Transcription: Excerpt from the speech by Shawn Atleo (from podcast 18:00)
“I want to talk a bit about this notion that this is a time for rumbling […] I believe that Canada has disowned its own story […] Canada was premised on this notion of being a village, it is in its very name and many of us have not felt part of the fabric of this country. I think for very good reasons. […]
We as first nations I think have experienced decisions being made for us, and it’s forced reactions, and I think fear and anger have driven a lot of the relationship. The need to move into a new consciousness requires new conversations done with real intention to have this rumbling and this reckoning that I am referring to. […]
This university is only the second where first nations elders are respected and recognised as full faculty members. To consider how someone who does not have a higher degree from a mainstream recognized institution could be faculty – not an easy one.”
Monday December 14, 2015
Chief Shawn A-in-chut Atleo delivers the inaugural Indigenous Speakers Series lecture at Vancouver Island University in Nanaimo. Atleo is a Hereditary Chief of the Ahousaht First Nation in British Columbia and a past Chief of the Assembly of First Nations. The lecture series was announced in June 2015 to mark the release of the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Shawn Atleo stepped down as the AFN National Chief in May of 2014 because of controversy within the organization around the federal government’s First Nations Education Act. Since then, he’s travelled extensively on his motorcycle and become more engaged with first nations business ventures. His keynote address was called Daring Greatly Together: Re-imagining Canada. The series is a partnership between the Laurier Institution, Vancouver Island University, and IDEAS.
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