Lookingglass300

Summary and Response to: Fractious Politics of a Settler Society: Canada – by Daiva Stasiulis and Radha Jhapan

A history of genocide through violence for the purpose of land, wealth, and power is one I hoped and almost made myself believe was brief. The genocide of the Native Americans was not an isolated incident. Genocide played out around the world. Taking place anywhere there were countries yet to be named and continents yet to be owned by ruling men with the need itching their fingers. The rising of a flag on the ‘new world’ was happening again and again influencing every native population on this planet. It amazes me how similar each story is in justification and means; mostly in the loss and then fight to be recognized as people and the denial of those rights. Canada shares this basic history having ‘celebrated’ the 500th anniversary of the Columbian invasion of the Americas in 1992 and finally the inclusion of aboriginal right, linguistic duality, racial and ethnic equality, a new third level of government to accommodate aboriginal self government, and the equality of women in the Charlottetown Accord rhetoric. Now I do realize that just because the rhetoric states something as true and followed does not mean that it is but the basic rights are down on paper and that has to be a step forward. Well it would have been if it had passed.

The aboriginal peoples of Canada have suffered ‘suppression of the land, civil, political, cultural and religious rights’ violation since explores of the ‘new world’ started to become independent and able to take care of themselves. The country itself is today considered to be built upon a settler’s society which considering that history is written by the victors not the dead could be seen as true. Part of this settler society construct is the fact that the goal building in Canada was to create a New Britain as far as replicating the social behavior and identity of the colonists. To do this the ‘white Canada’ immigration policy was enacted which recruited only the ‘best classes’ of British men and women. Everyone else was excluded unless they were being transported for labor purposes. By holding up these “shared framework(s) of civilization and moral and material standards.” the crown offered rewards to keep the colonies going and the love and loyalty for Britain high. This obviously had a strong detrimental effect on the native population of the area who wanted little to do with the British ideology of society or so it seemed.

There seem to be very few mentions in history books of the aboriginal or Metis (mixed blood) people before the civilizing of them occurred. The fact that the indigenous people played a large role in the early success of the colonizers is never heard. Maybe if they are pictured as anything but savage, uncivilized, and unclean the fact that they were killed off for sport would be too disturbing. There story gets even more complicated when you throw in the fact that not only was Britain trying to colonize Canada but France had its flag in the dirt as well. These compete forces seemed to care very little about the aboriginal and Metis people who stood in the way of their land hording. Each had their own ideal civilized person with their own mannerisms, language, and religions to force upon the un-civilized. Neither could claim cultural hegemony in the country and their fore no native person could rest easy in any one culture for each was under the impression that recognition and assimilation strategy was best suited.

Assimilation did not mean integration though. Those that intermarried or where ‘civilized’ by changing their language, their lifestyle, and their religion was still judged on their outward racial classification. Kept to the lower strata of the economic scale, especially women, their lives seemed to only get worse. This story seems to be told again and again. In every country there are indigenous people who are considered the uncivilized and the free to be abused. The women are the lowest on these ladders and suffer the most. Yet in this cause and many others there are uprising. In Canada, at least on paper, legal decimation based on your ancestry is no longer possible and women suffrage movements, particularly women of color, have made a path. It is important that we congonzize that each indigenous people have suffered differently but the connections are haunting. Why must exploring have such a bloody toll?