Discrimination

I've learned from the texts we read this year, that Canadians still discriminate against Aboriginal people.  The government isn't willing to give a decent amount of money to the reserves and because of this the reserves are very impoverished.  This lack of money on reserves means that schools don't have enough money to be able to give the kids the best education and thus even if they graduate they might not be able to get the secondary education they need to get good jobs.  The lack of money on the reserves also means that the men have to go off the reserves just to find work and leave their children with out a strong role model.  What I've learned this year is definitely different then what I knew about the Aboriginal peoples situation.

I used to think that we had stopped being a jerk to the Aboriginals.  I thought that since we signed the treaties with the Aboriginal people that everything was going to be good between Canadians.  That the Aboriginals will have enough money for good education.  That Aboriginal people would be able to have well paying jobs on the reserves.  That they would have reasonably sized reserves and be able to use that land as they saw fit.  Apparently I was misinformed and very ignorant, but because of what we read this year my eyes are now wide open.

Reading the Rez Sisters showed me that there is much strife on these reserves.  I learned that all the men on the reserves have to go away to find work and leaving the women to try and survive with what money they can get.  8th Fire taught me that even though the government has tried to make life better for the Aboriginal people their still not giving the Aboriginal people enough money to live a good life.  The Death of Helen Betty Osborne showed me that theirs still racist people out there who are unwilling to accept that their are people who are a different skin colour then they are.