Economies of giving

I'm trying to work out some ideas related to a paper I'm currently writing for my Politics of Multiculturalism class. I'm writing about Indigenous issues and Multiculturalism policy. My thesis is that Multiculturalism policy erases Indigenous difference and colonial responsibility for our history of genocidal policies, and is therefore a pretense of inclusion for all Canadians.

I've got numerous sources, all which have some really great points, but I've got to relate it all back to Multiculturalism as a policy, and I'm having a hard time doing that. I have some sources related to legal cases and to the Constitution, specifically the Charter, however, I'm at that point in writing out my ideas where it expands waaay beyond the limits of the paper and the thesis. I want to argue about Indigenous sovereignty. I want to bring in a whole bunch of quotes from George Manuel's 1974 classic, "the Fourth World". I want to talk about parallels to other indigenous cultures, such as the Maori and Aboriginal peoples in Australia, such as Palestinians in Israel. There are, of course, many excellent parallels, but I'm having difficulty in tying it all back into Canadian Multicultural policy.

I've got stuff to say about official and academic discourse, and about arguing from a standpoint, i.e., rejecting the traditional Western view that knowledge is objective and the knower is irrelevant.

I've got stuff to say about grassroots organizations and solidarity movements.

But what I really want to say, is the way we are doing it is WRONG. I really want to say that Western culture, "white" people, European colonizers, (whatever term you want to use for us) are destroying this planet because somewhere along the way we decided there wasn't enough. Not enough land, not enough food, not enough resources. We decided it was a competition, with winners and losers. And we were WRONG.

According to one Indigenous writer, Aboriginal communities had economies organized around GIVING instead of taking. And it worked. There was enough. No one was rich, but no one starved, either. THIS is the fundamental distinction between Western and Indigenous values/worldviews. It's the difference between TRUST and FEAR.

Incidentally, this is also the distinction between radical unschooling and the public school is best mindset, a mindset I really struggle to resist. Because it feels like, if I just give and give and give, no one will give back to me, and I will get used up. Maybe that's the fear of international colonizers, that if we try to shift our way of being in the world, we'll be consumed.

I want to get these big ideas into my paper, and still link it all back to Multiculturalism policy. Right now that is occurring as impossible. And it's due today, at some unspecified time, via email. Time to "eat the frog".