Ruth H Hopkins

The case of Cana­di­an cou­ple Rod and Eka­te­ri­na Bak­er shows that the colo­nial ‘wa­sicu’ mind­set is not a thing of the past.

And threat­en­ing to turn our lands into a tox­ic waste dump.

For over 500 years Na­tive com­mu­ni­ties have bat­tled colo­nial in­vaders and for­eign dis­ease – and now we face coro­n­avirus.

Trump is blow­ing up an­ces­tral bur­ial sites to build his wall, prov­ing that noth­ing is sa­cred to this ad­min­is­tra­tion.

The Cana­di­an gov­ern­ment and big oil cor­po­ra­tions are in­flict­ing harm on First Na­tions and all Cana­di­ans.

Only when the US reck­ons with a lega­cy of slav­ery and geno­cide of the land’s In­dige­nous can it be­gin to act ho­n­ourably.

Thanks­giv­ing may be the rit­u­alised glo­ri­fi­ca­tion of geno­cide and con­quest, but does it have to be?