May 11, 2008
Historical Quote #1
“The Indians have really no rights to the lands they claim, nor are they of any actual value or utility to them. I cannot see why they should retain these lands to the prejudice of the general interests of the Colony, or be allowed to make a market of them either to Government or to individuals.”
- Joseph Trutch,
British Columbia's Chief Commissioner of Lands and Works in 1864
Have things really changed all that much? Has the colonizers objective change? Has their been any compromise on the Colonial side considering how much our peoples have given up and and continuing to be asked to give up more?
by
Rivers
on
Sunday, May 11, 2008
|
Labels: British Columbia, Colonization, Colonizer, Joseph Trutch
Labels: British Columbia, Colonization, Colonizer, Joseph Trutch
2 comments:
Thanks for caring enough to share.
Um, I actually disagree. Colonization is still very much going on. Settlers are still settlers. The only indigenous people are the ones who come from this land, otherwise, your a foreigner. Ask our elders, ask our leaders, ask our young people, in our eyes, your the foreigner and it's just about respecting the ancestor spirits who come from this land, and the sovereignty of the people of this land.
The 2010 Olympics, the Economic-Development push, the BC Treaty Process, the Land Claims legal wars, all point to the same thing of continual colonization. The education system is so abysmal in respecting real history, with it's very white-washed and Colonizer perspective, only to induce or produce more ignorant settlers, and even more so, assimilated our indigenous children into Canadian society.
Things have changed, I agree. But how much is what I'm wondering. Trutch says "why should they retain these lands", when things like Stanley Park or UBC Endowment Lands come up, all the White folk get into a up roar over our land being rightfully returned to us. Why? Is it so hard to concieve we still want to gather food, conduct ceremonies, hunt, fish, and play in our lands. Let alone that, what about doing things our ancestors didn't do on the land, which we have every right to. Our people must be stuck in some time warp with our lands, cultures, history. That we can only collect this percentage of salmon a year, meanwhile our populations will grow and come up, and 6 generations from now we're each only allowed 1/4th of a salmon because of the Final Agreement signed back then.
But thanks for the comment. = )
Um, I actually disagree. Colonization is still very much going on. Settlers are still settlers. The only indigenous people are the ones who come from this land, otherwise, your a foreigner. Ask our elders, ask our leaders, ask our young people, in our eyes, your the foreigner and it's just about respecting the ancestor spirits who come from this land, and the sovereignty of the people of this land.
The 2010 Olympics, the Economic-Development push, the BC Treaty Process, the Land Claims legal wars, all point to the same thing of continual colonization. The education system is so abysmal in respecting real history, with it's very white-washed and Colonizer perspective, only to induce or produce more ignorant settlers, and even more so, assimilated our indigenous children into Canadian society.
Things have changed, I agree. But how much is what I'm wondering. Trutch says "why should they retain these lands", when things like Stanley Park or UBC Endowment Lands come up, all the White folk get into a up roar over our land being rightfully returned to us. Why? Is it so hard to concieve we still want to gather food, conduct ceremonies, hunt, fish, and play in our lands. Let alone that, what about doing things our ancestors didn't do on the land, which we have every right to. Our people must be stuck in some time warp with our lands, cultures, history. That we can only collect this percentage of salmon a year, meanwhile our populations will grow and come up, and 6 generations from now we're each only allowed 1/4th of a salmon because of the Final Agreement signed back then.
But thanks for the comment. = )
And yes, I do think that things have changed. What is happening now, as difficult as it may be, is good business for both sides, and there are hungry businesspeople on both sides...
Green is visible, no matter how you look at it - or what kind of green you're hungry for.