The road forward in achieving equity in health care Essay Sample
The Road Forward(documentary film): Indigenous Resistance
Filmmaker, Marie Clements, was interviewed on Q with Tom PowersApril 26, 2017 (CBC) regarding the release of her film The Road Forward. To conclude the interview Powers asked her what conversation she was hoping theatre-goers would have as they left the theatre.
“I am hoping that [the film] connects non-native and native audiences. It lets us understand that anyone that lives in Canada and the US, that this history is still alive. The past has had a real influence and impact on what our present situation is and also what our future will be. I want people to be inspired; to really understand that these activists, these giants, are a part of us and that we should be proud of that. And I love the idea that to create any kind of change for the better, native and non-native, men and women have to be together...that everybody has to be at the same table.”
Cinema Politic a summarizes the film as follows: “The Road Forward is a rousing tribute to the fighters for First Nations rights, a soul-resounding historical experience, and a visceral call to action” (The Road Forward, n.d.)
The Road Forwardwas originally commissioned and performed at the Aboriginal Pavilion for the 2010 Olympics. In 2015 it was produced as a full-length theatrical show for PuSH Festival. In 2016 Marie Clements worked with Wayne Lavallee, who wrote the original score, and brought together an ensemble of Indigenous musicians and performers to bring to life the past 80 years of politics and protest on the British Columbia west coast and across Canada. In 2017 The Road Forwardwas the official launch of Aabiziingwashi (#WideAwake): NFB Indigenous Cinema on Tour! Throughout that year the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) offered its collection of 250+ Indigenous-made films to all Canadians (DOXA Documentary Film Festival 2017 Program Guide).
Guidelines: Answer each of the following questions in your essay
1.
A) Referencing the course chapter in our textbook,“Embodied Oppression,” plus relevant course material, explain The Cycle of Oppression(p. 179), clearly outlining each component within the cycle.
B) Chronicle expressions of the stereotyping; prejudice; discrimination; and oppression presented in the film The Road Forward. Pay attention to the musical vignettesin order to do so. Make certain to explain why your examples are illustrative of the above processes.
2.
Focussing on the musicians, actors, and singers profiled in the film, consider issues of identity. We as viewers are introduced to each of them individually,and throughout the filmthese interviews are interwoven between the musical vignettes. In these moving interviews, what do we see as expressions of pride and of struggle in terms of their identities as Indigenous peoples?
3.
The Road Forward is also a celebration of indigenous resistance efforts, particularly in BC throughout the twentieth century.
a) Explain the significance of the Native Voice and the Native Brotherhood and Sisterhood of BC?
b) What other important legislative events are profiled in the film? Why were they significant?c)Why does resistance matter?
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The road forward in achieving equity in health care
The cycle of oppression
The cycle of oppression shows the link between elements that explain the perpetuation of oppression in society. The cycle comprises stereotyping, prejudice, discrimination, and oppression elements.
The stereotype element refers to the exaggerated or generalized fixed images that people, groups, and decision-makers, hold of other people as a group regardless of their differences. This classification of social reality into convenient categories based on shared properties leads to misinformation about a people and misrepresents a minority group, most often in negative ways (Wayne et al., 180). This element sets the cycle of oppression in motion. The broad generalizations people have of others form the basis of stereotypes they hold, which form the basis of people's prejudices of the minority groups. Stereotyping informs the whole way of thinking, which leads to people having negative beliefs about an entire group of people and the group's members. This prejudging attitude emanates from the dominant sector, and the opposing ideas are invoked to justify power and privilege. These negative beliefs may be either conscious or unconscious and embedded in oppressive power relations, reinforcing the stereotypes.
When it happens that the person holding the prejudice has additional power and can use it to deny others opportunities, resources or access to a person because of their membership to a given group, discrimination occurs. Discrimination is the third element in the oppression cycle, and it is equal to prejudice plus power. Discrimination is defined as the actions or inactions of a person based on the bias the person holds (Wayne et al.,180). The oppressive power relations make possible or condone the actions or inactions indirectly or openly. When many acts of discrimination build up over time with a more robust social group perpetrating against a less powerful group, it leads to a state of oppression. Oppression is the fourth element in the cycle of oppression, and it happens when institutional power gives reinforcement to discrimination (Wayne et al., 180). Systemic power relations such as government policies and procedures in different sectors reinforce discrimination. Oppression becomes institutionalized in society because institutional power influences the oppressors and has synergistic effects with the state's coercive authority.
Expressions of the stereotyping, prejudice, discrimination, and oppression in the film The Road Forward
In the film "The Road Forward: Indigenous Resistance," Marie Clements paints a moving picture of how the Native Brotherhood and Sisterhood movement transformed into a powerful voice advocating for social, political and legal changes and eventually leading to profound change at the national level. Expressions of stereotyping, prejudice, discrimination, and oppression are evident in the documentary film primarily through the musical vignettes and interviews. When Pioneers of Native Brotherhood and Sisterhood talk about their struggles, the white man is the subject. The pioneers speak of the belief among white men that the Indian people did not have rights to the ocean to fish and the land in which they lived. The message received is that white people perceived Indians as backward in their approach to life and needed to be enlightened. For a long time, this stereotyping went on as white settlers continued to occupy the west coast of British Columbia. In the song, Good God, the musician introduces the audience to the image of a residential school, in which natives schooled to be assimilated into mainstream society (Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, 2). The image of Indian girls in the classroom speaks volumes about how the schools were places of transformation for the Indians, whom the whites believed to be uncultured. This stereotyping is also evident when the singer says she was a sinner but now a lamb because she has gone to school. This sadism signals transformation from the sinful ways of the Indians that the whites believed they had and could be washed away by going to school. Therefore, the song mocked the residential schooling system, which the white settlers were used to assimilate the Indians (Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, 3).
Expressions of discrimination are also evident in the songs sung and the interviews of the artists. The first instance is when the only surviving member of the Native brotherhood talks of the Canadian government and the Christian church frustrating their aboriginal rights efforts. The government of Canada did not acknowledge that the aboriginals had rights and titles. On the other hand, the church acted against the Aboriginals' wishes by taking away their language and culture through the schooling system. This whole way of thinking emanated from the stereotyping of the Indian man by the white man that made the Indians look inferior to the white man. Expressions of discrimination are evident in the song "This how it goes." Prejudice is explicit when white men turn down a native woman on several occasions when she goes looking for a job in a café and meets a white man as the manager, and when she goes for a house help job at a white man's home. These scenes are evidence of just how discrimination sweeps across many employment sectors, leaving the Natives unemployed. The song shows that most jobs are in the whites' hands, and given that they are prejudiced about the Natives, they would instead give the jobs to their fellow whites. The song in which a woman sings on a grave about his son, who was young but dead, expresses discrimination based on race. The son's death is due to his colour, and the song laments why her son had to die at such a young age.
The message resonates with many natives whose children have been targeted because they are natives and hunted down like animals, just like many native women go missing every day. Throughout the film, it is clear how the standardized practices and procedures have continually oppressed Canada's indigenous communities. The legal institutions and educational institutions are the focal points in these conversations. As illustrated in the song "Good God," the school system has been used for a long time to align the aboriginal communities to the white way of life. The residential school system has been used ...