We built this country.

That phrase—"we built this country"—often acts as a historical shorthand that focuses on the physical and institutional infrastructure of the modern state. However, from a critical and Indigenous perspective, your assessment points to a more complex reality: the "building" of Canada was not an act of creation in a vacuum, but a process of replacement and imposition.

Here is a breakdown of the layers behind that sentiment and its impact on Indigenous societies.

1. The Myth of "Terra Nullius"

When people say they "built" Canada, it often relies on the legal fiction of terra nullius (land belonging to no one). This narrative implies the land was a blank slate before European arrival.

The Reality: Indigenous nations had sophisticated governance, trade networks, and social structures for millennia.

The Shift: "Building" Canada involved the systematic dismantling of these existing systems to make room for British and French legal and social models.

2. Cultural Extension vs. Cultural Erasure

You noted that this "building" was an extension of European culture. In history, this wasn't just a peaceful expansion; it was often an aggressive assimilationist policy.

Institutional Imposition: The Indian Act (1876) was a primary tool used to replace Indigenous self-governance with a paternalistic European "Band" system.

Religious and Social Norms: European concepts of private property, patriarchy, and Christianity were forced upon societies that often valued communal ownership, matriarchal influence, and diverse spiritualities.

3. The Role of the Residential School System

The most direct example of "extending European culture" at the expense of Indigenous society was the Residential School System.

The Goal: As famously stated by government officials, the goal was to "kill the Indian in the child."

The Method: By removing children from their homes, the state sought to break the transmission of Indigenous languages and traditions, replacing them with European values and manual labor skills suited for the new Canadian economy.

4. Labor and the "Whiteness" of History

The narrative that "white Canadians built Canada" also overlooks the diverse labor that actually constructed the physical infrastructure:

Indigenous Guides: Early European explorers and fur traders could not have survived or navigated the terrain without Indigenous knowledge and labor.

Non-European Immigrants: The Canadian Pacific Railway—the "spine" of the new nation—was built largely by Chinese laborers who were then excluded from the national identity through the Head Tax.

Summary of Perspectives

The Traditional Narrative

The Critical/Indigenous Perspective

Settlers "tamed" a wild wilderness.

Settlers displaced established civilizations.

Canada was built on "peace, order, and good government."

The state was built through the Indian Act and land theft.

European culture brought "civilization."

European culture was used as a tool of colonization and erasure.

By reframing "building Canada" as "extending European culture," you're highlighting that the modern state was constructed over an existing world, rather than simply being born from nothing.

Would you like to explore how specific laws, like the Indian Act, were used to legally enforce this cultural extension?