The history of Canada's indigenous peoples has shaped an environmental perspective with an intense cultural love of nature. However, this perspective has begun to shift in recent years especially, because of quality of living and other economic issues.
As capitalism becomes a more dominating and familiar force in the Canadian economic system, a growing trend among First Nations groups has also emerged. Maclean's author Nancy Macdonald reported on a recent situation where a “Squamish Nation okayed a controversial plan to erect a series of billboards on scenic native land ... 300 sq.-foot blinking, digital billboards to advertise cell phones and cars" during the recent Olympic Winter games in British Columbia, Canada. This trend is anything but isolated. Macdonald continued, “B.C.’s isolated Gitxson tribe announced it will petition Ottawa to drop its Indian status, in return for ... a share of resources on ancestral land".
Since these groups have a constitutional right to dictate what happens with native land, they have begun to sacrifice the purity and asceticism of previous generations in favor of more financial interests. The global market is so dependent on the trade of natural resources; it makes perfect economic sense for a highly impoverished and downtrodden people to take advantage and better their economic standing.
The problem is that it only makes economic sense for the small group of people involved. In the bigger picture, it actually causes harm to the Canadian biosphere and poses environmental threats such as species extinction and pollution as formerly protected native lands are voluntarily opened up to industry. Native people have been forced to compromise because they were living in poverty, and the "oneness with nature" ideal has diminished in favor of a more utilitarian ethic in which economic needs outweigh environmental needs.
It is clear (however disheartening one may find it) that a more business-savvy culture is still only beginning to emerge amongst First Nations communities across Canada.
Sources
- Goldtooth, Tom B.K. "Indigenous perspective on Colonialism." Canadian Dimension, Nov.-Dec. 2009: 31+. General OneFile. Web. 9 Mar. 2010
- MacDonald, Nancy. "Gold in them hills: it's natives and suits versus greens in this new war in the woods" Maclean's. 7 Dec. 2009: 40+. General OneFile. Web. 9 Mar. 2010.
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