The Only Good Indian . . .

The (non-binding, of course) United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was passed today with just four states voting against it (remember it's non-binding). Who were these states: Canada, the United States, Australia and New Zealand.

Amazingly these are the four states that have benefited handily from the displacement and genocide of indigenous people over the past say four hundred years. When your whole existence is based on violence it's kind of hard to face that violence. So you act in denial of the facts. Hence the vote today.

As Ward Churchill reminded me the other day, 1/3 of the continental United States is a giant land claim or in more plain language, stolen land. Similarly during university, I learned that most of British Columbia was snatched without the appropriate "legal" documents showing a transfer of ownership. Again more stolen land.

I want to believe that despite today's embarrassing vote, Canada will acknowledge in a real way the violence perpetrated on this continent's first nations peoples. But the state that we have constructed today is a result of that violence. This current construction, Canada, will never be in a position to admit it has been guilty. Just ask anyone what they think of first nations peoples; they'll curse them for not "paying taxes", or for being drunks or some similar shit.

The only hope for this state is its eradication.