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Colonialism, Legal Oppression, and Indigenous Resistance in Canada

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Historical Identity and Cultural Diversity of Indigenous Peoples in Canada

Indigenous Peoples are the original inhabitants of what is now Canada. There are three primary Indigenous Peoples groups in Canada: Inuit, Métis, and First Nations. These groups consist of a wide range of peoples whose lived experiences, languages, and cultures are distinct. While Métis became a distinct culture after European settlers married First Nations individuals, the roots of Inuit and First Nations peoples predate European arrival in Canada (Glover & Trudell, 2021).

Indigenous Peoples have been part of complex societies for many centuries. Each had a political structure, an economy, a religion, artistic traditions, and scientific knowledge. Nonetheless, they were considerably distinct from one another. The early development of Canada depended heavily on Indigenous populations, but the introduction of European diseases caused their numbers to decline drastically.

The arrival of Europeans permanently altered the lives of Indigenous Peoples through colonization. Indigenous ways of life were disrupted, and Europeans attempted to assimilate Indigenous Peoples by subjecting them to numerous limitations and restrictions. Assimilation was intended to eliminate their cultural heritage and force them to resemble Europeans (Glover & Trudell, 2021).

Indigenous Peoples continue to experience the effects of colonization and assimilation, which have harmed their lands, health, and general well-being. Although they were frequently military allies, colonial governments persecuted Indigenous Peoples by displacing and starving them, seizing their land, and committing acts of cultural genocide through residential schools and oppressive laws. Indigenous Peoples live throughout Canada and continue working to revive their traditional customs and cultures. This critical analysis discusses the barriers experienced by Indigenous Peoples, the intersections of power, privilege, and oppression, the policies and practices that marginalize Indigenous communities, and their responses and mobilization against these issues.

Indigenous Continuity, Land Rights, and Resistance to Colonial Authority

Indigenous Peoples have fought for their continuity, human dignity, national reconstruction, and recognition of their rights for several centuries. Throughout this period, a continuous flow of ancestral memory has inspired and strengthened them, giving them tenacity, frustration, patience, and love to ensure the continuation of their peoples and help future generations recognize themselves as the original inhabitants of their lands (Palmater, 2017).

The land has always been essential and will continue to be so; therefore, Indigenous Peoples seek to reclaim it and return to it as the voices of their ancestors call to them. They have fought to protect the land and their relationships with it. Their struggle to re-establish the living connection between their ancestors, their land, and themselves has defined them as Indigenous Peoples during the past 500 years. It has also ensured their survival amid oppression and ignorance.

The British North America Act is commonly considered one of Canada’s founding documents, leading many people to believe that Canada obtained formal title to the land approximately 150 years ago (Palmater, 2017). However, the fact that Canada continues negotiating with hundreds of First Nations to persuade them to surrender their claims to lands granted to them by their ancestors demonstrates that this assumption is incorrect. Many of the barriers, oppressive practices, and challenges experienced by Indigenous Peoples in Canada were created through legislation, particularly the Indian Act and the residential school system.

Colonial Governance and the Development of the Indian Act

The relationship between settlers and Indigenous Peoples forms a central part of Canadian history. The relationship between the Canadian state and Indigenous communities has changed significantly over the past 150 years. A relationship initially based on mutual dependence, trade, and negotiation gradually developed into numerous violent land conflicts in which Indigenous Peoples were sometimes allies of settlers and, at other times, their opponents (Deschambault, 2020).

Power relations developed and changed rapidly after British forces gained control of what is now known as Canada. The establishment of the Indian Department and the enactment of legislation explicitly intended to control and assimilate Indigenous Peoples initiated a policy direction that continued for approximately 150 years. The Indian Department was established to “manage Indian affairs” from birth to death.

The Department was not the only institution affecting Indigenous freedom. The Gradual Enfranchisement Act was enacted in 1869, historically defining and establishing “Indianness” through legislation (Deschambault, 2020). The Indian Act, enacted in 1876, is widely regarded as a long-lasting obstacle to Indigenous self-government, sovereignty, and control over their communities (Sayers, 2021). It resulted from earlier forms of assimilation and European domination.

Identity Regulation, Reserve Systems, and Gender Discrimination

The objectives of the Indian Act included controlling and restricting Indigenous identities and governing, limiting, and subduing Indigenous Peoples. Reserves were established under the Act and were viewed as a form of enslavement. The Indian Act has never been solely about Indigenous Peoples; its scope is considerably broader because it concerns the Canadian state’s efforts to establish its legitimacy (Sayers, 2021).

The Act regulated who could and could not qualify for Indian status and who could transfer status to their children. Under the earlier legal structure, non-Indigenous wives of men with Indian status could obtain status. However, the provisions of the Act did not grant Indigenous women rights equal to those granted to men. Historically, several provisions attempted to deny women particular rights by removing their status or restricting their voting rights (Deschambault, 2020).

Many people believe that women in Canada obtained the right to vote in 1922. Nevertheless, Indigenous women were unable to vote in federal elections until 1960. Provisions that deprived Indigenous women of their status affected numerous generations. Indigenous children from particular family lineages did not have equal entitlement to Indian status and sometimes had their Indigenous identities legally removed because of the discriminatory provisions of the Act.

Residential Schools and the Destruction of Indigenous Cultural Systems

In its 2015 summary of the Final Report, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada examined records and gathered testimony from more than 6,750 witnesses who described the historical and continuing effects of colonization. These included the destruction of Indigenous political systems, religious practices, and languages, as well as the loss of land (Restall et al., 2016).

Residential schools were a major component of the Canadian government’s assimilation policy. For more than a century, the Canadian government authorized and carried out the forced removal of Indigenous children, some as young as five years old, from their homes and families. The ability of communities and families to nurture and care for their children was violated when generations of children were raised in church-administered residential schools.

Residential education for Indigenous children operated in Canada from the seventeenth century until the late 1990s. A formal system for placing Indigenous children in residential schools was developed and expanded during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Religious Administration, Forced Removal, and Cultural Erasure

Residential schools were established and funded by the Canadian government but operated by religious organizations. The first institution was the Mohawk Institute in Brantford, Ontario, established in 1831. The final institution, Gordon Indian Residential School in Saskatchewan, closed in 1996. Approximately 130 schools across Canada are believed to have housed more than 150,000 Indigenous children during their operation (Rice, 2022).

These children were not voluntarily enrolled in residential schools. They were forcibly removed from their homes and placed in the institutions. The primary objectives of the schools were to remove children from their families, isolate them from their traditions, and assimilate them into Christian and Euro-Canadian ways of life. Indigenous children were prohibited from using their names, speaking their languages, or participating in any aspect of their cultures or religions (Schiedel, 2018). They were required to wear uniforms, cut their hair short, and adopt new names to separate them from their cultural identities.

The children were forced to abandon their ways of life because their cultures were regarded as inferior to those of the dominant white population, and every aspect of their identities was suppressed. In 1920, Duncan Campbell Scott, Deputy Superintendent General of Indian Affairs, described the government’s objective as continuing until no Indigenous person remained who had not been absorbed into the body politic, eliminating both the “Indian question” and the Indian Department (Rice, 2022).

The treatment was harsh because the schools were designed to eliminate Indigenous cultures and identities. Families were denied opportunities to interact with their children because authorities feared that such contact would maintain Indigenous customs and beliefs. Children were removed from their traditional homes, and interactions with their families were restricted to limit cultural exposure.

Many children died, and their remains were never returned to their families or communities (Rice, 2022). Numerous unmarked graves have since been discovered at former residential school sites. First Nations advocacy groups continue requesting access to historical records relating to these institutions.

Settler Privilege and the Continuing Effects of Colonization

An examination of the intersections between privilege and oppression is a recurring element of critical community engagement strategies and practices involving Indigenous Peoples. Identifying and increasing awareness of how individuals experience privilege may be as important to practice as identifying how individuals experience oppression. However, acknowledging that everyone benefits from some form of privilege can be uncomfortable (Clare, 2003).

Colonization is sometimes regarded as an event that occurred exclusively in the past and is no longer relevant. Conversely, colonization continues today, either directly or indirectly, because of previous actions. Although residential schools have closed, intergenerational abuse and the discovery of remains at former school sites continue to affect Indigenous families.

Some Indigenous youths in Northern Canada must still relocate to unfamiliar and frequently hostile communities to receive an education. Furthermore, prominent advocate Cindy Blackstock has argued that funding for the education of First Nations children remains severely inadequate (Morin, 2017).

Colonial privilege, also referred to as settler privilege, involves recognizing how individuals benefit from continuing colonization and acts of violence against Indigenous Peoples and the territory now called Canada. The commercialization of land resulted in the creation of private property. People who live on privately owned land and in permanent homes benefit from this colonial process because they are often protected from environmental exposure.

Regarding white settler privilege, school curricula and conventional approaches to teaching and learning are frequently based on Eurocentrism and white supremacy (Sefa Dei, 2008). Instead of learning about the violence committed during colonization, children are often taught primarily about the reciprocal relationships that were established between settlers and Indigenous Peoples.

Indigenous Mobilization, Advocacy, and Contemporary Resistance

Balancing the strengths and possible sites of simultaneous resistance can be challenging when dismantling the different forms and intensities of barriers and marginalization experienced by Indigenous communities. Numerous Indigenous Peoples are speaking publicly about historical and continuing injustices, educating others, initiating legal challenges, holding governments accountable, protesting the destruction of land, and organizing with different Nations and allies around significant and urgent issues.

In 2012, Treaty Peoples in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta launched the Idle No More movement in protest against the Canadian government’s removal of environmental protection laws that placed the lives and territories of First Nations at risk (Idle No More, 2020). The movement calls on everyone to participate in nonviolent resistance in support of Indigenous sovereignty and the protection of land, water, and air.

Jamie Black, a Métis artist based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, created the REDress Project in response to Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit People. The project involves displaying empty red dresses to symbolize the presence and energy of individuals who are missing or have been murdered. The initiative was first observed in 2010 and is commemorated annually on May 5.

In 2020, one out of every five women killed in Canada was Indigenous (Martens, 2021). Recognizing the Canadian state and its colonial institutions is central to anti-colonial theory. As the original inhabitants of the land, Indigenous Peoples developed social networks for mutual support and organization, political systems, traditions, ceremonies, and holistic approaches to living in harmony with the natural environment.

References

Clare, E. (2003). Digging deep: Thinking about privilege. Unpublished paper, by permission.

Deschambault, M. (2020). An Exploration of the Colonial Impacts of the Indian Act on Indigenous Women in Canada (Doctoral dissertation, Carleton University).

Glover, F., & Trudell, T. (2021, July 6). Indigenous Peoples in Canada. The Canadian Encyclopedia. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/indigenous-peoples-in-canada-plain-language-summary

Idle No More. (2020). An indigenous-led Social Movement: Idle No More. idlenomore.ca. https://idlenomore.ca/about-the-movement/

Martens, K. (2021, March 17). 1 in 5 women killed in Canada in 2020 was Indigenous, says new report. APTN National News. https://www.aptnnews.ca/national-news/femicide-report-2020/

Morin, B. (2017, August 31). CBC. First Nations students face continued funding shortfalls, advocate says. https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/first-nations-students-face-continued-funding-shortfalls-1.4267540

Palmater, P. (2017). Decolonization is taking back our power. In P. McFarlane & N. Schabus (Eds.), Whose land is it anyway? A manual for decolonization (pp. 73–78). BC: Federation of Post-Secondary Educators of BC. Retrieved from https://fpse.ca/sites/default/files/news_files/Decolonization%20Handbook.pdf

Restall, G., Gerlach, A., Valavaara, K., & Phenix, A. (2016). The Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s calls to action: How will occupational therapists respond? Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy, 83(5), 264-266.

Rice, K. (2022, July 26). Residential schools and their lasting impacts. The Indigenous Foundation. https://www.theindigenousfoundation.org/articles/residential-schools-their-lasting-impacts

Sayers, A. (2021). Canadian Indian Act Modernism. Modernism/modernity Print Plus.

Schiedel, B. (2018, May 15). Why our kids need to learn about residential schools. Macleans. https://www.macleans.ca/society/why-our-kids-need-to-learn-about-residential-schools/

Sefa Dei, G.J. (2008). Schooling as community: Race, schooling, and the education of African youth. Journal of Black Studies, 38(3), 346-366.