Cultural Crimes : Home Invasion And Identity Theft

How can you write about a culture whose history is passed on by oral traditions? Better yet, how can you comprehend a culture’s past which a dominant society desired to assimilate? These two questions outline the difficulty in understanding the historiography of Canada’s Aboriginal peoples. In 2003, Paige Raibmon published her article, “Living on Display: Colonial Visions of Aboriginal Domestic Spaces.” Her work, although focused on Canada’s colonial “notions of domesticity,” presents the role of Aboriginals as performers to European notions of indigenous culture and identity. Early social historians believe that Aboriginals’ place in history is in their interactions with European Jesuits. A decade later, historians argue Aboriginals

The impact of colonization on First Nations peoples in Canada is unsurpassable, regarding every aspect of Aboriginal life and well-being. Throughout Canadian history, the government has been aiming to assimilate and annihilate Aboriginal people by way of racist policies, ethnocentric institutions, discriminatory laws and destructive capitalist behaviours. Because of this, Aboriginal people have suffered many losses, both physically and culturally. One of the main perpetrators of enacting this loss is the education system. The education system in Canada has and continues to threaten the relationship First Nations peoples have with the land. The connection First Nations peoples have with the land is crucial to their cultures, traditions, ceremonies and beliefs. Colonization and colonialism jeopardize this relationship and that is what this essay will address.

Over the past decades, Aboriginal people (the original people or indigenous occupants of a particular country), have been oppressed by the Canadian society and continue to live under racism resulting in gender/ class oppression. The history of Colonialism, and Capitalism has played a significant role in the construction and impact of how Aborignal people are treated and viewed presently in the Canadian society. The struggles, injustices, prejudice, and discrimination that have plagued Aboriginal peoples for more than three centuries are still grim realities today. The failures of Canada's racist policies toward Aboriginal peoples are reflected in the high levels of unemployment and poor education.

Aboriginal persons in Canada have been facing oppression ever since colonization began. Even when Canada gained independence from the British Empire, the oppression continued and still goes on today. One major contributing factor to the oppression of Aboriginal people in Canada is the actions taken by the Government. The Government of Canada has in fact mistreated and found to be partaking in wrongdoing when dealing with the Aboriginal population in this country. With this ugly truth being revealed, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission had to be tasked with discovering and revealing past wrongdoing by a government in the hope of resolving conflict left over from the past. (cite)

Since the colonization of Canada First Nations people have been discriminated against and assimilated into the new culture of Canada through policies created by the government. Policies created had the intentions of improving the Aboriginal people’s standard of living and increasing their opportunities. Mainly in the past hundred years in Canadian Society, policies and government implemented actions such as; Residential schools, the Indian Act, and reserve systems have resulted in extinguishing native culture, teachings, and pride. Policies towards the treatment of Aboriginal Canadians has decreased their opportunities and standard of living because of policies specified previously (Residential schools, the Indian Act, and reservation systems).

Knockwood explains the enforcement of residential ideologies as a “combination of physical intimidation and psychological manipulation which produced terror and confusion” (12). The premise of residential schools was to strip Indigenous children from their culture and Indigenous identity, forcing them to only speak English, or face severe consequences. Despite the government and churches best efforts, many Indigenous children still maintained their cultural roots and kept their language while at home. This governmental need for assimilation has had lasting impacts far beyond the scope of active residential schools. Neeganagwedgin notes, “while the schools may be physically closed, the legacy lingers” (34). Beyond this, she urges, present-day institutions still function in a way that continues to undermine and systematically deny, “Indigenous peoples their inherent rights as First Peoples” (Neeganagwedgin 34); such as the justice system, child welfare and the education systems.

In this research paper, I will be explaining how western colonialism and racism destroyed the reputation of aboriginal peoples in Canada. The reason why I chose this topic because it shows the strong relationship to anthropology and after taking aboriginal studies 30, it also shows that I have a clear understanding about the history of aboriginal peoples in Canada, the struggles they have been through over the past decade and the challenges they still face today in modern day society. I’ll be addressing these issues in a couple of paragraphs on the discrimination and the inequalities of these “minorities” and how they had to assimilate into European culture, leaving their way of life behind them.

To many people, Canada exemplifies a country that fulfills human rights and equality being the country of ‘freedom’. However, the Canadian government has distorted certain information including poverty that impacts many Aboriginal individuals daily. In theory, it is impossible to effectively analysis the impact that the past has imposed on Aboriginal people in Canada today. With this being said addressed below are several important historical government actions and legislations such as the Indian Act, Royal Proclamation, force segregation on reserves, and residential schooling impacting Aboriginal Canadians social conditions today. Fundamentally my goal is to address the idea that historical events are a crucial factor impacting Aboriginal

Discrimination of Aboriginal culture and way of life has also been a pressing issue during the years between 1945 and 2010. Canada, as nation that promotes equality, has done a terrible job demonstrating it. False stereotypes and perceptions of Native American people are very common in society today and back then. It is most common in the media because it is seen by almost everyone and has a considerable influence on peoples perspective on an idea, whether their aboriginal or not. Media reaches everywhere, from movies to the new and from advertisement to literature, it gets coverage. In the media aboriginals only ever get minor roles with a lack of identity in their characters, but when they are recognized, they are seen as

First off, I will tell my friend that we are all responsible, and it’s a fact and an debated opinion. Partaking in Canada’s systems and institutions is us directly contributing to the modern-day dehumanization and genocide that is happening towards Indigenous people today. Indigenous Canadians are not being treated equally; they’re treated worst. Only recently after several years of disappearance, the Canadian government has begun to discuss and bring awareness towards the murdered and missing Indigenous woman of Canada. (Anderson, 2016, p.90) While, some can only perceive that the negative stereotypes surrounding Indigenous daughters contributed to the lack of government attention, in comparison to other women. Thus, these stereotypes created

In this context, the conflict between aboriginal and white communities in Canada has become a more diversified and complex form of social interaction. At the governmental level, the rights of indigenous peoples has been suspect, since the white hegemonic Anglophile and Francophile governments have refused the same rights to aboriginals than those in the white communities, These are important ways to understand how government responses to aboriginal stereotypes are devolving in favor of these broader cultural identities for aboriginal people in

Sociology 214: Sociology of Indigenous people in Canada; has covered the topics of Indigenous and Sociological Paradigms, Colonialism, Identity, Aboriginal and Treaty Rights, Land Claims and Self-Government and lastly; Education, Economy and Social Conditions of Indigenous people. Through questions posted in the mandatory discussion forums each week, dialogue was held with other students to express opinions on the topic of the week while expanding knowledge of Indigenous people in Canada, and ones’ own personal opinions. These posts took place each week after reviewing and digesting the readings and videos in relation to the topic of discussion. This short post will describe how my personal ideas and opinions have changed

In the nineteenth century, the Canadian government arrogated themselves with the task of educating and caring for aboriginal people in Canada, though their approach to this was anything but amiable. Instead, they tore 150,000 aboriginal, Métis and Inuit children from their homes, coerced them into learning English and adopting Christianity, all while practicing Canadian customs. From the moment these children stepped across the school’s threshold, their identities were stripped from them. Their lives, subsequently, were over.

Commonly known as a mixture of the First Nations, Inuit and Métis, the aboriginal people are the native inhabitants of Canada. The aboriginal culture has lived on for centuries, and has influenced Canada’s language, social structure and overall evolution of the land we live on today. As of the 2011 Canadian Census, over 1.4 million people have identified themselves as an Aboriginal person – roughly 4.5% of Canada’s total population. While that statistic may not be that high, it’s extraordinary how a certain culture could last through the struggle and hardships these people had to go through. As European settlers moved into Canada, the Aboriginal people’s traditions and values were largely stripped away and were deemed a lower status to the perpetrators. The sociological perspective that will be used will be the conflict theory: presented by Karl Marx, the conflict theory is the contrast to the functionalist perspective where it embraces that social order is maintained by supremacy and authority instead of obedience and unity. While the Aboriginal people are slowly regaining their rights and ground after two centuries of discrimination and unjust social treatment, there is clear inequality as they are still lacking in many qualities of life including education, health care and unemployment.

Goodness is a rare commodity in the world. Even high school history courses focus on the crimes, wars, torture and depression, not the peace, selflessness and miracles. Still, pretending the dark, deceitful past does not exist is a common act when discussing history in Canada. The First Nations people bear the brunt of this ignorance, as very little of their suffering, at the hands of the government is acknowledged. Due to the abuse and neglect from the Canadian government, the First Nations people faced and continue to face a depletion of culture and serious mental health issues. In the First World War, First Nations people dealt with inconsiderate and racist policies. For the following decades, children were forced into the abusive,