As a non-First Nations person, this blog presents a bit of a challenge to me personally. I want to discuss issues that affect First Nations people and look at what that means to the wider population including the media, but I do not want to frame this as a First Nations vs. non-First Nations discussion. It should ideally be a collaborative conversation between all the people involved. But given this desire, I realize that a history of colonization doesn’t make this easy. Years of privilege or persecution can make for different perspectives and often lead people to have a lack of overall understanding for the other side.
To give some personal context to my relationship with B.C., my own family immigrated to Canada in my grandparent’s generation on my dad’s side and my parent’s generation on my mom’s. Even given my family’s relative newness to the Canada, I feel a responsibility for the cultural thinking that came along with European immigration. Residential schools, biological genocide and racist political policies have put First Nations people across Canada at a disadvantage compared to European settlers and their families. I want to explore some of these challenges in this blog, but I intend this exploration to be personal and not to dictate my views on any other people.
I believe like author, John Ralson Saul, that Canada’s identity as a largely compassionate and sharing country is formed not in spite of First Nations people, but because of them. In Saul’s book, A Fair Country, he explores the idea that Canada is a Métis nation where ideas like universal health care are the product of this blending of European and First Nations ideals. I feel that as a Canadian, it has been to my benefit to know and hear about the different ways that different cultures deal with different issues. At the root of Canadian multiculturalism is the relationship between First Nations people and immigrants and that’s why a better knowledge of First Nations people, history and politics is so key to understanding what it means to be Canadian.
The history of interactions with First Nations people has a deep and storied past in B.C. It seems that much of the politics that First Nations people are dealing with now are caused by external systems being imposed on communities, in many cases through law and force. This is made more interesting by the fact that unlike most of the rest of Canada, many of the First Nations in B.C. did not sign treaties as the province was being settled. Though this blog, I want to look at some of that history because I feel that to truly be a British Columbian, I need to understand the history upon which this province is built. I want to look at both the horrors and the successes because context comes from understanding a spectrum of experience.
As a journalist, I see that First Nations stories are often covered superficially by mainstream media. This is not to say that there aren’t journalists attempting to give good context, but that with limited space or airtime, this is not always accomplished. I believe that part of the reason that First Nations issues are not, in my experience, covered in much depth is the lack of education at a both secondary and post-secondary level. Students should be learning more about the realities of things like the Indian Act, the Sixties Scoop, ongoing treaty negotiations, federal funding, and self-governance. In my experience, I didn’t get this knowledge until I sought the information out. I'm not looking for an overnight change in attitudes, but this blog is my attempt to educate myself through reading and through conversations and interviews with First Nations people. Through doing this, I hope to become a better journalist and help more people better understand First Nations issues in B.C.
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