The Aboriginal Newspaper of British Columbia & Yukon Top news for August - 2001 Published August 20, 2001 Sam Johnston, a member of the Teslin Tlingit Dancers, performed as part of the celebrations marking the opening of Teslin Tlingit Heritage Centre in Fox Point, Yukon held June 30 to July 2. The group is made up of Johnston's family, including his 94-year-old mother, who cut the ribbon to open the centre. Sam Johnston was Teslin Tlingit chief from 1970 to 1984. In 1985, he was elected to the territorial government were he was chosen as Speaker of the Yukon Legislative Assembly, making him the first Native Canadian to occupy a Speaker's Chair in Canada. Johnston continued as Speaker until December 1992. Photo by John Zalewski Shocked by court decision Festival offers guests its best Makah whaling rights reaffirmed This is only a partial listing of the stories featured in the August 2001 issue of Raven's Eye. If you are not receiving your own copy of Raven's Eye, then you have missed out on a lot. Click here for Raven's Eye subscription information. Shocked by court decision Paul Barnsley Raven's Eye Writer West Vancouver Chief Robert Joseph, executive director of the Provincial Residential School Project, said he was deeply shocked and outraged by what he called "the disturbing decision" handed down July 10 by B.C. Chief Justice Brenner in the Alberni Indian Residential School (AIRS) civil case. The three-year-old civil trial involved seven First Nations individuals who sought damages from the government of Canada and the United Church of Canada as a result of experiencing childhood sexual abuse in the federal and church-run residential institution on Vancouver Island, which was closed in 1973. "Evident in his dismissal of one plaintiff's case, and the unusually low awards in the remaining six, the chief justice has profoundly failed to deliver proper recompense to these courageous individuals, who brought their horror-filled stories of childhood sexual abuse at the residential school into the halls of the Canadian justice system," Joseph said. The awards to the six plaintiffs range from $12,000 to $190,000. Arthur Plint, the perpetrator of the crimes, is responsible in the range of 13 to 25 per cent in each. The 82-year-old Plint is currently serving his 11-year sentence for more than 30 counts of physical and sexual abuse. Though he has served more than two-thirds of his sentence, he has been denied parole because, as stated in a parole board final report, "You do not accept responsibility for your offending. You remain an untreated sex offender and have no desire to participate in programming." In law, the plaintiffs can collect Plint's portion of the compensation from the other defendants, who will have to sue Plint for recover the awards. But that may provide little comfort. "It is apparent some of these people will receive little or no compensation after paying their legal costs," Joseph said. "Thus, this judgment shows how little value this B.C. Supreme Court case places on the lives of these people and the potential they had ripped away from them. It is this particular aspect of the judgment which is extremely insulting to these plaintiffs, their families, their communities, and their nations and to all First Nations in Canada for the negative message it imparts." But a strategy based on a questionable concept has played a role in a decision. Joseph said the government of Canada and the United Church of Canada argued at trial that conditions at the school were so horrific the plaintiffs' past and present personal circumstances could not be avoided, whether or not they had been sexually assaulted. "The application of this defence strategy in order to minimize their financial liability is depraved and morally indefensible," he added. "The fact that the chief justice seems to have bought into this argument is equally disturbing and shows that Canadian society at the highest levels has not abandoned its abusive ways." Joseph said the decision can be appealed and he hoped other victims won't be discouraged from seeking justice. "While we at the Project share in the disappointment and abandonment experienced by the plaintiffs, we nevertheless still encourage all plaintiffs across the province and the country to strengthen their resolve in their courageous battle to receive proper acknowledgment from the federal government and the churches for their pain and suffering as a result of being interned in an Indian Residential School and subjected to these parties' various abuses. On that note, we support the AIRS plaintiffs in whatever decision they make, should they decide to appeal this court ruling or not," he said. Top Festival offers guests its best Debora Lockyer Steel Raven's Eye Writer Victoria It started 17 years ago with a salmon feast for the friendship centre's neighbors, and has developed into a three-day event that attracts as many as 50,000 guests each year. The First People's Festival, held at the Royal British Columbia Museum in Victoria on Aug. 10, 11 and 12, was a real crowd pleaser, with 350 dancers, singers and drummers performing and another 30 artists showcasing their work. "The festival has been described as a celebration of friendship and understanding, because it's part of our mandate to educate the non-Aboriginal community about First Nations people, show them in a positive setting," said Leslie McGarry, culture and community relations director for the festival. "In the Mungo Martin House, which is a traditional Kwakwaka'wakw-style house, we had the three island nations of Vancouver Island doing traditional performances there. The Coast Salish people, the Nuu-chah-nulth people, and the Kwakwaka'wakw people performed in that house," McGarry said. Visiting First Nations performers, this year including an R&B singer, as well as 85 members of the Nisga'a dancers, took to the main stage to the delight of tourists taking in the sites of Victoria. "We had a really good response from the people this year... People were amazed at how open the First Nations people were about discussing their culture," she said. Storytelling was held in the First People's gallery in the museum and a family program was held with activities for children, each of the activities designed to teach some aspect of First Nations culture. "We had spirit stones and friendship bracelets and Bentwood boxes, coloring stations with the salmon, the bear and the wolf. We also had something that I've developed to try to showcase the interior and coastal peoples-potlatch pouches. "It's like a medicine pouch, but we use the traditional colors of the coast-the red, black and the white-and we have a mother of pearl button on the front of the pouch and the kids, while they are making it, are encouraged to think of somebody special to give it away to. That's why we call it a potlatch pouch. And the teaching behind the project is how important it is in the First Nations community to give, as opposed to receiving, and the fact that it is the way we gain our ranking in society as to what we give, not by the car you drive or the house you live in or how much money you have in the bank. It's how much you give back to your people," said McGarry. One of the criteria for the artists market was that participants could only showcase work that was indigenous to their territories. "So, we are trying to maintain cultural authenticity and integrity. So you won't find anything made in Japan, and you won't find a [coastal] person making dreamcatchers, because it's not part of our culture. The same way as you won't find an Ojibway person carving totem poles or masks. So we try to showcase how British Columbia celebrates the largest diversity of Aboriginal culture across Canada. If you missed the festival this year, mark it down in your calendars for the second weekend in August. McGarry doesn't promise bigger and better, just the same quality approach that's made the festival a much-appreciated part of Victoria's summer events. "The simplicity of the style of presentation that we have here seems to be really well appreciated by the community. We're not about flash and panache here. We want the site to be very welcoming... What we try to do is provide a quality event." There is no charge to get on the site, though donations are accepted. "I just feel that that is a little closer to the way that our people are. You know, you offer your guests your best. And that's what we've been trying to do." Top Makah whaling rights reaffirmed Raven's Eye Staff The National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA fisheries), an agency of the Commerce Department's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), released its environmental assessment of Makah gray whale hunting. The new assessment finds that, due to the government's treaty obligation and the healthy status of the whale population, the tribe's whale hunting will be allowed to continue. The Makah resumed whaling in 1998 after a 70-year self-imposed hiatus. This action followed removal of the gray whale from the federal endangered species list in 1994 and allocation of a 20-whale Aboriginal subsistence quota to the United States from the International Whaling Commission. The tribe has taken only one whale since then, an adult female in 1999. Under a previous agreement with NOAA Fisheries, the Makah hunt was limited to the whales' migration period from November through June and only in the ocean. Today's document concludes that there is no biological reason for such restrictions and that a limited whale hunt may occur in part of the nearby Strait of Juan de Fuca near the Makah's Neah Bay reservation. Top