The Despondency of Dependency
In a country as wealthy and as socially progressive as Canada what could be more dispiriting than the news forever being reported in the media of the miserably stark conditions under which our Aboriginal communities live? Canadians are pained and guilty by the knowledge that Aboriginal children have an inordinately high rate of suicide, that they are driven by the conditions of their lives to so despise themselves that they willingly surrender their futures, their lives. Canadians feel shame and guilt at the fact that Aboriginal families live in sub-social conditions, that young women commonly walk the streets on hire, that young men are over-represented population-wise within the prison community.Government after government, both Conservative and Liberal, have appeared to do their utmost to establish commissions of enquiry into these dreadful living conditions, circumstances and outcomes, and have sought to bring legislation to bear which might have the effect of turning things around. Nothing seems to work. The Canadian public has long become accustomed to hefty portions of government allocations going to Aboriginal communities for a variety of initiatives and projects, all designed to alleviate the living conditions of our Aboriginal communities.
Think of a family and among the children in the family there is one, or perhaps there might be two, whose genetic endowment predisposed them to socially- and personally-destructive activities like alcoholism or an inability to discipline themselves to learn how to live within society, to become personally responsible adults, capable of looking after their own interests, and interacting with others in their community in a communal manner. The parents in this family feel obligated to love and support their children regardless of the circumstances and to continue encouraging these children to find their rightful place in the order of things. The children continue to engage in activities destined to be their undoing, and the parents continue to despair. Whose fault is this?
Who can deny the fact that the North American Indian population was historically done ill by? That European settlers and their eventual governments took away from the existing populations all that they used for their existence in their native land. This historical fact can never be changed. It cannot, though, continue to be the basis of co-existence between the interlopers and the displaced. There is no good reason why the two groups, historically opposed, and continually at loggerheads, cannot live together in harmony.
Time changes all things, and while at one time it was feasible to live off an unspoiled landscape, we now live in another time and place and nothing can ever be as it once was. To willingly continue to languish and to sacrifice one's future and that of one's children is nothing short of insane. Handouts never made anyone self sufficient, they only ensured that dependency continued with all the frustrations and self-destructive impulses that result from a sentient being understanding that maturity has brought no plausible future, but rather a universal blight upon the community.
Aboriginal leaders must stop playing the old ancestral drum, and begin the slow and painful, and long overdue measures required to bring our Aboriginal communities into the community of communities, to take their rightful and long-due place as equals among equals. And that will never happen as long as the leaders enjoy their current unearned positions of trust within their communities, and see no need to pull their communities out of the cycle of dependency.
posted by Pieface @ Thursday, June 09, 2005
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