ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author shares some stories about her understanding regarding the position of Aboriginal peoples within Canadian society. She argues that there is the constant struggle of living in diverse situations: challenging stereotypes, racism, and prejudices by the dominant Eurocentric culture; educating biased and uninformed non-Aboriginal people about us; and educating Aboriginal people who have lost all positive connection to their ancestral heritage. The author would like to draw attention to two interrelated issues: the confusing policy of the Indian Act of Canada, and how the paternalistic, racist, and sexist Canadian governmental policies have affected her own family. The Metis forged political alliances and a collective identity that reflected both European and Aboriginal cultures as they struggled for recognition and for their own land and government. The author also argues that the parochial, patriarchal, sexist and racist policy, the Indian Act, reflected Canada's ideologies of the time.
