Caledonia: Hold the Olives
May 24, 2006 · By Peter Rempel
Insurrections can still have their comedic moments:
Early in the afternoon native leaders brought forward a symbolic olive branch and a war club. They asked residents to choose….The Caledonia residents didn’t budge. Then one of the front-end loaders on the native side began digging up the road.
Which of course removes any questions about the legality or morality of destroying a public highway. They didn’t choose the olive branch!
I sometimes wonder if natives just invent the “ceremonies of their ancestors” on the fly.
hypothetical example:
young buck: “Jeeze, these white people are look’n really pissed off right now. What do we do?”
native elder: ” Uhhh … uhhh … oh yeah … well back in the days when our ancestors walked under the great fire ball in the sky, at peace with Mother Earth, they would make their enemies choose whether or not they were really going to be their enemies.”
yb: “Huh, like what you try’n to say man?”
ne: “Uhhh … take this bat and this olive branch, which even our ancestors used to import from Greece, and ask them to pick one.”
In that particular situation, I wonder if the spectacle of a traditional native ceremony (if that’s what it should be called) was more of a provocation than anything. Especially since the natives had already reconstructed their barricade and were menacing the highway with their heavy machinery, which promised months of more difficulties for the “settlers”.
I think you have a valid point. Clearly native leadership is not stupid, they know how this game is played. And in a society as secular as ours, any half baked intimations of spiritual significance will given greater credence in the media than deserved, making nice cover to hide other intentions. In this case, the natives were likely banking on the fact that no popular figure would criticise their expression of good will made while re-manning the baricades.
Exactly, but it did succeed in charming the reporters present and transfering the onus of blame over to the Caledonians.
One would think that offering an olive branch to people who hold that as a symbol of peace and hope would be a good thing, as is the part of the article you must have missed… the part where they 6 Nations rep offered to leave the road if the locals did.
Oh yeah, that “go back where you came from” comment was a real hoot wasn’t it…. do ya suppose he knows?
Let’s think of this in another way. What if a Caledonian had dressed up as Christopher Columbus, walked in front of the native barricades, and shouted, “I come in peace as an emissary from civilization.” I wonder if the natives would have responded to the good will inherant in that?
Or maybe then was not the time for silly historical gestures.
What comment was that (”go back where you came from”), by the way?
Lets think of this in another way still, unlike most people of European origin a great many Aboriginal people still enjoy a sense of form, ritual, ceremony, and symbolism. In belittling that which you do not understand you, and George up there, show that you are not that far removed from the attitudes of good old Columbus and the boys who ran into the uncivilized savages and came to the conclusion that they were infinitely better.
The “go back where you came from” comment came from the article you linked - one of the locals shouted it at the First Nations folk at the barracade, a shining example of knowledge don’t ‘cha think?
“Lets think of this in another way still, unlike most people of European origin a great many Aboriginal people still enjoy a sense of form, ritual, ceremony, and symbolism.”
No kidding. Look at all the form and symbolism.
“The “go back where you came fromâ€? comment came from the article you linked - one of the locals shouted it at the First Nations folk at the barracade, a shining example of knowledge don’t ‘cha think?”
Maybe he meant that they should go back to the US…where they came from.
Failing to include … at the time, the native barricade had been taken down, but a bunch of Caledonia drunks and yahoos decided to make a barricade of their own. The same drunks and small-time criminals contunie to make racist attacks on Six Nations. These are not the ‘guardians of freedom’ that you want to be following!