Some notes, and free writing, (please excuse the free flowing nature of the following writing). Some musings on First Nations, and Canada, without much structure or cohesiveness. Simply ideas.
Let us put to rest misconceptions and lies about the residential school system.
First of all, it didn't work. Whether there were deliberate flaws in its design, or the flaws were placed within unknowingly we cannot state with any sort of certainty. The men behind the residential school system are all long dead. We can probably gleam some motives from what they'd left behind, but we cannot be certain, at all. Let us put this in the past, finally.
We First Nations probably couldn't let it rest, just yet, however. Canada had never acknowledged the residential school system. Never deliberated. Never investigated. Never self-reflected on what had happened. And had allowed its history to fade and become terminal.
And worse, there are those who would try to convince Canadians the residential school system had been created to serve First Nations' best interests, but it had simply gone wrong, somewhere.
I don't know. I don't think so. That sort of thinking seems to be more wishful than correct. This system had been corrupted right from the get go.
You know, residential schools were simply a natural extension of the Indian reserve system. And Indian reserves are just a fancy term for concentration camp. Lands reserved for First Nations as treaties between the Canadian government and First Nations people were negotiated, and First Nations were naturalized into Canada.
That process had stalled somewhere when the Canadian government found it preferred First Nations on reserves, outside of the Canadian social fabric.
I look at Israel and Palestine as instructive. That social calamity is probably the natural extension of what could've happen to First Nations in Canada had we not died off naturally in the tens of thousands from diseases such as tuberculosis and small pox.
After the North-West rebellion, First Nations were simply hated in Canada. Oftentimes, I wonder if the North-West rebellion fed into the meat grinder that became the residential school.
I look at the conflict in the middle east, and find it instructive. Consider how much hatred haters here in North America have toward Muslims. Now remember this sort of hatred was, and still is, directed at First Nations. The hate yet remains. The Harper government would to its convenience peel off the top layer of mascara hiding it, and let it all out, until whatever bullshit they were up to was finished, or whatever event was to their detriment had passed.
In all honesty, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was simply a start. There is much needs to be revealed and evaluated within Canada's past, from both long ago, and the near past, and even within our own lifetimes. We have a need for historians to find out what the hell happened. We have a need for lawyers to investigate, and judges to deliberate.
Hell, we have a shit tonne of needs, and not much resources to get all this done. We need the federal and provincial governments working together in a major effort to record this history.
We First Nations are back on our heels, honestly, with only so much direction.
What is most important of all, though, is integration. Allowing us into Canada's social sphere. As of now, we're shut out of even our own decision making process. We have control over little things, here and there, but the big important decisions, we have no influence.
Let us put to rest misconceptions and lies about the residential school system.
First of all, it didn't work. Whether there were deliberate flaws in its design, or the flaws were placed within unknowingly we cannot state with any sort of certainty. The men behind the residential school system are all long dead. We can probably gleam some motives from what they'd left behind, but we cannot be certain, at all. Let us put this in the past, finally.
We First Nations probably couldn't let it rest, just yet, however. Canada had never acknowledged the residential school system. Never deliberated. Never investigated. Never self-reflected on what had happened. And had allowed its history to fade and become terminal.
And worse, there are those who would try to convince Canadians the residential school system had been created to serve First Nations' best interests, but it had simply gone wrong, somewhere.
I don't know. I don't think so. That sort of thinking seems to be more wishful than correct. This system had been corrupted right from the get go.
You know, residential schools were simply a natural extension of the Indian reserve system. And Indian reserves are just a fancy term for concentration camp. Lands reserved for First Nations as treaties between the Canadian government and First Nations people were negotiated, and First Nations were naturalized into Canada.
That process had stalled somewhere when the Canadian government found it preferred First Nations on reserves, outside of the Canadian social fabric.
I look at Israel and Palestine as instructive. That social calamity is probably the natural extension of what could've happen to First Nations in Canada had we not died off naturally in the tens of thousands from diseases such as tuberculosis and small pox.
After the North-West rebellion, First Nations were simply hated in Canada. Oftentimes, I wonder if the North-West rebellion fed into the meat grinder that became the residential school.
I look at the conflict in the middle east, and find it instructive. Consider how much hatred haters here in North America have toward Muslims. Now remember this sort of hatred was, and still is, directed at First Nations. The hate yet remains. The Harper government would to its convenience peel off the top layer of mascara hiding it, and let it all out, until whatever bullshit they were up to was finished, or whatever event was to their detriment had passed.
In all honesty, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was simply a start. There is much needs to be revealed and evaluated within Canada's past, from both long ago, and the near past, and even within our own lifetimes. We have a need for historians to find out what the hell happened. We have a need for lawyers to investigate, and judges to deliberate.
Hell, we have a shit tonne of needs, and not much resources to get all this done. We need the federal and provincial governments working together in a major effort to record this history.
We First Nations are back on our heels, honestly, with only so much direction.
What is most important of all, though, is integration. Allowing us into Canada's social sphere. As of now, we're shut out of even our own decision making process. We have control over little things, here and there, but the big important decisions, we have no influence.
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