I don't follow things as closely as I did a decade ago. For the past few days I've been distracted by changing jobs, a leaky hot-water faucet in my bathroom, and other things. I didn't know about this "National Day For Truth & Reconciliation" that happened yesterday until I came home from work and checked out my usual circuit of bloggers.
In atonement, I'll simply re-link to two resources. The first is an editorial from Suzanne Shoush (with Lisa Boivin) attempting to preemptively shut-down anticipated racist nonsense and denialism as a response to the day:
Denying all harm is in itself incredibly harmful. It is rooted in a deep history of racism – and always implicates Indigenous people as being responsible for their own “misfortunes.” Could there have been some moments of kindness in the residential school system? It’s possible. But the system was rooted in genocidal ideation, with the goal of killing the Indian in the child, destroying communities and erasing culture.
...
As long as we fail to see the system for the evil that it was, in all its entirety, we will never, ever make progress in reconciliation. Bias against Indigenous people and a deeply rooted belief in our “inferiority” will persist.
Second is a link to the Truth and Reconciliation Commmission's "Calls to Action" page.
Canada is a rich country. And a lot of that wealth comes from natural resources from unceded lands that we essentially steal. We owe several debts to the First Nations. And we're way behind in making payments.
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| Wet’suwet’en Protesters being manhandled by RCMP |
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