History: Are We Destined to Repeat It?

Beverly Sabourin and Peter Globensky.
Beverly Sabourin and Peter Globensky.

By Beverly Sabourin & Peter Globensky

“Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it.” Although originally attributed to the Irish philosopher and politician Edmund Burke over 250 years ago, the ongoing relevance of this statement is confirmed by the number of prominent thinkers who have used variations of it throughout history–from George Santayana to Winston Churchill, among others.

In other words, to ensure we are not making the same mistakes that our ancestors made—from starting deadly world wars to forcing innocent kids into spirit-killing residential schools, it helps to understand what they did or did not do so that we may learn from those mistakes. And that is where understanding history comes in comes into effect. But years ago, at least in the Ontario education system, that was made very difficult by the decision of curriculum bureaucrats to remove History as a required course in high-school. “After all,” the educrats argued, “what can be learned from History? Students need Math and English, but History?”

Each June, the time when students graduate, we now celebrate Indigenous History Month. Understanding Indigenous peoples and their roles and treatment in Canadian history would be a welcome graduation present!

Even so; however, when History is grossly distorted or exclusionary such as the woefully inadequate and exceedingly racist descriptions given to Canada’s Indigenous peoples in many of the high-school History texts of earlier vintage (‘savages’ was the Canadian word for ‘nigger’), then removing History from the curriculum, even as an elective was probably a good idea. For as D.J. Trump has proven time and again, there is nothing worse than lies and fabrications masquerading under the banner of truth!

Equally regrettable has been the abject omission in history texts of the nation-building contribution of Indigenous peoples to the Canada of today. Not only was this done at the cost of their own lands, but it is highly improbable that Champlain and his fellow travellers arriving in Tadoussac and Hochelaga would have survived the rigours of a Canadian winter without the many forms of sustenance provided by Canada’s First Peoples. The highly successful commerce of the fur trade which followed would have been a pipe-dream had the voyageurs and their financial backers not relied almost exclusively on Indigenous traditional knowledge. Had the Mohawk Warriors who fought alongside Peter’s original Canadians ancestors in the Battle of Chateauguay not repelled the Americans in the War of 1812 and had Tecumseh, who gave his life protecting his lands and our emerging country, not chosen a similar path, it is highly likely that America’s notoriously territorial ambitions would have us all singing the Star Spangled Banner!

Indigenous peoples were the founding nations in Canada, the French, and the English were foundlings! But our Grade 10 history books barely mentioned their existence and were reduced to nothing more than stage hands in the French and English drama play of the times.

One of the many positive outcomes of the report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) is the focus on reminding and informing Canadians of the real history of Indigenous peoples in Canada and the many contributions they have made to the development of our country and national identity. Critical to this new narrative, to this broadening of the history of our national character must be an honest, humble, and reflective description of our abysmal treatment of our Indigenous fellow Canadians–from the confiscation of Indigenous lands, broken promises and treaties, to the racial segregation of hospitals and health care, and the terribly misguided policy of residential schools and the spirit-killing practises which ensued. This must include an account of the suffocating, colonizing, and shameful influence of religious ideology and institutions in demeaning Indigenous peoples. If the TRC does not keep these issues on the forefront, vicariously the Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (IMMIW) likely will.

This is not a time for sack cloth and ashes, for continuous mea-culpas, and the defensive postures brought about by shame and guilt. What the TRC and the IMMIW provide to all Canadians who should give a damn is an opportunity to become familiar with the history of the Indigenous chronicles in Canada and to move forward vowing to never repeat the blunt force trauma inflicted on First Canadians. If we do not seize that opportunity, then all the courts in the land will not prevent history from repeating itself.

Beverly Sabourin, retired as the Vice-Provost of Aboriginal Initiatives at Lakehead University, is a member of the Pic Mobert Ojibwe. Peter Globensky is a former senior policy advisor on Aboriginal Affairs in the Office of the Prime Minister and retired as CEO of the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment. They invite your comments at basa1@shaw.ca