Impacts of Colonization
Colonization continues to impact Indigenous Peoples and post-colonial nations around the globe. In Canada, the type of colonization that occurred is termed settler colonialism, which differs from imperial colonialism in that the settlers stay and occupy the land. Citing Patrick Wolfe, Cox (2017) explained settler colonialism as
a system, not a historical event, and that as such it perpetuates the erasure of native peoples as a precondition for settler expropriation of lands and resources, providing the necessary conditions for establishing the present-day ideology of multicultural neoliberalism.
This system is highly evident in Canada, with the assimilation policies of the Indian Act resulting in intergenerational trauma for the survivors of residential schools and their families and continued systems of oppression towards Indigenous Peoples. Hanson (2009) provided a definition of the Indian Act as follows:
a Canadian federal law that governs in matters pertaining to Indian status, bands, and Indian reserves. Throughout history it has been highly invasive and paternalistic, as it authorizes the Canadian federal government to regulate and administer in the affairs and day-to-day lives of registered Indians and reserve communities. This authority has ranged from overarching political control, such as imposing governing structures on Aboriginal communities in the form of band councils, to control over the rights of Indians to practice their culture and traditions. The Indian Act has also enabled the government to determine the land base of these groups in the form of reserves, and even to define who qualifies as Indian in the form of Indian status (para. 2).
The Indian Act remains in effect to this day, despite discussion to abolish it. In 1969, Prime Minister Trudeau proposed a White Paper Policy with the aim of abolishing the Indian Act (Hanson, 2009, sec. 5). Resistance to the proposal was spurred by the fear that all Treaty Rights would be lost, and the belief that “the White Paper was a continuation of the assimilation policies of the Indian Act” (Indigenous Corporate Training, 2020, para. 9). The Indian Association of Alberta (IAA) countered the policy with the Citizens Plus or Red Paper (Indigenous Corporate Training). The presentation of the Red Paper was a monumental moment in Canadian-Aboriginal relations. As highlighted by Bradburn (2023), “The Red Paper’s promotion of self-sufficient models for education and economic development paved the way for discussions on self-government. From the 1980s on, it contributed to amending the Constitution to incorporate Indigenous rights” (para. 15). The Red Paper highlighted the years of oppressive policies endured by Indigenous Peoples under the policies of the Indian Act.
References
Bradburn, J. (2023, March 16). Citizens plus (the Red Paper). In The Canadian Encyclopedia. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/citizens-plus-the-red-paper
Cox, A. (2017, July 26). Settler colonialism. Oxford Bibliographies. doi.org/10.1093/obo/9780190221911-0029
Hanson, E. (2009). The Indian Act. Indigenous Foundations Arts UBC. https://indigenousfoundations.arts.ubc.ca/the_indian_act/#origins
Indigenous Corporate Training Inc. (2020, July 11). The Red Paper: A counter-punch to the White Paper. https://www.ictinc.ca/blog/the-red-paper-a-counter-punch-to-the-white-paper
A form of colonialism where the colonizers never left, but rather populated the land and intentionally displaced Indigenous Peoples through oppressive policies of assimilation and exclusion from the benefits of the land.
Policies and practices that attempted to erase Indigenous identity in Canada and force Indigenous peoples to adopt non-Indigenous educational, social, political, and economic systems.
A Canadian Federal law established in 1876 that governs the relationship between the Canadian government and First Nations communities and individuals. Over time, the Act has been amended for being very paternalistic, oppressive, and assimilatory in nature.
Government-sponsored schools run by the Catholic Church that Indigenous children were forced to attend as part of the process of assimilation. They caused significant harm to all Indigenous Peoples and led to intergenerational trauma, the impacts of which are still felt in Indigenous communities today.
