Idle no more! Thank God, it’s about bloody time. Fine, OK, you want change, then let’s do it. Change is far overdue.
There are no words in the English language strong enough to describe the terrible injustices heaped upon North American First Nations, but it’s time to bury the past. You cannot blame the white people any longer. There is need of a revitalization, something that our political leaders seem incapable of providing so the initiative and new ideas must come from the First Nations community collectively.
The dysfunctional and racist Indian Act is suffocating and robbing people of the incentive to be enterprising. It needs to be done away with now, starting with the elimination of the reserve system. Should have happened years ago. Jamming people onto far-flung camps is inhumane.
This road does not go anywhere except to breed broken people and sink them into poverty. Integration into mainstream society needn’t mean losing your cultural identity, but can be the path to prosperity. The incentive must begin with the Native communities, and until this takes place nothing will change. To argue otherwise is to join the majority and do nothing.
Paul Crossley
Penticton