Prior to starting Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden, we watched a documentary called “It’s Time” by CBC. The documentary touches on several issues at hand, as well as provides a background history of the First Nations. The documentary discusses the foundation of Canada, and the aboriginal people’s impact on the formation and establishment of Canada. They weren’t conquered by the European colonisation- they signed treaties to share their land and uniting together to form Canada both parties agreed to benefit from each other. Promised to be provided with shelter, health care and all the possible benefits of being a Canadian citizen in negotiation of their land, the aboriginal population joined in hand with the settlers.

From the documents by the Indigenous Foundations, I learnt the significance of the Indian Act. The Indian Act was based on the assumption that in order to function within Canada, the Aboriginal peoples needed to adopt a “Canadian identity” and abandon their cultures and traditions. Colonial mentality interpreted the Indians culture and way of life as “primitive” and “savage” and they need the direct intervention and direction of the government in order to function as a part of “civil” society. The Indian Act is a legislation that legally defines the identity of an Indian. Consequently, the Act created a conceptual framework for understanding the identity of Aboriginals affecting both the mainstream society’s intake and interpretation of them as well as affecting the Aboriginals understanding of their own identity. The Indian Act has so many unsettling parts to it, such as the two-generation cutoff mechanism that was enforced by the government onto the Aboriginal population. Also the sex discriminational law of losing your status as an Aboriginal if you marry a non-aboriginal. These kinds of oppressive laws enforced in the Indian Act was a tactful way of racial engineering by the government. The Indian Act has significantly impacted the Aboriginal population in their search for identity, and status within the Canadian society. However, even though the Indian Act is an oppressive piece of legislation, it is also the only legal document that recognises the Aboriginals and gives them distinct identity within Canada, as well as distinct rights.

An unsettling and a subtle message expressed in the documentary that caught my attention was how they kept correlating the Aboriginal population to the economic development of Canada. The host of the documentary, an Indian himself, kept mentioning the importance of the Aboriginals in the contribution to the economic development of the country, and how there is potential 300 billion dollars to be gained through the Aboriginals because a lot of Asian countries rely on Canada for resources, and to transfer these resources, they need Aboriginal people’s help because they are transferred through Indian lands. Though the documentary positively portrays the Aboriginals, their agency, development and their place within today’s society, it seemed to me as if the host of the documentary, as well as the former Prime Minister Paul Martin were trying to prove the Aboriginals worth and their value through the economical benefits they can gain from the Aboriginals. Paul Martin also mentions how Canada is competing with economically developing countries such as India and China, and these countries have populations of billions whereas Canada has 34 million people, and that Canada can’t afford to waste a single talent. He also mentions how Aboriginal young population is growing 6 times faster then other populations. I found the former prime minister to be very capitalist/ neoliberal, and as if he cares only about economically benefitting from the Aboriginal population. The major intention of this documentary was to demonstrate to the public that “It’s Time” for Aboriginals and the rest of Canada to come in partnership and to develop together as a unified nation, and it disturbs me how they have to prove themselves and their worth by providing economic evidence of how they can contribute to the development of Canada.

Another very disturbing part of the documentary was the therapy session, and educating farmers about Aboriginal background and understanding them. The two farmers that were offended about this, and were very self-defensive in the end were changed and influenced because they were more educated about the whole situation. This demonstrates how the mass works- they don’t even have the full story straight, and based off of the very limited view they have on an issue they are so eager to come to conclusions and have strong biased opinions. And it is the government’s fault here for not incorporating the Aboriginals history and background in the public education system just because it is not their proudest part of history- it is a dark secret people avoided addressing for generations. It also shocked me when the high school students said that they were clueless, because personally coming from an IB school, I was revealed to all parts of world history and thankfully none bias education. This got me thinking about education systems, and how they shape mentalities of today’s global citizens (I say this because of today’s multicultural international society). In todays society where information/knowledge and the whole world is available to most people at a hand’s reach with the dominating influence of the internet and social media, the educational systems must focus their energies more in what kind of mentalities they are reproducing, and how that shapes the student’s character rather than only focusing on providing factual information/education. I guess what I mean to say is educational systems must train their students how to think, and not what to think.