If last week was a step, it was a good one

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 03/10/2021 (1179 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

At noon on Saturday, Oct. 2, electricity was restored to the homes of citizens of Little Grand Rapids First Nation and Pauingassi First Nation, after July’s wildfires burnt down nearly a hundred powerline poles and forced a mass community evacuation to Winnipeg.

Starting today, 1,500 citizens will begin to return home after two and half months of living under terrible conditions in city hotel rooms. Little Grand Rapids will go first, with Pauingassi expected to follow soon after.

I wrote a story on this Sept. 16, days after Manitoba Hydro informed community members it would take until mid to late October to replace the poles.

As I wrote: if power went out in any non-Indigenous Manitoba community, this would be fixed in days.

For some reason, First Nations are expected to wait months.

It’s no coincidence Manitoba Hydro stepped up after public pressure and to meet the deadline of Sept. 30 — Canada’s first national holiday for Truth and Reconciliation.

It’s also proof that anti-Indigenous racism, in all of its varying forms in this province, is being less and less tolerated.

This is a place where, after all, protests and marches in support of Indigenous rights and land claims are a near weekly occurrence.

This is a place where cabinet ministers cannot simply get away with spouting off incorrect nonsense about residential schools.

And this is a place where a premier is forced to resign due to his ignorant and divisive views on Indigenous peoples.

This place has come a long way since Canada’s “national” reporters decreed we’re more racist than everyone else in this country — a preposterous claim that only proved Canada is the place with a racism problem; it’s just seen more in Winnipeg due to our population and context.

Frankly, Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver have racism problems far more entrenched, less talked about and addressed. People there are still debating if racism even exists.

Most in Manitoba accept that racism exists, Indigenous peoples suffer the most from it, and racist attitudes and beliefs reside in systems, policies and everyday practices here.

If you want proof: one year ago, Probe Research published a study that found that 70 per cent of Manitobans agree that racism is a serious problem and eight in 10 agreed that the divides between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples is a serious issue.

This past week, though, Probe Research released another poll — with this one focusing on Indigenous perspectives of Manitoba.

It found that hope among Indigenous young people is the highest it’s been since polling started (in 2004) and more than two-thirds of Indigenous young people expressed confidence they will enjoy a better quality of life than their parents.

Manitoba, you are a changing.

Last Thursday, at this country’s first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, we saw a coming together of Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in ways not seen since the vigil in honour of the lives of Tina Fontaine and Faron Hall seven years ago.

Unlike that fateful event, though, this day wasn’t just to honour lost lives but join together to walk, talk, and wear orange shirt and ribbons in allyship.

Thursday was a day to remember survivors and the more than 5,000 unmarked graves of children who died at residential schools, but it was also a day to listen, learn and commit to action.

It was a day where a sunrise ceremony led by Indigenous traditional people occurred at The Forks, an event that would have resulted in jail for all only six decades ago.

It was a day where walks for unity met in Winnipeg, including a nearly 1,000-kilometre journey started by citizens from Fox Lake, York Factory and Tataskweyak and ended by meeting their relations in the south.

It was a day when 10,000 Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples met in St. John’s Park to hold a powwow, honour survivors and leaders and commit to a path forward — the largest gathering in this country on it’s first national holiday for Truth and Reconciliation.

Manitoba, you done good.

This past week I saw more hope and change than I thought I would see in my lifetime.

I also saw a prime minister who decided surfing in Tofino is more important than putting on an orange shirt for a few hours.

There is obviously more work to do, particularly in areas overly obsessed with problems in places like Manitoba than focusing on their own backyard.

When citizens in our province commit to one another and live up to the visions our ancestors committed to via treaties, gifts, and promises to share, take care of one another, and live in peace, anything is possible.

Sometimes it takes standing up to racism with pressure and resistance. Sometimes it takes removing premiers. Sometimes it takes putting on an orange shirt and walking together.

If last week was a step, though, it was a good one, and I’m damn proud of us.

All of us.

Sept. 30 was a step. Let’s do more every day.

 

niigaan.sinclair@freepress.mb.ca