Tag Archives: Moose Factory

Revisiting My Personal Narratives Regarding Indigenous People

A couple of months ago I participated in a moderated discussion to talk about racism. I served as one of the panelists and discussed my experience with Indigenous racism as a white person. I thought I would put those words into writing and share them here.

I am typing this from my home in Petawawa, Ontario which is the traditional territory of the Algonquin, Huron-Wendat, and Anishinabewaki Peoples. I am a settler on this territory as my parents immigrated from the United Kingdom in 1970.

About Me

I was raised in Newmarket, Ontario about 45 minutes north of Toronto. While growing up, Newmarket was a predominantly white community, although it is much more racially diverse now. There were only a handful of black and Asian students in my high school of 2000 students and I only knew a few First Nations individuals throughout my childhood.

My Relationship with Indigenous Peoples until 2017

I didn’t know many Indigenous Peoples throughout my childhood and most of my early adult life. The public school curriculum in Ontario barely acknowledged Indigenous People aside from the following topics:

  • First European contact with Samuel du Champlain and Jacques Cartier
  • The Huron and Iroquois and their relationships with the French and British
  • War of 1812
  • Métis and Red River Rebellion

I obtained three university degrees, two of which were in History and I failed to learn about Indigenous History in any significant way. It’s not the school system’s fault entirely; I had a lot of choice in the courses I took. But I think it says something about our education system as a whole (elementary, secondary, and post-secondary) and that I could get through all of that without learning about:

My Problematic Personal Narrative up to 2017

A “narrative” is a story that we construct around a social issue or person. As we get older, we tend to adopt and hold on to these narratives more tightly. We construct narratives based on the knowledge that we have. We also pass on our narratives to our children and loved ones. These were the main points of my personal narrative prior to 2017:

  • First Nations have access to cheap gas on reserve
  • They tend to commit more crimes
  • They like to drink alcohol
  • Some bands have casinos on reserve
  • They have a hard time taking advantage of handouts that they are given such as tax breaks, Indigenous scholarships, and post-secondary opportunities)
  • Racist policies disabled their ability to get ahead but these policies are a relic of the past

I realize that my narrative is terribly misinformed and lacks essential knowledge to understand First Nation struggles in Canada. What bothers me about this narrative is not that I was ignorant, it’s that I didn’t care. I didn’t care to learn more about why First Nations people were going to jail in large numbers, I didn’t care to learn about why alcoholism is so rampant across on- and off-reserve communities, and I didn’t care that people of my race had such an uneducated and misguided contempt toward First Nation issues. Although I was never vocal about my thoughts on Indigenous people, my silence and unwillingness to learn conspired against them.

My Relationship since 2017

So what changed for me? What woke me up? In January 2017 I started a job at Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) which I accepted for all of the typical reasons a worker accepts a job offer: Good money, matched my skillset and experience. However, I quickly realized I had a massive knowledge deficit due to my own ignorance of the past. Thankfully, an olive branch was extended to me and I got to go on a trip to help with treaty pay events in the remote communities of Kashechewan, Attawapiskat, and Moose Factory which are located on the shores of James Bay in northern Ontario. When arrived in these places, I was particularly struck by how desolate and neglected these places were. They are characterized by dirt roads, poor infrastructure, and isolation. It’s impossible to drive to any of these communities as there are no roads connecting them to other communities. You can only get to them by plane.

Attawapiskat is infamous for its ongoing suicide crisis. From September 2015 to April 2016 there were 101 people that attempted suicide ranging from ages 11 to 71. As I looked into people’s faces I saw the scars drug addiction, abuse, and self-harm.

Kashechewan is infamous for the threat of flooding each spring. The saddest part of this isn’t that it floods. My ISC colleagues from Thunder Bay remarked that many of the residents hope for flooding because that would mean the government would fly them out of the reserve and send them to a community like Timmins or Cochrane, put them up in a hotel, and give them a per diem until the flooding subsides. For me, I cannot imagine a situation where I would celebrate that my home is being flooded. That’s how bad home life is for the residents of Kashechewan.

Revisiting my Personal Narrative

Upon returning from my trip, it caused me to revisit my personal narrative as it was obvious that there were gaping holes in it and it was problematic. Since then, I have taken it upon myself to learn about more about Indigenous history especially since the Confederation of Canada. These are the things that I didn’t know:

  • First Nations people signed treaties with Canada that promised them a parcel of land and certain economic and health benefits in exchange for unfettered access to the rest of the land
    • Theses benefits are not handouts. They were purchased.
  • Canada had no intention of keeping the treaties and created bureaucratic and legislative traps to remove individuals from treaty, Indian Status, or steal even more land
  • Women who married non-status men lost status
    • Some of these men were stripped of status earlier in life
  • Children of non-status men lost status
  • Non-status women who married status men gained Indian status
  • If reserve land was not in use, the government had the right to sell it, and they did
  • Canada banned cultural ceremonies and forcibly removed objects used for these ceremonies and gave them away
  • Canada forced children up to age 16 to attend residential school hundreds of miles away from their homes for the primary purpose of stripping them of their culture and language and to be assimilated in to white Canadian society
    • Despite scathing reports regarding the health conditions of these schools, the Government believed that the goal of cultural assimilation trumped the health and well-being of the students. In other words, it would be better that a few children die in the attempt to assimilate the rest than to close the schools for a time and improve health conditions. 2800 children died.
    • The last residential school to close was in 1996.
  • Provincial child services agents forced themselves into homes and took children away from their homes and placed them up for adoption without any type of legitimate due process or cultural understanding.
    • Many children were stripped from loving homes
    • No attempt was made to adopt these children into other Indigenous homes
    • Some children were adopted by families abroad
  • Indigenous people were banned from establishments that served alcohol
    • A discriminatory policy that banned Indigenous veterans from legions which is problematic when there are no mental health supports for returning veterans. At least other veterans could support each other as they adjusted to civilian life as they coped with newly acquired mental health issues.

Why Didn’t First Nations Individuals Fight Back?

Status Indians had no political or legal recourse to right the wrongs inflicted upon them. They lost status if they:

  • Hired a lawyer;
  • Became a lawyer;
  • Attended university;
  • Became a doctor; or,
  • Registered to vote.

Why Didn’t Status Indians Enfranchise (give up Indian Status)?

  • They wanted the government to hold up their end of the treaty
  • They didn’t want to leave reserve or their families
  • They didn’t want to surrender their identities

What Does All of This Mean?

The culmination of all of these issues described above had resulted in intense trauma for those that experienced these hardships. In the absence of mental health services, survivors of these hardships self-medicate by way of physical abuse, self-harm, alcohol addiction, and drug addiction.

This trauma has been passed down to children and further generations (intergenerational trauma). Children growing up in these households don’t perform well in school, have a hard time obtaining employment, and deal with the trauma they same way their parents did, thus the cycle continues. All of the challenges that Indigenous people face today can be traced back directly to racist and discriminatory policies perpetuated by the Federal Government of Canada. Indigenous people are still suffering today.

Conclusion: What Can You Do?

  1. Review and be critical of your personal narrative
    • Check for absolutes such as phrases that start with “All of these people do…” and “No people from this group…”
    • Check the source from which your narrative comes. Is it true? How do you know? Have you learned that from a reliable source?
  2. Educate yourself
  3. If you are in a position of power, see if there is anything you can do within your sphere of influence
    • Educators can insert more Indigenous-themed lessons
    • Donate to an Indigenous charity
    • Employers can bring Indigenous applicants in for a job interview
    • Employers can review their job descriptions to see if there are systemic biases that might prevent an Indigenous person from qualifying for an interview

All of us are in a position of power to create equality and tolerance for all people.