GOOD HEARTS, GOOD MINDS?

Is there hope For Canada's Relationship with Indigenous People?

Author: Bill Lee, may 10. 2017

About a year ago around this time, I wrote a blog, in Critical Perspectives about what appeared to be, then, some legitimate glimmerings of hope that the Canadian state would act with a more fair minded and just political strategy in terms of addressing the colonial injustices (past and present) perpetrated against Indigenous people (CANADA’S "TROUBLED" RELATIONSHIP WITH INDIGENOUS PEOPLE, May 2, 2016). The Harper Con government had seemed to be intent on not only ignoring the colonial injustices but of rolling back any movement in a progressive direction. But during and after the 2015 election, the Libers under Justin Trudeau were making the right kind of noises and had actually done a few things, at least of symbolic import, appointments of Indigenous people to apparently powerful ministries, like Attorney General and the appointment of a seemingly solid Minister of Indigenous Affairs and Reconciliation , for example.

            That was then. Two years into the mandate cold reality has sobered my burgeoning hopes. Since then we can see a little progress - the outright racist language of the Harper Con government has disappeared and (largely) figurative positive steps have been taken, the acceptance of the UN resolution on Indigenous Rights has been accepted for example by the Libers. Likewise, the funding for some programs has improved (though it can hardly be called generous). But the fundamental problem of our failure to come to grips with the fact that the country in general and "whitestream" Canadians in particular continue to live off the avails of the first settler colonial project and the more recent corporate colonial project of resource theft. We know longer see Indigenous communities being forced to make way for European settlers. Our governments (Federal and Provincial) now back corporate access to land and resources with the latest wave of extractive activities. The imposition of large scale “development” projects without consent (no matter the UN Declaration on the Rights to genuine Consultation) is potentially generating conflicts that threaten Indigenous Peoples' very existence - from a social, political, economic and cultural perspective, and through an economic model that threatens their territories, and their health. In other words colonialism is very much in place. No one is talking about reparations for the various and many past thefts of land for example. And we still hear calls for Indigenous people to, "get over it" and "move on" from the trauma of residential school onslaught and the suppression of the various Indigenous cultures and practices[1]. This even as we are being forced to face up to the crimes like the 60's Scoop (which lasted well into the 80's) which continued the attack on Indigenous families and communities begun by the residential school policy. This shows that the Canadian nation continues to refuse to admit to the damage done, the genocide (cultural, social and physical) that has been perpetrated. We are still allowing our government to oil out of our treaty responsibilities, welch on recently court ordered decisions that required it to provide appropriate funding (money that for all intents and purposes is money owed) and generally drag its feet on doing anything much

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[1] The outlawing of the potlatch and confiscation of sacred ritual objects. In terms of the latter the only way some of the stolen artefacts can be seen now is to go to a museum, safely out of use of their proper owners. 

constructive. No fundamental alteration of the colonial reality is in sight.
            So, my tentative optimism has taken rather a significant a hit. But to answer the question posed in the title of this piece, I do have some hope. What continues to give me some reason to look for a better more just future however, is not a sudden coming to our collective senses or sense of justice. It’s not got to do with any ringing government promises or resolutions. What provides me some expectation of positive change is the increasing strength of the rejuvenation and resistance of Indigenous people. That has been going on since the 1960's but as I (SOMETHING HAPPENING IN INDIGENOUS COUNTRY?) and others, John Ralston Saul (The Comeback) for example have written, there has been a good deal of recent resistance. Dr. Cindy Blackstock has raised the profile of the shabby treatment Indigenous children have received and are receiving (in and outside the care of the various child welfare systems). Idle No More, here in Canada, and No DAPL (No Dakota Access Pipeline) in the USA (which received very considerable support from Indigenous people and groups on this side of the boarder) is seen as inspirational in fighting against the various neoliberal corporate colonial offensives. Some Canadians may wish to go back to sleep, but I suspect that the various Indigenous movements, leaders and people in general, are simply not going to allow that. The question is, will the majority of the "whitestream" Canadian population respond, in the words of many Indigenous people, with good hearts and good minds?