Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

"This year as you celebrate and gather with family and friends, it must also be a time to reflect that the nation of our shared pride is also one that was built on colonialism, genocide and the continued oppression of Indigenous peoples. As Métis, we embody the integration of European heritage and First Nations. We live with both histories." -- Audrey Poitras, president of the Métis Nation, quoted in "First Nations call for reflection on Canada Day" (Sydney Upright, CTV News, 2021-06-30)

"Do you believe that people really want to know the true history of this country?

"For a long time the average Canadian was satisfied to pretend to be asleep. And the one thing that we know is that you cannot wake anybody up who is pretending to be asleep. So in order to shake them up out of their pretense it took a 2x4... it breaks my heart that it had to be the graves of innocent children to finally penetrate the collective Canadian psyche to say 'this is wrong.'"

-- Duke Redbird, indigenous poet and artist, on Metro Morning with Ismaila Alfa, 2021-06-29

[Note that reckoning with genocide is not just a Candian problem. Similar techniques were used here in the US, including boarding schools. We're about to start our own search for mass graves of Native American children who were ripped away from their commmunities. We've kind of gotten used to hearing people open or close some events or broadcasts with an acknowledgemt of standing on "land that belonged to the _ people, but I don't think most of us (white people like me) are any good at thinking about what taking that land meant.]