While we have a linear view of time, many cultures view time as a circle.

This comment, more than any other, enrages me when people discuss issues affecting First Nations in Canada.

I have heard it more times than I ever wanted to. Unfortunately, it usually has nothing to do with the speaker hoping that aboriginal people can move beyond the oppression, but is another way of admitting that they would rather not deal with centuries-old injustices.

We can’t move forward if we are stuck in the past, but can we move forward if we don’t acknowledge the past? Many of us who have grown up in Canada and are not First Nations have a linear view of time, going from the past to the present and continuing on to the future. Many First Nations and other cultures see time as a circle. Life starts in the middle and continues around and around in an ever-growing outward spiral, the past and future always connecting. The past is an indispensable part of where we are, for better or worse, and must be faced if we are to avoid repeating mistakes.

Of course, when talking about First Nations issues we are not just talking about the past, but also about people that are still here. Yes, the sad story of colonialism may have started 400 years ago, but it did not end 400 years ago. It’s ongoing, just like that circle.

Take for example the Indian Act, and the question of self-governance for First Nations. This was one of the key points of discussion at the Crown-First Nations meetings that took place on Jan. 24.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper had “creative” words about the Indian Act —  about working within and around it —  but definitely did not suggest getting rid of it. First Nations leaders, however, see the abolition of the Indian Act as the direction that things need to be moving toward to ensure progress. The act was described as “a boulder that blocks the path of collaboration,” by Shawn Atleo, the national chief of the Assembly of First Nations.

AFN B.C. Regional Chief Jody Wilson-Raybould called recent approaches “tinker[ing] around the edges of the Indian Act in a piecemeal way,” and the “attempt to legislate aspects of self-governance for us… an exercise in neo-colonialism.” As former AFN national chief Ovide Mercredi put it, “The Indian Act is in the way. It stands in the way of economic progress; it stands in the way of our own self-determination as a people. It stands in the way of even defining who we are as a people and who can belong to our nations.”

The Indian Act is not an archaic document from 1876; it is a living reality in the lives of First Nations people.

There were many other pressing concerns that First Nations chiefs brought to the table, some that require more immediate attention like housing, child welfare and education. But if there were hopes for commitment from the government on any of these issues, they were not met. They did agree to release a progress report on Jan 24. 2013.

A progress report is not going to do a lot for the communities that need help now. For those people in Attawapiskat who don’t have a house tonight, we are not talking about the past, no matter what your worldview is. For the people of the Nishnawbe Aski Nation, who have been in a state of emergency since 2009, because of prescription drug abuse among 70 per cent of their population, these are not issues of the past. For the people in Kasabonika Lake who have had sewage leaking into their lake for the last decade, and have been going round and round with the government and doing what they can, it is not the past — especially when it means using an outhouse at -45 C temperatures.

The meetings were supposed to be “historic,” but the general consensus seems to be that they were more like a very small step. Hopefully they are the beginning of progress, but only time will tell how committed the government is to working with First Nations. I mean, the Prime Minister did change his plans to leave early and actually stayed for the whole day.

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Photo: Smulan77/flickr