Eskimo Mothers Campaign Analysis

The issue of violence against Aboriginal women is my chosen subtopic that strongly contributes to the history of Aboriginal women’s struggle for rights and identity in Canada. To search relevant newspaper articles for this topic, the databases that were used were Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe, as well as Canadian Newsstand Major Dailies. The reason these two databases were chosen was because Canadian Newsstand offered articles from multiple newspapers in the country, therefore providing me with diverse news in different provinces other than Ontario. The article I obtained from Canadian Newsstand was Canada Called on to Stop Violence Against Aboriginal Women from the Leader Post newspaper in Saskatchewan. Lexis Nexus provided one article I

Our society was fearful of the First Nations, because their culture and beliefs were different from ours. As a result, we penalized them for that and forced innocent children to leave their traditional culture behind and force them into our society. Lyna and Glen’s perspective was about hardship, emotional, psychological and physical trauma. They wanted our society to see and understand what that experience did to their humanity. Throughout the documentary, they focused on the victims, which were the children, resulting in personal biases about the experiences of the residential schools. Through talks in class and readings from the text, they both expressed how inequality has festered through the years in different ways for minority groups, such as the First Nations. From what our society has done, we created “so much mental and emotional suffering” (Pickett, K and Wilkinson, R), as a result from creating these residential schools and forcing assimilation upon the First Nation Children.

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.

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).

Canada ­as a nation is known to the world for being loving, courteous, and typically very welcoming of all ethnicities. Nevertheless, the treatment of Canada’s Indigenous population over the past decades, appears to suggest otherwise. Indigenous people have been tormented and oppressed by the Canadian society for hundreds of years and remain to live under discrimination resulting in cultural brutality. This, and more, has caused severe negative cultural consequences, psychological and sociological effects. The history of the seclusion of Indigenous people has played a prominent aspect in the development and impact of how Indigenous people are treated and perceived in today’s society. Unfortunately, our history with respect to the treatment of Indigenous communities is not something in which we should take pride in. The Indian Act of 1876 is an excellent model of how the behavior of racial and cultural superiority attributed to the destruction of Indigenous culture and beliefs. The Indian Act established by the Canadian government is a policy of Aboriginal assimilation which compels Indigenous parents under threat of prosecution to integrate their children into Residential Schools. As a nation, we are reminded by past actions that has prompted the weakening of the identity of Indigenous peoples. Residential schools has also contributed to the annihilation of Indigenous culture which was to kill the Indian in the child by isolating them from the influence of their parents and

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.

First Nation Peoples within Canada have been facing many injustices in their homeland since the dawn of colonization. The most unraveling point to First Nation assimilation was the formation of the consequential Indian Act and residential schools resulting in a stir of adversity. As racist ideologies within Canada developed, upheaval against such treatment was undertaken as First Nation communities fought back against government land claims and eradication of treaty rights. In attempt to make amends, proper compensations from the injustices within residential schools have been released and the key for the future is allowing First Nation self-government. Ideals with the intent of ultimate assimilation have been standardized unto First Nation

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

In the article Colonialism and First Nations Women in Canada by Winona Stevenson, the author explains the struggle First Nations women had keeping their culture alive. Upon arriving in America the Europeans suffocated the natives with their rationalisation of female subjugation. Reluctant to give up their traditions and honour the native-American women put up a fight, but their efforts would not be strong enough to triumph over the European missionaries. Stevenson chronologically explains their contact with the ‘colonial agencies'.

Charlie Angus was elected as a Member of Parliament in 2004, a role which took him to the Forgotten Children of Attawapiskat. It was his experiences prompted him to write his book, Children of the Broken Treaty: Canada’s Lost Promise and one Girl’s Dream, which tells the story of Indigenous persons of Canada’s struggles, including treaty rights, residential schools, as well as the fight for education and safe housing. The book provides a challenge to many common assumptions, and it also explores many themes which are used to explain the events which have shaped Canadian culture and policies. Angus begins his book by touching on some of the original treaties signed between the first Canadian government and the members of the bands that are indigenous to the land. One of these was Treaty 9, which promised education for Indigenous children. The book then developed into the foundation of residential schools, and the horrors that are endured there. In addition to the horrendous amounts of verbal, physical and sexual abuse which took place in these schools, the students who attended these institutions faced the mass genocide of their culture, as the unspoken purpose of these schools was “to kill the Indian in the child” (Angus, 2015, p. 14). The beginning of the book, while very dark, provides an honest introduction to some of the themes that can be spotted throughout the book, and history itself. The three themes that primarily stood out to me as a reader were: cultural

In the early 1880’s, the media played off western Euro-Canadian’s fears of a First Nations uprising, reinforcing and supporting negative stereotypes of First Nations. It was widely believed by Euro-Canadians that the First Nations people had joined the Metis to collapse the North-West government authority.[1] In an editorial written by in the Saskatchewan Herald on April 23, 1885, as cited by Blair Stonechild in his book “Saskatchewan[FK2] Indian and the Resistance of 1885: Two Case Studies”, it states, “the petted[FK3] Indians have proved the bad ones, and this gives weight to the old adage that the only good Indians are the dead ones.”[2] Euro-Canadians[FK4] held many misconceptions regarding the First Nations people, their treaties, and their political efforts, and the media’s extreme hostility

She argues that women face many institutional and societal barriers. In this regard, I will give examples of the institutional and structural barriers such as “The Indian Act” which have significantly affected Indigenous women in Canada in many ways including social, economic and political. While comparing feminists and Indigenous feminists, I think that Native women are different in several ways including social, cultural, historical, political and economic; therefore, Indigenous feminism is a way of practicing the values that they have been taught and inherited from their

For instance, in Canada, Native Canadians have seen first hand what oppression and mistreatment of women can look like. Since the European invasion, First Nations women and children have faced prolonged cruel treatment, by being forced on nearly uninhabitable reserves. For many years, the teaching of First Nation’s culture and languages was prohibited on reserves. Aboriginal youth must leave their families in order to get a proper secondary education, but generally want to come back to help with issues on reserve.4 Notwithstanding, their portrayal in the mainstream burdened the First Nation’s people significantly. The brutal depiction of First Nation people as “drunks” may have led to a decreased motivation to succeed, as well as difficulty in getting jobs.

This heritage which they regard very highly is stripped away by the government to force an inclusion into Canadian Society. Canada’s ethnic groups are forced to separate into “isolated islands’ or else they are coerced into assimilation. Ever since white settlers landed on Canadian shores in the 1600’s, there have been conflicts with the First Nations. From driving them off their land to exterminating them with European diseases, the First Nation population has been struggling to keep their lineage and history from being erased. With the struggle to keep themselves from being “cut [off] close to the floor” (Page 2) the First Nation society has been confined to a small patch of land called a “reservation”, a small downsize from all of Canada.

The substance of this paper will be to discuss the discourse regarding the inequalities facing aboriginal peoples living on reserves in the northwestern corner of Ontario. Inequality is not naturally occurring; poverty is not an innate cultural trait that accumulates at the feet of the marginalized (Schick & St.Denis, 2005, p.304). Stephens, Nettleton and Porter stated in the Lancet (2005) “Aboriginal people in Canada suffer enormous inequalities in health and in accessibility to health