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November 15, 2018Colonialism in Canada
Philosopher and political thinker Achille Mbembe says that colonialization is a “fundamental negation of time.” (13) That is, those who have been colonized have been removed from temporal space: there is no past as their history has been systematically obliterated; there is no present as their identity and personhood have been stunted; and, there is no future as their history has been stolen from their children, making their survivors incapable of self-creation. Mbembe is speaking specifically about colonialization in South Africa. Though, surely, he recognizes the worldly resonance of his words.
As I think about Canada’s history of colonizing Indigenous populations, this phrase, “fundamental negation of time,” stood out to me. It gave the term a clarity I had not seen before. And it gave me a deeper grasp of how oppression has functioned in the country in which I live. Indigenous tribes and nations have been removed from time. Their past, present, and future were all erased, burned, raped, and caricatured.
It started with land–as most colonial activities do. In 1867, the British North American Act passed. Six years later Canada became a nation, from sea to sea. As the new nation began settling and growing, it encountered long since settled First Nations’ territories; this required relationship treaties to be established. And these early treaties dictated the legal future for the existence of First Nations in Canada.
In the beginning, First Nations were self-governing. The early Acts forbid colonies from purchasing Indian land and interfering with internal Indian legislation. The growing Canadian nation then changed its policies from issues of land to community civilization, and finally to assimilation. This evolution of colonizing practices is clearly delineated in specific portions of the laws and Acts Canada passed from 1867 to present. John Sheridan Milloy points out that “[s]uccessive federal governments, Liberal and Conservative […] spelled out, in increasing detail, a colonial structure that passed control of First Nations people and communities into the hands of the Indian Affairs Department. That structure survived without effective opposition or change until 1969.” (1)
For over a century, Canada has systematically usurped Indigenous lands, resources, and sovereignty; stigmatized, oppressed, and murdered Indigenous peoples; and actively tried to disrupt and destroy their cultural identities. The state could only do this with a legal framework that justified their actions. This framework found its most oppressive and long-lasting iteration in the Indian Act. This document, amended from the 1867 Act and further amended for the next century, has functioned as a sharp and effective tool by the Canadian government–one that has successfully helped colonize millions of Indigenous people and effectively remove them from time.
0002 Conceptual and Practical Issues with the Archive