Will the new law intended to end discrimination lead to greater tension?

Posted March 24, 2010 By móniyáw

MONTREAL — Kahnawake, the Mohawk community of 8,000 on Montreal’s South Shore, could see its population double as a result of a proposed federal law that aims to end discrimination against aboriginal women.

If passed, Bill C-3 would amend Canada’s Indian Act and extend Indian status to the grandchildren of First Nations women who married non-First Nations men.

Currently, only grandchildren of First Nations men who marry non-First Nations women are granted Indian status and such accompanying rights as tax exemptions and money for education.

. . .

Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl has said he has no idea how much it will cost to end gender discrimination in the Indian Act and has announced no new funding.

“We’ve been warning people about the McIvor decision” and what it could mean for Kahnawake, said Joe Delaronde, a Mohawk band council spokesman.

“The pot of money will stay the same but there will be more demands on it,” Delaronde said. “There will be shortfalls.”

Under federal law, aboriginal communities receive funding based on Ottawa’s band-member registries for education, health care and other services.

The rules around funding are complicated, this “sound bite” does not completely explain the complexity of the rules around those who qualify for funding. A number of bands will struggle to meet the demands placed by the needs of new members, but it is hard for a group that has complained of unfair treatment and discrimination in the past to now ignore the needs of others.

The full article is here.

Categories: Rights
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Learn ceremonial etiquette and protocols of First Nations

Posted March 10, 2010 By móniyáw

Growing up on the Big River First Nation, Sylvia McAdam experienced first hand the culture and rich heritage of traditional Cree family life. Between the ages of seven and 13, she was skinning rabbits, plucking ducks and spending weeks at a time out on the trapline with her family.

“It was truly a wonderful life. When I went to university I thought everyone had experienced these same quiet and ceremonial times as I had growing up,” she said.

“When I discovered that wasn’t the case, I thought how these folks had missed out on so much.”

McAdam went on to get a degree in human justice from the University of Regina and a bachelor of laws from the University of Saskatchewan before joining the Saskatchewan Indian Cultural Centre (SICC) in Saskatoon. Her latest project at the centre melds both academic training and her First Nation knowledge in a new book, Cultural Teachings: First Nations Protocols and Methodologies.

. . . .

You can purchase a copy and create a review of Cultural Teachings: First Nations Protocols and Methodologies (and help support this site!).

Categories: Uncategorized
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Parallel between Avatar and Alberta Oil Sands

Posted March 5, 2010 By móniyáw

Watching the scenes in the movie Avatar depicting ‘unobtainium’ mining felt eerily like reliving my trip to the tar sands – the pristine forests being torn away to create ugly strip mines, the giant trucks, the obsessive drive for a dwindling resource. The only thing missing from the theatre were the toxic fumes so prevalent when flying over the tar sands. (more…)

Categories: Business, Health
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Classified ad hate crime

Posted March 4, 2010 By móniyáw

First Nations leaders in Manitoba are expressing outrage about an online classified ad that offered to round up and “extract” aboriginal youth from parts of Winnipeg and transport them like wild animals to reserves or an area of the city where many aboriginal people live.

The ad, titled “Native Extraction Service,” was posted on the website UsedWinnipeg.com, but was taken down by 1:38 p.m. CT on Thursday

[...]

(more…)

Categories: Crime, First Nation
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Russian skaters extend gesture of goodwill with help from First Nations

Posted February 21, 2010 By móniyáw

VANCOUVER - World ice dance champions Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin hope a gesture of goodwill from First Nations leaders in B.C. brings them good luck at the Vancouver Olympics.

The Russians won the compulsory dance Friday at the Pacific Coliseum and sat draped in traditional native blankets, a gift from Canada’s Four Host First Nations.

“I think we will become friends and that is why we wear it today,” Shabalin said. “We want to show that we are open to friendship for everyone.”

Domnina and Shabalin caused a furor at the European figure skating championships last month with their original dance program they modelled after Australian Aborigines.

Clad in dark-skinned costumes covered with leaves and feathers, and skating to music that included a didgeridoo riff, the Russians were called out for cultural theft by Aborginal leaders in Australia and First Nations leaders in B.C., who requested a meeting with the skaters. The Russians obliged.

[...]

A great story of how Aboriginal cultures from two different countries help members of a third country gain understanding and appreciation. You can read the full story here.

Categories: Culture, Education, Uncategorized
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Canadian Aboriginals need justice, not tributes

Posted February 16, 2010 By móniyáw

The 2010 winter Olympics kicked off in Vancouver, British Columbia with its opening ceremonies on Friday, February 12, 2010. Being
perhaps one of the least athletically-minded people on the planet, I wasn’t even aware the ceremonies were happening
until comments started flooding my Twitter timeline. I would have ignored the tweets were it not for the praise people were giving
for my country’s tribute to our indigenous peoples, which immediately started to give me the creeps. Let me explain…

The Aboriginal peoples of Canada are comprised of three groups: First Nations, which is actually comprised of hundreds of distinct
nations or bands (such as the Mohawk Nation and the Algonquins, for example); the Inuit, who inhabit the Arctic and subarctic regions
of Canada (no, they are not “Eskimos”); and the Métis, who are of mixed Aboriginal and European (mostly French) ancestry.
According to the 2006 Canadian Census, the Aboriginal population of Canada is 1,172,790, which makes up 3.8% of Canada’s
population of 31,612,897. The Census counted 698,025 First Nations people which is 59.5% of the Aboriginal population and only 2.2%
of the overall Canadian population.

[...]

What will happen after the 2010 winter Olympics is over? In an indirect way, the Olympics has raised my awareness of Aboriginal issues
in Canada. If you read articles like this and become aware of the Highway of Tears and problems around drug and alcohol abuse, I do not
see these problems appear on the “radar” of the general population who are focussed on the Olympic competitions. As a
mechanism of social change, there is very little offered by the Olympics. Look at the article here and judge for yourself.

Categories: First Nation, Health, Inuit, Métis
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Settling land claims is an economic boon for all

Posted February 7, 2010 By móniyáw

In order for a group or population to prosper they need means and opportunity. Prosperity is something that I consider contagious; when a successful company opens a new factory in a city the residents in that city can be employed and share in the prosperity brought by the company. It is not always that simple, but for Aboriginal people it seems there is a common thread that settling land claims will lead to prosperity — perhaps that prosperity will be spiritual, cultural, or economical. The various levels of government are hiding behind the courts, and instead of negotiating land claims and bringing outstanding claims to closure, the process is allowed to drag on freezing development, opportunity, and finally prosperity.

Settling land claims will cost Canada a lot of money but those funds will prove to be an economic boon to the country one day, a national chief said Friday during a visit to Six Nations.

Assembly of First Nations Chief Shawn Atleo met with local elected councillors from the territory to hear their concerns and answer questions about many of the critical issues facing Six Nations and some of Canada’s other 633 bands.

At the end of the three-hour discussion, Coun. Claudine Vanevery-Albert asked Atleo to help with what she said was Six Nations’ most pressing issue.

“The federal and provincial government refuse to recognize our traditional lands,” said Vanevery-Albert.

“We’re always going to be under their thumbs until our land rights are recognized. All the issues we’re speaking of today go back to our need to have our land base. If the AFN can do anything, I would say work toward moving, forcing, cajoling the Crown to move forward in land issues.”

Atleo agreed, saying that mainstream thinkers are beginning to understand the tremendous economic potential that’s being lost in keeping native municipalities poor.

“By keeping us tied up in over 100 current court decisions, they are withholding an incredible human potential.”

Later, Atleo said Canadians worry about the large amounts that are owed to natives without looking at the buying power that will go into the Canadian economy when those funds are released.

[...]

You can read the full article here.

Categories: First Nation, Land Claims, Negotiations, Treaty
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Will a better relationship with First Nation develop?

Posted February 6, 2010 By móniyáw

As Aboriginal people re-emerge and assert their presence in areas where they have historically lost rights over their land, will there be a need to re-build and re-define relationships with the surrounding communities? It will be interesting to see how these groups work together and if a friendly relationship can develop that will be to the benefit of everyone.

I think it’s fair to say getting a leaked document from an unknown or strictly confidential source is the sort of thing that would normally bring joy to a journalist’s heart. But the four pages that showed up at my door early this week in a virtual plain, brown envelope brought mostly anxiety about what to do with it, if anything.

I confess I was tempted to set it aside and do nothing for the time being, give matters a chance to take whatever course they might, and then maybe follow up later to see what was happening. The fact it involved problematic relations between the Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal communities in this area made it all the more troubling. The last thing I want to do is derail anything that might help build bridges. So it’s really not necessary to tell me, as one of the people I called this week did, to be “pretty careful what you print right now.” That, coming from a politician especially, helped make up my mind finally that I couldn’t just sit on it, that I had to write something now.

…

Much has happened since then to cast a shadow over relations between the Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal communities in this area, including the angry reaction by many to the 1993 court decision that re-affirmed the Saugeen Ojibwa right to “priority” use of the fishery in the waters around the Bruce Peninsula.

My own sense is too much time has already passed before one side or the other reached out in a spirit of reconciliation. But better late than never. So, I applaud the three Ms– Miller, Murdoch and McIver — for taking advantage of the opportunity Bob Day has offered, to reach out to the Saugeen Ojibwa, and start a new dialogue, hopefully leading to a more harmonious future. And I hope the First Nations accept the invitation to talk.

You can read the full story by following the link here.

Categories: Business, Environment, Rights
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Facts expose truth in Rant about Racism

Posted February 3, 2010 By móniyáw

The blog is titled, “Rant about Racism: Reality check” – it seems anything but a rant.

I wanted to do a fact sheet so people would know exactly what First Nation people of Canada live through, but figured why reinvent the wheel (which by the way is less than half as old as the current oldest evidence of people living in Nova Scotia). Thanks to the Assembly of First Nations, here is a breakdown of facts that very few Canadians know:

The Reality for First Nations in Canada

A good article and a reality check for Canadians in general. We like to believe we are not racist, but sometimes racism is so subtle that the person who suffers from it cannot recognize the symptoms. Take a moment to look over the facts for yourself by clicking links from the original blog post.

Categories: Culture, Education, Health
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Local police and First Nation youth play together

Posted January 20, 2010 By móniyáw

Standing on the sidelines watching youth interact with police officers, I couldn’t help but smile.

It seemed like everything the organizers were hoping for.

It was a fun event, getting First Nations youth from local high schools to play volleyball together with officers from five police services.

There was time to talk to their teammates should anything be on the youth’s minds.

But just as importantly, the youth got to see officers out of their uniforms. They got to play and have some fun with men and women who were no longer sergeant George and constable Baxter. Instead, they were all teammates: Eagles, Frogs and Cranes.

It feels good to see a happy story. You can read the full article here.

Categories: First Nation, Sports, Youth
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