The Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

Indigenous people in Canada were and still are facing poor treatment. Canada has done a great job of hiding the history behind Canada, let alone Indigenous people within Canada. As Eldon Yellowhorn states in the youtube video, “the past has been the story of Canada, but not necessarily the story of Indigenous people in Canada” (1:31-1:36), then further explaining that many Canadians do not know about Indigenous history, and if one did, often they did not know much about the topic. Indigenous people have been taken advantage of and were seen as less than human by the Europeans surrounding them. Indigenous people were often viewed as an Indian problem and have been treated terribly for as long as the first settlers had arrived. Indigenous people today are still facing poor treatment such as racism, poor education, poor health, poor housing and much more which continues to this day. One of the readings stated that at nearly every level of education “Indigenous people overall continue to lag far behind the general population (Anaya, S, p. 8), which clearly shows the uphill struggle Indigenous people have faced in terms of education. Many Indigenous communities still have no access to clean drinking water which affects one’s health tremendously. Residential schools were put into effect to kill the Indian in the child by the Canadian Government and the churches. Residential schools caused endless trauma to pass through many generations which still affects many families today. Many Indigenous children were taken away from their families forcefully, or the parents could face severe punishments such as jail time and were traumatized with sexual, emotional and physical abuse, sickness, and malnutrition leaving many students to never return home. This information clearly states how terrible the Canadian Government and Canada have treated Indigenous people. There are countless issues still in effect within communities of Indigenous people and off of those communities.

References:

Anaya, J. (2015). Report of the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples. (pp.1-26).
Frideres, J. (2016). First Nations People in Canada. Oxford University Press