Published in September 2011
Professor Malcolm Saulis, is the co-ordinator of the Wilfred Laurier University Faculty of Social Work – Aboriginal Field of Study program and a First Nations scholar. He has a wise sense for the substantial difference between the Aboriginal and European world view. The following is an edited conversation in which Mac describes these differences by explaining the deep Aboriginal connection to Creation. Thank you to Sheau Lih Vong for transcribing this interview as part of our Queen Street History Project.
Two World Views Side by Side
The fact that we can still be articulate about these indigenous components to our inheritance is a testament to how fundamental the difference is in those two world views. Two world views can coexist right next to each other, without having to take each other over and with a positive outcome if people want. Just like two different kinds of trees can stand next to each other, coexist, grow, reproduce and what not; evergreen trees can sit next to deciduous trees and not have to kill each other, you know. It’s our inherent humanity as people, that we can sustain ourselves as valued human beings, while being completely different from each other. And I don’t think that the politicians, that the business people, can extinguish that aspect of human beings.
Wicuhketahamal* A Helping Policy
Our policy, if you want to give an Indigenous policy to new comers that existed in the historic era, and that’s what makes us most vulnerable, is a welcoming policy; a wijogambo [pronounced phonetically we-choo-kamul] policy, a helping policy. You know, if I see a person, and he’s having a hard life, my Indigenous inclination is to help. It’s not to say, “oh well, too bad for you. I hope you die, by the way can I have your house after you croak”. You know, that kind of exploitative attitude towards people. And it’s been our undoing as Indigenous peoples. It sustained us the wrong way.
It’s why we didn’t exterminate the new comers. You know, we found non-native people interesting. As a child on my reserve, if a new comer came to the reserve, it wasn’t stone them, beat them up, or throw them down the river, it was “Oh my God, what are you all about? Come to my house. Come eat with us! Ah you want to stay here?” Academics say “these people are so simple.” How would you feel if somebody called you simple? The connotation is awful. That policy, that world view of being welcoming, is not a simple thing. It’s like a total investment.
* Wicuhketahamal Means Helping in the Maliseet Language. The Maliseet are an Algonquian-speaking Native American/First Nation/Aboriginal people of the Wabanaki Confederacy. They are the Indigenous people of the Saint John River valley and its tributaries between New Brunswick, Quebec and Maine.
The Creator Gave us the Land; We Don’t Have Dominion Over It
So we have this fundamental world view. Creator gave us the land. Creator sustains us through the gifts that the Earth provides. In the Cree creation story for example, it’s a very simple structure. You have the creator, and then you have the eagle, and then you have all of the other winged animals, and then you have the land and then you have the plant life, and then you have the insect life, and you have water and you have the sun and you have all of these things, and the animals that live under the ground the animals that swim in the water, and then finally you have man. This Cree teacher who told me that creation story, asked me the following question, “Why is man at the bottom?” It never even occurred to me when she was telling me that story that there was something significant about finally we get to the two legged people. And I say, “I don’t know, I have no idea. What do you mean by that?” And she said, “Man cannot live with anything else we’ve talked about in the creation story. But all of creation can exist quite well without man and yet we have the arrogance to think that we have dominion over all other things.”
When this is written up in the Bible as a religious world view that “man will have dominion over all of the other aspects of the world”, I’m sorry to say this is wrong. So this is not a religious view that Indigenous people have, it’s a spiritual view. We share a spirit with all of creation. We have an interdependence, I mean it’s not really an interdependence, but as human beings we’re so arrogant we believe that somehow the plants depend on us or the animals depend on us. Wrong. We depend on them, and it’s our humility, it’s our need for respect that we have forgotten about that, will enable the sustenance of life.
But we’re in the world with these other human beings whose view is “I have dominion over all other things”, “It’s my job to exploit all things”, “It’s my job to make money and wealth” on all of these things, not to “do my work to share creation.” Flowing from this world view differences, is these specific differences in our relationship to this land. It’s the same thing that will keep us apart in terms of, can the Indigenous peoples and the non-Indigenous peoples ever have a singular relationship where there is this single humanity? The answer is no, because this fundamental world view difference, which is in our DNA.
A Physical and a Spiritual World
The second world view difference which is really strong is, “What is this world all about?” Is this world simply a physical world, and our answer as Indigenous Peoples is “No, this is not just a physical world, this is also a spiritual world and it is the spiritual forces and our physical forces, which together are able to sustain our lives, so that we can complete our journey in our life.” So one of the most difficult things for me to help our non-Native students understand is this notion that at the same time as you’re walking through this physical world, you’re also engaged in a spiritual world. That those spirit helpers – your ancestors, the creator and all of the spirits of all of creation, are there sustaining you. So the picture of who sustains who, is that this human being is getting smaller and smaller in terms of their responsibility for the outcome of the health of creation.
When I go to a sweat lodge, I have to have faith completely in one of our most Indigenous of traditions, that ceremony; that the creator will be there, that the grandfathers and grandmothers will be there, that the ancestors will be there. That my spirit will be fed by this ceremony, as well as it will be fed physically, mentally and emotionally. Because one of the greatest things that happens at Native ceremonies, is the building of community; that sense that you belong to something, you know, what Jean Vanier would call love. You see love in everything. And Love is an experience.
Putting Tobacco Down for the Animals Who Give Their Lives for Us
The fundamental world view, which is articulated in these kinds of specific differences like the use of the land remain today. It was never the creator’s intention for anybody to own the land. It’s there for you to use and the purpose of the lives of the plants and animal and everything is what sustains human life. We should always honour what the plants do for us, what the animals do for us, you know. Let’s go over, today’s auction day over at the stockyards in Waterloo. Let’s go over and put down tobacco for the animals who are giving their lives so we can keep ours.
We are Conservators of Creation
It’s our responsibility, our inherent responsibility to conserve creation, not to exploit it, destroy it and make it vulnerable. What we’re doing to the Earth now, is creating a situation where we are literally like a suicidal person; contemplating destroying ourselves, putting ourselves out of existence. What is the rest of creation saying about human beings? What are the trees telling each other about human beings, the animals and the fish and the birds? They’re saying, “we can’t wait for these people to destroy themselves completely, so that we can finally begin to build up Earth again, build up this creation again.” So, who is responsible for the health of creation? Well, simply the answer is everybody. All people of all colours of all parts of the earth are responsible for each other. And to me, that’s behind this inclination, when I see somebody who’s having a hard time, my inclination is to say, “how can I help you?” That’s my Indigenous response to that person’s life.
The Spirit Behind Work
The thing that Christians don’t know about Christianity is, it’s spiritually based. And the thing that is not present in the churches today, is spirituality. So our relationship to any teaching regarding education, religion, health care, government, social services, is the spirit behind the work. I help more people with my spirit, my presence and my caring and my loving, than I do with my counselling; by my logical work. People love me, because of who I am, not what I am. And I have to be confident about that, because when I enter another person’s life, I want them to have a positive spiritual experience with my presence.
