The History that is Chosen for us.
The History we Choose
As we have seen, the written history of the Mi'kmaq people of Newfoundland
has been gathered from the accounts of Europeans. They all had their
own biases, likes, dislikes, and reasons for what they wrote. The Mi'kmaq
people didn't use writing. There are no documents written by them to
compare with European accounts. Unless Mi'kmaq people want to use the
words written about them by Europeans and other non-native people, their
oral history is all they really have.
Chief Michael Joe says it is easy to believe the official history of
the Mi'kmaq people. If Mi'kmaq people have no rights to land claims
then Newfoundlanders won't have to give up any of their land or resources.
Michael Joe knows the written word is a powerful thing. "We
won't have a history of our own until a Newfoundland Mi'kmaq writes
that history," he says.
Non-native Newfoundlanders should understand those feelings. They
have had to suffer under someone else's version of their past and present.
The world-wide protest against the Newfoundland white coat seal hunt
in the 1970s and 1980s is a good example. Newfoundlanders were written
about by people from other cultures and countries. Paragraphs like this
one by Brian Davies from the International Fund for Animal Welfare were
hard to fight:
...I stood on the blood-drenched ice watching the relentless killing
going on around me. Frightened adult seals were driven by club-swinging
hunters to nearby open water. [The seals] watched with desperately anxious
eyes the methodical slaughter of their infants. Then, after the hunters
had moved on, there was left the saddest sight of all: the mother seals
hauled out onto the ice to keep cold vigil by the shattered remains
of her only pup.8
The world was horrified. Britain protested seal products. The market
for whitecoat seal pelts collapsed. The seal hunt shut down.
The closure of the cod fishery in 1992 has led to a whole series of
stories telling Newfoundlanders to move off the island. A Globe and
Mail writer even claimed it would be "immoral" for Newfoundlanders
with children to stay in the outports. In an article published on February
19, 1994, editor William Thorsell said the federal government should
take action. Newfoundlanders should be encouraged to move, not to stay.
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