{"id":99712,"date":"2020-03-07T18:09:42","date_gmt":"2020-03-08T01:09:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=99712"},"modified":"2020-03-07T18:09:42","modified_gmt":"2020-03-08T01:09:42","slug":"dilemma-of-the-indigenous-people-of-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/03\/07\/dilemma-of-the-indigenous-people-of-canada\/","title":{"rendered":"DILEMMA OF THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLE OF CANADA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dr. Daya Hewapathirane<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Humans colonized\nthe New World earlier than previously thought. Taken together, genetic,\narchaeological and geologic records suggest that the humans set out from Asian\nSiberia sometime between 25,000 and 15,000 years ago, entering the New World\nvia Beringia as the ice sheets blanketing the Pacific coastal corridor and the\ninterior corridor of North America receded. By 14,600 years ago, they had made\ntheir way to South America. What is beyond all doubt, is that the indigenous\npeople of the two American continents have been a resilient and resourceful\npeople, trailblazers who settled the longest geographic expanse ever settled by\nhumans. Braving the unknown, they adapted masterfully to a vast array of\necosystems on two continents. These early Americans deserve our admiration.\nThey exemplify the spirit of survival and adventure that represents the very\nbest of humanity(Heather Pringle, The First Americans, Scientific American,\nVol.305, No.5, Nov. 2011).     <\/p>\n\n\n\n

INDIGENOUS PEOPLES \u2013 FIRST NATIONS <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The indigenous peoples in\nCanada include the First Nations, Inuit, and M\u00e9tis peoples.\nThe First Nations are the predominant indigenous\npeoples in Canada<\/a> south of the Arctic Circle<\/a>. Those in the Arctic area are distinct and known as Inuit<\/a>. The M\u00e9tis<\/a>, another distinct ethnicity, developed after European contact and\nrelations primarily between First Nations people and Europeans. Within\nCanada, the term First Nations has come into general use for indigenous\npeoples<\/a> other than Inuit<\/a> and M\u00e9tis<\/a>. North American indigenous peoples have cultures spanning thousands of\nyears. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are 634 First\nNations, and First\nNations governments (or bands<\/a>) recognized\nas such in Canadian law spread across Canada, roughly half of which are in the\nprovinces of Ontario<\/a> and British\nColumbia<\/a>. Most of these First Nations live on\ndesignated reservations, mostly in rural areas. They are generally politically\ninactive and have little clout in provincial and national affairs. The\nindigenous people of USA, Australia and South American countries share a\nsimilar fate. Everywhere they exist, they do so on the fringes of society,\nsubjected to white racism and neglect. Marginalised and patronised, many have\nsunk into apathy and despair. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

GENOCIDE INVOLVING\nMASS KILLING OF ORIGINAL PEOPLES<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Globally, it is a fact that in\nregions where white Europeans have settled for good, native populations have\nnever really recovered from the trauma. With missionary zeal, white settlers\nand administrators have sought to erase every vestige of indigenous civilisations.\nThus, continents like Australia, North and South America today have dominant\nwhite societies that have accepted and largely integrated with non-white\nmigrants, but continue to ignore the plight of those they displaced. The political\nentities known as Canada and the United States of America owe their very\nexistence as nation states to a genocide perpetrated against the original\npeoples of this continent. In Canada, this genocide was facilitated by the\ncreation of the Canadian National Railway, and the consequent destruction of\nthe buffalo, a critical component of Indigenous life and culture. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Highly hypocritical\nof Canada to speak of human rights violations in other countries, when Canada\nis overly guilty of worst forms of human rights violations during a long period\nof time. Canada is  responsible for genocide\ninvolving mass killing of indigenous peoples of this land. In the not too\ndistant past, Canada was responsible for inflicting on these people, conditions\nof life calculated to bring about their total extinction. Going all the way\nback to the arrival of European \u2018white man\u2019 to the western hemisphere, the\nindigenous communities have been subjected to torture, terror, sexual abuse,\nmassacres, and relocations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

THE INDIAN ACT OF 1876 AND RESIDENTIAL SCHOOL SYSTEM <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The now infamous Canadian Indian Residential School<\/a> system established under the 1876 Indian Act, subjected native children to forced\nconversions, sickness, abuse and was an attempt at Genocide. It was an attempt\nto force indigenous peoples off their lands, sever family ties and diminish\ntraditional Indian culture. This Act and the Residential school\nsystem it enabled, ripped native children away from their parents and put them into\ninstitutions designed to assimilate them instead into Canadian society, the\nstated intention being \u2018to kill the Indian in the child\u2019. Forcible transferring\nof children from one group to another and widespread abuse of children was the\norder of the day in these Residential schools separating children from their\nindigenous culture and way of life. In Canada,\nattendance at residential schools was made compulsory for Indian children, as\nthey were known in 1876 when this was made part of official policy. Thus,\nchildren were forcibly placed in these church-run schools where they were often\nsubjected to physical abuse and sexual exploitation. It wasn\u2019t until 1996 that\nthe Indian Residential school system was dismantled, and it was as recent as\nJune 11th<\/sup>, 2008, the Prime Minister of Canada made a formal apology\nto the indigenous people. The logic underlying this cruel social experiment was\nthat in order to \u2018civilise savages\u2019, children had to be removed from the\ninfluence of their families. To further cut off their links to their own\nculture, they were forbidden to speak in their own languages in the residential\nschools. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This\nlong process of deracination robbed entire generations of self-confidence and\npride, turning them into the demoralised, unmotivated people so many of them\nhave become. What took place in residential schools amounts to nothing short of\ncultural genocide \u2013 a systematic and concerted\nattempt to extinguish the spirit of Aboriginal peoples. It was the Canadian Chief Justice Beverley McLachlan who\nsaid in 2015, that Canada’s attempt to commit “cultural genocide”\nagainst aboriginal people “that began in the colonial period” is the\n“worst stain on Canada\u2019s human-rights record”. In the light of\nCanada\u2019s long history of severe human rights violations within the country, it\nis  hypocritical on the part of Canada speak\nof human rights obligations of other countries. Canada has consistently pressed\nVenezuelan authorities to address human rights violations and has imposed\nsanctions and suspended its diplomatic operations. Canada did the same against\nNicaragua for its human rights violations. Canada has yet to suspend arms sales\nto Saudi Arabia- a country with a record of extreme forms of human rights\nviolations. It is highly hypocritical of Canada to hold Myanmar accountable for\nan alleged genocide of the Rohingya people\u201d and to join some western  governments to urge China to end detentions\nand violations against Muslims in Xinjiang region. In addition, it is\nhypocritical of Canada to be involved with USA and western countries on\nresolutions against Sri Lanka, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Yemen at the UN Human\nRights Council.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NATIONAL\nINQUIRY INTO PLIGHT OF INDIGENOUS WOMEN  \n<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The missing\nand murdered Indigenous women epidemic is an issue currently affecting\nindigenous people in Canada<\/a> and\nthe United States<\/a>,\nincluding the First\nNations, Inuit, Metis <\/a>(FNIM<\/a>),\nand Native American communities. <\/a>It\nhas been described as a Canadian national crisis and a Canadian genocide<\/a>. Responding\nto repeated calls from Indigenous groups, other activists, and non-governmental organizations<\/a>,\nthe Government of Canada established the National Inquiry into Missing\nand Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls<\/em> in September 2016. The\nFinal Report of this national Inquiry was published in June 2019. It reveals that\npersistent and deliberate human and Indigenous rights violations and abuses are\nthe root cause behind Canada\u2019s staggering rates of violence against Indigenous\nwomen, girls and other marginalized people. The report cites specific colonial\nand patriarchal policies that displaced women from their traditional roles in\ncommunities and governance and diminished their status in society, leaving them\nvulnerable to violence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

From\n1997 to 2000, the rate of homicide for Aboriginal females was almost seven\ntimes higher than other females. Compared to non-Indigenous females, they\nwere also “disproportionately affected by all forms of\nviolence”. They are also significantly over-represented among female\nCanadian homicide victims, and are far more likely than other women to go\nmissing. In the United States, Native American women are more than twice as\nlikely to experience violence than any other demographic. One in three Native\nwomen is sexually assaulted during her life, and 67% of these assaults are\nperpetrated by non-Natives. The two-volume report calls for\ntransformative legal and social changes to resolve the crisis that has\ndevastated Indigenous communities across the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

GENOCIDE IN\nTHE  AMERICAS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In their book\ntitled In American Philosophy: From Wounded Knee to the Present, authors Erin\nMcKenna, Scott L. Pratt report a 90-95% decline in the Indigenous population of\nthe Americas between 1491 and 1691. It is no small coincidence that the\ngenocide has been beneficial for elite corporate interests, both domestic and\nforeign, seeking to profit from the land base over which various Indigenous\npeoples have title and sovereignty. In the past, Indigenous peoples were\nmercilessly decimated by diseases introduced by white settlers, made to sign\nunequal treaties that confined them to remote reservations and forcibly moved\nfrom their ancestral homes. And when it was decided that reservation lands were\nvaluable, the Indians would be forced to move again to other locations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

HIGHLIGHTING OF\nINJUSTICES <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bruce Clark, Reuben George, John\nAhniwanika Schertow, Thomas King, C. Backhouse, Yale D. Belanger, are among the\nmany prominent scholars and authors who have highlighted the injustices and\nhuman rights violations against the native people of Canada. Bruce\nClark<\/strong>, scholar, author and Canadian Native Rights Lawyer spent forty-six\nyears defending the rights of Indigenous peoples across North America. Clark\nhighlights how the legal system has been twisted and contorted to deliberately\nsuppress indigenous sovereignty to the advantage of\nwealthy elites. He holds an MA in constitutional history and a\nPhD in comparative law jurisprudence and is a scholar specializing in the legal\nhistory of the evolving relationship between Natives and Newcomers. He is the\nauthor of a number of essays for Dissident Voice<\/a>, and of the 2018\nbook Ongoing Genocide caused by Judicial Suppression of  the Existing\u201d Aboriginal\nRights\u201d. <\/a>Reuben George<\/strong> is\nthe Chief or Manager of the Tsleil Waututh Nation Sacred Trust\nInitiative<\/a>, which is mandated\nto stop the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion from happening. Constance Backhouse\u2019s\npublication was titled \u2018Colour-Coded:A Legal History of Racism in Canada, 1900\u20131950<\/a>,\nYale D. Belanger wrote on Ways of Knowing: An Introduction to Native Studies\nin Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

John\nAhniwanika Schertow<\/strong> is an\naward-winning journalist and multimedia artist of Mohawk and European descent.\nHe is the founder and lead editor of Intercontinental Cry<\/a>, an\non-line media source of news of world-wide Indigenous struggle and\nresistance. As a poet and freelance journalist, John\u2019s work has been\nfeatured in the Guardian, Toward Freedom, the Dominion, Madre, Swerve Magazine\nand many other publications. Thomas King<\/strong>\u2019s widely read book The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of\nNative People in North America\u2019 (2012) is necessary reading for those\ninterested in the plight of the indigenous people of North America.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr. Daya Hewapathirane Humans colonized the New World earlier than previously thought. Taken together, genetic, archaeological and geologic records suggest that the humans set out from Asian Siberia sometime between 25,000 and 15,000 years ago, entering the New World via Beringia as the ice sheets blanketing the Pacific coastal corridor and the interior corridor of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-99712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99712\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}