Native Currents: Episode 123

On this week's show, Glenn looks at the internal turmoil of the Indigenous Peoples Assembly of Canada (formerly the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples), which may lead to the ousting of National Chief Dwight Dorey. 

Native Currents: Episode 122

Jarret Leaman: Indigenous professionals balance success and authenticity

On this week's show, Steve and Glenn chat with Jarret Leaman, former executive director of the Aboriginal Professional Association of Canada, about the challenges of achieving professional success and maintaining authenticity as an Indigenous and Two-Spirited man.

Native Currents: Episode 121

Research ethics in the #Reconciliation era

This week, Steve and Glenn chat with Julie Bull, who is of Inuit descent (NunatuKavut) from Labrador and a scholar in the ethics and governance of research involving Indigenous peoples, which is exploding in the "Reconciliation" era.

Native Currents: Episode 120

Tattrie: "To know Cornwallis is to see no hero."

Edward Cornwallis is known by most people in Nova Scotia as the founder of Halifax. But for Mi'kmaq people, he is a figure of violence and genocide. Among other things, Cornwallis issued a scalping proclamation and offered a bounty for every Mi'kmaq scalp delivered. Glenn Wheeler talks to freelance journalist and historian Jon Tattrie about Cornwallis and the campaign to have his name removed from buildings and other public assets.

Native Currents Episode 119

On this week's episode we put our regular co-host, Steven Vanloffeld in the hot seat as he discusses why he is seeking to become Chief of his home community - Saugeen First Nation. We discuss the challenges and the opportunities from a local and national perspective.

Native Currents: Episode 118

On this week's show, Kinder Morgan pipeline play latest test of Trudeau's commitment to respect Indigenous rights, and Native Currents co-host runs for chief of Saugeen First Nation.

For Mi’kmaq people, Edward J. Cornwallis is like the Confederate flag

After a heated debate, Halifax city council has opted to maintain avowed racist Edward J. Cornwallis in various positions of glorified prominence. 

Anyone who has spent time in Halifax knows how much stuff there is in the Nova Scotia capital named after the governor and military officer who “founded” Halifax in 1749 – a street, an armed forces base, a school (until recently), and a park in which is located a majestic statute of himself.

But the man so honoured was no friend of the Mi’kmaq people. In fact, he was a proponent of the genocide of the original inhabitants, notably in the form of a bounty for the scalps of Mi’kmaq people.

Jon Tattrie, author of Cornwallis: The Violent Birth of Halifax, told CBC that the aim of Cornwallis was the genocide of the Mi’kmaq people, and that his letters speak of rape and murder as legitimate weapons of war.

For all that, Halifax city council voted 8-7 this month against appointing experts to evaluate the use of Cornwallis in public names.

Predictably, the opponents of such a move argued that it would be tantamount to rewriting history. If we started with him, where would it end? “He is the founder of this municipality, we can’t escape that,” one city councilor said.

This kind of argument is sadly familiar to other attempts to correct misinformation about the past – “you can’t rewrite history.”

That’s what African-Americans heard when they tried to have the Confederate flag removed from state legislatures in the U.S. South. It’s our history, whether you like it or not.

But who is it who is “rewriting” history? Those who argue for keeping Cornwallis on public buildings and streets are in effect maintaining a version of history in which the crimes of the past are obscured in the glorification of the present.

It is not the rewriting of history that we seek. It is the recovery of the truth of our past, and all of the crime, violence and brutality that went down.