Head Tale

Three years ago, I was placing second in our campground’s annual “Canada Day Decorating” contest.

This year?

Don’t really feel like decorating too much (though I did have a few ideas to subvert the contest but couldn’t find 751 orange helium balloons in time!) 🙁

At the risk of sounding like somebody on /r/entlightenedcentrism, I’m not sure completely canceling Canada Day celebrations is the right answer, even given the recent horrible discoveries of hundreds of kids buried in unmarked graves near residential schools across Canada (with likely hundreds and thousands more to come).  Some places have tried to “thread that needle” – Melville’s statement about postponing their celebrations was good for instance and  Stoughton also decided to proceed but only after consulting with nearby First Nations and adding a moment of reflection to their existing program.

Part of the reason I think this is the way to go is there is already a lot of attention on so-called “cancel culture” so when the right brands anything as being “canceled”, you immediately have a big wall against reaching people who may otherwise be open to the idea that, you know, taking kids from their parents then burying them in unmarked graves is bad.

Not everybody is going to be wearing an orange t-shirt or dropping off backpacks at the Legislature today but trying to move those who aren’t doing that along the path to a greater understanding is important.

Another related thing that I think would be a great move for the future would be to make June 21, which is already National Indigenous Day, a national holiday so the entire focus on the day could be on both the historic and current mistreatment of Indigenous peoples in Canada but also the important and growing role that First Nations people are playing in Canada’s successes.

Anyhow, Shea and I *are* wearing orange t-shirts at our campground which is in the heart of one of Saskatchewan’s most conservative areas today.  We’ll see how it goes…