Native people's across Canada host a "Day of Action"

Date:   6/29/2007 2:47:52 PM ( 17 y ago)

Canadian aboriginals are having a "national day of action" that is partly protest and partly about raising awareness of the conditions they live in and the struggles they face.

Too bad I cannot find a group to walk with, because I would like to show my support. It is mostly in the bigger cities where organised protests are occuring, and I am rural. So, I will write in my blog at least...

Native people in Canada, and aboriginals around the world, are living in really rough conditions. The reserves are especially bad, without clean water supply and very very poor education for the youth. Promises to fix the infrastructure and provide decent education have come from our federal government for many years, and very little ever gets done [for various reasons of course, but mostly the money is just not spent].

There is going to be a lot of huge hurdles to overcome for people growing up on reserves and in aboriginal homes outside of reserves. The parenting skills and support from older people is missing, due to previous generations struggles, and it goes on and on. Alcoholism will be a negative factor for at least two generations in the family tree, maybe three of four. Poverty found in native communities will ensure the next generation does not have an equally competitive footing compared to the overall population of Canada.

People want to assign blame. Who is to blame for an entire culture's demise? It is often reasonable to assume that it is that culture's fault, unless they have been persecuted, where genocide may have been attempted, their land taken away from them and their traditional ways - even spiritual traditions - are outlawed. Also, continued hardships due to economic conditions and rascism are to blame. Those do all apply to native populations around the world, but Canada's natives have been especially hard hit. So, whose fault are all these things? [hint - not the aboriginals].

If we expect that whatever hardships their ancestors suffered must be forgotten, and that the next generations must "just get over it", we will be disappointed in the results. It will take a few generations to feel good about themselves and to feel secure about their culture AFTER all the old wounds are healed, and we are not there yet. Addictions and umemployment are the RESULT of these conditions, and not the reason those conditions exist.

We still have to stop persecuiting them. Much of today's persecution of natives comes in the form of rascism - White people who do not want to deal with the native situation, or the guilt we have for their situations, have come up with strange reasoning like this:
"because they are not successfull little capitalists, we believe them to be worth less". Becoming wealthy is actually the LAST step in a long journey that starts with education and health, not the last thing, and certainly not the measure of a person.

That rascism towards natives simply ignores the fact that they have so many hurdles to overcome, and it assumes that they would want to participate in a capitalist society. Traditionally, they had a much better system of sharing the wealth of the land. To be a good capitalist, you have to compete with others... competing with people that got a good start to life is not a fair competition for our natives. Astoundingly, some natives have become millionaires, despite the harder path they had to follow.

To expect them all to overcome the hurdles like that is just not realistic. First, they need basic sewer, water, heatlh care, education, and a few generations of parents without serious issues of their own. We CAN help them with all of those things, but the Canadian government is not doing its part, not living up to their promises.

It is not about welfare, and it is not about throwing money at individuals, but about basic infrastructure that the rest of Canada has.


 

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