| During a recent discussion with a Native friend, I suggested that "National Aboriginal Day" on June 21 should be renamed "National Aboriginal Appreciation Day" for several reasons.
The Whites in this country should be appreciative that the Aboriginal people didn't scalp and kill them all when they first came to this country. After the initial shock of seeing a different kind of people invade our lands and then fighting with them, we welcomed them with open arms and showed them how to exist here.
Your rich, middle- and upper-class Whites, and the evil greedy money-grubbing megacorporations and governments, should be appreciative of all the riches they have harvested from our lands. This was achieved by ill-gotten means – tricking Aboriginal people into signing Treaties that aren't worth the shitpaper they were written on.
White people should be appreciative that they don't have to face racism and discrimination in this city when trying to find a job, find a place to live or just trying to interact in daily life without some shitty White attitude, ignorance or cruel comments or dirty looks hurled at us. Be thankful that God didn't make you an Aboriginal person.
Be especially appreciative that you haven't had first hand experience with police racism and brutality. Even though I've never committed a crime and don’t have a criminal record, police have harassed me and physically harmed me – they seem to think all aboriginals are drunks or criminals or freeloaders.
You White people should be appreciative that you don't live on a reserve with a high unemployment rate, substandard or lack of housing, alcohol and drug abuse, poor health problems, high suicide rates, etc. This is why many Natives leave reserves for the city.
The White population should be appreciative that their parents weren't taken away and forced into boarding schools, run by the government in cahoots with so-called Christian churches, where they were both physically and sexually abused. The schools denied them their language and culture. It's any wonder how we managed to retain it to this day.
Being Native means far more than just wearing beads and feathers, or what people see at the Calgary Stampede Parade or at the "Injun' Village" at the Calgary Stampede each July. We just basically want the same things that you Whites take for granted (jobs, nice homes) – and by that I don't mean free handouts.
It has taken me a long time to overcome the shame of being a Native. I allowed the White people in Alberta to think that they were superior to the Aboriginal race. I now know that isn't true.
Racism made me hate a lot of White people and to learn to fight back and not to take shit from any White person. But I am also a firm believer in treating people how you would want to be treated. Treat me decent, like everyone else, and I can be a normal average citizen or your best friend. |
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