Coming from Mexico, I am familiar with aboriginal indigenous culture within a society so understanding the way in which a More Economically Developed Country (In this case Canada) treats and interacts with a culture that is present yet strong within most Canadians. During Jumpstart we were explained that the buildings names were considered disrespectful towards the Musqueam people which is why with the support of First Nations students they named the new buildings in an accurate way that actually had a meaning, unlike Nootka (which apparently means “Go around” and that is what the aboriginal people were trying to tell the first explores of Vancouver). This made me think about how society has changed from 40 years to now. A point in life in which some people decided that the names of residential buildings of UBC would be called after the different First Nations groups that lived around the area of British Columbia to having special meetings with Musqueam leaders in order to create an appropriate name and symbol for the new buildings.
Talking about the TRC with my peers from the debate club, I can vividly remember how they felt that what the government is doing in order to be forgiven is not enough and all they are trying to do is eliminate any type of liability. At that moment I agreed with what they were saying. However, I could never be so wrong.
After visiting the Belkin Art Gallery I directed myself to the intriguing pictures of children like drawings from recovering survivors of Residential Schools through Art Therapy. The only time I remember my skin shivering from toes to head as much as when I was in there is when I saw the video of John F. Kennedy’s 3 year old son, saluting the casket of his dead father. The emotions I felt were incredibly powerful and overwhelming. The fact that such thing is done to honor and reconciliate a past that is often neglected and forgotten in other cultures is truly remarkable looking at it from a foreigners perspective. The remembrance of our seeds, ancestors or just the people who lived where we are standing hundreds of years ago allows us to understand the way societies used to interact and how they do now.
People cannot stress enough how little the Canadian government is doing to apologize. What people fail to acknowledge is that what the canadian people have done to support these First Nations groups is on a huge scale magnificent. An invisible community support that makes all this happen. The fact that people go to the Belkin Art Gallery, or that they participate in the Walk clearly demonstrates that if it wasn’t for the people in Vancouver, or Canada as a whole, this activities and events would not be ocurring in the first place.
In a constantly globalizing world, people fail to recognize past cultures and the way it influences their presence. Mexicans, for example, are taught about the indigenous abuse as something that was normal and correct often leading to a lack of knowledge of truly indigenous culture. This is the most marginalized group in our society, and something like this needs to change.
I’m proud to see that because of the TRC, people acknowledge a sad past for which they are willing to apologize for.