The Article “Abolishing The Indian Act Means Eliminating First Nations’ Rights”

The graphic novel is about the practices adopted to enforce law in the indigenous law which is also known as the creed law. In creed law, there is a group of people who have one leader for them. The leader is trusted with decisions for the good of the group. He finds justice and is accountable to decide punishments when there is a wrong deed done. These punishments are given with the agreement of other people in the group, but the penalties are harsh in nature such as death and being tied up. Whereas Canadian law adopted indirect ways to get rid of indigenous people. Canadian law attempted to eradicate indigenous people by profiling them based on their ethnic and racial backgrounds. For example, residential schools were set up by the government and people from these backgrounds were physically and mentally harmed. Canadian government was very keen on to sterilize and transfer first nations to Canadian culture.

Palmater’s article teachs us about the wrong deeds done by the Canadian government towards First nations. Children were forcefully taken away from their families and sent to residential schools for them to learn about Canadian culture. In reality, it was a form of punishment and a way to get rid of Indian culture by endangering them. There were very poorly treated in schools. As Palmater said, kids were intentionally exposed to diseases like tuberculosis and very high number of children died in residential schools. Financial rewards were announced for murdering indigenous people in Nova Scotia. In the graphic novel, Indigenous law or the Creed law was used to enforce law within a community of people living in an area. The wrongdoer gets punished for trying to kill her own daughter. The leader decided to kill the female offender who was mentally upset with the agreement of other people in the community. It is functional for any group to adopt various principle responses by considering each person’s ethnic background. Considering what their belief and culture is, they should all have certain exceptions. Exceptions such as allowing people to wear their cultural or religious should be given. Anyone can practice their religion as long as they are not violating any laws.

The most significant giveaway from the article and the graphic novel is that Indian people were brutally treated by the Canadian law in order to get rid of Indian and extinct them. Most of the Indian population died because of the extreme harsh treatment done towards Indians. Many children lost their families after been taken away from their homes. Mental and physical torture remains a big problem until today. Many children feel orphaned as they do not have acquaintance of their families. Countless families do not know if their child is alive or not. As Palmater said, churches should show their records about children who were taken away from their families to residential schools. We should all as citizens of this country should help survivors get justice in any way. Weather it is them reconnecting to their families, their voice being heard or them receiving health treatment for the tortures they survived. If we can stand up and raise awareness, hopefully we can all bring a change for the better of First Nations people.