Canada, Beacon of Democracy, Enlightenment, and Justice: In Canada, Western Civilization Has a Hope

Yes, the title is not meant to be taken at face value. Yet the article below does carry a lot of punch that is well deserved, and well aimed.

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Canada’s tarnished international image

By Kate Harries
Indian Country Today Story Published: Dec 31, 2008

TORONTO – Canada was once viewed as a beacon of enlightenment on the world stage – a leader in the field of human rights and peacekeeping.

That’s an image that has become severely tarnished since a Conservative government was elected two years ago.

Its rejection of indigenous rights, its spoiler role at global warming talks, its failure to investigate the killing or disappearance of hundreds of aboriginal women, its indifference to the plight of a small Cree nation whose unceded territory is overrun by gas and oil development – these are all issues that point to a sea-change in the way Canada conducts its affairs.

“It’s sometimes surprising. … to realize how bad Canada is playing at these international talks,” said Ben Powless, a Mohawk from Six Nations in Ontario who attended the recent UN climate conference in Poznan, Poland as an Indigenous Environmental Network youth representative

“A number of our youth reps met with the Canadian officials, and left in tears, after hearing them joke about the negotiations and showing how lightly they took them,” he said in an interview last month from Europe.

The Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper does get credit for one historic initiative: the June 11 apology to survivors of the residential school system

“It was an apology heard around the world,” said National Chief Phil Fontaine of the Assembly of First Nations, for whom the current economic crisis is an opportunity to translate the words of the apology into action by addressing the appalling poverty of indigenous people in Canada.

“We hope the government will look to our First Nations communities as the appropriate starting point for any stimulus package,” Fontaine said in an interview.

Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl told a recent chiefs’ assembly that he had heard their call. But, he warned, “We must remember to be pragmatic in our approach and realistic in our goals.”

“There are great examples out there of First Nations who have not waited for the wheels of government to turn,” he added, pointing to Membertou First Nation in Nova Scotia and Whitecap Dakota First Nation in Saskatchewan as examples of entrepreneurial success.

First Nations leaders told him they face an impossible task in meeting the needs of the fastest growing segment of the Canadian population with a two percent cap on federal spending increases, imposed 12 years ago.

Strahl also came under fire for Canada’s role in leading the fight to delete references to indigenous rights from the text of an agreement on Reduced Emissions from Deforestation in Developing countries (REDD).

“The best way of protecting our environment is to ensure that the rights of our people on the land are recognized and are respected,” Fontaine said, adding that Canada’s refusal to honor the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is “a black mark on this country’s international reputation.”

Strahl reiterated the Harper government’s position that recognition of indigenous rights contradicts existing Canadian laws and treaties.

The REDD initiative is seen by indigenous groups as a bid by developed nations to commodify forests in the developing world and provide a pretext for forcing indigenous peoples off their lands.

“We tried to get indigenous rights put centrally in (the) initiative,” Powless said, “but there was strong opposition from a number of countries, like Canada and the U.S., who claimed they didn’t recognize collective rights.

“Canadian officials claimed indigenous rights had nothing to do with climate change, which makes them either very stupid, disgraceful liars, or both.”

Indigenous people, who have done nothing to contribute to climate change, will pay the price, he noted. “Entire ecosystems are threatened, along with the people who depend upon them, from the Arctic to the Amazon.”

In other matters, a UN committee on the elimination of discrimination against women has called upon Canada to urgently carry out a thorough investigation of missing or murdered aboriginal women. (Over 500 cases in two decades have been documented, with many more likely to have gone unrecorded because of faulty data.)

Canada should determine “whether there is a racialized pattern to the disappearances and take measures to address the problem if that is the case,” the committee report said.

Gladys Radek helped organize the cross-Canada Walk4Justice on the issue this summer. She said she’s optimistic there will be an inquiry. “We have a whole nation of support.”

Sadly, disappearances continue. Maisy Odjick, 16, and her friend Shannon Alexander, 17, vanished without a trace Sept. 5 from Kitigan Zimi Anishinabeg First Nation in Quebec. Police Chief Gordon McGregor said there are no clues to whether they left of their own volition or if there has been foul play.

Meanwhile, Alberta’s authority to “legitimately approve the construction of a pipeline across Lubicon territory without Lubicon consent” was questioned in a letter to Canadian Ambassador Marius Grinius. Fatimata-Binta Victoire Dah, chair of the UN committee to end racial discrimination, gave Canada a Dec. 31 deadline to respond.

TransCanada Pipelines states that it is abiding by the law in obtaining Alberta approval for the North Central Corridor project. Work began Oct. 15, over the opposition of the 500-member Lubicon Lake Indian Nation. It was left out of Treaty 8 negotiations in 1899 and has been trying to negotiate a deal with Canada for decades.

Lubicon Councillor Dwight Gladhue said TransCanada is building a 600-person camp in an environmentally sensitive hunting area the Lubicon asked them to stay away from.

Sixty organizations signed an open letter Nov. 18 calling for justice for the Lubicon, citing more than two decades of UN decisions regarding the abuse of their human rights and urging Canada to deal with the nation, or suspend the development which is compromising their land until a settlement is reached. There have been no negotiations since 2003.

Sphere Related Content

(Surface) Images & Aboriginal Graffiti from Kahnawake: A Mohawk Rez outside Montreal, Canada

A little over a week ago I rented a vehicle to take care of some chores, (the only time I feel pressed to rent; in this instance filling a third of the van’s tank of gas cost $61). My chores took me past Kahnawake (Kahk’nuh’wa’guh), the famous Mohawk First Nation (or reservation) at the western doorway to the island of Montreal. I had little time, little intention to do anything like a photo essay, and the light was fading fast. Here then are some randomly collected surface images.

MURALIA INDIGENA

Resurgence
Kahnawake has a history of militant self-defense. It was one of the prime loci of resistance in the Oka uprising of 1990. Above, in blue and white, is the flag of the Six Nations Confederacy. The Six Nations include the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Seneca, Cayuga, and Tuscarora. This is the symbol of the Iroquois Confederacy, also known as the League of Peace and Power, and the People of the Longhouse.

Iron Workers
Bound to stereotypical visions of indigenous history, some might not know that Mohawks have long been preferred workers for the construction of the steel towers of Canada and the U.S., especially in New York City. These people know all about “progress,” as insiders, outsiders, and downsiders. The image above features a Mohawk quasi-robo man, with the flag of the Six Nations on the left, and the militant flag of the Mohawk Warriors Society on the right.

Warz
I cannot say if this is the name of a Mohawk hip hop band, the name of a DJ, or just a plain reference to war. “FTW” is not known to me, although it might as well be “fuck the whiteman.”

No war on an empty stomach?
In a departure from images of pride and resistance, an advertisement for a bakery on the Mohawk reserve, bringing to life the everydayness of all the images combined. Like most signs in Kahnawake, they defy the Quebec state’s French language sign rules. Not only is French not prominent on signs, it often is not present at all. Stop signs read in two languages, English and Mohawk, the words being “Stop” and underneath “Testan.”

“IN THE WAY OF PROGRESS” OR OUT OF THE WAY?

“Building Bridges”
Mohawk iron workers participated in building the bridges that soar above their land. Rail bridges, automobile bridges, and various on- and off-ramps cross the sky overhead. “Living under the bridge” and “across the rail tracks” usually carry negative connotations in North America. One never sees such structures above any of Montreal’s golf courses, not even the ones that were to be expanded into Mohawk burial grounds.

“We’ll just build on your land…and you can help”
From Wikipedia (Sept. 21, 2008): The federal and Quebec governments have historically located large civil engineering projects benefiting the southern Quebec economy through Kahnawake lands. Criss-crossed by power lines from hydroelectric plants, rail and vehicle highways and bridges, the decision to pass the Saint Lawrence Seaway canal cut through its village permanently separated it from its natural river shore.

One of the first of these projects was the fledgling Canadian Pacific Railway’s Saint Lawrence Bridge. The masonry work was done by Reid & Fleming, and the steel superstructure was built by the Dominion Bridge Company. In 1886 and 1887, the new bridge was built across the broad river from Kahnawake to Montreal Island, and gave Kahnawake working men an opportunity to perform as fearless bridgemen and ironworkers. This was the result of a perception by construction companies that the Mohawk men had no fear of heights when given the chance to climb hundreds of feet above the water and ground. Here started the legendary stereotype that has now labelled all Native Americans as having no fear of heights.

“London” Bridges Falling Down?
This is the famous Mercier Bridge, barricaded by Mohawks during the 1990 Oka Uprising, and combined with other bridge blockades, the island of Montreal was effectively closed off from the mainland. This is where burning White anger against any instance of three Natives standing in a street really got an airing, and today even the smallest blockage is referred to by hysterically racist complainers in the mass media as examples of “Native terrorism,” often followed by full throated cries to “call in the army.” Since White counter-protesters used these bridges to pelt rocks at Mohawk women and children, I think a “real terrorist,” someone with access to materials in the construction industry, and technical know-how derived from working on the same bridges, would have strapped some belts of TNT to the support pillars above and brought this sucker crashing down.

TOBACCO FOR THE WHITE MAN’S FRAYED NERVES

White and Brown Natives?
Interesting idea (on the small sign at the right), but almost anything goes when it comes to cigarette advertising. Side note: the architecture of homes and shops in Kahnawake is very varied, but also strikingly different from the rest of Montreal. Not only does it look more like a small town in America, some residents also fly the American flag.

The All Natural Native…
…is a cigarette brand. The packet features the same symbol of the Six Nations Confederacy we saw at the very start. Outside of the shop hangs the flag of the Mohawk Warriors Society. The Native cigarette industry is a thriving and lucrative source of income, and probably one of the main reasons that non-Natives enter the Reserve to begin with (where they can purchase them tax free). Native tobacco for the White Man…some things never change.

DISTORTED INDIGENOUS PATTERNS

This is just plain idleness. I took the first four photos from above, and distorted them using my photo editor. The result superficially appears to be an indigenous pattern, although it really is based on images produced by aboriginals (the murals), they bear accidental resemblance to patterns that might be popularly associated with indigenous textile designs. As I said, idleness, but pretty idleness I think.

UC Berkeley Destroys Native American Sacred Site

BERKELEY, CA- University of California police moved in yesterday morning and cut many limbs and branches of a Redwood tree and cut down twelve Oak trees that have been protected by tree-sitting protesters for the last 21 months. Five people were arrested as they peacefully pleaded with arborists not to destroying the trees of the Memorial Oak Grove deemed a sacred burial site to Ohlone Indians.Twelve trees were cut today and the University says they will continue cutting 46 over the weekend. Four protesters remain in a single Redwood tree in the center of the grove. Arborists trimmed most of the branches from the Redwood tree occupied by the four remaining tree sitters. Cutting the branches made it virtually impossible for the tree sitters to move from tree to tree. A spokesman for the campus said that within three days, the University would no longer honor its agreement to ensure they had adequate nutrition and water. The tree sitters currently only have one liter of water to share between four people as they sit in 90 degree heat.

The Memorial Oak Grove is regarded as a sacred place to Native American people and is documented as such by UC Berkeley’s own Anthropology Department. There is evidence of 2 shell mounds sites in the area, with 19 ancestral remains found within them. Along with UC Berkeley’s attempt to develop on a sacred place, they are guilty of housing over 17,000 sacred remains and objects. UCB currently holds the largest human remains collection in the United States of which it is not in compliance with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA)

“I brought my five year old daughter and two month old son out today to bear witness to the massacre of sacred life,” said Morning Star Gali of the Pit River Tribe and co-chair of Advocates to Protect Sacred Sites. “The cops responded by yelling to move them behind the median. I asked if they would stand by as complacent if it was their grandmother’ s gravesites being desecrated. I want my children here to witness the destruction of sacred life and how important it is to protect it. I wanted them to witness the cops, arborists and UC Officials that participated and cheered as the trees came crashing down from bulldozers. This exhibits the ongoing Human Rights abuses committed by the University. They refuse to comply with NAGPRA by holding 13,000 of our ancestors remains hostage, they illegally reorganized NAGPRA with no tribal consultation and now they continue to desecrate sacred burial grounds.”

The Memorial Grove is a native Coast Live Oak ecosystem. Native oaks support the most complex terrestrial ecosystems in California. The California Native Plant Society CNPS has stated that the Memorial Oak Grove is “an important gene bank for the Coast Live Oak.” Every one of the oaks in the grove should be protect by law and the Berkeley Coast Live Oak moratorium forbids cutting mature Coast Live Oaks in Berkeley. UC refuses to recognize the law. The grove is also part of a National Historic Site. The Stadium and landscape is a memorial to Californians who died in World War I.

The tree sitters are urging people to come and show support for the trees and bear witness to the University of California’s blatant disregard to sacred sites and native ecosystems.

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/09/06/18533607.php

Independence, Nationalism, Indigeneity: Pride in Patrimony or Prostrate before Princes?

A few “random” thoughts for today, August 31, 2008, Independence Day in Trinidad and Tobago, some of which revolve around the symbolized, emblematic figure of the Amerindian in the development of a national sense of identity (something that I wrote a lot about in Ruins of Absence, Presence of Caribs. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2005). I can start by saying that at least Trinidad has an “independence” day, a potentially subversive thought from where I sit here in the neo-colony/neo-colonizer that is Canada, that still celebrates “Victoria Day” and still conquers indigenous land.

Memory as a Medal

For at least the past several years there has been public debate in Trinidad around the coloniality of the “Trinity Cross” as the national medal awarded to distinguished citizens. Many felt that it symbolized Christianity, and thus stood as an act of discrimination against Trinidad’s other major faiths, notably Hindus and Muslims. Some defenders suggested that the Trinity in this case referred to Trinidad — they mean the same thing, the first in English, the second in Spanish. Perhaps this is another case where different values are attached to the same word in different languages: “Black” is better than “Negro,” even if Black is the translation of Negro. In comes the new order: the Order of the Republic of the Society of Distinguished Citizens of Trinidad and Tobago and Other Distinguished Persons, or, just simply the Order of Trinidad and Tobago. This is now almost official and there is little reason to doubt that it will be finalized.

Previously, two separate discussions that appear on this blog touched on some of the themes involved in creating this new order, so to speak. One concerned Trinidadian debates about Eurocentrism and indigeneity, and the bifocal nature of the official meanings of “indigenous” in Trinidad: one side referring to descendants of pre-colonial first nations, the other referring to anything “born” in Trinidad. Amerindians are indigenous people, and steelpan, on the other hand, is the indigenous instrument. The second relevant post asked the question of whether the state of Trinidad and Tobago really recognizes indigenous people in the country. My argument is that through subtle, circuitous means, no the state does not. So while the state “recognizes” a tiny fragment of possibility, the small, formally organized Santa Rosa Carib Community in Arima, it has so far refused all other nationals the opportunity to formally self-identify as indigenous, by excluding the category from the national census, even when pressed to do otherwise by the United Nations.

What the state does do is engage in a shadow play of symbolic veils, creating a sense of nation and locality when so many of its citizens have fled, and so many non-citizens have rushed in to buy up valuable natural resources, creating a sense of place just as the place is gutted and tossed into the non-place of capitalist globalization. As a result, one ends up with the conscious cultivation of tokens, to placate in the absence of lived reality — remember the past, because the present looks pretty grim. And one ends up with the following decoration:

Serving as a crown at the top of the medal is a feathered headdress:

The crest is represented by a familiar aboriginal symbol, the feathered headdress of an Amerindian chief….(i) The First Peoples: The design seeks to acknowledge the contribution of the autochthonous (or first) inhabitants of our land embodied in the crest surmounting the medallion.

And yet the medal is made of gold, more than just symbolic of the conquest, expropriation, and exploitation of the same indigenous people. I have no solution to the medal created by committee with all of its differing elements juxtaposed, and I am not one who normally thinks in terms of preferred nationalist symbols. What I think is a problem is the shallowness of recognition of indigeneity in the name of an inwardly squeezed, outwardly opened nationalism.

Show Some Pride, a Prince is Looking!

The other ambivalent display of indigeneity, this one directly involving members of the Santa Rosa Carib Community at one point, came when the “Prince of Wales, Charles Philip Arthur George and his wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, paid a visit to the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine campus, on Wednesday 5th March, 2008, as part of their tour of Trinidad and Tobago to promote environmentalism and to reinforce British ties with former colonies” (see: “Royal Visit to UWI Highlights Lingering Colonialism“). One can see images of the visit starting here. Trinicenter.com lays bare the ghastly display of subservience to which Charles and Camilla were treated:

The scene was reminiscent of when the Queen of England had visited the country in February 1966, four years after the country’s Independence from Britain. Speaking with a gentleman who as a child witnessed the event, recalled that children lined the streets with flags in hand in the hot sun singing, “God save the Queen!” He reminded me that homage was being paid to former slave masters by a newly “Independent” nation with citizens calling on God to bless and save the royals. Today, the atmosphere was not much different with children and adults scrambling to get a touch of the royals’ hands. “I will never wash my hand again,” was what one female intimated.

The spectacle reflected the wider societal historical neglect, with the University of the West Indies at the helm of the education system sustaining the colonial mindset. Of course, true thinking individuals would know that the university is still an agent of imperialism and colonial conformity with their statues of European figures lining the third floor university library and places such as the JFK Quadrangle and auditorium named after an American president. There is no prominent symbolism that I am aware of in the University to cause appreciation of our African and Indian past.

Yesterday we witnessed children being encouraged by their teachers to touch the royals, seemingly without knowledge of Britain’s historical legacy, or even with their complicity in the mass-murder of millions in recent history. Certainly, this is an indictment against the teachers (among others) who refuse to challenge bogus history and continue to feed young minds with a self-debasing concept of history.

UWI’s Centre for Creative and Festival Arts did a skit about climate change. Unaware of the significance of symbolic actions, their continuous prostrating in front of the royals looked like a reconfirmation of colonialist attitudes and the idea of White power and supremacy over Black subordinates.

Without explaining the history of the Steelpan and reminding all that the Steelpan was developed in resistance to colonialism, the royals were allowed to play the Steelpan like children with toys. This came over as a mockery of the instrument. The royals should have been reminded that the Steelpan was born in resistance to their drive to suppress African forms of expression.

Marvin George, artistic director of “Arts in Action” posted a critique of this criticism on Facebook, on March 23, 2008, arguing that its “Offering Earth” ceremony, commissioned by the British High Commission, was meant to display pride in Trinidad’s indigenous heritage. The fact that the performers stayed low to the ground, worshiping the earth, could only be mistaken as lying prostrate in front of “the Royals.” Instead, it was meant as an “Amerindian allegory” — and Arts in Action consulted available scholarly texts on indigenous peoples in Trinidad (all except mine of course, which would have been difficult to read and apply for producing a show for elites).

It would seem that Arts in Action really bungled things, producing the opposite reaction from that intended. While disclaiming that this was a minstrel show, the fact is that they went to pay their respects to “the Royals” at the “invitation” of the British High Commission. That they readily agreed, even more than the troubled aesthetics, is what I find troubling. Why was indifference not an option? Why the greed for attention?

“Independence” remains a promise, if one chooses to take the time to reflect on what it could mean.

Happy Independence Day…from Kobo Town

SING OUT, SHOUT OUT

forty years ago today
independence came our way
welcomed by our struggling songs
it came but would not stay
and we, wanting to believe,
let ourselves be deceived
by the well-groomed speech of ambitious men
who time proved to be thieves
but the years went by and nothing came
new flag, new name, same old game
where the lucky laugh and the poor endure
having lost the will to fight again

Chorus
I remember when we were young
and hope was strong
and we had waited long
to hear the midnight bell
that would dispel
the age that kept us down
I recall when we would bleed
’cause we believed
freedom was in reach
of those who seized the day
but freedom came and faded like a dream

children of a passing age
remnants of a dying rage
whose anthems swept across this land
proclaiming a new day
and we waited patiently
for the elusive decree
that would rub away the scars we bore
and set our voices free
but the years wore on and nothing came
tyrants just bore different names
while the official line promised brighter times
we knew all things remained the same

independence, what an elusive dream
things are never ever what they seem
marchin’ hand in hand awaitin’ the command
of the liberator, soon to be the henchman
people’s vanguard, propaganda ministry
freedom fighters fillin’ the ranks of the secret police
while the tale on the times told in obituary lines
we offer our resistance with these humble rhymes

sing out, shout out, the dream never dies….

Speeches: Jawarhalal Nehru, August 15th, 1947, On India’s Independence; Milton Obote, October 9th, 1962, On the Independence of Uganda; Winston Churchill, June 18th, 1940, Address to House of Commons.

(re)New(ed) Blog: Review of the Indigenous Caribbean Center

First, let me get straight to the announcement — please visit:

THE REVIEW OF THE INDIGENOUS CARIBBEAN CENTER

This is a “renewed” blog in terms of site redesign, renaming, and building on its precursor, The CAC Review, which first started in early 2003 on the kacike.org domain.(1)

It is new in some ways as well: over the past few months I have been rethinking, sometimes agonizing, over the slow and diminishing level of academic collaboration that in the end came to mark the 10 year existence of the Caribbean Amerindian Centrelink. One of the main problems was that I was the centre of all web updates and content management, and began to suffer “broker overload” which suffered from additional aggravating problems external to the network. Within the past year, email started to grow to oppressive heights, and in fact there are many messages from as long as 10 months ago that I have yet to answer, and probably never will. Many contributing authors would submit files loaded with problematic code, and then begin to grow increasingly anxious, even upset, when for many months I had not posted their works, and soon the demands became pointed. In the meantime, when communicating with collaborators, I rarely got responses, except from the usual reliable two or three persons. The rest would remain totally silent, as if being listed as an “editor” was all that mattered. In other respects, I felt that I was being pinned down and locked within a narrow niche, that I could not express myself freely, and that I would remain permanently “on call” thanks to my past (and remaining) research on the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean.

Most of all, however, I also grew increasingly uneasy and unhappy with the centrality of the non-indigenous academic, in an indigenous field. With so many indigenous Caribbean persons actively online, making excellent use of the web, and showing great sophistication and advanced knowledge of web design and coding, there was no real reason why I had to continue to be the broker/overlord through which information passed (and got stuck in a bottleneck).

Simple solutions to simple problems led to some very exciting results. For example, to not have to manually update a HTML directory of researchers (that link will expire soon) each time one wanted a new photo, or to correct an email link, or to alter a single word (or delete a duplicate “the”) I placed the responsibility for updates back with the researchers. That was the first step in creating the Indigenous Caribbean Network, which has now grown to large and dynamic networking proportions, far beyond a mere directory of researchers, and instead becoming a lively site for rich cultural, political, historical, and political discussion, not to mention audio-visual collaboration. I actually try to limit my presence there for fear of being sucked in for too long.

NING offered pages that members could update themselves, and that was the only reason I first chose NING, because I had no other means (i.e., coding knowledge or software) available for those listed on that old “directory of researchers” to update their own entries. I asked them to sign in to NING, roughly a third did, and the rest are “lost.” What really propelled the network was the onrush of indigenous Caribbean persons, and archaeologists, two of the main groups in the network. The ICN has become a living expression of what I would call “open anthropology.”

All of the above then really got the ball rolling. I realized that one of the problems was the limitations imposed by static HTML pages, administered by me, on domains I owned, using private accounts that I paid for. That worked to ensure that sites such as the Caribbean Amerindian Centrelink, and even KACIKE: The Journal of Caribbean Amerindian History and Anthropology, would remain firmly in my weakening hands, regardless of best intentions. At the same time I began to fool around with content management sites, and soon realized that I could use WORDPRESS to create such a site, and use GOOGLE PAGES to archive KACIKE, so that a new group of contributors could directly access those sites on their own, post as they wished, and nobody owned it.

Hence, slowly but surely, the Caribbean Amerindian Centrelink is mutating into the Indigenous Caribbean Center, while KACIKE is going defunct, at least until new editors wish to take control of it (and when they do, lack of HTML knowledge won’t be an excuse, and the site is free).

The renaming issue stems from exchanges that are too long to summarize here adequately. From 1998 doubts began to be aired about use of the term “Amerindian” (popular in Trinidad, and among a diminishing group in Guyana) that misled me to believe that the term was appropriate. For many instead, it is either too racial, too exclusive of miscegenated groups such as the Garifuna, or sounds too much like “American Indian.” “Aboriginal” sounded derived from Australia to many, despite the fact that it is also in official and common use in Canada. Indigenous was both wide and ambiguous, and now that all of the old efforts are being undone and unwoven, it seemed like an appropriate time to install the renaming.

And why “center” instead of “centre”? Because I am fed up with American readers writing to point out that I “misspelled center.” And what happened to “centrelink”? That is the funniest one: I came up with the name while in Trinidad at the same that the Australian government renamed its welfare agency Centrelink. For years we were getting massive numbers of visitors from Australia, and at one point, even centrelink staff email (how many BBQs were derailed by my silence in neglecting to point out that the intended recipient would never get their email?) When I once boasted that Australia was one of our top three sources of traffic, an Australian Centrelink administrator wrote to tell me that it was because our site sounded like their welfare agency, and had a more memorable URL (centrelink.org). My response was that it was sad to see how many Australians were in dire need of welfare.

End of story for now, I hope you feast your eyes on:

THE REVIEW OF THE INDIGENOUS CARIBBEAN CENTER

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Notes

1. As a blog set up by an anthropologist, it predated all of today’s better known anthropology blogs. This is probably one of the reasons why I cannot understand some of the prima donna attitudes I have encountered on some of the other blogs, very few instances to be fair, and possibly on only one of those blogs. In a field with so little room for anything to appear even remotely innovative, I guess it should not be a big surprise that some will rush to claim mastery of the newest toy. What The CAC Review was not, however, was an insular anthropology blog locked into discoursing with itself. It began and continues as collaborative work between academic and non-academic specialists.