Critical Perspectives and Reflections

By: Jim Ward In the past couple of weeks I have read two recently published books on the North American Aboriginal issue:  Thomas King’s The Inconvenient Indian  and John Ralston Saul’s The Comeback .  They are very different books in terms of writing style and approach but both are pretty much focused on the need to do something to rectify a whole series of wrongs done to those who inhabited the North American continent from the north pole to the Rio Grande,  prior to the arrival of the Europeans and who have continued to do so, often in less than ideal conditions. Saul deals exclusively with the Aboriginal situation in what is now Canada, whereas King deals with both Canada and what is now the United States. The two books are very different in their approach to the issue.  King alleviates the name calling with considerable sophisticated humour.  By contrast Saul’s approach is without humour and brimming with statements of mea culpa o...

  By: Barb Nahwegahbow      Speaking of racism - the times when I have complained about racism and discrimination in the workplace (in the mainstream), - in fact, one time I went to the Human Rights Commission about an incident - it has been Aboriginal colleagues who have been the most upset with me for 'rocking the boat' or imagining things or taking things too seriously, or they said things like, he's really a good guy and not racist - even when the evidence was right there in front of them in writing . I think they believed I had put them and their jobs at risk by speaking up. I'd only been on the job for a couple of months - whose job was at risk? People, aboriginal or not, are so quick to jump to the perpetrator's defense. Here's another incident that illustrates that: Several summers ago I took a writing course at Haliburton School for the Art. I was so happy to see another Native woman in the course. One day I took my drum and I shared...