#IdleNoMore Chatter

Just days after Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan dismissed the #idlenomore movement as just a social media event, followers of Pope Benedict XVI enjoyed the pontiffs first ever tweet. Irony can be a scoundrel. |

@Pontifex (which means bridge builder in Latin) blessed all souls from his heart and within just minutes 2,000 retweets and replies were sent out in response. Poor John Duncan just doesn’t get it. Or, at least, he didn’t get it until the soles of shoes started to hit the streets as the #idlenomore movement traveled from virtual space to actual space, taking Canada’s establishment by surprise.
For Don Martin on CTV’s PowerPlay, the frustrations of thousands of Aboriginal people who went out to protest government legislation and attitude seemed to come ‘out of the blue’, he said during an interview with Chief Perry Bellegarde. Martin shook his head in wonder as he told his viewers that there was even a hunger strike in progress on the hill. “A fairly grim situation,” he described it.

But ‘out of the blue’ this protest did not come. For anyone engaged in Aboriginal issues, this has been brewing for some time, and what a shame that Canada’s media was caught flat-footed, their attention even distracted on that first day of #idlenomore protests by a small, scared monkey who had got loose in an IKEA store in Toronto.

But many others are watching and reading and tweeting, even if Minister Duncan seems to underestimate the power of the social media reach.

@KnerdPaladin (a reverend) wrote “We are killing our First Nations. We are crushing the dreams … hopes of their children. We must make amends. #IdleNoMore.”

@Shaythesalmon spoke out to @pmharper to say “You are shaming and embarrassing all Canadians for your lack of commitment to human rights issues. Smarten up #idlenomore.”
 @anjichap writes “Treaty Partners see, listen … dialogue w/you.
Harper isn’t. What do u do w/a partner like that? I tossed mine out of the house!

@Mzlotsabearz tweets “We ain’t going down without a fight!!”

And the fight is on, with sympathizers and allies joining the fray, even though some would work to hijack the agenda of the movement for their own purposes. One powerful letter came out from the Canadian Postal Workers Union to honor the courage of Chief Theresa Spence as her hunger strike entered a second week. It spoke about the “sadly dishonest and indefensible relationship” the federal government has cultivated with Aboriginal peoples.

 Now this latest government  is  making another kind of attempt “to forever extinguish rights and title to your land while continuing the poverty, illness, homelessness, disappearances of Indigenous women, and imprisonment that it has wrought,” the union president writes. “Everyone who identifies as ‘Canadian’ should be deeply ashamed of this sad performance but shame is not enough. Our organization will not lend our name to that destruction or defend a morally bankrupt government and system. We will not be a party to traumatizing whole populations and can no longer deny or remain silent over the fact the homes of the settlers were built on the ruins of others.” Powerful words, and it’s good to have such enlightened friends.

@chasing_drewism writes: “Our numbers may not be large in comparison, but we will educate and utilize what people we have and what people who’ll listen. #idlenomore.” Because #idlenomore is not “just an Indian thing,” writes @WabKinew.

And the beauty of this movement is that it has taken only a short while to go international. There have been solidarity marches in places around the world where you would think might have other concerns to be worried about at this time of year, and Aboriginal people have been thankful.

But at the core of the movement is a concern for a woman who is putting it all on the line for her people. Chief Theresa Spence of Attawapiskat, by her own statements to CBC, is not a part of the #idlenomore movement. She is busy making her protest in a different, most profound, way by making a sacrifice of good health with her hunger strike. She wants a meeting of all the leaders who can work to make changes to the crippling poverty and poor living conditions First Peoples must endure.

@karen_lb_rooney  writes: 1 brave woman, 1 brave week.

Spence says Prime Minister Stephen Harper isn’t communicating the way he should with First Nations. She said he’s on a power trip. His take it or leave it approach leaves people in suffering. The Prime Minister needs to listen to what’s going on, said Spence from her tepee just steps from the Parliament buildings. “Canadians are willing to work with us,” she believes. It’s just their government that is  “ignorant and disrespectful,” she said.

CBC’s Adrienne Arseneault finally brought forward the #idlenomore story to the national media after more than a week of silence. She said the movement has a “whiff” of Occupy. “This might just be the beginning of something,” she said.

“I am willing to die for my people,” said Spence. That’s more than a beginning, some would argue.

More Idle No More resources, articles, commentary and photos: http://www.ammsa.com/content/idlenomore-campaign