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Monday, August 6, 2012

Dear Canada, what is it about me you don't like?

Dear Canada, 

I'm confused. 

You took everything away from us in order to help us. And that worked out great*.  Now you propose to "give" us private property rights, in order to help us. I fail to see how imposing an ideological worldview that is antithetical to the many Indigenous worldviews is going to help improve the challenges First Nations face, much of which is the direct result of the impositions of the past. 

The strip of reserve I live on is quite small and it's on a flood plain. Much of the reserve land in Canada is on the land Canada didn't want. How will having the deed to it improve my economic opportunity?  It means it can be taken away from me too. Without my little scrap of land, how am I an Indian. If the Indian land disappears, don't you declare us extinct, like our brothers and sisters who lost their status and lost the right to their land? Without my land, what happens to your duty to consult with me?  Without this scrap of land, what happens to my history and my family?  

You've already taken my culture and my language and you undermine me everywhere I turn.  You've made it a rule that my children could lose their Aboriginal Rights depending on who I choose as their mother.  You try to tell me what my rights are as an Aboriginal person based on rules you make and change on a whim. Dear Canada, to paraphrase Thomas King, what is it about me you don't like?

* This asterisk means sarcasm, Canada. Just saying.

1 comment:

  1. Yes. Harper is trying to slowly undermine the Assembly of First Nations.
    Once a person owns native land, he can sell it. And he may not sell it to another band member. This means that over time native lands can be bought out from underneath the feet of the band.
    A slow way of destroying the Assembly of First Nations, but an effective one.

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