COLONIALISM, PAST AND PRESENT

What do we mean when we use the term “colonialism”?

In simple terms, colonialism refers to asserting control over another country or region and its peoples, primarily using political and military domination, settlement (occupation), and economic exploitation (extraction).

Control can be secured and perpetuated by various means, including the following:

!Exploiting resources, including human labor and natural endowments

Social oppression or cruel and unjust treatment of groups!A military force, police coercion/surveillance, incarceration
!Cultural containment, annihilation, assimilation

!Physical displacement, erasure

The concept of the colonial present recognizes that not only does this baggage still exist, but many of us continue to see the world through the colonists’ eyes.

It recognizes that in a wide range of fields, the techniques of colonial domination persist: in politics, education, law enforcement, and so on.

INDIGENOUS PEOPLES AND COLONIALISM IN CANADA

Canada is fundamentally a colonial society.

As such, colonialism is not merely a residual effect of the past yet to be resolved but rather a living set of power relations – a colonial present.

Physical force:

!The NWMP despatched to the Prairies in 1873

!The crushing of the Northwest Rebellion of 1885 (see image – Battle of Batoche)

!Seizure of First Nations children and their virtual incarceration in residential schools

!Forced family separations during the “Sixties Scoop.”

!Tight and often abusive policing of Indigenous peoples and their disproportionate representation in Canada’s prison population

Social, spatial, and legal oppression:

!Spatial marginalization through the treaty system (see maps, slides 23 and 24)

!Systematic racist oppression and stigmatization of Indigenous peoples in the broader society

!Imposition of rules through the Indian Act (1876) and its amendments that perpetuate these stereotypes

Cultural containment, assimilation, and destruction:

!An explicit policy carried out through the IA and amendments banning cultural celebrations such as the Sundance (see image) and Potlach

!Through residential schools, religious training, and instruction meant to destroy Indigenous spirituality, language, and culture

!Through the process of “enfranchisement” (until 1960), which stipulated that full political citizenship for Status Indians was obtainable in return for relinquishing that status

UNITED NATIONS DECLARATION ON THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

As noted above, Canada’s struggles with colonialism reflect a broader global pattern whereby Indigenous peoples have faced extensive violations of their dignity, spanning land theft, cultural destruction and disrespect, and efforts at their physical destruction.

The United Nations has long taken a particular interest in Indigenous peoples, given their vulnerabilities worldwide.

The most tangible outcome of this concern was the long-awaited United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, or UNDRIP, which was released in 2007.

In 2019 British Columbia passed Bill 41which commits the province to harmonize its laws with UNDRIP.

Federally, NDP member Romeo Saganash received support from the Liberal government for his private member’s bill on UNDRIP.

On 21 June 2021, the federal government passed the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, which is now in force.

According to the government, the “Act provides a roadmap for the Government of Canada and Indigenous peoples to work together to implement the Declaration based on lasting reconciliation, healing, and cooperative relations.”

Indigenous peoples are also not uniformly supportive of UNDRIP.

While recognizing its essential claims about Indigenous rights, some critics suggest that UNDRIP is a colonial document.

A vital perspective points out that Indigenous rights, as articulated in UNDRIP, rely for their implementation on colonial governments. In other words, UNDRIP fails to challenge the techniques of colonial capture and dominance fully.