RE: Another Exchange with Leo Panitch

["Craven, Jim" <jcraven@xxxxxxxxx>]

>We consider Louis to be a Blackfoot (in the true way one is Blackfoot)
>and one of us.

I'd gathered something like that. That is truly impressive. I once did a
good deal of research on Koori (Australian Aboriginal) history, and
supported the land rights struggles, but I never achieved that sort of
honour. I believe there is an immense amount the rest of us could learn
from the Tribal Peoples about a proper attitude to nature and to each
other (sharing, caring, etc). A Koori high school headmaster came to our
critical realist conference last year and immediately understood far
better than any of us what Roy Bhaskar means by 'spirituality'; the two
got on like a house on fire.

Mervyn

Dear Mervyn,

Thanks for the sentiments and kind words. If I may, and I do not mean this
as any kind of put-down but just as a suggestion, most of us do not see
ourselves "generically" as "Natives" or "Tribal Peoples" or even as generic
Indigenous Peoples (except when communicating amongst ourselves to denote
our common histories and conditions of life and experience). We are
Blackfoot, Osage, Tsalagi... Members of different nations, indeed with many
things in common but also with some important differences that make each
nation unique. We do not carry BIA./DIA cards that "register" and categorize
us as generic, blue ribbon, US/Canadian-government-certified "Indians"
because we believe that, for one example, Blackfoot and only Blackfoot can
say who and what a Blackfoot is; and the same applies to other nations as
well.

Although there are many differences in traditions, practices, languages,
rituals etc. we do see "spirituality" as an individual thing--as opposed to
religion which is an organized body of dogma, ritual and institutions. We
see "spirituality" as being guided by--and in service of--the "SPIRIT" of
something transcendant and beyond one's own self and selfishness; that
something could be god, the Creator, a set of values or a calling such as
the liberation of all oppressed Peoples from any and all
sources/forces/forms of oppression. In this respect, I would argue that all
true Marxists and progressive non-Marxists are truly "spiritual" people and
indeed must be to be effective and serious.

Although there are many different nations with different histories, legends
stories, etc, there are some elements in common that form a body of common
thoughts, postulates, paradigms and approaches to knowing that may be called
or seen as "Indigenous epistemology"--standing in stark contrast to the
usual linear, Cartestian/Newtonian Eurocentric reductionism and
hypothetico-deductivism that sees the "Macro" as nothing more than
aggregated "Micros" and the "Micros" as nothing more than disaggregated
Macro. In this regard, I would recommend "Spirit and Reason" by Vine Deloria
for openers.

Thanks again,

Jim