Quote:
Originally Posted by Wastedyouth
This is such a sad and sick part of our history.
The Indigineous Canadians have been done so wrong.
I don't know how you go about helping them heal from this, but it has to happen. This disrespect and ignorance has gone on for way way too long.
I hope this does cause some kind of positive movement forward. This needs to be fully brought out into the light of day for all Canadians to understand and move forward with all the knowledge of how and why this happened.
It is too easy to blame indigenous people for the hardships they face. It drives me crazy when I hear people call them lazy, entitled, etc. and those same people have no clue what happened in residential schools and how recent this actually happened.
Blech, it's a lot to take in. Hopefully this drives us towards change.
|
One encouraging thing I've noticed as a father is how much better my kids' education on indigenous people has been in elementary and middle school versus mine. I had no knowledge of residential schools until well into adulthood. I remember learning about first nations people and culture and it was
all the 'noble savage' trope.
In the 80s and 90s we friggen listened and laughed to Brocket 99. I hope we wouldn't have found it funny had we known, A. We were being racist and B. Why first nations people have so many more challenges than your average white guy. I know my kids wouldn't laugh at that...they'd be horrified.
Once you have a generation that can appreciate why there are unique difficulties and challenges for first nations people you can begin to address them. I think there has been too much baked-in racism in Boomers, early Gen X and whoever it was older than Boomers (the greatest generation?) to meaningfully address the problems. Hopefully younger Gen Xers and Millennials can start to move things in the right direction for healing and atonement.