Colonization in Canada

The English Oxford Living Dictionary defines "colonization" as:

• "The action or process of settling among and establishing control over the indigenous people of an area", and

• The action of appropriating a place or domain for one's own use

8th Fire: Aboriginal Peoples, Canada & the Way Forward is a 2012 miniseries produced by the CBC. The host, journalist an artist Wab Kinew, is honest and quirky, and invites us to take a closer look at Indigenous/settler relations in Canada, starting from first contact to now. 

Although dealing with some tough, and for long, hidden from mainstream, issues that bring to light Canada's colonizing past and present, Wab Kinew states right of the bat the the purpose of the show is not to create guilt or shame for non-Indigenous people. Rather, the show aims to learn about all sides of history and about all Canadians in order to build a positive shared future. 

Parts 1 and 2 of the show are embedded below as they will give anyone a better background to colonization in Canada, that I would by rewriting what has already been written.

1. This legislation gave the Canadian government the legal authority to replace traditional Aboriginal forms of government with elected chiefs and band councils, with limited, delegated powers set out in the Act. However, traditional governments were not abolished, and continued to exercise the inherent right of self-government in many communities, sometimes covertly.

2. British Columbia refused to sanction any other treaty-making, and even brought pressure on the federal government that resulted in an amendment the Indian Act in 1927, making it illegal to raise money or pay lawyers for the purpose of pursuing an Indian claim.  That effectively ended the period of historic treaty-making. In most of British Columbia, Aboriginal lands were taken and tiny reserves were created without Aboriginal consent

3. The prohibition on pursuing land claims was removed when the Indian Act was amended in 1951. In 1960, status Indian were accorded the right to vote in federal elections. 

Women of First Nations communities were central to the family, had important roles in government and spiritual ceremonies and were revered in matriarchal societies. European settlers disregarded, disrespected and demeaned First Nations females, and finally “legally” discriminated against them with the Indian Act.

The federal government defined status Indians based on paternal lineage. From 1869 - 1985, the Indian Act stated the following:

• A woman marrying a non-Indian would no longer be considered a status Indian

• Children of a status female Indian and a non-Indian would not be considered status Indians

• Section 12 allowed a female whose mother and paternal grandmother did not have status before their marriages to be registered as an Indian but upon turning 21, she would lose her status

In 1985, Bill C-31 was passed to bring the Indian Act in line with Section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms by removing discrimination against women. Bill C-31 provided an avenue through which women could apply for a reinstatement of their lost status.

According to Bob Joseph, “Besides the daunting magnitude of the red tape involved, a more heartless aspect of the reinstatement process was the cost applicants were forced to bear. Many women had to travel from sometimes very remote communities to centres that had DIAND offices. The research and documentation fees and travel requirements simply put the dream of reinstatement, which opened the door to better health and education services for the women and their children, out of reach for many women who were already financially marginalized due to their lack of ‘status’ ”. This was echoed by the 1996 Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples which concluded that Bill C-31 did not do much in the way of changing the discrimination against women in the Indian Act. 

Potlaches ceremonies, an integral part of the Coastal First Nations culture, were only hosted by certain members of the community. They aimed to redistribute wealth in what some have called a gift-giving ceremony;  “valuable goods, such as firearms, blankets, clothing, carved cedar boxes, canoes, food and prestige items, such as slaves and coppers, were accumulated by high-ranking individuals over time, sometimes years. These goods were later bestowed on invited guests as gifts by the host or even destroyed with great ceremony as a show of superior generosity, status and prestige over rivals”. They were also held to pass names tiles and responsibilities of a chief to the eldest heir and to “establish rank, mark the passing of a chief or the head of a house, and celebrate weddings and births”    

The federal government believed that potlaches and other ceremonies were a hindrance to the process of assimilation of First Nations peoples. Subsequently, in 1884, the potlatch law was created by the federal government thereby rendering potlaches and ceremonies such as the Sun Dance illegal and punishable by prison.

The government and missionaries viewed the potlatch as extravagant and could not seem to grasp the idea of “establishing rank by one’s ability to share wealth rather than establish rank by holding on to wealth”. There was a belief that eliminating cultural ceremonies and practices would create a void that could be filled by Christianity. 

First Nations peoples resisted and held underground potlaches and ceremonies, sometimes being punished by jail time or by having their priceless cultural wares confiscated. Finally, after the Second World War, once Canadians became more aware of basic human rights and human rights abuses, the potlach law was removed from the Indian Act in 1951. The first “legal” potlach was hosted by Chief Mungo Martin in Victoria in 1952.

Even the English word attributed to First Nations and Métis people were by settlers' first contact with them was not selected, approved or controlled by them. Despite the cultural, linguistic and other differences, all Indigenous peoples were lumped into one group and called "Indians". They did not matter enough to be called by their respective groups' names such as Ojibwe, Anishinaabe, Algonquin, Huron, Haida, and so forth. Instead, they were called "Indians", incorrectly, after Columbus got lost looking for the western sea route to India.