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Breadcrumb Trail Links Local News The Blood Tribe Police Service sign. Photo by File Article content
A new report from the Kainai Blood Tribe in southern Alberta found 95 per cent of the nations members have experienced racism at some point in their life.
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Kainai released the report aimed at addressing racism in the community as well with neighboring towns and cities on Thursday after two years of research. Dr. Gabrielle Lindstrom, an assistant professor of Indigenous Studies at Mount Royal University and a principal researcher on the project, said they defined racism through an Indigenous perspective and found a large majority of people from the Kainai had experienced some form of discrimination, with many experiencing it in their childhood.
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Our research shows that for many Blood Tribe members, experiences with racism begin early in childhood and stay with people throughout their lives, said Lindstrom. Racism is certainly an enduring and persistent presence that negatively affects all aspects of life and when I say all aspects, the research looks at systemic racism and interpersonal racism as well.
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A community notice published by the Kainai Blood Tribe says the report began several years ago after the members experienced blatant acts of racism. Lindstrom said in the two years they worked on the study, they engaged with elders as well as community members and non-indigenous people from the area, using an Indigenous research method and mixed methods research design. There were also discussions held with municipal, education and law enforcement leaders.
The report had three main goals: to reduce racism and its impacts on Indigenous people, to increase awareness of racism towards Indigenous people and identify the root cause of racism towards Indigenous people.
Another high-level finding is that we found a very profound misalignment or disconnect between what non-Indigenous people understand racism to be, or how they think about racism and how Indigenous people actually experienced a huge disconnect there, said Lindstrom. If one has not experienced what it feels like to be treated differently because you are Indigenous. . . Its very difficult to understand what that feels like.
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A survey of non-Indigenous people in the area found 61 per cent of people felt they were allies to Indigenous people, 17 per cent were considered bystanders and 22 per cent were deniers.
Lindstrom said they also found current education and training models around racism are not finding positive results.
These are relatively ineffective in eliminating, let alone addressing the health risks that have been normalized in society, said Lindstrom. Racism is learned, it begins in the home and its reinforced in society and its normalized in society in ways where it functions, almost invisibly and theres no kinds of professional training methods to disrupt these kinds of really deeply held beliefs.
Lindstrom said moving forward the report recommends reframing definitions around racism and the ways communities think about racism, as well as working towards better training and education on the subject. She said the Blood Tribe will also work towards creating anti-racism coalition to begin healing from the effects of racism.
Racism takes away from the very humanity of those who hold racist beliefs, who hold racist attitudes. Theyre losing out on creating relationships with some pretty awesome human beings, said Lindstrom.
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