Canada’s Land Acknowledgement Write-Up
This land acknowledgment serves purpose in order to send a message to settlers, peoples that did not come from here, that this is not their or our land. I do not come from this land myself, as it belongs and was kept healthy by Indigenous peoples before settlers struck their disgusting and vile deeds. A land not only sacred for peoples that own it to this day, yet have no rights for reasons that only settlers who stole their land could comprehend. A land sacred to its state and being for the other creatures that live upon it, as prairies and native animals roam and conquer the grass. I am certainly not from this land, but I know I come from native land myself in a different continent of the world; also being colonized, defiled, stolen of our culture, names and everything in between, as the settlers touched and made their way down our mother’s bodies, took the life and purity they were to preserve for their loved one. Unknownst to everything, Indigenous people thought they could trust the arriving settlers that had come to “share” their territory, but instead steal everything from them. Land acknowledgement is not just acknowledgement, it is also establishing the relationship between the Indigenous peoples of the land and the settlers that came and invaded their territory. A land acknowledgement is not just recognizing that land beneath our feet, but the sacred ancestors that walked upon it as well, the people of their teachings, the people that roamed this land far before anyone.
Canada’s Land Acknowledgement Manitoba, Winnipeg
I acknowledge that I am with people of all communities of this society and in this native land, I stand on what is Indigenous people’s sovereignty. As the wind breeze grazes against the prairies hairs, the Dakotas and Metis, that walk upon Winnipeg, it is their lands. It is their land, but why are there still so many issues? As we say that this is their land, and we ignore the boiling water advisories that happen in the communities where Winnipeg itself gets its water. We shall not ignore the genocide that happened as the settlers that stole this land just like the land I came from was stolen. What is the action you will take to ensure everyone is aware this is not just land we are talking about; but also the relationship between Indigenous people and settlers? How can I make a difference towards reconciliation without just saying it through my words with little to no meaning?
Indian Act - Residential Schools
There are not many in Manitoba, or let alone in Canada as a whole that have survived the Residential schools the Canadian government; or should I say the settlers that came and invaded their land had implemented. Residential schools had gone on for decades, even a century long furthermore. Residential schools had been established around 1880, and served the purpose of converting and practically kidnapping Indigenous children to stay at these schools for years on end, teaching them only the ways of the settlers. They stole and stripped everything that meant a much deeper importance to them, such as their hair, their language, their culture, their everything. Most of the children that even attended these schools would die due to the abuse that was upheld in these places. They were violated, raped, assaulted, murdered, and almost no remaining survivors, and even if there was that small chance of surviving that genocide in those chambers, those survivors lived through watching their own people die, getting abused as well, and now will have to LIVE on with that trauma that was given to them. Indigenous people were obviously oppressed and discriminated against, not even being able to send their children to normal or regular schools, but instead these prisons that only treated them like garbage. The settlers obviously had the upper hand, being in control of the residential schools, and reverting them into their ways; which is extremely gruesome.
Child Welfare 1 i, ii, iii, iv
Truly, there is no forgiveness that should be done, but change and action should be taken, which is why the 94 recommendations and calls to action were made to work towards reconciliation. Reading about the 94 recommendations, I actually picked out a few calls to action that should be taken after the genocide of the Residential schools, which did not happen too long ago. One of the calls to action being child welfare, and in which they call upon the federal, provincial and territorial governments to commit to reducing the number of Aboriginal children in care by:
Monitoring and assessing in neglect investigations
Providing adequate resources to enable Aboriginal communities and child-welfare organizations to keep Aboriginal families together where it is safe to do so
Keep children in culturally appropriate or safe environments, regardless of where they reside
Ensuring social workers and others who conduct child-welfare investigations are properly educated and trained about the history
This recommendation can shape life in a way where Indigenous children in foster care or don’t have a safe place to live in, have the right and will be able to be placed in an environment where they can embrace their culture, be loved, get taken care of, and so much more. It’s upsetting how this recommendation did not exist during residential schools, as residential schools definitely violated this call to action. Residential schools took Indigenous children, and instead of putting them into a safe environment, they were put in the most neglectful, abusive, and basically prison-like building.