I know
Canadians consider that they have one of the most benevolent governments in the
world, and it has indeed shown benevolence in many instances, but never toward
Indigenous peoples. When our own issues
are on the table, the government is ready to defy international law an even its
own national laws. When Indigenous
peoples have pushed Canada to live up to its ideals and its rhetoric, the
retribution has always been swift.
To
say that Indigenous peoples are environmentalists is a redundancy. We are, after all, the children and the
defenders of the land. Our Indigenous
economies have been based on cultivation, herding, hunting, gathering, fishing
– and their related technologies – all integrated into the natural cycles of
the earth.
In
the struggle to protect the land, Indigenous peoples are the first and last
line of defence.
Water
is not only the property of humanity, it belongs to all living things.
Canada
has a colonial addiction when it comes to Indigenous peoples.
The
Comprehensive Claims Policy and its obvious flaw that allows Canada to have its
cake and it, too; demanding that First Nations be willing to extinguish their
Aboriginal Title and Rights before they enter negotiations. The way the policy works, Canada concedes
nothing but gains everything before the negotiations ever start. This bears no resemblance to the process of
recognition and reconciliation that the Supreme Court has called for, and
everything that is wrong with the negotiations flows from this. Since Canada does not admit to the existence
of Aboriginal title, there is no recognition that Indigenous peoples actually
own the lands and resources within their territories.
The
Canadian government has time and again proven itself lawless when it comes to
Indigenous peoples. Despite losing more
than 150 legal cases on Indigenous rights over the past fifteen years, it
insists that it is in control of the Indian agenda and that Indigenous peoples
have no rights.
We cannot
have reconciliation until the extinguishment policy is off the table and our
Aboriginal title and treaty rights are recognized, affirmed, and implemented by
Canada and the provinces. Not only in
the Constitution but also on the ground.
We need to negotiate the dismantling of the colonial system, not bargain
for cash deals that extinguish our right and produce nothing except more debt
and dependency. We need to stand up and
fight colonialism in all its manifestations.
The
Canadians who fear the changes that [self-determination and land rights] will
bring to this country, I can only say to them that there is no downside to
justice. Just as there was no downside
to abolishing slavery.
Our
path toward decolonization is clear. It is up to Canadians to choose theirs.
In almost all cases, Europeans were met, at times within minutes of
their arrival, by Indigenous peoples.
There was an attempt to get around this inconvenient fact by declaring
us non-human, but this was difficult even for Europeans to sustain over
time. The doctrine of discovery remained
because it was a legal fig leaf they could use to cover naked thievery.
As
Indigenous peoples around the world have discovered, a deal is not a deal when
it comes to settler governments.
In
Canada… Indigenous peoples [control] only 0.2% of the land and the settlers
99.8%.
When
we speak of rebuilding Indigenous societies and Indigenous economies, we are
not seeking to join the multinational on Wall St or Bay St as junior partners,
but to win back the tools to build our own societies that are consistent with
our culture and values. Our goal isn’t
simply to replace Settlers Resource Inc with Indigenous Resource Inc. Instead we are intrusted in building true
Indigenous economies that begin and end with our unique relationship to the
land.
To
a large extent, we live in separate wolds.
They live in Chase, BC, Canada.
We live in Neskonlith, Secwepenc Territory.
Many
Indian individuals and communities resisted the right to vote. They did not see themselves as Canadians but
as members of sovereign nations trapped inside a country they had never sought
to be part of.
For
Indigenous peoples, the computer has helped break the information monopoly of
the dominant society.
A
large part of our struggle is simply to have governments obey their own laws in
regard to Indigenous peoples.
