Top News - February - 2003
These three women helped organize the traditional Mohawk Midwinter Ceremonies, which were held Feb. 7 at the Ohahase Education Centre on Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory. In the foreground is Cheryle Maracle; Jan Hill is in the middle and Carol Anne Maracle is the furthest from the camera.
Photo by Ann Hanson
Manitoulin chiefs suspicious of Bill C-7 "propaganda"
Traditional medicine gains respect in clinical setting
Native Art at the AGO
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Manitoulin chiefs suspicious of Bill C-7 "propaganda"
Margo Little, Birchbark Writer, Manitoulin
The First Nations Governance Act (FNGA) proposed by Indian Affairs Minister Robert Nault has some frightening components, according to some Manitoulin Island observers.
First Nations members from Zhiibaahaasing to Whitefish River gathered in M'Chigeeng Feb. 3 and 4 to examine the provisions of Bill C-7.
The legislation was first introduced in the House of Commons as Bill C-61 on June 14, 2002. A House of Commons standing committee on Aboriginal affairs has been conducting public hearings on the proposed act in communities across the country.
Chief Patrick Madahbee of the Ojibways of Sucker Creek warned that similar legislation south of the border has "detrimentally affected tribes and led to the break-up of some tribal lands in the United States. If you participate in the consultation process for this act, you run the risk of forfeiting your inherent rights," he said. "This act is dangerous because it perpetuates government colonialism and outside control of our communities.
"There's no rhyme or reason to the government's timetable on this legislation," he said. "In fact, the term 'legislation' is worrisome because it means any government can change it at any time. The legislation is dangerous because it can be changed at the whim of any government."
If another political party gains power, First Nations sovereignty might be in jeopardy, he suggested. In his view, the Alliance, the Progressive Conservatives and the Bloc Québécois have the reputation of trying to diminish Aboriginal rights.
Chief Madahbee condemned the government's waste of money on what he termed "a road show delivering propaganda" across the country. He dismissed the legislation as "a piece of garbage" and called upon other community leaders to reject the trend to "municipalize First Nations.
"Self-determination is not the government's to give," he said. "No one can give it (self-government) to you. We have to set our own standards in place first. Then it is our direction, not the government's direction. Community-driven processes are how we remain strong."
Zhiibaahaasing First Nation Chief Irene Kells also expressed misgivings about the legislation scheduled for royal assent in June. She pointed out that her small community on western Manitoulin Island has been struggling since 1993 to gain stability. "We don't have the resources that some communities do," she said. "I don't know how we are going to do it (get all the policies in place); we don't have the people."
"We have a lot of issues and barriers to overcome. The timeframe given by the FNGA is unrealistic to me. We need to read between the lines of the legislation and see what is good and what is bad that the government wants to see applied in our communities," she concluded.
Franklin Paibonsai, the newly elected chief of the Whitefish River First Nation, admitted the FNGA sets off alarm bells for him too.
"We have to oppose this legislation because they (government) don't honour our treaties and our rights. That's what it boils down to at the end of the day," he said.
An inadequate resource base has been impeding First Nation economic development, in his view. "The government uses the resources off the First Nations traditional territory and we have never benefitted from those resources," he said. "We need access to those resources; that's where we have to go."
"We have demonstrated our ability to manage our own resources," he said. "We are accountable and responsible to our own people.
"Financial accountability and transparency are already there. We need our own vision for our own community because we understand our community best. We have our own ideas, dreams, traditions and values and that's what will take us into the future."
M'Chigeeng community member Grace Fox expressed frustration with INAC's methods of public consultation. "There is a definite need for everyone to be well-informed about this," she said. "A lot of people don't realize how crucial this legislation is and how it will affect their future. The government should be communicating in a style that is relevant to the people.
"Every time there are changes happening that affect Indian people the common people are left behind," she said. "It's like a train passing by and we have to run and try to catch it if we want to have our input. They have all these technological presentations, but it takes community members a long time to decipher the information and to understand it. The government needs to consult with us in our own way and in our own language. Make us partners in the process. We don't want to have to wait for a train to come by with Bob Nault on it."
Jean Andrews Madahbee of the Whitefish River band was equally upset with the mode of public consultation. She noted that the Powerpoint presentations used by INAC representatives are alienating to many Elders. "They use all those big words and all that technology just to confuse the Aboriginal people," she said. "Then they won't even be interested in making comments (to the standing committee). Why don't they make it more simple?"
"Language and culture are the lifeline of the Anishinaabe people," added Violet McGregor on behalf of the Ojibwe Cultural Foundation Elders Advisory Committee.
"We have to hang on to our culture and our identity for the sake of the generations to come."
Traditional medicine gains respect in clinical setting
Annette Francis, Birchbark Writer, OttawaMore than 800 people attended the National Aboriginal Health Organization's first annual conference at the Congress Centre in Ottawa from Jan. 21 to 23.
Participants came to listen and learn from presenters from all across Turtle Island. The workshops focused on topics such as midwifery, fetal alcohol syndrome, traditional medicine, and careers for aboriginal youth.
Ruby Van Bibber, traditional medicine co-ordinator for the First Nations Health Program at Whitehorse General Hospital, gave participants an overview of the services currently being offered under the direction of Yukon traditional Elders.
The program was developed to implement traditional alternative methods for healing within the hospital and to gather traditional knowledge to pass it on to their youth. The program is available to anyone who requests it. Traditional medicines and foods are offered, local Elders volunteer to work with patients, and a dietitian oversees the menu for the traditional foods program, that includes moose and caribou. Van Bibber said that local hunters usually donate some of their meat, but this year meat was scarce and the program received some from the government's game branch.
Van Bibber said, "Overall success of the programs offered here are because we are here for the people, and we get a lot of feedback. People say it's good to see our own people here, on staff."
The staff communicate with patients to help them understand the doctors, and also help the doctors to understand Aboriginal patients' needs.
Van Bibber believes the traditional medicine program is in high demand because of the effect of residential schools. She says people are finally beginning to feel good about who they are. They are interested in relearning the medicines, and in going back to the old way of life.
Kathy Bird is a registered nurse who works in traditional medicine at the Peguis Health Services in Manitoba. Because of limited space at the health centre, Bird and her husband, Mide Megwun, the co-ordinator, offer a traditional health clinic out of their home.
The clinic has been offered for 18 years and has been very successful, so successful that people come from areas such as Winnipeg and Ontario. Bird said that at the last three-day clinic, 81 people came to see the healer.
"The reason for the success of the program is because the requests came from the people, and we grew accordingly." Bird also believes that 'part of the success is its uniqueness, because it is in a friendly, home environment, not in a clinical setting."
Get With It, the conference slogan, is exactly what traditional teacher and herbalist Janice Longboat encouraged participants to do. Longboat stressed that healing is a balance of all things. She said, "We need to pick up the rest of our medicine bundle. My suggestion is to turn off the TV and computer. Technology won't do it for us, we have to do it for ourselves."
Longboat said that organizations like the National Aboriginal Health Organization can provide the tools, but the healing journey is up to the individual. "We need to reset the agenda. We are running out of time. It's about the celebration of life."
Native Art at the AGO
Kathy Walker, Birchbark Writer, Toronto
Piece by art piece, the works of Native artists have slowly been receiving recognition from the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO). But last month, the AGO seemingly went into fast forward mode, by adding a substantial number of Native works to its permanent collection.
A porcupine quill medicine bag, pipe bowls and a gunstock club crafted by nations living around the Great Lakes during the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries are among the pieces now displayed in the gallery's Canadian wing.
The new exhibit is entitled "Meeting Ground," in light of the fact that the art from this period was forged shortly after first contact between Native peoples and Europeans.
Before this new addition, Native art at the gallery consisted of an exhibit of Haida totem poles and a reinstallation of work by Canadian painter Edmund Morris (1871-1913) called No Escapin' This: Confronting Images of Aboriginal Leadership, developed in collaboration with Onondaga curator/photographer Jeff Thomas.
Recognizing that the historical works of art from the new exhibit also have a sacred spiritual connection for Aboriginal people, all the objects were purified before being shown to the public, and anyone who visits the exhibit can make an offering of tobacco.
Richard Hill, curatorial assistant of Canadian art at the AGO and of Cree/mixed ancestry, said that seeing the purification ceremony made him fully realize the "rich life" and "living connection" of the objects, which he helped select and acquire for the gallery.
Ironically, it was this rich life of the objects that has kept them from being featured prominently in the gallery's halls. Because each object had been used for a specific function, none was recognized as art by the mainstream arts community for most of the past century.
"Historically, the idea was non-western cultures were ethnographically interesting, but not for art," said Hill. "Westerns tend to think that it can't be art if it's functional, which is really a silly idea -it's a separation of art and life."
"These are objects where art is integrated into people's lives. It's a much more interesting model than the dysfunctional model [of art] in the western world."
Hill added that a big organization like the AGO is slow to change, and this also prevented the presence of Aboriginal art at the gallery.
Every effort was made to learn the history of the centuries-old pieces on display.
Unfortunately, for many of the objects, their known history begins and ends with their European collectors.
"With a lot of these objects, unfortunately, the collectors weren't interested in the history of them, they were just picking up souvenirs," said Hill. "So you have a lot of objects floating around where the specific history is lost."
In the event that someone steps forward to lay claim to an object, the gallery has created a comprehensive set of guidelines concerning cultural property rights and repatriation of objects to their rightful owners.
According to Hill, the exhibit is "a first step," and "a lab for proceeding with how we're going to change the Canadian wing."
