As children, we always enjoyed playing at being Indians, went to the legendary Karl May Festival about Winnetou in Bad Segeberg (we wondered where they always got the new actors for each performance, as they were always dead after each play) and soaked up the exciting stories about the Australian Aborigines (‘Crocodile Dundee’) and the indigenous people in the Kalahari (‘The Gods Must Be Crazy’ 1 and 2). Later in life, I was actually surprised that apparently descendants of these film heroes still live in various corners of the globe.
We were all the more disappointed when, during our trip to Canada and elsewhere, we were presented with a completely different, more problematic picture than the one in the films. We drove past several reservations, saw homeless ‘Natives’ in front of the liquor shops and heard a number of gruesome stories. We were told that the indigenous people lead a very sad life these days, many have alcohol problems, are violent, just loiter around, don't want to make any effort and we should rather keep our distance. Instead, we could look for tours that show us the ‘real’ traditions of the past. They would be much better and more authentic anyway. These warnings were similar in North America, but also on the southern continent, in Australia.
When we asked why this had happened, shoulders were shrugged. The Natives* simply weren't able to keep up with our civilised society due to genetics and culture, and the state would give them too much money, so they wouldn't even bother to work anymore and would get their alcohol anyways.
Phew, harsh words. But we have actually heard this opinion repeated in similar terms. And, if we are completely honest, as a tourist who only drives past reserves and liquor shops (and occasionaly picks up a delicious craft beer), you can quickly get such an impression of the situation.
Fortunately, we also met other people. For example, when we were given a lift by an Innu family with an indigenous background in Quebec. Or a few weeks later, when a woman with dream catchers in the car gave us a lift on her way to an indigenous convention in Northern Ontario. Or on our road trip to the Northwest Territories with Brian, who himself had been employed as a principal in the indigenous communities. These people, who were much more involved with the ‘Indigenous problem’, gave us a different perspective that was clearly distinct from the racist prejudices described above:
Sure, everyone learns in school that Christopher Columbus came across ‘Indians’ in America who had been living on the continent for thousands of years. The white colonisation of America led to the death of many indigenous people, from imported diseases to exploitation, broken trade promises and everything that can be summarised as greed.
But that is not the end of the story. In the early 20th century, the Canadian government came up with the idea of helping the indigenous people by sending their children to residential schools so that they could learn to cope in the western ‘civilised’ world. Under the direction of priests from different churches (not only Catholics ran the schools, but also Protestant churches from the Anglican, Uniate and Pentecostal), children were taken from their families, forbidden to speak their mother tongue, chastised, beaten and, if necessary, imprisoned for weeks. Some children never returned home. And those who did return remained silent. The trauma, the stigmatisation, the experiences of coercion, abuse and oppression were too great. And all of this was promoted and managed by the state and the church, and the abuses were played down. This continued until 1997 when the last of the 130 residential schools in Canada was closed in Rankin Inlet, NWT.
It hurts to write these paragraphs, but I would like to illustrate this once again. Imagine being taken from your home one day at the age of seven and sent to a cold, impersonal boarding school. From one day to the next, you are forbidden to speak your language, you are no longer allowed to play football, have no contact with your family and only have maths and chemistry at school - every day! No Christmas, but other strange celebrations that you have no connection to. What your family and neighbours do in everyday life, all cultural practices and historical events, all this is connoted negatively and you are talked out of it. And over the course of the next few years, you might lose one of your friends at boarding school who can't cope with the pressure. How can something like that not destroy you mentally?
Even if not every child had to go through these terrible experiences at residential schools (apparently there were also nice teachers...), the basic idea was an alienation from one's own culture and past, which left a deep rift in indigenous society. Similar measures of alienation also took place in America and Australia, albeit to a lesser extent, as, shockingly, the number of Australian Aborigines and Native Americans in the USA was already much more decimated before the 20th century.
The investigation into the residential schools in Canada is part of daily politics due to the constant excavation of new mass graves, but is nevertheless progressing rather slowly. In Germany, we don't hear much about this cultural genocide. We continue to watch Karl May plays and at most stumble across drunken Natives on the Canadian roads in our hire car.
I need a break for now. We would like to recommend a film that can be watched for free on YouTube: Indian Horse. Based on a true story, the film is about a boy who grows up in a residential school and has the opportunity to change his life through ice hockey. If you prefer reading, the film is based on a book by Richard Wagamese.
And in the next part, we want to address the current situation of the indigenous population and discuss how some of the problems can be dealt with.
*Okay, normally we keep this blog in a good mood and otherwise let the sarcasm prevail, but a disclaimer is needed here. The assessments described below are extremely racist, factually incorrect and in no way represent our own opinion.
Cover: (C) invisiblepeople.tv
