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The Aboriginal people have carved a road full of struggles in Canada’s history. Their relentless fight for existence has been there since the first interaction with white-settlement on their native land. Today, there lays two major areas of conflict for them, land and overcoming power plays of the government. Through sheer perseverance and strength they are regaining their dignity to fight for their rightful place in the society. The core problem-maker for them is the ‘government’, who for its own selfish interest has overlooked the welfare of the Natives for years. The Canadian government has tried to encroach over their lands of immense importance on several occasions. There also has not been any fruitful progress or advancement made by the government to resolve the Aboriginal issues today. All that the government ever does when the Aboriginal people try to voice their opinions is to suppress them. The Aboriginal people have been struggling for their righteous recognition in Canada since time immemorial.
There have been several attempts made by the government all these years to take-over lands of sentimental and materialistic value belonging to the Aboriginal people. One of the instances of great significance is “The Standoff at Oka” where the government along with the support of the white settlers in Quebec, wanted to extend the golf course of the town by refurbishing the ancient Mohawk cemetery. The Mohawk people thus, made an appeal to the court for the ban on the construction operation and as a result they did not receive any response from the court regarding the issue. Without much of a choice they formed an armed barricade for 78 days in front of the cemetery ground lead by the Mohawk women and children refusing to allow the entry of anyone. Another instance is the “Ipperwash crisis”, in which originally the government had taken the land from a reserve to build a military base, in the process they destroyed the homes of twelve families residing there and refused to give back the land to the rightful owners when it was claimed from them as they would incur a heavy cost due to the clean up of the area because of the extensive amount of weapon testing conducted. Next is the famous “Innu Struggle”, where to date the Innu people are fighting to protect their land and natural resources such as timber, fish etc against unjust and extensive commercial exploitation by the government, with the desire of conserving their resources wisely for future use by the upcoming generations.
In addition, there has been absolutely no effort taken from the government’s side to find constructive resolutions to the problems such as land claims, recognition of aboriginal rights according to previous treaties signed between the native people and the crown etc. This accusation is clearly evident through cases like that of the West Bank, which is located in the Okanagan region. Here the tribe members out of frustration and desperation started cutting down trees on privately owned property without a legal license. The prime reason for this impulsive action of the tribe members was the lack of interest by the government for settling land rights treaties, because of which they had no choice but to log trees for a decent living. It is primarily, due to the lack of organizational activities by the government in order to aid the Aboriginal people that there persists a problem of 22% unemployment rate within the Aboriginal community in Nunavut because of the lack of development in employment sources.
In addition to this, the Canadian government has not only been ignorant towards the Aboriginal issues but has also suppressed any voices that rose against the government demanding justice. Like in “The Oka Standoff”, the only solution that the government thought worthwhile of implementing to solve the problem of renovating the burial ground of the aboriginal people was the storming of bullets by the provincial officers at the Mohawk people. The similar stand was taken by them in the “Ipperwash Crisis” to break the aboriginal protest for the right to occupy the ancestral burial ground situated in the provincial park, which lead to the physical assault of three victims by officials. Amongst the fatalities were Nick Cattrel and Dudley George. Moreover, when the Aboriginal people try to make the government pay attention to their apprehensions through forced retaliation like the ones in Emish or Voisey Bay in order to protect their land, the protestors face imprisonment and other forms of torture. Thus, the war of the Aboriginal people to be accepted as a part of Canada has been raging for a long time in history.
Fundamentally, the Aboriginal people are striving to achieve the goal of equal opportunities on all grounds for native Canadians. In conclusion, an integral part of a democratic institution like Canada is in fact to guard people from taking more than their “share of the cake”. Unfortunately this
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@n@ndit@ Ghosh
Writing to me is the expression of our soul and the unconcious mind. It is a wave of communications through which we can express our thoughts in great magnitudes.
I experienced the joy of writing from my early teens, when a lot of tangent thoughts would set me up at my desk with a pen and a paper for hours together. It has been the most powerful and inspirational source to man-kind since time immemorial.
Some day i wish to nourish this knack of mine further for the betterment of the society.
As some great person once said "The pen is mightier than the sword", therefore i wish to make this difference in the future through my writings.
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