The response to the Idle No More Movement has generally wavered between the dismissive and the laudatory. In the latter group, thinkers and writers have emerged to say that things are different now, potentially better. We are changing. Among these forecasters are Bob Rae, Bill Gallagher, Ken Coates, Douglas Bland, Lloyd Axworthy and now John Ralston Saul. They are here to warn you/us that there will be no stopping the phoenix-like re-emergence of Anishinaabeg, Haudenosaunee and, yes, Métis peoples (as well as many others).
Saul is among the most progressive of these non-Native (white) men. He is a political philosopher who is deeply convinced, as he has previously argued, that Canada’s founding myth is Indigenous, rooted in the Métis civilization—our collective political culture born of anglophone, francophone and Indigenous heritage. He has consistently submitted that the denial of this shared Indigenous heritage is at the heart of our national ambiguity...
Hayden King is the director of the Centre for Indigenous Governance and a professor of politics at Ryerson University. He is Anishinaabe from Beausoleil First Nation on Gchi’name Mnissing.
Shiri Pasternak is a postdoctoral fellow at Columbia University and an organizer with several organizations, including as an ally in the Defenders of the Land network. Her work can be found at www.shiripasternak.com.
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