Critical Thinking

1.Historic contexts are patterns or trends in history by which a

specific occurrence or site is understood and its meaning within
history is made clear.why is it important?
It allows readers to educate and understand history more in dept
when reading a book or looking at a picture about events that
happened in the past hence, helps modern people to understand way
of life and how people behaved.

2.Colonization is the term used to explain the process of settling

among and establishing control over indigenous people of an area.
Colonization in canada has lead to many natives to go into reserves
and were suppressed plus having no rights what so ever.Resulting in
cultural alienation,territorial dispossession and system
discrimination.

Viewing questions

1. Howie Miller was born on a reserve but was adopted by a

Caucasian family. He grew up not knowing a lot about his own
culture(first nations). This resulted in him feeling isolated and
not fitting in with the society. He is trying to regain his identity
as an Aboriginal man by talking about it in his comedy show. He
wants to bring an awareness of the Native people's issues and
bridge the gap between the Native and non-Native parts of the
society.

2. Tyson Houseman is an actor. His first ever major role was playing
a werewolf in the Twilight series, that is till now a very famous
series amongst youngsters. The point of his role is that all
actors playing werewolves in the series were Aboriginal people.
Tyson hopes that spreading awareness about his people’s issues
and struggles will help motivate younger aboriginal kids to work
 to achieve their dreams and goals.Plus he also is researching
about First nations in canada to provide us with more knowlegde
and wants to join the youth.

3. As Wab Kinew says , the native canadians gladly invited the

settlers once they arrived.The natives welcomed them and
helped them out.The connection between the
natives(aboriginals) and the non aboriginals grew stronger and
even fashionable.Native people documented their warm
understanding and compatibilism using “wampum” belts.These
depict two canoes travelling down in parallel lanes without
interfering in each others paths, this can be understood as their
way of mentioning “peace”.However the English and French
signed agreements such as “natives won’t be molested” and the
“Queens promise to the Cree of bounty and
benevolence”.Although the natives believed it was a fair trade it
resulted in them being disregarded from their own country.

4.The Indian Act of 1876 was created by the government of Canada to

prevent conflict between the settlers and the aboriginal people. The
Aboriginal people were hoping that the act would allow them access to
education, healthcare, land and other rights that settlers had in Canada,

However, to their unfortunateness they found that there were many

restrictions. Some of them were the “ institution of reservations” and “the
Indian Agent” that controlled life on the reserve, their rights, residential
schools and total government basically everything. The Constitution Act of
1982 recognized the existing rights of the Native people in Canada. It
changed the rights of the Native people allowing them to practice their
traditions and spread these rights to Indian people.

5.
The Vancouver 2010 Olympics opened the entrance for the natives in the
area and in the Lil’wat Nation to discuss their rights and receive
recognition of their right and ownership of the land. Some positive impacts
of this consensus were recognition of the their cultural achievements plus
economic gains for the natives. This set an example for the rest of the First
Nations groups in Canada.

6.

7.
Vanessa, an aboriginal woman, dropped out of high school at 16, had
multiple children, and stayed in an abusive relationship. She completed
university and ended the relationship. To demonstrate the positive impact
of education and achieve personal goals, she participated in Nadya
Kwandibens's Concrete Indian photo series.

9.
Aboriginal Consulting Services' John Lagimodiere offers educational
workshops to non-native Canadians to break stereotypes about Native
peoples. Through a "no-nonsense" approach, participants learn about their
history and realize they were denied basic human rights and marginalized
in Canadian society. The workshop helps participants understand and
move on from their past.
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