Genocide, Assimilation Or Incorporation?

By Bonita Lawrence (Mi’kmaw)
Intercontinental Cry
Sunday, Sep 20, 2009
Courtesy Of Axis Of Logic

(requires a minute or two to load after you have clicked on the play arrow - but this video is well worth your time)

Dr. Bonita Lawrence explores institutionalized racism, cultural genocide, and the history of aboriginal policy in Canada.

Can you remember the times
That you have held your head high
and told all your friends of your Indian claim
Proud good lady and proud good man
Some great great grandfather from Indian blood came
and you feel in your heart for these ones

Oh it's written in books and in song
that we've been mistreated and wronged
Well over and over I hear those same words
from you good lady and you good man
Well listen to me if you care where we stand
and you feel you're a part of these ones

When a war between nations is lost
the loser we know pays the cost
but even when Germany fell to your hands
consider dear lady, consider dear man
you left them their pride and you left them their land
and what have you done to these ones

Has a change come about my dear man
or are you still taking our lands
A treaty forever your senators sign
They do dear lady, they do dear man
and the treaties are broken again and again
and what will you do for these ones

Oh it's all in the past you can say
but it's still going on here today
The governments now want the Navaho land
that of the Inuit and the Cheyenne
It's here and it's now you can help us dear man
Now that the buffalo's gone.

- Now That The Buffalo’s Gone
- Buffy Ste. Marie, 1964

Bonita Lawrence | Genocide, Assimilation, or Incorporation: Indigenous Identity and Modes of Resistance from Racism & National Consciousness on Vimeo.

Dr. Bonita Lawrence (Mi’kmaw) is an Associate Professor at York University, where she teaches Native studies and anti-racism. She is the author of “Real” Indians and Others: Mixed-Blood Urban Native People and Indigenous Nationhood (University of Nebraska Press and UBC Press, 2004), and co-editor (with Kim Anderson) of a collection of Native women’s scholarly and activist writing entitled Strong Women’s Stories: Native Vision and Community Survival (Toronto, Sumach Press, 2003).

On October 25, 2008, Dr. Lawrence took part in the 7th Annual New College Conference on Racism & National Consciousness, where she spoke for one full hour on “Genocide, Assimilation, or Incorporation: Indigenous Identity and Modes of Resistance.”

In her talk, Dr. Lawrence explores “aboriginal policy”, the historical framework through which Canada has sought to erase the identity of Indigenous people, by systematically breaking down their cultures, belief systems, community and family structures, and their governments—in many cases, at the barrel of a gun.

She hones in on three specific occurrences in the 19th century for causing the most damage.

First was Canada’s refusal to deal with Indigenous confederacies. Instead, the government singled out individual villages, around 620 altogether—which allowed the govenrment to politically, socially and economically segregate everyone across the land.

Then came the banishment of Ceremony and the removal of strong Leaders, all of whom were over time replaced with “Christian converts” and individuals willing to represent Canada’s short- and long-term interests.

Finally, there was the political, social, and cultural disempowerment of Indigenous Women—and the forced assimilation of children—which allowed for the erosion and replacement of the fabric of indigenous identity.

While these “keystone” events have past, Indigenous communities are still struggling with their consequences. Indeed, many indigenous people still aren’t even sure who they are.

Meanwhile, the historical policy continues. Lately it’s taken the shape of private home ownership on treaty lands, a scheme that will inevitably and openly break treaty lands apart—lot by lot, as banks foreclose because a single mother can’t pay her mortgage (then the house is sold to a… white family), and so on.

The policy has also been focusing on holding Band Councils to account under the Canadian constitution. While these seems like a rational thing to do, this scheme similarly helps to breakdown Indigenous society in Canada. It’s the advancement of Canada’s historical effort for absolute control over indigenous communities. It’s like putting a dog on a chain, so the Canadian thinking goes. As long as the government has a stick hanging over his head, it’s only a matter of time before he does what he is told.

This is where resistance comes in—however, not the kind where you hold a banner for a couple hours and then hope for the best.

The resistance here comes in the form of a process of “removal, replacement and growth.” It is an organic process, which means it’s one that we carry out at our own pace and in our own way as members of our own community.

The process involves the restoration of Community; the revitalization of Ceremony, Language, and Culture; the empowerment of Women and Men;, the reclamation and protection of the Land; and, finally, the abolishment of colonial interference (the laws, beliefs and institutions that do not serve, help or strengthen us.)

This is all easier said than done, but that makes it all the more necessary. If we do not carry forward such a process, then in no time at all, perhaps 3 generations from today, “the Canadian Dream” will become our everyday life.

There will be no Indigenous People in Canada.

Intercontinental Cry