SHIFTING THE BALANCE: INDIGENOUS AND NON-INDIGENOUS ACTIVISM IN THE COMPANY OF YOUNG CANADIANS, 1966-1970 A Thesis Submitted to the Committee on Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in the Faculty of Arts and Science TRENT UNIVERSITY Peterborough, Ontario, Canada (c) Copyright by Kelly Monique Pineault 2011 Canadian Studies and Indigenous Studies M.A. Graduate Program October 2011 Library and Archives Bibliotheque et 1*1 Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington OttawaONK1A0N4 Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-81117-7 Our file Notre r6f6rence ISBN: 978-0-494-81117-7 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par I'lnternet, preter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distribute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non­ support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la these ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent etre im primes ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation. without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi canadienne sur la Privacy Act some supporting forms protection de la vie privee, quelques may have been removed from this formulaires secondaires ont ete enleves de thesis. cette these. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. 1+1 Canada Abstract Shifting the Balance: Indigenous and non-Indigenous activism in the Company of Young Canadians, 1966-1970 Kelly Monique Pineault Shifting the Balance will focus on some of the expressions the movement for social change took when Native youth and non-native youth in Canada worked together - how student activism and Indigenous activism in Canada intersected, attempting to create lasting social change by shifting the balance of power. Few scholarly works have been written from a historical perspective analyzing the relationship between these collective groups, exploring the intersection, and the divergence of various groups. Moreover, the majority of Indian and White relations' scholarship analyzes the relationship between Indigenous collectives/communities and the State. Using the Company of Young Canadians (CYC) as a case study, Shifting the Balance seeks to examine the interconnection between youth activists and Indigenous activists by attending to where Native and non-Native youth activists intersected ideologically, and/or where these intersections manifested either directly or indirectly in praxis. In particular, this study examines how Indigenous media was an instrumental tool of Indigenous activism. My thesis will address these key dynamics in an effort to fill one of the more obvious gaps in existing 60s scholarship, and will also provide another means of deepening our understanding of Native and non-native relations. Keywords: Company of Young Canadians (CYC), Indigenous activism, youth activism, student activism, alliances, Akwesasne Notes, Kenomadiwin News, Challenge for Change, Red Power ii Acknowledgements Without the guidance and support of so many wonderful people this thesis would not have been possible. I wish to honour those people who have inspired and helped me throughout this process. I am very fortunate to have had Joan Sangster as my supervisor, a person whom I have such great admiration for, and whose academic work has influenced me immeasurably over the years. A warm thank you to Carol Williams, who encouraged me to have faith in my abilities and showed me that research and contributing to scholarship, is something worth doing. Certainly my committee members, Bryan Palmer and John Milloy, exemplify what it means to strive for excellence in scholarship. I am grateful to the Frost Centre at Trent University and for the financial support received from the Symons Trust Fund. This funding was key in helping me with the costs of doing archival research. To the staff at the National Archives of Canada in Ottawa thank you. In particular, Gloria Mackenzie, whose expertise and professionalism helped me navigate, with relative ease, the seemingly unwieldy realm that is the National Archives. To Andre D'Ulisse at the National Film Board Archives 'un grand merci pour ton hospitalite.' Research is 'so much better' when you work with capable and knowledgeable people. A special thank you goes to my friend and intellectual resource David Tough, who 'put me up' and 'put up with me' while I was conducting research in Ottawa. To my family and friends, who encouraged me and listened to my ramblings, you are truly the best. In particular, I wish to thank my mother Sheila for her unfailing love and support. A special thank you also to John Mather whose professional expertise helped me to pull together this document. Nothing worth doing is easy; this adage has proven too true. iii Table of Contents Abstract ii Acknowledgements iii Table of contents iv Introduction 1 1 Structure 5 Sources and Methods 7 The Influence of SUPA and the New Left, 1960-65 8 The Student Neestow Partnership Project: Organizing in Indigenous Communities 13 Indigenous Activism, Red Power, and the CIYC 17 2 Overview of the Company of Young Canadians 24 The Formation of the CYC, 1965-1966 24 Membership: Who joined the CYC? 27 Media, Government and Public Responses to the CYC 29 The Philosophy and Structure of the CYC 36 3 Indigenous Projects and the CYC 42 Emergent and Undefined Indigenous CYC Projects 44 Community Development Indigenous Projects 50 Controversial Indigenous CYC Projects 55 CYC Projects in Education: The North American Indian Travelling College and Rochdale College 85 Conclusion 105 4 Indigenous Print and Audio Media and the CYC 107 The LightBulb/Kenomadiwin News 111 Kenomadiwin Radio 127 Akwesasne Notes/News 134 The Honey Bucket 146 Conclusion 149 5 Film and the CYC, Making Culture 151 NFB Challenge for Change 152 Joint CC and CYC Film Initiatives 156 The Indian Film Crew 159 Loon Lake 166 You Are On Indian Land 172 The Ballad of Crowfoot 179 The Audio Taping Sessions in the NWT 183 6 Conclusion 193 Bibliography 198 iv Introduction The sixties and seventies were a time of protests, civil unrest and, in some countries, revolutions. These movements for social change were simultaneously ideological and expressed in praxis. Dissident voices galvanized youth activists, who were responding to perceived social injustices, including those perpetuated by the Canadian state. Yet, the state also stimulated these calls for change by encouraging organized youth projects; even the rhetoric of the Pearson and Trudeau governments advocated 'participatory democracy.'1 The sixties were also a time when 'youth'2 took on increasing importance in Canadian society. Not only was youth articulated in the media as a separate interest group; it was also conceived of as the repository of society's new leaders and visionaries, in an era of social action and participatory democracy. Student and youth organizations, active since the late 1950s, gained currency and membership in Canada.3 Optimism permeated the federal government's discussions of youth radicalism, with the government advocating that participatory democracy could, and should, be part of a new age of Canadian nationalism; the government also recognized that youth radicalism was a rising force. In the spring of 1965, then Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson delivered an impassioned speech to the House of Commons announcing the Liberal government's 1 Participatory democracy is a process of direct consultation that enables citizens to be full participants in decision-making processes that affect their lives, rather than solely through representative democracy. See Students for a Democratic Society, The Port Huron Statement (Chicago 1962), 6 for a discussion of participatory democracy. See Martin Loney, "A political economy of citizen participation," in The Canadian State: Political Economy and Political Power, ed. Leo Panitch, (Toronto 1977), 446-472 for a critique of participatory democracy and state cooption. 2 See Cynthia Comacchio, The Dominion of Youth: Adolescence and the Making of a Modern Canada, 1920-50 (Waterloo 2006) for a discussion on the concept of youth in Canada. John and Margaret Rowntree, "The Political Economy of Youth," Our Generation, 6/1-2 (1968): 155-187. 3 Groups such as the Combined Universities Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CUCND), formed in the late 1950s, expanded from a single-issue organization to become SUPA in 1964. The Canadian Indian Youth Council (CIYC) formed in the early 1960s. 1 intention to form a new and extraordinary youth organization. In the second reading of Bill C-174, Pearson's oratory expounded that the Company of Young Canadians4 was to be "experimental as well as responsible in its approach to problems... not afraid to move into new and creative areas of social action.. .in the battle against poverty, disease, deprivation and inequality wherever these may exist in our country."5 One of five new government programs to fight the "war on poverty,"6 the CYC, armed with its lofty goals, was touted as shining proof of the federal government's belief in 'participatory democracy.' A year later, the Company of Young Canadians was established through an act of Parliament, assented to on the 11th of July 1966.