Magazine

January/February 2009: Indian Country (in the city)

Volume 43, Number 1

A sacred fire of Indigenous Canadian activism, education, art, and politics burns bright in the latest special double issue of Canadian Dimension. Featuring a cover by world renowned Indigenous artist Rebecca Belmore, the latest issue of Canadian Dimension looks at the achievements and challenges facing Canada’s urban and rural Indigenous communities. The rural to urban shift is “directly connected to the harsh socio-economic realities our people face if they choose to stay in one of the more than 630 apartheid style Indian reserves,” says Indigenous activist and Dimension collective member Clayton Thomas-Muller.

We’ve drawn from Canada’s top indigenous artists for this issue, including a personal Q/A with Rebecca Belmore. “Whether it is about Aboriginal issues or women’s issues, I try to make the work open enough so that it is bigger than the issue at hand,” she says. Bear Clan Mother and Indigenous Liberation activist Leslie Spillett takes us back to the haunting past of residential schools and today’s struggle to reclaim education for Indigenous children. Stefanie Gude breaks the silence on the OPP cover-up at Tyendinaga and the future for justice and sovereignty in this community.

While indigenous activists wrestle with the legacy of colonialism, the world wrestles with the ravages of neo-liberal capitalism. The Dimension collective looks at Canada’s greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression, and the prospects for putting forward a new anti-capitalist politics in 2009. Ellen Gould breaks down the financial jargon surrounding the crisis in her article Gambling as Economic Policy.

Lesley Hughes is back with her usual astute reflections on the state of media and politics, and we’ve got author William Deveral guiding us through the seamy alleys of Canadian crime fiction.

• Regulars

• The Corvin Russell Paragraph
  Corvin Russell
• Tinkering While Canada Burns
  Editorial
• The Labour Report
  Geoff Bickerton
• One Native Life
  Richard Wagamese
• On the Edge
  Leslie Hughes

• Opening Arguments

• Free Speech As Long As It Doesn’t Offend Anyone
  Ulli Diemer
• Gambling As Economic Policy
  Ellen Gould
• Shut Down the Tar Sands
  Petr Cizek
• The Great OPP Cover-Up at Tyendinaga
  Stephanie Gude
• Gathering of Defenders of the Land
  Corvin Russell and Clayton Thomas-Müller

• Indian Country (in the city)

• Introduction: Indian Country in the City
  Clayton Thomas-Muller
• Rebecca Belmore: Fiercely Political, Politically Fierce
  Shannon Bell
• Building Resistance: Aboriginal Organizations in Winnipeg’s Inner City
  Jim Silver
• Supporting Aboriginal Sex Workers’ Struggles
  Jessica Yee
• “I Want to Get Rid of the White Problem.” The Struggle to Reclaim Indigenous Education for Indigenous Children
  Leslie Spillett
• The Wellbeing of Our Children:  The History and Future of Aboriginal Control of Child and Family Services in Manitoba
  Wayne Helgason
• Digging Up Indigenous History in Toronto’s Cityscape
  Julie Nagam

• All That’s Left

• Honouring our Activists: Regina Celebrates Canadian Dimension
  Joyce Green, Phil Hansen, and Jim McCrorie
• Canadian Crime Fiction
  William Deverell
• North Winnipeg’s Seal of Identity
  Leo Panitch