2 thoughts on “Indigenous Deaths in Thunder Bay: A Timeline”
I hope something will finally happen to end the endemic racism against Indigenous people in Thunder Bay…well all over Canada. As a naive, idealist white girl, I was shocked at the way people treated the Indigenous in Thunder Bay when I arrived in 1981 to go to school. I thought people in Canada weren’t racist. I thought that was a ‘south of the border’ thing.I know things won’t magically change overnight but I hope things will finally start to change.
Other than speaking up when people make idiotic racist comments, I wish there was more I could do to help.
I honestly, think that nothing can be done by one person. If anything can be done, unfortunately it will have to be at the discretion of the Indigenous peoples reasserting their sovereignty and obligation to defend themselves. Growing up as the child of residential school survivors and seeing my parents make their way in life despite all the obstacles in place through institutionalized and systemic racism.
It occurred to me that the only way for Indigenous peoples to receive any form of justice is to be left alone on our lands (not the reserve lands but the territories where we still live), in our culture and language and in our institutions (not the INAC system).
Sure, you can and should cut off all the dollars that the privileged sort believe that we have, but doing so and leaving us alone implies that there would be no economic exploitation of our territories. It would mean that Canada would exist in its current developed framework along the American border and that the north would once more be the domain and jurisdiction of the original peoples.
This is sovereignty either you can allow us to integrate ourselves within the current political framework on our own accord as a series of cantons with ownership and title to the lands where our ancestors lie, but still remaining part of Canada. Or you can watch us separate and reassert our Independence…
I hope something will finally happen to end the endemic racism against Indigenous people in Thunder Bay…well all over Canada. As a naive, idealist white girl, I was shocked at the way people treated the Indigenous in Thunder Bay when I arrived in 1981 to go to school. I thought people in Canada weren’t racist. I thought that was a ‘south of the border’ thing.I know things won’t magically change overnight but I hope things will finally start to change.
Other than speaking up when people make idiotic racist comments, I wish there was more I could do to help.
I honestly, think that nothing can be done by one person. If anything can be done, unfortunately it will have to be at the discretion of the Indigenous peoples reasserting their sovereignty and obligation to defend themselves. Growing up as the child of residential school survivors and seeing my parents make their way in life despite all the obstacles in place through institutionalized and systemic racism.
It occurred to me that the only way for Indigenous peoples to receive any form of justice is to be left alone on our lands (not the reserve lands but the territories where we still live), in our culture and language and in our institutions (not the INAC system).
Sure, you can and should cut off all the dollars that the privileged sort believe that we have, but doing so and leaving us alone implies that there would be no economic exploitation of our territories. It would mean that Canada would exist in its current developed framework along the American border and that the north would once more be the domain and jurisdiction of the original peoples.
This is sovereignty either you can allow us to integrate ourselves within the current political framework on our own accord as a series of cantons with ownership and title to the lands where our ancestors lie, but still remaining part of Canada. Or you can watch us separate and reassert our Independence…