The system of domination is alive and well in Canada, with indigenous activist Sylvia McAdam taking a stand to prevent clearcutting on her people's treaty lands. Steven Newcomb (Shawnee / Lenape) of the Indigenous Law Institute has more on the struggle:My dad sees his father's clearcut hunting lands 4 the 1st time, speechless & motionless ##heartbroken #IdleNoMore #Savetheborealforest pic.twitter.com/2uLgysZJZg
— Sylvia (@LawladyINM) September 28, 2016
There are different shades of truth in the English language. For example, there are “half-truths,” “partial truths” and “hidden truths.” Whenever I see the phrase “Truth and Reconciliation” being used in Canada, I think of a hidden truth that is being covered up by the very word reconciliation. It’s the truth about the system of domination that has Sylvia McAdam, one of the founders of the Idle No More Movement out on the land in her family’s “treaty protected” hunting area in Saskatchewan. Anyone who looks at the two photos accompanying this article will see graphic evidence of 1) The domination system which devastates the land and the Nations and Peoples tied to the land by their love for it, and by their sacred responsibilities toward it, and 2) The failure of the society of Canada to honor and respect the Original Nations of Great Turtle Island despite all the recent fanfare about “reconciliation.” Hundreds of miles of arboreal forests are being colonized by clear cutting by major corporations and the timber is being shipped off, much of it to China. This is the role of a colony: a subservient and convenient source of anything valuable that can be mined and turned into profit. The arboreal forests in the territories of Original Nations are being mined, just like the Tar Sands.Read More:
Steven Newcomb: ‘Reconciliation’ and Sylvia McAdam’s Efforts to Protect the Land (Indian Country Today 10/27) Another Opinion:
Susan Blight and Hayden King: Naming is a good start – but we need to do more for reconciliation (The Globe and Mail 10/17)
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