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		<title>Why ending Canadian control over First Nations education starts with you and me</title>
		<link>http://www.mediaindigena.com/sarah-hunt/issues-and-politics/why-ending-canadian-control-over-first-nations-education-starts-with-you-and-me</link>
		<comments>http://www.mediaindigena.com/sarah-hunt/issues-and-politics/why-ending-canadian-control-over-first-nations-education-starts-with-you-and-me#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 03 Sep 2012 22:54:43 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Sarah Hunt</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[ISSUES+POLITICS]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.mediaindigena.com/?p=8511</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[As kids prepare to head back to school this week, I’m gathering up my PDFs and stocking up on coffee as I enter into the final year of my PhD. And yet, firmly entrenched as I am within academia, I still find myself asking just what the heck it is I’m doing here. As it is for many native people, education has always been contested terrain for me. I’ve both loved the process of learning and loathed the many oppressive conditions in which education often takes place. Canadian classrooms were never designed for Indigenous kids to succeed, and although changes continue to be made, statistics tell us that most native youth never make it to graduation. It’s easy to see why: the still-recent legacy of residential schools lives on in Canadian classrooms through curricula that effectively force kids to think and act ‘mainstream’ if they want to succeed. So why be part of this system at all? This is something I continue to ask myself regularly, even as I push forward with this degree. To be sure, education is a hot topic in native communities these days. Currently, the federal government is working with bands to bring reserve schools up [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>14</slash:comments>
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		<title>Victoria&#8217;s Secret: The Inconvenient History Behind BC&#8217;s Capital City</title>
		<link>http://www.mediaindigena.com/sarah-hunt/issues-and-politics/victorias-secret-the-inconvenient-history-behind-bcs-capital-city</link>
		<comments>http://www.mediaindigena.com/sarah-hunt/issues-and-politics/victorias-secret-the-inconvenient-history-behind-bcs-capital-city#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 02 Aug 2012 06:36:47 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Sarah Hunt</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[ISSUES+POLITICS]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.mediaindigena.com/?p=8337</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Victoria, the capital city of British Columbia, is celebrating its 150th anniversary today. In the lead-up to this occasion, local organizations, artists and businesses have partnered with the City to create a whirlwind of events, promotional material and educational swag to draw people out to its August 2, 2012 celebrations. Looking over the City&#8217;s website, including a video and list of “fun facts,” a widespread theme emerges: the complete denial of Victoria’s colonial history. A history fundamentally at odds with the ongoing presence of the Coast Salish peoples, upon whose lands the capital was imposed. Throwing around words like ‘cultural diversity’ and a ‘love of history,’ the City of Victoria&#8217;s vapid vocabulary glosses over the violent displacement of Indigenous peoples needed to build and sustain the capital. In fact, looking over the information about the Victoria 150 celebrations, it is difficult to see any trace of Indigenous people whatsoever. After much searching, I did find an acknowledgement of the Lekwungen people, whose only apparent relevance is that they pre-existed the City&#8217;s &#8216;birth.&#8217; According to its website, the “Lekwungen People hunted and gathered here for thousands of years before European exploration, carefully managing the land through controlled burning and food cultivation.&#8221; [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>6</slash:comments>
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		<title>National Aboriginal Day: Friend or foe?</title>
		<link>http://www.mediaindigena.com/sarah-hunt/issues-and-politics/national-aboriginal-day-friend-or-foe</link>
		<comments>http://www.mediaindigena.com/sarah-hunt/issues-and-politics/national-aboriginal-day-friend-or-foe#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 21 Jun 2012 16:21:08 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Sarah Hunt</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[ISSUES+POLITICS]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.mediaindigena.com/?p=8182</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Today, June 21, is Canada&#8217;s National Aboriginal Day. This morning, like most other days, I woke up, made my coffee, and sat down to read the news. The consensus seems to be that today is a day to celebrate Aboriginal cultures and to remember our vibrant history within Canada. In the newspapers, stories of celebration and cultural performance encourage all Canadians to learn about us, to let us share our cultures with them, and to celebrate Aboriginals as part of Canada&#8217;s strong foundation of diversity. And, like most other days, I also read stories about the ongoing struggles for Indigenous land rights, protection of Indigenous grave sites, and recognition of high rates of violence. Yet I further notice that coverage of these concurrent realities — the celebration and the struggles — seem to be kept very separate, as though they cannot exist together, or are somehow irreconcilable in the minds of Canadians and the federal government. The Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development website declares National Aboriginal Day as kickstarting 11 days of their &#8220;Celebrate Canada&#8221; festivities. This spirit of celebration and focus on cultural performance is at the heart of this Day&#8217;s definition and vision, which seems to encourage a [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.mediaindigena.com/sarah-hunt/issues-and-politics/national-aboriginal-day-friend-or-foe/feed</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
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		<title>Any illusions of credibility for &#8220;sham&#8221; Missing Women Inquiry fade as Aboriginal rep resigns</title>
		<link>http://www.mediaindigena.com/sarah-hunt/issues-and-politics/any-illusions-of-credibility-for-sham-missing-women-inquiry-fade-as-aboriginal-rep-resigns</link>
		<comments>http://www.mediaindigena.com/sarah-hunt/issues-and-politics/any-illusions-of-credibility-for-sham-missing-women-inquiry-fade-as-aboriginal-rep-resigns#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 07 Mar 2012 01:52:39 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Sarah Hunt</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[ISSUES+POLITICS]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.mediaindigena.com/?p=7674</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Tensions reach boiling point over true purpose of Inquiry: to account for lives and deaths of missing and murdered women, or for the (in)actions of police?]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.mediaindigena.com/sarah-hunt/issues-and-politics/any-illusions-of-credibility-for-sham-missing-women-inquiry-fade-as-aboriginal-rep-resigns/feed</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>A History of Violation: Why an Aboriginal grave site robbery is no isolated incident</title>
		<link>http://www.mediaindigena.com/sarah-hunt/issues-and-politics/a-history-of-violation-why-an-aboriginal-gravesite-robbery-is-no-isolated-incident</link>
		<comments>http://www.mediaindigena.com/sarah-hunt/issues-and-politics/a-history-of-violation-why-an-aboriginal-gravesite-robbery-is-no-isolated-incident#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 04 Mar 2012 20:55:22 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Sarah Hunt</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[ISSUES+POLITICS]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.mediaindigena.com/?p=7621</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[In Tsartlip, a Coast Salish community near Victoria, BC, a family grieves the loss of a loved one for the second time. Back in 1999, a fatal car accident took the life of then-30 year old Frazer Joe Smith Jr.. Thirteen years later, the family struggles to understand the removal of a totem pole memorializing Smith. The graveside artwork was uprooted and stolen from the small community cemetery on February 21. But such thievery should not be viewed as an isolated incident. As Indigenous people, we are all too familiar with the theft and displacement of that which is sacred to us. Across the globe, non-Aboriginal museums, art galleries, archives and private collections are filled with our totems and ceremonial regalia, even the remains of our ancestors. The widespread theft of our sacred objects reflects a gap between Indigenous and western systems of meaning, and the way this gap manifests in law and other sites of power. During the early days of colonialism, the theft of our artifacts was seen as a way of capturing a &#8216;dead&#8217; or &#8216;dying&#8217; race; removal of those items, therefore, was meant to preserve or salvage remembrances of past-tense people. Here in the present, we [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.mediaindigena.com/sarah-hunt/issues-and-politics/a-history-of-violation-why-an-aboriginal-gravesite-robbery-is-no-isolated-incident/feed</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>6</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>An Open Letter To My Local Hipsters</title>
		<link>http://www.mediaindigena.com/sarah-hunt/issues-and-politics/an-open-letter-to-my-local-hipsters</link>
		<comments>http://www.mediaindigena.com/sarah-hunt/issues-and-politics/an-open-letter-to-my-local-hipsters#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 21 Sep 2011 03:29:09 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Sarah Hunt</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[ARTS+CULTURE]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ISSUES+POLITICS]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.mediaindigena.com/?p=7187</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Sigh. Today in the neighborhood coffee shop, I spotted a poster made by a local designer for an upcoming music festival. Hence the sigh. A tomahawk and feathers had somehow made their way onto the poster for a West Coast band consisting of three bearded white guys. As I stood in front of the poster, noting the word ‘primitive’ in the write-up below the piece, I looked over and saw a blond girl with a Pendleton-style bag and a guy wearing a knitted Cowichan sweater… or maybe a look-alike he bought at The Bay. Another sigh. [ Editor's note: the poster in question does not appear anywhere in the body of this blog entry (though it was later shared by someone else, in the comments that follow); what images do appear here were taken from other sources as a way to illustrate the author's general arguments. We're sorry for any confusion this has caused. ] Non-native hipsters, I know that native imagery is trendy right now, that your friends are wearing it and the blogs and magazines you read are telling you to join in the fun. But when you and I look at those dreamcatcher earrings at the mall, [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.mediaindigena.com/sarah-hunt/issues-and-politics/an-open-letter-to-my-local-hipsters/feed</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>107</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Seeking the Breaking Point: Violence and Justice in Canada</title>
		<link>http://www.mediaindigena.com/sarah-hunt/issues-and-politics/seeking-the-breaking-point-violence-and-justice-in-canada</link>
		<comments>http://www.mediaindigena.com/sarah-hunt/issues-and-politics/seeking-the-breaking-point-violence-and-justice-in-canada#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 14 Sep 2011 21:49:30 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Sarah Hunt</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[ISSUES+POLITICS]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.mediaindigena.com/?p=7156</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[For more than fifteen years, I have been working on issues of violence in Indigenous communities in BC. I have become familiar with the state of the justice system in Canada, with its huge over-representation of Indigenous people in detention centres and an accompanying lack of concern for those of us who are victims of violent crime. It is a norm in Canada to view Indigenous people as criminals, as inherently violent, rather than as human beings worthy of the same protection from violence afforded to other citizens. This should no longer be surprising to me, but some days, the truth seems harder to bear than others. Take today, for example. While wasting time on Facebook, I saw a link to an article about the start of this year’s Walk4Justice, a march from Vancouver to Ottawa to raise awareness about violence against Indigenous women. I am familiar with the facts of the high rates of violence against us and the over 700 girls and women who have gone missing from our communities, including the recent disappearance of Angeline Eileen Pete from North Vancouver. Half way through the article, I read the word “beheaded” and burst into tears, turning my face [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>4</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Apprehending First Nations children: a Canadian tradition</title>
		<link>http://www.mediaindigena.com/sarah-hunt/issues-and-politics/apprehending-first-nations-children-a-canadian-tradition-lives-on</link>
		<comments>http://www.mediaindigena.com/sarah-hunt/issues-and-politics/apprehending-first-nations-children-a-canadian-tradition-lives-on#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 03 Aug 2011 04:30:53 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Sarah Hunt</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[ISSUES+POLITICS]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.mediaindigena.com/?p=7013</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[An Ontario government report released several weeks ago confirms what many Indigenous people already know: that First Nations children are still vastly overrepresented in Canada’s child welfare systems. In fact, statistics show that there are more First Nations children in government care today than at the peak of Indian residential schools. In his report, &#8220;Children First,&#8221; John Beaucage — former Wasauksing First Nation chief and recently-departed Aboriginal Advisor to Ontario’s Minister of Children and Youth Services — calls this generation of child apprehension “the Millennium Scoop,” echoing the wave of apprehensions known as the “Sixties Scoop,” in which thousands of First Nations children were unilaterally adopted or fostered out into non-Indigenous families, often without their families&#8217; or communities&#8217; consent or even knowledge. (That said, Beaucage’s report does note that child welfare systems have changed in that they attempt to ensure that children remain connected to their communities and families, rather than being raised with the explicit assumption or desire that they would assimilate into white society.) While the federal government apologized for residential schools, there has been no such apology for the continued dismissal of Indigenous sovereignty and our inherent right to care for our own children. In fact, recent [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
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		<title>Government blames sex workers for violence used against them</title>
		<link>http://www.mediaindigena.com/sarah-hunt/issues-and-politics/government-appeal-blames-sex-workers-for-violence-against-them</link>
		<comments>http://www.mediaindigena.com/sarah-hunt/issues-and-politics/government-appeal-blames-sex-workers-for-violence-against-them#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 10 Mar 2011 19:14:50 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Sarah Hunt</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[ISSUES+POLITICS]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Downtown Eastside]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[DTES]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Justice Susan Himel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ontario]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ontario Superior Court]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[prostitution]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sex trade]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sex work]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Vancouver]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.mediaindigena.com/?p=6384</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I had planned to write my first post here about something light-hearted (I&#8217;m working on pieces about yoga and an awesome art project). Much of my time is spent thinking about violence in our communities, so I wanted to take on some more positive issues, reminding us of our strengths and possibilities as Indigenous people. But today I saw that the Canadian government is fighting the recent Ontario court decision by Superior Court Justice Susan Himel, which ruled criminalizing sex work creates higher risk of violence, by saying that it is not the government’s obligation to protect women who choose to put themselves in harm&#8217;s way. And this I could not stay silent about. In a federal briefing filed yesterday with the Ontario Court of Appeal, government lawyers say that Parliament “is not obliged to minimize hindrances and maximize safety for those that [engage in prostitution] contrary to the law.” As an Aboriginal woman, this concerns me. This concerns me because women from our communities represent the vast majority of street-level sex workers across Canada, and men and transgender people from our communities remain invisible despite their involvement. It concerns me because violence against Aboriginal people – of all ages [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>7</slash:comments>
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