The treaties were signed by Canadian government and most Indigenous leaders, with the idea to coexist in Canada.  From that we are all treaty people, we all share Canada as a whole, and we all share history.  However, the language barrier and the ulterior motives of the Canadian government lead to Indigenous peoples being taken advantage of and genocide by Canadian government and the settlers.  This created the cause for concern now, especially here in Canada.

The article “Racism – It’s a Canadian Thing” was very eye opening, the article states that “half of First Nations live in poverty compared to 17% of other Canadians”, how can there not be a racial bias when 50% of First Nations people are in poverty and Indigenous peoples are only 16.3% of the population.  That shows that 22.3% of the population is living in poverty, with 8.1% being First Nations and the other 14.2% being split between other Canadian groups.  If Indigenous peoples and white people lived equally here in Canada the First Nations peoples would not be earning an average of $19,000 per year, compared to the average of $33,000 per year for other Canadians.  Why are we not educated of these facts at a younger age? our children will be the people who can change the way this country works, if they were to be taught about the facts, statistics, and even daily issues, they will grow to make the differences we fail to make.  Maybe future generations could even in some way restore the broken promises our settler ancestors made to the Indigenous peoples that caused this ripple of injustice for Indigenous peoples.

Growing up as a white female, I was not aware of my privilege and lack of knowledge; looking back I wish I would have been given the opportunity to learn more.  I remember in History/Social Studies when we got to learning about Indigenous peoples it was a very short and very basic lesson.  You were basically taught that settlers came, and the Indigenous people showed them their ways, leading to a “friendship” and cooperation between both sides once the treaties were signed.  Then you grow up and learn about the horrific situations created by the settlers.  Magnifying that Indigenous history should be a larger focus in school.  Our entire history involves Indigenous peoples, so how can that be left out? How can you leave out learning about treaties when we are all treaty people? Is the thought of future generations turning the tables so scary? The lack of education involving Indigenous people eludes to the fact that racism is a systemic issue rather than individual.  We are purposely not taught about racism so that we can continue to believe that “well I don’t judge people by race, so really it’s not an issue” when in fact that is the exact issue. 

We need to be taught about race throughout our schooling, and we need to learn to stand up against and educate people who say or believe racist things.  By keeping quiet our country will not change.  Only when a vast majority of us stand up to make a difference can we start to truly start to reconcile the relationship with Indigenous peoples.