Lifting Hearts Off the Ground: Declaring Indigenous Rights in Poetry

“Lifting Hearts Off the Ground: Declaring Indigenous Rights in Poetry” 
by Lyla June Johnston; Joy De Vito, editor; preface by Steve Heinrichs; Afterword by Leah Gazan

“When superiority is silenced, beauty is seen.”

― Joy De Vito

“Am I uncivilized if I wear buckskin, even while I pray for peace? Are you civilized if you wear a wristwatch, even as you wage war?”

― Lyla June Johnston

“If more politicians knew poetry, and more poets knew politics, I am convinced the world would be a little better place in which to live.”

― John F. Kennedy

While politicians are some of the least poetic human beings and the plethora of poets oddly shun so-called “political poems” as a too topical denigration of the art, what JFK probably didn't know is that Indigenous/Native cultures traditionally do not draw such blatant distinctions. The Native blending of community decision, mythopoeic story, natural sciences, spirituality, and more, make for a holistic approach that has been sadly lacking since 1492. Political turmoil is more agitated of recent years, yet, too, more cracks in the armor of what John Trudell referred to as the Industrial Ruling Class.

And that presents the scene for this unique and significant book that is part poetry, part legal jargon with good and necessary intentions. The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (acronymed UNDRIP – which reminds me of water issues) is a step in the right direction for worldwide fair treatment of Indigenous Peoples who have, for centuries, suffered by being considered as sub-human; even the Declaration of Independence absurdly refers to the Original Peoples of Turtle Island as “merciless Indian Savages,” and The Doctrine of Discovery as non-people to be eradicated.

Some background notes about UNDRIP:

“The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) was adopted by the General Assembly on Thursday, 13 September 2007, by a majority of 144 states in favour, 4 votes against (Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States) and 11 abstentions (Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burundi, Colombia, Georgia, Kenya, Nigeria, Russian Federation, Samoa and Ukraine).”[1] [For updates regarding “against” and “abstentions” see here.]

“UN Declarations are generally not legally binding; however, they represent the dynamic development of international legal norms and reflect the commitment of states to move in certain directions, abiding by certain principles.”[2]

Since the UNDRIP makes for rather technical and dry reading, the premise of “Lifting Hearts Off the Ground: Declaring Indigenous Rights in Poetry” is to make such information more accessible to the average reader in the context of presenting both the perspective of a Native and of a Settler sensitive to Natives issues. It is these layers which make the book both fascinating and a challenge to describe.

After each of the 46 sections of the UNDRIP is a poem by Lyla June Johnston (Diné) (Navajo) and Tsétsêhéstâhese (Cheyenne) and a poem by Joy De Vito, a Settler Canadian living in the Haldimand Tract, Ontario, the traditional lands of the Neutral, Anishinaabe, and Haundenosaunee Nations.

Before getting to the text itself, deserving of mention is the lovely quality and presentation of the book, a simple yet stylishly produced 200 page, 5x7-inch paperback with dust-jacket flaps. The UNDRIP sections are printed in white lettering on black background while the poems are the typical black lettering on off-white, with Joy De Vito's being italicized for yet another typographical variation. The legalese of the UNDRIP is thus, visually and semantically, dramatically juxtaposed with the honest and raw poetry ― all of which creates an interesting triad for the reader to process.

The UNDRIP sections – in the past and current context of Indigenous Peoples considered by some as sub-human – are significant for potential legal fair treatment. As example, in Article 7, “Indigenous Peoples... shall not be subjected to any act of genocide or any other act of violence, including forcibly removing children of the group to another group.” That this kind of thing needs to be mentioned in nearly every Article angered and saddened me; it is like someone saying: You have the right to get up each morning, greet the sun, breathe, and have coffee. Yet this is the reality and part of the reason for the title, “Lifting Hearts Off the Ground,” which comes from a Cree saying: “A Nation is not defeated until the hearts of the women are on the ground.” This book is a poetic cry for survival and respect.

Rather than trying to review the book from start to finish, what follows is a brief summary of key points and a few samples and comments so as to convey the overall feel and scope, with the encouragement that you purchase a copy, read, and learn for yourself.

Joy De Vito's writings read not so much as typical poems rather as conversational interjections, expressions from the gut or from the heart-mind, as she both conveys her deep feelings and prompts the reader to question what is actually going on and why. Lyla June Johnston's poems touch on many aspects of what it is like being a Native person; for my interest as a non-Native, this is one of the strongest aspects of the book. Yet, also highly significant is the combination of Native and Settler voices, both highlighting the need for their Peoples' healing from the effects of colonialism as well as the need for Natives and non-Natives to work together. The “Preface: For Healing and Life,” by Steve Heinrichs, director of Indigenous Relations, Mennonite Church Canada, Winnipeg, Treaty 1 Territory and the Homeland of the Métis Nation, and the “Afterword: No Reconciliation without Justice” by Leah Gazan, educator and grassroots mobilizer, Wood Mountain Lakota Nation, Treaty 4 Territory, serve as respectively good bookends.

Responding to Article 38, Lyla June Johnston writes:

“The UNDRIP puts our principles
into the format of the numbed world.
It begins to Speak of the sacred.
To achieve its goal, the numbed world
must come into the format of the sweat lodge. ...

In the context of formal agreements, words on paper are meaningless if not followed through with action. While UNDRIP is important as a legal precedent, history shows that so-called legal documents cannot be relied upon, as the approximately 400 treaties broken by the US proves. Without knowing all the legal implications or what may be expected of the UNDRIP, my feeling is that people can work to advance these Rights, yet the stakes are too high to rely on such documents so we must live up to our Responsibilities. Responsibility, as the word suggests, is about 'response-ability' or the 'ability to respond' wisely to any situation or circumstance. We each have inherent Responsibilities to care for life in its many forms, to care for Mother Earth and all beings, two-legged and otherwise. The whole ‘business’ of Rights, while probably having legal applications that are useful, seems to stem from a premise that you are powerless until somebody gives you rights; that way of thinking is faux democracy. Yet the UNDRIP, along with potentially shaping legal precedents, can move people to action.

Also worth noting is a recent book review of Human Wrongs: British Social Policy and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, clearly showing that in many instances the United Nations has a track record of impotence.[3]

Along with the institutional failings, one must be wary of corporate greed-mongers. Regarding one of the most common essentials needed for all beings to live, “Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, a former chairman and CEO of Nestlé called the idea that water is a human right 'extreme.'”[4]

Responding to UNDRIP Article 32, Lyla June Johnston speaks to issues of assimilation and 'corporate Indians':

Be careful young man,
You the one wearing ribbon shirts
and eagle feathers.
Don't get lost in the school of separation.
The universities, the cities,
the worlds of fortune and fame.

My economics professor at Stanford told me
that greed is good.
The chairman of the tribe has decided
he can represent the People.
But is he any better than the colonizer
if he forgot the lessons of the land
while he was away
at business school?

Article 16: “1. Indigenous peoples have the right to establish their own media in their own languages and to have access to all forms of non-indigenous media without discrimination. 2. States shall take effective measures to ensure that State-owned media duly reflect indigenous cultural diversity. States, without prejudice to ensuring full freedom of expression, should encourage privately owned media to adequately reflect indigenous cultural diversity.”

Part of Lyla June Johnston's poetic response:

We would have typed faster if our iPhones
spoke Diné Bizaad, the Navajo language.
There will be a day when we will not
be auto-corrected out of existence.

And Joy De Vito's:

Heartbreaking and infuriating by turns.
Turn on the latest blockbuster, switch to the news,
and watch the caricatures played out
for laughs,
for pity.

While the question of what, if anything, the UN and the UNDRIP can accomplish lingers, the spirit of poetry as a voice for the People and all sentient beings is one of the best maps forward. Near the end of the book, Lyla June Johnston reminds us how we are all different the same:

Some are parrots.
Some are falcons.
Some are cranes.
And some are pigeons.

But at sunset, we are all birds
needing a place to roost, a nest
to shield us from the winter wind.
See me in you. See you in me.

This book is thought- and emotion-provoking and is perhaps helping forge a new genre in an age where, at least on paper: The Law of the Rights of Mother Earth is a Bolivian law[5]; Ecuador has the Rights of Nature in its Constitution; in 2017, the river Whanganui in New Zealand, revered by the Māori, was granted the same legal rights as human beings[6] and following that precedent, the same for the Ganges and its main tributary the Yamuna in India;[7] Slovenia became the “First European Nation To Make Water A Constitutional Right;”[8] “'Something like fifteen years ago, the Chinese Communist Party wrote the goal of an ecological civilization into its constitution.'”[9]

Man-made laws are slowly catching up with the Natural Laws that Original Peoples of Turtle Island and elsewhere have known and lived with for aeons, before colonialism, capitalism, theofascist greed, the hungry ghost – call it what you will – wreaked havoc on the harmony.

In response to Article 20, Joy De Vito writes:
We talk about subsistence and forget
that for some
the fight is for
survival.

To buy or borrow “Lifting Hearts Off the Ground: Declaring Indigenous Rights in Poetry” published by Mennonite Church Canada.

NOTES:
[1] See here.

[2] Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples – Frequently Asked Questions

[3] “Human Wrongs”

[4] “Did the Chief Executive Officer of Nestlé Say Water Is Not a Human Right?”

[5] “Law of the Rights of Mother Earth”

[6] “New Zealand river granted same legal rights as human being”
3-16-2017.

[7] “Ganges and Yamuna rivers granted same legal rights as human
beings” 3-21-2017.

[8] “Slovenia First European Nation To Make Water A Constitutional
Right” - Brianna Acuesta, 7-19-2017.

[9] “China’s Determined March Towards the Ecological Civilization"  https://journal-neo.org/2018/05/04/chinas-determined-march-towards-the-ecological-civilization/

Mankh (Walter E. Harris III) is an essayist and resident poet at Axis of Logic. In addition to his work as a writer and small press publisher, he travels a holistic mystic pathway staying in touch with Turtle Island. See his new book of nonfiction with a poetic touch, “photo albums of the heart-mind”.

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