Thread by @sunnshiiny

I read the op-ed written by Chantal Hebert. Stewed for the day, read some of the comments, then read it again.

I have a different perspective after the second read.

I encourage everyone to re-read the article after your initial emotional reaction.

https://twitter.com/chantalhbert/status/1135637987054804993

Hebert isn’t diminishing the report, at all. She’s telling readers to look past the word genocide and focus on the content.

She’s suggesting we look at the forest before arguing about what the type of trees are called.

Here’s her key argument.

As an Indigenous woman, I have a vested interest in the outcome of this report.

Fourteen years ago I had a debate in a regional federal committee of indigenous women with a prominent Métis politician and activist, over this exact issue.

Irrefutable statistical data revealed the plight of Indigenous women back then quite clearly. But many still wanted an inquiry.

I argued that the indigenous community already knew we were the lowest rung on the Canadian social strata, and indigenous women were rock bottom.

Why spend millions hearing the stories of the impact on our communities, our families and ourselves as indigenous women?

To create awareness? Mainstream Canadians weren’t interested in awareness or taking responsibility then or now.

I wasn’t wrong.

Responsibility for genocide isn’t an identity Canadian mainstream are willing to embrace. Who really wants to face the truth that the society they see as the pinnacle of democracy is the main cause of death, abuse & demoralization of indigenous women, men and communities? No one.

But it is.

Genocide, systemic racism, entrenched stereotyping, it doesn’t matter what it’s called, the end result is the same. Since the age of 6, I’ve known indigenous women and people were of little value to Canadian mainstream society.

In grade 1, I saw how horribly my mother was treated by other parents & my teacher. I witnessed how my indigenous peers were treated with indifference. There were no academic expectations of the indigenous children. Time was devoted to non-Aboriginal students with potential.

When my brother started school in grade 1, his teacher humiliated him daily because he was the only brown kid in the class. I remember my mother withdrawing him and transferring him to a new school within a month because he was treated so poorly.

When he was in grade 2, he received the strap from the principal. A white child had accused him of breaking a pencil at lunch hour & he refused to “confess”. Only after he had been beaten did my mother get a call. She verified it was impossible, since he had come home for lunch.

When I was 10, I ran into my estranged white paternal grandmother by chance at the grocery store with my mother & brothers. My parents had divorced & I hadn’t seen her in a couple years. She recognized us instantly, and turned and walked away, ashamed of her brown grandchildren.

When I was 13, my best friend, a South Korean immigrant, came to my home & met my brothers & mother with darker skin. Her mother picked her up. The next day she was no longer my friend. She told all my other friends I was a “squaw”. I switched schools to escape the bullying.

That was 40 years ago. Not much has changed.

I’ve always known my skin colour opened doors unavailable to my darker skinned peers. That’s how ingrained racism works. Automatically I am treated differently when I reveal my identity. I can’t even blame it on skin colour.

Just the knowledge that I’m indigenous changes the perception of people who have known me for years. Most mainstream Canadians are afraid of indigenous people, believe they are less than fully human, & have a binary categorization of indigenous people as drunks or noble savages.

Indigenous women have the added stereotype of prostitute as well as drunkard.

A report detailing the indignities that indigenous women have endured for the entirety of this nation’s existence isn’t going to change that. I knew that 15 years ago, & I knew that at 6 years old.

Arguing over the moniker “genocide” detracts from the fact that this entrenched racism has destroyed and forever altered millions of lives (not just those whose stories informed the report), impacted every indigenous family and continues to this day.

Romeo Dallaire may not see the information in that report as the equivalent of the Rwanda genocide.

It’s unlikely he will. He’s physically & mentally removed from the systemic mental torture, murders, humiliation, degradation, and abuse the indigenous community endures daily.

Gen. Dallaire is a symptom not the problem.

The fact most Canadians know almost nothing about indigenous people is the problem.

To protect ourselves we’ve retreated from mainstream culture.

Most mainstream Canadians know more about immigrant cultures than they know about us

Reconciliation is a two way street. We meet in the middle, or nothing will change.

Segregation has led to entrenched discrimination. Much like the African American community, segregation has made us the enemy. And it makes mainstream Canada our enemy.

First seek to understand, then to be understood. An important lesson my Métis grandmother bestowed on me.

The MMIW report and many demands of the indigenous community are efforts to be understood.

Mainstream Canada can seek to understand, or reject the report.

It doesn’t matter what you call the acceptance of mainstream society to ignore and give tacit approval of the 200 year long cultural and physical assault on indigenous peoples.

It only matters that the first step to reconciliation is for mainstream Canadians to seek to understand. To choose not to look away. To begin to acknowledge indigenous people’s reality & their experiences; considered so insignificant that no one but indigenous noticed or cared.

It’s time for indigenous peoples issues to be “on the radar”. It’s time for indigenous women to have a voice & be heard. It’s time for indigenous families to receive condolences, not scorn. It’s time for indigenous communities to be welcomed, not shunned.

And it’s time for indigenous people to seek first to understand who among Mainstream Canadians are our allies and who wants to keep us segregated.

This is a long journey. It takes time and courage to look truth in the face. Patience and compassion are required from all sides.

Whether it’s called genocide or not at this point is irrelevant. Just opening the door to being heard a little is the challenge. Acknowledgement leads to understanding. Only then will mainstream Canadians choose to recognize it as genocide. Most are still stuck in denial.