The Aboriginal Newspaper of British
Columbia & Yukon
Top News - September -2001
Published September 17, 2001
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Photo by Troy Hunter |
Who are the Métis people?
Life experiences turned into song on new CDThis is only a partial listing of the stories featured in the September 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.
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Coin commemorates ban repeal
Troy Hunter,
with files fromDebora Steel
Raven's Eye Writer, VictoriaKwakwaka'wakw artist Lou-ann Neel has created a municipal trade token to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the repeal of the Indian Act provisions that banned the potlatch.
The copper coin is embossed with a raven design and will be worth the equivalent of $10 at participating businesses on Vancouver Island.
The coins are a fundraising avenue for non-profits. The way it works is the non-profits order the coins and pay for the coins and then put them into circulation as currency or as a product or both. If they go out as currency and people actually use them as a ten-dollar-bill, they're only valid for a certain period. These coins are valid currency from October to December.
"At the end of December, if people keep the coins, that's where we make our money," said Neel, who is a member of the Indigenettework, a co-op of First Nations artists who commissioned the limited edition coins.
The copper coins represent the copper shields used in traditional Kwakwaka'wakw potlatch ceremonies and as currency.
"The coppers are an essential currency item within our potlatch," said Neel. "So in order to potlatch, you have to have a copper. And there are only so many families and only so many coppers. A lot of the coppers were confiscated during the potlatch ban, and some of them have been returned and some of the families have had to purchase back from private collectors and some of them are just gone. We don't know where they are. So that's why I thought it was appropriate that the coppers would be the appropriate representation of the 50 years celebrations, sort of bringing the coppers back, but also making people more aware that they do have a currency value, they're not just a ceremonial piece...
"So basically a copper is like an individual. It has a name. It has value. Each time a family does a potlatch, let's say they did a marriage potlatch, the copper would already have a value. The groom's family would pay and buy the copper, and then the bride's family would purchase it back from them, so that action would double the value of the copper and thereby would increase the wealth, or the value of the potlatch."
There are going to be two streams for the coins. The first stream will be packaged as products, so they are going to come in a gift box, with a little explanation about what the coin represents, and they would be kept as souvenirs. Those will be sold for $15 at places such as the Royal British Columbia Museum, the U'mista Cultural Centre in Alert Bay, and the House of First Voices Cultural Centre in Victoria. There is also an opportunity to purchase a gift package that includes copper, silver plate and gold plate coins.
But if people want to buy the coin without all the gift packaging, then they can do that as well, and those will be sold for $10.
The coins will be available on Sept. 26, and are already three-quarters spoken for, said Neel. If there is a great demand, there will be a second coin made, with a limited number struck.
"We're going to do a second coin. We're hoping to make this a new tradition. What we're planning to do two coins per year. And just within our tribe alone, the Kwakwaka'wakw, we have 17 tribes, so that's possibly 17 different designs that we'll being doing over the next few years. And then what we're going to do is reach out to the Nuu-chah-nulth and the Coast Salish tribes so that we have all three nations on Vancouver Island circulating coins in our traditional ceremonies and in the public market."
Coins can be purchased through Neel at (250) 383-1342, or email at louann@home.com.
Joan Taillon,
Windspeaker Staff Writer,
OttawaThe argument is on again about who has the right to call themselves Métis. The reasoning expressed by leaders in the political organizations has a remarkably similar ring to it. The "real" Métis are in the West. But wait, the "real" Métis are in the East. Each claims a heritage going back to the days of the fur trade.
What they don't say is what anyone has to gain from saying they are Métis if they are not. Only a few in the West have title to land grants, and the amount of government money trickling down to grassroots membership in any Métis organization has been limited to short-term education and training projects. Some who are not in the political spotlight say they are not themselves very concerned with definitions.
Others, such as expressed in researcher Harry Daniels' paper on Métis nationhood for Alberta Senator Thelma Chalifoux, point out that Métis in other areas such as Treaty 9 were promised land grants but never got them. Both land and other Aboriginal entitlements are on the agendas of Aboriginal political organizations, particularly since the Métis got recognition as an Aboriginal people in the Constitution Act, 1982.
The Métis National Council, with regional organizations in five provinces, states that "The Métis people were born from the marriages of Cree, Ojibwa and Salteaux women and the French and Scottish fur traders, beginning in the mid-1600s Scandinavian, Irish and English stock were added to the mix as western Canada was explored."
Further, a document on the council's Web site says the Métis were intermediaries between European and Indian cultures in numerous roles, and there were Métis villages between the Great Lakes and the Mackenzie Delta.
Today, however, the organization is trying to confine its membership to descendents of the Red River colony and a few other pockets of "traditional homeland" in the prairie provinces, northwestern Ontario and northeastern British Columbia. If council president Gerald Morin has his way, the rest of the country's mixed blood people with Indian ancestry, whether or not they follow any Native traditions, speak an Aboriginal language or self-identify with Métis culture and heritage, will not be eligible for membership in his organization.
He said this is not a new policy, but the council's stance has been attracting attention recently as the organization has been negotiating in Ottawa to get its narrow definition of Métis accepted by the federal government.
Christi Belcourt, director of communications and media relations for the council, said on Aug. 26, however, "press reports have been misleading.
"The meeting in Ottawa was not just to discuss the definition. The meeting . . . was actually a Métis rights panel meeting . . . to discuss the litigation and the framework agreement that they're trying to form to draft to then present to the government to get a negotiation table happening, to eventually end up with a Métis nation agenda."
She said discussion around the definition was limited.
What discussion there was, she said, flowed from the June 9 and 10 council assembly in Vancouver when a working definition was approved in principal. But consultation with all their provincial affiliate organizations has to take place on the definition before it is brought before next year's assembly and "either ratified or not."
The Métis Provincial Council of British Columbia is a governing member organization affiliated with the Métis National Council. Former British Columbia region six director Valery Simonds is now president of a Métis local in Prince Rupert. She said her opinion is that Gerald Morin's attempt to narrow the definition of Métis "is a big mistake.
"Not everyone can prove they came from the Red River. Government documents are sealed and people are not able to access all of their genealogy."
Simonds added that although her family is from Red River and is descended from Cuthbert Grant, an uncle living in Medicine Hat, Alta. is unable to obtain a Métis card.
Morin concedes that some people who think they have a right to be included will be left out.
Cheryl Shirtliffe, administrative assistant in the Manitoba Métis Federation's southeast regional office at Grand Marais, said "maybe I'll be left out as well." Although she stressed she was not speaking for her organization and was not well versed in the political context of the issue, she said "I definitely have (an opinion)."
She agrees with the idea of potential federation members having to prove their genealogy. As for excluding people that don't fit the council's draft definition, she said, "I think that's going a step too far."
Predictably, Michael McGuire, president of the Ontario Métis Aboriginal Association, which has disagreed with the Métis National Council before, agrees with the general views expressed by his rival's grassroots affiliate members.
McGuire said the council's definition of who is a Métis person "is certainly not our definition here in Ontario."
The president talked at length about Métis ceremonies and traditions and mentioned an Ontario legend that he heard from his grandfather.
"When the hills echo, he said, the land will give up the secret and the two tribes would be recognized."
He added, "We in Ontario are saying that we are the Woodland Métis tribe . . . and the other tribe would be the Oji-Cree tribe, so we would be both half-breed tribes."
Their medicine people tell them that all Anishnaabe people are part of the red race, and the Woodland Métis people are part of that race.
McGuire calls the Sault Ste. Marie area the traditional homeland area for the Métis people, as they were grouped tribally along the river there before they were ever a community in the West.
"The Ojibways, the French company and the Hudson's Bay Company also lived there on one part of their own land." He also pointed out that one of the Métis chiefs from his area was one of the negotiators of the Robinson-Superior treaty before 1850.
Manitoba Métis Federation President David Chartrand doesn't accept that. In an Aug. 20 interview on CBW-AM radio in Winnipeg, he said that their position, since the Charlottetown Accord, is that "the Métis are in fact descendents of the Red River, and Dominion Lands Act, that's what the Constitution states today." He said their own Elders tell them "who are the Métis, and clearly the Métis was created in Manitoba."
He said they are watching other provinces with court cases hinging in part on definitions of who is a Métis, such as recent hunting cases in Saskatchewan and Ontario, where it appeared the court was taking a broader view than what Chartrand's organization takes. He said they are intent on defining their membership before the courts do it.
A draft bill drawn up this spring by Senator Chalifoux to honor Louis Riel on his birthday, Oct. 22, was distributed to Métis Nation of Alberta members for comment. In it, Chalifoux wrote, "The historic role of Louis Riel as a founder of the Métis people is acknowledged." Few who call themselves Métis would dispute that. At least there the Métis people have common ground.
Life experiences turned into song
on new CDCheryl Petten,
Raven's Eye Writer,
Fort FraserMusic has been an important part of Marcel Gagnon's life as far back as he can remember. Now, with the release of his first CD, it's a part of his life he can share with the world.
The CD, Crazy Maker, is a collection of songs written by Gagnon and performed along with fellow musicians and band mates John Sorensen, Don McLelland, Trevor Bigam, Justin Frey, Jeremy Blattner, Dianna McNolty, Arnold Faber and Suzy Wigmore.
Gagnon, a member of the Lheidli T'enneh band in north central B.C., said he sees the music as "a sacred thing," a gift given to him that can be taken away if he doesn't use it right.
He's dedicated Crazy Maker to the survivors of residential schools. He hopes the album will do more than just entertain listeners. He hopes it will help get a message out, to make people aware of what has happened in the Native world.
The album deals with a number of subjects from the power of the sweat to the horror of residential schools.
Most of the songs he writes are inspired by his life experiences, Gagnon explained.
"Most of it is pretty deep stuff."
A survivor of sexual abuse and alcoholism, Gagnon views his music as therapy. While some people involved in the healing process are encouraged to keep a journal as part of their therapy, he explained, he uses his music for the same end. And in the end, it gives him something he can pass on to his children.
The songs on the CD are an eclectic mix, incorporating traditional Native style with country, rock, jazz and blues. His style has drawn comparisons to Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan.
Gagnon said he chose to have such a varied collection of songs on the CD to reach a broader audience, but next time around he plans to record a more focused album. He's already written most of the songs for the next CD, which he says will be a melding of traditional Native music with the contemporary, with kind of a Pink Floyd inspired feel.
The theme for the next CD, he explained, was taken from a story his mother told him years ago about a man who would go around the community at night, making sure the children were all safely home, and checking on the sick.
That man is long gone, Gagnon said, but the new CD will bring him back. He's taken the man in the stories his mother told him, and turned him into a mythical character named Tom Crow.
"I can't wait to get started on it," Gagnon said of the next CD project. He expects to start work on it next year.
The role the music has played in Gagnon's life is the focus of a recently completed documentary produced by John Almond of Stonebridge Pictures in Victoria. Almond said he decided to do the documentary after Gagnon's manager, Don Rudland, brought him some of Gagnon's work.
"Don had brought me the music to listen to, and I found it quite interesting, the lyrics, and the words and the stories that Marcel was telling," Almond said.
The documentary is called Journey Between Two Worlds and examines many of the journeys Gagnon has been on in his life, Almond explained-the journey between the non-Native and Native worlds, the journey between alcoholism and non-alcoholism, between abuse and non-abuse.
"The focus is his journey of life and how the music sort of affected and was sort of one of the grounding roots of his life," Almond said. "He talks about his past. He's had quite a time period in his life where he was quite troubled. And then at a powwow in Quesnel, where he suddenly heard the Native drum again, and he started to cry, and this is when he found that he wanted to get back to his Native roots. And it sort of started him on his search again for his Native roots...and to get on the Red Road."
For the next few months, Gagnon will be concentrating his efforts on promoting the Crazy Maker CD. A small tour around Vancouver Island is being planned, then in November he'll be taking part in the Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards in Toronto. Although the nominations hadn't been finalized at press time, he's heard he's in the running for awards in eight categories at this year's ceremonies. After the awards, he plans to take a break, then continue promoting the CD again in the new year, possibly with some European performances.
Gagnon knows firsthand the struggle facing Aboriginal artists in trying to get their music heard. Although there are a lot of very talented Aboriginal artists out there, that isn't reflected when you turn on the radio, Gagnon said. He stressed how important it is for Aboriginal artists to have the support of the Aboriginal community.
For more information about the Crazy Maker CD or about Marcel Gagnon, check out Gagnon's Web site at www.marcelgagnon.com, or e-mail him at vufox@hwy16.com. You can also write to Marcel Gagnon at Box 286, Fort Fraser, B.C. V0J 1N0. For more information about the documentary Journey Between Two Worlds, e-mail stonebridgeproductions@yahoo.ca.
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