Colonization Road

This journal entry is extremely hard to begin. I just finished an hour-long conversation with my mother about this documentary and what I have learned so far in this class and in my readings, yet I do not know where to begin on paper. I think I am angry and appalled. I am heart broken and ashamed. What do you say as “Canadian” people of the future to Indigenous peoples of the past and present? Sorry for your loss? My condolences? My sympathies? I can’t believe they – I mean we – did that to you? Colonization roads were an infection that spread across the lands to divide the peoples who already inhabited them. Now these roads remain as scars of the past – except not all of the wounds have healed. They have been festering for years and finally now, we have begun to treat them. The problems of the present, however, are deeply rooted in the laws that still exist and still promote the removal of Indian status and Indigenous identity. The reserves, inequalities, lack of understanding by my neighbours and myself, lack of education by non-Indigenous and Indigenous peoples, and the ongoing battle for rights of the land and resources prevent a deep wound from healing. I feel that the documentary emphasized how this us versus them connotation still exists in the way we debate the politics, future actions, and past perspectives on history. I am not a good drawer so I will attempt to describe what I am seeing in my head through words:

This land divided by roads are like broken chunks of flesh between scars, and the scars are like the roots that the settlers created for themselves. The roots feed into a world of prosperity for the settlers above. These settlers have grown many branches and many leaves. But below the surface, these roots drain the earth. The tree has grown bigger and bigger and has established more and more roots, dividing more and more Indigenous communities. The roots created scars and pieces of the earth never fit back together in quite the same way. Indigenous identities are broken and will never be the same.

Indigenous peoples want their identity back and rightly so. They deserve to be treated equally and repaid for all of the injustice that has happened to them and their ancestors. I think where the discomfort lies is in the comment the comedian, Ryan, made about settlers going “back to wherever they came from”. As much as it pains me to hear the half of our Canadian history that I was never told, I live in fear of this statement. I am a second generation Canadian. Both my grandparents are from Holland. I call this place home because I was born here. I do not know other lands; I know these lands and I will not give up my home. I think there is a more peaceful resolution. We need to embrace the traditions of both our peoples and live in harmony with one and other. We need to reconnect Indigenous peoples with their culture. We need to act.