2010 Winter Olympics

[Adam]

I am like embarrassed right now to be Canadian for not knowing that (or did you not know I was either ). I totally did not know it was an Inuit tradition. Thank you for clarifying my mistake, Eric!

Not surprised.

[EricMontreal22]

We have as bad a history with our natives as the US i think--and the Aussies. The constant abuse int he residential homes Canada forced them to all go to for school till the 60s, etc. It's only very very recent they've had as much cultural infence as they have and things have changed (it's about time) And yeah I would drop dead if I was hem.

[soapfan770]

Heh don't worry I remember years ago when I lived on the Navajo rez someone asked where the totem poles were and we we're like ummm we have totem poles lol.

[EricMontreal22]

I didn't know you were Canadian either lol. All these Canucks.

Well it depends on your generation, etc--I'm not sure how old you are--and where you grew up. I went to school on the west coast of Canada and so much of our history, etc int he early 90s was all about either the Haidas or the Inuit (since then I've heard they've felt--probably rightly--that by making amends to educate kids about the native heritage of their country they went overboard and ignored everything else--I was a product of that)

[soapfan770]

This is what happened to my tribe by the US in the 1860s:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Walk_of_the_Navajo

If any good came from that was that we got to go back to our homeland. Sadly we're one of the few that had such an opportunity.

[SnCCorinthos4ever]

Yes, our Prime Minsister Kevin Rudd said sorry to "The Stolen Generation" in 2008, which was something the previous Govt refused to do.

"The Stolen Generation" were Aboriginal children that authorites just took them from thier parents for no real reason and placed them else where.

[SnCCorinthos4ever]

Hehe that is a little like Australia.

When some international visitors come here they are surprised to see that Kanagroos really don't hop down the streets and that we all don't have Koala's sitting in the trees in our yards.

[Adam]

LOL, its ok. I seem to remember before the board interface changed it said under our user names where we were from. I could be mistaken, maybe that was another board.

I am 24, and have spent my entire life in Southern Ontario outside of Toronto. Guelph, do you know where it is?

Anyway, the major aboriginal culture around here are the Huron, Iroquois and Algonquin tribes... those are the names I remember from history class anyway. Inukshuks are very popular along the roadside as you get into Northern Ontario. Due to all the rock around, people will stop and build one at the side of the road. I actually did it once. I never knew about its origin beyond it was a native practice.

[EricMontreal22]

I have an ex-boyfriend slash good friend who was here for a year from Melbourne, so I'll go down to stay with him but he's promised to take me around--Sydney but I hope to see some of the surfing beaches to do some surfing as well. I also have close family friends in Perth, which I know is far away but I may try to make the trek--it costs so much to get down there, I might as well.

The Orcas were great--that and much of the staging was by Robert LePage, one of my fave experimental theatre directors here in Canada (recently he's started working with Cirque du Soleil which is kinda amusing as his early stuff used to be very sexually graphic--no matter, great stuff)

[EricMontreal22]

It's all really reprehensible. I knew a LITTLE about the Navajo (more than any other American tribe), but I think, at least here in Canada, we still have a long ways to go--not just to make up for past wrongs but to get over some ridiculous and patronising stereotypes that are all too big a part of the culture.

[EricMontreal22]

29 here--so same generation of schooling I guess . And of course I know of Guelph though I've only driven through--in 2002 I spent four months int he Summer working in a Toronto bar cuz my twin sis was living there (I spent ten years in Montreal for school and work--and hope to get back, even though I'm currently back home in Victoria. In Montreal I couldn't believe how few people knew about Victoria so I'd just start telling people I was from Vancouver--close enough).

I was in french immersion, so we studied the Iroquois a lot but that's pretty much all i know from that area (well and Metis--ot really a tribe but the mixed races--and Pied-Noir/Blackfeet).

[Adam]

Alanis Morissette once did a concert in the Navajo nation and there was a DVD made of it. During her tour for her Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie tour she toured various cultural places like that in the world. She went to Israel, Tibet and various other places that wouldn't normally be visited by a famous singer.

[soapfan770]

Indeed it is, and yes we still have long ways to go down in the US. Unfortunately these days it's the tribal governments here in the US being the ones reprehensible, and as more of use leave the reservation like myself we find our tribal governments living up to horrid historical stereotypes. Given this is a discussion for the Olympics, I'll save my rant for why the number of delegates for the extremely corrupt Navajo Tribal Council had to be reduced as it was recently.

[EricMontreal22]

Fair enough, though it would interest me at some point to read. The guy I'm kinda seeing is studying native rights at UVIC here.

[Adam]

That's cool. Eric, what do you do if you don't mind me asking?