Dane-Zaa Oral History Summary

​In conclusion, this article is an eye-opening one that does not necessarily paint Canada’s justice system in a great light. Razack shows through the use of examples how Aboriginal people are treated differently and perceived to be lower than whites on the hierarchy of society, and how this lead to the lack of justice in the murder of Pamela George. It is disheartening to think that simply because she was an Aboriginal and a prostitute that her life is considered less important than those of her (white) murderers, but this is the light that Razack brings to the argument, and she does so

Richard Wagamese, the award-winning author of the novel Keeper’n Me (2006) as well as various other literary pieces such as Dream Wheels (2006), Medicine Walk (2014), and Indian Horse (2012), was born in 1955 in Northwestern Ontario and is from the Wabaseemoong First Nation. Through the combination of Wagamese’s fictional writing blended with components of his personal life in Keeper’n Me specifically, the fifty-nine year old author has been recognized for this and other phenomenal works through a variety of diverse awards in his years of writing including being the recipient of the 2012 National Aboriginal Achievement Award for Media and Communications. His debut novel allows audiences to get a glimpse of what this writer is capable of and furthermore his personal life as he incorporates many fascinating concepts into it while keeping it a light read.

Born in Ontario in 1971 to an Anishinaabe mother and a Scottish father, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson is a member of Alderville First Nation and is of Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg ancestry. Although she has written three books, her most famous one is a collection of short stories called Islands of Decolonial Love. Simpson also works for the The Centre for World Indigenous Knowledge and Research at Athabasca University in Canada. She is a poet, an academic, and activist, and a spoken word artist, and she won the RBC Taylor Emerging Writer Award for her non-fiction works in 2014. She also was awarded the Briarpatch Magazine’s Writing From the Margins prize for short fiction in 2012. Leanne Simpson’s seeks inspiration from a variety of styles, from from storytelling to critical analysis.

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)

Prior to the celebrations of Canada’s 150th birthday, and the protests against it, called Resistance 150, there was not much media coverage on the cultural genocide of the indigenous people in Canada. Resistance 150 opened up a conversation and increased media coverage about the issues of Canada’s dark past.

Silencing individual Indigenous peoples’ achievements in historical documents was a strategic method for keeping the Euro-Canadian power balance in tact over Indigenous peoples whilst silencing Indigenous peoples whom voiced their opinions and concerns about this lack of information. Without accurate and obligatory documentation, Indigenous peoples did not have accurate ‘proof or evidence’ to support their statements about their World War II involvements. Thus, the Canadian government ignored the needs of Indigenous communities with the least amount of backlash from society; Effectively silencing the needs of Indigenous peoples whilst benefiting the needs of

Although the Canadian government has done a great deal to repair the injustices inflicted on the First Nations people of Canada, legislation is no where near where it needs to be to ensure future protection of aboriginal rights in the nation. An examination of the documents that comprise the Canadian Constitution and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms reveal that there is very little in the supreme legal documents of the nation that protect aboriginal rights. When compared with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples it is clear that the Canadian Constitution does not acknowledge numerous provisions regarding indigenous people that the UN resolution has included. The most important of these provisions is the

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

“The drink had me snared. I spoke less and drank more, and I became the Indian again; drunken and drooling and reeling, a caricature everyone sought to avoid,”(Wagamese,181). This stomach-turning quote displays what several First Nations thought their identity to be. With this in mind, to begin, “Indian Horse,” by Richard Wagamese is a somber and intriguing novel, with many thought-provoking points within the book. To illustrate this, the book follows a First Nations boy through his youth to adulthood. It is filled with traumatic events, depressing stories and even a few joyful moments. In addition, the novel takes place from around 1960-1980 throughout Ontario. Furthermore, this essay will explore several events and factors which impacted, Saul, the main character's identity.

Stories that have been passed on for decades by Indigenous people have many cultural values and meanings that can help teach and guide others. In his book Earth Elder Stories: The Pinayzitt Path, Alexander Wolfe’s includes three stories “The Sound of Dancing,” “The Orphan Children,” and “Grandfather Buffalo,” that reveal important Anishinaabe cultural values. In the story “The Sound of Dance,” the value of family sacrifice is shown as a strong Anishinaabe cultural value. In the story “The Orphan Children,” Wolfe expresses the importance of orally transmitted knowledge as a core Anishinaabe cultural value. Then in “Grandfather Bear,” the keeper of knowledge emphasizes the importance of the connection to the past, especially within family relations in Anishinaabe culture. There are many cultural values that can be found in these three stories told my Alexander Wolfe. Family sacrifice is one of many values shown throughout these stories, specifically in the story “The Sound of Dancing”.

The First Nations people of Canada have a long list of treaty rights, as well as many undefined aboriginal rights, from their right to hunt and fish on their land to housing and annuities. However, it’s not all gift-giving and sunshine; while the government of Canada is supposed to respect their rights to hunt on their land and the right to hold title to their land, there are many disputes such as the Ron Sparrow case and the Oka Crisis that show that the Aboriginal peoples’ inherent rights are not always respected, with cases such as that of Don Marshall that show that the government might not exactly be on the First Nation’s side.

On the morning of March 9, 1988 a sequence of events took place that would haunt the Aboriginal community in Canada for years to come. J.J. Harper, a First Nations man was walking down the street when he was stopped by a police officer. The officer, Constable Cross, asked to see Harpers identification when an argument ensued. Cross’s gun fired and killed Harper on the spot. Throughout the article, Comack dives deeper into the investigation and what the police did wrong. Research has been done in recent years to show

This amounted to nothing short of a form of colonial violence that instrumentalized legally her subjugation and humiliation. As such, one can see the role of white male dominance percolating within her case, almost as if this was the underlying theoretical model of the entire Canadian legal system itself. Accordingly, one can say that George death brought about intense humiliation and shame and that her colonized body has since come to symbolize the legal justification for ongoing colonial policy and discourse within the Canadian legal system. That she was a mother, daughter, a friend, and a human being was different took into account. The fact that the court centered upon treating her and engaging in a full blown character assault is emblematic of ongoing colonial legacies and histories that have impacted how the legal systems treat women to this very day. This also signifies the ongoing processes of discrimination that the courts allow. In analyzing this case both on the admissions of guilt and comments by the presiding justice, the legal frameworks and theoretical considerations that the Canadian justice system remains mired in colonial policy seems entirely

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian features two main settings, the Pacific Northwest towns of Wellpinit and Reardan. These contrasting locations – one an impoverished Indian reservation and the other an affluent white community – become very important to the ever-shifting identity of our narrator, Arnold Spirit, Jr.

Over the past years, Canadian courts have repeatedly urged that aboriginal title conflicts should be resolved through negotiation, rather than litigation. The primary reason being that litigation is costly and time-consuming. For example, the decision for the Delgamuukw case took a duration of thirteen years. Furthermore, litigations that deal with the issue of aboriginal rights and title are “generally narrowly focused” and “ultimately leaves the question [posed about] how aboriginal rights and title apply unwarned.” For instance, the courts of Canada repeatedly failed to come up with a clear definition on the legal scope of Aboriginal rights despite the fact that they have several opportunities to do so. The Delgamuuku case clearly illustrates this when the Court “did not define how aboriginal title applied for the First Nations involved.” Instead, the Court came to the conclusion that a new trial was required, which ultimately will be more expensive and take longer.