colonial mind in post-secondary education, The

4. Freedom from the colonial mind: Freedom from oppression

Freedom from the colonial mind is simultaneously freedom from oppression, for the acts of colonization in Canada were oppressive acts. They can also be defined as violent acts, according to Pilisuk and Tennant (1997), Femi and Rothberg (1997), and Sivaraksa, Bhikkhu and Rothberg (1997). These authors connect violence to what Buddhists name the three poisons: greed, hatred, and delusion. As discussed previously, the will to gain coercive power is oftentimes a desire for control, which in the colonial mind is historically based upon the delusion of superiority which justifies greed and gaining control over First Nations peoples and their hereditary land base. According to Paulo Freire (1995), the act of oppression is similar to projection where: the oppressed are regarded as the pathology of the healthy society, which must therefore adjust these `incompetent and lazy' folk to its own patterns by changing their mentality. These marginals need to be 'integrated,' 'incorporated,' into the healthy society that they have `forsaken.' (p. 55)

In psychotherapy, projection is defined as a defense mechanism protecting the oppressed from their powerlessness to change others. From a Buddhist perspective, projection protects the delusion of superiority and control. The understanding of academic society in relation to First Nations was outlined by Dilthey (1976) as elementary in that the colonial mind is an egocentric mind that needs to extend outward, beyond the known to the unknown, toward the uncertainty of relationship with another world view.

In academic society, acquisition of knowledge is for personal gain, for initiation into academic society, and for perpetuating rather than transforming self-defeating behaviours in the superior/inferior relationships. Once a student has demonstrated conformity to the written, verbal, and nonverbal communication standards of the academy, he or she is initiated into the society, and having completed the highest degree, is then qualified to become a professor, one who then professes the values and beliefs of the system and of their particular area of study.

Freedom from the oppressive behaviours within the systemic framework of the academy, however, requires individual professors and students to acknowledge cultural and social differences and their personal response to those differences. Ultimately, it is in differences in world view and in the controversy regarding those differences that one is able to seize the opportunity to clarify personal and cultural perspectives, and ideally, to broaden personal knowledge by viewing the world from another cultural perspective.

The outlined defensive mechanisms, such as projection, denial, delusion, and the will to coerce and control would indicate in the psychotherapeutic model that the journey to change is not a simple, easy journey; where there are strong, generational defenses, there is great vulnerability in the admission of a generational delusion. If an individual has been raised and conditioned in the delusion of superiority and has faithfully upheld the generational delusion, to come out of the delusion is an act of loss, as well as betrayal of the generations before. Initially, people conditioned in the delusion of superiority may believe, upon enlightenment, that they have wasted their years living a lie; therefore, the cost of emerging from the delusion may be too high for some and they may choose to hear but not change. Others may examine the cost of turning upon oppression and although the cost is high, the desire for freedom is stronger. Others may choose to remain in the delusion that oppression creates because they are not willing to risk a new definition of power and authority. The outcome of transformation from oppression to freedom is ultimately the decision of the individual.