Paying Our Dues: The Importance of Newcomer Solidarity with the Indigenous Movement for Self-Determination in Canada

1 was nine years old when my family left our homeland, Pakistan, for good. Upon landing in Canada, we were welcomed with the many tribulations of the immigration process. My parents soon busied themselves in finding housing, working multiple odd jobs, enrolling my brother and I in school and adjusting to an entirely foreign culture and land.Our first ten years in Canada felt considerably unstable because we were in constant flux - shifting apartments, schools, my parents shifting occupations, we would even shift to New York for six years because my father had difficulty finding work in Canada. Today, 17 years later, we have found a sense of stability. We have a home. My parents have steady jobs. My brother is completing his undergraduate studies and I will be completing my medical degree this year.Through the immigration process, we have learned to embrace both our Pakistani roots and new Canadian identities. Watching hockey, buying our annual pair of Hudson Bay Canada gloves, celebrating Canada Day, all manifest our Canadian pride. We boast regularly about the egalitarian ideals, the multicultural livelihood and kindness found within Canadian culture which has enabled us to thrive in this country.And to whom do we attribute all this generosity to? Most immigrants are assured the fair and peaceful Canadian conscience is derived from a European worldview. But this belief is an entirely false appropriation of Canadian generosity. According to Saul, the basis of Canadian citizenship diversity and immigration is a non-racial and non-linear idea of civilization - is based on the idea of an inclusive circle that expands and gradually adapts as new people join us. This is not a Western or European concept. It comes straight from Aboriginal culture (Saul 4). In spite of their many cultural differences, Aboriginal peoples welcomed and helped to integrate early European Newcomers. They taught them how to live in their new climate and landscapes, extended friendship and traded with the new settlers (Saul 8-16). Thus, the inherent values of multiculturalism in Canadian national identity are derived from Aboriginal traditions, concepts and practices. It is their generosity that has enabled us to prosper in these lands.However, this is not the manner Newcomers are introduced to Indigenous peoples. The lack of appropriate education on Indigenous histories leads newcomers to believe the negative and paternalistic portrayal of the Indigenous way of life in the media. They are viewed and misunderstood as irrational and backwards because of their choices for medical treatments. Their governing bodies and Chiefs are perceived to be innately corrupt. Their communities are mislabeled as abusive, lazy alcoholics whose lack of political, social and economic power is self-inflicted.There is little to no public narrative of the superior Aboriginal herbal medications which saved the lives of numerous European settlers from scurvy (First Nations and European Medicine). The stories of the incredible Indigenous Prairie leaders, Big Bear, Poundmaker and Sweetgrass don't ring any familiar bells in our historical knowledge. The notion that the first European settlers were vastly uneducated, poor, and that they improved their social, political and economic standing by marrying Indigenous women, would be a completely foreign idea for most newcomers (Saul 9-10). Our lack of insight and awareness into the ramifications of the Indian Act - which destroyed the familial, societal and cultural fabric of Indigenous communities - perpetuates the dismissal of the colonial roots which are the underlying cause of the current economic, social and political problems within Aboriginal communities.At a panel discussion on Aboriginal politics, Elder Lee Maracle asserted, You must begin citizenship with us. We are the reason you are here (Global Awakening). Unfortunately, newcomers fail to understand the experiences of the first people in Canada. …

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