COLLINS: Slow progress on Indigenous rights

TWO DAYS AGO, we celebrated National Indigenous Peoples Day. Colorful celebrations at the Kamloopa PowWow grounds, provided an opportunity to mingle with those who hold a sacred trust in the history of our country. A few days earlier, School District 73 held its Annual District PowWow day, with 2,000 grades 4 & 5 students from throughout the District participating at the Tk’emlups PowWow Arbor.

But though the celebrations here and throughout the country are a great opportunity to learn, it’s obvious we still have a long way to go to right the wrongs of the past.

Bruce McIvor, a lawyer whose firm specializes in fighting for Indigenous Peoples, writes in his book Standoff about the trials that have resulted in decisions slanted against the First Nations. Decisions based on laws written by white men for white men, subverting the rights of the Indigenous Peoples. A Doctrine of Discovery that allowed white men to take over jurisdiction of the lands that were never given up through treaties and good faith bargaining but only by deceit, bullying and physical force.

The Church played a huge role in quashing minority rights. The residential school system was abhorrent for the thousands taken away from their homes, subjected to beatings, harsh punishment, treated as slaves, all in an effort to “take the Indian out of the Indian”, supposedly doing God’s will.