Tag: indigenous affairs

Four First Nations communities are collaborating with the federal and provincial governments to explore the possibility of developing an Indigenous protected land area in...

The reconciliation agenda awaiting Pope Francis is broad and might not live up to the standards of Indigenous communities, but the neglect that Indigenous people continue to face from the political establishment is not promising either.

The church supposedly feels remorse for its actions, yet it continues to act and uphold colonial institutions and practices. Unlike the Pope’s apology makes it seem, it was not simply a few misguided Christians that contributed to residential schools — it was and continues to be an institutional effort that began with two racist papal bulls. The continuity of this institutional colonialism lives on in the Vatican’s private collection of cultural material. If the church truly wants to take its first steps toward reconciliation, it should return what was stolen and tear up the papal bulls that made this theft possible.

The Nuchatlaht First Nation are refusing to recognize Canadian sovereignty over their hereditary land that encompasses about 200 square kilometres of Nootka Island. Centuries of western contestation, deliberation and dispossession have come full circle and the Nuchatlaht are making their case for their land back in the Supreme Court of British Columbia.

If the City of Winnipeg and the provincial government truly have any concern for reconciliation, development programs at the Forks must come to a halt and the revenues dedicated to them should be redistributed to help combat the genocide of Indigenous people in Canada. Although shrouded in self-congratulatory arrogance, there is nothing to be proud about when it comes to the developments and archeology taking place at the Forks.