Learning from Indigenous Peoples’ Experiences and Perspectives

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Final Paper
Reaction Paper - Learning from Indigenous Peoples’ Experiences and Perspectives
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The film Martha of the North focuses on the story of a 5-year-old Martha Flaherty, her family, and other Inuit people who were lured, displaced, and moved to the far northern islands. The Canadian government promised that relocation to the High Arctic would allow the people to continue their culture. However, the Inuit lived a life of hardship but are still resilient even when they did not get game as expected and lived in extreme cold. There is a cycle of pain and trauma among the disfranchised communities ignored by the government and displaced. The Indigenous people’s way of life has been disrupted over time, with the Canadian government has pushed them further away from their lands and culture. Like in other cases involving the Indigenous peoples of Canada, policies, and laws have excluded the people. 
The story of the Inuit moving into an unwelcoming land, based on false promises is common to other cases where the Indigenous people have been promised equal treatment and benefits without this happening. The Indigenous people are at times separated from their community and family based on deliberate government actions that have disenfranchised and ignored their uniqueness. Vowel (2017) highlights that Indigenous peoples are diverse and known by diverse names, but regardless of their origin, they have been called offensive names over time, such as “savage, “red skin,” “primitive,” and “savage.” The dominant narratives on the Indigenous people are told by non- Indigenous people, who often downplay and ignore the experiences of the First Nation, Métis, and Inuit Indigenous people. To improve education that addresses the needs of the indigenous community where teaching practices promote diversity and engagement, but this is often absent when teaching the Indigenous people (Toulouse, 2016).
In the film Experimenting Eskimos, there is an emphasis that western education targeted the Inuit/ Eskimos was shown to be a positive thing among white Canadians. Still, children were discouraged from associating with their culture and people (2013). I appreciate the need to improve Indigenous knowledge and the communities have supported engagement with Indigenous education. In any case, the course highlights that the Indigenous people’s voice is excluded in education, and more people need to be more involved in the learning process and just relying on state-run education schools. Anything the indigenous people do is not seen as extraordinary as it is assumed that it is backward and reflects “savage” culture. There have been deliberate attempts at forced assimilation of the Aboriginal people, which is more like forced genocide as policies and policies disregarded the right of self-determination. Even when the people asserted themselves and sought to reclaim land rights, the governments failed to treat the indigenous people with dignity. Without institutions serving the indigenous people and losing their native languages, it became more challenging for them to uphold their culture. 
Indigenous p...