As Indigenous people it’s our own Capacity Deficit that keeps Canadians from sharing
We Are Ripping Ourselves Off (And It Has to Stop)
By Charles Wagamese
There is a reason your property is being hauled away for free neechi. Why your home reserve is the most polluted land anywhere. And that reason according to the non native governments is in your Turtle Island mirrored reflection.
That reason sharing can’t take place: we have a capacity deficit you and me.
Capacity is defined as missing something, such as legal identity. Meaning we can’t open bank accounts; to receive a stumpage fee or a bear license revenue maybe?
Deficit is defined as impairment in functional capacity- including cognitive. We don’t get it that you can cut all your trees and still have a sasquatch ranch there too.
As Indigenous people it’s our own Capacity Deficit keeps Canadians from sharing.
There is a movie about this inni who goes around being a catch and release fisher of women. He hooks ‘em with a pick up line. Lands them with a fine time, than leaves them all emotionally, romantically and spiritually fulfilled for the rest of their lives.
The movie is called ‘Say Anything.” A good subtitle is ‘to get what you want’. Whether that wrecks lives or dishonors self doesn’t count.
The Indians who battle that Capacity Deficit Model at the negotiation table get paid to accept that disrespect. How can we help them not pass that indignity on to us?
All of that lack of capacity stuff is inherent to our pigment and our paganism. At the time of discovery the discover-ers said this of the discover-ees. If they are not white Christians all their stuff, their real estate, their souls… all belong to the quickest real human to claim it. Same thing is being said today in that Capacity Deficit language, with a more polite, more modern polish.
To me, we will never get past that cultural history. We are buried there permanently.
This might be how deep we are buried. We watched An Inconvenient Truth and the 11th Hour. These real life horror movies are about global warming, the end of human days as we now know them.
The scariest thing about these videos is this. No remorse.
None.
No one struggling with guilt or shame. Neither actor, the political one nor the movie star, not even for a nano second, struggle for words. There is no crying out in spiritual angst for so much misguided wrong doing to this precious place…
In a rational voice they say even more money can be made solving the disgrace. That cleaner science is all that’s required.…
Only David Suzuki even though he’s plainly uncomfortable talks about the ’hippy dippy’ need for love. He can barely say the four letter word…
To me that is the real Capacity Deficit right there.
How do some featherless bipeds love Earth enough? How do some big brains, small hearts learn to care for all other living beings first?
They say there are three factors globally warming us to death; the population explosion, misused technology and old habits and attitudes.
As the fastest rising population group in the world we aren’t much help with that aspect. Maybe we are just balancing out our de- population holocaust…
There might be need for primordial technology skills soon. That with green technology might get you food when Safeway trucks cease to roll.
To me, before we all expire capitalism needs to die - if anything else is to survive. Those are the old habits all the well paid professionals in those videos can’t even name, let alone begin to see past.
Do you ever ask yourself neechi what we did to deserve these last 500 years? The white boys lost their Garden of Eden and blame feminism for it…how did we lose our grip on our own version of it?
And what did we choose to do after every great Indigenous resistance leader told us not to adopt the time saving, material ways invading our shores?
Are those three global imperatives staring us coldly in the face showing us all what the 1970’s political alligator Pogo used to say. “ We have confronted the enemy..and he is us.” ?
How do we escape cultural, male, western illusions? How might we restore what the Buddhists describe as sovereignty of self? How do we gently defeat the colony of the non-self? How do we honour the Capacity the Creator gave sentient us?
As we speak not a single resource based dollar has yet been shared. When that shooniah is offered, at beads and blankets per centages, will we surrender without remorse? Or will we help deal with this Capacity Deficit at its source?
That cognitive loss- historical, male, western and beyond- rips off every life. It has got to stop. And only you know how to do that…..