Dear Reader, 

When we started this project, we thought we knew about Indigenous issues in Canada. But digging into these sources completely changed our perspective. Like, we knew residential schools were bad, but we didn't realize how many ways Canada has tried to erase Indigenous people - and how they're still fighting back. 

 

The fiction pieces hit us hardest. Under His Wing creeped us out but in a good way - it showed how governments hide their violence behind fake smiles. And Thomas King's The Inconvenient Indian? Mind-blowing. He makes you laugh while dropping truth bombs about how stealing land and banning cultures is absolutely genocide, even if Canada won't admit it. 

 

The non-fiction stuff was even wilder. Clearing the Plains exposed how Canada literally starved Indigenous people to get their land. And that CBC article proved the government's been lying and breaking promises for over 150 years. Like, how is this not common knowledge? 

But the art pieces - wow. The Bentwood Box isn't just some museum piece. It's alive with stories, holding all that pain and strength at the same time. And Jay Soule's Built on Genocide? That "Canada 150" logo made of skulls will haunt us forever. Art doesn't let you look away like textbooks sometimes do. 

 

For our project, the question was Why do Canadian governments/institutions resist the term "genocide" despite evidence? We wanted to show what we learned  that genocide isn't just about dead bodies, it's about killing cultures and connections. And it's not just history and it's still happening through foster care, dirty water, and stolen land. Canada won't call it genocide because that would mean actually changing things. But after all we've seen? We can't unsee the truth. 

sincerely, 
Keliand and Yana