- Aug 24, 2020
- 7,091
Yes, I do mean the whites. I remember you lived in Vancouver for a while. It was a beautiful, enriching place when I was there at age 19; I hear it is less so now, with meth on every corner. On the same trip, we flew down to Seattle, and drove out to the Pacific coast to a coastal village called La Push in the rain forest in front of the Olympic mountains. Wide sandy beaches, strewn with logs, islets covered with pines before the setting sun. The most stunning place I had ever seen, it moved me. Then as we returned to the car, I noticed all these First Nation people, unconscious on their porches, with knackered cars and other rubbish dumped in their yards. It kind of took the gloss off it a bit. Such is the benefit of travel outside an organised tour. It's warts n' all.It is exactly the same in parts of Canada with their aboriginals. Could the two situations be somehow related?
In Canada it is 100% the fault of the incomers. The forcible removal of native kids so they could be 'educated' into Western Ways was an absolute mess, depriving the kids of their cultural connection, and leaving them indoctrinated into a culture that rejected and discriminated against them. Result: alcoholism, hopelessness, mental illness and criminality.
But let's not smear whole peoples a human failures and wash our hands of them. In Canada at least there has been a huge amount of effort that does seems to have some traction. I have native peoples in my extended family, and have spent time on their land.
Where things are not working out, yes, you are correct. It is the incomers fault (in your example, 'Australians' - by which I presume you mean the whites).
But you have reminded me that things can work out if the commitment is there. I was beginning to be drawn into Sydney's view of the world for a minute there.