JACOBSON NATIVE ART GALLERY

JACOBSON NATIVE ART GALLERY
The home and creator of “Woodland A.I.” A new form of indigenous art. 4 Chiefs of the future by Mark Anthony Jacobson 2024

Thursday, September 30, 2021

The reality of truth and reconciliation @ Jacobson native art

 

Good afternoon to each and everyone who continues to find me here @ Jacobson native art. Well as many of us know today is the first annual national truth and reconciliation day. Definitely another move in the right direction but a very small move it is. There is such a list of grievances against this nation called Canada. 

There are many agents who are guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity including the Catholic Church, many other Christian churches as well including many of the police forces as well as the RCMP. It’s absolutely disgusting on so many levels. How, (their rule of law was invented on stolen Indian land) when the white man says to follow the rule of law but they cannot follow it themselves. They choose to find ways to hide from their crimes, to bend the law, the rules and everything else they get their fuckin hands on, to their own advantage. It’s a real dr. Jeckel and mr. Hyde scenario. 

Canada and most Canadians simply cannot be fully trusted. Most Canadians are complete airheads when it comes to the history of how Canada came to be. (Even the white man in me knows this) How they got what they got....(stolen goods from stolen lands resources etc). Most Canadians dont even know how bad they got it. They are so colonized and assimilated that they literally can’t even think for themselves so they vote for white colonial so-called leaders to do the thinking for them.

And that is exactly the reason why Canada continues to fail miserably with us First Nations. Obviously there are tens of thousands of more reasons on top of that but the reality is Canada is a genocidal program built on the murder of us First Nations and the continual raping and exploitation of our resources. Our wealth. The colonial doctrine of discovery is a racist and discriminatory action against First Nations and other indigenous tribes throughout the world. 

Canadians whether they know it or not, their so called country is built on this foundation. Land theft, resource theft, murder, rape, stealing our children, racism, discrimination, hate, violence, force and control. Building your dreams as Canadians on the backs of oppression, on the very backs of us First Nations. That is what Canada is. That is what it means to identify as a Canadian. It’s gross I know. But this is the truth. And we cannot have true reconciliation until we deal with these matters of truth. 

I’ve always said since my awakening into my own process of decolonization and for the last few years now being in the pursuit of my sovereignty as Anishanabe that reconciliation will take time. In fact, the way I see it is that the cultural fabric of this country is still in the discovery of the truth phase. We have not even truly begun to deal with what real reconciliation will look like. 

Still even in the thickness of all of this, I must continue to remain hopeful. The fog of assimilation is beginning to lift albeit very slowly across our lands. I have friends who wouldn't be able to grasp any of this 5 years ago. They now can talk more openly with me about it. I see organizations and people beginning to stand up more and more with regard to how this must shift and change for all First Nations and Canadians alike. 

For now we will continue to move forward each and every day. I’m willing to seek this change and I’m willing to open up my heart to others who want to walk this path with us. I truly believe that it will remain a difficult challenge for Canada to learn how to shift and change with us. The government knows that they are in the wrong. Most of them know it. But greed, selfishness and exploitation still lead the way in the Canadian mind set. And let’s be honest, until our white settler brothers and sisters learn how to decolonize themselves, we are still a long long way from real and meaningful change. These types of Canadian settler sickness must be dealt with. It is the very poison that keeps the genocidal colonial machine still alive in this, the 21st century. 

Check out this 6 minute Video by one of the great First Nations teachers of our time: Arthur Manuel on aboriginal title:

All my relations, MAJ