Jacques Cartier
Jacques Cartier’s voyage across the Atlantic resulted in the first interaction between Europe and the Indigenous Peoples of Canada. Cartier’s interactions with Indigenous peoples during these voyages introduced and set lasting patterns of settler colonialism that would last for centuries. It all started when Cartier first landed on the Gaspé Peninsula in 1534. Cartier immediately claimed the land for France by erecting a large Christian cross without the consent of the Indigenous Peoples already living there. This first act by European settlers effectively asserted European dominance and blatantly disregarded the existence of Indigenous Peoples. What was thousands of years of Indigenous stewardship was suddenly ruined by European greed and expansionist ambition.
During Cartier’s second voyage in the winter of 1535–1536, his crew became stranded near what is now modern-day Quebec City and suffered from severe scurvy due to Vitamin C deficiency. Approximately 85 of his 110 crew members became critically ill. Local Indigenous Peoples recognized the suffering of Cartier’s crew and generously shared their traditional medical knowledge by providing white cedar tea, which is rich in Vitamin C. Thus, despite the threat to their land and autonomy, the Indigenous community effectively treated scurvy. Despite this act of kindness and the effectiveness of Indigenous medicine, Cartier did not credit Indigenous knowledge. Instead, he attributed their recovery to divine intervention. While it was clear that they would not have survived without aid from Indigenous leaders, they believed that their survival came from God. Upon returning to France, Cartier and his crew built a shrine to a saint rather than acknowledging the medical expertise and generosity of the Indigenous peoples who had saved their lives.
These early explorers’ refusal to value or even acknowledge the value of Indigenous groups marked the beginning of a long-standing settler colonial pattern in Canada. Cartier’s attitudes foreshadowed how Indigenous health practices are frequently dismissed or marginalized in favour of western medicine, which is a pattern that persists to varying degrees today. Cartier’s interactions, therefore, not only initiated a colonial claim over Indigenous lands but also set a harmful precedent for the treatment of Indigenous medical knowledge and practices, which proved to lay a foundation for ongoing biases in the Canadian health system.
