For the #Canada150 project, I started off as everyone else did, with a mind map. I focused primarily on myself and what I cared about in the map. I really wanted this project to focus on what I think being Canadian means, but also what I'm passionate about.
This thought developed into the idea of focusing on my activism. On my mind map I talked about being raised by parents that always encouraged my to think for myself, and were very supportive of my ideas and activist nature. However, I had to connect that back to Canada in some way, so I thought about focusing on the different social, political, ethnic, and cultural people living in Canada. My original idea was to take different symbols from different groups in Canada, make them into flags, and somehow incorporate the Canadian maple leaf (and other Canadian symbols) into them.
But the more I thought about it, the less I liked this idea, so I abandoned it. I still wanted to focus on the diversity of Canada, and I still wanted to bring my activism into that. So, instead I decided to create a video. In this video, I really wanted to bring out and spotlight my activism, seeing as the whole project is supposed to be about you as a Canadian and how you view your country.
While I haven't created the video yet, I do have an idea of what I want to focus on throughout it. In the video I want to talk about the different social and political issues Canada has come across. I don't want to shy away from the controversial, or the horrific parts of my country's history; and therefore I will be talking about residential schools, the fight for LGBTQ+ rights, Japanese internment camps, and the women's suffrage movement. However, I also want to focus on the strides we as a country have made towards these issues. As well as how lucky I am to live in country that allows me to challenge the government, tell them they are being unfair or prejudiced, and speak up about issues like the ones we've faced in the past.
More than anything, I want this video to discuss the mistakes Canada has made in the past, their acknowledgment of those wrongs, and how they will still make mistakes in the future (because no nation or person is perfect). I want this video to talk about how what makes Canada so different and wonderful is that, unlike so many other countries, we acknowledge our wrongdoings, apologize for them, and strive to do better.
