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rfmcdonaldLast Sunday, at the tail end of the first CFTAG meeting of the year, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
schizmatic and I were talking about the divergent fates of aboriginal nations in the United States and Canada. He quite an interesting post over at his blog explaining how, in the United States, Americans' perception of the aboriginal inhabitants of the United States tends to be dominated by a myth of noble struggle between native and settler. This struggle ended--in the mythic interpretation, of course--in the natives' obliteration from the here-and-now, allowing for Indian Country's continued marginalization.
While we were conversing on this subject, we two were seated by Starbucks entrance, my back turned to the door. Midway through, I was startled by someone's interjection: "Are you talking to me?" I turned to see a man of First Nations background glaring at us.schizmatic said no, and slowly, the man walked away. schizmatic suggested that Canadians see the First Nations "as people to whom things continue to happen." I find that an optimistic appraisal.
It's somehow fitting that it is the province of Saskatchewan, arguably the homeland of the Canadian social-democratic movement, that is the Canadian province experiencing the most dramatic population changes as the result of the First Nations' baby boom. Observers like Roy MacGregor (in The Globe and Mail in the issue of 30 December 2004, even predict a Native majority population) predict a First Nations majority piopulation by mid-century; as straight-line-projection unrealistic as these predictions are, they indicate the general direction of the demographic trends. There's a fair deal of legitimate concern as to how, given the historic impoverishment of Saskatchewan's First Nations despite what has been criticized as the province's well-meaning paternalistic colonialism. Welfare-state colonialism, whether in Canada or Greenland or Scandinavia or New Zealand, is still colonialism, in its effects and its origins, no matter how well-meaning its founders' intent. The residential schools, after all, were created in order to help the young of the First Nations adapt to Canada's particular version of modernity.
Those past efforts in the northern territories of Saskatchewan will shortly become irrelevant in any case, since in Saskatchewan as elsewhere in Canada the First Nations are becoming as urbanized as other Canadians. Sometimes, as in the case of Newfoundland's forcible relocation of the Labrador Inuit, only today given control of their homeland of Nunatsiavut, this urbanization was precipitated rather brutally. More frequently, the urbanization of the First Nations was caused by the same factors responsible for urbanization elsewhere in the world: diminishing opportunities in rural areas, the perception of greater opportunities in urban areas, the availability of inexpensive transportation and communications technologies. Given the amount of damage already caused to the First Nations' cultural fabric by the various intrusions of Euro-Canadians, well-meaning and other, concern for the future of the urbanized First Nations seems merited.
I'd like to be able to agree withschizmatic that Canadians do, in fact, realize the First Nations' desperate needs. I really would.
schizmatic and I were talking about the divergent fates of aboriginal nations in the United States and Canada. He quite an interesting post over at his blog explaining how, in the United States, Americans' perception of the aboriginal inhabitants of the United States tends to be dominated by a myth of noble struggle between native and settler. This struggle ended--in the mythic interpretation, of course--in the natives' obliteration from the here-and-now, allowing for Indian Country's continued marginalization.While we were conversing on this subject, we two were seated by Starbucks entrance, my back turned to the door. Midway through, I was startled by someone's interjection: "Are you talking to me?" I turned to see a man of First Nations background glaring at us.
schizmatic said no, and slowly, the man walked away. schizmatic suggested that Canadians see the First Nations "as people to whom things continue to happen." I find that an optimistic appraisal. It's somehow fitting that it is the province of Saskatchewan, arguably the homeland of the Canadian social-democratic movement, that is the Canadian province experiencing the most dramatic population changes as the result of the First Nations' baby boom. Observers like Roy MacGregor (in The Globe and Mail in the issue of 30 December 2004, even predict a Native majority population) predict a First Nations majority piopulation by mid-century; as straight-line-projection unrealistic as these predictions are, they indicate the general direction of the demographic trends. There's a fair deal of legitimate concern as to how, given the historic impoverishment of Saskatchewan's First Nations despite what has been criticized as the province's well-meaning paternalistic colonialism. Welfare-state colonialism, whether in Canada or Greenland or Scandinavia or New Zealand, is still colonialism, in its effects and its origins, no matter how well-meaning its founders' intent. The residential schools, after all, were created in order to help the young of the First Nations adapt to Canada's particular version of modernity.
Those past efforts in the northern territories of Saskatchewan will shortly become irrelevant in any case, since in Saskatchewan as elsewhere in Canada the First Nations are becoming as urbanized as other Canadians. Sometimes, as in the case of Newfoundland's forcible relocation of the Labrador Inuit, only today given control of their homeland of Nunatsiavut, this urbanization was precipitated rather brutally. More frequently, the urbanization of the First Nations was caused by the same factors responsible for urbanization elsewhere in the world: diminishing opportunities in rural areas, the perception of greater opportunities in urban areas, the availability of inexpensive transportation and communications technologies. Given the amount of damage already caused to the First Nations' cultural fabric by the various intrusions of Euro-Canadians, well-meaning and other, concern for the future of the urbanized First Nations seems merited.
I'd like to be able to agree with
schizmatic that Canadians do, in fact, realize the First Nations' desperate needs. I really would.
