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Originally Posted by Vena
I respectfully disagree. I acknowledge that you are not defending what has happened. Most of us were intentionally not taught about what really happened. It was wrapped up under Nation building and well intentioned decisions that ultimately caused attempted genocide to occur.
We don't bear guilt for these incidents because we weren't apart of this, but we do help continue the legacy of racism. We vote for politicians continue to fail the Indigenous ppl of Canada. We (royal we) tell them to get over it that we won and then we vote for politicians with hard on crime platforms vs actually helping the ppl who are suffering the direct consequences of residential school.
This issue impacts all of us and we have to act. A good friend of mine was killed in a hit and run while she was crossing at a crosswalk. The driver was Indigenous with no license and he was intoxicated. He didn't get jail time. He was a residential school survivor. Clearly traumatized by it. I struggled with anger, but everyone was failed by this situation by the actions of the Church and our government. We may not have been there, but we are paying for it.
It's terrible. Those who made it out with healthy on the other side still struggle with personal relationships and the fact that they were cut off from their culture.
The TRC is a great start and there has been some change as we are now learning what happened, but we are responsible for fixing what our ancestors did.
I grew up in a BC town. I didn't realize how racist it was until I left. Its all so horrible.
Anyway, we are responsible for righting the wrongs of the past. It impacts us all.
EDIT: Worth noting that most of BC was never treatied out
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I don't even disagree with what you're saying here, as I noted, I think that the federal/provincial governments have a duty to try to rectify these wrongs (or at least apologize and push toward some sort of reconciliation).
I don't think that the first nations people should just "forget about it and move along" or anything of the sort. But I do think that there is a sort of grey area between that view point and "you should give everything back and fell super guilty because everything was stolen". Maybe I feel that way to placate myself, (although I haven't personally stolen anything and the long line of Slavas ancestors weren't likely involved in anything like this given what I know of them). It's an extremely complicated issue though, and these discussions make me uncomfortable because I don't want anything taken out of context.