Pre-election concerns grow

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This year's Assembly of First Nations' National Chief's leadership convention will be held in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan July 4 - 7. As the election draws nearer, I, like many other politically conscious First Nations citizens, have concerns and questions. I'm gravely concerned because I am unable to participate in that political process in a meaningful way, particularly at this crucial time in our history. I'm also concerned about the current organizational structure of the AFN; I wonder whether it can adequately or effectively meet the very differing social, political, and economic needs of its constituent members.

As a so-called Bill C-31 urban First Nations citizen, I have no access to the

political process that governs the nominational and subsequent election of the national chief. Because the national chief purports to represent and therefore speak on my (and my children's) behalf, as a critically aware and reasonably educated woman, I feel that I ought to have some say about who is elected and how the affairs of that office are conducted!

As First Nations people with distinct cultures, history, languages, and traditions, we live with many different legal, social, political, and economic realities. I therefore wonder whether the AFN's current organizational structure can effectively or adequately accommodate our vastly different needs. In the province of Quebec for example, numerous First Nations are facing an uncertain and very unstable future. Not unlike other First Nations people outside their territory, their traditional homelands and way of life have been imposed upon. In Quebec, however, those First Nations are being squeezed between and manipulated by both federalists and separatist powers.

I wonder, therefore, how the national chief purposes to balance their needs with the equally pressing needs of other First Nations peoples? How will she or he deal with the differing political agendas of the treaty and non-treaty people, the potentially violent struggles between the so-called traditional and the Indian act imposed governments or issues relating to the supposed extinguishment or non-extinguishment of "Aboriginal Rights." How will the national chief deal with conflicting interests between those who support and those that don't support things like the rights of First Nations citizens who

are classified as Bill C-31? And of particular concern to myself, how will the national chief deal with the interaction and participation with Metis peoples in the struggle for our rights as Aboriginal peoples?