Jesus, please can we not? Isn’t anyone else tired of this obsessive need to put our white guilt into everything? The land was conquered, it’s Canada, the native people do not own this land.
I get that the formation of Canada is not morally up to code based on our values today. But I was born in Canada. It is the nation I exist under. Of course there are things I would change if I could, but I accept the circumstances of my birth, accept the Canadian citizenship, and work to make a life within this system.
Why should I be made to feel like a land thief when I was born here? This is also the home of indigenous people. They were born here too. But it is not their land anymore. Can we stop subtley teaching ourselves to act like we’re squatting house-guests? Let’s just accept the Canadian identity and move forward. Fighting over this is only going to create division and resentment.
Please don’t mistake an ongoing political process for historical military conquest. Very little of Canada is territory captured via the spoils of war. The vast majority of Canada is subject to sharing agreements made between governments: treaties. The fact that economic apartheid and failure to honour treaties has left us in the current situation takes nothing away from the fact that indigenous ownership was the central governing concept at the basis of every treaty ever negotiated, whether or not they were ever signed.
Jesus, please can we not? Isn’t anyone else tired of this obsessive need to put our white guilt into everything? The land was conquered, it’s Canada, the native people do not own this land.
I get that the formation of Canada is not morally up to code based on our values today. But I was born in Canada. It is the nation I exist under. Of course there are things I would change if I could, but I accept the circumstances of my birth, accept the Canadian citizenship, and work to make a life within this system.
Why should I be made to feel like a land thief when I was born here? This is also the home of indigenous people. They were born here too. But it is not their land anymore. Can we stop subtley teaching ourselves to act like we’re squatting house-guests? Let’s just accept the Canadian identity and move forward. Fighting over this is only going to create division and resentment.
Please don’t mistake an ongoing political process for historical military conquest. Very little of Canada is territory captured via the spoils of war. The vast majority of Canada is subject to sharing agreements made between governments: treaties. The fact that economic apartheid and failure to honour treaties has left us in the current situation takes nothing away from the fact that indigenous ownership was the central governing concept at the basis of every treaty ever negotiated, whether or not they were ever signed.
Except… that’s what happened in the US, not Canada. It’s a failure of Canadian civics education that this isn’t more well-known.