Hate has no place in democracy


By Xavier Kataquapit

As an Indigenous person raised in a remote First Nation and on the land I am very familiar with my cultural and traditional roots. It was a steep learning curve for me to adapt, adjust and fit into the non-Indigenous world when I first left Attawapiskat to further my education in the south. 

Part of my learning experience had to do with figuring out what federal, provincial and municipal elections were all about. I also had little knowledge of federal, provincial, regional and First Nation community political systems and how they operated. Once I started to write, my work demanded a lot of research on all kinds of topics and, of course, political systems and issues were of interest to me.

Through the years I have learned a lot about Indigenous and non-Indigenous political systems in terms of how they are set up, how they operate and what drives them. One of the things I have discovered has to do with the kind of people that run for political office.

I have to admit that I have grown to understand that most of these people are motivated by money, power and ego. Thankfully, there are also many in both Indigenous and non-Indigenous politics that actually become involved because they want to make life better for people in general.

It took me some time and a lot of research to really figure out what the political non-Indigenous parties were all about, who they represented, where they got their funding and what type of issues and beliefs they were aligned with.


Many people don’t really realize the differences in these political parties and they think they are pretty much the same when, in fact, all of them have historic traits that tell us who they really represent.






When it comes to choosing which party to vote for during an election, I think as Indigenous people we have to recognize that those parties on the right, although they might talk about helping and working with us, in reality will not and their history proves that. 
