Meaningful Outrage


The recent discovery of a mass grave holding the bodies of 215 Indigenous children at the site of the former Kamloops Residential School has raised a lot of verbal outrage.  For Indigenous people it was another sword in their collective heart and should be in anyone who has one.  For years we have heard various leaders (political and religious) speaking of a new and improved relationship with Indigenous people all the while continuing policies that continue to harm the lives and livelihoods of the original inhabitants of colonized lands.  We see passing outrage for one atrocity after the other: residential schools, suing to pay less for the healthcare and education of Indigenous children, over incarceration of Indigenous people, racism in healthcare, on and on.  Yet nothing changes on the ground (or under the ground).

 

If governments really mean what they say adopt, then implement the United Nations Charter on the Rights of Indigenous People, especially the right of “free, prior and informed consent’.  Non-indigenous citizens of countries steeped in colonialism (and white supremacy) need to pressure their elected officials to adopt the U.N. Charter on the Rights of Indigenous People or vote them out.  The courts and governments need to stop using the Doctrine of Discovery as a basis of continued colonial and paternalistic laws and policies.  If Roman Catholics and other Christians really mean what they say, call on the Pope to rescind the Papal Bulls that are the basis of the Doctrine of Discovery; call on the Churches, the Pope included, to make a formal apology as well as restitution for the theft of the lands, rights and lives of Indigenous Peoples worldwide. 

 

On the local and regional level, meaningful outrage is to support the Indigenous Land and Water Defenders in their struggle to preserve clean water and healthy lands and forests and wildlife, not only for themselves, but for everyone, everyone’s children and their children for generations.  Anything less is only paying lip-service outrage at the atrocities endured by Indigenous Peoples in the past and continuing in the present.  

 

 

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