Response

*This response exceeds the 300 word limit. As such, please select 2 out of the 4 paragraphs to read. I look forward to hearing your thoughts*

After many minutes of deep contemplation, and diving into how Indigenous people are viewed in society today, I now have a different perspective about the statement “We are all Treaty people”. To me, this statement puts ownership on all the peoples of Canada. Whether you are Black, White, Yellow, Brown, or a combination of all of the previously listed, we are all Canada and the Treaty agreements affect us all. They affect us all because it is a part of our history. Until we accept and embrace that openly we will never be able to ease the tension and separation that exist between the Indigenous and Non-Indigenous people of Canada. The Treaties are documents and agreements that existed before we were even on the Earth, and we must honor them just as we do laws today.

As Singleton and Hay’s, Courageous Conversations explicitly points out, it takes courage to open up conversations about race. It takes guts to speak openly about how you feel and to be ready for push back, disagreement, and judgment. But we need this courage to break out of the reoccurring cycle and stigma. A stigma purely fueled by the uneducated and unaware. We must stay objective, engaged, and ready for pushback. We must always speak the truth no matter how hard it is, and we must be okay with interracial topics never truly finding a peaceful resolution. This acceptance of the inability to find common understanding is an incredible step toward finding a solution. We must not stop when things get uncomfortable or confusing. But how do we do this? How do we prepare for this? How do we help others open up and speak what they are thinking?  How do we teach them to be open minded to other perspectives? How do we teach ourselves this? As future educators we must learn how to provide a safe environment that welcomes opinions and fosters respect.

James Dashcuk, in his “Clearing the Plains” reminds us of how much the First Nations truly lost. They lost their culture, family members, friends, and traditions. They lost everything that they had ever known to a group of people who thought they knew better. Who is to say that one culture is better than another? We now, because of education, can see how wrong this truly is. Regardless of the agreements made, what was promised was never received. How do we begin to spark change? How do we begin to repair the damage? Is it even possible?

When I think of myself as a Treaty person, I begin to take more accountability. I begin to think of this societal imbalance as “my problem”. It begins to matter to me; as it should to every Canadian. As I look from and outside perspective, I can now see racism as a Canadian thing. I am surrounded by a culture that views itself and prides itself as being anti-racist when, in fact, racism is one of the building blocks of our social class systems. We see it in interview processes, crime punishment, and when being completely honest with ourselves, we can see racist tendencies in our own thought processes and daily assumptions. It is easy to see what somebody looks like on the outside. But as Peggy McIntosh’s article cautions us: we do not know what each person is carrying around in their invisible backpack. We do not know what burdens they have to bear and what traumas they might be dealing with. So how do we as individuals spark change? How do we come together as a country and decide that it’s time to look at things differently? How do we do this in our families? Friend groups? Classrooms? Communities? We are the future. And in my opinion, the future must take a different course; an evolved course.