Kevin Annett and Canada's genocide

I just watched the film Unrepentant: Kevin Annett and Canada's Genocide, a very important and harrowing documentary about the dispossession of Native people in Canada.

It adds new dimensions to what I already know about North American indigenous frontier history. [when i first heard lyrics of Ani DiFranco's song tis of thee, i was proud that i knew what the reference to small pox blankets was- the two edged sword of charity:

"Above 96th street
they hand out small pox blankets so people don't freeze
and the old dog's got a new trick,
it's called criminalize the symptoms while you spread the disease
I hold on hard to something
between my teeth when i'm sleeping
i wake up and my jaw aches
and the earth is full of earthquakes"]

What i realised is that it was a quite wide practice by church people- (including the missionaries working for the Catholic Church) to do such things, and to treat the Indigenous people as worthless...

OUTLINE:


In the early 1990's - maybe late 1980's- Kevin Annett, a United Church of Christ Minister, attempted to get to the bottom of why native people did not come to his church.

By inviting these people, who made up 30% of the population of his town, and allowing an 'open pulpit' policy- where anyone could speak after the sermon, the long hidden stories of trauma and suffering emerged.

The shocking revelation that various churches -through the residential school system- had willingly and officially pursued the annihilation of Native American civilisation- emerged. The participation of churches in eugenics policies- in forced sterilization, in deliberate infection of people with smallpox and TB through giving contaminated blankets and failing to isolate TB patients was revealed. The story goes on- and shows the lengths to which church officials would go to cover up, to silence him and to do damage control. There were drastic consequences of all these revelations for Arnett's life. He lost his marriage, his career and his future. You should watch it, and think about what it means for us in Australia.

I actually feel quite emotional listening to all the testimonies and the travesty of the different ways the UCC worked to prevent natural justice.