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Analysis Of To Be Indian In Canada Today By Richard Wagamese

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Canada is often regarded as multicultural country with a high human development, great education, high life expectancy and extraordinary healthcare, proving it is an over all exceptional place to live. Although this might be the case, a fraction of Canadians who are “Indians” believe their native culture is being compromised and quality of life does not reflect that of the over all population. In the Globe and Mail article , To be Indian in Canada Today… by Richard Wagamese’s the author argues the pros and cons to granting Métis and non-status Indians status under the Constitution Act. As well as, when it comes to nationalism how are Indians regarded and what role do the first nations play in the construction of Canadian culture (Wagamese, …show more content…

By standing together strong, first nations people are able stand up to change the conditions and barriers that hider their prosperity and equality. Canada is a nation, but what is a nation? A nation is defined as a group or region of people that share the same language, world view and ancestry (205 text book). The first nations people of Canada do not share relatively the same worldviews as all Canadians. Indians like many other immigrants or minorities such as Amish are “othered” (are not looked at as that of the norm and are excluded or segregated) in a nation state due to their cultural differences. In preservation of their cultural beliefs first nations essentially have created their own nation, with separate educational institutions, chefs and communities. Although this is a great why in keeping your culture alive many of the first nations reserves are underdeveloped, over crowded and key educational components of substance abuse and contraception are overlooked resulting in a negative partial of first nations people (Wagamese, 2013:1-2). Native Canadians have essentially created an identity for themselves, in isolated camps …show more content…

The way that the rest of the world views Canadians and their indigenous people is very different to how they truly are, and how Canadians view and treat their indigenous people. In the 2010 Vancouver Olympics there was a lot of controversy concerning the logo for the games. The logo is what many may call a inukshuk but really it is a inunguat which is a representation of a man and not what the Vancouver Olympics symbolized it to be Inukshuk’s will never be shaped like they were ( news paper) . There were many other flaws from the dances chosen to preform and the contradictory fact that the land used to create the venues were where crucial to the indigenous people. This was a great chance to show the world our history and our first nations people, but I doesn’t seem fair after years of neglect to portray to the world a scud notion of how aboriginals are and were treated. “To be Indian in Canada today, is to watch our youth and our women take to the forefront of this direct action and lead. It’s to know our future is secure so long as they continue to bring their energy and their vision to the attention of a nation that has never truly heard us before. It’s to be galvanized. It’s to be strong”. (Wagamese, 2013:1-2) First nations people want to live symbiotically with other

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