Tell me the history of Canada. Are you reeling off the settler narrative?

What is Canada? Truly a "cultural mosaic" as opposed to the American "melting pot?" Is our national policy of multiculturalism really something to celebrate? Eva Mackey, in The House of Difference, argues that the Canadian public culture is not breaking from the exclusionary version of the history of Canada. In fact, she argues, historically marginalised groups are only recognized in limited and unthreatening forms of difference and thus are agents that perpetuate the settler myth. Mackey explores the "narratives of nationhood" and questions its accuracy in portraying the true Canadian national identity.

Think of a Native Indian living before Confederation and chances are you're envisioning a man with an elaborate headdress who resides in a teepee. It could be argued that Aboriginals contribute to our national identity through their art, but as Mackey emphasizes, the visibility of Aboriginals only restate the idea that racial oppression is over, a thing of the past. Casting off previous injustices toward Aboriginals does not entail the acknowledgment that processes still need to be undertaken to secure equality for other minority groups, not just the First Nations.

The national identity was constructed and defined according to those who undertook the project of nation-building. We need to step back and reassess what it means to be Canadian. An avid spectator of hockey? A Molson Canadian drinker? Anti-American? We may be one step closer and more patriotic if we, as an "imagined community," can look at all ethnic backgrounds as equally contributory to our nation and acknowledge where Aboriginality is truly situated in our Canadian narrative.