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Effects of colonization on indigenous peoples
Colonization of indigenous people in canada
Long term effect of colonization on indigenous people
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For the past 500 years the native inhabitants of this land have lived a legacy amongst and became subordinates to the European colonialists. They have had to adhere to stipulations that did not translate into their way of understanding and life ethos, and were misinterpreted. “The misunderstanding of my ancestors at treaty was linguistic and conceptual. We did not understand your language or your concepts of property” (Johnson 2007:41). The legacy consists of poverty, powerlessness, and the breakdown of social cohesion that plague so many Aboriginal families and communities. These conditions did not come about by chance or failure to modernize. They were created by past policies that systematically dispossessed Aboriginal people of their lands and economic resources, their cultures and languages, and the social and political institutions through which they took care of their own (Brant-Castellano 2001:5). Due to colonial and imperial impositions the majority of Canada’s Indigenous population is amongst the most highly excluded, poverty stricken, oppressed, and disadvantaged groups. Within the past half century, Aboriginal peoples have been relentless and determined in their struggle to attain self-determination, maintain their treaty rights and dispute rightful control of land possession matters. By means of mobilization and resistance movements they have contested and are challenging the policies that originated with colonialism and continue with government policies of the present day. The following essay will begin with a timeline of significant dates in the history of colonial and present day policy and law making that governing powers have applied and imposed on First Nation populations. A portion of the paper will cover a h... ... middle of paper ... ...cess. Ultimately his actions opened debate and contributed to the demise of the Meech Lake Accord. Later that summer the infamous Oka standoff, where the Mohawks in southern Quebec engaged in a 78-day armed standoff with authorities over a land dispute, escalated to widespread protest by Aboriginals that year (Ramos 2006:211). Another major outcome of the expression of Indigenous resistence to colonialism in the summer of 1990 was the establishment of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (Peach 2011:21). A mandate appointed by Prime Minister Brian Mulroney in response to the Oka confrontation. It was the government’s attempt to allow First Nation’s to express recommendations and propose specific solutions to the problems which have plagued relationships with government and Canadian society as well as issues that Aboriginals were confronted with at the time.
The Indian Act is a combination of multiple legislations regarding the Aboriginal people who reside across Canada, such as the Gradual Civilization Act of 1857 and the Gradual Enfranchisement Act of 1869 (Hanson, n.p.). The Gradual Civilization Act was the Canadian government's attempt to assimilate the aboriginals into the Canadian society in a passive manner, through a method they encouraged called Enfranchisement. Enfranchisement is basically a legal process that allows aboriginals to give up their aboriginal status and accept a Canadian status (Crey, n.p.). This process, while under the Gradual Civilization Act, was still voluntary, but became a forced process when the Indian Act was consolidated in 1876 (Hanson, n.p.). The Gradual Enfranchisement Act introduced in 1869 was a major legislation that intruded with the private lives of the aboriginals. First, it established the “elective band council system” (Hanson, n.p.) that grants th...
Glen Coulthard’s “Resentment and Indigenous Politics” discusses the politics of recognition that are currently utilized within Canada’s current framework of rectifying its colonial relationship with Indigenous peoples. Coulthard continues a discussion on reconciliation between Indigenous peoples and the state that recognizes the three main methods of reconciliation: the diversity of individual and collective practices to re-establish a positive self relation, the act of restoring damaged social and political relationships and the process in which things are brought to agreement and made consistent.
Generations of native people in Canada have faced suffering and cultural loss as a result of European colonization of their land. Government legislation has impacted the lives of five generations of First Nations people and as a result the fifth generation (from 1980 to present) is working to recover from their crippled cultural identity (Deiter-McArthur 379-380). This current generation is living with the fallout of previous government policies and societal prejudices that linger from four generations previous. Unrepentant, Canada’s ‘Genocide’, and Saskatchewan’s Indian People – Five Generations highlight issues that negatively influence First Nations people. The fifth generation of native people struggle against tremendous adversity in regard to assimilation, integration, separation, and recovering their cultural identity with inadequate assistance from our great nation.
The Calder Case was the spark that led to the Canadian government recognizing Aboriginals and their rights. Firstly, the aboriginals used the Calder Case to inform the government that they were taking away their rights. The Calder Case was launched after the Attorney General of British Columbia declared “that the Aboriginal Title, other wise known as the Indian Title, of the Plaintiffs to their ancient tribal territory...has never been lawfully extinguished.”1 The statement made by the government claimed that the Aboriginal Title did not exist in the eyes of the law and before the Calder Case, it allowed them to ignore Aboriginal land rights all over the country. In addition, The Calder brought the issues the Aboriginals were facing with land claims to the attention of the Canadian government. “According to Kainai Board of Education The case made it all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada where the court ended up rejecting the native's claims after being split on it's validity. However, the Supreme Court of Canada's recognition required new respect for Aboriginal land claims.”2 The Supreme Court of Canada's recognition of the Calder Case benefited the Aboriginals as the government was...
Nearly three decades have passed since the eleven-week armed stand-off between the Mohawk Warrior Society, Sûreté de Québec, and Canadian Armed Forces, commonly known among Settlers as the Oka Crisis. While the relative success of the conflict on the behalf of the Kanien’kehá:ka people is still widely debated today, it is undeniable that it fundamentally changed Indigenous-State relations in Canada. One concrete measure that stemmed out of the stand-off was the creation of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal peoples (RCAP) a year later in 1991. The largest and most expensive commission in Canadian history, RCAP was tasked with contextualizing the history of the Indigenous-State relationship and producing recommendations for its improvement.
“In about half of the Dominion, the aboriginal rights of Indians have arguably been extinguished by treaty” (Sanders, 13). The traditions and culture of Aboriginals are vanishing at a quick pace, and along it is their wealth. If the Canadian Government restore Native rights over resource development once again, Aboriginals would be able to gain back wealth and help with the poverty in their societies. “An influential lobby group with close ties to the federal Conservatives is recommending that Ottawa ditch the Indian Act and give First Nations more control over their land in order to end aboriginal poverty once and for all” (End First). This recommendation would increase the income within Native communities, helping them jump out of
July 11th 1990, marked the beginning date of the Oka Crisis in Quebec Canada. It lasted until September 26th 1990 resulting in one fatality of a local police officer. The violent clash was triggered by something as simple as a golf course extension and as complicated as native burial traditions. It had drawn world attention, catapulting native land rights into the mix. The Oka Crisis is just one of many conflicts between the Aboriginals and the Canadian government. A major issue that has been of much debate in the 20th century has been Native sovereignty. The demand sounds simple, allow Aboriginals of Canada to govern themselves; however, coexisting with the Canadian government makes this idea extremely complicated. Roger Townshend states that there is a difference in perception between Non-Aboriginal and Aboriginal people about jurisdiction over Canadian territory and that is one reason Aboriginals should be governing themselves. Opposing this view, Thomas Flanagan argues against Native sovereignty for it is not a workable mechanism in Canadian politics. Native sovereignty can never coexist with Canadian sovereignty because of the complexity of having a third level of government, a resolution cannot be breached since each tribe’s traditions are different, and the idea of having a functioning conglomerate of native groups is very improbable.
Her book focuses on the myriads of issues and struggles that Indigenous men and women have faced and will continue to face because of colonialism. During her speech, Palmater addressed the grave effects of the cultural assimilation that permeated in Indigenous communities, particularly the Indian Residential School System and the Indian Act, which has been extensively discussed in both lectures and readings. Such policies were created by European settlers to institutionalize colonialism and maintain the social and cultural hierarchy that established Aboriginals as the inferior group. Palmater also discussed that according to news reports, an Aboriginal baby from Manitoba is taken away every single day by the government and is put in social care (CTVNews.ca Staff, 2015). This echoes Andrea Smith’s argument in “Heteropatriarchy and the Three Pillars of White Supremacy: Rethinking Women of Color Organizing” that colonialism continues to affect Aboriginals through genocide (2006, p. 68). Although such actions by the government are not physical acts of genocide, where 90% of Aboriginal population was annihilated, it is this modern day cultural assimilation that succeeded the Indigenous Residential School System and the Indian Act embodies colonialism and genocide (Larkin, November 4,
...ulted in widely ranged political and legal protests, including petitions to the Government and the Crown, legal challenges in defense of Aboriginal resource rights and land, and careful enforcing of the Indian Act’s regulations. The federal government often responded with harsh legislative measures to the Indian Act, such as outlawing the Potlatch (and subsequently, arresting those who publically continued to engage in cultural practices), and disallowing of hiring lawyers to pursue Aboriginal rights through court. The passage of such laws, however, did not stop Indigenous groups, and they continued to meet, organize, maintain cultural traditions, and retain respect for hereditary leaders. But, since they lived in such an oppressive society, the Canadian Government continued to have reign over their lives and their opportunities to participate in a broader society.
Tensions that exist between distinct groups of people or races break relationships and connections going on to create a rupture in Canada’s continuity. These cases are downplayed and the negative impacts of such tension on individuals are often subliminal. A recurring example of strain includes the Canadian government’s relationship with Aboriginals and the native peoples of Canada. Through the historical use of residential schools, cultural genocide, institutionalized and ongoing racism, and lack of support for Aboriginal communities, First Nations have been continually put at a disadvantage compared to other ethnic groups in Canada. The list of problems expands to encompass the lack of Aboriginal representation in the community and House of Commons, and the lack of input methods for those who voice their concerns. This is especially apparent for Aboriginal communities in Manitoba that have been on a boil water advisory for many years. These facets of our interaction with Aboriginals have slowly broken our connection with them. Throughout the years, the Canadian government repeated demonstrated a lack of respect and refusal to cooperate with Aboriginals. This lost voice in Canadian society has caused a divide in Canada. However, not all conflicts take place in such a large geographic area, but instead are centralized in certain places. In British Columbia and the West Coast of Canada in the early 1900’s, discrimination and racism was rampant against new Asian and Chinese immigrants. This led to the formation of the Asiatic Exclusion League which organized riots and reinforced the ideology that the Chinese were dirty, “bred like rats”, and took jobs away from the locals. As a result of their peculiar custom, habits, and ways of life, they were treated subpar to other Canadians and discriminated against by the local population. This led to the Chinese
It was during this time that the first obstacles to the government's progress first surfaced. The Métis people began to fear for their culture, rights and their lands as colonists sta...
Introduction “We are all treaty people” Campaign. The year 1907 marked the beginning of treaty making in Canada. The British Crown claims to negotiate treaties in pursuance of peaceful relations between Aboriginal peoples and non-Aboriginals (Canada, p. 3, 2011). Treaties started as agreements for peace and military purposes but later transformed into land entitlements (Egan, 2012, p. 400).
In the month of March 1990 Mohawk protesters constructed a barricade to prevent access to the Kanehsatake reserve to prevent construction of a 9-hole golf course. Then on July 11, 1990, Canadian police attack the barricade and a standoff begins. What was once in the name of the Kanehsatake reserve now became a civil rights movement for the First Nations across Canada. Throughout the standoff, police disregarded the basic rights of the Mohawk and negotiations were incredibly difficult resulting in the situation degrading rapidly. What was shown during the Oka Crisis is that the Canadian government failed to recognize that the First Nations as a people and treated them unfairly.
This chapter of The Colonial Problem: An Indigenous Perspective on Crime and Injustice in Canada is another piece of literature that illustrates the numerous injustices that were faced by Indigenous peoples throughout the country’s history. In particular, the dehumanization that occurred as a result of the
Prior to the arrival of the Europeans in Canada in the mid- to late 1600s, Aboriginal people were the original inhabitants of the Canadian land. In Canadian history, we forced our Aboriginal people to adapt to the European-Canadian culture and values. Prior to overthrowing their land and culture, the Aboriginal peoples were thriving off the natural land materialistically and financially. In years to come in response to the mistreatment of them, the Canadian government would implement what is known as the Indigenous and Northern Affairs act [1966] this act would aim to establish financial rights and benefits for the aboriginal demographic. Today in the 21st century Canada is comprised of over 1.4 million indigenous peoples (Aylsworth