The speaker in this video is Stephen Cornell, co founder of the Harvard Project. He has done a series of seminars focusing on Nation Building. The seminars cover topics such as Constitutional Refom, Policy, Strategic Planning and Economic Development. This video is on Native Owned Enterprise which falls under Economic Development.
The Harvard Project has been studying Nation Building and trying to answer the questions related to Nation Building such as: What do we want for our people for the next 50 years? How are we going to get there? What strategies do we need to put in place to get there? How can reduce or eliminate dependence on outside organization? The Harvard Project has studied successful Bands and analyzed what has made them so successful. In a comparison of Enterprise A and Enterprise B, we see how the mistakes are made in running an enterprise on reserve.
Enterprise A is a forestry enterprise selling fence posts.At first it is successful but the band starts to depend on it to carry the nation. The band council interfers and starts getting involved in the hiring. Soon the labor costs are too high and it is no longer profitable. the company folds.
Enterprise B is a Casino and the Council is insulated from it. It is running successfully but then nearby competitors are almost runs it bankrupt. A new strategy by this band is put in place. They realize they need to look at generating monies from different sources.They start to think about the future of the band and what they want to achieve. They are able to set up a structure that enables them to set up various economic opportunites so they are not entirely dependent on the casino revenues.
The video also talks about the approach the most bands take in economic development. They hire a planner or economic development officer. They get a grant, they expect that grant to carry the community in the form of job creation. They max out the effectiveness of the grant. By now it is time for a new council to be elected, they say we can do a better job than they did, and they get a grant and repeat the process.
This is the cycle that I see in my community. In the past we have had so many programs taking place in our community. We had canoe making, basket making and beadwork just to name a few. The problem is this: we copy what is going on in each reserve. What is successful in one reserve is not necessarily going to be successful in another reserve.We need to look at the uniqueness of our own community and develop our businesses from this uniqueness. Potlotek is the cultural mecca for the Mikmaq people and should be marketed as such. The island is the heartbeat of the people, it is what gives life to our culture. So much history is here, the grand council, the mission, the people. We have yet to use this to our advantage.
Another problem is: we are gullible. Its an awful thing to say but its true. We let these "fly by nighters" into our reserves too quickly. When we were in the canoe making business, other reserves had already had their turn in the canoe making business.These fly by nighters sold us their "serum" and we swallowed it, no we gulped it down too quickly without reading the warning label. If we looked at the warning label it would have said: "We are too good to be true. We saw an easy way to make money from your band and don't care one bit about you. We already did this to a neighboring band."
This is like the "Messiah Complex" we hear about in the video. We have the expectation that someone is gonna show up and save us. What we don't realize is that we already have the ability to save ourselves we just have to work together, set up the groundwork, make sure theres no cracks and don't give up so easily and keep trying.
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