The Kim Wheeler Show Week of July 9th

Kim Wheeler
July 8, 2021

This week there has been push-back from political leaders on all sides concerning the toppling of statues of some long-dead queen. We have been told this is a setback to reconciliation; it has been called an act of violence. I say it’s not an act of violence. No one was hurt. No one died. It is an act of resistance. And our people have been resisting for 500 years.

The toppling of the statue of Queen Victoria wasn’t about the queen. It’s what that statue represents: the colonization of this land; the disenfranchised; the outlawing of our cultural practices and ceremonies; residential schools; the ’60s Scoop; and the child welfare system.

Manitoba’s Premier Brian Pallister in a news conference said:

“The people who came here to this country before it was a country, and since, didn’t come here to destroy anything — they came here to build…There are good and bad aspects to Canada’s heritage, as there are to any country’s heritage…We’ve had good times and we’ve had bad moments. And Canada Day was one of those bad moments.”
Manitoba’s Premier Brian Pallister

Trump called. He wants his speechwriter back.

Thousands of people marched to the Manitoba Legislature on Canada Day. They marched in orange shirts. They marched to call awareness to the thousands of children who remain in unmarked graves on the grounds of residential schools. I’d call Canada Day a great moment. It was a moment where a glimpse of reconciliation was possible.

This week we’re talking about acts of resistance on The Kim Wheeler Show on The Indigiverse.

It’s not easy as an Indigenous woman to stand up against the patriarchy and raise your voice. But we as the matriarchy find ourselves doing that more and more.

Tasha Spillett-Sumner is one of them. Tasha is a New York Times best-selling author for her children’s book “I Sang You Down from the Stars.” A book she wrote for her daughter. Tasha is Cree and Trinidadian. Tasha shares her thoughts on supporting the young people and standing up to mostly Indigenous male leaders as they condemned the action of pulling a hunk of metal off a block of stone.

And Steve Bonspiel is the editor/publisher of The Eastern Door. A newspaper out of Kahnawake. Mohawk Territory. Steve has had his own act of resistance. He was at game four of the Stanley Cup Final in Montreal against Tampa Bay where he and his wife sat down to take a stand during the national anthem.