Aboriginal People and Other Canadians: Shaping New Relationships

Chapter 1 Introduction

Chapter 1 Introduction Roy Todd The televised confrontations between Mohawks and the army at Oka, Quebec, in the summer of 1990 provided high drama which caught the attention of Canadians across the nation. In the following year, after the collapse of the Meech Lake Accord, and in the context of continuing failures to meet the needs of Aboriginal communities, the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples was established. The Commission had abroad mandate to review the situation ofAboriginal people and to make policy recommendations. Now, as we enter a new decade, we can begin to assess whether changes are occurring, and to discern whether the last decade of the twentieth century was a decade of constructive transition. Are relations between Canada's Aboriginal peoples and other Canadians continuing as critically as before? Is a new pattern of relations emerging after the recent challenges to the colonial legacy by Aboriginal people? Are Canadians together creating new structures and negotiating new structures that do not lead to the reproduction of earlier tragedies and difficulties? These questions were amongst those addressed by the research summarised in this volume. This collection is multi-disciplinary, focusing on themes which incorporate (i) historical developments; (ii) social, demographic, socio-economic and spatial data; (iii) educational developments; (iv) governance, peace keeping and social justice; (v) social and health policy; and (vi) cultural policy, cultural representations and identity. The contributors' disciplinary starting points cover history, sociology, social policy, geography and law. 1 Roy Todd There are emergent issues within these papers. These include understanding of small rural communities and experience in Canada's cities, leading us to reflect upon objectives for liveable communities in urban and rural contexts. There are themes of social exclusion, marginalisation and identity, topics which are of concern to ethnic and cultural minorities as well as Aboriginal peoples. Concerns with governance, justice, equality and gender are reflected here. Self-help and empowerment in Aboriginal communities and in the cities also have a place. Finally, reflection on methodology, historiography and the representation of the social relations at the heart of these issues leads to engagement with theories and models found in contemporary and historical literature and in policy documents. The final Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP) has inevitably formed a point of reference for almost all of the chapters. The Commission's view of history, its portrayal of the recent past, its account of the present and its proposals for new policies all came under scrutiny. The sense of dialogue at the heart of the final Report of the RCAP is an undeniable achievement. The scope of its recommendations is immense and the contribution to understanding made by the supporting research isvery substantial. Also, as a resource for scholars, the Royal Commission's main report and the supplementary reports arising from its research agenda will offer benefits for some considerable time. While it is too soon to judge the long-term outcomes of the Canadian Government's response— "Gathering Strength"—that emerged in January 1998, recognition of the very considerable depth and complexity of the social and other issues to be addressed by government policy is inescapable. Positive change, if any, will not come rapidly but the rhetorical point of the suggestion that "gathering dust"might be amore aptphrase rather than "Gathering Strength" reflects an understandable impatience with an enduring issue. The following chapters have been written with an awareness of the tensions betweenthe hopes and expectations found in the Report of the RCAPandthe reactions to the Government response. In the next chapter, Martin Thornton considers aspects of the history of Aboriginal people in their relationships with national and provincial governments. In the making of modern Canada, non-Aboriginal people committed offences and wrongs against Aboriginal people. Governments at the federal and provincial levels have been at the centre of what he refers to as a perplexing and sad 2 Introduction history. Any historyof Aboriginal people is faced with the problems of approach, definition, context and selection of important subject matter for analysis. The 1996 Report of the RCAP addressed these difficulties. Martin Thornton includes scrutiny of the Commission's approach to history in his analysis, offering a critical perspective on the embedded view of history in the RCAP's final report. Social relations between Christian missionaries and Aboriginal people have been a continuous feature of Canada's history since the arrival of Europeans on the continent. As David Collins notes...