Indledning
Jeffrey Simpson published an article june 2nd 2015 on the Globe and Mail, talking about reconciliation between aboriginal and non-aboriginal people.
He criticises the relentless fixation on the past, as this will make reconciliation harder to achieve. He does admit that the past must not be completely forgotten
as it is important to remember exactly what terrible things the aboriginal people were subjected to, which makes it easier to understand why these people are broken today.
He therefore thinks that we should not wallow in this past, while shouting damaging expressions like “genocide” when describing what happend to the aboriginal people.
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Uddrag
Furthermore it could be crucial to have some sort of understanding of what horrors the aboriginal people went through, to create any sort of acknowledgement from the non-aboriginal people, and we can thereafter try to create reconciliation from that understanding.
However Simpson does recognize the importance of the past: “This relentless focus on one aspect of the past could be salutary in the sense of knowing more and therefore making it less likely that the past will be forgotten.
It might be useful, too, in helping to understand why some aboriginal people today are broken individuals, damaged by their experience in the schools.” (page 2 line 5-8).
This is clearly a counter argument from Simpson. He knows that his lack of pathos on this topic makes his intention very controversial.
This is therefore a way of covering his back from any criticism regarding his disregard of the past. We also see this in the last paragraph: “Today, the challenge is to remember the past without wallowing in it” (page 3 line 3).
This only creates confusion in his intention. His claims and their grounds are for forgetting the past.
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