Posted by: syncro
Posted by: chupacabra
This is the history that is usually shared, but it should include how and why so many non-natives came to Canada and not just their relation to the British and Canadian governments. This is why I object to being called a settler. It is a way of framing the narrative that Canadian history is that of white people landing on the shores and looking at all the resources for the taking when that is not the reality for most non-native Canadian family histories. This history that most of us know, the one in this link above, is the personal gut-wrenching history of the first nations vs the cold political apparatus of the government and racism. It doesn't say anything of the stories of the people fleeing famine, or the many reasons that someone would leave their family and everything they have ever known to have a better life in a place they have never been and will likely never return from. These are people that were as connected to the lands they came from as the native people that lived here but were so desperate they left it all. This is not a story that can be reversed, so we need to decide together what the future looks like, and if the attitude of the courts is that the millions of non-native residents are just people knocking on the door it will not work.
This is what is going on in the small town I grew up in. https://www.coastreporter.net/opinion/editorial/editorial-madeira-park-is-more-than-just-a-pretty-name-1.24075707 This is how unrest is created by a government more interested in looking progressive than doing their job for the people that elected them. Madeira Park is a community formed over 100 years ago, not a mountain or an island, and as you can see the history is complicated. This comes after a dock plan that was very unpopular and a number of longhouses were built in local parks as territory flags. In some cases, landowners that only have water access to their properties are being told they must remove their docks. Most of it happened without consulting the community. This can't be the answer. If Pender Harbour wasn't a tiny town this would be much bigger news. Imagine if the Ironworkers Bridge had to come down because it was over a traditional oyster ground.
If we can't agree on a plan that puts us on equal ground in the future we are screwed.
My point is not to discount the contribution of non-Indigenous people towards the building of Canada, but recognize that building came at the expense of the peoples who were here first and it continues to affect them to this day. The predecessors of modern Canada destroyed cultures from coast to coast to coast and you and I are reaping those benefits today. I share the idea that there are some compromises to be made on both sides, but I believe you would have a hard time convincing the majority of Indigenous people that their lives are much better off after colonization than before.
It's a complicated issue but if you wanted to boil it all down to one word that word is trust. Indigenous people in this country generally do not trust "whitey" and his government and I think it's more than fair to say we haven't given them good reason to. That's not to say there aren't good people out there trying to do good things and rebuild some of that trust, but on a whole we're doing a shitty job. We have to be the ones to make the first move, so when Horgan refused to meet with the herditary chiefs a few weeks ago that sent the age old message that Indigenous people don't matter. Does an action like that build trust or break it? Right now Indigenous people have the upper hand when it comes to rail blockades and they could shut down this country indefinitely if they really wanted to. Our governments need to start off with doing some grovelling if they're going to get this sorted out.
I wasn't trying to criticize you, and you are probably correct in assuming a lot of the country doesn't know this history. It was horrible and did irreparable damage to the first nation's lives and culture. Nothing can give that back to them, but I think we should try. Land claims are a more complicated issue and one of the main reasons BC is at the forefront of these legal battles is that the original immigrants were not settlers in the same sense as the east coast. They didn't arrive in ships en masse to build towns and new societies. They didn't go to war with the native peoples so there were no surrenders and no peace treaties. Instead, we have a complicated history like that of Madeira Park and the legacy of government-endorsed racism.
I agree with you on the trust. That is why our current approach is so harmful. We have decisions that give first nations rights over the land, but not ownership, so they can't just say "no" and have the full rights that any property owner would have. We also have agreements that don't consider both sides. Take the Pender Harbour Dock Management plan for example.
https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/farming-natural-resources-and-industry/natural-resource-use/land-water-use/crown-land/crown-land-uses/regional-initiatives/6043_penderharbour_dockmgmt_brochure_print1.pdf
So if you own a dock there, and if you look at the map you can see there are plenty of them, you can't replace your aging dock unless you hire an archeologist and meet the management plan requirements and even then it will only be considered. In the most stringent zone, you are SOL and you no longer have a dock. This plan was developed without any input from the community because their history is irrelevant. Many of the dock owners are fishermen that have already given up various fisheries in other agreements with other first nations and now they want to change the name of the main parts of town, again, with no consultation. Trust is a 2 way street.
The problem with the government groveling is that it comes in the form of sacrificing rural communities. Some of the worst land stealing in the province happened right here in Vancouver's Stanley Park, but there are too many votes. Instead, the communities that have actually been living side by side with first nations people the whole time are the sacrificial lambs.