Amnesty International chose Joseph Boyden's Three Day Road for its first book club discussion.
The unjust treatment, the failure to honour, our First Nations, is, I believe the most important issue in Canada today. It distresses me to see prominent First Nations spokespeople, like Elijah in the novel, frantically proclaiming, attempting to convince others that "I am / we are worthy" when the real issue, the cause of all the pain and suffering, lies within us, the "other," those of us whose eyes are blinded by racism. Racism denigrates indigenous cultures, allows treaty rights to be defied and denied, allowed children to be abducted and indoctrinated, allows women to be desecrated, communities to be marginalized, colonization to continue. Racism assumes that all MUST assimilate, and causes the Elijah's to internalize a sense of inferiority and shame and anger. Racism is the issue, and racism is what has to be addressed before any change, any true reconciliation will be possible.
What can I do about it? I write. All I can do is write. I wrote about what I know and how I know it. My Dancing With Ghosts: A Cross-Cultural Education is available through the Canadian Museum For Human Rights website http://share.humanrightsmuseum.ca/writing/dancing-with-ghosts-a-cross-cultural-education/ and also on my own blog http://www.dancingwithghostsaneducation.blogspot.ca/ along with my other attempts to enlighten--Imagine Canada 2017 http://www.imaginecanada2017.blogspot.ca/ and We Are All Accomplices http://weareallaccomplices.blogspot.ca/2013/03/good-things-about-nanaimo-letter-to.html I am still working on trying to place my The Truth About Reconciliation.
Artists like Joseph Boyden and Wab Kinew help us see First Nations from a different, more rounded perspective. But does no one else fear "preaching to the choir"? Only those people who have already been converted, who are already concerned about human rights, and righting wrongs, are likely to hear. How best can we expose, let alone address, the underlying causes of our dysfunctional relationship with First Nations in Canada?
No comments:
Post a Comment