Foreward Elder Dr Daniel N. Paul

It is a pleasure to offer introduction to Two Spirit Medicine written by Dr Joseph Randolph Bowers. I call him Randy. Allow me to begin with a bit of history.

When I was born a Registered Indian in 1938 on Shubenacadie Indian Reserve in Nova Scotia, I was not considered a Canadian British Subject. I was a Ward of the Crown. As Wards of the Crown we had no civil and human rights in this country.We were not permitted to vote in elections, we could be legally barred by law from public places such as pool rooms without cause, it was illegal for us to buy a case of beer, and so on, and most tellingly, we had very little recourse to law. In contractual arrangements, we had the same legal status as drunks and insane persons.

I speak from experience. Federal Indian Agents had God like powers over us, they controlled our lives from the cradle to the grave. And, most of them thought themselves to be our betters. This brings to mind an amusing story. I was a rebel against a racially intolerant system since I was very young was not intimidated by Indian Agent authority and during a discussion with an Indian Agent in the late 1950s, I dared to disagree with him. He commented: 'You're not very respectful of your betters!' In response I said, 'The reason that you perceive such is that you assume that I've met my betters, which I haven't, and I won't until the day I die and meet my Maker, then I will concede that I've met my betters!' He was flabbergasted and left my company not a happy camper.

Up until 1961 I worked at many trades and support positions, carpenter, labourer, harvester, factory worker, and many others that are far too numerous to mention here. When I got into management in 1961, I remembered well the vital importance of supporting people, and treating them with fairness and respect. Such fair treatment is a must to have a successful existence, treat other humans with the utmost tolerance and respect, and give them human dignity, and most will respond in kind.

We, and our ancestors, have been victimized by intolerance for centuries. You might like to read about this history in my book We Were Not the Savages, that details the colonial relations over the past five hundred years. Racism towards us, although not as blatant as it used to be, is still displayed openly in Nova Scotia. For instance, in Cornwallis Park there was a statue of British Colonial Governor Edward Cornwallis, a man who decided in 1749 to try to exterminate the Mi'kmaq on Peninsula Nova Scotia. After concerted efforts during January 2018, the statue was removed and placed in storage. However, the Mi'kmaq-colonial encounter is not widely understood.

It took a long time for Registered Indians to make some progress in acquiring a measure of civil and human rights in this country, attitudes are slowly changing, but we still have a long way to go. However, happily, intolerance has been publicly and forcefully addressed to some degree over the last few decades by some very notable people. Michael Levine (2011), in "Lessons at the Halfway Point" says "If you dont personally get to know people from other racial, religious, or cultural groups, its very easy to believe ugly things about them and make them frightening in your mind." Levine's advice would, if followed around the world, reduce conflicts among humans significantly.

Many things are changed by intolerance. The way people feel able to gain the world, access food, health care, medicine, and education. The way we employment, seek assistance from professionals, move freely or not about learn by experience in society, and how we resolve problems as they arise For example, we might seek a trades person when dealing with a roof or have someone in our family lucky enough to have studied building or carpentry.

The ways we get by and make life better for self and family make for the paths and resources that end up part of our upbringing. Native people in Canada have had lack of access. This is the fundamental issue of racism and systemic violence that prevents us getting by, getting an education, and having more choice and control of how we engage in society. I speak from experience. You might look at my titles and see the accomplishments. This was not always the case.

On June 13, 2011, I received an Honorary Diploma from Halifax's Nova Scotia Community College Institute of Technology. This was an important acknowledgment. In some ways Randy's tome on Two Spirit issues relates to similar treatment that is accorded to Two Spirit People that is rooted in intolerance! However, you slice this word intolerance, you get the same result - people do not work together for mutual benefit. People divide themselves from others. People might think they are better than you, this is illusion. Randy calls this projecting. This is true. You project like a movie camera on the screen something that is inside of you. This means but that prejudice says more about you than the person you project onto. In fact, that person receiving your projection needs to discover who they are apart from your projecting onto them. The barriers this creates between people are many. The result is social isolation. To isolate means to separate equals. This dynamic is harmful to everyone. But consider the power of the word that means we are equals become separated, isolated.

I have seen this dynamic throughout history. We can read about this in the letters of British colonial leaders, some of whom are still upheld in Canada as founders of cities, provinces, or the country. The history is actually extremely clear. Those who read the evidence now acknowledge the racism and violence for what that is and was, even in the context of the times. Historians in past covered over or sidestepped this truth to save face or deny the truth for the sake of political trends. But when you look clearly at intolerance, the truths of history are plain and simple.

People do not act in a vacuum. People act in the ways they act. We are loving and kind to others, or we are confused, intolerant, and even abusive. People have to find inwardly the choice to make good attitudes. If you do not question what you receive as a child, and continue to not ask questions as an adult, you may find yourself acting in ways that are unkind to others. This may not come to your awareness because you are too busy projecting onto others the lies you have learned.

Long before receiving the Honorary Diploma, I was a student at the same school in early 1970. At the time I recognized a need for a high school diploma to make career progress. I studied and wrote my GED exams, consequently acquiring a High School Diploma. This was an acquisition that has been a tremendous help in achieving career and life goals.

Randy once told me the story of his father who had a similar experience. He was the eldest of eight, so he left school very early to work and support the family with needed income. Like me, much of Joe Bowers' time was spent studying for qualifications at night time after a busy day at work. We do what we have to do sometimes to get ahead for the sake of our families.

In this book that you will read, Randy shares many different perspectives and insights about the Two Spirit experience. There is something here for most people. From my perspective, the common threads around intolerance make Two Spirit issues very simple and direct. No human being deserves projection of prejudice or any kind of projection at all. This way, people objectify others, causing harm. Harm in history or harm now both lead to poor outcomes..

Society and family life are best based on tolerance and respect, honor, and shared mutual truth. To find the latter, you need the former. You cannot build a relationship without tolerance and respect. This is true in a marriage as much as in a business or social project.

From my perspective as a student of history, there are points of evidence in other North American contexts where documentations can easily be viewed as pointing to the Two Spirit gender variant experience. Letters or writings of missionaries, legal documents, or other evidence points to this phenomenon. Randy asked me whether I found this evidence while researching Míkmaq history. My response was not yet, but I was not looking for this either. The interesting point was that when future generations of scholarship read the data and search for what might have been overlooked, evidence may come forward. But that is a work for the future.

The younger generation may take a view different from us older folks. They may see what they see in their culture or experience as reflected in history. This has a layer of our projecting onto history what we want to see, but also when we question this in realistic ways, history is always a blend of the truth that exists and the truth that we want to see or don’t want to see. The key is getting the mix right and actually taking a balanced view. They call this historiography. This is a field that studies the decisions and reasons for how history is written, discussed, and co-created in each generation. We native people need to take part in this discussion and to influence outcomes that provide for our unique perspectives on history.

When it comes to Two Spirit or what are the elements of this, we see gender differences and we see sexuality differences. We know from sociology that these happen across all cultures around the world. In most cases, Indigenous cultures are more open to variations than cultures dominated by religions or overarching philosophies.

Indigenous cultures tend to take a more inherent view of human experience. In other words, we allow what emerges in personal experience and nature. The point is not to control and dominate nature and self, but to nurture a relation of respect with what is real and what is happening in nature.

As soon as we stray from this path, we get in trouble. The old stories of our Elders say this in many different ways. When you read some of the ethnographies by Ruth Holmes Whitehead, who was also in touch with Randy about this book and Two Spirit issues, we begin to understand that Mi'kmaq teachers were oriented to help young people take on and reflect upon values that build personal agency, personal power, and to act with honor and respect.

Even sacred ceremonies and very sacred traditions have this element of teaching the better way to live, and the ways we can deal with crisis or cultural problems. The practices point to basic social and emotional values that help youth and adults address problems and move forward with honor and respect.

We know for example how this affected womens rights in European cultures around the world. We can re-read the history and in certain times and places, there may not be any mention of women beyond their legal or economic value and status. It may read like counting sheep or cattle. Arguments may arise between men who fight to own a woman. During whole periods of European history, this may be the case, and womens writing that survived may remain rare and precious.

In an even more pervasive way, Two Spirit experience was not written into history, or more precisely was whitewashed out of history by people who could not reflect on the beauty and diversity of humanity. One reason was that European cultures objectified womens status to such a degree that gender roles were extremely male-dominated and rigid. Much fear and projection were associated with anything outside the cultures norms of gender and sexuality. Much of this had been for centuries dictated by the church and social systems that had grown up to have enormous power over peoples everyday lives.

Prior to colonial contact, such a vast machine of social disorder and oppression did not exist for native cultures in North America. People today might actually call the social condition of disorder and oppression a form of mass psychosis or macro psychosocial disorder. Sociologists with psychological training examine culture-wide trends for signs of degradation into oppressive regimes, and a global scale and nation-based scoring system is commonly used today that provides countries with more objective measures for social wellness versus social disorder. Therefore, it is not that far-fetched to look at colonial histories and actually quite fairly and objectively assess the status quo in social relations.

Today, we see this lack of tolerance still around same-sex marriages, raising of children by same-sex couples, and generally allowing and helping these minorities to get on with life in society. It is not that we have to do extra work here. It is just that, like in my early days, people in society need to have a positive attitude. People need to have space and time to help one another.

In conclusion, I encourage you to be tolerant and forgiving towards your human brothers and sisters. When you view your co-workers and others, do not let race, color, religion, sexual orientation, etc., demean him/her in your eyes. Instead, see him/her as an equal, and always treat fellow humans with dignity and respect. Your reward will be a happy and prosperous lifetime.

- Elder Dr. Daniel N. Paul, 10 January 2019, Mi'kmaq'ki