Oka Crisis

The Oka crisis was a very memorably hard time for the members of the first nations people of the Mohawk tribe. They were marginalized, ignored, killed, and many other things. However, it's not as if they acted in the most... desirable way. They made irresponsible decisions and I think they overreacted to most everything the government did. I think that, as always, everyone took everything too far and that's what ruined everything.

To start, in March 1990, a pretty big group of people from the Mohawk tribe came and barricaded a road near the town of Oka, Quebec. This was the first mistake. No, not the protest or the barricade, the weapons. That immediately poses a threat to everyone else. They were protesting them building a golf course there, on what they considered to be "sacred land". I can understand wanting to protect trees planted by your distant ancestors, but seriously, using guns?

Way, way earlier, in 1717, the Mohawk had claimed that land. They lived peacefully there for over two hundred years before the federal office of Native Claims turned down their land claim. Yeah, somehow, they managed to do that. Legally. I mean, sure, they waited two hundred years, but they still managed to deny a peaceful people's land claim. Seriously, people. Who does that, thinking that their doing the right thing?

Finally, July 11th, 1990, the mayor of Oka called in the cops and ended up with the freaking SWAT team getting involved. They launched tear gas, fired concussion grenades and shot their bullets of rage to break up the barricades. In the commotion (which, by the way, I believe was caused by the gov't), a corporal of the Surete du Quebec police was killed by stray bullets. Yet, of course, everyone blamed the Mohawk people. They were just (forcibly) protecting what was theirs.

You know, I look back, and all I can think is "seriously?"

The question I will be answering today is this: To what extent did imperialist policies and practices in Canada and Australia have similar effects on the Aboriginal peoples of each country? To start, I say that in both Australia and Canada, the aboriginal people were ostracized and were treated as bad, savage, uncivilized people. Imperialism took over, and the native people were left in the dust, as the imperialistic people thrived in land that wasn't their own.

If that's all that was asked, then the question has been answered. Both country's aboriginal people were treated in relatively the same manner. They were undermined, degraded, frowned upon, ostracized, and even killed by imperialists. Their culture was lost, their way of life literally destroyed. The only good thing the imperialists did was bring technology to these normally uncivilized places. I mean, some kindness could have been used on these people...

But, all in all, I'd probably say that both these peoples were treated fairly similarly. Neither were managed the way they should have been, and they both seemed fairly helpless in the ways of the world. Eh, everything could have gone better, but there's no use crying over spilled milk.

Canada and India

Whether you see it as a good thing or a bad thing, the British had a large influence on both Canada and India. They brought technology and culture to these places, but they also practically destroyed other people's ways of life, and they tore apart multiple cultures.

In India, the British pretty much invaded and started the "British East India Company" in the 1600s. This began in the same sort of way that the Hudson's Bay company started: A collection of traders. The company continued to grow, and became more and more powerful over time, and were eventually, became a political powerhouse. They began to take control over India; people who they knew nearly nothing about. Many, many years later, Mahatma Gandhi stepped in and said that the British imposing on their culture was unfair.

However, aside from all that, the British DID bring about new things to India. They had an extremely low quality of life, and, although the British imposed on their way of life, I believe it improved it overall. They also brought new technology about, and new ideas, and it's not as if they were killing off they aboriginal people or anything. Yes, the British were out of line in bringing their culture to the unwilling Indians, but was it really that bad?

The British... it really is quite difficult to choose sides. You could be on the side that says that the British did good in bringing sophistication and technology to otherwise under-developed places. On the other hand, they also took away culture and made unfair deals, and, as one can plainly see, Canada's original culture is practically gone at this point. It's really up to us to decide if what the British did was bad or not.