# Aboriginals in Canada? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 13, 2006, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aboriginals-in-canada/368579 "2006-08-13T18:56:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ms\_Macphisto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b487fb/32.png) [@Ms\_Macphisto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms_Macphisto)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2006, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aboriginals-in-canada/368579/21 "2006-08-14T04:26:39Z")
[QUOTE=Savannah] No need for embarrassment. 🙂 Tastes differ; I haven’t actually watched a lot of the episodes myself. It was a little unnerving to watch one, and realise the plot was also based on a real case: a man who liked to pick up Aboriginal/First Nations women in bars, and ply them with alcohol until they died. This was a real man; he went to jail for it, and was eventually released and ended up living in the same town as I do. (Victoria.) [/QUOTE] And he passed away recently. The obituary in the Globe and Mail was sickening reading - I was too young to really pay any attention at the time he went to jail, so I was only vaguely aware of him, and that most likely from publicity at the time of his release. However, he appears to have killed dozens of women, going back to the 1960s, and the police didn’t do much of anything about it, since, after all, who cares about a bunch of First Nations women? :rolleyes: I agree with you about the terminology, **Harmonious Discord** , but other than that, we haven’t got a whole lot to be proud of with regards to our treatment of First Nations peoples up here either. ---
**Author:** ![Dottygumdrop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce73a5/32.png) [@Dottygumdrop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dottygumdrop)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2006, 9:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aboriginals-in-canada/368579/22 "2006-08-14T09:37:30Z")
[QUOTE=Cunctator] I know very little of all the ins and outs, but it’s pretty complex and there are lots of different terms, depending on the group and the usage: [link](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indigenous_Australian_group_names#K) [/QUOTE] If the question is what they call themseleves, in terms of saying, “I ran into another [_insert appropriate alternative for aborigine here_] yesterday”, then it does vary widely from region to region, as they don’t generally refer to themselves by reference to their tribe (except in Native Title land applications). When I lived in far north Queensland, the local aboriginal population usually referred to themselves as “blackfellas” - a colloquial term and probably not appropriate for worldwide adoption! ---
**Author:** ![RumMunkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@RumMunkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RumMunkey)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2006, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aboriginals-in-canada/368579/23 "2006-08-14T11:20:48Z")
> [@](#): > > But then you embarrass me with the second. I knocked the show, in the OP and now you tell everyone that this is a highly successful show in Canada. Oy Ha! Don’t bother. Your initial assessment was correct. “Highly successful” in Canada means, like, 20,000 people forgot to change the channel after a Simpsons rerun. Besides, shows that are “critically acclamined” and “highly successful” are often branded as such by the CBC (the producing network) with little or no actual basis in fact. Then again, I couldn’t even watch “[Neighbours](http://televisionau.siv.net.au/neighbours.htm)” when it was sent over here, so to each his own I guess. If you want to see something decent from Canada, go find the independent comedy “[Phil the Alien](http://www.philthealien.com/)”. ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2006, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aboriginals-in-canada/368579/24 "2006-08-14T14:12:42Z")
Easily the best recent Canadian television show is _Corner Gas_. And I’m not just saying that because I grew up in small town Saskatchewan, either. Well, okay, I am, but other people who didn’t say the same thing. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![GingerOfTheNorth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/cdc98d/32.png) [@GingerOfTheNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GingerOfTheNorth)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2006, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aboriginals-in-canada/368579/25 "2006-08-14T14:29:43Z")
[QUOTE=Gorsnak] Easily the best recent Canadian television show is _Corner Gas_. And I’m not just saying that because I grew up in small town Saskatchewan, either. Well, okay, I am, but other people who didn’t say the same thing. 🙂 [/QUOTE] I absolutely agree. It’s like the town where my parents live (Barons, Alberta). And SO MUCH like the little towns I lived in while growing up (only they were usually a bit bigger). ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2006, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aboriginals-in-canada/368579/26 "2006-08-14T14:32:26Z")
That was going to be my endorsement, too, **Gorsnak**. Sure, I also might have grown up in a small SK town, but my husband didn’t, and he loves the show. See, the thing you need to understand about Canadian television is that if it’s made by the CBC, it’s probably crap. If it’s made by other broadcasting companies, it has a chance of not being the inbred, self-congratulatory, depressing, Toronto-centric crap that is all that CBC (the government-funded channel) puts out, but chances are, it’s still crap too. Canadian television tries way too hard and takes itself way too seriously, in my opinion. ---
**Author:** ![BarnOwl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e95f7d/32.png) [@BarnOwl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BarnOwl)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2006, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aboriginals-in-canada/368579/27 "2006-08-14T14:41:14Z")
[QUOTE=Gorsnak] Easily the best recent Canadian television show is _Corner Gas_. And I’m not just saying that because I grew up in small town Saskatchewan, either. Well, okay, I am, but other people who didn’t say the same thing. 🙂 [/QUOTE] You think your programming is deficient? We have a BBC outlet here, and the programs are almost 98.9% pure shit. I could list them starting at 10:30am through midnight, but it’d make you puke. Surely the people in the UK are getting better shows than the BBC affiliate broadcasts here. ---
**Author:** ![Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2006, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aboriginals-in-canada/368579/28 "2006-08-14T19:43:31Z")
[QUOTE=BarnOwl] True, but when’s the last time you heard of a Native American referred to as an Aboriginal? [/QUOTE] In the Saskatoon school system, “Aboriginal” and “First Nations” are always used because “native” has recently got a negative connotation. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2006, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aboriginals-in-canada/368579/29 "2006-08-15T06:07:45Z")
What do the Aboriginals call themselves generally as distinguished from more recent arrivals? I know that **Amazon Floozy Goddess** has mentioned her Aboriginal Drum Circle s few times—is Aboriginal the self-preferred term? And I agree it’s a heckuva lot better than “Indian”. ---
**Author:** ![GingerOfTheNorth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/cdc98d/32.png) [@GingerOfTheNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GingerOfTheNorth)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2006, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aboriginals-in-canada/368579/30 "2006-08-15T12:28:23Z")
Indian hasn’t been widely used for quite awhile. It’s also fallen out of favour. ---
**Author:** ![Poysyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Poysyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poysyn)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2006, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aboriginals-in-canada/368579/31 "2006-08-15T16:18:02Z")
As a journalism student working on a story about the Aboriginal School Board I found there were very few “acceptable” terms. Namely three - Aboriginal (which I have heard some are starting to be offended by), First Nations and the mouthful - Canada’s Indigenous People. My mother attended sensitivity training on Aboriginal people (necessary for all those working in her area) and was told that the term Aboriginal is not as accpetable anymore, because it seems a skewing of the word “Original”. Ah well, I guess we will have to see what the next acceptable term will be if this one is thrown out. As for DaVinci’s Inquest - it sucks. There are very few so-called successful Canadian shows that are also good. Corner Gas is definitely one, as someone from the prairies that show cracks me up! ---
**Author:** ![BarnOwl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e95f7d/32.png) [@BarnOwl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BarnOwl)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2006, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aboriginals-in-canada/368579/32 "2006-08-15T16:29:20Z")
[QUOTE=Poysyn] As a journalism student working on a story about the Aboriginal School Board I found there were very few “acceptable” terms. Namely three - Aboriginal (which I have heard some are starting to be offended by), First Nations and the mouthful - Canada’s Indigenous People. My mother attended sensitivity training on Aboriginal people (necessary for all those working in her area) and was told that the term Aboriginal is not as accpetable anymore, because it seems a skewing of the word “Original”. Ah well, I guess we will have to see what the next acceptable term will be if this one is thrown out. As for DaVinci’s Inquest - it sucks. There are very few so-called successful Canadian shows that are also good. Corner Gas is definitely one, as someone from the prairies that show cracks me up! [/QUOTE] I wouldn’t mind at all if we forgot all about my mention of “DaVinci’s Inquest.” 🙂 Too many good things are coming out of these posts to waste time on a negative? Thanks to **Posyn** ’s mention, of the skewing of ‘original’ I just went to [dictionary.com](http://dictionary.com) for **aboriginal** ’s root. No luck. Where does the ‘ab-’ come from? ---
**Author:** ![Poysyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Poysyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poysyn)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2006, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aboriginals-in-canada/368579/33 "2006-08-15T17:46:25Z")
I would also like to know the root, the woman that led the seminar complained that the root must be “abnormal” therefore Aboriginal was insulting. It would be nice to know what the root really is… ---
**Author:** ![Poysyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Poysyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poysyn)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2006, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aboriginals-in-canada/368579/34 "2006-08-15T17:54:05Z")
Apparently if I could actually think before I typed it would be easier for me - I did some searching and apparently the latin term “ab” means before and original is obvious The post went on to say - A few words about the term “aboriginal.” American Heritage dictionary states that the word means “1. Having existed in a region from the beginning. 2. Of or relating to aborigines.” I got it from [here](http://ashp.listserv.cuny.edu/scriptsashp/wa-ashp.exe?A2=ind0105&L=americanindiansforum&T=0&P=6717) Is that right? ---
**Author:** ![BarnOwl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e95f7d/32.png) [@BarnOwl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BarnOwl)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2006, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aboriginals-in-canada/368579/35 "2006-08-15T21:20:04Z")
[QUOTE=Poysyn] Apparently if I could actually think before I typed it would be easier for me - I did some searching and apparently the latin term “ab” means before and original is obvious The post went on to say - A few words about the term “aboriginal.” American Heritage dictionary states that the word means “1. Having existed in a region from the beginning. 2. Of or relating to aborigines.” I got it from [here](http://ashp.listserv.cuny.edu/scriptsashp/wa-ashp.exe?A2=ind0105&L=americanindiansforum&T=0&P=6717) Is that right? [/QUOTE] Sounds good to me **Poysyn**. Is your name a Brooklynized version of **Person**? It’s quite amusing. 😃😃😃 ---
**Author:** ![Poysyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Poysyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poysyn)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2006, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aboriginals-in-canada/368579/36 "2006-08-16T02:07:42Z")
The udername doesn’t really have any significance. I picked it many years ago, and my reasons aren’t really valid anymore. I would be something else now if I were to re-pick but it’s familiar to me, and a nice reminder. Thanks for asking. I wish it were something cool like a brooklynized version of person. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Savannah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@Savannah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Savannah)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2006, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aboriginals-in-canada/368579/37 "2006-08-16T04:48:52Z")
[QUOTE=Ms Macphisto] nd the police didn’t do much of anything about it, since, after all, who cares about a bunch of First Nations women? :rolleyes: I agree with you about the terminology, **Harmonious Discord** , but other than that, we haven’t got a whole lot to be proud of with regards to our treatment of First Nations peoples up here either. [/QUOTE] What she said. Brings to mind one Robert “Willie” Pickton. _Ah, it’s a bunch of junkie Native hookers from the Downtown Eastside who are missing…_ Absolutely disgusting; the way that the disappearance of those women were treated. \< / off topic \> ---
**Author:** ![BarnOwl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e95f7d/32.png) [@BarnOwl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BarnOwl)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2006, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aboriginals-in-canada/368579/38 "2006-08-16T12:34:47Z")
[QUOTE=Savannah] What she said. Brings to mind one Robert “Willie” Pickton. _Ah, it’s a bunch of junkie Native hookers from the Downtown Eastside who are missing…_ Absolutely disgusting; the way that the disappearance of those women were treated. \< / off topic \> [/QUOTE] Speaking of names… **Poysyn** is funny, **Savannah** is wonderfully romantic. Hope you so named your daughter. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aboriginals-in-canada/368579.md?page=1)