In this post I will be answering question 2, and focusing on the 1876 Indian Act :

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.

Mustn’t forget 

“How [did] the normative concept of English Canadianness as white and civil [come] to be constructed in the first place, how this fictive ethnicity requires a forgetting of the very uncivil acts of colonialism and nation-building, and finally a recognition that creating a Canadian identity that is white and civil is a project” (Paterson 3:1)

While I have read stories on both, the Indian act, and Immigration act in the past, the outright racism and hatred towards minorities, never ceases to amaze me. It is hard to comprehend how people so readily believed one race to be superior over another.

A little over a century ago, First Nations people were torn from their land, despite the fact that they were the original settlers. Europeans took over their territory as well as their rights.

These colonizers decided that their own culture and customs were superior to those of the First Nations.Soon white, Europeans were considered ideal and constructed as the norm.

As Daniel Coleman would say a  “fictive ethnicity,” which “still occupies the position of normalcy and privilege in Canada” was introduced (Paterson 3:1).

In an attempt to assimilate First Nations children into European culture and abolish Indigenous customs and heritage, Indigenous children were forcefully removed from their families and placed in residential schools, where they were taught European language and religion (CanLit 8) .

“Residential schools were federally run, under the Department of Indian Affairs. Attendance was mandatory. Agents were employed by the government to ensure all native children attended.” (CanLit 8)

There have been many horrific stories of verbal, physical and sexual abuse that occurred in these schools, with the last school being closed as recently as 1997.

Children attended residential schools for the majority of the year and were continually indoctrinated with the belief that European culture was superior to their own (CBC) . When, and if they returned home, they reported feeling no longer part of their Indigenous community and culture. To make matters worse, communication barriers arose between parents and children, as residential schools forbid the speaking of their indigenous language, the children were losing their native tongue.

While this is a very brief and oversimplified description of the 1876 Indian act, the results of this desecration of a culture persist today. According to Statistics Canada, less than half of aboriginal people in Canada had a post-secondary education in comparison to almost two thirds of the non aboriginal population (Statistics Canada, p1). “The median total income of the Aboriginal population aged 25 to 54 in 2005 was just over $22,000, compared to over $33,000 for the non-Aboriginal population in the same age group (Statistics Canada, p.1). Even before the recession in 2008-2009, the indigenous population of Canada faced higher unemployment rates compared to non-indigenous Canadians: “In 2009, the average employment rate for Aboriginal people was 57.0%, compared with 61.8% for non-Aboriginal people” (Statistics Canada, p.1).

Not only does the Immigration Act support Coleman’s argument about the project of white civility,  it is also an exemplification of it.

In order to  minimize the divide between indigenous and non indigenous Canadians today, as canadians we mustn’t conveniently forget our wrong doings, but recognize and learn from our past  mistakes.  There must be efforts made to deconstruct such rigid Western norms, and the stigma attached with deviating from them.

References:

“Guides | CanLit Guides.” Guides | CanLit Guides. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Feb. 2014.

Paterson, Erika. ““ENGL 470 Canadian Studies ;Canadian Literary Genres.”University of British Columbia. UBC Blogs. 2014. Web. Web. 16 Jan. 2014.https://blogs.ubc.ca/engl470/unit-1/lesson-12/

Statistics Canada. Aboriginal peoples. (2011)., 1. Retrieved from http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/11-402-x/2011000/chap/ap-pa/ap-pa-eng.htm

News, CBC. “A History of Residential Schools in Canada.” CBCnews. CBC/Radio Canada, 07 Jan. 2014. Web. 22 Feb. 2014.