Background
Info
Q: What is the Indian Act?
A: The Indian Act (IA) is a piece of Canadian legislation that dictates the status, bands, and reserves within Canada; outlining what 'makes an Indian an Indian', justifying the status a person has or doesn't have. Passed in 1876, it's material is racist and dehumanizing, flipping traditionally matriarchal indigenous societies on their backs; reinforcing patriarchal thinking and systemic processes. Designed to assimilate Indigenous people into Canadian society. It has been under scrutiny for decades, and has been under multiple amendments and changes. One example is the "Potlatch Law", where Potlatches were banned, as Indigenous Foundations put it, "Non-native colonists and missionaries saw the sharing of wealth and food at potlatches as excessive and wasteful, but ultimately they knew how integral it was to sustaining First Nations cultures. Indian Agents and missionaries felt it interrupted assimilation tactics." That law is no longer in place; however, a similar bill proposed Q: How does the Indian Act affect women and men separately? A: The Indian Act on it's own is patriarchal at best, and borderline dehumanizing in how it approaches the subjects of status, rights of autonomy, and marriage in the contexts of men and women. For men: An Indian is defined as any male and their children. Indigenous men are immediately given status, however could lose status if they became a professional like a lawyer or doctor, or served in the military. Men and all indigenous people were also barred from the procurement of alcohol in 1884. In 1880, a policy was enacted where all Indigenous people needed a permit to buy groceries and clothes. The Indian Act now still has deep routes in Indigenous communities, however after more amendments and changes, it has gotten less repressive, but not to the extent many want. It's still a race-based piece of legislation. For women: An Indian is defined as any male and their children, so this applies to every indigenous woman and girl right? Unfortunately not. Women can lose their status if they marry a non-Indigenous man, and a non-Indigenous woman can gain status by marrying an indigenous man. Women and all indigenous people were barred from the procurement of alcohol; and weren't even allowed the right to own land and marital property- with a widow only being entitled to marital property under the reserve system. If women were a part of one band, and married a man of another, she would forfeit that band, and join her husband's. With the coming of C-31, a bill that reworked status amongst women; indigenous women and people who had lost status could now regain it, however, only for one generation after that. This caused the bill to be seen as unconstitutional, and was also received poorly due to when it was implemented, with the Indian Act put in play in 1876, and C-31 in 1985. It was seen as Band-Aid solution, and an insult to actual amendment and progress. |
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Impacts in CanadaBC
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What can you do?
More than you know
Reach out
As an indigenous person or as a non indigenous person, you don't have to have status or blood to talk and open up about inequalities you have experiences; or seen be experienced by others. Finding the courage to talk about those experiences is half the battle, the rest is doing it more than once. Even if it's just a friend, even if it's just a therapist, talking matters. Your story matters.
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Education
Education benefits everyone. It gives the teachers students, the sources an audience, and the message a conduit to the next person. Educate yourself, expand your understanding of social issues and where you fit in with them. A problem can persist because it is allowed to, so take steps to halt that allowance. Expanding what you know about an incident or subject allows you to see underlying issues easier, and can help vastly in the solution. Normalize education, awareness of a problem never hurt anyone.
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Be an ally
Even if it's only helping one person you see in the classroom, workplace, or in public, supporting and building support for those or yourself will make a difference. Standing up for those, even if in minor ways, will make them feel more recognized, and can help it feel more plausible to fight the problem; so support your fellow human being, and if you feel you need support, its ok to have it. Standing up and voicing your opinion over these issues in public spaces and forums help normalize the problem. Standing up helps these problems look easier to spot, and wrong.
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