We will remain here forever

France is currently experiencing massive unrest since proposed changes to labour law have been unveiled. Thousands of protesters are saying that this labour reform will give employers too much power and that reducing workers’ rights isn’t the answer for France’s unemployment problem.

Some outlets have called it the “New French Revolution”, but more importantly, there is no coverage of the revolution in North American media. The only reason I even know is because people are sharing it on Facebook. After googling it I found an article from Al Jazeera news online.

So the news about France is going around Facebook and it is pretty shocking and all, but its Solidarity Day today and there is also a picture being shared of nuns holding three little Gohon:we babies. The photo is called “Sisters Holding Aboriginal Babies”, set of parents look on. 1960. Sister Liliane Library and Archives, Canada.

In retrospect, it is so easy to see that these people are not our friends. To me, these three nuns represent the enemies of our nations who are set upon the destruction of our people.

Just look at this picture. The trauma in this dads face as he stares miles away into nothingness. The looks of disdain and veiled contempt of the mother. The smugness of the nuns who think they know everything.

There should be a study done of the long term impact of residential schools, today. Many Canadians may consider residential schools to be a thing of the past — not relevant today.

But academics are starting to say that the intergenerational effects of residential school are felt in many ways and are responsible for the epidemics of suicide, drugs, hopelessness and fear within indigenous communities.

“It is clear that the schools have been, arguably, the most damaging of the many elements of Canada’s colonization of this land’s original peoples and, as their consequences still affect the lives of Aboriginal people today, they remain so,” John S. Milloy, A National Crime.

The only positivity to come out of this is that we did survive extermination. We were supposed to be mind-wiped Canadian tax-payers by now, fully functioning in settler society as the bottom tier. That didn’t quite happen (but almost did).

Other nations such as France will rise and fall. Societies will come and go, but the indigenous peoples of these lands cannot be erased — we will remain here forever.

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