Brother & Sister - No Interpretation Required

This evening I had a first – real communication with a teenage boy! I’d been starting to despair that I’d ever learn the language my brother spoke but lo and behold… a whole hour of conversation!

We discussed the US political situation, fish, Black history month, birds, Aboriginal politics, Greek mythology, crazy antics on snowmobiles and all kinds of things. It was absolutely wonderful to get a chance to catch up on what makes him tick… and I hopefully imparted some big sister-like wisdom.

The part of the conversation that struck me was about National Aboriginal Day ... C mused about how our indigenous populations are honoured with only one day while we devote an entire month to Black History. He felt that this was disproportional and that the people who named our Nation should command more respect from its inhabitants. I have to say that judging from census data there’s a good point to be made that as a country Canada has not be especially proactive in their equitable treatment of Aboriginal culture (though he makes a fair point that certain youths are also not interested in learning from their own elders and are focusing on imported “Black” cultures). While Canada may have many inhabitants who still self identify from 2, 3 and even 4 (or more?) generations back (Scotland itself lists only a couple hundred thousand more people as being from Scotland!) there are a good number of Aboriginal people (some of whom can’t call themselves that, if they lost status rights) whom we seem to ignore.

I think that C has a great idea in honouring our Aboriginal Peoples with a whole month… let’s make it a real party to celebrate those who were already here and educate the rest of the country – plus if we time it right there could be another long weekend in it for everyone! I’m going to vote for January or February, but more importantly I’ll vote for Aboriginal recognition.