Native people have also been encouraged to believe that their problems will be solved if they will elect more native politicians to Parliament. None of these programs has produced any real or permanent improvements; however, they have helped to mobilize a social force of a few thousand native activists across the nation. Such programs have also forced us to reject many illusions: the illusion that mass integration is possible; the illusion that party politics is the answer; the illusion that peaceful methods and moral appeals will bring results; and the illusion that native elites and revolutionary rhetoric adequately represent native aims. It is now clear that the problems of native people cannot be solved by native organizations or by government programs or by increased welfare. Faced with these realities, the native movement is now painfully evaluating its past actions and seeking a plan for the future. In the meantime, the native movement has been brought to the public attention as part of the Canadian politics. Within the context of Canadian society, the Indian and Metis liberation problem is complicated by the fact that our social lives and material conditions are bound up with those of the colonizer and his system. Although we have lived relatively separated and isolated from mainstream society in our reserves, colonies, and ghettos, we are tied to the capitalist system by such things as religion, material consumption, and social success. Although we have been denied the major benefits of industrialism, we were the original source of labour that created the wealth of this country and thus we contributed to the development of the existing colonial system. Consequently, it is quite impossible to separate the development of Canadian society from the growth of our colonized conditions. Therefore, if the society is to be changed to meet the needs of the Indian and Metis people, the problems of the entire society will have to be resolved at the same time. The native movement cannot avoid tackling the basic problems of the entire Canadian society. In this way our liberation struggle automatically involves the Canadian whites. Howard Adams, Prison of Grass: Canada from the Native Point of View Towards Liberation / The Struggle for Liberation
Posted on: Thu, 20 Nov 2014 22:37:49 +0000
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