The Plan

It’s hard to narrow down a topic like First Nations politics.  It’s like trying to summarize thousands of years of history down into three months.

I want to look at the effects of Canadian governmental policy on First Nations people, but I also don’t want to discount the years of history that came before colonization or before the Canadian government began its active effort to assimilate First Nations people into mainstream European/Canadian society. This leaves me in a bit of a personal predicament because I know that I can’t look at every aspect of First Nations life and how it relates to the present and to the media, but at the same time I feel that to explore the topic properly, I have to know as much as I can.

This leaves me thinking that I need a plan on how best to tackle some of the realities of First Nations life in the Southern Interior. I’m making a list of things that I would like to do in the next few months to get a better understanding of First Nations’ history.

1.    Visit the old Kamloops Residential School
2.    Connect with the TRU Gathering Place
3.    Go to the First Nations school, Sk’elep
4.    Connect with at least one First Nations social worker
5.    Talk to as many First Nations people as I can on and off reserve
6.    Talk to some band leaders and elders

I know that this will give me just a snap-shot into what First Nations life is like in the Southern Interior, but it’s a start.

Sometimes without a plan, there can be so much information that I’m not even sure where to begin. This list is just my first step and I’m more than open to suggestions on where or what I should be doing to better get context into the First Nations experience in British Columbia so if you know something that I’ve missed —please let me know. The more I know how things work, the better I can explain it to someone else and share that knowledge.