Aboriginals in Canada and Mexico
For many years, Aboriginal people in Canada and Mexico have fought for political sovereignty and self-government. While Canada and Mexico are two different countries with two different cultures and histories, the Aboriginal people's fight in both countries is strikingly similar. Both groups of people have been fighting a war against assimilation and the utter destruction of their culture. While some groups have lost parts of their culture to absorption, these Aboriginals strive to preserve or regain any parts of their heritage that they can. They have been overwhelmed by European colonies and societies and have come under their rule. Aboriginal people in Canada and Mexico are expected to live under Canadian or Mexican government when they are a different people than those who attempt to preside over them. These Aboriginal people have to come to believe that the respective governments should grant autonomy and that they should be able to be their own separate entity within the already established borders of Canada and Mexico. Learning about Canada's history lends some background on how the native peoples there became repressed. Surprisingly enough, European settlers and explorers first treated
Unfortunately for the Aboriginals, they were made to suffer at the hands of economic exploitation and European diseases. When the war for independence from Spain was fought, Aboriginals fought on both sides, yet Native life remained unaffected by the outcome for years after the end of the war. For example, the Aboriginal people wanted the ability to decide membership of their cultures, whereas Canadian government currently held that ability through the Indian Act. Canada has traditionally been moralistic and legalistic, but conditions have improved (although far too slowly) over the years. In the eyes of the Aboriginal Canadians, self-government was the logically the best way for them to determine their own course in life. Once the Natives came under settler rule, the Europeans planned that "eventually find a place for Aboriginals in the social contract" (8). Not until 1969 was the Indian Act repealed, supposedly giving Indians the same rights as all Canadians had. The Aboriginal fight for rights in Canada would continue and still continues to this day. This created a divide in the country into two separate bodies, the Republic of the Europeans and the Republic of the Indians. With the collapse of Marxism and the movement away from class-consciousness, there was a general sense of a push towards cultural and ethnic identification. The Aboriginal peoples of Canada and Mexico have struggled for decades over the very things that they had no reason to fear losing before the Europeans began to settle in North America. In 1982 Canada issued the Constitution Act, which catered to Indian rights: "Nonderogation of Aboriginal rights and treaty rights according to Charter; Gender Equality; Entrenchment of Aboriginal and treaty rights; The promise of a constitutional conference after patriation to formulate provisions for Aboriginal rights and self-government that would be added to the constitution as amendments" (14). Control over the Aboriginal peoples of Mexico had well been established by the end of the Sixteenth century. In 1994, the Zapatista movement emerged, consisting of mainly indigenous peoples, taking over a number of Mexican cities. Natives had to go through the Canadian government to achieve this and begin to deal with their problems of "people, place, resources and authority" (25).
Common topics in this essay:
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Canada's Indian,
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Unfortunately Aboriginals,
Entrenchment Aboriginal,
Conversely Indian,
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aboriginal peoples,
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self-government autonomy,
rights self-government,
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european settlers,
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Acceptance Essays
