The Stage
I’ve lived in 7 cities in the last 6 years pushing to discover and become the best version of myself. Looking inside my new Canadian Passports it shows the place of my birth as Toronto, ON however in my heart and mind it could simply just read Canada. As a child my heart came alive exploring the commons of Halifax playing baseball at the local YMCA, summer day camp trips at the George Dixon Community Center and great memories on the football gridiron. The thrill of learning and challenging myself academically and athletically in the town of Sackville, New Brunswick as an adolescence forever changed my life for the better. Then I moved back to Toronto before my passion took me to Ottawa, where I then embarked on a great journey west stopping in Grande Prairie, Edmonton and Fort McMurray Alberta to secure my future and seek opportunity like thousands of other Canadians in the energy sector.
Presently
Now as a young man at the age of 30 without an immediate family or independent of my own reflecting back on these travels from east to west, the people that have come in and out of my life the moments of pride, shame, glory and sadness one thing has never faded, the desire to keep learning and becoming better, they say to know where your going you need to know where your from and understanding Canada and what grew from the former Dominion of Canada has been a great motivation of mine, and reason why I’ve enrolled in Cape Brenton University’s innovative new online Mi’kmaq course, to learn more, as Plato told Socrates “Know Theyself”. As an indigenous Mi’kmaq Canadian, who is also a direct decent of a slave, French Canadian and indigenous Jamaican I’ve come full-circle in some respects by landing in the town of St. Catherine’s Ontario. A historic and famous town for many reasons, for me knowing that it was the central hub of Canadian operations for Harriet Tubman during the time of the underground rail road is enough to give me a sense of pride and belonging, the same pride and belonging feeling as Canadians we should be extending to Syrian Refugees fleeing a devastating in humane conflict.
[youtube_sc url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ak1SlHjFBbU”]
Keep up with the great work. ❤️ Aunt Cissie
A very thoughtful commentary, but it would also help if more non-Indigenous Canadians like myself recognized the role of the Treaties in Canadian history, and the rights and sovereignty that come with them.
As Harold Cardinal pointed out roughly 40 years ago, the reason many Indigenous people were opposed to abolishing the Indian Act wasn’t because they liked it. It was because, for all its warts, the Act was still an implicit recognition of Indigenous rights, sovereignty and status within Canada.
Perhaps, with the proper recognition by non-Indigenous Canadians, and the recognition of Indigenous governance and proper representation of Indigenous territories in Parliament, then we might be in a better position to get rid of the Indian Act.