2] In this lesson I say that it should be clear that the discourse on nationalism is also about ethnicity and ideologies of “race.” If you trace the historical overview of nationalism in Canada in the CanLit guide, you will find many examples of state legislation and policies that excluded and discriminated against certain peoples based on ideas about racial inferiority and capacities to assimilate. – and in turn, state legislation and policies that worked to try to rectify early policies of exclusion and racial discrimination. As the guide points out, the nation is an imagined community, whereas the state is a “governed group of people.” For this blog assignment, I would like you to research and summarize one of the state or governing activities, such as The Royal Proclamation 1763, the Indian Act 1876, Immigration Act 1910, or the Multiculturalism Act 1989 – you choose the legislation or policy or commission you find most interesting. Write a blog about your findings and in your conclusion comment on whether or not your findings support Coleman’s argument about the project of white civility.
“This provision of the Indian Act was in place for close to 75 years and what that did was it prevented the passing down of our oral history. It prevented the passing down of our values. It meant an interruption of the respected forms of government that we used to have, and we did have forms of government be they oral and not in writing before any of the Europeans came to this country.” — Judge Alfred Scow (qtd. in Hanson)
As summarized by Dr. Paterson, Daniel Coleman’s introduction to White Civility: The Literary Project of English Canada discusses the “necessary forgetfulness required to hold” together the fiction of nation-building. In particular, the building of a white nation, and a ‘natural community’ that represents forcibly and inadequately a variety of peoples.
My research into the Indian Act of 1876 helped me encounter the quote pasted above from the first Aboriginal appointed to BC Provincial Court, Judge Alfred Scow (“Alfred Snow”). Above, he speaks of the Indian Act’s aim to assimilate the Aboriginal peoples, the law introducing the “residential school system among other initiatives that sought to eradicate cultural differences” (“Reading and Writing”), but focuses on the legislation’s role as a cultural dam, preventing the passage of oral tradition from one generation to the next. And this is significant in regards to Coleman’s discussion of intended forgetfulness. Why? It comes down to the importance of memory for orality. I want to recall my previous blog entry and the discussion of Salish orators. For the Salish, the authenticity of their stories largely depended on the collective memory that kept them alive and the quality of their conveyance. The Indian Act destroys the possibility for remembrance and bars listeners from being graced by the telling of those stories. By intercepting this transferal of stories with residential schools and their cultural assimilation, the government has prevented the repetition of those stories and consequently weakens or destroys the possibility for remembering those oral traditions.
This repeated severance of connection to orality then echoes Coleman, as he writes that white civility helps to construct Canadian identity through “regularly repeated literary personifications for the Canadian nation” (qtd. in Paterson). Therefore, due to the establishment of residential schools thanks to the Indian Act, there springs two ‘forgettings.’ One is the forgetting of Aboriginal oral traditions. Second then, would be the subsequent forgetting of the horrors of the residential school. Due to this forced assimilation, many Aboriginal peoples and their cultures suffered the loss of “cultural practices, traditions, and oral history” (Hanson) under the red herring of bringing together the ‘natural community’ of white civility. Later this ‘whiteness’ would materialize into the ‘White Paper‘ under Pierre Trudeau’s government in 1969. The Prime Minister attempted to relinquish the Aboriginal people of their status and to complete the assimilation of their group as ‘normal’ Canadian citizens. (“Indian Act”). However, the White Paper was swiftly discarded, but it is a clear example of the Canadian government trying to forget the immediate history of the Aboriginal peoples, their special treatment and their lands in order to force the Aboriginal people into the ‘normalcy’ of a ‘white nation’.
I believe that my findings support Coleman’s argument of white civility. The Indian Act of 1879 destroyed the culture of the Aboriginal people by breaking the chain of storytelling, installing residential schools to force cultural integration into a singular, white shade. By doing so, they hindered the collective memory and the passing of memory in regards to these oral traditions and instead, replaced them with narratives of their own for the purpose of assimilation.
I can find a connection between this and modern day Japan. Japan touts itself as a homogeneous country. The emphasis on a monoculture is accompanied with the notion that if you are either Japanese or not in that country. However, that largely ignores the variety of minority groups within Japan and the Okinawans who often view themselves as separate from the mainland Japanese, creating tensions that possess a long history.
Hopefully, we will not forget the horror of the residential schools. Memory is a powerful tool, and like oral traditions, if we can remember the disastrous Indian Act of 1876 together, we will continue to fight against further injustices committed against the Aboriginal peoples.
Works Cited:
“Alfred Scow.” Indspire: Indingeous Education, Canada’s Future. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Mar. 2016.
CanLit Guides. “Reading and Writing in Canada, A Classroom Guide to Nationalism.” Canadian Literature. Web. April 4th 2013.
Hanson, Erin. “The Indian Act.” The Indian Act. N.p., 2009. Web. 11 Mar. 2016.
“Indian Act.” The Canadian Encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Mar. 2016. <http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/indian-act/>.
Paterson, Erika. “Lesson 3.1.” ENGL 470A Canadian Studies: Canadian Literary Genres – 99C Jan 2016. UBC Blogs, n.d. Web. 11 Mar. 2016. <https://blogs.ubc.ca/courseblogsis_ubc_engl_470a_99c_2014wc_44216-sis_ubc_engl_470a_99c_2014wc_44216_2517104_1/unit-3/lesson-3-1/>
Hi Brendan!
I’m reading through blogs to figure out who I want to team up with for the future conference!
I really enjoyed reading your blog for this week! I think there is definitely an assumption (amongst non-aboriginal Canadians) that the residential schools were “so long ago” and that they should just “get over it and move on”. While I’m sure we can all agree that those opinions are close minded and false (the last residential school shut down in 1996 – I was 3 years old!), I appreciate how you also talked about Pierre Trudeau’s attempts at continuing to assimilate aboriginals via the White Paper. Honestly, I had no idea he did that! It’s an interesting juxtaposition against his son, Justin Trudeau, who is passionate about improving Native rights, restoring their stolen cultures, and putting an end to the murdering of Native women and children.
The comparison you made between Canada’s systemic whiteness and Japan’s own pride in their (forced) homogeneity opened my eyes as well. I’m not too familiar with the general mindset of mainland Japanese people, so that was interesting. It is obvious that both countries have implemented what they think is “right” and “proper” and “civil”, etc and in the process outright ignored and alienated anyone who refused to fit into that definition. I talk a lot about this concept, but in a bit of a different context, in my own response to this week’s assignment.
Why do you think so many countries (Canada, Japan, America, Australia, France, and many others) are so concerned with everyone assimilating to one specific “way”/culture, even in our era where globalization is creating amazing opportunities for multiculturalism & increased understanding of “others”? You would think that since we have had contact with other cultures/people/etc for thousands of years that we would have grown to have tolerance, understanding, and acceptance of people we deem “other”, but this isn’t the case! I know this is definitely not an easy question & has *many* possible answers, but I wanted to hear your thoughts.
I’ve really enjoyed reading your blog posts & I’m interested in working with you for this upcoming group project! Feel free to peruse my blog and let me know what you think 🙂 (Also, I don’t have every assignment on there because I have been sick this semester, so please don’t think that reflects who I am as a student/group member!).
Oh, I forgot to add, feel free to contact me through Facebook.
Hey, Julia!
Thanks for reaching out to me about a group! I’m glad we both found wonderful teams in the end, however.
I’m happy that you’ve noticed the juxtaposition like I did between the two Trudeaus! Hopefully Justin continues to remember the plights of the Aboriginal people, both past and present. Also, about Japan… I studied Japanese literature during my exchange to Tokyo and we focused on minority literature. I knew about Japan’s homogeneity before, but to learn intimately, through the vehicle of literature, about the tensions of belonging was an eye-opening experience indeed.
Very interesting question! I know for Japan, they value tradition to the umpth degree, finding change (no matter how better it may be) as something to avoid. You may have heard time and time again that human beings do not like change, but it’s a truth according to personal experience. Change is painful and to move into this new, globalized period in human history is a relatively dramatic transformation. Furthermore there’s a comfort people find in being “one” with each other. However, the biggest irony of that unification is that it often leaves people out or creates societal and cultural hierarchies within that “one.” There comes a pride with being “Canadian” or “Japanese,” and when so much of our politics, our sports, our identities rely on our nationality… parting from that notion becomes an agonizing and uncomfortable experience for most.
Thanks and good luck with your group project!
Hi Brendan,
Another great and thoughtful post! I’ll leave a more substantial comment sometime before Wednesday but wanted to ask you before the end of the day if you’d be interested in working on the upcoming group project with me? We seem to tackle a lot of the same questions in our blogs so I think we could team up really nicely!
Hi again Brendan,
Back with my complete comment! What I like about what you do in this post is that you not only mention the residential school system as an dark part of Canadian history but move beyond that to make an important emphasis on the two-sides to its negative impact: not only was it trying to force a narrative of a natural community but assimilating the Aboriginal children by forcefully educating them about into white, dominant cultures and history, perhaps the greater evil at work in the residential school system was the neglect of their own traditions and familial backgrounds. I think Canada today regrets this ever happening, and it is debatable whether that regret has manifested into the appropriate apologies and reparations, but as much as we would like to “forget” and move beyond that moment it is important—just like you said—to remember these crimes so that they will not be repeated in future generations.
I remember learning about the residential school system in high school and I think making that a standard part of the curriculum is the first and most effective step that should be taken into righting the past and ensuring this tragic history is not easily dismissed or forgotten. Canada is not alone in this tactic; Germany has made it mandatory for all students to learn about the horrors of the Holocaust in the classroom and attend a field trip to either a Holocaust museum or memorial (“Holocaust Education in Germany”). After reading about that, I got to thinking; as effective as it might be to learn about the residential school system and other injustices committed on Canadian soil to the Aboriginal peoples, would it not be more powerful to preserve that history in more pervasive and concrete means? What do you think, would it be in bad taste in BC to preserve or restore a former residential school as a museum and learning centre?
I was surprised to see Manitoba is already taking steps to do this, and I’ve attached the link to that below as well as to the PBS article about the importance of Holocaust education in Germany.
http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/manitoba-reserve-hopes-to-transform-residential-school-into-museum-1.2403709
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/germans/germans/education.html
Hey Simon!
Thanks for contacting me about working on the group project together. Hopefully you found a group like I did. Sorry for the late response! ):
I appreciate your comments in regards to my discussion about the residential schools. Undoubtedly, it’s a dark stain on Canadian history which continues to have serious repercussions today. The two-parter has now become a three-parter, four-parter… twenty-parter, etc. The residential schools have done incredible damage that have traveled generations to meet with us today and the future.
Thanks so much for your links to these thought provoking articles. When I visited Auschwitz, I recall seeing several classes of children visiting the camp, laughing and clapping along to the bubbles of their own conversations. They were young of course, and I’m not criticizing the program. It’s incredibly important to start educating young students about the horrors of their own countries. Blind patriotism is never a good thing.
I’m pleasantly surprised to see Manitoba doing that as well! I believe it would be powerful to restore a residential school as a museum or learning centre. Doing such a thing would fight against the historical amnesia and would constantly bring the issues of Canada’s cultural genocide to the forefront both abstractly and in terms of an actual physical presence. We have a Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre here in British Columbia which strives to explore the intersection between Japanese and Canadian culture. In the process, they explain the horrors of the Japanese internment camps—and this is significant. To conceal such a thing would mean an entire dismissal of a genuine narrative that comprises the Japanese-Canadian identity. Hiding residential schools would do the same thing.
Thanks, Simon! And thanks for the articles again!
Hi Brendan.Thanks for an insightful post on the Indian Act. I really enjoyed reading your thoughts on orality and what it signifies to the Aboriginal peoples. The laws that created residential schools attempted to force the Aboriginals nations to forget the essence of who they are. Generations of this horrible policy meant that the threads of culture were not passed, weakened with time, and were lost. But on top of that, there have been further policies to try and forget even this part of the history. Whether its curriculum policies in schools or government inquests to deal with problems like missing and murdered women, there is an attempt to even force people to forget that.
I guess it is a part 1 and part 2 in forced forgetfulness. Do you think that is the case, or is it both parts of the same thing?
Hey Maryam!
Thanks for your nice words. The horrors of that cultural genocide have always remained in my memory as horrible wounds in Canadian history. Your absolutely correct to categorize Harper’s hideous comment about the missing and murdered Aboriginal women as an attempt to ‘force forgetfulness.’ To dismiss those cases as something not “high on our radar” was an absolute disgrace and I am embarrassed as a Canadian to hear that a former Prime Minister has said such a thing.
I believe yes, that there is a part one and two in this case. The cultural genocide desires the forgetting of a culture’s traditions and the subsequent forgetting is the the forgetting of that heinous act. However, those parts comprise a bigger system of oppression to preserve the “white settler’s” perspective. Supposedly we know better now. Supposedly. As long as it’s not on our radar.
Hey Brendan!
I really enjoyed your post this week regarding the Indian Act, as you brought up some really important points. One that particularly stood out to me was your discussion about forgetting, which I think is so true. It’s quite tragic to imagine how the Aboriginal peoples were being denied their continuity of orality and the passing down of their rich culture at the hands of White men that were unaccepting of it at all. I also think it’s very interesting how deep the notion of forgetting has permeated — along with forgetting to acknowledge the Aboriginal culture entirely and forcing them to partake in the residential school system, for innumerable years (it can be argued), it was as though the Canadian argument was also forgetting to own up to the mistreatment of Aboriginals as well. In this regard, it puts into perspective at what lengths people will go to to achieve a personal agenda and forget to acknowledge that they did so, no matter the harm it causes to others.
Similarly, I liked the way in which you linked Japan as another example of this sort of mistreatment. In doing so, you extended further how Canada is not the only nation that has individuals that have fallen victim to being forced to forget their culture in favour of a superior, domineering one. I wonder, why is assimilation so favorable among many nations? We think of Canada and the US, for instance), and while there are many ways in which multiculturalism can advocate for the acceptance of all, there are still many individuals feeling as though they have been forcefully stripped of their culture.
Sort of a big question haha, but I thanks again for your post.
It was really insightful. 🙂
Thank you so much Neia!
Yeah, forgetting the crimes Canada has committed is a terrible thing. If we do such a thing, how can we ever learn from our mistakes?
I believe there is a long held belief that assimilation makes a country stronger. A united identity is integral to nation building according to history, to tradition, or to the people and systems with power. Nationalism helps move the engine of a nation, with a violent ignorance to how many casualties will follow. However, I believe and know there’s a stronger power in genuine multiculturalism or at least, to state in less political terms, in an appreciation for all cultures. To be “Canadian” should not be a strict, calcified term.
Thank you again!