Today’s the day that Stephen Harper is scheduled to apologize for the horrors of the residential schools where Aboriginal peoples in Canada were imprisoned for decades, creating generations of abuse and also of survival.
The apology is scheduled for 3pm today in the House of Commons and you can watch it online livestream on the CBC here.
For me, the government’s apology comes too late to be meaningful. It isn’t happening in concert with acknowledging the multiple thefts of land and culture that are still ongoing in land claim disputes, cultural appropriation, and lack of basic resources like clean water, culturally-relevant and sustaining education.
If I can find any hope today, I want this apology to galvanize and influence white settler folks. Sadly, I think that white folks are more likely to respond and react to white people talking about racism and cultural genocide than the survivors themselves. Will hearing Stephen Harper apologize start the unlearning?
For many, it will do nothing. For others, it will mean something. What does it mean to you?
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11 comments
hey pike,
thanks for posting on the apology -- you're right, it doesn't feel as if there is actual weight to the government's words today, just rhetoric.
just wondering though, why only "white settler folks" and "white folks"?
aren't we all complicit in the continued colonizing of this land through our interactions with the state (such as paying taxes or visiting national parks or getting legally married), and in accessing the rights and privileges of canadian citizenship (in various forms and levels) ?
Posted by Sheetal
June 11, 2008, 12:29 PM
I think Harper's unwillingness to relax parliamentary conventions and allow aboriginal responses to be read into the official record severely undermines the force of the apology. Shouldn't apologies be give and take? This is more, "we are apologizing, and you will listen! Tradition (you know, the culture/system/traditions that allowed these injustices to be perpetrated in the first place) must be followed. You can give your reaction to the press."
That kind of approach doesn't really give any sign that the government sees the apology as a way to move forward/make changes in its behaviour toward aboriginal people, does it.
Posted by Sarah O
June 11, 2008, 2:20 PM
Scratch at least part of that - after I wrote my first comment (and obviously in response to the controversy following Harper's announcement yesterday re: Aboriginal reaction to the apology), the house voted unanimously to allow comment from the Assembly of First Nations. I'm listening to Phil Fontaine address the House as I type. Cool.
Posted by Sarah O
June 11, 2008, 4:09 PM
You might remember my post on SHAMELESS a few weeks back on this event: http://shamelessmag.com/blog/2008/05/...
For myself being in the Native youth population, my question now is what kind of precedent is this setting for the next generation if we are not uniting as a people and collectively saying this isn't good enough? Aboriginal youth are suffering the most from the intergenerational effects of residential schools, and we see that in all the negative statistics that are out there regarding our health and well being.
I mean, how can you apologize for something that is STILL happening, and that you are STILL supporting? Yes, "residential schools" have closed (albeit, not even that long ago, 1996!) but prisons, reserves, and the Indian Act have all replaced their existence.
If we don't say together that this is a slap in the face to the horrendous, systemic oppression we are still facing, it's simply not fair. It just doesn't cut it. At all.
Posted by Jessica Yee
June 11, 2008, 8:44 PM
I agree with Jessica - in a way, apologizing for residential schools - which are a only one part of the process of ongoing colonization - makes it seem like the whole issue is over and is a thing of the past. I think this legitimizes continued inaction on real change by the Harper government. See more of Jessica's commentary over at Rabble: http://www.rabble.ca/in_her_own_words...
And Sheetal, thanks for the question about "why only white settler folks"? Of course, I do think we are all complicit in the settling of this land, all immigrant peoples, as well as white peoples (and recognizing that those two categories overlap, too). This is particularly important when we build solidarity, when we say things like "this country was built by immigrants" which perpetuates the idea that settlers have a more legitimate right to the land because they build or do something with it that is amenable to capitalist development. Yes, we are all complicit, we all have responsibility. And this isn't limited to Aborginal peoples in Canada, either. We have a responsibility to stand in solidarity with indigenous peoples in Central America, for example, whose lands are being taken - literally, taken - by the truckload by Canadian mining companies with zero commitment to the health of their communities.
For me, though, particularly as a white anti-racist person, I consistently witness white folks taking up the smallest share of the work of addressing, stopping, and making reparations for ongoing colonization. And this happens in tandem with these same folks taking the lion's share of the advantages that come with keeping quiet about colonialism. And that's why I hope for a wake up call. And why I am trying to do my part of the wake up calling.
Posted by piKe
June 12, 2008, 12:31 PM
Thanks for the response piKe.
What we're finding disconcerting is your categorization of Canadians. Specifically your breakdown here of "immigrant people" and "white people" (and including the white immigrant overlap moment) -- because we're brown and we were born here, and there doesn't seem to be space for us in that framework.
It's just a point to consider when talking broadly about Canadians, especially in anti-racist work. To elaborate on Sheetal's first comment, we found your positioning of white bodies as the only catalysts of change in a contemporary setting to completely elide non white people's roles in complex systems of white supremacy where we are all privileged and oppressed in varying gradations, at the same time, and in doing so, that framework seems to erase any agency we may have as neither white nor immigrant anti-racist people.
You may be critiquing white people for participating and often benefitting from systems of racial oppression. However, by doing so with what appears to be no acknowlegement of the diversity of this group "Canadians", and more broadly all people in a transnational context, it feels like you participate in the same discursive empowerment of white bodies that you critique.
Posted by Sheetal and Jivan
June 13, 2008, 12:53 PM
Hey all,
Umm, I feel hesitant to suggest this, but I am going to do it anyways because I think this is the right space. I hope my views however divergent will be heard and considered.
I agree with Sheetal and Jivan, to an extent. But I think what is at issue here is a broader problem of identity politics.
It bothers me to see the struggle to recognize and take responsibility for the situation between the first nations people and 'settler' Canadians as a race to the finish line of who is the most implicated or complicit.
It's like walking into a huge bar fight, and instead of trying to break it up or even offer someone a cold clothe for their incredibly painful black eye, just pointing fingers and laying blame.
I think I take an extreme view of Sheetal and Jivan's point, all this breast-beating about horrible white folks, seems to be covering-up the real point which is that right now, first nations are in a great position to garner support regarding the need for a good, or even excellent set of systemic reparations. So let's not get bogged down feeling bad about ourselves or other people. Additionally, by making the issue of settler responsibility paramount, and then talking about white folk, the debate is no longer about first nations people's rights, but about "white" shame.
Maybe I am misinterpreting what has started on this list, but I get very uncomfortable when I start hearing about wake-up calls and for white people, many "white folk" have been awake for a while now and trying to take over the debate on identity politics (though as the guiltier party) at this time seems very poorly thought out. As Sheetal and Jivan say, we are all implicated in a negative situation and it is important not to let the big struggles of recognizance, reparations and forgiveness, be taken over by blaming and shaming.
Posted by mir
June 14, 2008, 8:35 AM
those are some really awesome points MIR, thanks for making them-- particularly the part about how the debate gets recentred in discussions of "settler responsibility," i totally missed that in thinking about it, so thanks for educating me!
Posted by Sheetal
June 14, 2008, 1:04 PM
Hi Sheetal, Jivan, Mir and others too,
I'm very excited and impressed by the comments on this thread, thank you for building this conversation!
I agree - it's unproductive for people to get caught up in guilt and shame because those are unproductive emotions that recentre the debate in the ways that Sheetal, Jivan and Mir have suggested.
One thought I'm having as I read this thread is how important it is for allies and supporters to not just take responsibility for their role but to take direction*. To not stew in emotions, but acknowledge responsibility as the preliminary step to the big work of supporting a reparations process led by Aboriginal peoples. For me, this has meant 1) unlearning the positioning of white people as the only catalysts for change; 2) thinking and reading AND doing the work of being an ally, and 3) struggling to understand something I read by Cris Crass that states "you will be needed in the movement when you realize that you are not needed in the movement.”
So thanks for pointing out my big blinders, Sheetal and Jivan. You're right - I spend a lot of time thinking about what white people can do as allies and supporters. (Maybe too much?) In this case, I was (unsucessfully) trying to refer to anyone who isn't Aboriginal as a immigrant or a settler... but by separating out white people, I made it seem like immigrants and whites were the only types of Canadians possible. And that's not true. Oops. I'm sorry.
In asking people to notice their whiteness (but not stew in it!), I was trying to address how many might never consider themselves as settlers/immigrants because of a sense that they belong here, that they are "true Canadians," and how any one who is black or brown is made to feel as if they do not belong, no matter how long their family has been in Canada. (Evidenced in how often racialized people get asked "what's your background?" or "where are you from?" and white people don't often get asked this - they rarely seem to have doubt thrown on their legitimacy as Canadians.)
*In the "taking responsibility, taking direction" theme, I'm thinking of Sheila Wilmot's book Taking Responsibility, Taking Direction: White Anti-Racism in Canada.
Posted by piKe
June 14, 2008, 6:35 PM
Hey all,
You know it's neat. I was thinking so much about this thread that today, while I was interviewing the organizer of a Literacy/hip-hop organization I kind of got side tracked and asked her what she thought of the whole white privelage/ white guilt issue.
She has a pretty distilled view given her work, and I was worried in this thread that I sounded like I wanted to be able to disown privilege because it makes me so f--ing uncomfortable and often sad. So I asked my friend/hip-hop head what she thought, and she said:
That we live *still* in a racist patriarchal society and the first thing to do is to admit that, and admit how uncomfortable it makes everyone to admit that. So I thought that was pretty cool, she also said Canada is full of snow, and it hides the dirt, which is a bit more poetic but the same thing more or less.
So I think that in making us think about what the word settler means both as an inclusive and an exclusive term, and as a power structure this post has achieved a great deal. Now yeah, it's time to move on and get behind the mule.
Did that make sense? Montreal is extremely hot and muggy right now, we could actually use a tonne or two of snow.
Posted by mir
June 14, 2008, 8:38 PM
awesome posts piKe and MIR~!
i'm totally going to add wilmot's book to my summer reading list (clearly we're all big activisty nerds here)!
and i'm going to use that snow line at dinner parties...
Posted by Sheetal
June 15, 2008, 11 AM
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