Sunday, December 28, 2014

Changing The Firmament

                                                http://www.globalresearch.ca/

On the second anniversary of the founding of the Idle No More Movement, Irvin Studin writes:

There can be little doubt that the aboriginal question is by far the most important moral question of Canada’s early 21st century. No other public question in Canada has its historical weight, inertia and complexity.

But what is the aboriginal question for this century? Are we talking about standards of material well-being for aboriginal people? Is it about social status and professional opportunity? Or does the question turn fundamentally on the vindication of specific legal and constitutional rights?

The answer must begin with the brutal premise that the aboriginal people in Canada still live as history’s losers; that is, most of the aboriginal people in Canada are descended most recently from people who in their legal, social, economic, organizational and geopolitical interactions with non-aboriginals — principally European settlers and their own descendants — were over time and for a variety of reasons stripped of territory, prestige, rights and the underpinnings of social and material well-being.

The answer must also take note of the fact that the government which tore up the Kelowna Accord has done nothing to advance the well being of Canada's native peoples. If anything, the Harperites have moved to ensure that Canada's First Nations remain trapped in and enslaved by a long history:

To this day, the aboriginal people have generally not been relieved — in their own minds or in the minds of the winning majority — of the status of Canadian history’s losing people. This is not a merely formal status; it is a properly psychological-spiritual one. It means that to a large extent the negative drag of the aboriginal question today continues to be psychological-spiritual in nature, and that a good part of the answer to the aboriginal question must deal frontally with this reality.

Studin writes that French Canadians used to be seen as a conquered people. The Quiet Revolution changed that perception -- for both French and English Canadians:

The creation over time in Canada of a properly bilingual, bicultural and binational state points the way forward on the aboriginal question. Canada’s great success in responding to the challenge to internal unity and cohesion posed by the linguistic and cultural differences between the English-speaking majority and the French-speaking minority has been premised on the idea that the endgame consists not in perfect harmony or amity between the tribes, but depends instead on how a historically victorious majority can rehabilitate and resuscitate defeated minorities into political and even cultural co-equals — co-equals who are equally invested in the continued existence of the state. 

That change, of course, presumes a generosity of spirit -- something that is missing in the Harperite DNA. If Canada's native peoples are ever to take their place in the national firmament, the Harper government will have to be removed from its place in that firmament.

8 comments:

Owen Gray said...

Let's hope so, ron.

Unknown said...

S0 true so true aboriginals recognize one fact Euro's like Harper's familia do not. We are part and parcel of the environment like the birds the fish the trees the crawling the slithering even sloths who are much more advanced than the so-called are you ready for it "The Harper Government/dictatorship" who hates natives in any country except England. And so whatever we do to the Earth we do to ourselves is native knowledge apparently it was lost on the Harper cons and Republicans in USA...

They are excuse me parasites that want to dismantle the natural world for paper profit you can't eat but it sure ensures cheap foreign labor to do their dirty deeds eh?

Owen Gray said...

The good news is that the First Nations are pushing back, Mogs. And the courts are ruling in their favour.

Unknown said...

Yes Owen I agree, they are winning the battle for independence finally. Shoot they did not hate the Europisins from England or the Frogs from Fsrance when they first arrived but they had no idea they would be put into slavery.

Now they are kicking back I salute and support them.

Cheers...

Owen Gray said...

Calling a Frenchman a Frog can get you in a lot of trouble in my home province, Mogs.

Unknown said...

Frogs Europissins what ever the damage they have done to the native culture is unforgivable. And you and I are recipient of First Nations anger. Do I blame FN's? A simple no.

In British Columbia why is it called English [British] and Spanish [Columbia] what only because the resident Fist Nations did not realize they were being vanquished by militaristic foe nations...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Nations_in_British_Columbia

Ya hey? We are finally getting somewhere slowly but surely...

And I fully support them. They literally own BC and I am happy to be a guest of theirs. The Ktunaxa nation spelled in English debauchery Kootenay were one of the most wonderful people I met. Then

"We are very focused on the future, and we realize that we create this future by our actions. The single most important key to First Nation self-reliance is economic development"

Osoyoos Chief Clarence Louie


Um sorta blows away the notion of First Nations being drunkards ain't true Mr. Owen sure there are some but there is plenty of Sikhs East Pakistanis White Canadians etc. who are really. Not all First Nations addict to that drug.

Owen Gray said...

The problems with stereotypes of any kind, Mogs, is that they prevent us from seeing people as they really are.

Unknown said...

Yes Mr. Owen;)