We are Humans Too: Confronting the Problematics of Post-Colonialism in Music
““Sometimes it’s easy to walk by because we know we can’t change someone’s whole life in a single afternoon. But what we fail to realize it that simple kindness can go a long way toward encouraging someone who is stuck in a desolate place.”
― Mike Yankoski
My original project consisted of bringing awareness concerning the epidemic of Aboriginal homelessness in Montreal, but more specifically, the astounding number of homeless Natives surrounding the Place-des-Arts metro station. My first project consisted originally of creating a mini soup kitchen for the evening outside the metro station and with the assistance and food donations from my work place. My goal being to ease the hunger of homeless Aboriginals for the evening and hopefully bring awareness to the general public of the epidemic Montreal’s homeless Aboriginal community is facing. My project also consisted of handing out flyers with useful information for the Aboriginals such as important addresses and phone numbers in case of emergencies and, lastly, collecting donations from the passerby’s and donating them to the Native Friendship Centre of Montreal. However, the problematics of a white women attempting to reach out to a community that is not her own might pose a problem, thus, I decided to reroute my project.
After further research, it became apparent to me that the high number of homeless Aboriginals in the city of Montreal is rapidly becoming a problematic situation. According to a 2013 CBC news report by reporter Caroline Nepton, “Montreal is in the midst of a real homelessness crisis among Aboriginal people. The fastest growing population are Inuit from Nunavik, which comprises the northern third of the province of Quebec. Montreal is behind in terms of services, compared to other big cities like Vancouver, Calgary or Winnipeg.”. How can this be? In a city with booming businesses and what appears to be a wealthy government, why are we forgetting about these people in dire need of a simple helping hand in life? Aboriginals are dying on the streets and no one hears about it or they are getting beat up by Montreal police officers and it goes unheard, however, we are the first to hear about Justin Bieber using adult colouring books to ease his stress…There’s a major problem here. How is this treatment of the Aboriginal people, the people whom for centuries lived on this land, their land, be treated with such unethical behaviour by Montreal’s own population. It is heart wrenching to read stories such as the CBC news report from John Van Dusen that the community of Montreal need to be aware of and create awareness on the unethical treatment of Aboriginals. Since moving to Montreal in 2014 and becoming aware of the Aboriginal homeless problem in the city, it has boggled my mind as to why this city’s government refuses to help them. It startling as to why we continue to treat them with disrespect or victimize them as though they were not human. Rose, a homeless Inuit originally from Nunavut currently living on the streets of Montreal, states, “We might be homeless and have drug or booze problems but we are still human beings.”, a sentence no one should have to speak, human dignity is not a privilege but a basic human right that no one should have to fight for. These unfortunate homeless individuals are someone’s brother, someone’s sister and someone’e child, they are not stray dogs on the sidewalks and should not be left for dead because they have mental health issues of alcohol/drug problems.
Rerouting the homeless project:
One evening, while I was at work (I work at a bar on the Plateau), a girl sitting at the bar with her boyfriend, turned to him and asked “Jeff, who’s Iron Maiden?”. Being a big music fan, I chuckled at her ignorance and I was a little shocked that she did not know who Iron Maiden was. So, like any other good bartender, I played some Iron Maiden throughout the whole bar, “ Run to the Hills” began to play and after hundreds of times of listening to this fantastic song, I heard the true meaning of its lyrics and I had an epiphany, this song was about the white man killing the “Injuns” or Indians. I began to think about the lyrics and think about my site specific project and I wondered, how many more songs dealt with the topic of colonizers and Aboriginals? And how could I incorporate them in a new project?
I got home from work that evening and after some research I found many songs which dealt with the problematics between the white man and the Natives. Here are the songs incorporated in my new project:
“Run to the Hills” – Iron maiden
“Half Breed” – Cher
“Pocahontas” Neil Young
“White Man” – Queen.
Each of these songs address the problematics between the white man and the Natives and although it does not speak directly to Aboriginal homelessness, it does speak to the root of the Native homelessness problem. The white man oppressing the natives and leaving them for dead on the streets, without resources or funds to better themselves.
My new project then consisted of the following, in order to bring awareness concerning the Aboriginal homelessness epidemic in Montreal to the everyday folks, I placed five USB keys which I had attached to a piece of paper (both placed in a Ziplock baggie) saying “ WE MIGHT HAVE DRUG AND ALCOHOL PROBLEMS BUT WE ARE STILL HUMAN BEINGS” with a picture of a homeless Native, in hopes to grab a passerby’s attention. I left three USB keys on the benches in the metro and two keys on the windowsill before exiting the metro station. On the USB keys I had uploaded files to be read or listened too in a specific order:
- The explanation of the project- bringing awareness concerning the aboriginal homelessness epidemic in the city of Montreal along with the articles mentioned above.
- YouTube links to all the songs and the lyrics attached to be read and listened to simultaneously with highlighted parts mentioning the mistreatment of the Native by the white man.
- The problematics and the facts of aboriginal homelessness in Montreal.
- I gave the reader information on what they can do to help, where they could donate or simply assist the aboriginal community in Montreal.
- Lastly, I kindly asked whom ever picked up the USB key to pass it on to someone else.
The goal of my project was to bring awareness to Aboriginal homelessness in Montreal and to educate some on the reasons as to why there are a staggering number of homeless Natives in Montreal. I chose music as my medium as it speaks to people is a way a document or a pamphlet ever could. Music has a way of sending powerful messages through melodies and rhymes which I find very important and lastly, I chose music as it is a very important element in Native cultures. It is very powerful to see white men and women speaking out on issues outisde their own cultures and utilizing their platforms as performers/entertainers to spread important messages and problematic situations in our society. My identity throughout the project remained anonymous. My name was not mentioned nor was the university as I wanted this project to simply bring awareness to this epidemic in the city that we seem to be ignoring and overlooking. If the native voices cannot be heard, it is up to us to bring change and assist those less fortunate then us.
Thank you,
Anik Marchand
(please view the songs below!)