Post 21--Aboriginal Canadians--Initial Musings

 

Before I say anything else, please understand that I am horrified at what Caucasians have done to/with the Aboriginal population of Canada as a whole and BC in particular—BC simply because I live there and am more aware of what is happening there. Which does not mean that I am as aware or as knowledgeable as I either could or should be.

 

I have been interested in the “Aboriginal issue” for many years and have been collecting myriads of news articles and other materials ever since I returned to BC to retire in 2001. This means I have several file boxes filled with this material as well as electronic files. I have been entertaining the hope to do some serious research on the topic after I was finished with my major writing projects, namely the 8-volume series on Christian-Muslim Relations and the 5-volume memoirs. Now that I have completed those two, I find I no longer have the energy or the ambition to start another major project like an “Aboriginal study.” Actually, it probably should have been a "Caucasian study."

If I still had the required energy, the project would have been basically sympathetic to the Aboriginal side.  The raw treatment they have received at the hands of the “Christian” settlers is simply so outrageous from the Christian perspective that we Christians and  our churches should collectively hang our heads in total shame—which, of course, we did during the life of the recent reconciliation campaign.  It actually is amazing that there are any Christian Aboriginals and that one finds churches scattered throughout most of the reservations. I am not going to devote a lot of space to Caucasian colonialism. The facts are all too well documented in a rich genre of literature, though I may occasionally offer some perspectives on that history.

However, the Caucasians are not the only ones to have abused the Aboriginal peoples of BC.  That’s the subject I will write about in the next post.

O’o, there I go again with several promises in the above. Try and find them! Since the previous blog, I have discovered that it is hard to live without making promises. I am beginning to wonder whether we should consider our human race as a Promising Race  just we often characterize it as a Rational Race. Well, whatever.

So, in spite of my promise to the contrary in Post 20, here’s another promise: My promises will be kept to small formats like the next post or some occasional perspectives. They will be nothing big that will obligate me to do something substantial and lead you to expect blog upon blog on this or that topic that I could interrupt only at the peril of losing your confidence and patience. Been there; done that. Never again--hopefully!