Dr. Cindy Blackstock remembers picking pine cones as a child in northern B.C. and hearing racial slurs hurled her way.

During games of B次元官网网址楥owboys and Indians,B次元官网网址� she always wanted to be a cowboy, B次元官网网址渂ecause you live longer in that game.B次元官网网址�

The advocate and executive director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society has dedicated her working life toward building better protections for Indigenous children and their families through compensation for past discrimination.

Below is an excerpt from the Black Press MediaB次元官网网址檚 Off The Page podcast, which can be heard on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or everywhere podcasts are heard.

Q: Do you remember (racist comments) being directed specifically at yourself?

Blackstock: Yes - theyB次元官网网址檇 call at us other kids would repeat what their parents had said. Like youB次元官网网址檙e a dirty Indian and all the rest of it. And we would play Cowboys and Indians because that was the game. And everybody, including me, wanted to be a cowboy because you live longer in that game.

It was all around us and everything that you did, even opening up books. And youB次元官网网址檇 only see white kids with a nice dog. And then from what you would see on television, the really stereotypical and aggressive portrayal of then mostly Native Americans.

We have generations that had been so hurt by residential schools and had no support, and had a lot of judgment from the rest of Canadians about what they were doing.

Q: What was it that you wanted to push harder (for Indigenous youth)?

Blackstock: I think, first of all, the magnificence of these kids, and in many ways, they had bigger dreams for themselves too. And I just thought, B次元官网网址榃hy canB次元官网网址檛 this happen for them?B次元官网网址� B次元官网网址� I was privileged a few years ago to go down and meet with members of Martin Luther KingB次元官网网址檚 family, and some of the activists around him, and they said you have to be prepared to stand in the winds of discrimination.

For the rest of the interview, visit .

New episodes of Off The Page drop every Wednesday.

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