Question

How are Smith's ideas on colonizing knowledges reflected in what happened to Canada's indigenous children

Answer 1

Adams Smith’s belief on colonization may have an effect on Canada’s aboriginal policy. Adam Smith believed that the colonies under Europeans develop at a faster pace of wealth and greatness than any other human society. He also emphasized that it was more difficult to displace the natives and to extend the European plantations in those colonies inhabited by “barbarous nations”.

Canada’s well known “Sixty Scoop” tragedy may have aroused based on this kind of belief on colonization. The aboriginal people were forced to leave their culture, language and practices as a result of it. The indigenous children were the victims of this policy. They were forced to leave their home and live in adopted or foster homes to learn the “superior” foreign culture. Similar to many who survived the colonialism Canada itself carries deep wounds of ‘Sixty scoop’.