1. No category

TO HELL WITH STATUS?
FOCUS ON RECLAIMING, RESTORING AND
REGENERATING THE “MYTH” OF THE
LOST INDIGENOUS “PARADISE”?
20/03/2015
© Dr. Francis Adu-Febiri, 2015
1
Contents of Presentation

Introduction: Status Matters

Key Concepts

INDIGENOUS RESISTANCE
– The Oka Crises
– Goals of Resistance of the relationship
– Strategies of resistance
– Outcome of resistance
– Beyond status quo resistance strategies

The “myth” of Indigenous paradise?

Human Factor Competency

Fighting Indigenous Marginal Status
– A) ACTIVE RESISTANCE
– Litigation and Negotiation
– Multiculturalism Policy
– Anti-Racism Advocacy:
• Education
• Legislation
– Protests and Militant confrontation
– B) PASSIVE RESISTANCE OR QUIET REVOLUTION
– Human Capital Development strategy
20/03/2015
– Human Factor Competency Development Approach

Summary & Conclusion
2
Introduction:
STATUS MATTERS


To Hell With Status?
Because Indigenous Peoples in Canada have not
been able to move from a low status to high
status as a group, they experience exclusion
from meaningful Canadian citizenship and/or
disempowered inclusion in the Canadian social
structure. That is, limited access to valued
resources.
 Working to improve Indigenous status matters if
Indigenous people want to eliminate their existing
disempowered inclusion in the Canadian social
structure and have substantive access to valued
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3
resources.
KEY CONCEPTS
Resistance
 Status Quo Strategies
 Collective Action
 Indigenization
 Indigenous Paradise
 Multiculturalism
 Anti-racism
 Quiet Revolution
 Democratic Racism
 Human Capital
 Human Factor Competency
 Sociological Imagination
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 Institutional Completeness

4
INTRODUCTION: Resistance
THE OKA CRISIS OF 1990

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61
ldZTjlfgE
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5
Resistance

Whatever Indigenous resistance in
Canada is about, the fact is, the
attempts of Indigenous People to live
a resistance relationship with the
Canadian state reveal three things:
– 1. Innovative goals
– 2. Status quo strategies
– 3. Little success
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6
INNOVATIVE GOALS
1. Indigenous Peoples Development
 2. Working with the Desires and
Goals of Indigenous Communities.
 3. Reclaiming, restoring, and
regenerating the lost Indigenous
paradise.

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STATUS QUO STRATEGIES

The resistance developed to eliminate domination
and violence against Indigenous peoples have
largely used STATUS QUO strategies: anti-racism
education, legislation, litigations, negotiations,
protests, and militant confrontations.
 These strategies meet the sociological
requirement of “Collective Action”. That is,
actions that do not focus on individual people
and groups.
 Despite the considerable resources expended on
these strategies over the years, Indigenous
people are still marginalized and violated in
Canadian communities, institutions, and
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8
organizations.
DISMAL OUTCOMES

What has all the contemporary struggle to
eliminate marginalization of, and violence
against, Indigenous peoples really achieved?
Responses to this nagging question show that there are
few success stories. On the whole, there continues to be
widespread poverty and unemployment, high dropout rate
and low educational attainment, under-representation in
substantive entrepreneurship, serious abuses, vertical and
lateral violence, high levels of alcoholism/substance abuse
and suicide, serious health problems, etc., in Indigenous
communities.
 In effect, despite the long and systematic use of protests,
litigation, negotiations, militant confrontations, Indigenous
Peoples in Canada still experience exclusion from
meaningful Canadian citizenship and/or disempowered
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9
inclusion in the Canadian social structure.

BEYOND THE STATUS QUO

It is mainly the frustration from this
exclusion or disempowered inclusion
that inspires some Indigenous
leaders to refocus the struggle
against oppression on
“Indigenization”. That is, reclaiming,
restoring, and regenerating the lost
Indigenous “paradise”.
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10
THE “MYTH” OF INDIGENOUS “PARADISE”?


Indigenization Programs tend to put
on a moral pedestal Indigenous
philosophies, knowledges,
methodologies, ontologies,
epistemologies, axiologies, and
practices.
This is being questioned by some Western
scholars, particularly paleobiologists,
archaeologists and botanists (Wyllie 2012,
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11
Fennel 2008).
THE “MYTH” OF INDIGENOUS “PARADISE”?

The literature on ecotourism and environmentalism shows a
common theme that emphasizes that “indigenous or Aboriginal
peoples have an environmental ethic that is superior to that of the
West. This belief holds that they have a special, often spiritual,
relationship with the environment, live in harmony with nature,
and use natural resources in a non-destructive , sustainable
manner.” (Wyllie 2012, p. 308).
 This position “has been challenged in a provocative article, in
which relevant findings of paleobiologists, archaeologists, and
botanists were examined (Fennel 2008). In the course of this
examination, little empirical evidence was found to support the
notion that indigenous people have a superior environmental
ethic. Numerous examples of indigenous environmental
devastation and mismanagement were to be found over
thousands of years in various regions of the world (Wyllie 2012, p.
308; Diamond 2005).
12
THE “MYTH” OF INDIGENOUS “PARADISE”?

In North America, for example, there was evidence of
overhunting during the precontact period…In later periods,
the Chippewa let thousands of fish spoil in warm weather,
while the native people of Alaska killed hundreds of caribou
during the 1970s, eating only a small portion and leaving
the remainder to rot…The author’s view is not that
indigenous peoples were worse environmental stewards
than others, but simply that they were no better than others,
and that they have often adopted sustainability practices
only in quite recent times (Wyllie 2012, pp. 308-309):
– “While the argument has traditionally been that indigenous
people are losing their ecological ethic over time, research
suggests that conservatism has been a recent addition to
traditional societies as a cultural practice” (Fennel 2008, p.
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13
PROPOSAL

1. Given the dismal success of the status quo strategies;
 2. Given the “refutation” of the precontact Indigenous “paradise”
perspective;
 3. Given the apparent success of the Quebec “quiet revolution”,
the strategy of middle status minorities in Canada, and Ghana’s
model that focused on human capital development; and
 4. Given the incontrovertible fact that When one gains a high
position, one has the resources to protect oneself from violence;
and that those who are not favored within the system have fewer
resources to protect themselves from violence and have little
ability to change a system that keeps them low and violated.
 I propose that more resources should be channelled into
motivating and supporting Indigenous peoples/communities to
develop human factor competency (HFC). HFC could produce new
energy that would drive their collective actions to positively
transform their relationship with the Canadian state. Such
transformed relationship means high status for Indigenous people
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14
and opportunity to access vital resources to reconstruct the lost
HUMAN FACTOR COMPETENCY DEFINED

HFC is positive human factor. That is, human abilities to acquire
and apply appropriate knowledge, skills, attitudes and
humanitarian qualities to effectively identify and solve problems
that work against productivity, profitability, social justice, equity,
non-violence, cultural development, and environmental
preservation (Adu-Febiri 2001).
 According to the HFC Model, in addition to appropriate
knowledge, skills and attitude, there are other essential human
qualities such as social, emotional, aesthetic, moral and spiritual
connections that empower people and ensure their well-being.
These connections produce determination, commitment,
responsibility, accountability, tolerance, hard work, acceptance,
confidence, respect, loving-kindness, trust, caring, sharing, nonviolence, integrity, honesty, compassion and the like (Adu-Febiri
2002).
 In other words, HFC goes beyond human capital to incorporate
emotional capital, “spiritual capital, moral capital, social capital,
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15
and aesthetic capital” (Adjibolosoo 1995).
HUMAN FACTOR COMPETENCY AND THE
SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION


I agree with the sociological position that “while one person
can make a difference to our private day-to-day troubles,
the Sociological Imagination promises to help us see that in
order to make these changes matter, many of us need to
collectively change the social relationships in which we
live” (Russell Westhaven 2013, p. 252).
However, it is important to note that Human Factor
Competency (HFC) is the tipping point of creating collective
action that positively transforms social relationships that
matter for the human well-being (Adjibolosoo 1995, AduFebiri 2002).
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16
HUMAN FACTOR COMPETENCY AND THE
SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION

Sociology focuses less on the individual who makes the choices and more
on the social relationships which shape or influence choices, actions, and
attitudes of individuals (Westhaver 2013, p. 251).

In the case of Indigenous people in Canada these social
relationships are largely colonial/neocolonial/postcolonial. What
would change these social relationships so that Indigenous
communities can experience sustainable development?
Sociological theories virtually neglect HFC, particularly leadership
(network of individual leaders who make policy choices), in the
change process, although empirical evidence of the Indigenous
decolonization struggles clearly show that the quality of
leadership is crucial for success or otherwise.

While the sociological imagination and critical thinking promise collective
action to provide Indigenous people improvements in their status, wellbeing and social relationships in Canadian society, the application of HFC
education model that produces moral leadership promises to deliver these
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17
promised improvements.
HUMAN FACTOR COMPETENCY AND
INDIGENOUS EDUCATION

The HFC education model envisions
Indigenous education systems that build
deep capacities to produce smart people
(people who have high human capital—
appropriate knowledge, skills, attitude)
who so deeply care about the feelings and
well-being of other people that they will do
anything to prevent violence against their
bodies, cultures, governance, economies,
communities, environments, and the
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cosmos.
HUMAN FACTOR COMPETENCY AND
INDIGENOUS STATUS


It is the development of HFC among Indigenous people that
would engage them to get into vital positions in both the
private and public sectors of the Canadian society. With a
critical mass of human factor competent Indigenous
peoples in powerful positions they would be able to create
collective actions that establish and maintain normative
systems and practices that would gradually eliminate
inequities and violence against them and/or create
institutional completeness that would facilitate the
reclaiming, restoration, and regeneration of their “lost
paradise” or create a new paradise, and thus actually throw
STATUS into hell.
Functionalist, social conflict, interactionist, feminist,
postmodernist, poststructuralist and postcolonial paradigms
neglect the importance of humanitarian qualities of individuals
and communities, particularly leaders, in fighting marginality and
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19
violence. This limits the utility of these theories’ proposed
solutions to Indigenous issues.
FIGHTING INDIGENOUS MARGINALITY:
ACTIVE RESISTANCE STRATEGIES
1. Litigation and Negotiation
 2. Multiculturalism Policy
 3. Anti-Racism Advocacy:

– Education
– Legislation

4. Protests and Militant confrontation
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20
FIGHTING INDIGENOUS MARGINALITY:
1) Litigation and Negotiation


Since the turn of the twentieth century various
Indigenous groups have taken the government to
court, have negotiated with and lobbied the
government to reclaim their “Aboriginal title”,
land rights, treaties, and self-government. There
have been some successes in these areas.
However, these interactionist strategies have not
translated into improved collective status of
Indigenous people in any significant way because
litigations and negotiations leave the human
factor decay/deficiency in both the mainstream
and the Aboriginal communities virtually intact.
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THE FUTILITY OF FIGHTING
INDIGENOUS MARGINALITY?

Given that a) Aboriginal marginality benefits the
Canadian state and non-Aboriginal people, b)
anti-racism practices have driven blatant racism
underground, and c) Aboriginal people lack
adequate economic and political power, fighting
Aboriginal marginality on the turf of a capitalist
society is hopeless or futile, according to the
social conflict paradigm.

Radical Aboriginals such as Ward
Churchill (1999) and Taiaiake Alfred (1999)
hold similar views.
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22
THE FUTILITY OF FIGHTING INDIGENOUS
MARGINALITY?: Social Conflict Paradigm
This Marxist pessimistic view of fighting inequality within
capitalism is not new. Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois, the first Black to
receive a Sociology PhD from Harvard, came to a similar
conclusion in the 1960s:
 “…Du Bois had finally concluded that this weeping
woman’s promised land [racial equality] was a cruel,
receding mirage for people of color. And so he had chosen
to live out his last days in West Africa” (Lewis 1993: 3).
 Marxists, poststructuralists and radical Aboriginals
encourage protests and militant resistance to eliminate
politico-economic structural inequalities that marginalize
Aboriginal people. In fact, “Activism—from the use of civil
disobedience tactics by the Innu of Labrador to the
violence of Oka—has been effective in drawing public and
political attention to Aboriginal grievances when
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23
conventional channels of redress are ineffective or
unavailable” (Fleras and Elliott 1992: 85).

THE FUTILITY OF FIGHTING INDIGENOUS
MARGINALITY? Social Conflict Paradigm

However, activism has not been able to
make a significant change in the socioeconomic status of Indigenous peoples
because it fails to take into account the
dependence of successful protests and
militant/violent resistance on the human
factor competency of such resisters as
well as the leaders of the dominant
groups.
 Lack of high HFC is a major contributing
factor to the failure of active resistance to
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24
uproot Aboriginal marginality.
FIGHTING ABORIGINAL INDIGENOUS:
2) Multiculturalism Strategy

Unlike the Marxists and poststructuralists, postmodernists
are optimistic about the elimination of Aboriginal
marginality through multiculturalism policy and diversity
programs such Employment Equity.

Multiculturalism strategy assumes that Aboriginal
marginality is a cultural problem so it
multiculturalizes Aboriginal - non-Aboriginal
relations.
The multiculturalism strategy uses workshops and
celebration of Aboriginal cultural traditions to help create
tolerance and sensitivity among people, particularly
members of the dominant groups. It uses employment
equity legislation to address under-representation of
Aboriginal people in mainstream organizations and
institutions.
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
25
FIGHTING ABORIGINAL INDIGENOUS:
2) Multiculturalism Strategy



Because multiculturalism strategy culturalizes Aboriginal
marginality instead of implicating systemic/systematic
racism and human capital decay/deficiency of Aboriginals,
multiculturalism/equity programs tend to work more for
White women and White people with disabilities than for
racialized minorities and Aboriginal Canadians.
After 18 years of the operation of the Employment Equity
Act in BC the representations of white women (50.4% of BC
population) and white persons with disabilities (8.5% of BC
population) in governmental organization are 54.8% and
5.8% respectively, while only 6.1% visible minorities (17.0%
of BC population) and 1.8% Aboriginals (5.0% of BC
population) are represented (BC Government, 1999).
The failure of multiculturalism programs to center systemic and
systematic racism in addressing marginalization in Canada led to
the emergence of the anti-racism education strategy.
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26
FIGHTING ABORIGINAL INDIGENOUS
3) Anti-Racism Advocacy


This strategy of the postcolonial paradigm emphasizes that
there is a socially constructed imperial system—white
dominative political economy, culture, ideology and
discourse—that produces and reproduces racism or
inequality of condition that prevents minorities to
experience equality of opportunity.
Given this anti-racist prognosis that racism is
socially constructed, anti-racism advocates
attempt to deconstruct racism and construct antiracism. The anti-racism deconstructions and
constructs have so far included anti-racism
education, anti-racism publications, antidiscrimination legislation, and militant resistance
or protests at the expense of developing human
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27
factor competency of minorities and Aboriginals.
ANTI-RACISM ADVOCACY:
a) The Education Strategy

It focuses on informing members of the
dominant groups about the injustices and
costs of racism, convincing them to
legislate against racism and removing
racist barriers from
organizations/institutions, and changing
their personal perceptions, attitudes and
behaviors about racialized minorities.
 Several workshops, panel discussions,
courses, conferences, and publications
have been organized for this purpose.
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28
ANTI-RACISM ADVOCACY:
b) The Legislation Strategy



Focuses on lobbying government to enact laws
and develop policies and programs that outlaw
racism and encourage or enforce racial diversity
at all levels of organizations and institutions.
The Canadian government has produced charter
of rights and freedoms, multiculturalism act, and
employment equity act. Many organizations have
adopted diversity management policies and
programs.
Yet, Indigenous status has experienced little
change.
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29
FIGHTING INDIGENOUS MARGINALITY:
4) The Protest Strategy

Protests or marches, another strategy of the
poststructuralist and postcolonial paradigms,
have taken place. Key among these are
demonstrations of civil disobedience, particularly
with relations to land or resource conflicts; more
general policy protests with respect to
sovereignty issues; appeals to international
agencies; and, occasionally violent
confrontations. The protest activities of the
Haida, the Lubicon, the Tenne Augama tribes, and
the Mohawks at Oka come to mind (Fleras and
Elliott 1992: 86).
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30
FIGHTING INDIGENOUS MARGINALITY:
The Protest Strategy

“While these protests have been highly
effective in moving Aboriginal issues to
the centre of national agenda” (ibid.), they
have made little difference in Aboriginal
status because of their neglect to address
Aboriginal human factor competency
issues.
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31
FIGHTING INDIGENOUS MARGINALITY:
Impact/Outcome of Active Resistance Strategies

1. DEMOCRATIC RACISM:
 The fact is, the establishment of anti-racism legislation,
policies, and programs, resulting from protests and militant
resistance of Aboriginals and people of color, have
unfortunately, made blatant racism virtually invisible in the
public sphere while leaving non-white Canadians
marginalized in Canadian communities, institutions, and
organizations (Adu-Febiri 2001).
 This situation creates the impression that there is no more
racism against Aboriginals and visible minorities and that
their marginality is related to their lack of adequate human
capital (functionalist perspective) or exists only in their
definitions of symbols of EuroCanadian society
(interactionist perspective).
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32
FIGHTING INDIGENOUS MARGINALITY:
Impact/Outcome of Active Resistance Strategies


2. Indigenous People made responsible
for their marginality:
Such situations push the burden of eliminating
marginality on Aboriginal people and elicit
strategies such as human capital development a
la Quebec’s “Quiet Revolution”.
 Human Capital Theory: “When the country’s
wealth lay mainly in rocks and forests, Canada
could afford to be complacent about its human
capital. But sweaty-brow jobs are disappearing as
the forces of the information age conspire to
make brain power the ultimate resource. Most of
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the job growth is occurring in high skill areas” 33
(Maynard 1989: 88).
FIGHTING MARGINALIZATION:
PASSIVE RESISTANCE
1)The Human Capital Strategy

This functionalist strategy for fighting
marginalization has worked for Quebec through
its “quiet revolution.” Quebec’s “Quiet
Revolution” has succeeded in propelling
Quebeckers of French heritage into the
commanding heights of Quebec’s economy,
politics, and culture.
 The human capital development strategy has also
worked to minimized the marginalization of
hitherto minority ethnic groups such as Jewish
Canadians and the Chinese and Indo-Canadians
in British Columbia.

Can the human capital development strategy
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34
work for Aboriginal people in Canada?
FIGHTING MARGINALIZATION:
The Human Capital Strategy

In the 1960s Quebec realized the marginal
entrepreneurial and educational statuses
of French Quebeckers and initiated
policies and programs to change that.
 Similarly in the 1960s the Ghanaian
government called attention to the
marginal status of the ethnic groups in
northern half of Ghana and initiated
policies and programs to eliminate this
structural inequality (Adu-Febiri 1998)
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35
FIGHTING MARGINALIZATION:
The Human Capital Strategy: Entrepreneurship
Establishment of many state-owned companies as a
training ground for French-speaking entrepreneurs:
Because of this practice, in 1961 French-speaking
Quebeckers controlled only 15.4% of the manufacturing
sector and 47.1% of the overall economy of Quebec, but by
1978, the proportions had risen to 22.3% and 54.8%,
respectively. Since 1980, Francophone business ownership
has progressed to a point where French-speaking
businessmen are more confident in relation to their
competitors inside and outside Quebec, and are more
independent of the state (Fernand Quellet 19… “The Quiet
Revolution: A Turning Point” In Towards A Just Society,
Chapter 13).
 Similarly Ghana used the state-controlled Agricultural
Development Bank and National Investment Bank to
facilitate entrepreneurship among the northern ethnic
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36
groups (Adu-Febiri 1998).

FIGHTING MARGINALIZATION:
The Human Capital Strategy: Entrepreneurship


Aboriginal Canadians don’t control a state like
Quebec and Ghana to use it for cultivating
entrepreneurs. However, Aboriginal
entrepreneurs can pool their resources together
to create a large capital/knowledge/skill base to
boost existing businesses and create new ones
(Adu-Febiri 1998).
The success stories of the middle status
minorities, particularly Jewish Canadians who
tend to be disproportionately represented as
entrepreneurs, lend credence to this approach
(Weinfeld 1993: 219).
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37
FIGHTING MARGINALIZATION:
The Human Capital Strategy: Higher Education

In the 1850s 34%of French-speaking students in
Quebec universities were studying theology,
while only 4% were studying applied sciences; in
English speaking universities, 0.6% were
studying theology and 28.1% applied sciences. In
the period 1936-45, Anglophone Quebecers made
up to only 20% of the population, yet 42% of all
university graduates and 66% of those with
doctorate degrees were English. In 1961, when
31% of English-speaking university students were
women, only 15% of French-speaking students
were women (Fernand Quellet 19….).
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38
FIGHTING MARGINALIZATION:
The Human Capital Strategy: Higher Education

The Quebec state’s intervention in education to produce professionals
was not accomplished without battles and trade-offs. The Ministry of
Education, the junior colleges known as CEGEPs and the University du
Quebec were all created for the purpose of bringing French-speaking
Quebecers up to par with the rest of North America. Education
focused on technical and professional training, scientific
development, administration and commerce. In 1941,
education and culture absorbed only 8.2% of the provincial
budget; by 1983-84, this has risen to 31.8%, with total
budgetary expenditures having multiplied 240 times
(Fernand Quellet, 19…).

Similarly, in the 1960s Ghana government enacted an educational
policy and increased the education budget for free and universal
elementary education for all Ghanaian children, free secondary
education for marginalized ethnic groups, and free university
education for any Ghanaian who is admitted into university (AduFebiri 1998) for the purpose of eliminating ethnic inequality. The
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39
policy and programs achieved their objective.
FIGHTING MARGINALIZATION:
The Human Capital Strategy: Higher Education


Aboriginals, unlike the Quebeckers and
Ghanaians, don’t control a state to use it to
manipulate education in their favor. Fortunately,
however, mainly because of the efforts of
modernist anti-racist activism and the emergence
of post-industrialism, educational opportunities
available to the mainstream are also available to
Aboriginals.
Some Aboriginal Canadians have utilized this
opportunity to attain higher education and are
gainfully employed and influencing changes in
Aboriginal communities. There are many still who
need to be motivated to go that route.
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40
FIGHTING MARGINALIZATION:
The Human Capital Strategy: Higher Education

Again, the Jewish Canadian success story
is refreshing: their higher educational
attainment have propelled them into high
status salaried occupations as managers
in large firms and professionals in public
or quasi-public bureaucracies (Bell 1973).
Such occupations bring greater rewards in
prestige and income than in most
entrepreneurial ventures, and have
become increasingly popular among
Jews, Asian minorities, and other historic
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middlemen groups (Weinfeld 1993: 220). 41
FIGHTING MARGINALIZATION:
The Human Capital Strategy: Higher Education


Given the Quebec, Jewish and Ghanaian success stories,
higher mainstream education is the basic means of socioeconomic upward mobility for Aboriginals.
To make education work in the job market for
Aboriginals, however, as the Quebec and Jewish
experiences show Aboriginals should be
encouraged to get into technical training,
professional schools, post-graduate programs,
and expanded entrepreneurship.
 To factor in racism, Aboriginals need to go even a
step further in education: focusing on cuttingedge sciences, leading-edge technology, and
doctorates in humanities, and social sciences
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42
steeped in relevant indigenous knowledges.
FIGHTING MARGINALIZATION:
The Human Capital Strategy: Higher Education

Because opportunities are available and
for the sake of employment in higher
levels of the Canadian organizations,
Aboriginals should attain relevant higher
education in the mainstream postsecondary school system. All that they
need is a support system to help them
overcome motivational, funding and
curriculum barriers.
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43
FIGHTING MARGINALIZATION:
The Human Capital Strategy: Higher Education

As the success story of the Maori of New Zealand
has shown (Smith 2002), Aboriginal control of
Aboriginal education in the elementary and high
schools, language emersion programs,
Aboriginal community-provided scholarships and
bursaries; tutorial services, science and business
camps, mentoring by Aboriginal elders, teachers,
administrators, and successful students would
go a long way in creating educational success for
Canadian Aboriginals in Canadian mainstream
higher education.
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44
FIGHTING MARGINALIZATION: PASSIVE
RESISTANCE
2) The Human Factor Competency Approach
Quebec’s strategy to fight marginalization is necessary,
however, it is inadequate to resolve the inequality
Aboriginal people face because, unlike French Canadians,
they experience racism-induced marginalization as well.
 Because human capital inadequacy of Aboriginals is an
effect rather than the cause of their marginality, fighting
their marginality needs to go beyond human capital
development.
 In other words, human capital development is a necessary
but an insufficient tool to eliminate Aboriginal marginality.
Human capital can propel Aboriginals to powerful positions
but they would be incapable of utilizing the power to chip
away institutional and systemic racism/inequality if they
lack appropriate spiritual capital, emotional capital, moral
capital, social capital and ethno-cultural capital to connect
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45
with their communities.

FIGHTING MARGINALIZATION:
The Human Factor Competency Approach


The fact is, in order not to become insensitive to the
struggles of lower class Indigenous, the Indigenous people
who attain high human capital need to be socialized to
develop deep and positive social, cultural, emotional, moral
and spiritual connections to the Indigenous community.
With such connections they would develop and apply the human
factor qualities of responsibility, accountability, integrity, loving
kindness, sharing, and caring toward underprivileged members of
their communities. It is these human factor qualities that would
motivate Indigenous elites to use their human capital to
systematically provide resources to improve the conditions of
other Indigenous people to utilize the equality of opportunity
available in Canada.
 Such socialization in appropriate emotional, spiritual capital,
moral capital, social capital and ethno-cultural capital can be
achieved through Indigenous controlled elementary and high
schools, emersion programs, mentoring programs, community 46
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social rituals, and family resocialization.
SUMMARY

Since postmodern racism argues that there is no racism because
there is equality of opportunity for all racial groups, but since the
mainstream society does not provide equality of condition for
Indigenous people, they need to create favorable conditions to
help them utilize the equal opportunities available. Human factor
competency development is a viable way to create this equality of
condition (Adu-Febiri 2002a).
 Human capital competency (entrepreneurship and/or higher
education) is the key to upward social mobility, and the social
structure has plenty of room for Indigenous people with this
competency: entrepreneurs and/or higher professionals.
 However, entrepreneurs and higher professionals without
appropriate emotional, spiritual, moral, social and ethno-cultural
capitals tend to reinforce the status quo. Therefore human factor
competency that integrates human capital, spiritual capital, moral
capital, social capital and ethno-cultural capital is the surest way
for Indigenous people to eliminate their marginality in the
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47
postindustrial Canadian society.
CONCLUSION

Working to improve Indigenous status
matters if Indigenous people want to
eliminate their existing disempowered
inclusion in the Canadian social structure
and have substantive access to valued
resources.
 A Feasible way to improve Indigenous
Status is the optimal development of their
human factor competency (HFC). Human
Capital development is small part of the
HFC.
CONCLUSION


Indigenous people should not, and cannot, depend on the
Canadian social structure that oppresses them to liberate
them. They, therefore, need to construct their own survival
and thriving mechanisms. They need to construct
institutional completeness, through the development of
human factor competency and use it to systematically chip
away barriers in mainstream organizations, institutions, and
communities that work against their empowerment and full
inclusion in Canadian society.
While there are many variables in the challenge to
improve Indigenous status in Canada, a key
factor is the need to raise the quality of their
human factor. In the final analysis, it is the quality
of people who make the difference between
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49
equity and inequity; wealth and poverty;
development and underdevelopment.
CONCLUSION

Human factor competency development
among Indigenous people of Canada is
not only possible but feasible when
indigenous wisdom and principles are
used as the foundation.

In effect, the solutions to Indigenous marginality in Canada
reside in the collective action of Indigenous communities.
All the vital resources needed for this program are in the
Indigenous communities.
“If the answers are within us, what are we
doing about it?” (Smith 2002: 1).

THE STATUS QUO IS NOT AN OPTION! 50
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
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