The Aboriginal Newspaper of British
Columbia & Yukon
Top News - October -2001
Published October 15, 2001
 |
|||
|
Photo by Troy Hunter |
Plan to travel to this year's Aboriginal festival
Bands jump into development deal with resort
Remembering Dr. Howard AdamsThis is only a partial listing of the stories featured in the October 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.
Plan to travel to this year's Aboriginal festival
Cheryl Petten,
Raven's Eye Writer,
TorontoWhether you like Aboriginal music, powwow dancing, film or sports, this year's Canadian Aboriginal Festival should have something to pique your interest.
The annual festival will be held Nov. 23 to 25 in Toronto.
All your favorite events and activities from past years are back, with a handful of features being added to the mix.
One of the major differences festival goers will notice is a change of venue for the Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards, which will be held Nov. 23 at the new Casino Rama entertainment centre in Orillia, rather than at SkyDome, where the event has been held since its inception two years ago.
The awards show will feature performances by some of the awards finalists. Awards will be handed out in 29 categories this year, including two new categories-best women's traditional album, and best pop album. The list of finalists for the Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards is expected to be released by mid-October.
In addition to having a new home and a couple of new categories, another change to the awards should make a noticeable difference. Sadie Buck has joined the awards show as artistic director.
"I think Sadie will do a real bang up job," said festival co-ordinator Ron Robert. "Sadie's very well known within the Aboriginal community, and her past speaks for itself. She's been involved in music and in theatre for most of her life. I think she's going to be a real plus this year."
Another new feature of this year's festival will be the Imagine NATIVE Media Arts Festival, which will run Nov. 21 to 24 at various venues around Toronto. The Imagine NATIVE festival will provide an international showcase for works by Aboriginal artists working in film, video, radio, television and multimedia. The festival will also feature industry workshops, and a gala awards dinner.
Also new to this year's event will be the addition of the smoke dance to powwow competition during the Toronto International Powwow. "Smoke dance is a traditional Iroquois dance." said Robert. "It's very exciting to watch. It's quite a fast-moving dance. It's now becoming a part of a lot of the powwows. We had it last year as a demonstration dance, and the people just loved it, so we decided to make it one of the categories."
The powwow, considered by organizers to be the centrepiece of the festival, will be held at SkyDome Nov. 24 and 25, with up to 1,000 dancers and drum groups expected to take part.
The 2001 festival will also feature an economic development conference, a visual arts exhibit, fashion shows, a lacrosse skills competition, an education day aimed at teaching students about Canada's Aboriginal people, and booths featuring Aboriginal arts, crafts and traditional foods.
Festival goers will also have a chance to listen to Elders and healers talk about the traditional ways, and take in performances by some of Canada's leading Aboriginal musicians. A children's activity centre will also be set up during the festival, giving younger attendees a place to sing, play games, make crafts, and listen to traditional storytelling.
Robert said anyone attending this year's festival "can expect full entertainment. Entertainment, education, the whole business, everything's wrapped into one.
"It's really become the sort of wrap up of the season for powwows. People are using it as a place to gather. Families are meeting there; we see that all the time, now more and more. Unfortunately families today get scattered all over. And they all come to the festival and they all meet there, and make it almost like a family reunion, which I think is just tremendous," he said.
Although the festival is a time of celebration, the event will also be a time to remember the losses recently suffered in the United States.
"The Canadian Aboriginal Festival is going to be dedicated to the victims of the Sept. 11 tragedy in the United States," Robert said. "And we'll honor the victims and the rescue workers in the grand entry.
"We're inviting rescue workers up to participate in the grand entry, and we're also inviting other countries that lost people to come in and carry their flags during the grand entry so we can honor them all and remember them," he said.
"As you know, a lot of Aboriginal people were involved in the building of the World Trade Centre. So we honor them too, of course. And we've got some of our people down there working as rescuers, so that's quite something."
For more information about the Canadian Aboriginal Festival 2001, visit the festival Web site at www.canab.com, e-mail festival offices at canabfestival@home.com, or call them at 519-751-0040.
Bands jump into development deal with resort
Thomas Langley-Smith,
Raven's Eye Writer,
KamloopsAs a result of a partnership between two Native bands and Sun Peaks Resort near Kamloops, work is currently underway on an $8 million mixed commercial and staff housing development complex at the west end of the resort in the Burfield subdivision.
On Sept. 25 Little Shuswap Indian Band Chief Felix Arnouse and Whispering Pines Indian Chief Richard LeBourdais met on site with Sun Peaks vice-president Darcy Alexander to officially launch the project.
"This venture marks an ongoing commitment to joint business opportunities between Sun Peaks and local First Nations communities and is an important collaborative project," said Alexander. "The employee housing and commercial complex will be wholly-owned by a joint venture company including the two First Nation bands."
Four two-storey buildings, each with 12 four-bedroom apartments are included in the complex. Each building will house 48 staff.
Originally the project was slated to be built close to area residents, on the south side of Todd Mountain Road. When locals raised concerns, which included objections to increased traffic and the resulting noise nuisance, Sun Peaks officials reacted. After examining all the options they altered their plans, relocating the complex closer to the Burfield Lodge and chairlift.
Upon learning of Sun Peaks' employee housing shortage some time ago. Chief Arnouse took the initiative, calling Darcy Alexander to express an interest in the project.
"We have to seize every opportunity to work with Sun Peaks if we want to succeed as a band and as a business."
Under the joint venture agreement the Little Shuswap Band will initially own 25 per cent of the complex with an option to purchase up to 50 per cent. The band currently operates the Quaaout Lodge Resort on Little Shuswap Lake near Chase.
Chiefs Arnouse and LeBourdais predict the joint venture will eventually provide a secure source of income for their members.
"Whispering Pines is interested in developing tourism opportunities, and this is a great way to get involved," said LeBourdais.
LeBourdais is currently pursuing the feasibility of constructing a bridge to Whispering Pines from the eastern side of the North Thompson River near Heffley Creek. This would drastically reduce travelling time between the reserve and Sun Peaks Resort, putting the reserve on the bus tour loop and effectively opening Whispering Pines to further tourism opportunities.
Members of the Native Youth Movement, a large portion of them members of the Neskonlith Indian Band near Chase, are angry at Sun Peaks $70 million expansion plans, and have been demonstrating at the resort for some time. Arnouse said he's faced some criticism from Neskonlith Band members regarding his involvement with the venture. As a result, the groundbreaking ceremony was kept low-key in an effort to avoid a demonstration. LeBourdais said that although he supports the Native Youth Movement in principle, he in no way condones the demonstrators' actions.
The Little Shuswap Band has committed itself financially to the housing project, becoming an equity partner in that portion, while Whispering Pines is an equity partner in the commercial portion. The commercial portion of the project is expected to be complete in January 2002, and the staff housing in September.
"This project is proof positive that we can work with the local Native community, which we have done for many years," said Darcy Alexander. "To my mind it is a good news story, totally and completely. It shows that we have faith in the Aboriginal community and they have faith in us."The battle over the expansion of the Sun Peaks ski resort continues with the rebuilding of the Skwelkwek'welt Protection Centre, which is located at the bottom of a ski run on unceded Secwepemc traditional territory.
The centre was dismantled by provincial Ministry of Transportation and Highways workers in August, which prompted a number of protests by the Native Youth Movement, including an information roadblock.
Sun Peaks has hand delivered an order to remove the protection centre (photo above) or action will be taken, though there is no details as to what specific action has been threatened.
Neskonlith Chief Arthur Manuel has written to Masayoshi Okhubo of the Sun Peaks resort saying the resort has no authority to decide where Secwepemc peoples can practice and protect their traditional values. He reiterates that the Secwepemc people "still do not want you to expand Sun Peaks" and suggests that the resort's "high-handed" handling of the situation is making the protesters more resolute in protecting traditional lands.
A second letter was sent to the RCMP regarding racial violence erupting over the Sun Peaks protests. Manuel writes "Over the weekends of September 22 and September 29, 2001, organized gangs of young white people congregated in Chase, British Columbia to intimidate and cause violence towards local Secwepemc and indigenous peoples. He said that "mob rule has taken over the streets," and that the RCMP should take special measures to ensure that "racially motivated incident are seriously and deliberately challenged." He calls upon to police to mete out justice to the same degree as the police did with the Aboriginal protesters, saying the noble concepts of law and order can only succeed if they are "fairly and eqully adminstered to both settler and indigenous youth equally. It is our feeling that this sense of fairness does not exist."
Remembering Dr. Howard Adams
Raven's Eye Staff
On Sept. 8, Dr. Howard Adams passed away at his Vancouver home.
Born and raised in St. Louis, Sask., Adams was a highly respected Métis leader, academic, writer and activist.
Following are excerpts from a story on Dr. Adams we originally published in 1999, when his contributions and achievements were recognized with a National Aboriginal Achievement Award in the Education category.
Ten years past retirement, Métis educator Howard Adams still defines his views as "radical." Whatever the political stripe, Adams' conversation and writing reveal the passion of a man who has made a career out of combating the systemic racism he says holds Aboriginal people back.
His is a lifetime of daring and innovative support of unpopular Métis and Indian social causes. Great numbers of publications illuminate his historical research, and his books are classics of Native literature. Adams' efforts and example continue to motivate Native people to aspire to quality education and to challenge the status quo.
Political action to improve opportunities for Aboriginal people started early for Adams.
"I can remember holding a demo in high school," he said.
Later, while completing his Ph.D. studies at the University of California, Adams was inspired to action by the free speech movement that fueled sit-ins, strikes and demonstrations. He saw the aims and causes of the 1960s movement as "kind of parallel to our own people."
His sense of Métis identity was boosted by his uncle, Medric McDougall, who related how his great-grandfather, Maxime Lepine, and his great-uncle Ambroise stood with Riel. By the time Adams returned from the University of California at Berkley in 1965, he claimed "radical, revolutionary ideas," which stemmed from this heritage. He identified fully with ancestors who had sacrificed everything for their home and people.
Adams found a job as associate professor at the College of Education, University of Saskatchewan, where he eventually obtained tenure and taught for 10 years, until 1974. From 1968 to 1972 he was also president of the Métis Society of Saskatchewan. Throughout the 70s and 80s he taught summer sessions, wrote, and was active in human rights issues.
From 1986 to 1989, as professor at the University of California, he taught minority students and conducted demographic research on Indian reservations. In the first half of the 90s he taught summer sessions in Native Studies at the University of Saskatchewan, lectured across Canada and in Germany on Aboriginal issues, did a stint as a radio announcer, and founded the Vancouver Métis Association.
Adams wants only to be remembered as a person who worked uncompromisingly to get his people a fairer deal.
Top