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Alison Malis's avatar

Well, seizing control of public records should make it pretty clear what the end game is here. In what sense is this 'reconciliation'? I guess it depends on how 'reconciliation' is defined, and given that 'genocide' has a whole new meaning these days, as too does 'decolonize', I guess it isn't surprising that reconciliation is whatever the fork they want it to mean, as long as it has dollar signs before and after. This effort/goal/aim to seize public records and further control the narrative should be extremely concerning to Canadians who are footing the bill.

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Janice's avatar

I think "indigenous data sovereignty" is the formal expression of what has been happening all along. I find the "indigenous" to be highly secretive and very closed. Very few and very rarely do they discuss negative aspects of their history in public. For example, I have heard Ellis Ross discuss such history, but he is the only one who comes to mind.

Additionally, they do not discuss the ugliness in their own communities today (except to the extent they feel they can blame others), and doing so appears to be forbidden. So, for example, the MMIWG report leaves the impression women are stalked and murdered by non-indigenous men while failing to note that the solve rate for murders of indigenous women is higher than for "all Canadians" stats. The reason for the high solve rate is that murderers of women are frequently known to their victims because they are spouses, related in other ways, and acquaintances, and are identifiable. In other words, there is a profound problem of violence and abuse against women and children in indigenous communities which is hidden from the rest of Canada.

Also not discussed are the numbers of children in IRSs because they had no other place to be cared for and / or because they were at risk in their communities. Nor are the reasons children were later being removed to foster care discussed. Also not discussed is they way children are sometimes neglected and shunted around within the communities.

Among other things, so-called data sovereignty, intensifies the secrecy in these cult communities, and the conditions which allow the continuing victimization of women and children living in them. This control, like control over funding and resources in the communities, will extend to deciding which indigenous people have access, which stories are told, and what history is hidden, making it possible, for example, to maintain a story that they previously existed a peaceful, plentiful, Garden of Eden existence under the benevolent guidance and protection of leaders who continue to protect them, etc., while hiding the extent of those same leaders' privilege and self-enrichment at the expense of the majority of the indigenous people because the are denied access to the facts.

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