Tansi Nîtôtemtik!
Look at that beautiful, red, Canada 150, Tim Hortons coffee cup in your hand. As it warms your hands on this chilly day, your double-double reminds you of the things that make Canada the great multicultural country it’s known to be to the rest of the world. It’s bittersweet - beavers, hockey sticks, maple leaves, and a gentle reminder that Canada became Canada only 150 years ago. But what about the diverse Indigenous nations that lived and thrived on this land thousands of years before that?
As yesterday’s post indicates, The Doctrine of Discovery, the one that led to the stereotypes of the ‘savage Indian,’ lives on today. This narrative lives on through our legal, educational, socio-economic, healthcare, and child welfare systems. It lives on through our actions, too: we spend one day in class discussing ‘Aboriginal offenders’ or the Louis Riel Rebellion, never to revisit the topics again. Boil-water advisories that have been in place for twenty years remain in place today on too many reserves. Funding is refused for a suicide prevention program in a remote Indigenous community because it’s “an awkward time.”[1] This is the legacy of colonialism.
But these are not the only realities in Canada today. There is also a legacy of hope. Hope lies within resistance, resurgence, and survivance. Indigenous communities and individuals (and more recently, allies too) have resisted colonization since it began. They continue to live and thrive on this land and they work to regenerate, rebuild, and revive what colonial narratives, myths, and stereotypes tried to destroy. They remind us that ultimately, the Canadian government’s goals of elimination or assimilation did not succeed.
Acts of resistance have occurred from the early days of colonization. Under the Indian Act of 1867, the Canadian government attempted to push their assimilationist agenda by banning and criminalizing the Potlatch, a traditional Indigenous ceremony used for celebration. Though some groups complied with the law, many Indigenous communities continued to participate in the ceremony either by altering them to appear more western or by taking these ceremonies underground.[2]
More recently, resistance takes place in front of the courts. Efforts are being made to remove the power that the Indian Act continues to hold over Indigenous people; so too are claims for Aboriginal title and rights, Treaty Land Entitlement agreements, and inclusion of Metis and non-status Indians under section s 91(24) of the Constitution Act.[3] These are just some of ways in which Indigenous peoples have fought and continue to fight for rights and acknowledgement from the Canadian government.
Survivance goes beyond simply living as an Indigenous person with an Indigenous last name. It includes actively passing on stories, practicing and celebrating the languages, laws, and ceremonies that were pushed underground, and protesting Western movements that threaten the livelihood of Indigenous peoples and land. The Dakota Access Pipeline protestors, water warriors, and the placement of a tipi on Parliament Hill on Canada Day are all forms of activism that work to preserve Indigenous lands, culture, and language. Decolonization is not enough - it is through acts of resistance, resurgence, and survivance that we will disrupt the realities shaped by centuries of colonialism.
So next time you take a sip out of your Canada 150 Tim Hortons coffee cup, remind yourself that there’s a lot more to this land than beavers, hockey sticks, and maple leaves. Go beyond the colonial narrative - what do you see?
Until next time,
Team ReconciliAction YEG
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[1] Jody Porter and John Paul Tasker, “Wapekeka First Nation Asked for Suicide-Prevention Funds Months Before Deaths of 2 Girls”, CBC News (19 January 2017), online: <www.cbc.ca>.
[2] Truth and Reconciliation Canada, Honouring the Truth, Reconciling for the Future: Summary of the Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (Winnipeg: Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada), 2017, at page 57.
[3] Daniels v Canada (Indian Affairs and Northern Development), 2016 SCC 12, [2016] 1 SCR 99.
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