#cod zombies oc

“…And today, when you celebrate… Oh Canada, I am sad for all the Indian people throughout the land.” -Chief Dan George (1967)

So Y’know I actually meant to draw something for a post like this a while ago but held it off until today so I could kill two birds with one stone.

Today is Canada Day. June has been Indigenous History Month.

As many of you Canadians know, the history of how European settlers have treated Canada’s or any country’s indigenous nations is not pretty.

But something one of my teachers has pointed out that happens all too often here is that during these types of history-focused events, we only see Canadas history with indigenous peoples (Ex. Residential schools, The Sixties Scoop, etc.)

Now these things are incredibly important to acknowledge, but technically, it is not Indigenous history.

It is not the accomplishments, perseverance and years of sacred teachings that were passed down from generation to generation. It is not the diversity in each indigenous nation, and how they were “civil” before civil even had the European definition.

So I’ve had a lot of reflecting done.

I hold Roma and Edwin very close to my heart because in their personalities, beliefs and their motifs lies my own to secure the sacred teachings and connection to my culture that has been attempted for so long to be erased. I want them to be a representation of my culture, of my nations ways of life in its most honourable and honest form.

As for Canada Day, I also believe it to feel more like a lamentation, than any celebration. I see people with the flag up and getting together to celebrate the colonization of many just nations’ lands. The hurt it has had on our people, the cultural and literal g3nocide of what was once beautifully civilized nations and cultures.

And so I’d like to mention a very honourable man, Chief Dan George of the Tsleil-Waututh (How it’s said, because this keyboard will not let me use the proper letters) Nation. He was an indigenous activist and actor, one of the first to be recognized in film as an actual human being, and a respectable one at that.

(Below is a vague sketch from my comic, of Edwin quoting George’s exact words of a character he played in the “Little Big Man” Film.)

“…Thank you for making me a human being! Thank you for helping me to become a warrior!” -Chief Dan George in “Little Big Man” (1970)

Dan George had also given a speech on this day in 1967 which would open Canadas eyes to the way many indigenous nations viewed what they believed was celebration.

It is called the “Lament For Confederation.”

“How long have I known you, Oh Canada? A hundred years? Yes, a hundred years. And many, many seelanum more. And today, when you celebrate your hundred years, Oh Canada, I am sad for all the Indian people throughout the land.

For I have known you when your forests were mine; when they gave me my meat and my clothing. I have known you in your streams and rivers where your fish flashed and danced in the sun, where the waters said ‘come, come and eat of my abundance.’ I have known you in the freedom of the winds. And my spirit, like the winds, once roamed your good lands.

But in the long hundred years since the white man came, I have seen my freedom disappear like the salmon going mysteriously out to sea. The white man’s strange customs, which I could not understand, pressed down upon me until I could no longer breathe.

…

Oh Canada, how can I celebrate this centenary, this hundred years? Shall I thank you for the reserves that are left to me of my beautiful forests? For the canned fish of my rivers? For the loss of my pride and authority, even among my own people? For the lack of my will to fight back? No! I must forget what’s past and gone.

…

Oh God! Like the thunderbird of old I shall rise again out to the sea; I shall grab the instruments of the white mans success- his education, his skills, and with these new tools I shall build my race into the proudest segment of your society. Before I follow the great chiefs who have gone before us, Oh Canada, I shall see these things come to pass…”

I will attach the link to the website where you can read the full speech, and a video with the audio. It moves me to tears almost all the time I hear it because his words are true. And the people who were listening at the time knew it as well.

They gave him a standing ovation for his speech.

Many of Edwin and Roma’s quotes are inspired by or taken directly from some incredible figures that have urged me to be proud of my people, my culture, and take back the knowledge that was once supposed to be mine.

I made this as a gift for my younger brother, who Edwin was majorly made for/by.

Roma is very amused and WILL tease bro about this