Pat Paul discusses indigenous people in international lecture

Pat Paul knows her history.

She also knows the history of indigenous people throughout the Americas, enough of it that Paul took part last week in a major online global biennial conference addressing their plight.

A La Conner attorney and Alaska native who resides in Swinomish Village and was recently elected president of the Skagit County Historical Society board of directors, Paul was a featured speaker at the third Indigenous World’s International Congress. Attendees spoke French, Spanish or Portuguese, primarily.

Paul’s presentation Friday morning dealt with the horrific deaths of indigenous students at residential schools in the U.S. and Canada. She spoke to teachers, researchers, university students, activists and others interested in indigenous policies and issues.

Her topic was especially timely. News broke earlier this year of the discovery of unmarked Canadian graves of indigenous students who didn’t return from boarding schools where they were sent to assimilate to white culture.

A La Conner graduate, Dr. Kisha Supernant, now an archaeologist at the University of Alberta and the subject of Weekly News articles, has taken the lead in helping tribal communities and families across the continent locate the remains of their loved ones.

Paul titled her talk “Native Children’s Lives at Peril – Genocide in Canada and the USA.”

“There was close to a 10-minute introduction, in both Portuguese and English,” Paul told the Weekly News. “My presentation was in English; a Portuguese translation lasted around 30 minutes. An hour of questions and answers followed.

“The questions originated from Spain, Portugal, France and Brazil,” she added. “Many of the questions related to the similarities between the suffering of indigenous children in Brazil and among the Mapuche in Chile.

“Some of the questions,” said Paul, “went beyond the scope of my presentation, asking about education, suicide, teaching of indigenous languages and culture in society today.”

Paul was enlisted to speak by a longtime friend and colleague, Professor Stephen Baines, who teaches at the University of Brasilia, serves on COIMI’s Scientific Commission and presented translations for conferees.

Baines first heard Paul lecture during an international conference in Finland. She has spoken in Austria, Bhutan, Chile, Guatemala and Sweden.

Her connection with Brazil, the largest nation in South America, which like the U.S. and Canada has had to acknowledge historic trauma imposed upon its indigenous populations, is well established.

“I began lecturing in Brazil 22 years ago,” she said, “first at university and then at conferences, flying into the country.”

The inaugural COIMI conference was in 2017. Paul has been invited to join the conference speakers’ lineup again in 2023.

COIMI creates a larger collaborative network for discussions related to the history of indigenous people in the Americas. Its conferences focus on the aspirations, alternatives and struggles of those populations.