Reader Diane sent me an email about a four-part series beginning this evening on CBC's Doc Zone called 8th Fire: Creating a New Relationship with Canada's Aboriginal Peoples.
The title 8th Fire draws from an Anishinaabe prophecy that declares now is the time for Aboriginal peoples and the settler community to come together and build the '8TH Fire' of justice and harmony.It will be looking at ways to build a new relationship between Canada's Aboriginal peoples and non-Aboriginal peoples. Check out the trailer for the documentary at: http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/
There has to be a different way for Aboriginal peoples to be in relation with others in this country and we have to figure out how to treat them with dignity and respect. The reserve system and the Indian Act are archaic horrors and we know that churches have been complicit in the past with colonialism. Our United Church apologies and reparations for the Residential Schools are reminders of our participation.
I keep hoping that we have learned something only to hear of another Attiwapiskat or Pikangikum in Northern Ontario. First Nations in British Columbia are speaking out against an oil pipeline which will cross their lands on the way to the coast. Last week I read a grim article on the number of native babies born addicted to Oxycontin because it is in their mothers' system. Nurses can tell from their first cries which babies are addicts. What a tragedy.
Do you have hope for an 8th Fire? We do have a Right Relationships initiative in the United Church to build bridges with Aboriginal communities. Should our denomination choose to do more than say sorry?
4 comments:
Native relations is certainly an ongoing problem on a number of fronts. As a nation known for its tolerance and openess, it's doubly shameful that the kinds of situations you mention are allowed to exist in Canada in this day and age.
I am encouraged by the media's present engagement with the issue, as well as with the kinds of programs supported by former PM Paul Martin. I really think we are on the threshold of real change when it comes to the hardships facing our natitve communities today.
So many impoverished and dysfunctional First Nation communities right across Canada, and there are many reasons why. We've probably read about most of those reasons because of Attawapiskat. There are communities in which ONE oxycontin pill will sell for $600!
When I lived in northern Sask. on a reserve, there was 90% welfare. If you didn't fish or trap, you didn't work. It's simply fact that many youth today have no interest in that line of work.
You can provide all sorts of help to communities, but if people feel hopeless and, as such, are numbing themselves with drugs or alcohol, then the problem goes deeper.
I have often wondered why some of the largest companies in Canada have gone to India and other countries to have their call centres, when we could have call centres all over northern Canada. Well, of course it's because of profits, but wouldn't it be nice if the Attawapiskats and Pikangikums of Canada could employ their people at call centres.
Give people employment and hope, and it might be a good start for these communities.
There was a frank article on this topic in the Observer this month. An Aboriginal lawyer and head of Indiginous Governance at Ryerson didn't sugarcoat her words when some "white" assumptions were offered as solutions.
She stressed two steps.
1) The urgent need to justly solve the poverty crisis now, and then 2)as you suggested David, get to the heart of solving the the relationship issues.
I was struck be her words that only in solving these issues would it be "allowing us to be fully human".
It is so much more than an economic problem. What it means to be human?...Faith leaders could offer the government help, I think.
Thoughtful responses from all of you. Thank you.
I was interested that the CBC series began last night looking at natives in urban settings and the challenges of maintaining cultural identity, along with overcoming suspicions and stereotypes.
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