Summary Of I Love This Land Is Chief R By Laforme

The author of I Love This Land is Chief R. Stacey LaForme. An Indigenous soldier, he's the elected Chief of the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation. Born and raised in Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation, Chief Laforme has served his community for over twenty years since being first elected to council in 1999. LaForme served his community in Southern Ontario not only as Chief, but as a poet. Themes of neglect, injustice, comradery, and determination to serve your community are very prevalent. Throughout this poem, Laforme seems to be talking to another person, the poem explores the relationship between an Indigenous soldier and a soldier from the Canadian government, as well as neglect from the Canadian government. “Oh, we still stood shoulder to shoulder in the parades, but the government thought that

Still it was much more than I.” (Laforme, lines 7-11) This specific quote from the poem explains, despite standing shoulder to shoulder and doing the same work, the government thought that the other soldiers' lives were more valuable than the lives of the Indigenous community and how Indigenous soldiers were neglected, when others were given land, they were given nothing no matter how long they had waited. “I am not envious of you brother, I believe you deserve even more than you received.” (Laforme, line 12) This quote from the poem as well as many others, represents how the Indigenous soldiers felt. The other soldiers were given land and property, they were envious and felt neglected from their country, but that did not mean they could not consider themselves brothers. I Love This Land by Chief R. Stacey LaForme is a poem that teaches its reader about the neglect the Indigenous community faced from the Canadian government, but also the relationships between the soldiers from the Canadian government and the Indigenous