● The First Canadians
● The Settlers
● French Canadians
● The Story of a Canadian

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Many people are familiar with the notion that American society is a "melting pot." The melting pot conveys the idea of successive waves of immigrants coming to the new country of the United States and throwing off their old customs, languages and traditions in favour of becoming "American."

A Child's Idea of Canadian Mosaic

In contrast, Canada, also a nation of immigrants, is usually described as being a "mosaic". When the British allowed the defeated French the right to retain their language, religion and customs in Canada, the stage was set for a different kind of country to emerge in which no particular concept of an overarching Canadian identity would be promoted. Instead, both French speakers and English speakers were equally "Canadian." When new settlers brought their different customs and ways of life to their new Canadian home, they did not throw them off completely, but adapted them to the new environment. Thus Canada, it is felt, resembles a mosaic of different cultures which overlap but do not overwhelm each other.

Officially, Canada refers to itself as "multicultural". This was an idea born during the debate on bilingualism and biculturalism in the 1960s when a Royal Commission was set up to examine relations between French and English Canada. Organized ethnic communities demanded that their heritages also be acknowledged. Politicians noted that one—third of Canadians were neither English nor French and thus invented the idea of a multicultural society within a bilingual framework and provided money to help different ethnic groups retain their identities. As a prominent member of Canada's Ukrainian community remarked:

　　There is no longer any excuse for anyone in this country to be ashamed of his cultural background. Canada is a multicultural society. The days of Anglo-Saxon dominance are gone.

Multiculturalism has caused something of a problem in that Canadians often feel they lack a "national identity." But in fact, this patchwork quilt of different nationalities and communities is central to what Canada is: a multicultural, bilingual country where efforts are made to protect, promote and celebrate the ways of the different kinds of people who live there.

The First Canadians

The Aboriginal Tribe

Thousands of years before the first European explorers "discovered" it, the land that would one day become known as Canada was populated by tribes of aboriginal people. These people used to be called "Indians": it is said that when Columbus discovered America, he thought he had arrived in India and thus accidentally misidentified the native population as being "Indian". Since the 1980s native Canadians have been officially referred to as "the First Nations": "first" because they are the original inhabitants of the country, and "nations" because there is not one single group or culture—there are many "nations", or tribes, which have different languages, customs and beliefs. The term "Indian" was discarded because it did not reflect the rich cultural diversity and contributions of these peoples. Calling them "Indians" is like calling all the people who live in Europe and North America "western people." While it is not incorrect, it is not very descriptive. The First Nations now make up about 3 per cent of the Canadian population, and their numbers are increasing due to high birthrates.

The languages, beliefs, customs and activities of the First Nations varied according to where they lived. The life—style of the people who inhabited Canada's coasts depended on fishing and hunting; those who lived on the prairies were nomads that hunted herds of buffalo which provided them with food, clothing and tools; and in central and eastern Canada, the First Nations grew crops as well as hunted.

The Igloo and the Inuit

In addition to the First Nations, Canada's constitution officially recognizes two other special groups of aboriginal peoples. In the far north are the Inuit (Eskimo), a group who adapted to the harsh conditions of the arctic climate by hunting seals, whales, caribou and polar bears. Today, some of these people still live this way; others can now make a living through selling their carvings and handicrafts which are prized by collectors for their beauty. The final group is the Metis, who emerged

Inuit Sculpture- "Human/Animal Head"

when French fur traders married Indian women. In appearance and in life—styles, their children inherited characteristics from both their European and aboriginal backgrounds and their close involvement in the fur trade made their economic development different from other aboriginal peoples. For these reasons it was decided that the Metis constituted an aboriginal people different from the other two groups.

A Metis Family

Early Furtraders

Canada's aboriginal peoples were vital to the fur trade and thus played a huge role in Canada's economic development, but they were treated very badly by their white Europeans who came to colonies Canada. Native peoples were coerced into signing treaties which allowed settlers to take over their land, and they had been treated as second class Canadians for centuries. They were forced to live on reserves, and until 1961, were forbidden to vote or consume alcohol. They are a sector of Canadian society that remains discriminated against today.

While in recent years their situation has improved, and they have become more politically active, aboriginal peoples are still, as a group, Canada's poorest inhabitants. They have less money than any other ethnic group, including new immigrants. Their income is less than half the Canadian average; their life expectancy is 10 years lower than the Canadian average; their infant mortality rate twice as high; they are vulnerable to diseases like tuberculosis which are more commonly seen in the third world than the first world. The suicide rate of native Canadians is the highest in the world, and the second highest incidence of lung cancer in the world is found in Inuit women. International human rights groups and the United Nations have criticized the Canadian government's systematic discrimination against its native population, and Amnesty International has called Canada "barbaric" in its treatment of the First Nations.

Tipi Warriors

The situation is improving slowly. Federal and provincial governments are engaged in negotiating land claims and rights settlements which are aimed at giving Native Canadians more control over their economic, social, and political futures. In general, while there is still a lot of work to be done before the First Nations will be able to flourish as a distinct and integral part of Canada, nowadays most Canadians agree that they have been treated badly for far too long and that it is time for a change.

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