Every country has a unique culture that defines its people. In addition, those living in a nation develop a belief and cultural system that influences the manner in which people live and interact with each other. This is something that I realized after moving to Canada. Prior to this course, I did not have knowledge of Canada’s indigenous people since I am new to the country and only came in as an international studen t . I am an Indian international student who moved to Canada to further my knowledge and acquire skills that would make me a productive and useful member of the global community. I opted to come to the country because of the quality of education that students get from the available institutions of higher learning. As an international student, I did not have any knowledge about the indigenous communities in Canada and the way they lived their lives. However, I was looking forward to hearing about them in this particular course. My interest in the subject stems from the fact that I appreciate culture and diversity. Therefore, I was always looking forward to hearing how the indigenous communities lived and learnt from one another.
Indigenous communities are people and groups that have a historical continuity with precolonial or pre-invasion societies. These groups have developed their own territories and consider themselves to be distinct from the community that is currently living in an area. In addition, the groups usually strive to preserve their cultural practices, legal systems and social institutions because they believe that they are the first people to live in an area. Therefore, they view themselves as the rightful inhabitants of an area, region or country. Moreover, they strive to protect the integrity of the areas where they live. Even as they interact with other people, the indigenous communities strive to protect their interest, values, and systems.
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As I noted earlier, I come from India and moved to Canada to pursue my education. Just like in Canada, India has indigenous ethnic groups. These communities are referred to as the scheduled tribes under the Indian constitution. The designation was created by the British and it refers to more than 255 communities living in India. Presently, the indigenous communities account for about 7 percent of the Indian population. The communities are unevenly distributed throughout the country. Most of them are found in Aranachai Pradesh, Meghalaya, and Nagaland.
I have always been interested in learning about the cultures of the indigenous people of Indian. However, it is not always easy to fully understand their culture because of the kind of secluded life that they live. In addition, these people strive to distinguish themselves from the rest of the Indian population. I understand that the indigenous people in India have a unique set of culture that determines how they interact with each other and those that they interact with. Another issue that I understand about the culture of the indigenous people in India is that they have strived to protect their value systems and belief systems for a long time. Even though some of the indigenous groups live with the rest of the Indian population, they strive to live in accordance to their traditional values and cultures.
Another critical issue that I have been interested in is the issues that the indigenous communities face. One of the major issues affecting the indigenous communities in India is discrimination. In some cases, these groups are considered not to be part of the mainstream society. The trend is attributed to the fact that the indigenous groups have a culture that seem to be different from those of the rest of the society. Therefore, they have not been fully accepted as part of the mainstream society. I have also realized that the indigenous communities are usually socially and economically least advanced compared to the rest of the society. This is a worrying trend considering that they are among the earliest inhabitants of the county. These groups continue to live in tribal communities where they engage in small scale trading and farming. As a result, they have not been able to achieve significant economic growth. In addition, they have not been able to exploit the opportunities that exist in the market today. Finally, some members of the mainstream Indian community consider the indigenous people as members of a backward group. Such notions arise due to the fact that the indigenous groups live in secluded areas and rarely mix with the rest of the community. Moreover, they have cultural practices and belief systems that are not always similar to those of other Indian communities. It is against this background that they are regarded to be backward by some members of the mainstream society.
The prejudices and stereotypes that people have regarding the indigenous communities is an issue of concern. One of the main causes of the problem is the lack of integration between the indigenous communities and the mainstream society. Since I rarely interact with the indigenous groups, I have not been able to understand their culture, views, and beliefs. Instead, I only base my judgments and assumptions on the information that I get from other people. These views may affect the manner in which I perceive indigenous culture in Canada. Instead of striving to interact with the indigenous communities in Canada to understand their cultures, I may end up making assumptions that they are similar with the indigenous groups found in India.
I selected three resources to help me get information about the indigenous communities in Canada. The first source was the film We Were Children (National Film Board of Canada, n.d.). The second source was a documentary know as Return to the Healing Circle (1997) (Campbell, n.d.). The final one was the article Picking up the Pieces: The Making of the Witness Blanket ("Picking up the pieces: The making of the witness blanket," n.d.). I selected each of the resources for a particular reason and to get unique information regarding the indigenous groups in Canada. The first source allowed me to understand the background of the indigenous groups in Canada and the struggles that they have been through. The second source was about the conditions and abuse that the indigenous people lived in. The documentary highlights how the living conditions affected the development and wellbeing of children who belong to indigenous groups in Canada. The final source is about the subject of art and how it relates to the life of the indigenous communities in Canada. The three sources enabled me to understand the struggles of the indigenous groups. They show how the indigenous communities have suffered and the kind of discriminatory practices that they have been experiencing. From the information that I got through the sources, I would be able to convince another person that the indigenous communities are not living in the past but rather, they are interested in protecting their culture and their values. Without their culture and their values, they would lose their status of being referred to as indigenous. Since the tag of being referred to as indigenous comes with a lot of pride and prestige, these communities jealously guard that title by upholding their culture and values. It is for this reason that they may appear to be stuck in the past but that is not the case.
References
Campbell, P. (n.d.). Kuper island ~ Return to the healing circle . Vimeo. https://vimeo.com/50154878
National Film Board of Canada. (n.d.). We were children . https://www.nfb.ca/film/we_were_children/
Picking up the pieces: The making of the witness blanket . (n.d.). CMHR. https://humanrights.ca/story/picking-up-the-pieces-the-making-of-the-witness-blanket
