[jsalsb]

I'd love to be Sebastio. And let me tell you why. Sebastio, besides being just a really nice sounding name - and a nice sounding name for a really nice, nice, if much-maligned guy - is also a word which may or may not have special significance in certain ancient secret languages of the occult. In particular, the survival and development of indigenous cultures within dominating nation-states has been a critical issue in the post-colonial era. In the 1970's, the neologism "fourth world" was coined in order to shock and embarrass the leaders of the developed nations into acknowledging that within their affluent societies were people living in conditions as bad or worse than those in the so called third world. The colonisation of the globe by the European Imperial powers over the last five centuries has uprooted, and in many cases annihilated, native cultures. In the North American context, those who are the continent's First Nations have had their cultures interrupted and forever altered. In Canada, out of a self-righteous and ethnocentric paternalism, the Crown has pursued a policy of assimilation, of "civilising the Indians" into a modern, Euro-Canadian way of life. The 1969 Trudeau Government 'white paper' on aboriginal policy proposed blanket termination of aboriginal rights, and total assimilation of Canada's native population into the mainstream of society. This was to be done, ostensibly, as a means of reversing the "segregation" and "discrimination" it saw as being propagated against these ancient cultures by their very continued existence. One is, of course, left to ponder other more political and economic motivations for pursuing such a program. Furthermore, it did not consider in any way that Native Peoples might actually want to maintain their own cultures and lifeways. Although it is no longer overtly pursued, this policy persists in other forms; and, the damage has been done. Native people have been cut off from their traditional ways of life, removed from their indigenous lands, and forced into the wage economy, most often without the real possibility of employment. This has created the present situation where Canada is dotted with isolated Native communities, stripped from their traditional lands and ways of life, shunted onto reserves, and left to ponder their own cultural and often physical survival. There are levels of narrative discourse in the negotiation of power within any system (Foucault, 1976), in which differing narratives come into conflict with each other. Through this conflict and negotiation, different actors work out a power relation for themselves, in which they can find meaning in their lives. Critics may argue that this, again, serves to mask or obfuscate the fact that the relationships are still unequal, and the power that the marginalised feel obscures the fact that that they are just as marginalised as before. The power felt by the marginalised is permitted within the structure because it placates the marginalised, and serves to reinforce the connection between the enfranchised and true sources of power (Gramsci, 1988). On the one hand, it may be argued that women’s belief that they are empowering themselves through a link to or rediscovery of tradition tends to keep them out of the quest for real power in relation to control of resources. On the other hand, we cannot ignore the fact that in their daily lives, women are finding life meaning in the pursuits that they have re-appropriated from their perceived traditions. The traditional skills camp, run by Agathe, was to include women and girls of all ages, and represented the sole organised country-based programme in Utshimassits (for either men or women) at the time of my fieldwork. Furthermore, the programme was able to garner funding (albeit meagre) from Community Social Services, thus placing a political and economic value on the programme and its endeavour.
The community space has been associated with the narrative of disempowerment of the Innu people as a whole, while tradition and country space have been associated with the narrative of cultural and individual wellness (Degnen, 1996). Women have appropriated tradition, as the metaphor for healing, ahead of men. Because healing and wellness play a dominant narrative role in present day Mushuau Innu life (along with political empowerment vis-à-vis the dominant society), the "resource" to which power is related has shifted somewhat from hunting prestige. Therefore the ideological space that women have carved out for themselves, through this discursive negotiation, may be emerging as dominant.
Healing and wellness are now of prime concern in the community, not male prestige through hunting and provision. Hunting for survival is no longer an issue, and consequently, the male prestige-garnering activities surrounding strong hunting ability are necessarily downgraded in social and ideological discourse. Possession of hunting skills is still deemed prestigious and still relates to power in both the social and spiritual realms, as it does in other regions, such as in James Bay, where social services have mitigated or abolished the survival aspect of men's roles, yet the paramount place it enjoyed prior to sedentarisation may have eroded. I could go on, but... Silence, nothing but silence.