2021 Symposium on Indigenous Economies

On November 29 and 30, the Bank of Canada, in partnership with the Tulo Centre of Indigenous Economics and Te Pūtea Matua (Reserve Bank of New Zealand), hosted the inaugural Symposium on Indigenous Economies. 

The goal of the bi-annual conference is to share research, engage in meaningful discussion, and enhance collaboration among central banks and Indigenous partners. This year’s event brought together hundreds of Indigenous and non-Indigenous experts, researchers, and economists to discuss challenges and opportunities facing Indigenous economies today – including access to capital, resource development, and Indigenous businesses and labour markets.

Featuring more than 45 speakers, sessions over the two days focused on the experiences, history, contributions and barriers facing Indigenous peoples in Canada and around the world. Participants shared research on Indigenous history and economic systems and discussed the contemporary economic landscape. Policymakers from the Central Bank Network for Indigenous Inclusion (CBNII) explored how central banks can incorporate these learnings into their own organizations and work. 

“Our nations have all travelled different paths in our colonial histories. And each country represented here faces unique realities in their relationship with Indigenous communities today,” said Bank of Canada Governor, Tiff Macklem. “This symposium reflects our shared desire to work together internationally and within our countries—and most importantly, with our Indigenous partners—to learn from our histories and to do better. Together, we’ll define what reconciliation means for the work of the Bank of Canada—toward a more inclusive and prosperous economy for everyone.”

“Indigenous nations attending this symposium share a common history, colonial tragedy, and hope for the future. We are outsiders to the economic and fiscal system, but we want in,” said Clarence (Manny) Jules, Chief Commissioner of the First Nations Tax Commission and Founder of the Tulo Centre of Indigenous Economics. “This symposium’s attendees have the ideas, research and collective will to support the achievement of these goals and I look forward to our continued work together to end colonialism once and for all.”

“In our endeavours to promote and foster ongoing dialogue and raise awareness of Indigenous economic and financial issues, we can all embrace the concept of Matangirua ki Matangireia. In the Māori language, this means working in unison, to fulfil our ultimate purpose,” said Adrian Orr, Governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand.

The discussions held throughout the symposium demonstrate a clear desire for change. Over the coming months, the Bank of Canada and its partners will continue to build on the strong foundation laid over the past two days. 


 

Chief Commissioner Jules provided a presentation to the 2021 Symposium on Indigenous Economies. Please see presentation below.

 

Thank you for inviting me to provide some opening comments for this symposium on Indigenous Economies. I am so honored to open this symposium with my great friend Te  Maire.

The Tulo Centre and the Ngai Tahu Research Centre have built a strong partnership and we are pleased to announce that soon we will begin many more intellectual, research and student exchanges. We are pleased to work with the National Intertribal Taxation Alliance and the Indian Land Tenure Foundation representing tribes in the United States. We hope to soon have a strong partnership in Australia.

 As my father would always say – does he think like us? Te Maire and the Ngai Tahu, and the other Māori Tribes, and the tribes from the United States and Australia represented here are why I am here. We share a common history, colonial tragedy, and hope for the future. They think like us.

 The theme of my comments will be straightforward. The end of colonialism is near. We want in. This is going to take innovation. The attendees of this symposium have the right combination of science, math, economics, and art to make that possible.

In my career I have practiced two types of art. The art of the possible sometimes called politics and indigenous art.  

During the pandemic I combined these two arts into a book of ledger art. It is called ledger art because it was done in accounting ledger books from the late 19th century. Among the most famous ledger art was a depiction of the Battle of Little Big Horn.

The ledger art you are looking at is of a nurse in Brazil. Her mask says Indigenous Lives Matter.   

During the pandemic our people had higher incidences of infection, illness, and death. This is just like with smallpox, tuberculosis, and the Spanish flu.

We were not surprised. We are outsiders to the economic, fiscal and health system. Those on the inside, like the Central Banks, are wealthier, better cared for and healthier.

During the pandemic a grisly discovery was made on my lands. The unmarked graves of 215 little ones were found. Their unknown remains were wrapped in tiny blankets in Brother Joseph’s orchard behind the Kamloops Indian Residential School.

This was not surprising for elders like my mom. She and others knew. They were dismissed and ignored. Afterall, colonialism means indigenous lives don’t matter.

The archeological and anthropology evidence is clear. We had thriving economies, communities, and governments for millennia before contact. We paid taxes, had property rights, built, and sustained public and economic infrastructure, had money, and created standards that supported vast and successful trading networks. 

We used our jurisdiction to create a public and community sector that supported many innovations in agriculture, land and resource management, products, transportation, science, math and of course Art. To cite just one example, corn, the first genetically engineered vegetable in the world was an indigenous innovation.

But colonialism changed everything.

I find it helpful to break the process of colonialism into three phases.

The first phase was war and disease. Our population in the Americas was reduced by tens of millions by viruses. Smallpox was the worst pandemic by percentage of a population killed in human history. Without it, there is no way colonialism would have happened.

The next phase was the legislative phase where laws, policies and bureaucracies were used to implement colonialism by taking our title, jurisdiction, language, culture, resources, and ability to look after ourselves. 

Laws were passed that only recognized colonial jurisdiction and governments. We were moved onto reserves.

Laws were passed to prevent us from competing in the economy.

Laws were passed to take our children to destroy our language and culture at residential school.

And lest we protest our loss of title and jurisdiction; in 1927 a law was passed so we could not collect taksis from ourselves in case we used our own taksis to hire a lawyer and advance a title case.

These laws removed us completely from the fiscal and economic framework of Canada. We became permanent outsiders. This allowed for resource extraction and wealth creation to be split up among the insiders.

The final phase of colonialism was dependency. After taking everything, we became wards of the state. 

We were too resilient. Somehow, we persevered and survived the first two phases of colonialism.

And this created a problem. Now what do you do with us?

So perhaps because of guilt or maybe it was pity, we were provided with the drug of government aid and programs. We became addicted to these programs. The more poverty we had, the greater the government aid we received.

Massive bureaucracies have been created to administer our poverty. Sometimes I wonder if these bureaucracies have become addicted to our poverty too.

Government programs and bureaucracies will never end colonialism. They just prolong it.

Colonialism only ends with our jurisdiction. Our fiscal powers. Our institutions. Our full participation in the economy and federation.

We want in. We want to have the same health, rates of incarceration, levels of education, health, and standard of living as you. We want our children to have the same hopes and dreams as other children.

The end of colonialism is near. It can no longer be sustained for legal, fiscal, economic, and political reasons.

We have won our rights and title in the courts.

The costs of our poverty can not be sustained along with the rising health costs of baby boomers – especially right after the costs of this pandemic.

All your economies need greater economic productivity, especially from a younger indigenous population.

There is a rising political will for change.

Ending colonialism will be both easy and hard.

It is easy because the path is clear. We were legislated out of the economy and fiscal framework. We must legislate back our fiscal powers and ability to compete.

Our institutions of government were destroyed. We must renew our institutions so they can support a more sustainable economy.

It is hard because we have almost five generations of dependency. We must close gaps in governing institutions, education, infrastructure, and access to capital to name a few.

We know there is only one way for us to get to there. Innovation.

This is the purpose and challenge of this symposium. Your open minds, ideas and research must support the more rapid creative destruction of colonization.

But before we get to this important work, with your permission I would like to read something into the record of this symposium.

On October 18th, Prime Minister Trudeau visited my community. I am one of 13 family heads from my community. This an edited excerpt from that letter we presented to him. (see below for full version)

One hundred and eleven years ago, Prime Minister Laurier visited our territory.

Our ancestors presented a petition to the Prime Minister seeking his support to implement our title, jurisdictions over lands and resources, the well-being of our elders, children, members and residents, and enough fiscal powers to ensure our sustainability.  

We call this document a Memorial because it continues to reflect our values and vision for our participation within the Canadian federation. 

As our leaders said in 1910, “we want to be like brothers and [sisters in this federation] … so that we can make each other great and good.”

As we all know, our 1910 Petition was not only rejected, but the federal government supported the genocide of our people through the creation of residential schools, took away our voting rights, prevented our legal challenges relating to the title of our land, reduced the size of our reserves, and formally removed our fiscal powers and jurisdictions through an amendment to the Indian Act in 1927.  

In May of 2021, evidence of a horrific act of genocide was laid bare to the world, with the confirmation of at least 215 unmarked graves of little ones who attended the Kamloops Indian Residential School.

We are aware of the shared culpability of the Catholic Church and the federal government, and we remind you of the words of Duncan Campbell Scott, Deputy Superintendent of the Department of Indian Affairs, from 1910: 

“It is readily acknowledged that Indian children lose their natural resistance to illness by habituating so closely in the residential schools, and that they die at a much higher rate than in their villages.   But this alone does not justify a change in the policy of this Department, which is geared towards a final solution of our Indian Problem.” 

We want to believe the sincerity of your words, that you will finally both say and do what is right, but the legacy of mistrust powerfully embodied in these unmarked graves on our lands is vast. True reconciliation entails much more than words, tears, and gestures.

Therefore, like our ancestors we petitioned for seven real acts of reconciliation related to the honor, justice and memory of the 215 little ones and renewing our fiscal powers, jurisdictions and rights and title; lest we forget this dark period in Canada’s history.

We are not asking for special rights.  We are just asking for what is right and just.

We are asking to look at the site of our residential school and no longer see, in the words of our friend Dennis Saddleman, a Monster, but instead finally see:

Stories of Hope
Stories of Dreams
Stories of Renewal
and Stories of Tomorrow.

Canada, the United States, Australia and New Zealand will never achieve reconciliation with indigenous peoples through words, apologies, and mere signals of virtue. The time for doing the same thing over and over and over again and expecting different results has come to an end.

It reflects how much real work remains, that what our ancestors wrote to Prime Minister Laurier in 1910 still rings true for us and the indigenous tribes of the United States, Australia and New Zealand.

“So long as what we consider justice is withheld from us, so long will dissatisfaction and unrest exist among us and we will continue to struggle to better ourselves.”

Colonialism must end. Dependency must end.

We must find practical and effective ways to bring us into the economy and fiscal frameworks of Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and the United States.

That is why we are here.


 

Letter to the Prime Minister Trudeau from the 13 Grassroots Family Advisory Council

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