Where there is smoke, there is fire

Page 14

THE URBANE INDIAN

For years, philosophers, Elders and people who work in the membership department at band offices across the country have been battling with the age-old question of what is Native and what is Caucasian. What separates the two and where does one belief system begin and the other stop? Truly complicated questions worthy of serious pondering. Well, I believe I may have the answer. And it's quite obvious. I expect no praise or rewards for my discovery, merely the credit and babes. And maybe some understanding.

The answer came to me while I was working with the Saskatchewan Native Theatre Company in Saskatoon. They're a fabulous theatre company doing fabulous things and I would urge anybody in the area to check them out. But it was the contract I signed with them that may shed light onto this puzzling question. I was there to work with a group of youth, 18 and over. Buried deep within the contract was a small three-line stipulation. Specifically, section two, paragraph A; right there between making all necessary payments to Revenue Canada (money going out), and the copyright and ownership clauses (money coming in).

It states "that as a mentor and role model with the program, the playwright will respect the true intent and spirit of the healthy lifestyles work environment as a component of the Theatre's Healing Journeys Through the Arts Project."

Basically, as I was led to understand, it meant no drinking or doing drugs. Fine. No problem. I understand and fully support a healthy lifestyle. Besides, I have more ... interesting vices. But then I began to notice a slight contradiction in what was perceived as a healthy lifestyle. During the week I was there, we kept taking small breaks during the day, at least twice in the morning and twice in the afternoon (not including lunch hours) for these vitamin enriched, low calorie, no trans-fatty oil, low impact things called cigarettes. Now, call me silly (and I have been called that), but I always believed that smoking was not a part of a healthy lifestyle. Granted, tobacco definitely had Native origins, but I was always taught it was for spiritual and ceremonial purposes. I don't remember hearing about our great-grandfathers having a 20 pipe a day habit or of Tim Hortons having a well-ventilated pipe carrier room at the back of the store. And I understand the tragic history we have with alcohol. Still, why is one equally damaging habit better than the other? Is it a matter of choosing the lesser of evils? If so, why?

And my conundrum was put to the test later that week when I met up with an old friend I hadn't seen in a few months. Somehow we ended up in a bar and the waitress asked me what I wanted to drink. I was about to order a beer when I remembered the contract I had signed a few days earlier... but then I also remembered the image of all those freezing students, and several of the staff, huddled outside the office door, smoking and shivering in the winter cold. Surely that couldn't be all that healthy-cigarettes and the Saskatchewan winter. I found myself hip deep in a moral quandary. What to do? I decided to break even. I had a light beer. I figured the less alcoholic content would limit my stay in purgatory. Evidently my word of honor was worth a Blue Light. Now that's sobering.

Smoking, in my opinion, somewhat contradicts the concept of living a healthy lifestyle. Most doctors will agree, and in fact tell you that one to two glasses of wine a day is actually good for you, for your heart and your blood. I'm quite positive the same cannot be said of tobacco. Now do not misunderstand me, I'm not advocating anything here, just making a point. Other Native organizations have had similar stipulations. Until fairly recently, the Aboriginal Arts program at the Banff School of the Arts had a prohibitive drug and alcohol policy. In fact, their lounge was drug and alcohol free, and yet smoking was allowed. Evidently smoking isn't considered art of an unhealthy lifestyle in any of those contracts. That's probably because the people who drew up those contracts were smokers.

Yet, out there in the White world, it's practically the complete opposite. You'd have to be deaf, dumb and blind not to notice the gradual tightening of the noose for those who smoke in public. It has become practically impossible to light up in restaurants, in any form of public transportation, in bars, anywhere in public. Tobacco advertising has been officially banned from most, if not all, sporting and entertainment events. I'm sure they would go nuts if they ever saw the air quality at a Native bingo. I've been to some where you need a NASA space suit just to cross the floor to get to the bathroom. But beer and alcohol companies can advertise to their hearts content. I love all those "I am a Canadian" and Blue Light commercials. In the dominant culture's world, you are more of a social outcast if you smoke than if you drink. Notice the contradiction?

So basically, the argument boils down to Native people: smoking okay, alcohol bad. White people: alcohol okay, smoking bad. I guess if you're a mixed blood or Metis, you have the option of picking the best or worst of both worlds.