Books By Heart: Warrior Life, by Pam Palmater
Legal scholar is teaching people a better way in Warrior Life
Doctor Pamela Palmater thinks the definition of warrior is too narrow.
“I think we really need to redefine what warrior life is,” Palmater said. She said a warrior’s work doesn’t translate to violence. Just the opposite.
“Warrior life is really about celebrating Indigenous people, speaking out, using your voice to call out injustice, but also taking action,” Palmater said. “Primarily a warrior is someone who’s trying to make and keep peace.”
Palmater’s book, Warrior Life: Indigenous Resistance and Resurgence, is itself a valiant effort at making the complex political, social and economic history of Indigenous people accessible. It is a lifestyle guide and a belief system, written by a lifetime legal scholar and historian.
Voice and action are two sides of the warrior’s work, according to Palmater. One represents freedom of thought. The other represents freedom of body. They are the two halves of personal sovereignty that represent Indigenous liberty.
“The reason why I focus on voice and action is really because, you know, 500 years of colonization and genocide, and the genocidal law policies continue today, has really focused on erasing native people and erasing them in every form. So, erasing their culture, erasing their history, erasing their rights, removing them from the lands, trapping them on reserves, and not allowing them to have a voice.”
Palmater said it was once illegal for Indigenous people to hire lawyers. The media didn’t cover Indigenous stories. No one heard Indigenous people, because, according to Palmater, they were being silenced. This is not where the crimes of colonization stopped. They are legion. Many of them are documented in Warrior Life.
“There’s a formula where the government alone decides who’s an Indian under the Indian Act and who isn’t,” Palmater said. “The whole purpose of this formula is to ensure the legislative extinction of Indians over time.”
Palmater goes on to explain how Canada is guilty of all five forms of genocide against indigenous people: killing members of the group, causing mental or physical anguish, creating destructive conditions for the group, preventing births and kidnapping children.
“It’s calculable,” Palmater said, “the government has done the demographics which show the so-called legislative extinction date for each First Nation.”
Palmater said that the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls found that Canada is guilty of historic and ongoing genocide.
“The government talks about reconciliation,” Palmater said, “but their policies never displace the status quo. They try to indigenize stuff, hire more Indigenous people, you know rename the buildings in Ottawa, that kind of thing.”
Palmater added that these symbolic offerings are important, but they don’t address the national-level crises facing Indigenous people in Canada.
Palmater does her best to simplify the legislative and cultural history that permitted and advanced the crimes of colonization, but she recommends her readers take a more direct approach to understanding the issues facing Indigenous people in Canada today. Palmater is challenging Canadians to get involved with their local First Nations communities.
“What is your First Nation?” Palmater asked, extending her call-to-action to all Canadians, and to the benefit of all Canadians everywhere.
Palmater is a Mi’kmaw citizen and a member of the Eel River Bar First Nation in northern New Brunswick.
“Our issues, in the end, will help everybody in Canada,” Palmater said. She said you don’t have to know Canada’s entire history to be a part of the warrior movement.
“I really caution people against trying to make it too complicated,” Palmater said. “Indigenous issues are everybody’s issues.” Palmater cites Indigenous environmental preservation and reclamation movements as examples of the kinds of protections all Canadians need.
“Just focus on Indigenous issues and everybody benefits.” Palmater said.
To redefine warrior Palmater is also redefining resistance.
“It’s and action against injustice,” Palmater said. “So in an Indigenous context, it is resistance against violence.”
For more about Pam Palmater’s life, work and warrior philosophy, she asks readers to visit her website.
Books by Heart is a new initiative to help humanize Nova Scotia hospital care, with a curated collection of ebooks and audiobooks available for free to patients, families, and staff. The reading platform and program are being tested out first at the University of King’s College, and we’ve enlisted some King’s student reviewers to help promote more engagement with the collection within the King’s community. Find out more about the project (and read this book for free if you’re a member of the King’s community!) at BooksByHeartKings.ca
Warrior Life will soon be available in audio format.
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