The continued unearthing of Indian children burial sites proves that Canada and the residential school system had malevolent intentions. Detractors point to the “education” or schooling part that obviously benefited the savage Indians. The same naysayers also state that disease was rampant among the Indians so the graves and deaths can be passed off as non-suspicious. Canada wipes its hands cleans of the genocide of children.
Meanwhile, First Nation Indigenous peoples are reeling from shock, grief and anger across the country. Canada willingly wants to appear magnanimous so they have established 1-800 help lines and mental health “experts” are ready to assist.
What has modern or mainstream psychology or medicine taught to students about the historical injustices of the First Nations people and the link between psychical and mental illness? Are doctors or psychologists fully educated in First Nation reality to be able to assist those who are suffering debilitating post-traumatic stress or those who have been triggered by the residential school findings?
Mainstream knew better than our ancestors. Mainstream heroes like John A. MacDonald, wanted the First Nations moved into boarding residential schools to break the kinship ties of families. MacDonald also wanted to train the savages to progress and be more like the superior Whiteman and his society.
Has there been a change from the time of MacDonald and his approach that First Nations must be regulated and assimilated? No, there has not been much change.
During the Truth and Reconciliation process, Canadians were being made aware of the horrific conditions in residential schools. Many Canadians chose not to listen. It was too painful for mainstream to hear that their beloved country was built on the deaths of children. Imagine how it feels for the First Nations who have had to live through this genocide!
Now with the finding of the mass grave in Kamloops, pandora’s box has been opened. The truth is that the schools maintained by the church and the state were killing factories. The killing was not only in the physical sense, it was also the killing of spirit and sense of self. Children were made to work or learn from uncertified “teachers” or they suffered abhorrent abuses that many cannot face to this day. A handful came through this experience unscathed.
Enter the mainstream trauma teams. There are psychologists and doctors who can’t wait to help but they must first get their trauma porn fix. It isn’t enough of a shock that there are stories of children suffering from sexual and sadistic psychological abuse, the trauma porn teams need to hear the stories. What then can they offer? Visualization exercises or breathing techniques? Oh bravo! These exercises STILL take place in a society that hates First Nation peoples.
These trauma teams are completely unaware of the circumstances of the people they are “counselling”. Sometimes these people are homeless or couch surfing or living with more than ten people in a home. It’s hard to create a Zen space to meditate when there is no space in the household you live in.
Sometimes these callers are isolated, far from the comforts of mainstream. They have limited or no access to the internet, no clean drinking water and no job or opportunities for work. How exactly is their counselling that “life will get better” going to happen?
Sometimes these callers are “trying” to stop addictions but after attending rehab or detox programming they are sent back into the same situation where their families, friends and communities may be still using? Where can they go? Obviously, they go to half way houses in urban areas.
Well in urban areas there is limited access to supplemental programs and once a person has accessed a program; he/she finds that they are without family supports. Never mind that the family supports are dysfunctional or toxic, family and community ties are written into First Nation blood memory because we come from a collective group, a collective thinking and a collective power.
This has been a constant struggle in the so called reconciliation arena. Canada wants to help, but Canada’s help involves pushing mainstream individualistic standards onto collective thinking peoples. So really, how helpful is Canada being?
Canada also frames their help in capitalist or mainstream terms. Don’t we all want 9-5 jobs where we become exploited workers serving capitalist corporations that destroy the environment? Don’t we all want housing that we pay for in mortgages alongside other Canadians?
9-5 mainstream jobs do not accommodate family or spiritual commitments. Housing in urban centres comes with one huge caveat – non- First Nation neighbours. Many First Nations who “make it” and are able to afford housing in urban areas are policed by their neighbours for messy lawns, breaking noise barriers, parking within a centimetre of a property line, or a host of other stupid anal infractions.
Why is it so necessary to maintain a perfect lawn or home in the city? Well because, unsightliness can drive down the property values of surrounding homes. Aha this is the “thinking” you get when you commodify the land. The land is not a gift but a section that is meant to be subjugated where you can exercise dominion over your little plot like some wannabe little Lord Fauntleroy.
Well, that thinking actually flies in the face of First Nation Indigenous teachings and thinking. The land cannot be commodified. The land has a spirit and a purpose. This is why First Nation Indigenous are standing in landback movements and stopping pipelines or economic development that will harm the land.
You cannot expect First Nation Indigenous to come through a shady alley back to mainstream ideals when they have been born into a specific nation for a specific purpose. So once again, where mainstream intended to help, instead or unknowingly they perpetuate harm. Why? Until Canada and Canadians understand First Nation history, First Nation reality and ongoing racism and discrimination, there can be no reconciliation. We understand your system and reality, do you understand our system and our reality?
