Fawn Herrington
Sociology 111: Essay 2
Professor Esaya Gelata
Nov. 1st, 2015
Aboriginal Hardships
Canada as we know it, is a flourishing economy and industry, we have a high standard of living and independent government that supports its citizens. Compared to other countries we are a free country who accepts and invites diversity of all cultures. Although, when a person peels away the layers they will find that Canada isn’t quite so innocent. First Nations’ people are standing up for their rights and taking a stand. Telling their side of the story that has been buried within Canada’s history for many years. By the colonisation of aboriginal people, Canada has stripped First Nations’ people of their dignity, culture, language and spiritual birthright.
Prior to contact with European Settlement, First Nations people lived a holistic life. They were people of peace and spiritual guidance, relying on the lands of their people to provide for them the necessities of life. Tribes were self-governing relying on each other in a cooperative manner. When the settlers came across the seas they overtook the lands, claiming that the First Nations people did not control their lives, the Royal Proclamation of 1763 was set. First Nations people were forced to live on ‘reserves’, land that was reserved by the westerners for aboriginal tribes. This was unjust to aboriginal people as they believe, lands are not classified by ownership. This colonisation of First Nations people divided their communities
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and tribes, causing hardship and ‘devastation of First Nations populations by European diseases.’ (First Nations in the Twenty First Century)(8). First Nations people were not classified as people but as savages who needed to be civilised into a growing economy, and needed to learn western ways in order to survive. Residential schools were constructed and children were taken from their homes.
When aboriginal children were taken from their homes involuntarily, communities were ripped apart. Parents were jailed if they interfered with the seizing of their children by government law force and Indian agents. First Nation children were to be civilised and forbidden to speak their native tongue. These schools were not for education or vocational purposes but solely to rid ‘the Indian’ of aboriginal children. Language, to First Nation communities, is the root of their culture and traditions. By disallowing children to speak in their native tongue, their spirit was broken, and the connectedness to their culture was lost. Children sustained physical, emotional and sexual abuse by their elders at the residential schools for over a century. Children from Kupper Island stated that the biggest hardship was losing trust, the elders of the church in the residential schools were supposed to be the ones they could trust, but ultimately they were the ones who tortured, and abused them the most. This left everlasting effects on the child making them feel shameful, and evil. These feelings of isolation, fear, shame, and disconnect are still carried with them today. Throughout generations, young aboriginal individuals have been stripped of their self-concept and self-worth. (108)
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Canadian government officials in this era thought they were doing First Nations people a favour, aboriginal people needed to be ‘civilised’ in order to grow with the economy and ultimately would lead them to a better life among the western population. They believed the aboriginal population would be better off living in a western culture, maintaining that First Nations people were uneducated and unable to survive on their own. This way of thought for most Canadians’ is still alive today. Aboriginal people are still living on reserves, governed by Canadian laws, and educated through Canadian school curriculum. “The forces of assimilation and the Indian Act had a dramatic impact on language use, retention, and resiliency, therefore creating uncertainty in the lives of First Nations people.”(108) Aboriginal people today are still fighting the battle to be heard and acknowledged as a visible minority, which deserves the right to live within their own culture and traditions.