Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Faithfully Observe The Laws of Canada -Issue One


Issue One: Stepping into Acceptance

 July 2015


Welcome readers, we at The Buzz would like to start this expository piece by explaining the format of this series.  That’s right, the PS Buzz is committing to a series!  We will still be producing unrelated tasty articles for the in-between time.  However, for this, we will be discussing Canadian Aboriginal and Northern people and their stance within the cultural hodge-podge diaspora that is Canada.

Our tone will hopefully retain its whimsical quality- however we do plan on covering the exciting and depressingly-truthful developments within Aboriginal societies.

Don’t worry, it’s not all doom and gloom, the point of this series is actually to shed light on the fact that 1.4 million Canadians* as of the 2011census  (or aboriginals/first nations, we’ll be playing around with terminology a little bit, so feel free to take a break sip some tea and then find your bearings again!) -anyways, it’s fact that 1.4 million Canadians actually have a pretty good future in store, provided Canada stays on the route of prosperous inter-provincial relations..

Let’s move away from the political talk.

 While there may be glimpse of better relations (we at the Buzz tend to think government/community relations are improving, however the rate at which it’s improving often fluctuates) there was a long and bumpy road that brought about this view.  The reason for beginning this series stems from investigating the Truth and Reconciliation Commission report that was issued mid-2015.

The TRC report is a tremendous document, and if one has time (and isn’t well versed in the genocide that occurred within Canada) we at the PS Buzz recommend at least reading the executive summary (link provided at the end of this article!)  Why is it important?  The TRC report outlines in many levels of detail the atrocities committed by the Canadian government onto people that were supposedly allies.

We say allies because, as time went on (you know, after confederation, a couple of world wars, and quite a few social revolutions) the Aboriginal people for the most part became an important populace within our modern day society.  As Canadians, we began assimilating this allied population into our everyday politics during the 1800’s.  So the Canadian legacy is tied intricately into the Canadian Aboriginal story.

 While history is an important part of this series, we want to provide a multi-perspective view of Aboriginal Canada, and at the same time hopefully show how it’s really the same story most Canadians have heard about their own history.  The reason being that in Canada we’re generally all sold the same heaps of history, but the Buzz isn’t here to blame standardized schools… or are we?

Joke!

The plan is to look at Canadian Aboriginal people and their environmental, social, economic, and cultural development.  To do this, we will likely get a little dark, or not so happy-fun-time, but we also plan on providing some pretty inspirational stuff.  So readers please don’t leave, and tuck in to a hopefully delightful five part series.

Additionally, if there are any aboriginal readers or cultural writing enthusiasts we invite you to comment and/or contact us regarding this series.  The goal of this is to promote some stories and insights that, speaking honestly, don’t find their way into the Metro or The Chronicle Herald.  So if you are enraged, interested, or mildly curious with our intentions and thoughts while this series is being published then we feel like we have done some sort of job.  That being said, volunteer writers are always encouraged, no matter the point of view!

We’ll mention now that we’re really pushing the Canadian title with this, reason being that we really don’t have the time or people-power to expand and look at North & South American Indigenous peoples.  Plus, if that were the case this would turn into a sociology/philosophy/history/anthropology thesis, which is another thing that the PS Buzz editors don’t have time for, we hope that you can appreciate these short articles and then move on from there to find your own knowledge!

Link as promised:

Stat CAN (Aboriginal People in Canada)- http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/nhs-enm/2011/as-sa/99-011-x/99-011-x2011001-eng.cfm

Truth & Reconciliation Commission of Canada- http://www.trc.ca/websites/trcinstitution/index.php?p=890


Spoiler links for future Issues:

Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada- http://www.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/eng/1100100010023/1100100010027

RCMP report (Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Women: A National Operation Overview)- http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/pubs/abo-aut/mmaw-fada-eng.htm

Aboriginal Education in Canada- (Still researching credible links!)

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