While reading the Cheyfitz article I felt immediately depressed because natural democracy, as embraced by indigenous peoples, I can't help but feel, will be gone because of neoliberal capitalism. I don't know how natural democracy can continue far into the future.
I appreciated the use of Silko's story excerpts from Ceremony of Rocky trending toward slowly disassociating himself from his tribe and their cultural and traditional values. This moving away was linked to his apparently off-reservation education where he developed a taste for individual victory and competition for profit. This excerpt really allowed us an opportunity to observe a few topics such as the role of education in either maintaining cultural traditions or ending these traditions.
It was fascinating to the see dichotomy of traditional indigenous values and western values embodied in a single person and see that person's struggle with two conflicting value sets. It was very relatable.
Having never read Ceremony however, the only one potential flaw I found with the story is that Rocky is still only a teenager. Adolescence is such an awkward period for generally everyone. This is the time when people are often forging their own identity. But, finding one's self is a rather long experience, and it wouldn't surprise me if Rocky eventually returned to this traditional indigenous values.
The emphasis and description of kinship is what made me sad about this the most. I see us, not just indigenous people, but everyone losing this sense of kinship.
On another some-what related note, the discussion on the relationship of people with the Earth and animals reminded me of what we saw in Avatar. Referring to my earlier post, Jake Sully participated in a hunting ceremony/ritual also after he killed that space animal on Pandora.
Goodyear-Kaopua and Baker
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| Lehua Kauhane |
Reading about Moloka'i's community based planning was also awesome and I was reminded about the awesome resources we have available to us. At Ka Huli Ao Center for Excellence in Native Hawaiian Law where I work, we hired Malia Akutagawa this past summer. Malia is from Moloka'i and has played an integral role in Moloka'i's community based planning.
The connection between Hawaiian well-being and oil independence is clear, but I've never really thought about it much before this article. Recognizing the themes in the Cheyfitz article and its relevance to Goodyear-Kaopua and Baker's article, it was even more so depressing. Neoliberal capitalism seems to be like a steam-roller that is likely to result in Native Hawaiian people ceasing to actively see themselves as part of a collective identity/community.
Waziyatwin
Although I generally enjoyed reading the Waziyatwin article, the references to violence was a little disturbing to me. In particular was, "[o]bviously, everyone who decides to act will need to make the moral decision about whether they are willing to take human lives directly or put human lives at risk in our efforts to facilitate the break-up of colonial society." (35). I understand that this extreme may be within the context of the collapse, but it just seems disturbing to me that the above quoted phrase wasn't worded differently.
As the video in one the posts below shows, this type of violence is taken very well by others. When collapse happens, the last thing any indigenous community needs is an unnecessarily paranoid surrounding community. I think the suggestions offered, in preparation for a future collapse where indigenous communities are under physical threat for their resources, are the types of confidential suggestions given to tribal councils.
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