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*Please Note: The culture and heritage of the Aboriginal Peoples is beautiful, rich in heritage and extremely complex. What I have written here is just to provide an over view and does not nearly do justice to their society within Canada. (Most information is from my History courses and from a book from Citizenship and Immigration Canada called A Look at Canada.) If you wish to find out more on Aboriginal Peoples in Canada I have provided the following links:
First Nations Peoples were the first to live in Canada and here thousands of years before the first European explorers. The lived in every region of the country - often their survival in Canada's harsh climate depended on cooperation, sharing and a respect for the environment. The Constitution Act,1982 recognizes 3 main groups of Aboriginal peoples in Canada: First Nations: People of the First Nations lived in all areas of Canada. Those who lived on Canada's coasts depended on fishing and hunting while those who lived on the prairies moved with the buffalo herd which they hunted for food. First Nations people who lived in central and eastern Canada hunted and grew vegetable crops. Today, more than half of the First Nations people live on reserves. Others love and work in cities across Canada. Inuit: The Inuit lived and settled throughout the northern regions of Canada. They adjusted to the cold northern climate and lived by hunting seals, whales, caribou and polar bears. The majority of Inuit people live in the North today and some still hunt for food and clothing. Metis: Many of the early French fur traders and some English traders married First Nations women. Their children and descendants are the First Nations people. The Metis were and important part of the fur trade and they developed their own distinct culture on the prairies. When Europeans arrived in what is now Canada, they began to make agreements, or treaties with aboriginal peoples. The treaty making process was a foreign concept to the aboriginals who believed that the land was everyone's and man could not own it. This usually resulted in unfair agreements for the aboriginals as their rights were trampled on and taken away. Most of these agreements included reserving pieces of land to be used only by the aboriginal peoples. These pieces of land are called reserves. Today, Aboriginal groups and the Canadian Government continue to negotiate new agreements for land and the recognition of other rights. In 1995, the Canadian government designated June 21 to be National Aboriginal People's Day. My Opinion: Unfortunately, the Canadian government has traditionally treated the aboriginals poorly. The act that governs the aboriginals is the Indian Act 1867 which is outdated and paternalistic. Many of the reserves are in poor condition and Canada has received criticism from the world community over the way it treats the Aboriginal populations. What the aboriginal peoples are asking for is self-government. They feel that the Canadian government does not reflect or protect their heritage and has continually failed them since Canada was formed. The degree to which a native self government would be set up though is undefined. Some call for municipal powers, other provincial and some even full-fledged federal powers over themselves. Many non-aboriginal Canadians feel that this is not right and unfair. They worry that self-government would lead to a whole bunch of mini-countries within Canada. A solution for the problem is not clear. What is clear is that the present is not working and Canada needs to listen to its original peoples. For those that are interested, here is a site which answers popular misconceptions about First Nations peoples: http://www.cariboolinks.com/ctc/misconceptions.html |
