Here in Canada, November 11 is the day we remember soldiers who died fighting in the wars in which Canada has fought. Increasingly over the years, Aboriginal veterans are getting their due. Back in the twentieth century, Indians who went to war for Canada lost their rights when they returned. This meant that they were no longer considered Indians, could no longer live in their communities or receive treaty and other benefits. This was called “enfranchisment” and was a sore point in Canada-First Nations relations for decades.

Despite that, Aboriginal veterans are proud of their service and the sacrifice that they made for Canada, even as their home country was dispossessing them of lands and rights. In many ways, Aboriigial vets returning from the second world war and the Korean war set the stage for the modern migrations of First Nations people to Canada’s urban areas. These vets created the first Aboriginal middle class and quietly slipped into the mainstream society to work and raise families, still connected to their home communities and yet disenfranchised from their nations by the government they had fought for.

So, like all good stories, it’s complicated.

For your remembrance day reading today, have a peek at some Aboriginal veterans resources and learn a little more about these stories, and the Aboriginal men and women who offered their lives for a country that wouldn’t respect them when they got home.

On the Open Space list, we’ve been discussing the merits of planning vs. muddling through. My two cents:

I actually think that muddling through is not a correction to the conventional wisdom that stretegy and planning is the way to go. Muddling through has always been the way. The evidence is actually overwhelming. Show me something in the world, a finished process, project, thing or event, that was not the result of muddling through.

Strategy is figuring out which way to muddle. Good strategists are great muddlers. They seem to muddle in the direction of the resources or of the political will or of the greatest benefit to others.

Planning is fun, and very useful for the short term, like on the last half day of an Open Space. But planning that goes beyond “when will we talk again” or a simple to-do list needs to be aware that the muddle factor increases as the time frame increases. More importantly, and more seriously, planning that doesn’t take into account a muddle factor and that creates a complex, long term and fixed to-do list is both disempowering for people and largely ineffective. It ties people to the plan (rather than the other way around) and limits exposure to true sources of inspiration and innovation.

For a comprehensive set of data on the effectiveness of muddling, check out the Nobel Prize winners speeches. When you come to a Nobel Laureate that says that their accomplishment was the result of a great strategic plan, let me know.

Rather than crow about their planning, here is what one recent
chemistry laureate, John B. Fenn said. He quoted the American poet Walt Whitman:

How about that eh?

Satsan

Back in 1999 when I began my consulting practice, one of the first contracts I landed was with the British Columbia Vice-Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, Satsan (Herb George). He was assembling a team to undertake a national process to educate and activate communities with respect to the exercise of Aboriginal title. One of the results of that work isan astounding collection of legal research papers hosted at the Delgamuukw/Gisday’wa National Process website. You will also find there a plain language guide on Aboriginal title which I wrote.

Satsan took the view that Aboriginal title was there for the taking. That there was no need to ask any level of government for permission to exercise it. In fact, he argued that the landmark Delgamuukw supreme court case made it encumbant on First Nations to exercise their title. Use or lose is sort of the dictum of the day.

But exercising title is not a willy-nilly process. It requires that a First Nation also perform the role of a government in order to regulate, legislate and exercise inherent Aboriginal rights. Satsan has gone on to head up the First Nations Governance Centre.

There is an intimate link between the possession and exercise of Aboriginal rights and title and the implementation of excellent governance systems. What these two websites show is just how much of that work is being undertaken and led by First Nations themselves. This is decolonization that empowers local communities while playing on the legal and political fields of the colonial society.

In one of the more poignant observations on last week’s American election, I read a recent letter to the Globe and Mail which pointed out that if the election were about values then the decision means that it’s okay for one man to kill another man, but not to hold his hand.

Another terrific find by riley dog, whom I read every morning. This short poem by Frederick Morgan captures some of the essence of BEING invited into a place where anything is possible, but it is all uncontemplated except in the moment:

When we are at a point where “stoical bravado” seems our only option, sometimes we need to simply be more sensitive to the call of life in its subtlest forms.