What the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Day of Awareness Meant to Natives

In my opinion, and I believe my opinion has largely been informed by relevant experiences (I grew up in a very racist, anti-indigenous community so I feel as though I had to overcome that before I could see this more clearly), the first nations of Canada and native indians of the United States (like other minorities in the same places) have historically been victims of others rather than of themselves.

I watched awful things growing up. The extent of bullying, the disillusion of first nations kids from _very_ young ages, the poverty - very little of it was perpetrated by first nations. If it was, I strongly believe you can trace things back to deep wounds put in their culture by non-indigenous folks.

As a child I didn't understand much of this, but as I get older it brings me an incredible amount of sadness and disappointment in how insensitive my family and even my peers and colleagues have been towards this situation.

A few years ago I learned from a friend surveying in northern Alberta that several bands up there were living without clean water, with overtly depressed children, terrifyingly high suicide rates, traditional territories ruined by development... And that this isn't uncommon across Canada. This is heart breaking.

All of this is to say, I think it's important to recognize that many of these people are suffering not because of the internals of their culture and communities, but because of the negative and destructive external inputs from those around them. It is crucial to understand the extent of this in order to move towards eradicating the racism which feeds our countries' complacency with this situation.

I hate being political or pushing my opinions on the internet, but this one is too important to me. It really deserves a thoughtful, constructive conversation, at the very least to open others' minds to the realities of what's going on.