht First Nations is in the Communications Department -- I am the Communications Coordinator. I maintain our Huu-ay-aht Website, the Huu-ay-aht Facebook Group, manage e-mails and other media relations. My most enjoyable tasks is putting together the monthly community newsletter, I both write articles and do most of the layout work on Adobe InDesign -- a fine program.

Today, I am more concerned with my involvement with the Huu-ay-aht Governance Committee. It is our task to read through the Maa-nulth Final Agreement, its Side Agreements, and the Huu-ay-aht Constitution and identify the laws, policies and other tasks that need to be done before we take over our collective destinies. Our mandate goes beyond the creation of laws, however, and this is where my mind has been going for the past while.

When I think of governance, not only do I think of the laws and policies that are developed, but also the operating procedures of administrations and bureaucracies, infrastructure like communications and meeting space, human resource development, education and socialization. I think about the political development of the Huu-ay-aht First Nations.

I wonder how we may identify those institutions that influence the overall political culture of our community. It's more than just the government. In thinking this way, I am reminded of the agents of socialization that I learned whilst earning my BA:

Family
Peer Group
School
Mass Media
Work
The State
Religion

The State is listed, but it goes further than that. Areas of influence overlap for each of the agents. I work for my government but I utilize contacts in the mass media to get our message out to our members and the general public. My government can have a distinct impact on how our children are educated and how our parents are employed. Influence is pervasive and reciprocal. It moves in all directions and it is difficult to predict how one change at the state level can influence the economy or our schools. Is it a science, or an art?

Thoughts to ponder, but I remain focused enough to keep thinking about it

Stay tuned to this blog, I'll post notions as they take form and etch themselves into my mind.

43 Things

2008-05-14T09:28:00.000-07:00

I've come across a website by the name of 43things. It's a listing of thing that you want to do, currently or overall. I've decided that making it public would help me actually achieve those very things listed. So far, there's only five of them.

My 43Things Page

Pretty cool, I think.

UVic Journal Summary

2008-03-29T15:29:00.000-07:00

The following is the entirety of my reflections during a course on First Nations Governance, Administration and Management that I participated in at the University of Victoria from March 17 to March 21.

- - -

For me, the greatest theme of this most recent session was a reflection on change. Each First Nations community is changing in a different way. Just as it has been said by a wise and far-seeing man, the only constant is change. Building on my journal summary from the last session, it is my firm belief that we are not points in space, but rather vectors -- not islands on a map, but ships on headings. The chief responsibility of any leader has been the management of resources in a long and constant period of transition. My favourite author, William Gibson, wrote in the novel Pattern Recognition a stark but altogether accurate explanation of the world I believe we now live in:

"[W]e have no idea, now, of who or what the inhabitants of our future might be. In that sense, we have no future. Not in the sense that our grandparents had a future, or thought they did. Fully imagined cultural futures were the luxury of another day, one in which 'now' was of some greater duration. For us, of course, things can change so abruptly, so violently, so profoundly, that futures like our grandparents' have insufficient 'now' to stand on. We have no future our because our present is too volatile. ... We have only risk management. The spinning of the given moment's scenarios. Pattern recognition."

I sometimes worry if the vision and goals that I am working toward will result in my community living in this world without a future. How do we reconcile the "long now" of the past with this nigh-constant era flux that seems to be upon us for the foreseeable future? This is why I was quite impressed with our discussion on the first day regarding authentic long term planning -- beyond the fiscal year, beyond the term of office, beyond the infamous five year plan. It evoked images of planning for decades in the future, generations in the future. It evoked images of our ancestors finally nodding their heads in agreement.

I know that we can construct institutions that can last for generations, the trick is learning more from the reed in the wind. What I became concerned about was not the endurance of our processes, but rather the health and capacity of our people. It was by the end of the second day that I had settled on a topic for my individual assignment. I wanted to propose a program that would improve First Nations governance by augmenting its safeguards: the hearts and minds of the people. Upon reflection, it my belief that we have an opportunity embedded in the consequences of our systemic oppression: we can help to create a community that is vital in ways that the current dominant one is not, or has seem to forgotten that it once was... I want to live in a community where every citizen not only has the opportunity to be involved in the decisions that affect us all, but have a real chance at having something to contribute. My proposal would be for the teaching of "First Nations Civics" as a part of social studies.

After looking back at Vine Deloria's writings on education and self-determination, I realize that this is no small task. The term "First Nations Civics" paints an image of bored children sitting in a classroom with an underpaid teacher reading aloud eloquent words in that characteristic droning that the disillusioned tend to utter after decades of disappointment. I merely want to propose that each community would do well to inform its members of not only collective and individual rights, but also individual and collective responsibilities. This can be done without ever a classroom being filled, but the trick becomes choosing the message and selecting the proper mediums. As Deloria wrote, knowledge is not lists and categories but a holistic understanding of relationships and interconnectedness. We all need to know how all relationships, at least in the socially-constructed world of human societies, are reciprocal. Education influences and is influenced by governance, and vice-versa. Linear lines of causality are relics of the past; we need to learn to live in a two-lane world.

I must admit that I have difficulty practicing what I preach. My methods of learning seem very Western in outlook. I learn by lists and categories and breaking things down into its constituent parts. I understand by putting it all back together in my head and trying to repeat the process in the real world. I have discovered much to the amusement of my grandfather, that this is easier said than done. I believe I am partway there -- I do not see myself as someone who will ever specialize too much when it comes to education. My undergraduate degree is in Global Studies, a self-described "interdisciplinary" approach" to the current fundamental shift in global politics, economics and society called globalization.

In any event, I still endeavour to integrate my big ideas and love of theory with the realities of the world. It is all well and good to wax poetic about the virtues of civic understanding, but how do we actually do it? I have trouble with detail. I have learned from those in class, both instructors and fellow students, that details are just as important as visions and ideas. I have often felt isolated, thinking my thoughts and never feeling like I was alllowed to articulate them due to my position in my tribal government. A particular student, a member of my group, Dave, taught me otherwise. I know now that I was merely afraid of my beloved ideas being criticized. I realize now that in order to actually help the condition of my community, I need to speak up and I need to let my ideas be viewed and evaluated. My ego is not as important as the discourse my potentially flawed ideas may instigate.

Trust, as ever, is center stage. It's about time someone took that first leap, it might as well be me.

Sometimes...

2008-02-23T22:10:00.000-08:00

... a blank page serves as a weeks-long selah. The previous entry was a snarky diatribe on hypocrisy, moral authority and atonement.

I have come to the conclusion that 2 + 2 = 4, even when the Devil tells you. Wisdom can be gleaned from strange places and one would do well to remember that.

I must, however, comment on something that simply confused me. The notion that a person can somehow spontaneously gain some requisite measure of self-confidence in order to graciously accept another's criticisms is lazy at best and foolhardy at worst. Critics need to realize that they don't tend to focus on the process of successfully delivering their message so much as they simply wish to demonstrate their superior knowledge to others.

Expertise and wisdom are qualities best recognized, not demonstrated to serve a purpose.

Tact.

If I were to tattoo a word on the collective forehead of this generation, it would be TACT. All too often do we, as a group, fail to recognize or accept that the methods we take in communicating have an effect on the message itself. How many relationships have been soured because someone couldn't be bothered to take their audience into account.

This week, my motto will be "Tact, Honesty and Lucidity."

Write to you soon,

- John.
Sent from my BlackBerry device on the Rogers Wireless Network

[placeholder]

2008-02-11T11:02:00.001-08:00

Reserved for an unscheduled rewrite...

Help Me Pick My Blackberry Background

2008-02-06T14:08:00.001-08:00

Llanowar Reborn by Philip Straub

[unknown title] by Linda Bergkvist aka Enayla

Note: Both images are posted without the artists' consent. I am more than willing to take them down if need be, but they are only 320 x 240 resolution, so...

Sent from my BlackBerry device on the Rogers Wireless Network

Thank you, Crystal!

2008-02-05T22:02:00.000-08:00

An Amazing Gift from an Amazing Person
Sent from my BlackBerry device on the Rogers Wireless Network

A Very Good Movie

2008-02-04T12:43:00.000-08:00

There Will Be Blood

Sent from my BlackBerry device on the Rogers Wireless Network

Mobile Blogging

2008-02-04T12:39:00.000-08:00

I just acquired a Blackberry Curve, so I thought having it linked to my blog would be a good idea. I must admit the cool factor of the device is mitigated by the fact that I'm that much more liable to be tied to the Internet and my job.

Still, it also means that I can post when the Muse hits me over the top of the head and demands that I respond.

Expect an image upload soon.

Sent from my BlackBerry device on the Rogers Wireless Network

A Question for a Whimsical Friday

2008-01-25T15:59:00.000-08:00

What's in a name?

More precisely, what's in a screen-name?

This is, of course, a question of identity. We don't choose the names that we go by in the real world, even if we're known by a name other than our given one offline, it's most often a nickname given to you. For example, my name is John Alan Jack. My first name is from my great-grandfather on my dad's side. He was a company man, a Hudson's Bay Company man. My middle name is from my mother's younger brother, my Uncle Al. And my family name is Jack, named after the patriarch of the family when the Indian Agents were handing out anglicized names: Old Man Jack.

I didn't choose these names, but they're who I am.

I have two other names. Reprisal and Garacaius.

The first one is my oldest handle. It was originally lengthened to "Nuclear Reprisal." A term taken from a song by the Matthew Good Band called The Future is X-Rated. This was my name for online games like Unreal Tournament, Quake 3, Total Annihilation, Counter-Strike, and Day of Defeat. I shortened it to Reprisal not long after I started becoming more involved in the gaming community and after people online started calling me "Rep" for short on Voice-Chat.

Reprisal is not a term you see every day, unless you live in Gaza or the West Bank. I chose it as a good representation of the image I wanted the name to have in the lobbies and scoreboards of the games I played. A reprisal is a measured and "proportional" response to a violent or illegal act. That was the persona I took on whenever I logged in to play a game. I was a straight talking and cooperative player with an eye for teamwork and little patience for grand-standers. What little voice-chatting I did in a game had to do with position, strategy and congratulating other players on a well-timed grenade or an amazing shot.

I've lived with with name Reprisal for around ten years now. It's a part of who I am. I'm not particularly well-known in any long-term sense of the word, but when I visit the same game server or post on the same message board for a while, people tend to find familiarity in my name.

My name is my label, it's my brand.

I've recently decided to take on a new name: Garacaius. It's no less esoteric, but it's also more inocuous -- a handle I can use that's more widely accepted. Though it might be weird, people won't react as negatively to Garacaius nearly as much as they will a name like Reprisal.

I took the name from a background character I created for an RPG I was running for friends about a year and a half ago. His name was Garacaius Mendalus. He was a young-but-retired artificer who owned a merchant company with his fellow retired adventurers. Smart, good-natured, and way too cautious.

I figured it fit all too well.

I often wonder what others' stories are when it comes to their handles. Are they chosen fairly casually? Fairly naturally? Do they matter at all to you, especially now that websites like Facebook cncourage the use of your real name?

Real name.

What's in a name?

Tribal Utterances

2007-10-17T18:14:00.000-07:00

I currently work for my tribal government. My tribe is called the Huu-ay-aht First Nations. It used to be called the Ohiat Band back when we did not bother to correct inaccurate, anglicized labels given to us by bureaucrats of the federal government. Many of our elders still call our First Nation the Ohiat Band, but I suspect (and hope) that this has more to do with habit than assimilation.

The Huu-ay-aht First Nations are located in the Barkley Sound region on the west coast of Vancouver Island. As far as I know, they have been there since time immemorial. Legend has it that we originated on Diana Island, named after a spring on that very island. Thus, it is a sacred place to us. We are a small band with approximately seven hundred members. The Huu-ay-aht main settlements are located principally along the Pachena River and next to Pachena Bay, though we have historically important settlements in a place called Numukamis on the Sarita River and on Diana Island. In truth, we are very much a tribal diaspora: seventy percent of our number live away from our traditional territory. I am one such person.

My relationship with "the band" had until recently been one held at arm's length from the core of my identity. As a child, I can only remember being ashamed of my heritage. Returning to the reserve was fretful, if not frightening, and the only thing I ever seemed to like about going there was getting home again. As I grew, I became more aware of my heritage and it became less embarrassing. When I graduated, I met many of the people from the band who my mother held in high esteem. They helped change my outlook on the nature of my first nation.

The Huu-ay-aht are a part of the Nuu-chah-nulth culture group. We speak the same language and inhabit the same general area of Vancouver Island. We are members of a larger entity known as the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council, or NTC -- a group dedicated to having a unified voice in promotion, protection and preservation of our collective interests. In practice, the NTC is affected by -- surprise, surprise -- tribalism. It is little wonder that the NTC still struggles to cooperate enough to pursue a treaty with the Crown. There are too many cooks in this particular kitchen and it seems most people know it.

The Huu-ay-aht were one such tribe. In the mid-1990s, we broke away from the NTC on treaty matters and got together with four other like-minded members and formed our own treaty group: the Maa-nulth Treaty Society. We applied and entered into the British Columbia Treaty Commission's system for negotiating a treaty with the Crown governments and have since worked to successfully adopt a treaty.

My band paid for my post-secondary education. While I am deeply grateful, I find that I am also somewhat embarrassed by that fact. I can sense the discontent that this brings out in my non-aboriginal friends and colleagues and it affects me more than I tend to let on. I will not apologize for it. One need only look up economic and demographic information on the Statistics Canada website to understand that aboriginal people in this country are disadvantaged in ways that would take college-level lecture courses for most people to fully appreciate. The cynical part of me wants to tell people who complain about how tax dollars are spent on aboriginal issues that they should consider it the bare minimum rent payments on the lands that they occupy (but that might be seen as a bit bitter, so...)

Needless to say, my outlook has changed since I was fifteen years old. I am proud to call myself Huu-ay-aht and I am excited to be a part of something so special and unique. I feel a part of something larger than myself, but not so large that it is a mere abstract idea.

I am slowly learning about my heritage. I have participated in cultural events and rituals. I am becoming Huu-ay-aht. It fills a void and I am glad for it.

I will tell you more about my experiences later, but I think this is a good introduction. There are plenty of links, too!

Origins - Part Two

2007-10-16T12:30:00.000-07:00

My father, David James McIvor, was born in 1951. At this very moment, I have forgotten his birthday -- more than slightly embarrassing -- but I happen to know that his Zodiac sign is Pisces, so we're fairly close to a specific date. He had three older brothers: Malcolm, who died a few years back of drug and alcohol addiction-related factors; Trevor, who lives in William's Lake and has ever since I knew him; and Lawerence, who lives in Qualicum Bay. He, my younger brother, and I currently live in Parksville. We're a family, of sorts, and it's been a good few years.

David grew up in Errington. His father, Cecil, was a sawyer and operated a mill next door to the school on Grafton. My father worked from a very young age and hasn't stopped, even now. He dropped out of school in the eighth grade and began working in the forestry industry in the 1960s. By the time I was born, he was an established feller working for MacMillian-Bloedel (yes, that's the correct word). He got seriously hurt a few years before the time that M&B gave way to Weyerhauser, probably in the early to mid-1990s. The tree that got him was supposed to fall one way, but the top decided to break off and fall in the opposite direction. David's right upper arm and shoulder were smashed and he sustained serious, but ultimately non-paralyzing, damage to his lower to mid-vertebrae. Later, his knee went, and he's been in pain ever since. I often wonder if I could endure such tribulations as he has (often with a smile!), and to be honest, I doubt it. David no longer works due to his injuries, though he's been known to get bored enough to do most of the housework and some yardwork. I'm glad he doesn't have to push a lawnmower around, though...

He met my mother when she was fourteen years old, so that would have made him eighteen... I figure this was more standard and accepted back then. Either way, they were together up until shortly before David was seriously injured. And liklely separated for reasons closely related to not just my mother's alcoholism, but perhaps the priority he gave work over family as well. Needless to say, the separation hit him quite hard, as I think it would anyone in that position. To go from having a wife, two kids, two dogs and a nice, large house on Hirst Avenue to having none of those things save a loving hound and an empty, lonely house in the space of a week must have been traumatic. From what I've observed of men his age, I don't doubt that the sudden removal of all stability and security must have been horrible.

In the time since the separation and his injury, my father went through many changes. After the death of his elder brother, David became close to and eventually married Marlene, Malcolm's widow. I'm not certain how to present this, it seems a bit odd, perhaps a bit more than that, but they were happy and as a young teenager, I didn't mind. It allowed for some amusing "mountain people" jokes and the like, which I still chuckle at from time to time. Marlene came from a troubled background centering on drug addiction, which led to her abandoning him for an abusive relationship with a drug dealer. We have not since heard from her in several years, and I do not miss her. She hurt my father too much by doing that to him. Perhaps she will be forgotten, but she will never be forgiven.

Looking back with a new perspective, I must say that my growing up in what amounted to a broken home and watching as another was torn asunder by death and another by drug addiction, has led to my viewing relationships as a risk. Not that I've ever meant to, but of all the relationships that I've seen, the three most major ended and ended disastrously. This is not to say that I have not seen good and lasting ones, both my surviving Uncles on my father's side have lived in long and loving relationships and my grandparents have been married forever, but the ones closest to me have all ended poorly. Perhaps, I view all relationships as fundamentally finite -- which may undermine everything before ever I meet someone.

A stark realization.

But one that I'm aware of now, so perhaps amends can be made...

Presently, my father is a changed man. It was a slow change, and one that was not entirely positive. David is no longer able to be as physically active as he once was and for a man who's element was the wilderness, I believe it must have been and continues to be deeply disappointing for him to not be able to wander into the bush and simply be a man in the forest, a man of the forest. He continues to have a deep and fundamental love of nature and the natural world. If he was to revere anything, it would be what one might call the natural order, something far apart from the orders of mankind. Though I suspect that my father's always been something of a misanthropist, he has become reclusive as he has gotten older. I believe it is because the world around him, the changing nature of Parksville and our society, has disturbed him. Not only disturbed him, but very much disappointed him. He's of the mind that we're missing something in this technologically-advanced and economically-developed civilization that's developed during his lifetime and I'm starting to believe him.

Things are too fast, and people tend to miss the important things because they're either not willing to wait for them to grow or willing to put in the work to see it through.

In that way, he truly is "old school."

Though he may seem reticent and quiet to start, this is changing. He's at his best when he's in comfortable and familiar situations and environs. He is a good man, a hard-working man, a classical man, but of all things, he is an honest man -- especially when it's inconvenient, since that's when it's most amusing.

Once you meet him and get to know him, you'll soon realize where I get my deeply irreverent sense of humour.

As I get older, I have become more fearful of my father leaving us. He's an ardent and unapologetic smoker, something I've grown to respect despite the consequences. I hope he'll be one of those statistical anomalies -- I had been without a father for so long during my childhood that I'm not prepared to give him up now that we're just getting to know each other well.

But, as far as I know, he's not going anywhere just yet. I'm glad he's there, and I hope he realizes just how important he is to me.

I'll have to tell him when I get home today.

Origins

2007-09-19T21:09:00.000-07:00

I was born on July 21st, 1981 at Nanaimo General Hospital. I can't remember whether I was a difficult birth, and I don't know when in the day that I was born, but I'm going to assume that there was nothing easy about my entrance into this world.

It's just too fitting.

My mother, Sandra Lucille Gallagher (Jack), was born on April 15th, 1955 and died on October 15th, 1999. She was forty-four years old. Sandra grew up the youngest daughter of Ernest Jack and Shirley Jack (Chester) and lived in Bamfield on the west coast of Vancouver Island until the 1960's, when my grandfather moved the family to Parksville so his children could attend school past the tenth grade. She met my Dad when she was fourteen and they stayed together for twelve years before I was born. My mother was the product of a traditional home, though it became apparent to me that she aspired to be much more than what was expected of her.

My mother's life was hard. Looking back, I remember hers as a life lived through hardship, disappointment, sadness and addiction. She was an alcoholic, and though no one has ever officially told me, she was also the victim of abuse at a young age. It was, ultimately, this sadness and alcoholism that led to her break up with my father when I was younger than thirteen. My mother persevered, though, and she made her children her life for the longest time. She made real sacrifices for us and only now upon reflection do I truly appreciate what she done for me and my brothers.

To the point where I feel ashamed at times that I wasn't a better son.

Later in her life, she returned to school and learned many skills. It started with courses to become a legal assistant. She completed that work and became interested in mapping with computers, GIS, as it was connected with the early efforts of my First Nation in pursuing a Treaty. Yes, I followed in my mother's footsteps. She worked with the earliest form of the organization that now employs me, the Huu-ay-aht Treaty Office, helping to create the maps that would guide land selection and resource management. It can be said, fairly and accurately, that she did good work for her people and her family. And that she actually had a chance at truly being happy.

My mother had health problems. She had lupus. She had arthritis. She got headaches for no apparent reason. And, of course, she smoked cigarettes. My family has a history of circulatory problems: heart attacks, strokes, and the like. She was no exception. My mother died from a stroke.

She collapsed in the bathroom after crying for hours because her head hurt so much. She was hyperventilating and unconscious by the time the ambulance got there to take her to the hospital.

I wasn't there when she died. She had already passed by the time we got to the hospital in the morning.

I hate hospitals.

...

I don't remember much about the next few days, but one thing that just sticks in my mind is when they told my little brother that his mother was dead. He was seven years old and sitting on the couch at home wondering where Mom was...

Nothing's ever really been the same since then and to say that life changed on a fundamental level is to make an absurd understatement.

I remember the funeral being in Port Alberni. I remember wondering why the hell it was there when she lived in Parksville, when she raised her children in Parksville. I only now realize that the people she loved and cared about and were friends with were mostly from Port Alberni and Anacla, the home reserve of our native band. Now that I look at the funeral card, or whatever it's called, I see names that were not at all familiar to me at the time had spoken eloquent words for her and had been her honoured pallbearers. These are people I now work with, these are people that I interact with on a regular basis, and I find myself thanking them for everything they did to help my family through this tumultuous string of days.

After the service, we left Port Alberni to drive for long hours down dirt roads to a place called Sarita. My mother loved Sarita. It used to be the site of our band's winter village and it was sidled next to the Sarita River deep in our traditional territory. There's a cemetary in Sarita, up on a hill with steep access. My mother lies in Sarita next to her brother and among her relatives.

I helped bury her.

It's been eight years since she passed away. I lived in a self-imposed exile from the world for a bit more than seven years because of her sudden death. I must admit that it's taken me hours to write this, to remember the pain and the fear and the uncertainty. I think I need to be able to write about this and post it out into the open for anyone to read.

I have yet to return to her gravesite.

I'm going to try to visit Sarita this October.

The prospect of going scares me, but I think it needs to be done. I have grown and I have healed.

Wish me luck.

Inaugural Post

2007-09-18T14:32:00.000-07:00

Without much fanfare, the initial post to Assymetric Conversion was published.

The promises of future posts, however, loom moderately large on the horizon.

* * *

Name: John Alan Jack
Age: 26 Years
Signs: Cancer / Metal Rooster
Sex: Male
Gender: Man
Height: 6 feet / 183 centimeters
Weight: 175ish pounds / 79ish kilograms
Ethnicity: Native American (Huu-ay-aht) / British Medley
Nationality: Canadian / Huu-ay-aht
Eyes/Hair: Brown / Black
Suit Size: 40 Tall
Waist: 32
Inseam: 32
Shoe Size: 10.5
Accessories: Glasses (and sometimes a nice fedora or panama hat.)

* * *

As far as I know, my family name is the Christian name given to my great-great grandfather, on my mother's side, Old Man Jack. It is also my mother's maiden name and, yes, I am a literal bastard -- a heathen, too. My first name is that of my great-grandfather on my father's side. John McIvor was a company man, a Hudson's Bay company man. Apparently, Fort McMurray was to be named after him until he was accused of cannibalism due to his close relationship with the natives of the area. Whether this is true, I don't know. Either way, it's not short for anything and the standard nickname for it is already my last name -- so just call me John. My middle name is that of my uncle on my mother's side, her baby brother, Al. He's a good man.

Maybe I'll tell you about my parents next time, but until then:

Greetings!