Celebrating Indigenous Education Month
Sorry it's been a while since I've made an original post.
I just wanted to share some of the voices of the indigenous people of what is now called Canada. My parents immigrated to treaty 8, from China, so I am a settler of Canada, just as I am a member of the Chinese diaspora.
Historically tho, written records are a little mixed on the interactions between the first wave of Chinese immigrants.
Some records show that the first Chinese immigrants forged mutually beneficial relationships with the local indigenous people to make life easier.
Other records showed that Chinese immigrants 'were frequently grant land and water rights to Chinese individuals to the detriment of First Nations.'
There are physical evidence of cross-cultural exchanges seen through old Chinese-Canadian opera clothing having influence from local indigenous regalia.
Some records show that indigenous women married Chinese men, which meant they had to forfeit their 'Indian status' in exchange to marry the one they love. However, some Chinese men would leave their indigenous wife after their Chinese family came over to Canada.
Some Chinese immigrants would work for the colonial government and became Indian agents on the reservations. Which meant, they were complicit, if not reinforcing, horrific colonizer rules.
Other resources:
An academic presentation on historical Chinese-indigenous relations
Documentary on historical Chinese-indigenous Relations
Modern day:
Here are some FNMI-Chinese works.
Trevor Jang's (Chinese & Wet'suwet'en Nation) works can be read in the following:
Journalist articles
Frog Girl Short Story
Hang onto these words
Tsets Yu
Highway of Tears
Kaylan Wang (identifies as Chinese & Metis):
Borders within Borders (poetry)
There is definitely more to stories and perspectives to be heard tho.
If you have any more recommendations about FNMI Chinese voices, feel free to share below or tag me in a separate post, so I can reblog!!
IF YOU DON'T LlKE MIXED PEOPLE ID'ING AS CHINESE THEN DNI