Dependency

Sometimes its hard to hear what is true and what is right in front of us, our first post of the blog asked the question, the "Indian Question" does it still exist. Well the Indian Act still exists in its defined form, yes the Indian Question still very much exists. Over years some of this process around the Indian Question has changed in language and appearance, it is more disguised as being politically correct, and to mitigate its racial tones. A Chief from British Columbia said to the youth at a youth conference one time, your all lazy just get a job. Was he wrong by saying this, maybe we don't agree with the presentation of it, but no technically he wasn't wrong. Our First Nations communities, like Non-First Nations society, become comfortable with language and process even if it is good or bad in the long run. Why change what is working, lets ride a wave as long as we can, until we have to change the language and appearance. We have had conversations and window dressing over the years from both sides of the table, but we have never truly address the true issue, that is dependency. We have talked rights and entitlement for over the last 40 years, and trying to define a process to create a economic and social base. We say to both sides of the table, if First Nations people are going to continue to live under the Indian Act, we should use the Indian Act to its fullest potential. Like history, it would take some time to get comfortable with it, but in the long run we would see the potential job creation and economy boosting outcomes. This will create self reliance and eventually void dependency for First Nations communities, and boost a deficit driven economy for Non-First Nations society. With the Olympics over now, we all had something in common, we were all proud Canadians, but still to degree we cant live together, isn't this tiresome being united only at certain times of history. Its time to have a real conversation with each other, its time to really help one another, its really time to truly call Canada all our home and native land.