Edward Redhead, from Shamattawa in northern Manitoba was killed in a fire this week. The Winnipeg Free Press described Edward as as "a bright kid, very intellectual, upbeat and happy." I cannot even begin to try to grasp the sorrow that this family is going through right now. Thinking of Edward makes me think of my own children so I won't go there. It is best left to his family to tell his story.
Since his death there has been a steady stream of media coverage, commentary, finger pointing, blame, scapegoating, and politics discussing such things as funding, accountability, devolution, dependency, you name it. Our response to this tragedy is telling.
The worst part about this whole tragedy is that it gives everyone with a soapbox a chance to climb on and shout away. When it stops being about Edward Redhead, and people start pointing fingers, then we are part of the problem. The media blames the reserve system, the chiefs blame Ottawa, opposition blames Awasis, the provincial government blames past government policies, Native people blame assimilation, Awasis blames the parents, etc. etc. etc., meanwhile as we are so busy blaming each other the number of kids dieing in the north continues to rise ... and nothing changes.
Let's give our heads a shake.
Thankfully MKIO Grand Chief David Harper said this is something we all need to take responsibility for. Kudos to him for showing leadership on this.
If you cannot find a way to figure out how you are partly responsible for this, then you'd better think harder. We are in this together.
Rest in Peace Edward. You will not be forgotten.
7 comments:
Sorry, I don't feel at all responsible. I am all for giving a one-time payout to all aboriginals and after that they are on their own. This reserve system is a way of sweeping them under the rug.
Dear North,
Yes, I agree with you. There is no point blaming others. We as a community just can't let this kind of thing keep happening.
We need to look after our kids, not just the ones in our own family. How can we as a community do this?
The first thing we need to do is hold our leadership accountable and have high expectations of them. If this happened in a mainstream community the leadership would be tarred, feathered and railroaded out of town. In a form of internalized racism, we've come to expect less of our First Nations leaders.
The media, and mainstream Canada, also needs to stopp being shackled by concern for being labelled if they demand more from us as Native people. Soft ball questions from the media do nothing to move us forward.
I will take responsibility by challening myself and our leadership to a higher standard. I will expect openess, transparency, accountability and substantial repurcussions if someone doesn't do their job.
If we continue to lessen our expectations we are the problem.
I hate when things like this come up...for one, it's terrible and it happened to a child. Two, because all aboriginal's get labeled with the same paint stroke, and three, media gets blamed. It's media in the first place that brings the issues to the surface. Without the media telling the story, no one would've known what happened. You talk about the blame system and how it should be stopped but don't think twice about pointing the finger in the media direction. It's a reporter's job to tell the story, the way it was told to them. It's pretty hard to tell all the issues from this one story in two minutes on a tight deadline. The media can only do so much, and then it's up to the leaders and the community to do the rest.
I agree with you Jamie, but as you know discussion of these issues are difficult. How can we do this respectfully without cries of racism.
I am not sure how to avoid that, as it is the instinctual reaction by some folks.
Irshad Manji takes a critical approach to some Islamic practices and she has been forced to hire full time security. Sadly some people cannot take criticism.
tnw, the media is an easy target. Without the media however we cannot have a free democracy.
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