Skip to main content

Systematic poisoning research

Systematic poisoning research
-by Meisen Hu

Discrimination and systematic poisoning of aboriginals in Canada
During my high school times in a small town called Fort Langley in British Columbia, Canada, I’ve befriended with several aboriginal students in town, and I was quite shocked by the way how the First Nations were discriminated since the colonial times. After the Indian Act was signed in 1876, the law enforcement would forcefully abduct childrens to attend residential schools-in which they tried to force these kids to believe in Catholicism.  Kids were often abused and molested by these schools’ staffs and even the priests. Until the last residential school was closed in 1996, over 150,000 Indigenous children were placed in residential schools and the estimated school-related death was around 3,200 to 6,000.
North of Fort Langley, there’s the McMillan Island-an Indian resort by which all aboriginals were forced to live in. They were not allowed to live on any other part of town after the Indian Act,  except this island in the middle of the Fraser river. The land by no chance is enough for any agricultural activities, however luckily, as it’s in the middle of a river, there’s plenty of clean, freshwater for the aboriginal community, many other resorts were not so lucky. Back then the Canadian government would remove the aboriginals from their land-because their lands are fertile or just in very good locations, the so called “resorts” given to those now homeless aboriginals were usually in very harsh locations with little to no agricultural value or heavily polluted by the mining and oil-refining industries. Their water sources usually contains high amount of minerals, heavy metal, and even chemicals used to treat fossil fuel products. After consuming the polluted water for long period of time, many have developed liver diseases, Gallstones, cancer and even birth defects because of the pollution. I’ve attached links to several articles about this poisonings in Canada:



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

CalArts Garden

The reason why I choose this topic is that I know a lot of students are complaining that CalArts is too plain. It is just one main building with a small campus. I would like to design a space for the CalArts campus where students and teachers can work together as a community and taking care of the plants. The community can hold a farmers market, season food festival or food-related artwork competition.    Few things I read about the benefits of school garden:   -  Gardens create opportunities for students to work cooperatively and to take on responsibilities.  - Gardens provide unique opportunities for cross-generational connections.  - Students learn to focus and patience, cooperation, teamwork, and social skills.  -Combining language arts and gardening activities brings a hands-on element to a subject normally taught lecture-style, providing inspiration and motivation for students who struggle to focus in traditional cl...
Post a Comment
Read more

Katharine Means What a Riot! Response

In 2005 Mady Shutzman was invited by CalArts CAP to write a play for the teenage participants Plaza de la Raza arts center in East Los Angeles to perform. At first I was intrigued by this, as my limited knowledge of Boal and Theatre of the Oppressed techniques has been around the participatory games, activities, and techniques used to build community. I know some about Forum and Legislative Theatre, but had little conception of what a TO play would look like. Shutzman's piece, UPSET! , was modeled using Boal's Joker System. There is a character called the Joker who probes the characters and audience during the play with the "ultimate goal to raise questions, offer multiple points of view, and encourage dialogue". Shutzman used this form as a "means to incorporate the teens curiosity, dismay, outrage, confusion, fear, and inspiration in relation to the subject matter of the play within the play." The teens decided upon Rodney King and Claudette Colvin (a youn...
Post a Comment
Read more

What a Riot!

What strategies did she employ in her process of making in play with the youth? Some of the strategies Mady Schutzman employed in her process of making a play with the youth were, utilizing the Joker System, presenting exercises to create a “safe” space by opening the floor and space to the youth to speak, reflect, and share their stories. What approaches resonated with you? Many of the approaches that were used were very intriguing and interesting, but there was one approach that resonated with me. Particularly, the questions that came out of one of the approaches. In the vein of the Joker System, it was designed to ,”promote social inquiry and personal agency by asking questions (How do I know what I know? Who authored the historical narratives we reiterate? Are those stories relevant to me and my community? Who do they privilege and who do they marginalize?” Mandy shared. These questions resonated with me because they are questions I have been asking myself this...
Post a Comment
Read more