The idea that Canada began 150 years ago is just one side of the narrative. Solidarity Halifax is standing with the Indigenous community in challenging that narrative through its Expose 150 event.
“I think it’s really important for people to recognize the full historical context of the celebration,” says Chelsea Fougere, convener of Solidarity Halifax’s eco-justice committee.
The anti-capitalist organization is joining the many people—especially Indigenous folks—who’ve been critical of the upcoming celebration, both locally and nationally. The group, along with whoever turns up at the event, is aiming to educate.
“We wanna encourage people to reflect on what it is to find pride in genocide and for them to reflect on the ways that Canadian culture continues to harm Indigenous communities.”
Participants are to gather at the foot of the Macdonald Bridge on the corner of North and Gottingen at 7am tomorrow, when there will be plenty of motorists coming off the bridge. They’ll be handing out flyers to stopped cars.
“In schools, in our dominant narrative, we’re just taught the colonial narrative,” says Fougere. “There’s the stereotype of Canada being nice, but that is absolutely not the case for a lot of people.”
The Canada Day celebrations are effectively celebrating the destruction of Indigenous culture, she points out—and that destruction is ongoing. Fougere hopes, at least, people will “think about it” in a way they hadn’t before.
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This article appears in Jun 22-28, 2017.
Such nonsense. Native and ‘colonists’ can’t move forward with this endless look to past. Yes, some bad white folks did some bad things 500, 300, 150, 50 years ago. But history is replete with this type of activity. I can’t go back to reclaim my ancestral Scottish castles taken by the English; I can’t go back to reclaim lost lands from my tribal lands in Africa 150,000 years ago either. Folks, we need to move forward and this crap doesn’t help.
I doubt there is a person in this province who doesn’t know about at least some of the atrocities Indigenous people have suffered at the hands of white colonialists, this protest is not about educating the public, its about feeling enough hasn’t been done to make up for what’s happened in the past and using Canada’s birthday to make a statement.
Personally I am happy to celebrate Canada’s 150th birthday and all that we as a country have achieved; universal health care, public education, the declaration of universal human rights, international peacekeeping, standard time, the Canadarm, to name a few. Let’s be proud of what we’ve accomplished!
It’s profitable to be a victim.
Thing of the past, eh? You must have missed when Indigenous folks in Winnipeg had to organize a dredge of the Red River to search for their missing and murdered women, in 2015. You must have missed that the UN is investigating Canada for its human rights abuses against its Indigenous population, now, not through a historical lens. You must not be aware that Residential schools (state enforced institutions where thousands of children died due to neglect, abuse and torture) were operating until 1996. To name a few..