Renaming Columbus Day: Straightgoods.com
 
Date: Wed, 26 Oct 2005 00:50:56 -0500 (CDT)

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from: http://www.straightgoods.ca/ViewFeature5.cfm?REF=486
Renaming Columbus Day

In Venezuela, day is now known as Day of Indigenous Resistance.

Dateline: Monday, October 24, 2005

by Stewart Steinhauer

One fevered indigenous mind spent Oct 12 contemplating the mysterious, here 
on the southern edge of Saddle Lake Cree Nation/ First Nation/ Indian 
Reserve #125, or whatever other erroneous name you can think of in English. 
Up and down the erroneously named Americas, folks are celebrating the 514th 
anniversary of Columbus' fateful voyage.

Columbus Day. The fevered mind notices that names can change, as has 
happened, for instance in Venezuela, under the hugely popular leadership of 
a man with roots to both Africa and to the Indigenous Peoples of the land 
where he lives.

Today, in Venezuela, the nation is celebrating "Day of Indigenous 
Resistance", as the Hugo Chavez government has officially renamed "Columbus 
Day". In August of this year, the Chavez government formally transferred 
title over traditional lands to one of the 23 distinct Indigenous Peoples 
within Venezuela, beginning the fulfillment of a political promise made by 
the state to Indigenous Peoples within the state.

Venezuela's new constitution devotes its entire eighth chapter to 
indigenous questions, obligating the state to promote indigenous cultural 
values, and to consult with indigenous communities regarding such 
activities as mining and development. If I had to make a choice between a 
Hugo Chavez and a Paul Martin, I don't believe that there is a clock with 
the capacity to measure the speed with which I would choose a Chavez. But 
my suspicious mind can't help but notice a similarity between the 
Venezuelan state's obligation to consult, and the Canadian state's 
obligation to consult.

Not only that, but, listening to statements made by Indigenous 
spokespersons from within Venezuela, I hear the "ethnic minority state 
citizen of aboriginal ancestry" which kind of sounds familiar to me as a 
subject of Canada's new and improved "Aboriginal Doctrine", developed in 
crisis-response mode by the Canadian state following the Delgamuuk [1997 BC 
land claims] Supreme Court decision....

whole article at: http://www.straightgoods.ca/ViewFeature5.cfm?REF=486

Penney Kome, author and journalist
http://penneykome.ca
Editor, Straight Goods, http://straightgoods.com