Women’s participation in decision making - Environmental and Human Security in the Arctic - page 224

supporting consultation. To support this success, it is necessary for both com-
munities and political institutions to acknowledge and appreciate the history
of dependency resulting from a colonial past. More specifically, communities
require support, cooperation and space from these external systems in their
present-day interaction with political institutions and their direction, author-
ity and assumptions.
The practice of dialogue as a social responsibility is central to the Inuit
governing process, but, placed within a colonial context, this responsibility
has been translated into a 'fly in and fly out' consultation process that pre-
vents interactive dialogue. The example of consultation, though conceptually
equivalent between the two political systems, is fundamentally different in
theory and practice. Although there are constant attempts to synergize the
two political processes, experience has proven that these efforts do not work,
regardless of how much space is created for Indigenous processes within the
colonial system. This inability to do so expresses itself by way of Indigenous
apathy in the colonial political systems, apathy that portrays itself as, and is
the result of, realities of social conditions in Indigenous communities.
In establishing experience, communities create space for individuals,
organizations and political institutions at the community, regional and ter-
ritorial level, to support community development through education with
and for the community, region and/or territory. Recognizing this, Indigenous
populations can no longer commit the time and energy to support a failed pro-
cess that increases the tension within their own populations. The Indigenous
population must return its focus to revitalizing their own political processes.
Strategies such as the Kitchen Consultation Model are an example of how
this goal can be accomplished. This model breaks away from the fluidity of
colonial processes by returning the necessity of experience to political pro-
cesses. Returning to an experienced-based political process will acknowledge
the contribution both women and men make within the political processes.
Respecting that knowledge is obtained directly through experience, or indi-
rectly through family teachings, it becomes clear that both women and men
have a responsibility in all realms of political reality and, therefore, must be
present within the system to do so. This will require Indigenous communities
and colonial structures to work through the complexity of moving beyond
the colonial process. This will be difficult, as financial sources, colonial politi-
cal mentalities and apathetic communities are difficult realities to untangle,
but it must occur in order to create stable political systems. Once a space
between colonial and Indigenous processes is established, education on how to
navigate political processes can occur within each system separately. Perhaps
thinking in terms of human security is one mode of encouraging and respect-
ing this necessary space.