First Nations

socioeconomic gap between indigenous and non-indigenous people is quite obvious during that time (Scott, 2015). It is as if the members of societies all over Canada know, but choose to ignore it because they don’t lose anything. For example, “The United Nations Human Development Index has rated Canada sixth in terms of quality of life, but when you apply those same indexes to indigenous peoples, we're 63rd” (Scott, 2015). If indigenous and non-indigenous people are being provided with the same…

holders rights (paragraph 10). The courts made it so governments have to have a liable justification to be on titled land (CBC News, Tsilhqot' in First Nation Granted B.C. Title...). The only reasons they can develop on claimed land is if the project is pressing/substantial or it receives permission from the Aboriginal group (CBC News, Tsilhqot' in First Nation Granted B.C.…

Last evening, I attended the film Trick or Treat by Alanis Obomsawin. It was a beautifully done film about the issues first nations face in Canada. The film mostly revolved around the controversial Treaty No. 9 signed in 1905, which essentially stole the land from native communities without fully telling them that is what the document would do. Native communities were instead told that the treaty was one of peace and unity, not one of ownership. They were told one thing to get their signatures…

conflict, Sir, John A. Macdonald began to view the natives as nusances to the nation and made attendance of these“industrial schools” mandatory. Most people at the time “interpreted the socio-cultural differences between themselves and the Aboriginal peoples as proof that Canada’s first inhabitants were ignorant, savage, and—like children—in need of guidance.” (Hansen, E. 2009). They wished to transition the first nations traditional hunter/gatherer type lifestyle and culture into one of…

important to note, Aboriginal Canadians are those who have been approved under the Treaty Indian status, been registered under the Indian Act of Canada, or those who have membership in a First Nation band (Stats Canada 2013.) These Aboriginal Canadians are part of separate groups known as Inuit, Métis or First Nations bands; each of these groups are vastly unique with separate cultures, customs, and languages. In Canada all remaining…

spirituality (Reading & Wien, 2009). Their ideology of health was centered around the importance of emotional, physical, mental and spiritual well-being to enhance their health, but this has altered over the years (Reading & Wien, 2009). When the Europeans first arrived in what is now called Canada, the relationship they had with the aboriginal people started off as a civil interaction to then shifting to the Europeans reinforcing European ideologies, forbidding Aboriginal people from speaking…

residential schools. The Schools made many dehumanized actions towards aboriginal people that acts were extremely painful to many of the Canadian First Nations. The inhumane treatment demonstrated in the CBC news, “For Residential School Survivors, the Hurt Comes Back”, causes me to reflect on the inhuman actions of the Canadian government towards the First Nation children. The acts of abominable abuse that children…

Canada have never been the same since European settlers unjustifiably stole their native land right from under their feet. Life for Aboriginal people will always be affected by the European colonization of Canada, and discrimination against the first nations community still exists to this day. Canadian history is still impacting the Aboriginal population, including the missing and murdered Aboriginal women, and the discrimination in government and law. Some may argue that all discrimination…

Around 1870 the first residential schools opened forging Canada’s dark history. Aboriginal children were removed from their families and homes when the residentials schools had opened. They were funded under the authority of the Government of Canada. The purpose of these residentials schools was to remove and isolate children from their homes, families, traditions and cultures, and to assimilate them into the dominant culture. At least 150,000 First Nations, Inuit and Métis children were…

North America is currently in the era of truth and reconciliation for First Nations people. Since Stephen Harper’s public apology for Canadian residential schools, education, literature, politics are all in a stage a recuperation. In Joseph Boyden’s Legend of the Sugar Girl and Jo-Ann Episkenew’s Taking Back Our Spirits a consistent theme of intergenerational trauma is present. Both Boyden and Episkenew express concerns with matters regarding health, family, and identity. Boyden’s literature…