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Daniel N. Paul
Daniel N. Paul, C.M., O.N.S., is an author, journalist, lecturer, reviewer, consultant, Justice of the Peace for the province of Nova Scotia, Commissioner of the Nova Scotia Supreme Court, a member of the Nova Scotia Police Review Board, Chair of the Council on Mi’kmaq Education, and sits on several non-profit boards. The following are some of the honours he has been awarded by various entities for devoting much of his labours towards helping to make our society a place where all of its diverse citizens can live out their lives in peace and equality. His personal website is www.danielnpaul.com. HonoursMulticultural Education Council of Nova Scotia Award- 2006/2007 Grand Chief Donald Marshall Sr. Memorial Elder Award - 2007 District Chief for the Shubenacadie Mi’kmaq District: December 1988 to June 1990. Honourary title bestowed at the second annual meeting of the Confederacy of Mainland Micmacs. City of Dartmouth Book & Writing Awards: Co-winner of First prize for non-fiction, 1993 edition of We Were Not the Savages, April 21, 1994. Honourary Doctor of Letters Degree: University of Sainte-Anne, Church Point, NS, June 7, 1997. Honourary citizen of the Acadien District of Clare Certificate: Honoured by the Municipality of Clare for promoting human rights for Acadiens, March 22, 1994. Millenium Award: Honoured by the City of Halifax, January 14, 2000, for contributing in a special way towards making the community a better place for its citizens to live and prosper in. Certificate of Appreciation: Nova Scotia Department of Justice, June 2002: "On behalf of the Provincial and Family Courts and the government of the Province of Nova Scotia, this Certificate is bestowed upon Daniel Paul in recognition of your significant contribution to the justice system of Nova Scotia." Order of Nova Scotia: Province of Nova Scotia, October 2, 2002: - the Province’s highest award for "outstanding contributions and for bringing honour and prestige to Nova Scotia." Listed in Canada's Who's Who - beginning with the 2004 edition: Recognized for fighting for civil and human rights for humanity, and writing accomplishments, etc. Order of Canada: Named to the Order on February 3, 2006. Although he appreciates the before mentioned honours Paul states that high among the most appreciated honours that he has received during his career are the dozens of small items, letters, mugs, Eagle Feathers, etc., given to him by students as thanks for helping them to better understand the importance of according all Peoples human dignity and respect. In addition to four books, Paul has been published numerous times in journals, human rights booklets and readers, school readers, newspapers, and magazines. His second book, We Were Not the Savages, was the first-prize co-winner for non-fiction at the 6th Annual City of Dartmouth Book and Writing Awards in 1994, was on the Nova Scotia bestseller list for seventeen weeks, and inspired a play entitled Strange Humours. A revised edition of We Were Not the Savages, Twenty-First Century Edition, was published October 2000. A third edition entitled First Nations History - We Were Not the Savages - Third Edition, was published in September 2006. His books have been cited as a reference in many books and articles. The new version is now being used as course material in several universities and high schools. Selected List of Publications
"I think your book, We Were Not the Savages, is excellent. Indeed, the best on the subject - I take my hat off to you! Having, over the years, in connection with my own writing, read most of the sources you cite in you book, I had long ago arrived at the same conclusion you have. Certainly, white intrusions everywhere in the world have been disastrous for indigenous peoples." "We Were Not the Savages is a provocative and excellent book. A work that deserves the highest praise. It is brave, insightful, unflinching and above all honest. And, most important, it greatly enhances our positive images of Amerindians." "This book speaks for our people and promotes true knowledge, understanding and appreciation. Our ancestors were not the savages, they were indeed an Honourable people. When you read the pages of this historical document, you too will conclude that the history of the Mi'kmaq reflects an honourable people. "Reading the pages of this book, continually affirms for me, how good it is to be a Mi'kmaq. I so wish that my father was still living. Wouldn't he be so proud that such a book was available. I also wish that this history book was in existence years ago, a book that now empowers me and fills me with great pride to be a Mi'kmaq." "We Were Not the Savages...is unique, in chronological and in the story it tells, covering the last three centuries of Mi'kmaq history in detail. It is also extraordinary in the way in which it animates that history with intense social concern and awareness and in the way it presents a distinctive voice [for] the Mi'kmaq."
"...Daniel N. Paul's We Were Not the Savages is a brilliant and painful account of how the Mi'kmaqs were treated by the Europeans.... The inescapable conclusion from his book is that if Ottawa and Washington are so concerned about human rights, they might take a long hard look at what we did to the Mi'kmaqs and other Tribes. We forced Germany to pay reparations after World War I. More recently, the Swiss were intimidated into paying Holocaust victims for deposits once held in Swiss banks. Likewise German companies accused of slave labour in World War II have been pressured into compensating their victims. "It is a tale of deception, greed, brutality, bigotry, and humiliation. Ultimately though, it is a study in perseverance and survival." "[Daniel N. Paul's] work is a valuable contribution to Nova Scotia literature, quite apart from the challenging message it conveys." "[Daniel N. Paul's] work is too well documented to discount." "...a masterly, erudite, comprehenseive, most valuable job with We Were Not the Savages." "...without a doubt a most fascinating and profoundly disturbing account of the history of Micmac civilization, and the courage shown in the face of diversity and hardship." The Confrontation of Micmac and European Civilizations Truro: Confederacy of Mainland Micmacs, 1990. EditingCanadian Identity, Thompson Nelson, Social Studies text for Atlantic Canadian students in grades 8 or 9. Culture Quest, Oxford University Press, Grade 6 Social Studies, Atlantic Provinces Curriculum. Book Review, Unsettled Past, Unsettled Future: The Story of Maine Indians by Neil Rolde, for the 2005 issue of the New England Quarterly. Daniel N. Paul can be contacted at e-mail: daniel.paul@ns.sympatico.ca. |
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First
Nations History - We Were Not The Savages - Third Edition: A Mi'kmaq
Perspective on the Collision between European and Native American Civilizations.
Fernwood Publishing, 2006. ISBN 1-55266-209-8.
"...count me in, too, among your book's advocates... [the book]
knocks the smile off Englishmen who claim their colonial presence among
Indians was 'better' than that of the Spanish".