Champlain was such a cool guy
Episode Stats
Harmful content
Hate speech
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Summary
In this episode, I talk about the dark moments in our nation s history, and how they shaped our identity and shaped our culture. Some of our darkest moments can be some of the most powerful lessons we can learn from them.
Transcript
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some of our dark moments whether that be in our personal lives or in the nation's history it is
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the darkest moments so often that we learn the most from right the time that that memory of you
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breaking your arm or spending the night in the er or failing a test or whatever it might be it might
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have been the hardest thing the breakup that you had to go through it might be the worst thing that
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ever happened to you but years back it's some of the most powerful moments that shape your character
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and this is the same thing that goes for a nation's history it is the dark moments as much
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as the triumphs that we learn and that shape our identity and even then to frame Champlain as some
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sort of dark moment in Canadian history is so disingenuous and historically inaccurate because
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Champlain was a very unifying character right he took a very different approach to settling Canada
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than European colonizers in the rest of the new world, right?
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That was all based on conquest, genocide, subjugation, slavery.
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Before he came to Canada, he was a spy in the Spanish colonial system
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where he learned, where he saw, he observed how the Spanish were doing things.
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And he very much actively decided to do things differently in Canada.
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instead of conquest and subjugation. He actively sought to create partnerships that were mutually
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beneficial with the First Nations people, whether that be trading first, giving them technology,
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pots and pans, worked metals, firearms, all these sorts of things, and fighting alongside them in
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battle. He sacrificed himself. He would get injured fighting alongside the Huron-Wendat,
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and then he would spend the winter as they nursed him back to good health. This is the history of
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champlain it's very progressive it's uniting and if we want to have a productive conversation on
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reconciliation which is necessary right first nations tribes around the country are still
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living in third world conditions we have to do more to unite and rise up the canadian people
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whether they be european settlers or indigenous first nations folks we need to do more and instead
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the reconciliation industry has become so reductive it's become about erasing and lying
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about our past framing it as this situation where it's like the noble savage right where
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indigenous people are all good and their culture was great and kind of would be so much better if
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it wasn't for the evil colonizing europeans this is disingenuous there is good and bad on both sides
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we can learn and respect both sides of this from that history and forge a new productive path
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forward but instead it's all about tearing down and forgetting and it's just so reductive