Juno News - Celebrate the successes and accomplishments of First Nations people

00:00:00.000 there's a lot of conversation going on in canada right now about our first peoples

00:00:10.080 the history of our first peoples and how well to put it mildly perhaps they weren't treated so well

00:00:15.960 and when we have these conversations and we talk about where to go next next steps productive paths

00:00:21.600 forward i feel like a lot of the ideas out there a lot of the things that we're really stuck on

00:00:26.800 well they're not that productive they're not paths forward in fact they're they're roadblocks they're

00:00:31.560 things that we're really getting stuck on divisive things that that aren't really having much

00:00:37.040 productive value i'm talking about things like should we cancel canada day maybe we shouldn't

00:00:41.420 celebrate canada day this statue must be torn down we cannot possibly move forward and have

00:00:46.280 productive change if this statue is not torn down or that street is not renamed and and i think that's

00:00:51.220 unfortunate i think there's a whole whole half of the conversation that that we're missing and that

00:00:56.080 we got to focus on more here and it makes me think back to this a couple lines in this book

00:01:02.540 that one scholar canadian scholar writing on first nations issues uh wrote about and i've never

00:01:06.900 forgotten where he wrote that when it comes to how we talk about first nations issues the the failures

00:01:11.920 the tragedies are loud but the successes are quiet and what he meant by that was when there are stories

00:01:17.860 about say uh horrible things that have recently been happening on on first nations reserves remote

00:01:22.700 communities and and you see these stories sometimes and they dominate the headlines for for a couple

00:01:27.760 days for a week the politicians talk about them and so forth and and and they deserve the attention

00:01:32.520 they get you know horrible conditions that people are living under tragedies that have happened and so

00:01:36.620 forth yes by all means we got to talk about them but we do that and then there are other things

00:01:42.200 happening that we don't talk about i'm talking about the great successes and developments and

00:01:48.580 achievements that we're seeing from our first peoples on particular reserves particular communities i mean

00:01:55.020 i can tell you i've gone to a couple different aboriginal business gatherings and consortiums and

00:01:59.860 so forth and they're sitting and they're talking about the advancements that they've made on this project

00:02:03.800 or that project you can talk to various different chiefs who who really uh are proud of the education

00:02:10.320 that they've created in their communities and they're talking about getting those graduation rates up and

00:02:14.520 the post-secondary attendance up and you look at these numbers and you go wow there's some truly

00:02:19.400 remarkable stuff going on and these stories need to be told and the people the first peoples who are

00:02:25.620 actually working on these and rolling up their sleeves and getting to work on business development

00:02:29.980 or progress on education i mean these people need to be held up as the everyday heroes they are and

00:02:35.580 quite frankly i think on a day like canada day you don't cancel it you you just you you make it even

00:02:40.720 bigger and broader you bring everyone into the conversation you talk about these great things

00:02:45.060 that these first nations peoples are doing to make canada a better place i i mean we we've got to bring

00:02:51.580 that part of the conversation in here talking about the successes and the achievements you you got to talk

00:02:56.700 about history you got to talk about the things that weren't working the things right now that aren't

00:03:01.120 working i mean the absolute scandal that there's still communities without clean drinking water that's

00:03:05.520 definitely a problem but there's a lot of successes going on we got to talk about them

00:03:09.680 we got to acknowledge them we got to celebrate them happy canada day to everyone

Juno News - July 01, 2021