Today I watched the NFB documentary, Duncan Campbell Scott: The Poet and the Indians, about a man who was on one hand a fine and respected poet, and on the other hand a powerful and determined repressor of native peoples in Canada. In the brief history presented, it seemed to have been noted, but not questioned, that the Indigenous parties to Canada’s treaties were attentive to but not curious about the white people’s ways. We are learning that they did not see European culture, education, governance or justice as better than their own. Though D.C. Scott wrote evocatively of the Canadian north, he did not see its people’s deep connection to land, water, life seen and unseen.
Winter does not submit to reason. It is mythical, a story of faith. Perhaps the world would be a better place if we put down the whip of reason and listened to the season.
c’est l’hiver she sang the one who knew this country is not reason is myth mia burrus 2020
