Intermediate FNMI ABQ: Introduction Module 1- Task 6 "Learning Portfolio"

 Carmelo Bono

EDAQ-SA829E

March 02, 2022

Professor Bell

I Know What I Didn't Know and Why I Didn't Know it.

    First Nations Metis and Inuit studies is something I had actually (shamefully) held a bit of negligence about. It so happens it was ignorance. I spent time in Northern Ontario learning about the Anishinaabe and Oji-Cree peoples, just not as much as I should have been and not necessarily in the areas that I should have been. I felt it was important to become familiar with the culture, I learned stories, some ideals but spent time trying to get to know the people-thinking that there were things about them I needed to know about them and not necessarily so much about the culture in particular. I guess I would like to believe that maybe it was a two way street I didn't ask therefore another won't tell, but in reality, I just didn't ask-it was ignorance. After beginning this course I have been facing a lot of past experiences that make me feel regretful that I didn't spend more time asking questions or learning the particulars of language while in those first nations communities (socially and geopolitical borders). 

    In this course I have spent time paying more attention on the beliefs and systems that not separate the first nations from other cultures or even each of their own tribes but what brings them together. The strife they experienced as historical timelines on countless sites or within numerous resources dictate, but what brings them-us all together. The stories of survivors, the stories of lost generations as well as the stories that I went back to recall the initial romanticism of my experience with the culture and its innate connection to the ideas of the spirit (also known as soul) and the universe.

    Through government resources there is an effort to make right what was done wrong and there is an impact that these changes make, the question of satisfactory efforts is still heard. This is because the 21st century long now arrived and yet still many questions/mysteries surround the first nations peoples' beginnings, histories and languages. It is troublesome to believe that such a historically intertwined culture is simply "glanced" over in a history class. 

    I know its not yet been discussed on the global level because a lot of the issues that the first nations peoples are dealing with is still very much community based. First fix the issues at home, then try to save the world. It should be noted that living in a place with such global reputation as Canada has among global citizens, it would be one of the last places to imagine having such a dark and neglected past. Many countries around the world have groups of peoples who were displaced, minorities native to land but told they are trivial, but to believe one of them is Canada is sometimes a truth not many are happy to accept.

    The Reconciliation Act is not an acceptance of fact but an acknowledgement of the past that still haunts the people of Canada in many ways. It is not something that will simply be "okay" one day. It is something that will be remembered and taught, that is why this course exists, because First Nations are Canadians and Canada recognizes its peoples in the grand scheme of things. Its peoples however do need to keep it in check which is what is so inspiring about First Nations Peoples, a proud and strong peoples.

    Reflection on past experiences in regards to Western Worldviews and those of Indigenous Peoples of Canada, it is clear that there is a need to recognize how the worldview creates tensions that are not spoken aloud or trialled in resolutions. It is important to note that there is science to something of the spiritual belief that we are all from "the same". In the film Watermark (as discussed in Task 5), Oscar Dennis describes the idea that if water makes up the better part of the human body and regulates such functions. The contents of that water are specific to that body of water. If from that water a community of birds, trees, animals and people are made up-that would imply that there is some sort of "sameness" to the development of these things. As a Catholic, I must say that is more logical evidence to the argument for existence of a higher power than what western religions have collected (light humour).