Thanks, all. I've been thinking a lot about civic nationalism. It's the idea of a nation that people adhere to ideas and institutions, rather than forming a nation around an ethnic group.
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It's closely tied to multiculturalism.
Here in Canada, our national framework is based on the imperial aims of two founding cultures, the English and the French, one of which defeated the other but kept it on as a junior partner. Together they dealt with, and then controlled, the indigenous peoples who lived here first. They strategically invited workers from Europe, South and East Asia, North Africa and the West Indies to join them. Over time, the occupation relationship with indigenous people unravelled and a new one is being made.
One tension in this framework is that all citizens in the nation are treated as equals, but all cultures are not. We have city festivals for Chinese holidays, sure, but that only emphasizes that the other 364 days of the year are for the norm of regular anglophone-francophone things. The other cultures are a treat, not a regular meal.
There are so many problems with this cultural framework. First and foremost is our inability to find a just structure for inclusion and recognition of indigenous peoples. We've thankfully started a process of reconciliation, but nobody knows where it will end up.
A second one is that the role of immigrant cultures is secondary and contingent. We were invited, and we are tolerated, and we are legally treated as almost equals. But that invitation can be rescinded if the founder cultures see a reason to or if they just get in a bad mood.
I am interested in other frameworks; especially those that treat the promise of multiculturalism and civic nationalism seriously. Where Canada is the people and the cultures who are here, right now, treated equally. Where we retain the connections and through lines from origin cultures, and collectively own them. Instead of being an Anglo-French nation with Indian people in it, we could be an Indian nation, and a Chinese one, and a Haitian one.
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I don't know how this other kind of framework works in practice. One part of it, I think, is recognizing that if everyone in Canada is "us", our history goes much farther back than Frobisher and Cartier. Our books trace the stream of history across the ocean back to England and France, but it includes what happened here for indigenous people going back to time immemorial, even when no English and French people were in sight. And it streams back to Kashmir and Guangdong and Jamaica and Italy.
About 2 million Canadians trace their ancestry back to Italy; that's about 5% of the population.
Italy's history in the 1800s is one of throwing off foreign occupation and uniting into one nation - the Risorgimento - that culminated in the 1860s. The irony is that a population boom and economic downturn directly related to the unifying wars led to a generation that could not find room in the nation their parents and grandparents had made for them. A flow of emigration to the Americas, including Canada, ensued.
So, I am trying to hold an idea of Canada in my mind where the story of Italian Canadians (and West Indians and Maghrebi and Ukrainian and, and, and) is as foundational and collectively held as the story of the Great Peace and the Acadian expulsion or the national railroad. If there is a "we" here, as a Canadian, it's my story too. It feels strange and uncomfortable, which is why I started this poll. And, why, I think, it has so few responses. Anyway, I am Yes, but it's hard.
I should probably point out that many people here in Canada fucking *hate* the very idea of this kind of equitable multiculturalism. The idea that arepas and poutine are both fully and equally Canadian sounds like hell to them. This is not unusual anywhere, I don't think.
@evan hmm, but arepas and poutine aren't both fully and equally Canadian, right?
I say this as an immigrant who's moved a lot and has a multicultural identity - I don't think there's anything wrong with saying that poutine is Canadian and arepas are not. Like, if I'm trying to eat arepas, I'm not going to go to a Canadian restaurant. Am I missing something?
@being you are, and you should read the rest of the thread. In western multiculturalism we treat immigrant and indigenous cultures as secondary and subordinate and I want to think about other ways. One is to define Canada as the people who are here right now, and Canadian culture as the things those people make and do.
@evan Is this a bit?
@evan Using manager-speak euphemistically is kind of funny.
Unfortunately, results like this are less funny: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/canada-residential-schools-unmarked-graves-indigenous-children-60-minutes-2022-02-06/
@soatok maybe you should read the rest of the thread.