In the early 20th century Canadians became interested in the social constructs of their cities and a desire of self analysis developed. A social survey movement was set out on major Canadian cities to learn about a few main topics such as history, population, crime, housing, health, prostitution, recreation [1]. “Some surveys start with a brief history of the city in question…Others provided details on the economic history of the city” [2], Hunts article explains that there was an interest in the demographics of these cities, however there no mention of the First Nations demographic. At this time, when Canadians started identifying with what it meant to be Canadian, it seems that First Nations people were left out of the picture. This emerging discourse allowed for a First Nations issues unchallenged by the general public. At this time it was important to some Canadians that the poor, immigrants were “Canadianized” [3], meaning that affluent Canadians wanted everyone to fit into the Canadian Narrative. It seems likely that because First Nations had their own clear culture, it was easier to ignore them, than to “Canadianize” them.
This theme of the excluding First Nations from the Canadian narrative carried on through the tuberculosis epidemic and had a very negative effect on the health of many First Nations people. First Nations were subjected to extreme prejudice when seeking treatment for tuberculosis. The public opinion of First Nations people among white Canadians was so negative that city hospitals either refused to treat First Nations people or created separate wings and buildings for them so the two groups did not interact with each other[4]. The prejudice First Nations faced resulted in many sick people staying in the reserves and opting for traditional forms of treatment, which was often not effective at treating tuberculosis[5]. First Nations were a threat to the growing “Canadianization”[6] of the country because they disturbed the narrative Canadians wanted to create about themselves and Canada. When First Nations are acknowledged, then a history of stolen land and racism must be considered, and that was not very Canadian.
A book written by Kolchinsky called Like the Sound of a Drum provides insight to how the postcolonial narrative about indigenous peoples allows post colonialists to ignore the issues they created for indigenous communities. The emerging discourse that affected First Nations people because they were seen as “unrepentantly backwards”[6] during the tuberculosis epidemic in the west, is very similar to the knowledge most Canadians share about Inuit communities. Kolchinsky notes a story about an Inuit community where an optometrist came to the community once a year and only gave reading glasses to those that were literate. Reading glasses would have been useful for women that sewed however the optometrist never listened to the women that asked for them.
First Nations people face many of the same issues that Canadians face, however as we can see treatment for these issues is often based on prejudice. What allows this mistreatment is a common Canadian discourse about First Nations people that suggests Aboriginal people are not part of the Canadian narrative and therefore do not deserve the same treatment.
