‘Indian Residential Schools’ or ‘Settler Colonial Genocide’? Native group slams human rights museum over exhibit wording

Aboriginal chiefs in Manitoba are angry that a Winnipeg museum has scratched the word “genocide” from an exhibition about Canada’s treatment of aboriginal.

The digital sign — meant to attract visitors to an exhibition at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights when it opens in 2014 — was at one point slated to label human rights violations against First Nations as genocide but the museum’s steering committee changed its mind after deciding “we’re not in the position to make declarations of genocide,” a spokeswoman said.

Upon learning of the change, the Southern Chiefs Organization lashed out at the museum’s CEO in a letter Friday, claiming the move “is a clear demonstration of the insincerity and populist agenda of the federal government.”

It accused the museum of “sanitizing the true history of Canada’s shameful treatment of First Nations.”

According to the letter, the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs pledged $1-million in donations to the museum “with the understanding that history of the treatment of First Nations people would be on exhibit.”

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He urged that the sign, now simply ”Indian Residential Schools”, be changed back to “Settler Colonial Genocide”.

On Tuesday, the Southern Chiefs Organization said there were no plans to withdraw funding and the letter was not meant as a threat.

While the museum — a Crown corporation — has a board of trustees and president appointed by the federal government, spokeswoman Maureen Fitzhenry said the decision to avoid the word genocide was made without input from any federally appointed representative. As well, she said, donors have no bearing on content decisions.

“The idea that we rejected the whole concept of genocide is not correct,” Ms. Fitzhenry said, adding that First Nations’ claims of genocide will be covered in the exhibition, which is meant to focus on “breaking the silence on gross violations of human rights.”

‘We’re not declaring it as genocide. We’re not declaring it as not genocide’ “We’re not declaring it as genocide. We’re not declaring it as not genocide. … We feel that visitors will be encouraged to come to their own conclusions on what constitutes genocide,” Ms. Fitzhenry said.

The museum, which is not scheduled to open until late 2014, will consist of 12 exhibitions — each with some focus on First Nations.

Museum staff say they plan on meeting with First Nations chiefs in the coming weeks to discuss the concerns.

On Tuesday, the Prime Minister’s Office deferred questions to the Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs, whose spokesman would not comment.

But Jason MacDonald did say that it “is not clear to me upon what grounds they’d make that assertion” that the decision was politically motivated.

The United Nations defines genocide as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group” — which specifically includes, killing; causing seriously bodily or mental harm; inflicting conditions of life on a group meant to “bring about its physical destruction”; imposing measures to prevent births; and forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

“Historical and current processes imposed [against First Nations] fit the definition of genocide to a tee,” Chief Clearsky wrote. “Sanitizing this will only make a festering wound more endemic and will only ensure racism will be allowed to grow.”

While the museum situation has drawn attention to the indigenous claims of genocide, UN Human Rights Officer Leonardo Castilho said the concept is far from new in North and South America.



(2013-08-06/nationalpostnationalpost)