Mother and child (circa 1934)
I am a Métis, female, university student. I have gone through hardships and faced adversity to get to where I am today. I have felt out of place my entire life, never fitting in with native culture and never fitting in with white culture. I figured once I got older and went to a place where people are “more intellectual” I wouldn’t be faced with being outcasted because of my gender and ethnicity. Today in class I talked about the importance of understanding Canada’s history as it shows through with the treatment of aboriginal peoples today. We still have a long way to go, racism is still a huge problem in our society and to ignore that and ignore our past is wrong. That was met with groans and disagreements and a statement of Canada “not being as bad as it used to be.” However it still being an issue native peoples face is relevant and important to understand. My class of white peers discussed thighs that got my blood boiling. The boiling came to a peak when a white, male fellow classmate restated what I had said. Almost word for word, but he replaced my talking of coming from a native background with his being a white person. He talked about his understanding of our history, again almost repeating exactly what I said. And when he was done he was praised. Praised for repeating what I had previously said. I am upset, and feel very let down. The fact that my classmates couldn’t understand where I was coming from until a white person had reiterated it and claimed it as his own thinking is super upsetting. I am a Métis, female, university student.
