Odds and Ends > Etcetera
The Concerns about Annett
Moma_porcupine:
This is a bit off topic of what usually gets posted in NAFPS , but I wanted to give a bit more information on the contraversy around Kevin Annett , some of which was first mentioned by Barnaby in the discussion about the people promoted in John Lekay's Heyoka magazine .
A lot of Native people seem to think highly of Kevin Annett and at first glance any critism of Annett may seem really unfair .
http://www.reclamationinfo.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2228&sid=7a376e1330cf56aaa39a2b4d47c94a0f
Then you look a bit more deeply , the situation becomes a lot more complex .
A group of native people were already involved in bringing the atrocities which occurred in the residential schools to light , when it is alleged that Kevin Annett took over this process in a way that was not respectful to the needs of the Native people he was supposed to be working with , and that he did this for his own glory . Annett is now getting the credit for this work , but it is likely what he shows the public would have all come out , if this process had been left in the hands of the Native people who were working on this .
The information in the below links might help people understand some of the contraversy around Annett , and why this exists , when on the face of it Annett seems to have done such a great a service to the Native community through telling the truth about what happened in Canada's resdential schools in his film "Unrepentant ".
http://sisis.nativeweb.org/resschool/sep2898coj.html
http://archives.econ.utah.edu/archives/marxism/2001/msg05724.htm
http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:kUk0EU-nonAJ:www.mail-archive.com/pen-l%40galaxy.csuchico.edu/msg30539.html+%22
Kevin+Annett%22+%22James+Michael+Craven%22&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=4&gl=ca
http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:b_uzNa5T6AsJ:archives.econ.utah.edu/archives/marxism/2001/msg05720.htm+%22Kevin
+Annett%22+%22James+Michael+Craven%22&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=5&gl=ca
http://archives.econ.utah.edu/archives/marxism/2001/msg05718.htm
That something did happen and this is not just weird stuff maliciously posted in cyberspace seems to be confirmed by these next two links , which appear to be reports coming from sources independant of Mr Cravens own collection of emails .
http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:7uJS0hH97zwJ:migs.concordia.ca/documents/MacDonaldFirstNationsResidentialSchoolsand
theAmer.doc+%22Kevin+Annett%22+%22James+Craven%22&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=8&gl=ca
The website below , which appears to be very much in support of Kevin Annett also acknowledges that *something * did happen ,
which caused Annett to be expeled from the Circle of Justice , though the reasons given as to why, are very different than the reasons alleged by James Craven in the links above .
http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:eSPK5pkLuG4J:canadiangenocide.nativeweb.org/chronology_of_attacks.html+%22Kevin+
Annett%22+%22James+Craven%22&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=5&gl=ca
--- Quote ---June 12-14, 1998: UN group IHRAAM holds Tribunal into residential schools.
Tribunal judge James Craven and local native woman Kelly White are identified as police informants and provocateurs after the Tribunal.
--- End quote ---
( Really ? Who identified these people ? It doesn't appear to say . And on what evidence ?)
--- Quote ---August 4, 1998: Uhlman and James Craven meet with four members of the Circle of Justice without Kevin present, and offer them money to publicly disassociate themselves from Kevin and expel him from the Circle. The four - Amy Tallio, her husband,and two others -agree.
--- End quote ---
( How it it known Mr Craven paid people to disasociate themselves from Annett ? I see no sources. Would suvivors of residential schools who were trying to bring what happened to justice really be so easily bought off ? )
--- Quote ---August 8, 1998: These four people call a meeting and expel Kevin from the Circle, and demand from him all records and evidence from the Tribunal and his work. When he refuses, they slander Kevin over the internet and (with Craven's help) claim falsely that "Kevin is using survivors' testimonies without their permission and to make money off their suffering." (Amy Tallio and James Craven are subsequently flown by the Canadian government to conferences on residential schools in Nova Scotia and Ontario, and are paid to attack Kevin publicly and ridicule the allegations of murders in residential schools)
--- End quote ---
This is not something that appears to have been resolved .
http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:71Be2HO1OoMJ:lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/a-list/2007-February/065149.html+%22
Kevin+Annett%22+%22James+Craven%22&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=7&gl=ca
http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:pIF7d_18X74J:https://lists.resist.ca/pipermail/ipsm-l/2007-March/001477.html+%22Kevin
+Annett%22+unrepentant+resist.ca&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=ca
Here is some quotes from a much longer article by Jim / James Craven , the alleged RCMP disrupter .
http://www.turtleisland.org/discussion/viewtopic.php?p=5042
--- Quote ---I’m a member and Solicitor General of the Blackfoot Nation and I served as a tribal judge. One of my specialties is applying Nuremberg precedents to the residential school situation in Canada and the US. I've worked with UN-connected groups to conduct legal tribunals on genocide, applying the 1948 UN Convention on Genocide and human rights laws and statutes we're all governed by. I also prepare our people who are victims for cross-examination and litigation. Right now, survivors of the residential and boarding schools are launching a hundred lawsuits a month in Canada... (con..)
--- End quote ---
--- Quote ---One of the reasons the churches and government are talking so much about reconciliation and healing is they have more to
fear from cross-examination than any victim has to fear. I've interviewed hundreds of residential school victims and all
you have to do is look in their eyes to see that this isn't being made up. Nobody could make this up. (con...)
--- End quote ---
--- Quote ---You also find people from different bands who never met each other, who went at different periods through the same schools and who name the same abusers, describe being brutalized in the same ways, the same modus operandi. And there's no possible nexus, no collaboration, no conspiracy to rig their testimony. Their stories corroborate each other. (con...)
--- End quote ---
--- Quote ---The reason they don't want to get into specifics is because what went on is genocide.(con...)
--- End quote ---
--- Quote ---They meant to destroy us. There's nothing well-meaning about sexually molesting kids and beating them for speaking their languages or being left-handed. They were not well-meaning. They never brought the message of Jesus to their own children by molesting them and beating them. It was only Indian children they did that to.(con...)
--- End quote ---
--- Quote ---...So we need make sure that we understand exactly what the issues are and to speak from a factual base. Check your facts and recheck them. Once you lose your credibility, you can't get it back. If you repeat rumors without checking them out, you lose your credibility. Sometimes you can check and still turn out to be wrong, but you have to make a good faith effort. And you have to tell the truth, even when it's uncomfortable. All Indians are virtuous and all whites are the devil takes you nowhere. It undermines the cause. People speaking for the cause have to be on top of the game because the cause will be judged by the spokesperson. It takes time and it takes energy to arrive at truth, but nothing less will serve any of us.( con...)
--- End quote ---
I could be wrong , and I don't have much information independant of what was written and posted by James / Jim Craven , but Mr Craven doesn't sound like someone trying to stop the truth from coming out . He also doesn't seem to be the only Native person to express concerns that too much hyperbole can lead to a loss of credibility in the long run .
http://www.nativevue.org/blog/?p=589
Maybe other people know more than what I have managed to find the links posted here ?
Barnaby_McEwan:
Thanks again for another detailed post. I had been meaning to look further into Annett's career but I doubt if there's much I can add.
Annett's paranoid propaganda style has made him very popular with conspiracy theorists: John LeKay being a perfect example. This year, Annett is one of the hot topics for tinfoil-hat-wearers: next year he but more importantly residential-school survivors, will be forgotten by these people. Anyone who disagrees with Annett, or his supporter Lekay, must be part of the gigantic plot. Therefore tribal judges and elders who criticise Annett must be RCMP agents or paedophiles or "connected to the Hong Kong Triad mafia", and I must be on the FBI's payroll. Meanwhile in the real world, justice continues to be denied or delayed for the victims of horrific abuse made possible by racist government and church policies.
In his "chronology of the assaults made against me and my work since 1993", Annett mentions a group called IHRAAM, the International Human Rights Association of American Minorities. Annett mentions this group issuing "subpoenas" to a tribunal it held, and calls it a UN group.
This is a misrepresentation of IHRAAM's status with the UN and its legal status. It's a non-governmental organisation, and I'm sure it does vital work, but being non-governmental it cannot force anyone to do anything like testify before a tribunal. IHRAAM is only a UN group in the sense that it has "consultative status". Moreover it is in the lowest category - the "roster" category - along with the European Electronic Mail Association. I'm not slating IHRAAM here, or anyone who took part in the tribunal - I'm pointing out an example of Annett's self-aggrandising style.
To finish here are some links on the United Church of Canada's site regarding Annett, including the decision of the hearing which stripped him of his ministry. It's illuminating when read side by side with his own account of that process.
coffee_drinker:
Putting aside any personal feelings of what Mr. Arnett did or didn't do, the concern should be of the children.
Hey it happened here in our country, why wouldn't it happen in another? The Catholic church along with other missions schools
enslaved, tortured, committed horirific crimes against Native people. I myself know several Native women that have been sexually abused by lay people. I know one elder that because of the trauma she went through in the mission school, they sent her to an insylum where she received massive shock treatments. This elder now in her 70's still suffers from it.
Ask the Navaho's how many where slaves in the name of the Catholic church to build all thoses mission.
So the real issue should be not if Mr. Arnett is taking credit for blowing the whistle. It should be about what has gone up there in Canada. And no I'm not some parnoid person that believes this is some kind of conspiracy. This s**$t is real. ( I'm talking about the Native people, not what may or may not have happened to those involved in exposing this)
Barnaby_McEwan:
--- Quote from: coffee_drinker on July 02, 2007, 01:46:53 am ---So the real issue should be not if Mr. Arnett is taking credit for blowing the whistle. It should be about what has gone up there in Canada.
--- End quote ---
I agree completely. Part of what has gone on is the story of residential-school survivors' struggle for justice. They deserve the credit for blowing the whistle on the the role of church and state institutions in abuse of Native children, not Annett, who rather than humbly serving his congregation has ridden on their backs to make himself more visible.
--- Quote ---And no I'm not some parnoid person that believes this is some kind of conspiracy. This s**$t is real.
--- End quote ---
The other problem I have with Annett is that he is promoting stories - Native elders providing children for abuse, paedophile rings composed of top politicians & church leaders etc - which sound extremely implausible (except to the paranoid) and lack proof; they are eerily similar to the satanic-ritual-abuse scare stories of the eighties. This is a gift to those anti-Native forces in Canada who want Indians to shut up and go away. Whenever Native people bring up a grievance or demand justice, racists can say "I bet you made that up, just like that residential-school bullshit".
There's a picture of Annett in several places on Lekay's website: it portrays him dressed as a minister, holding a Bible and standing over a grave marked 'Justice'. Apart from its extreme tastelessness, there is another interpretation of the scene that I doubt Annett or the photographer thought of.
Moma_porcupine:
I don't think anyone is doubting there was widespread abuse and even murder in Canadas residential schools . If Annett published pictures and stories of residential school surviors surviors without their permission , as alleged , that would be further abuse . Just imagine how you would feel if you provided details of the most painful parts of your life to someone , thinking they would help you get justice , and instead you found your picture and the information published in a magazine . If that really happened it is appauling .
It is also mentioned by one of these people who allegedly had their personal information used without their permission , that Annett didn't get all the facts right , and made people who reported their abuse to him , look like a bunch of liars .
If this is true , and Annett has not taken the time to make sure all the facts are right or he has used exaggeration to make his point , he has done a huge diservice to the many Native people who undoubtably DID experience horrendous abuse in Canada's residential schools , because , as Barnaby points out , any incorrect information will be used to try and cast doubts on all the information.
James Craven sounds like he was working with cultural sensitivity , on behalf of Aboriginal people for jusctice . If Annett's allegations that this person was an RCMP disrupter are not true , attempting to discredit Mr Craven sounds to me like it was Annett doing the disrupting and not Mr Craven . I am still curious what evidence Annett has for his allegations against James Craven .
It is a complex situation and a lot to read through, but anyone who takes the time to do this , will probably understand why there is concerns about what Annett has done .
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