Dancing With A Ghost: Exploring Aboriginal Reality by Rupert Ross. Toronto: Penguin Canada, 1992 (reprinted 2006 with a new introduction).
reviewed by Jase Cowan
As a non-native lawyer trained in Toronto, Rupert Ross seems an unlikely guide to understanding the worldview of Aboriginal peoples. However, Ross is a perceptive observer, whose insights are a valuable tool for beginning to understand how the perspectives of Aboriginal peoples have developed.
In Dancing With A Ghost, Ross draws on his experience as assistant crown prosecutor in northern Ontario Aboriginal communities to demonstrate that decisions of Aboriginal people are often rooted in a different way of viewing reality than that of non-Aboriginal culture. Consequently, non-Aboriginal people may find the behavior of Aboriginal persons baffling, simply because it is based on a set of underlying rules that differ fundamentally from their own. In order to better understand this reality, Ross examines how, over generations, unique circumstances have influenced the development of a distinct worldview that values controlling emotions, intuition, and not interfering in the behavior of others.
However, this book is not only a history of the Aboriginal worldview. It is a call to understanding, written with the conviction that we are likely to condemn decisions that we don’t understand. Ignorant that a different view is at work, we assume that the decisions of Aboriginal people are made according to the same underlying principles that non-Aboriginal culture values. It is only when we become aware that our observations are filtered through our cultural worldview that we can begin to avoid making negative judgments about Aboriginal behavior that we simply did not understand.
Christians, often with the best of intentions, have been no less guilty than the general public of viewing Aboriginal behaviour through the lens of our own cultural worldview. Ross’ work stands as a reminder that even while we atone for the mistakes of the past and call for justice in the present, we will continue to make new mistakes unless we learn to see the world through our neighbours’ eyes, prioritizing values that are compatible with both our faith and the worldview of Aboriginal peoples. We must be careful to avoid presuming to speak for Aboriginals without first endeavoring to understand their perspectives. We must be aware that justice as conceived by well-meaning non-Aboriginals may not be viewed as justice by the Aboriginal persons it is meant to serve.
By acting as a guide for non-Aboriginals to gain a greater understanding of Aboriginal worldviews, Ross has offered a valuable resource and a timely reminder that any call for justice for Aboriginal peoples must begin with understanding Aboriginal perspectives.
Jase Cowan is a law student at the University of Saskatchewan.
