Colonialism, Aboriginal People, And Racism In Canada

For most people, the image of Canada is created on a set of idealistic thoughts. This leaves Indigenous people in the dust, allowing non-indigenous people to dominate the narrative and choose how they (Indigenous people) are portrayed. This portrayal is usually dependent on the idea that injustice is located in the past because as time goes by, progress is achieved. People believe that Indigenous people are disadvantaged because they chose to be and not because of the history of marginalization. The concept that injustice is a thing of the past allows people to perpetuate the idea that Indigenous people are participating in “reverse racism” because they call out settlers who supposedly have nothing to do with the issues of the

Aboriginal-Canadians have an excessive history of mistreatment and discrimination in Canada. Europeans considered Canada’s First Nations as savages, eventually residential schools were created which in extreme cases were comparable to Prisoner of War camps. According to Evelyn Kallen, “Substandard housing breeding disease and death, closed schools due to lack of teachers, heat, and/or running water are only two examples of continuing, dehumanizing life conditions on many reserves” (198). Although, extensive improvements have been made to reservations and Aboriginal rights, more improvement remains necessary. Allan Blakeney stated, “An important starting point of course, is that Aboriginal people in Canada do not, as a group, occupy high

To many people, Canada exemplifies a country that fulfills human rights and equality being the country of ‘freedom’. However, the Canadian government has distorted certain information including poverty that impacts many Aboriginal individuals daily. In theory, it is impossible to effectively analysis the impact that the past has imposed on Aboriginal people in Canada today. With this being said addressed below are several important historical government actions and legislations such as the Indian Act, Royal Proclamation, force segregation on reserves, and residential schooling impacting Aboriginal Canadians social conditions today. Fundamentally my goal is to address the idea that historical events are a crucial factor impacting Aboriginal

Aboriginal peoples of Canada have suffered exponentially throughout the entirety of history and proceed to do so in modern society. Much of the continued suffrage of aboriginal peoples is as a result of the Sixties Scoop and the Residential School System, as well as the lack of resources available to them. This has wreaked extensive havoc on the mental health of Aboriginal peoples, and has left excessive amounts of stigma and racism attached to Aboriginal Peoples, explicitly seen in the cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women.

Aboriginal Canadian woman have been mistreated for a number of years. Due to their mistreatment, a dangerous cycle has been created. “Eighty-two percent of all federally sentenced women report having been physically and/or sexually abused. This percentage rose to 90% for Aboriginal women. (CAEFS, 2006)” [1] Aboriginal Canadian women are disrespected and value themselves as lesser due to this mistreatment. Due to their surroundings they learn to cope in ways ending in compromising positions (ex: jail, or death). Yet, how did the mistreatment begin? In history, the aboriginal people were treated evilly by the European colonies.  They were forced to leave their lands and fall to forced influence by the Europeans.  Their ideals were condemned

The results of the government’s efforts to assimilate Aboriginal people throughout Canada’s history has effected multiple generations of families and continues to have devastating effects on First Nations communities today.

“The fear I carry and the aversion I feel towards governmental departments is due entirely to inter-generational trauma. My mother carries this fear, my grandmother carried this fear, and my great-grandmother carried this fear,” (Quotation mark) said Kelly Briggs. Aboriginal Canadians are still instilled with dread and animosity from the negligence of human rights that they were deprived from. Aboriginal Canadians do not receive the respect, impartiality or justice they deserved. Many rights of the Aboriginal Canadians were neglected. Canada prides itself on, the great variety of cultures, ethnicities, races and religions, which occupies this country. However, the Canadian government and society did not acknowledge the Aboriginals or the

The Canadian people have always prided themselves as champions of democracy and are universally respected for their record on human rights. Although holistically this could be argued, especially when compared to the United States and other Western states, the record concerning Aboriginals, both past and present, has yet to live up to their self-set standard. Defined simply as anyone who traces his/her ancestry back to pre-European colonization, there exist mass diversity within its community. Although various political actors dispute the actual number of Aboriginals, Statistics Canada reported in 2006 that 1,678,200 people indicated they were ethnically Aboriginal or roughly 5.4 percent of the population (Statistics Canada: Population Counts).

It is visible that the violence and discrimination experienced by Aboriginal women and girls in Canada is a national tragedy, which has sadly received meager attention in our nation. Native Women’s Association of Canada (2013) explained how this has tragically led to the number of missing and murdered Aboriginal women and girls in Canada being excessively high. Systematic oppression and negligence from the Canadian Government to actively address this national tragedy were dominant themes that were illustrated by the absence of research and data available on this subject. Additionally, it was appalling to realize that no policies were established, but only politically charged strategies were recommended to confront this grave social problem.

Aboriginal Peoples of Canada are descendants of the nations Indigenous groups, who were considered to be the original inhabitants of North America. In Canada they are comprised of three main groups known as First Nations, Inuit and Metis they are incredibly diverse with respect to cultural practices, languages and spiritual beliefs. Evidence however indicates that, as a population, Aboriginal Peoples are “the most materially, socially and spatially deprived ethno-cultural group in Canada.” Further, Aboriginal women are considered to be among the most severely disadvantaged of all groups in Canadian society. This essay will argue that Aboriginal women in Canada are placed in a disadvantaged position in society that has negative consequences

Regarding the assimilation of Aboriginals into Canadian society looking back and seeing the events which have occurred we can see that it was a destructive process for the Aboriginal people inhabiting Canada. Aboriginal children as late as the 1870’s were forcibly taken from their homes without the consent of their families and put in Canadian schools in an effort to integrate them and make them contributing members of society. The process in which the Canadian government did this is a controversial one as the government had displayed a lack of understanding of how this effort would played out and more so it can be said did it intentionally. Canada’s long hate for Aboriginal culture goes back to the country’s early development and it can’t

If “prejudice is…the tendency to view people who are different from some reference group …as being deficient (Morrison, 1995, 235), then public education’s treatment of Canada’s Aboriginals does nothing to end that prejudice. This situation is unlikely to change because, as John Ralston Saul quips, “our real history is not part of how we describe ourselves, we live in denial of our reality” (Saul, 2008, 21). The reality he alludes to is that Canada has failed “to normalize…the First Nations as the senior founding pillar of our civilization” (Saul, 2008, 21). Until the First Nations are regarded as equals in Canadian society, and until public education shifts away from Eurocentric teachings - colonial teachings - of the past, prejudice will remain a stumbling block.

Perhaps even more troubling however is the fact that throughout history the Canadian federal government has deliberately implemented both policies and legislation designed to deny Aboriginal people their rights to identity, belief, culture, language, and land (Gray, 2011; Sellers, 2013; King, 2012). Because of the lasting legacy of colonization, including historical and current social policies, white privilege, racism, and Eurocentrism, the state of Indigenous affairs in Canada is indeed a public, and not a private, individual problem. Unfortunately however, many non-Aboriginal Canadians harbor the discriminatory and harmful notion that Indigenous issues in Canada are irrelevant to modern day culture at best and self-inflicted at worst (McCaskill, 2012). Despite our deeply racist history that has included continual attempts to erase both Aboriginal culture and people from North America, a startling number of Canadians still believe that the problems faced by Aboriginal communities today are the result of personal failures, laziness, and personal stupidity (McCaskill, 2012). Few Canadians are well educated on the state of Aboriginal affairs or public policy with regards to their wellbeing, and the true history of Aboriginal people in Canada is rarely mentioned in public school curriculums (Gray,

In “Conception of History,” The Royal Commission Report on Aboriginal peoples (1996), discusses that it is impossible to know the relationship and issues that have occurred between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canadians in the past because there is a lack of historical awareness and the relationship between the two groups has been understood differently over different periods of time. The Report explains that the reason for the difference between newcomers and Aboriginal Canadians is the lack of historical knowledge. The authors then state two different perspectives of the history, such as Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal. For example, non-Aboriginal tradition is rooted in western scientific methodology which is nonreligious and it separates

The acknowledgement of past events and wrong doings may be mentioned with absent factual information. But still do this day are aboriginal people being segregated and evaluated based off their differences. The reason for the lack of historical context is because the poor coverage and constant manipulation that was and is being done. Aboriginal people were looked at as others disrupting the social advancement by the Europeans even though in reality it is the complete opposite. Social beliefs like racism was heavy in the world. People of colour were being discriminated based off their skin colour. Not having any rights, being forced into slavery or work was due to the belief by colonizing countries that people of colour were biologically different-not human. Uttermost disrespect being lashed onto whomever was not a European or fell under their expectation of life, or an “other”. In Canada First Nation people were the primary dominant “coloured” group meaning life was extremely cruel for them. Grouping called “othering” was used to classify all those of colour. This created oppression and a sense of isolation endangering the life and health of the First Nation people. Sex being a vibrant contributor, co-existing with racism creates an equally dangerous atmosphere for those whom are affected by it. The Canadian government had also played a role in oppressing aboriginal people. The