Cowboy Coffee: A Reconciliation Conversation

  It is not the fault of the flower when it cannot thrive.  When it wilts, we provide nourishment or water or sun.  We do not blame the flower.   The Indigenous experience in Canada is not the fault of the people.  It is a result of the environment that they have been subjected to.  And yet, we tend to blame them for the result. 

When you’re on the phone with someone in service who has a very thick accent which makes them difficult to understand and you get mad, does that make you racist?   When somebody cuts you off in traffic and you notice the person is Japanese, does that make you racist? When they’re...I could give so many examples.   Here’s my take on it.   Wikipedia: Racism is t he belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to physical appearance and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. [1] [2] [3] [4] It may also mean prejudice , discrimination , or antagonism directed against other people because they are of a different ethnicity . [2] [3] Modern variants of racism are often based in social perceptions of biological differences between peoples. These views can take the form of social actions , practices or beliefs, or political systems in which different races are ranked as inherently superior or inferior to each other, based on pr

There are 650 diverse indigenous communities in Canada.  Some of these are reserves, some are settlements and some are the results of modern-day treaties and land claims. Many of these communities are rural and distant from larger centers but there are some that are literal minutes away from large urban centers.    Of these 650 indigenous communities… 350 have a fire department, leaving almost half without fire and emergency services 100 (May 2121) are on a boil water advisory due to water borne illnesses and ecoli, many having elevated levels of heavy metals Most are without local hospitals and have woefully inadequate medical facilities given the population of their communities (infrastructure, staffing, resources)  If you were looking for a new community to move to and raise a family, would you choose a community that is missing these vital pieces of infrastructure?  No one would choose this lifestyle given our modern-day expectations.  It should be no surprise that indigenous peo