Source: Global Times New Media
Recently, before an All-Star Game of the American Professional Basketball League (NBA) in Salt Lake City, Jully Black, a black female singer from Canada, sang a Canadian national anthem, "Oh! O Canada.
However, a small change she made to the national anthem during her singing quickly attracted the attention of many European and American media.
It turned out that in "Oh! Canada" The original lyrics of the Canadian national anthem should be: "O Canada! Our home and native land!” Translated Chinese is: "Oh! Canada Our Home and Homeland".
However, when Blake sang, he changed the preposition "and" in the phrase "Our home and native land" to "on", thus changing the lyrics to "Our home on native land".
Although it may seem like a small change, its practical significance is enormous. According to reports by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), the BBC and the Washington Post, this change is equivalent to pointing out that Canada's homeland is built on the land of North American Indians. This is fundamentally different from the original lyrics, which regarded the land of the Indians as the "homeland and homeland" of the Canadians themselves.
At present, Black's change to the Canadian national anthem has attracted the attention and reports of many European and American media. According to reports by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), the BBC and the Washington Post, Blake's changes have received a lot of praise - especially for the Canadian indigenous people.
Among them, CBC said in the report that some indigenous Indians said that Black's change to the Canadian national anthem is very commendable, because the lyrics of the original Canadian national anthem "Canada, our homeland and homeland" are not in line with the truth in the eyes of many Indians, and Black's change can make the world better understand the actual experience and experience of North American Indians.
According to the BBC, Blake herself said that the reason why she decided to make this change to the Canadian national anthem is because in recent years, many places in Canada have been exposed that the bones of many indigenous Indian children are buried in unmarked cemeteries under Catholic residential schools built by European colonists. The dark history of persecution of Aboriginal children by European colonists once made Black refuse to sing Canada's national anthem.
However, when invited to sing Canada's national anthem again, Black decided to simply start with the lyrics of the national anthem and tell the truth.
"'Our homeland and homeland' is a lie," she said, "and 'Our homeland is built on the homeland of the Indians' is the truth."
Of course, some Canadians have expressed displeasure with Blake's change of the national anthem, saying she was deliberately creating controversy and division. Among them, a Canadian right-wing media personality named Lorrie Goldstein defended Canada's national anthem, saying that the phrase "our home and homeland" means that Canada is the home and homeland of all people born in Canada, regardless of when they were born.
In the comment section of this post, some people even hinted that Black's move was helping China destabilize Canada.
Finally, in Geng Zhige's view, although Blake's approach is worthy of recognition, in 2023, watching those who are asking Western colonialists for historical justice can still only make such "small" changes, but it is sad. Moreover, for countries and nations that have obtained true national independence, Western public opinion will give people a sense of nondescriptity in the pursuit of Black's move in public opinion.
After all, if Blake's approach is really praised by most people, as these Western media say, then why did the Canadian government not respond to public opinion and directly modify the lyrics of the national anthem, or use actual actions to repent and compensate for the colonization and killing of Indians?