Looking white and being AboriginalPosted in Articles, Autobiography, Canada, Media Archive, Native Americans/First Nation, Passing on 2019-06-11 20:18Z by Steven |
Looking white and being Aboriginal
CBC News
2017-06-21
 Regan Burden is from Port Hope Simpson, but now lives in St. John’s. (Evan Smith) |
It was a beautiful summer day in downtown St. John’s; my friend was working a food truck and on my way to work, I’d often stop to say hello, maybe grab a poutine to eat on my way to work.
One day, he had a friend with him; he was tall, handsome, had dark hair and a nice smile. He told me he had seen me at a show before, but I couldn’t quite remember talking to him. I met a lot of people that night.
We got to talking about ourselves and he asked me where I was from.
“Port Hope Simpson. It’s a tiny town in Labrador that I promise you haven’t heard of.” I was right about that. I always am.
He told me he was from Gander, but had spent some time in Stephenville. His mother was a judge and she got asked to go to Labrador but didn’t want to.
“Stephenville was bad enough, all those f—ing jackytars stealing everything and sniffing gas. Can you imagine what it would have been like in Labrador?”
I grew up in Labrador and I had no idea what he was talking about. I didn’t even know what a jackytar was and whatever he thought about whatever they were, I certainly didn’t. I had to get him to explain. “You know, Indians.”
I explained to him that I was an Aboriginal person and I found what he was saying to be really offensive. He just looked confused.
“Come on. You can’t be thaaaat Aboriginal, look at you.”…
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