Oh Canada 🇨🇦

Quick warning: If you’re here for the handmade content about handmade things, don’t worry! You’re in the right place, however, I felt that the revelations coming to light about Canadian residential ‘schools’ are too important, too close to home, to leave the topic of our relationship with the native peoples of this land untouched on Canada Day. I’ll be back on track with all the yarny goodness in my next post!

“This isn’t who we are!”

“Canada isn’t racist!”

“Canada is a cultural mosaic!” 

I remember the last one particularly as something that we were indoctrinated with in grade school. “America is a melting pot, but Canada is a mosaic that celebrates our colourful and multicultural heritage.” Setting aside that the first half of that sentence is also wildly incorrect, the second half is, at best, only half true. There are certainly many vibrant immigrant communities across our country that both contribute to and benefit from what it is to ‘be Canadian.’ But what about the people who were here before the immigrants—that’s us—arrived?

That same textbook that taught us about the colourful, welcoming land of Canada devoted less than a page to the residential school system that was designed to systematically exterminate Indigenous cultures across our country, and worked to do so until the late 1990s. That’s right, this bullshit was going on in my lifetime. It is not distant history. Not even close. It’s hot to the touch and the legacy is real and current. The bodies being discovered in mass graves are not ancient artefacts. For those of us who have not been properly educated on the history of these institutions and the other broad policies of assimilation that past Canadian governments pursued, it may feel that way, but the people who have been affected by those policies are all around you. Even if you aren’t seeing them. Nearly every living Indigenous person is either a survivor of the residential ‘school’ system, or a child or grandchild of someone who is or was.

Let that sink in. 

The history of Canada’s origination is often told as a country of two nations: the English and the French. Upper Canada and Lower Canada. The settlers and les habitants. In this picture, generally portrayed in our grade school textbooks, we fail to neglect the third nation: the Indigenous peoples who lived on and protected this land before our ancestors arrived. In reality, the relationship between these three main groups (and countless others in smaller numbers) is what drove the history up to and long after Confederation. Canada’s colonization and subsequent independence came entirely at the cost of displacing the original inhabitants (sometimes legally, but rarely fairly). People who cared for the land and lived by a much more holistic and community-based world view that is, frankly, very foreign to most Canadians. If we are able to take a moment and listen, we have a lot to learn from the Inuit, First Nations, and Metis communities. Our predecessors did not often see it this way, and we can’t change that, but we can approach sharing this land differently going forward. I strongly believe that, alongside adhering to the in-depth recommendations of the Truth & Reconciliation Commission’s report, this starts with a greater understanding of the peoples that we pushed out, trampled, assimilated by force, and marginalized in order to impose societies based on our own ‘civilized’ worldview.

This is a naturally beautiful country. Spectacular, in fact. One that we as settlers have done heartbreakingly little to effectively preserve (another topic for another day). It is also a country of opportunity. Opportunity to lift others up. To make things right. To do better. I love Canada. Dearly. But patriotic love shouldn’t be blind. We need to work together to make this beautiful place better. We need to improve every day. Our government has a very important role to play in this (and there is a lot I could say another time about their failure to do execute on this effectively), but the reality of true change is that it starts and ends with every individual. What you think to yourself, what you say to others, what you share with your community, what you demand of your representatives, and the example you set matters. Change starts with you and with me.

Take time to learn

Amplify affected voices

Demand action

I’m not here for any more of this “but this isn’t Canada” baloney. This bullshit is Canada, even if some of us weren’t aware of it until now. It is firmly our past and our present, but it does not need to be our future.

Increasingly I see calls to ‘cancel’ Canada Day. I personally don’t believe that this is quite the answer, but I understand the intent. Much like how “Defund the Police” is not about wholly abolishing the police, and “Black Lives Matter” does not exclude the importance of all other lives, it seems to me that there is a large contingency of Canadians that take offence to this framing and the idea that it’s taboo or unacceptable to celebrate Canada Day with flags and fireworks this year. To them I say:

Yes, there are wonderful and exciting things worth celebrating about this country. Where would we be without insulin, zippers, and basketball? However, I do think that it is worthwhile to spend July 1st a little differently this year: as an opportunity to reflect, and to learn. Many of us are looking forward to the first holiday in a long time when we can safely gather with vaccinated friends and family. If I may humbly make a suggestion, this is a great time to begin this discussion with your people. To sit down together and decide how you will help to make a better Canada for everyone. Because, to me, that’s really what Canada Day is really about.

xoxo Lauren

Post Script:  The way we see and interpret the world is deeply rooted in our understanding of our past. To that end, most of us have been poorly served when it comes to comprehensive education about our history.  Here are a few resources to get you started, but I strongly recommend that you turn to Indigenous educators, creators, and activists to continue your discovery journey.

• Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (report and related resources)

• Indigenous Canada - University of Calgary (online course)

• Residential Schools by Historica Canada (podcast) - This is only 3 episodes if you’re looking to quickly understand more about the Indigeous experience in the residential ‘school’ system. It was released in 2020 so it does not cover the recent discoveries.

• Native Land (interactive map) - Find out which nations traditionally occupied the land where you now live. Includes links to the Nations’ own websites to learn more.

Residential School Survivors and Family Helpline: 1-866-925-4419

I wish to acknowledge that I currently reside and work within the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe nation, particularly the Ojibwa, Chippewa, and Algonquin peoples, on land covered by the Williams Treaty (1923). I recognize and appreciate their historic connection to this place.