Thus far, I've talked about my own need to "shift gears" and I've told
you about my original goals and orientation in starting the lists, and
I've said that I'd like to make the lists into a vehicle for enabling
collaborative projects. Now I'd like to say more about my goals and
to begin a process whereby we can find out more about one another and
where our needs and interests overlap, which seems like the necessary
first step in embarking on shared ventures. I want eventually to
indicate where some of the problem areas are with the present setup and
where certain opportunities for improvement and development lie, and
how I feel that we as a the community might achieve our shared ambitions.
In my two most recent articles on this subject, I started to describe
and explain my own interests and motivations. I began by talking about
how I was drawn to attend the 1989 "Tribal Lands" conference based on
an initial interest in environmental topics, particularly those con-
cerned with tropical rainforest issues, and I related how the conference
helped me understand how such environmental problems cannot realistic-
ally be addressed without a careful consideration of the plight of
indigenous peoples living in threatened areas. The conference also
helped me get a better understanding of how universal certain kinds of
problems are, though the form they take are specific to local condi-
tions and history. I was gratified to have received a number of
articles of support following the case I attempted to make in my
article of 10 May concerning the importance of looking at the problems
of indigenous peoples from an international perspective, rather than
considering each situation in isolation from all the others.
I have permitted the NativeNet lists to cover a much broader subject
area than I had at first intended to because, as I said earlier, there
was really no mailing list of which I was then aware that was dealing
exclusively with issues pertaining to indigenous peoples, and because I
realized that in order to talk about the specific kinds of issues which
the Smith College conference had addressed in a meaningful way, there
needed to be a common base of understanding, and because the issue of
exploiting resources, both material and human, is a complex one that
cannot be adequately dealt with simply by looking at the present "facts"
of the matter - a historical perspective is required. I feel that the
existing lists are still needed, but I can no longer afford the time and
energy to do all that is required to administer them properly and still
attend to the other requirements of my life. Also, I would like to
investigate specific selected subject areas brought up in the course of
looking at the plethora of issues involved in dealing with the subject
of indigenous peoples.
I'd like to emphasize again that I see no reason to restrict the present
mailing lists to subjects which are most appealing to me personally. I
would like to help provide, via mailing lists, electronic conferencing,
and still newer technologies (to be discussed later) channels for ex-
changing information and personal ideas on the broad topic of indigenous
peoples. I only want to get some help to administer the system, and to
redirect my own energies in a more focussed way to areas of particular
interest to myself, and to support those who volunteer their own time
and effort to help maintain what we have already achieved. I suspect
that the main (NATIVE-L) list might be ready to spawn one or more new
mailing lists, in addition to the ones already in existence: language,
health, education, and general discussion. At the very least, I feel we
should probably consider a list dealing with environmental matters.
As David pointed out in his recent article (referred to above), I
cannot claim to be an aboriginal person, though I do have at least
some ethnic roots in the soil of the Americas by virtue of my (half)
Chicano heritage. My own ethnicity has never been the main reason for
my interest in the subject of Native peoples. Rather I am attracted to
learning more about these peoples and their way of life by a certain
alienation I have always felt from the "mainstream" Euro-American
society, based especially upon my personal experiences and observations
concerning the assault upon the environment and upon those peoples who
attribute to the earth a certain sacred character to the earth and that
we are all related, both to the earth and to one another. Our "dominant"
society has such an understanding, but that understanding seems based
solely upon rational logic, rather than coming "from the heart," and it
seems reluctant to do what is necessary to make what may be a necessary
transition to a "post-industrial" world order which is not governed
by expediency and short-term material benefit to the extent that today's
world appears to be. My own hope is that we can learn to take a
somewhat longer view and learn to do more with less, while curbing our
runaway human population, warfare, and environmental destructiveness.
Having such an orientation and relating my feelings with indigenous
peoples surely makes me, in the minds of some, a starry-eyed romantic or
even a "wannabe." I suppose part of my reason for not saying more about
myself and for "keeping a low profile" for the most part has largely to
do with the risk of gaining such a reputation. For what it's worth, I'd
like to say that I have no necessary ambitions to take on the cultural
ways of my indigenous sisters and brothers, since to make such an
attempt would seem to risk being inauthentic, as well as likely giving
offense. The fact is that I don't really feel a part of any culture,
though I have a great respect and admiration for all the societies and
traditions that I have encountered and investigated. Despite my
aversion to what has been done by colonial powers, I can still enjoy
and appreciate much of the culture that has been created by their
diverse peoples, as well as the traditions of the First Peoples of many
lands. (And, really, we are all indigenous peoples in one sense, since
there are certain places where our ancestors first settled and in which
our cultures grew and were nurtured - but I generally accept the modern
definition of the word, since it permits a useful distinction to be
made.)
Despite having such principles, I do recognize that fairness and equity
are also involved in the dealings of "mainstream" societies and their
indigenous peoples, and that "getting a bigger piece of the pie"
figures in somewhere. However, I am reluctant to take part in a
struggle for resources that has as its aim solely an interest in
achieving some measure of material comfort. I have a strong sense that
"we're all in this thing together," and that if we let enmity based
upon a sense of historical wrongs drive us to conflict with one another
along racial and ethnic lines, which is now tearing our world asunder,
on a national and world scale, we will have really gained little of any
real worth. I feel we need to develop a long-term view of benefit
("for the seventh generation"), and to put aside some of our historic-
ally-based grievances for the greater good, letting our harmony with
nature and with one another be the main criterion by which we judge our
ambitions and measure our goals.
Slowly, I'm getting around to a description of what I feel needs to be
done to enable me to re-connect with my original motivations in
creating the NativeNet lists. I have many ideas for how we can improve
the lists and where people can help. I wish I could state these things
with less "fanfare" and other forms of preliminary, but I feel it to be
important to provide as solid a grounding as I can for the discussion
about the "nuts and bolts" of re-directing our course.
It is just in the nature of mailing lists that they will be used as
sources of information and sharing ideas and points of view, and that
people have their own individual reasons for requiring that information
and interpersonal exchange. Surely I have no objection to the Native-
Net lists being used for such purposes. However, I'd like to think
about at least some of us also thinking about using the lists as a way
of more consciously working together with one another and coordinating
our efforts with respect to specific projects on which we would like to
collaborate. Among the projects that I would like to see us pursue
working with one another is the "electronic outreach" project which we
have been discussing lately on the NAT-EDU list, whose purpose is to
make good use of electronic communications technology to enable both
indigenous and non-indigenous students to work jointly on specific
projects under the guidelines of well-designed curricula. As mentioned
in a recent article, I have just established a special-purpose mailing
list for the purpose of providing a means of communications among those
people who want to work together on such a project. I am very gratified
by the substantial response to my recent open invitation to join this
group. The list now stands at thirty four names; I will continue taking
replies for another couple of days before the list begins operation.
(Eventually, I hope to set up an archive of articles, so that others can
join later without feeling they've missed something.) I will post some
notes about the two Boston-area in-person meetings on this subject which
have taken place thus far during the past couple of weeks at my earliest
opportunity.
I'll have more to say within the next few days about a number of other
projects that I would like to recommend for your consideration, some of
which are of very direct benefit to us as a community, including creating
various databases to which we can all contribute and from which we can
draw, and investigating the use of new communications technology as it
becomes available for purposes related to our own dialogues on our way
to the much-touted "information superhighway."
Well, I think I've said enough for this time. I'd welcome any responses
anyone might care to make, either to me personally (gst@gnosys.svle.ma.us)
or to the list as a whole (just respond to this article, or send to the
address "native-l@gnosys.svle.ma.us").
Thanks for listening.
Gary
--
Gary S. Trujillo gst@gnosys.svle.ma.us
Somerville, Massachusetts {wjh12,bu.edu,spdcc,cdp}!gnosys!gst