By Denise C. Breton
Chapters from Harm-Dependent No More: Who Are We - Winners and Losers or Relatives?
Introduction: Four Indigenous Protocols for Dialogue
Addressing harms and our role in them across generations elicits deep and often painful feelings. It involves questioning who we are, personally and as a people. The conversation can be difficult on all sides. To set a good tone, I appeal to four Indigenous protocols for dialogue. In doing so, I am not trying to “go Native.” I call on these protocols as load-bearing beams for the work ahead of us. > Full Introduction
Chapter 1: Harms Matter
Asleep to Harms
Win-lose thinking pervades our world, but it has upended our psyches to do so. First, the model tells us it is okay to commit harms routinely if winning calls for it; we talk about winning big, for example, as “making a killing.” But this goes against a deep human desire: we want to be in a good way with each other, and treating each other well and fairly is how we do it. > Full Chapter
Chapter 2: Philosophies Matter Too
“We Think the World into Reality”
Harms matter, and philosophy matters too. If a philosophy has convinced us to commit harms all the way to holocausts and then blind ourselves to the harms, then a different philosophy can inspire us to remove the blinders: we can think and act with awareness and responsibility for what our actions have done. Philosophies open spaces for us to self-change. > Full Chapter
Chapter 3: The Win-Lose Story
“Rigged and Ruthless”
In October 2010, Amnesty International reported that Papua New Guinea citizens living near the Porgera gold mine have been coming home to burned homes and suffering violence. The mine is 95 percent owned and operated by subsidiaries of the largest gold mining company in the world, the Canadian-based Barrick Gold Corporation, as part of the Porgera Joint Venture (PJV). And so, for nearly a decade, women have been raped, men and boys beaten, people have been killed, and their livestock have been slaughtered. The message is clear: “Leave your home—or else.” > Full Chapter
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