Place, Colonialism, and Cultural Genocide in Indigenous Communities

The idea of cultural genocide is particularly important to Indigenous people of Canada because there has been and still exists mass cultural genocide, murders, or cases of direct physical destruction of our people.

Place carries memory, language, spirituality, governance, and relationships that continue across generations. For Indigenous peoples, colonialism did not simply impose political control; it disrupted relationships to land, community, language, ceremony, and identity. Across Indigenous territories, the effects of cultural genocide continue to shape how Indigenous peoples relate to place, memory, and survivance today.

The idea of cultural genocide is particularly important to Indigenous peoples in Canada because there has been and continues to be widespread cultural destruction, violence, displacement, and direct harm against Indigenous communities. Colonial systems attempted to sever Indigenous peoples from land, language, spirituality, and kinship systems through policies of forced assimilation and dispossession.

The government is not listening to Indigenous community members when they think about how they can help end this cultural genocide - violence. Long-standing colonial policies that discriminate against Indigenous peoples, Indigenous women, girls, and two-spirit people serve to normalize the violence we are subjected to which persists to this day. The cultural genocide is perpetuated through the oppressive Indian Act, laws that govern Indigenous communities and does not treat Indigenous men, women, and two-spirit people equally.

Dozens of recommendations have been made, ranging from global to local in scope, including calling on the government to comply with international law obligations under the UNDRIP and calling on Canadian officials to allow Indigenous communities to have our right to self-determination respected (Borrows, 2017). What does reconciliation mean? Reconciliation to me means establishing and maintaining a respectful relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in Canada. But, reconciliation goes beyond this simplistic definition. It takes seeing real action for our communities to be respected we must feel we have the rights set out by the UNDRIP and that our rights are respected.

Canada's actions a ‘cultural genocide’ against Indigenous peoples. The effects of such policies have been felt for generations (Wildcat, 2015). With the expansion of the European capitalist world system in the late 18th century to Canada, English settlers began a reign of terror and genocide against Indigenous peoples by expropriating their economic resources and taking over their homeland (Wildcat, 2015). The genocide continued until the 19th century, when colonial constructs violently intended to destroy and take ownership of our lands (Wildcat, 2015).

Residential schools were also systems of displacement that removed Indigenous children from their lands, languages, and communities. Reflecting on a story my grandfather and Elder shared with me about his experience of the residential school. My grandfather, Grizzly Bear Ma'llas Jackson shares, "there was a boy that was a hero... when we couldn't speak English, this boy made a key to the locked kitchen... we were starving because those sisters didn't give us food... we were so hungry, and the only way we survived was this boy that took food from that kitchen. He snuck us food late at night... some kids died because they couldn't or chose not to speak English" (Anderson, 2026).

 The colonial impacts remain throughout W̱SÁNEĆ territory, across Indigenous communities on Vancouver Island and beyond. The lasting impacts of the residential school have left inter-generational trauma. Many of our people are dealing with alcoholism and drug addiction as a way to cope with this inflicted trauma. But as we come full circle and reflect on these issues. I can see that had our culture, peoples, and our ways of living had never been displaced. Our people would not be dealing with these issues. The issues of over-incarceration because we are Indigenous. The issues of our children being taken just because we are Indigenous. Many people believe these colonial legacies are in the past. This is a myth these colonial structures have been re-invented into another form to continue the objective of ruthless assimilation. Our people are strong people and my uncle he was one of the Elders that fought back to preserve our languages. These are the lasting impacts for our people. We are living in poverty because of the colonial constructs that purposely rendered us impoverished. My great uncle was one of the Elders that started a website for anyone to learn the languages of our people firstvoices.com

He shares, "anyone can learn the language if their heart is in a good place... ancestors are listening, the trees are listening to us because this is the language of the land... when Europeans came here they looked at us like we were lost people... we weren't lost people they were the ones that were lost...they couldn't see how sophisticated and intelligent our ways of living were...they disregarded us as people... they were the ones that were lost" (Anderson, 2026).

References

Anderson, A. (2026, May 19). Master Carver and Elder Jackson Robertson Wisdom Shared. personal.

Anderson, A. (2026, May 19). Teachings From Uncle. personal.

Borrows, J. (2017). Challenging Historical Frameworks: Aboriginal Rights, The Trickster, and Originalism. Canadian Historical Review, 98(1), 114–135. https://doi.org/10.3138/chr.98.1.borrows

Wildcat, M. (2015). Fearing social and cultural death: genocide and elimination in settler colonial Canada—an Indigenous perspective. Journal of Genocide Research, 17(4), 391–409. https://doi.org/10.1080/14623528.2015.1096579