Criminology event emphasises injustice on First Nations peoples

Crim class explores FN justice issues

The Vancouver Art Gallery used to be a courthouse. But that was never a place where First Nations people often saw justice. In many cases they either saw jail or the gallows.

Brandon Gabriel of the Kwantlen First Nation emphasized these injustices to the attendees of his talk at “Pipelines, Paddles, Protecting our Coast.” Most of the people hearing Gabriel speak at the Surrey campus conference centre July 30 were from a criminology class called Aboriginal Peoples and Injustice. Lisa Monchalin, the first Aboriginal woman in Canada to achieve a criminology PhD, created the class. She says the event was purposed for sharing knowledge on pertinent justice issues affecting Kwantlen peoples and what’s important to them.

“This event couldn’t have happened at a better time to educate people, considering KPU’s recent decision with the [memorandum of understanding],” says KSA aboriginal student representative Justin Bige, commenting on the controversial agreement between the university and Kinder Morgan.

Besides the pipeline talking points, Gabriel showcased First Nations artwork and the stories that come with them. He featured the work of Marianne Nicolson in particular, which illustrated the story behind the Vancouver Art Gallery in its days as a courthouse.

In the days when the Indian Act was first enacted, Gabriel recounted, the courthouse used to have a small side office measured at about ten-by-ten at the bottom of a stairway. He described the room as, “Just enough for one little clerk to fit in and work out land issues.”

“Every time an indigenous person—who wasn’t allowed to be represented in a court of law—went to go have a grievance with the land that was taken by some settler, they usually weren’t given the justice they wanted,” says Gabriel. “They were thrown in jail, for asserting who they were.”

He also mentioned that indigenous people were hanged at the courthouse. Nicolson’s work comments on this, in a piece called House of the Ghosts. By night, she used high-powered lights to project graphics onto the front of the Vancouver Art Gallery, graphics depicting the carvings of the houseposts at her family’s longhouse. Then, in between the houseposts is a transformation of the Canadian flag that illustrates death. Gabriel says the flag was, “A symbol of genocide for her people.” A belief amongst First Nations people is that their spirits travel at night, and that’s why Nicolson created this light piece connected to her home—so that the spirits of those who were hung there could feel welcomed.

“That’s why it’s illuminated at night,” says Gabriel. “So that all the spirits who were wronged there are given safe passage so they may rest. And it’s telling the story because that’s what we do. That’s what our art does.”

Gabriel thinks that showcasing contemporary native art “paints a different picture” than what most people are used to seeing in terms of First Nations art. “Which is kind of the totem poles . . . there’s a place for that,” says Gabriel. “But I think there are other voices coming forth from our communities that are using other tools, essentially saying the same things about our communities and telling their stories. They’re just using different mediums, which is great.”

Gabriel found the group he spoke with very receptive, saying that it helps when there are, “People who are interested in the subject already.” These days at KPU, there are eight different faculties with indigenous content in their curriculums. And that reality hearkens to what the elder-in-residence at UFV Eddie Gardner once told The Cascade—“There’s such a beautiful renaissance of who we are as First Nations people nowadays.”

“I agree. Eddie’s got it right,” says Gabriel. “And a lot of it’s coming from our young people, which is great, we need it. And what better time, than now. There are issues in our communities that need to be dealt with. And I think we need to have as many people in places like this doing the work that we’re doing, and helping out wherever we can.”