Indians of Canada Pavilion
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The Indians of Canada Pavilion at Expo 67 in Montreal presented a somewhat different message than what the Canadian government had hoped. Visitors were greeted with the message:
- "You have stolen our native land, our culture, our soul..."
and then passed by a series of images and artifacts accompanied by statements such as:
- "An Indian child begins school by learning a foreign tongue."
- "Dick and Jane in the storybook are strangers to an Indian boy."
- "The sun and the moon mark passing time in the Indian home. At school, minutes are important and we jump to the beat."
The tone of the exhibit caught organizers off guard when they first viewed it mere days before the scheduled opening. Talk of last minute changes were scuttled, however, when a local newspaper journalist present at the preview wrote a column describing the content.
The Queen of Canada, with ashen face, cut her visit to the pavilion short upon realizing the direction the content was taking.
Ironically, the Canadian government received accolades for supporting this approach but it marked a turning point in the struggle to be heard by Canada's First Nations People.
External links
- Indians of Canada (from Marianopolis College) (http://www2.marianopolis.edu/quebechistory/encyclopedia/Indians.htm)
- Indians of Canada (http://naid.sppsr.ucla.edu/expo67/map-docs/indianscanada.htm) by Jeffrey Stanton, 1997
- The Indians of Canada Pavilion (http://www.collectionscanada.ca/expo/0533020206_e.html) from the website of Library and Archives Canada