National Indigenous People's Day

Canada will celebrate this day tomorrow, but it will be two-pronged. I don’t know how Ojibwe, Lakota, Dene and all indigenous people feel about it, because I don’t understand their languages. Immigrants like myself use this day to go back to school, to find out who they are and not perpetuate stereotypes relayed from one immigrant group to the next.

I mention language because of King Charles 111. A few days ago we saw pomp and pageantry in the ceremony called trooping the colour. I don’t know what it entails but it is a tradition of the royal family and it is the pride and joy of British citizens both aristocrat and the Coronation Street class.

Poor people in Britain love the royal family and I don’t mean just poor. I mean families with generations of cleaners called ‘char women’ and street sweepers. It’s something I didn’t understand when I first got there as a student. As an outsider, I saw royal privilege and class which led to the colonization of half the world. Poor people in the east end of London will lay down their lives for the royal family.

The English language is the cementing force. Not in Canada. We are reluctant to learn indigenous languages because we want to pretend that ‘these people’ do not exist. It’s like one white man who said Africa is wonderful. The only problem is too many black people. I’m lucky because there is a similarity between African languages and Ojibwe.

We should think about indigenous languages 24/7. They will clear the fog and we would realize that their spiritual world is similar to ours. That is the best way to torch stereotypes.

By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.