Editorial

The last sentence in a Monday Magazine article by a First Nations writer:

"It's hard to justify educating the dominant culture about our practices when for so long we were not allowed to pass our own teachings to ourselves"

Yes, good point. But were you or I involved in these past injustices? And what will refusing to share teachings accomplish?

In the article the writer describes how Joni Mitchell was a guest speaker to her university music class and ended up talking about the native american medicine wheel instead of music. The author took offence:

"That is the final phase of successful colonization. Columbus met the savages, denounced them as non-human and slaughtered and enslaved them for their heathen ways, but 513 years later things had mellowed out so that a white musician/painter could name-drop the spiritual wisdom of "Native America".

I think that the real issue here is intellectual property rights. And I'm not the first person to throw this term around. I would rather learn about First Nations culture and not be allowed to pass it on publically than not learn about it at all. I hope this is or can become preferred to First Nations people as well.