Posted: Wednesday, 16 June 2010

The award-winning Métis author Joseph Boyden wrote, “We gain experience as we grow into this world, and experience is a two-edged sword. Experience is the most difficult of teachers because it gives us the exam first, and the lessons second.”

Today, on National Aboriginal Day, it is appropriate to ask:

• What lessons have we learned in appreciating, valuing, and honouring Aboriginal culture?
• Are all Aboriginal women protected by equality legislation without discrimination and bias today?
• Are more First Nations with or without potable water today than yesterday?
• Has meaningful progress been made today in resolving the hundreds of cases of missing and murdered Aboriginal women from Turtle Island?
• Has the income gap between Aboriginal Peoples and the rest of Canada narrowed today?

The answers and their persistence remains a difficult reality.

Despite the legal battles of Sharon McIvor and others, as well as recent Opposition party efforts to end the long-standing inequality for Aboriginal women, legislated gender discrimination persists.

Nearly a hundred First Nations communities still struggle with long-standing boil-water advisories.

Families and friends of lost sisters and mothers still walk in search of justice for their relations.

Today, the legacy of colonialism has left Aboriginal peoples among the poorest of Canadians — 30% lower than non-Aboriginal Canadians. At current rates of policy change, it will take 63 years to erase the income gap.

Yet, the Aboriginal community has survived and has much to offer the non-Aboriginal world. From learning how to walk on this world with care and stewardship; to being a major demographic contributor to the workforce; to acknowledging the value of community-based forms of governance; and a deep respect for collective rights — the lessons are far-reaching and profound for us all.

More than two years ago, the Canadian government apologized to the survivors of residential schools. The apology acknowledged one objective of the residential system was to: “remove and isolate children from the influence of their homes, families, traditions and cultures, and to assimilate them into the dominant culture...”

In essence, the goal was: “to kill the Indian in the child.” Today, we recognize this policy of assimilation was wrong, has caused great harm, and has no place in our country.

Yet, assimilation continues to be a policy of choice, evident by:

• maintaining unbearable living conditions on First Nations;
• refusing to honour treaty rights and land entitlements;
• interfering in traditional governance processes; and
• giving more rights to resource extraction corporations than to people who live on their traditional territories.

The labour movement is committed to changing this pattern:

• unions are advancing collective agreements that support Aboriginal issues;
• unionized water workers are helping First Nations communities connect ailing infrastructure; unions are forging strategic alliances to demand justice in land and resource agreements; and
• unions are advancing sophisticated, representative, workforce strategies to increase, retain, and promote Aboriginal workers in many sectors.

Our work must also continue to demand the federal government abandon its attempts to separate Aboriginal Peoples from their time-honoured world views, cultures, and traditions.

The Canadian Labour Congress urges its affiliates and all Canadians to reflect on what it will mean to truly learn from our experiences in building solidarity alongside all Aboriginal communities so that the lessons we answer today demonstrate what justice really feels like into tomorrow.