The northern Ontario community of
Attawapiskat is only too familiar with its
own unique brands of tragedy: flooding,
chronic housing shortages, government
disregard, flagrant misspelling of its
name, and now a frighteningly high
rate of suicide and suicide attempts
amongst its youth. It would be enough
to break their hearts, if their hearts
weren’t so strong. Next to follow: the
barrage of unsympathetic questions that
often attend these types of calamities,
usually by puzzled southern non-native
individuals — or as we like to call them
in this politically correct age, people of
pallor. Why don’t you just move?
Native people get questions like this all
the time. During the time of the Truth
and Reconciliation Commission, I can’t
tell you how often I heard people who’ve
lived childhoods unencumbered by a
steady diet of Manifest Destiny ask, in
serious baffled frustration, “Why don’t
you people just get over it?” Get over it?
It’s not a wall, people!
Before those questions was the always popular
“What do you people really
want?” I would answer with “Well,
stop killing our women, and stealing
our children and that would be a good
beginning!”
Prior to that, it all started with “Would
you mind signing here?”
Admit it: you yourself have likely
wondered why the Attawapiskatians (or
the Attawapiskatites) don’t just roll up
their blankets, hop a bus and fry their
bannock somewhere else upriver. Scott
Gilmore of Maclean’s has thought about
it. Walrus Magazine editor-in-chief
Jonathan Kay has considered it. Even
former Prime Minister Jean Chretién has
suggested it.
Well, it’s not that easy. It’s a complex
issue not solved by a simple change in
geography. There’s a certain connection to
land and environment. A community like
this has a little more heart and soul than
an apartment.
Unlike most people who ask these
unfortunate questions, I’ve been to
Attawapiskat and it’s actually a beautiful
community. I’ve talked to their children.
I’ve toured the neighbourhood. I have
also been around the world and seen far
worse places. I can’t blame them for not
necessarily wanting to move.
I’m sure you’ll remember the famous story
of Randall Truman, the man who lived at
the foot of Mount St. Helens when he
was told the mountain might just possibly
blow up. Told this repeatedly, Truman
refused to move, regardless of the threat.
This was his home, and he died with it.
Okay: maybe not the best example, but
never underestimate a person’s or people’s
connection to their home, regardless
of the dangers. Consider that the Cree
of Attawapiskat historically used to be
nomadic, following caribou and other
game, as the need arose.
That is, until they met other nomadic,
non-native people who felt it their mission
to travel the world telling people like the
Cree they can no longer be nomadic,
under penalty of law. These
same formerly nomadic people
from across the ocean would
later relocate the children of
these Canadian people to other
faraway places. Past experience
has also taught Canada’s
Indigenous people that once
they have been relocated, these
same non-native people (we
call them colour-challenged)
usually find whacks of fur,
gas, diamonds or Aeroplan
miles buried somewhere in
the vicinities they once called
home. Five hundred years of
colonization has given First
Nations people a learned
aversion to forced relocation.
As to the question of finding
some place better: where is it
better? I suppose they could go
to Calgary — but that place
has a history of flooding. What about
Vancouver? No, I’ve heard the housing
situation there is almost as bad as in
Attawapiskat. The grass may always be
greener but it could be crabgrass and
poison ivy, too. With ticks.
People need to understand that the
problems in Attawapiskat and other
northern communities run deeper than
simply location. What needs to be
dealt with first are the issues infecting
these people’s lives that spring from
hundreds of years of colonization and the
paternalistic treatment they’ve received
from government. Social malaise doesn’t
come with a street address. It comes with
history.
Why don’t they move? Here’s a counter
question. Why don’t you move? In case you
weren’t aware, there were quite probably
suicides, drug issues, environmental
problems and general matters of social
unrest where you currently fry your eggs
and practise your yoga. Cree communities
are not RV parks, ready to uproot at a
moment’s notice.
*Drew Hayden Taylor is an award-winning
playwright and novelist from the Curve
Lake First Nation near Peterborough, Ont.
Reprinted from: www.tvo.org
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