Abstract: Jeannette Armstrong
Whole Family Systems in Living Community on the Land and Sustainable
Living
Sustainable living is imbedded in my understanding of what sustainable
living meant for my ancestors. In my Okanagan ancestral system, I know
that different families had different specialized skills and knowledge
that was transmitted from generation to generation with great pride which
imbedded values necessary to sustain the community on their land. Family
systems operated as the education institution to imbed the values and
mediated the learning of sustainability principals in terms of communal
behavior necessary to maintain healthy resources and food systems. Like
most peoples who have developed highly sophisticated sustainable land-use
cultures, Okanagan family systems, operating within village communities,
relied on the high societal values in the principles of collaboration
and sharing among each other.
The sharing of resources and labor for security and sustenance was an
esteemed responsibility modeled most stringently by the Chief family.
The idea of "sharing" in the Okanagan language is quite different than
in English. The idea constitutes "a manifestation or demonstration of
how-to-be" rather than "possessions being divided among others". The clear
imperative in that concept, solicits the willing cooperation of individuals
within "community" to demonstrate sustainability values, and by doing
so, insures the survival and well being of the whole. Community was there
to be shared with, rather than to be competed against.
In our language, we think of "community" as a living being, or organism,
with different families as different parts of that being. We think of
the whole being needing to be healthy in order for families to be healthy
and for the individuals to thrive and community to survive. In our original
language, we recognize family systems, as being essential parts of the
community body, with different functions, just as the hands, heart and
the head have different but necessary functions. Cultural identification,
as part of a family system, offered deep cultural assurance and belonging
to individuals. Family systems alleviated social pressure on individuals
and established cohort systems, supportive of specializations necessary
to the economy of the whole. Mothers, fathers, older siblings and cousins,
aunts, uncles, and grandparents in the Okanagan indigenous model molded
the young into the values of the practice of giving and sharing with community,
different than in the contemporary Diaspora, decline and transience of
whole family for economic survival.
Loving family members are the essential basis of strong influence in the
development of necessary skills and of values crucial to maintaining the
principles of cooperation and sharing as community. Vigorous whole family
systems were the crucial institutions by which values and process, foundational
to sustainment of community, were instilled as an indispensable element
of sustainable land-use. Community as whole family systems, thriving as
trans-generational units, is critical to the health and protection of
the land.
A process of real-world learning, modeled how community, as whole family
systems must carry out work and sustenance with future needs in mind no
matter how rigorous the condition. High value, out of necessity, was centered
on the care taking of the resources of the land. Much of the belief system,
celebrating life, demonstrated how "sharing with our relatives in community"
extends to "our relatives on the land". We think of the plants, fish,
birds and animals as "relatives" who "share" their lives with us, demonstrating
the greatest of life gift principles. Our elder members embody and point
out, everyday, how the land relatives "share" and therefore how they requires
our respect, love and protection in the same way as family.
Sustainable living, then to my ancestors, was not in acquiring the necessities
for oneself, but in modeling how to embrace society, including the land
relatives, from within the identity of family, as individuals willing
to share fully, in the work and therefore in the benefits available to
the whole community.
Seen in that light, a community with a diversity of whole families skilled
at different things, cooperating and collaborating with each other as
a living system, continuously values the shared benefits of giving that
such diversity makes possible.
Some of the shared benefits were the security and support systems available
to those who might be disadvantaged by age, physical limitation or circumstance,
since whole family systems compensated for and produced all that was required
by the community. Higher value was placed in how well individuals learned
and modeled "sharing" and willingness to collaborate than in acquisition
of material wealth.
Understanding what my ancestors practiced, allows me to see that the gap
in our societal system might lie in part in our educational systems. Living
in a village community within a whole family system which has retained
some of the practices and principles required for living in a sustainable
way, allows me a unique view. And while, the practice of "public schooling"
has been accepted, my family and community members recognize that it has
brought about the loss of a good way to imbed good community and land-use
values. Perhaps development of "schooling" which bridges the gap between
family and culture traditions and which provides support systems to whole
family sustainment, and which imbeds sustainability values in the connection
to the land-relatives, is necessary to provide a better alternative. Albeit,
forced assimilation into the colonizing culture has taken its toll, the
remnants of whole family and community values of sharing and collaboration
within indigenous peoples cultures still living in community practicing
healthy land-use principles can be relied upon to reconstruct good practice.
Our program of ecoliteracy in my cultural educational center is attempt
to reconstruct how family, community and land must intersect with each
other as a celebration and appreciation of the gift of life. Models like
ours, which provide practical real world alternatives for the future,
require support and strengthening and the ability to share with others.
Biographical information
Jeannette Armstrong is Okanagan, a recognized Canadian author and artist.
Her published works include two children's books, one of which won the
Children's Book Centre "Our Choice" award. She has published a critically
acclaimed novel Slash and a collection of poetry, Breath Tracks
and collaborated with renowned Native architect Douglas Cardinal on the
book Native Creative Process. She has been anthologized numerously
and has published poetry and articles in a wide variety of journals. She
recently published a new novel Whispering In Shadows, with Theytus
Books. She has a BFA, First Class, from the University of Victoria. She
was recently distinguished with an Honourary Doctorate of Letters from
St. Thomas University, Fredericton. Arts awards, include the Mungo Martin
Award, the Helen Pitt Memorial Award and the Vancouver Foundation Graduate
Award. She has produced video and dub poetry. Her collaboration Indian
Woman on Cargo Record release, Till The Bars Break was nominated for Canadian
Juno award. Performance includes a story telling local T.V. mini-series
and Vision TV talk show "Arts Express".
Jeannette is the Executive Director of the En'owkin International School
of Writing and Arts. She is a traditional science council member of the
Okanagan Nation. She is an advocate of Indigenous rights, appointed to
the Council of Listeners in the International Testimonials on Violations
to Indigenous Sovereignty and appointed one of seven Indigenous Judges
to the First Nations Court of Justice called by the Chiefs of Ontario.
She serves as an international observer to the Continental Coordinating
Commission of Indigenous Peoples and Organizations. She is an advocate
of a healthy environment and social change in which peace between all
peoples is central. She has served as consultant to many environmentalist
and social change organizations, including the Esalen Institute, the Omega
Institute, the Centre for Ecoliteracy and the Centre for Creative Change
and the World Institute for Humanities at Salado and has published numerous
articles on the impacts of globalization. Jeannette has served on various
international councils and working groups on wide variety of issues. Jeannette
had the opportunity to address conferences and assemblies on a wide range
of topics in universities in Japan, Moscow, Switzerland, Germany, New
Zealand as well as the USA and Canada. She has addressed a World Conference
on Indigenous Education as a keynote speaker as well as the World Council
of Churches on Racism in education, media and the church. Jeannette is
currently serving on the Canadian Commission for UNESCO.
Jeannette was recently named as a recipient for the Buffett Award. The
Buffett Award for Indigenous Leadership developed as a program in 2000,
and 2003 marks its third year of Ecotrust's expression of high regard
and support to tribal leaders with lands and waters where salmon live
or lived. Jeannette was nominated by the Centre for Ecoliteracy, in California.
She was presented with the award by Howard, Devon, Peter and Jennifer
Buffett on December 2, 2003, in Portland, Oregon.
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