21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act: Helping Canadians Make Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples a Reality

by Bob Joseph

It made me realize the significance of the information and how knowing about the Indian Act could help people understand how it shaped the socio-economic and political reality of many generations of First Nations, and how it is the basis for many of today’s stereotypes about First Nations. In reality, there was a foregone conclusion that Indians would simply die out, cease to exist, thereby absolving the government of any financial responsibility and giving clear access to the lands reserved for Indians.

Some might say that getting rid of the Act will be like moving out of the frying pan and into the fire, as though this is a bad thing. But I don’t agree. We can also think about fire as a new opportunity. In Kwak’wala we have the term “i’tusto,” which means “to rise again.” Getting rid of the Indian Act will give First Nations, and Canada the nation state, the opportunity to rise again to be better and to be stronger.

The Indian Act disrespected, ignored, and undermined the role of women in many ways. This dissolution of women’s stature, coupled with the abuses of the residential school system, has been a significant contributor to the vulnerability of Indigenous women.

Residential schools brought immeasurable human suffering to the First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Peoples, the effects of which continue to reverberate through generations of families and many communities.

The tragic reality is that what should have been a positive and respectful code of conduct degenerated over time into one in which government policies led to cultural genocide, assimilation, theft of land, denial of treaty and constitutional rights, racism, and increasingly punitive laws meant to control every aspect of the lives and deaths of the original inhabitants of what is now Canadian territory. If Canada and Canadians are going to reconcile with Indigenous Peoples, then the existing relationship—the one based on the Indian Act—has to be rebuilt. The past cannot be overlooked or dismissed as “ancient history,” because it isn’t; the impacts of the past are ongoing. The formal apology from Prime Minister Stephen Harper to residential school survivors and their families in 2009 was a much-needed first step.

But it turns out it was just words, and the trouble with words is they can be empty, and Indigenous Peoples have heard a lot of empty words since Confederation. Just one year after reading the apology, Stephen Harper spoke at the g20 meeting in 2009 and said: “We also have no history of colonialism. So we have all of the things that many people admire about the great powers but none of the things that threaten or bother them.”6

Who wrote the apology speech??