May 20, 2019
by Métis Author Ron Scott
@anaclark
I sit down at a table by myself at one of our many local Tim Horton coffee shops here in Kingston, Ontario and sipped on my extremely hot black coffee. There are many other fellow free-living Canadians in the restaurant doing the same as I am, enjoying their beverages and such. We can all enjoy this ritual; as it may be for many, on this holiday Monday rather than being at work this morning. We can enjoy moments such as these daily, due to the freedoms we have while living in this beautiful country we all call home and the rest of the world calls Canada. We enjoy these freedoms without a second thought at times, as we lose sight of the fact freedom isn’t free and does come at a cost. Many Canadians have given their lives at home and abroad to secure a day such as today for generations to come. While others still daily give so much of themselves and their family, to keep this country safe. These people come in many shapes, sizes, backgrounds and do many different jobs; all with one common theme being the soil they call home. A fair number of these Canadians that gave their lives, dedication and time for this country are Indigenous. It is recorded that more than 7,000 First Nations members served in the First World War, Second World War and the Korean War; with an unknown number of Inuit, Métis and other Indigenous people also serving. One Veterans group estimates that 12,000 Indigenous Men & Women served in these three wars alone (Veterans Affairs Canada). There are 4,390 Indigenous Commissioned & Non-commissioned peace officers in Canada and a similar amount of Career & Volunteer Indigenous Firefighters in Canada as well (Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police & Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs).
I myself being Métis fell into these two categories; as a Correctional Officer for twelve years and a Volunteer Firefighter for five years. With the Indigenous population in 2016 being recorded by Statistics Canada as being 1,673,780 or 4.9% of the Canadian population; it seems the indigenous community is just as very must dedicated to the securing our freedoms as Canadians, as any other cultural groups in this country. So today as others and myself tried to enjoy our holiday morning coffee, a group of older gentlemen couldn’t help but be overheard above everyone else and their conversation was one of plain cultural ignorance. These men were discussing their displeasure with our Prime Minister Justine Trudeau, regarding his apology for the historical wrong doings of the Canadian Government towards Indigenous Canadians. In the option of these men we as Canadians shouldn’t be apologizing for something that happened hundreds of years ago and that they should have a say if the Prime Minister apologizes on their behalf, because they pay taxes and Natives don’t pay taxes. These men were also under the opinion that the Prime Minister only apologized out of fear that the Cherokee War Chiefs would rebel against the Government and take over. Now the last time I reflected on an apology it doesn’t cost money; it only cost our humility & pride. As well Prime Minister Stephan Harper in 2008 previously offered an apology for the Canadian Governments role in Residential Schools. So therefore, the current Prime Minister is continuing the work the Canadian Government has dedicated toward reconciliation. Even with being Indigenous I recall always paying the same high level of taxes as the rest of my fellow Government employees and I still even today pay taxes in my current employment. Perhaps the Cherokee War Chiefs these gentlemen are in fear of, belong to small number of 11,620 Indigenous Canadians who claim Cherokee ancestry (Statistics Canada 2016). On a side note however the Cherokee Nation is the largest tribal nation in the United States. As for the atrocities the Canadian Government participated in towards the Indigenous people in this county, they are a far cry from hundreds of years ago and there is still work to be done even as I write this article. Due to the volume at which these men were having this uneducated conversation, everyone in the restaurant couldn’t help but be subjected to their learnt ignorance. Myself especially couldn’t help but hear every word of this distasteful banter; due to making the poor choice, prior to my knowledge of their cultural ignorance, of sitting within ten feet of their table. In fact I found myself feeling personally attacked by their ignorance, due to them striking up this conversation a short time after me siting down. I began to feel myself getting angry at these men and I wanted to speak up and say something to them. I wanted to say to them to grab a history book and educate themselves, but then I remembered the history books do not mention too much regarding the Indigenous people and what our ancestors endured. I wanted to ask these men if they were even aware that the last Residential School in Canada officially closed in 1996. That at their peak in the 1930s there were 80 Residential Schools, with more than 17,000 Indigenous children enrolled. This again being far from the 100s of years ago these men spoke so confidently about. These men were correct on the 100 years however, in the regard that residential schools were in existence for more than 100 years. That the whole purpose of these schools was assimilation of over 150,000 Indigenous children. That these children were forcefully removed from their families, punished for speaking their ancestral languages, made to speak English or French and many of them exposed to physical & sexual abuse (Wikipedia Canadian Indian residential school system). Guessing the age of these men to be not quite double that of mine at 36, surely, they must know something about the 60s scoop. Where from the late 1950s into the 1980s 20,000 Indigenous children were taken from their families, placed into foster care or adopted out to Non-Indigenous families (Wikipedia Sixties Scoop) Perhaps the 100s of years ago these men were referring to was regarding this countries previous British government giving Indigenous people blankets exposed to smallpox. Which almost all of those who contracted smallpox died (The Canadian Journal of Infectious Decease). I doubt any of these men can even begin to, and may not care to, understand the effects of Ancestral Trauma on today’s Indigenous population. I wonder how these men would feel if any of their Grand Mothers, Mothers, Aunts, Cousins, Wives, Sisters, Daughters or Grand Daughters were among the nearly 4,000 cases of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women & Girls in Canada (Wikipedia Missing and murdered Indigenous women) Would they still feel that the political leader of this country (that we all have the right to call home and feel safe in) needs permission to offer empathy and sympathy to our Countries Indigenous culture which gets smaller every year. Yes, I had a lot I wanted to say to these men and maybe open their eyes to the reality around them, but I knew it wouldn’t probably come out in a nice way. It was at that moment that a message of clarity came into my mind, “Ignorance is not bliss, it is learnt…” This message told me that these men are only able to look at these thing with what they have to work with and what they are working with is what they grew up learning. This doesn’t excuse their ignorance, but rather sheds some light on it and the same system that traumatised Indigenous people over all these years, also traumatised the way of thinking for these men. Looking at these men in this new light, I was no longer angry, and I was now sad for them. I am sad for them having to grow up with only this programed misconception offered to them about Indigenous people. I am sad that these men may never get to fully see and appreciate the real beauty of the Native Culture and Spirituality.
Now I do realize these men are simply practicing their free speech, but like all our freedoms; this comes at a cost. The cost being their learned ignorance possibly being passed along to their Grandchildren. Luckily however today our Canadian Government is finally starting to educate people in all levels of education on Native Culture and the devastating role that our Government as played towards our culture over all these years. So, I do find comfort in the fact that possibly the next generation will know that rather than ignorance being bliss, it is learnt and that what today’s youth are being taught about the Native Culture & History will unlearn this ignorance.