Page 54 - Walking_The_Red_Road

Not only is there inadequate information taught in schools, the widespread inter-generational effects of residential schooling and the sixties scoop mean that knowledge of Aboriginal culture, traditions and history is limited, even among Aboriginal community members. In some cases, parents and grandparents tried to protect their children by hiding their identities.
I grew up not being allowed to be who I was, and I also understand where my parents were coming from, because of all the racism that happened back then. My father did
not want us to go through those problems, so he was pretty strict about who we were.
It wasn’t until I got married, had my son, left my husband, I decided to move away. I moved out to BC...I started to see not the typical stereotypes, Indians that I grew up with. I started seeing First Nation people starting to educate themselves, getting their high school. I was learning, hey we are not all a bunch of drunks, there is more to us; there is a different way of living. I wanted that. From that point on, my learning about who I am has never stopped.
Métis were a displaced people, but now...when pushing for rights, it has caused conflict in the community. Having a difficult time to prove rights. A lot of Métis people went to residential school, but it was easier for them to say that they were French than Métis.
There is a lot of negativity, because they just do not know. People are ignorant. ... because there is really no positive information about us that gets out. Even our own people don’t know their own history. What little history they learn about it, residential schools, but they really don’t know what has happened to us since contact.
Community members also identified the problematic roles that technology and media play in perpetuating racism. With limited positive attention, media coverage of civic demonstrations, for example, seems to draw attention to Aboriginal people causing problems as opposed to trying to address longstanding issues.
Racism and inter-cultural relations in our community are sensitive areas. Because of their own experiences and the consequences carried down over generations, community members of all ages have different views and concerns about how to address it. Community members expressed mixed feelings about the impact of the Idle No More movement: some believe that it promotes positive awareness; others believe that it re-ignites old issues.
Impressions of Aboriginal people are sometimes negative because there is misinformation or miscommunication with the news.
People’s view of Aboriginal people, is it positive or negative? It is half and half ... specifically with Idle No More and the internet, people can hide behind anonymity of the internet, and the racism and the bigotry really comes out. But if you were to talk
to some face to face, that is when you have an open and honest communication with people, so I don’t really know. ..In movements like this, if I go and read comments [online], you see lots of racism, and I tend to think there is more racism and more bigots out there.
Over the past few years, the impression of Aboriginal people was getting somewhat better but now because of different movements, and rights, and so on, it has become a little bit worse again.
Walking the Red Road | REPORT OF THE URBAN ABORIGINAL COMMUNITIES THRIVE PROJECT | 54
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