Reflection Paper #3

While reading Mackey’s chapter “Managing the House of Difference, Official Multiculturalism”, one section that stood out the most for me was “Making the Indians’ Ethnic”. This segment talks a lot about “the celebrations of 1967 put[ting] great emphasis on the inclusion of native people” (Mackey (2010) pg. 60). This stood out for me as it reminded me of the recent 2010 winter Olympics in British Columbia this past year. Both of these Canadian events had strong emphasis on including native people and their culture into the celebrations. At the 1967 expo according to Mackey they “focused on the rich heritage of the native costumes, legends, stories, songs and dance...displayed in pow-wows, potlatches, sports meets, pageants, exhibitions and ceremonials (Mackey (2010) pg.60). In this year’s winter Olympics the above was seen a lot during the opening and closing ceremonies. As well during the Olympics we saw the Native chiefs being treated with high authority. For example, we saw them sitting in the same box as the Prime Minister Steven Harper and Governor General Michaele Jean during the opening and closing ceremonies.

As a young generation I have not had much exposure to Native culture until the 2010 Winter Olympic ceremonies. There was much publicity of the 2010 Winter Olympics and many people perceived the Native involvement in a range of different ways; some liked the fact that the Native people and their culture was incorporated into the ceremonies as they are a part of our Canadian history and other believed it was a pointless part of the ceremonies (Public people asked on October 14th 2010). Personally, I found their involvement very interesting and fascinating to see. I saw it as Canada incorporating our Canadian heritage into the worldwide viewed event for all to see. Seeing the Native involvement at the 2010 Winter Games exposed me that much more to a different culture then mine that I didn’t know much about and lead me to research more about Native cultures (costumes, songs, and dance).

 This year’s 2010 Winter Olympics exposed many generations since the 1967 Expo to Native people and their culture. Whether people saw the involvement as a positive or negative thing the Native participation nonetheless exposed people worldwide to parts of Native culture. I believe the same was done at the 1967 celebrations as a participant of the celebrations states “If the goal of the festivities was to ignite pride of nationhood in the population, the government seemed to have been very successful” (Mackey (2010) pg. 63). I know the Winter Games definitely exposed me in a positive way to Native culture and pride.