I remember realising about gender stereotypes at a very young age but didn’t understand the implications they had at the time. I went to a babysitter who lived just down the street from my house from before I even started going to school till I was old enough that my parents were comfortable giving me a key and letting me be home after school by myself before they got home from work. There were around 8 kids who also went to this babysitter, mostly boys and only a couple girls. I remember hearing the older boys complaining that our babysitter Penny was really mean to the boys but really nice to the girls and that she favoured them over us. One day one of the older boys asked Penny why she was so mean to us and nice to the girls and she replied “You boys are too rowdy and loud, the girls are nice and quiet.” This was a stereotype that stuck with me for many years of my childhood, that boys were wild and poorly behaved while girls were polite and well behaved. I didn’t realise till I was much older that this was a gender stereotype and wasn’t always true.

I grew up in the east end of Regina. My neighbourhood consisted of almost exclusively white people. In my class at my elementary school I didn’t have any non-white classmates until grade 6 when a new student moved to my school. I remember being a little bit surprised to see that he was black, as I don’t think I had ever met a black person before that point in my life. As far as I remember nobody in my class ever bullied this new student or was rude to him because of his skin colour and he was able to quickly become friends with us, however we all saw him as different from the rest of us. Not being looked at differently by your peers based on skin colour was a privilege I had never even considered before then, I had always been the same skin tone as all my friends and classmates. Before this point in my life I hadn’t even thought about my skin colour, to me my skin was just the colour that skin normally was, after making this first black friend I realised that I had a particular skin colour just like everyone else and I wasn’t necessarily the “normal” colour I just happened to be the majority in the part of the world that I live in.

This article talks about the “approved system of farming” that was put forward by Indian Commissioner Hayter Reed in 1889. Simply put, Reed wanted indigenous farmers to farm the way peasants from other countries do, with minimal resources like a few acres of land and one or two cows. He expected indigenous farmers to optimise their small amount of farmland rather to expand for larger fields. Since peasants from other countries were able to successfully farm with mere hand tools it was expected of Indian farmers to be able to do the same.

Farming was a new development for Indians, as prior to the arrival of European settlers they were nomadic hunters and gatherers. in addition to this there were heavy restrictions put on Indian farmers, restrictions that were not put on the white farmers that came from Europe. They were restricted on how much of their product they were allowed to sell, how much resources such as oxen and seed they could have, and were not permitted to use machinery to help them farm. The government forbid their use of machinery as they felt that the Indian farmers should be doing all the labour manually as using machinery to get out of hard work would make them lazy.

Near the end of the 1880’s some Indian farmers began to form groups and work together to develop better techniques for farming as well combine their earnings to purchase better farming equipment. However this was forbidden in Hayter Reed’s system, as all Indigenous farmers were to work alone independently of each other and were not permitted to use more advanced farming equipment. Inspectors would be sent to Indian farms to make sure they were abiding by the rules and not working together or using machinery. Reed believed that Indians were lazy people and would do anything to get out of hard work and that is why they had to do their work by hand as opposed to using machinery. White farmers were fully permitted to use machinery however, and because of this it was very difficult for the Indians to compete on the market with White farmers.

After years of not being able to farm successfully due to the restrictions put on them, many Indian farmers stopped farming. in 1893 some Indigenous farmers attempted to protest the various unfair restrictions that were put on them to the house of commons. This was unsuccessful as Reed insisted that there was good reason for all of the harsh rules he had in place. Unfortunately the Indigenous people were never able to have their restrictions lifted to see the same success as white farmers in this time period.

I was born in Regina Saskatchewan, I have lived in Regina my entire life. My dad was also born in Regina, and my mom was born in a small town in Saskatchewan but moved to Regina as a teenager. The majority of my family lives in Regina, everyone who shares my last name lives here, with my uncle on my mom’s side in Alberta being my only close relative not living here. For me Regina has always been home because of this, I can’t imagine possibly considering anywhere else to truly be my home.

In Timothy J. Stanley’s writing “Nationalist histories and multicultural classrooms” he talks about how some students feels as though they are “learning about somebody else’s history” rather than their own when learning about Canadian history. This is a concept I think I can relate to. Though I come from a European background, which most of Canadian history focuses on, my ancestors are Hungarians, who were not among the first settlers of North America. My family did not move here until the 1960’s, long after most Canadian history that we learn about had already happened, and Canada being established as a full fledged country.

Though it’s hard for me to know for sure having never lived anywhere else. I’m sure living in Regina my entire life has influenced my views in ways I don’t even realise. I have never viewed Regina as a particularly notable place and always assumed that other cities in Canada of similar size would be mostly the same as living in Regina. I have considered and would be open to the possibility of living somewhere else, but I think at some point I would want to return to Regina as I will always consider it my home.

In this reading Thomas King says “The truth about stories is that’s all we are” which I interpret to mean that the way other perceive us and how we are remembered is only through stories about us. This had me reflecting on the recent death of my grandpa and how all I have now are the countless stories about him I’ve heard through him and my dad telling me. My grandpa would tell stories about his time in Hungary for entertainment at family gatherings as well as tell stories about his time in the prisoner of war camps he spent many years of his life in to show his grandchildren how fortunate we are to be living in a better place in Canada and more peaceful time without the dangers of war.

Some stories I think have stuck with me and shaped who I am are the stories my dad has told me from when he was young how my grandpa would work three jobs just to be able to make ends meet. My grandparents came to Canada with nothing, they had no money or higher education and couldn’t even speak English at the time, however through hard work they were able to sustain a life for themselves and four sons. Because of these stories I had heard about my grandpa while growing up I learned to really respect the value of hard work and always strive to follow his example of taking nothing for granted and working towards the life I want to live.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

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