Don't Ask

"Don't knock a man down and then ask why he lives in the dirt. Don't strip a man of his clothing and then ask why he is naked. Don't filch a man of his authority, his right to rule his home, his dignity as a man, and then ask him why his culture is substandard."
~Chief Dan George

For a long time, I have had difficulty with the attitudes that I have been exposed to by my in-laws. They are of a generation where your life is substandard if you did not come from western Europe to gain the free land that was offered by the Canadian government to induce settlers to come and brave the wild frontier of the west. Their attitudes towards First Nations people belong in the past and this quote speaks directly to the basis of their attitudes.

Many of those who live in Canada take the attitude that First Nations people should just get over what has happened to them in the past and move on into a "Canadian" future. This Canadian future is governed by greed, selfishness and independence. These values have no relation to the values that held by First Nations communities. They still hold that First Nations communities are substandard to European values and are not worthy of support.

So much has been taken from First Nations peoples, most of it deliberately, through attitudes of colonialism and European superiority, as well as treaties and policies of assimilation. All of these contributed to the residential school system and its present incarnation in the child welfare system. It is not just to judge these vibrant cultures on what remains of them after they have been all but willfully destroyed because of the attitudes of colonizers.

The question should be asked why so much hatred was placed towards these peoples who were so established in this country before Europeans ever set foot on its shores. Why is this hatred continued by the descendants of the first Europeans? Why can we not seem to stop this willful hatred? Why can we not accept these cultures in their rightful place as a part of a rich and vibrant Canadian society that accepts the differences of others? What is the right question to ask to restore these cultures before they are entirely relegated to myths and legends of the past? What question will recognize the essential human nature of all those who were considered to be less worthy than others? What question will allow all the citizens of Canada to take their rightful place in equality and freedom?