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Top News - April - 2004
Published April 12, 2004
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Clean water flowing from Yellow Quill taps
Festival celebrates Aboriginal storytelling
Dialysis unit up and runningThis is only a partial listing of the stories featured in the April 2004 issue of Saskatchewan Sage. If you are not receiving your own copy of Sage, then you have missed out on a lot.
Clean water flowing from Yellow Quill taps
Cheryl Petten, Sage Writer, Yellow Quill First Nation
For the first time in more than eight years, people living on Yellow Quill First Nation will be able to get safe drinking water simply by turning on their taps.
Water quality on the First Nation was so bad that the community had been under a boil water advisory since 1995. The advisory was finally lifted in early March, when a new $6.5 million water treatment system began operating, piping safe water to all the homes in the community.
Word that the water was now safe to drink came as a welcome relief to Yellow Quill chief Robert Whitehead, but for some members of the community, it will take more than an announcement to convince them the water quality problems have indeed been addressed.
"There are still some people who are very skeptical," Whitehead said. "I guess it's going to take a while for the people to get used to it."
After all, everyone in the community had a long time to get used to not having safe drinking water.
Part of the reason why water quality issues on Yellow Quill have finally been dealt with, Whitehead believes, is the amount of attention focussed on water quality after the problems in Walkerton, Ont. and in North Battleford. Seven people died and hundreds became ill in Walkerton in May 2000 when the town's drinking supply became contaminated with E. coli. Just under a year later, in April 2001, thousands of people in North Battleford became ill after their drinking supply was contaminated by cryptosporidium.
"With a comparison ... the kind of water that they were highlighting in the media so much is nothing compared to what we had here. And I think there was some talk of maybe going to court to address these issues," he said.
"And I don't know whether that's what caused the movement to happen. But definitely those two situations kind of highlighted us. And then also the fact that the media came out and basically got involved to say that our water was worse than what they had in Walkerton."
The system in place on Yellow Quill now is a state-of-the- art reverse osmosis water treatment facility that includes a biofiltration system engineered by Hans Peterson of the Safe Drinking Water Foundation, who started working with Yellow Quill in 1999 to help resolve the water problems plaguing the community.
"On the front end, they treat the water prior to it going to the reverse osmosis plant," explained Trevor Sutter, manager of communications for Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC)-Saskatchewan region. "What essentially his process employs is a bunch of mineral-eating bugs that go through the water. They exist in the filtration system and the bugs basically distill the water. And then it's put into the treatment plant for further treatment. Apparently this process works fairly well. It's an interesting process because the tests that have been done on the water show it's very good, very good water."
Along with the new treatment system, the community also has qualified staff to operate the plant and monitor the water quality, thanks to a training program launched by INAC, Sutter explained.
"At Yellow Quill, there are two certified water treatment operators. There wasn't any before," he said, adding that through the program, the staff of about two-thirds of the First Nations treatment facilities in the province have received the necessary training.
The source of Yellow Quill's water has also been changed for the better. The community used to draw its water from Pipestone Creek, where extreme fluctuations in water levels and a high concentration of dissolved solids in the water combined to make it very difficult to treat effectively. Now, the water comes from an underground well.
While Whitehead said he doesn't understand all the science behind the new plant, he can tell that the process is working.
"The one good thing about it is that when you turn the taps on, it doesn't smell. You can't smell it anymore. And it's clear water. The other water was always coloured. Sometimes it was a light colour, sometimes dark. It all depended on what day it was I guess. So it wasn't very good water."
Before the new system started up, the water that came out of people's taps was contaminated, Whitehead said.
"You could turn the tap on before, like you could smell the sewer. That's how bad it was. Our houses smelled like that, sometimes the inside, it smelt like that for days because of the water. Even when we didn't turn the taps on you could still smell it."
"We're really glad that we have good water to drink now. I, for one, I drink that water right out of the tap now. I think the really sad part about the last water was that you could smell it, you could see it. The water you drink now is just clear. You can see right into it. And that's a big difference from what we had."
Festival celebrates Aboriginal storytelling
Stephen LaRose, Sage Writer, Regina
It wasn't exactly a typical time in Regina's cultural life.
One night, a Northern Ontario rock band shared the stage with a Saskatchewan folk singer and throat singers from Pangnirtung, Nunavut. The next night, it was an event of modern dance. And the night after the audience watched traditional musicians from Siberia take the stage.
It was all part of the fourth annual Sakewewak Storytelling Festival. Held March 25 to 28 at various sites around Regina, the event featured not only storytellers, but also musicians and dancers. That's because, the organizers say, there are many ways to tell a story.
Storytelling has played an important role within traditional Aboriginal cultures. Because many cultures had no written languages, storytelling was the best way to pass along a society's history, culture and spirituality.
But in the age of the tape recorder, the Internet and the written word, is there still a role for storytelling?
Yes, say the festival's co-coordinators, Lynne Acoose and Robin Brass.
"This event helps to dispel the artificial boundaries that box in so-called 'modern art' from 'traditional art,'" said Brass.
"There's a perpetual question in artistic circles about, 'What is Indian art?' This allows us to define what art is for ourselves, our people and our culture."
Throughout its history, the festival has generally relied on local Elders and other storytellers to keep the oral tradition alive and to expand the concept of storytelling to other media. This year was no exception.
During a weekend of storytelling and seminars at the Regina Inn, traditional storytellers and singers such as Francis and Juliette McAdam, and Margaret and Lorena Lynn Cote performed.
"A lot of the people who we have invited are people who we have met through other aspects of our lives," said Brass. "Sometimes the storytellers recommend others who could perform."
The event began March 25 with a performance by Tracy Brown and Emily Karpik, two members of Siqiniup Qilauta (The Sun's Drum). The two are from Pangnirtung, Nunavut, but now make their home in Ottawa. Later, the alternative rock group Weaselhead took to the stage at The Exchange.
The following night, theatre artist and playwright Floyd Favel joined Geraldine Manossa on stage at Darke Hall for an interpretive dance performance.
On Saturday, the four-member Siberian traditional music group Uragsha performed at the Jacqui Schumiatcher Theatre at the Norman Mackenzie Art Gallery.
Getting the singers and musicians from the Lake Baikal region of Siberia to perform in the city was a coup of the highest honour, the organizers said.
"It happened to be by accident," said Acoose. "I was doing research in another project when they came up. I emailed them, and learned that they were coming to New York in March. We arranged for them, on their way home, to stop and perform in Regina. We were really lucky."
The performance also meant that the scope of the festival had expanded. When it started out, the event was primarily by Aboriginal prairie storytellers, for Aboriginal prairie storytellers. But, the organizers said, there are many more Indigenous cultures where storytelling is important, and it's important they be included.
"It's the first time we've had artists from outside the prairies come here," said Acoose. "It's gone international."
Sakewewak Artists Collective is a nine-year-old, artist-run Aboriginal organization that encompasses almost every field of art.
"The name 'Sakewewak,' means 'coming into view,'" said Acoose. "This reflects the need for somewhere to support artists who are working in new and emerging fields, such as performance art and interdisciplinary work, and also to support the emerging artists."
Yvonne Irene Gladue, Sage Writer, North Battleford
Janice Kennedy hopes that the opening of a new hemodialysis unit in the Battlefords Union Hospital will mean less travelling for local Aboriginal people who have to undergo the treatment.
Kennedy is executive director for the Battlefords Tribal Council Indian Health Centre. She explained that hemodialysis is used to clean impurities out of a patient's blood.
"Your whole blood goes through the machine. It filters out all the bad stuff, then it puts the good stuff back in your body. It is like an artificial kidney machine."
People have to undergo hemodialysis when they have kidney disease, or if they have kidney failure, which can be one of the long-term complications of diabetes. And the high occurrence of diabetes within the Aboriginal community can translate into a high number of Aboriginal people requiring hemodialysis.
"For some people the disease affects their kidneys, so this machine acts as their kidneys. People need to be aware that they can live comfortably even when they are on dialysis. It is not a death sentence."
Having the unit operating in North Battleford will save some patients from having to drive to Saskatoon for treatment, Kennedy said. But, she added, there are certain criteria that patients will have to meet in order to take advantage of the unit.
"If people have other conditions stemming from the disease such as eye problems ... then that is going to have to be treated at a larger centre," Kennedy said.
"Diabetes is a serious disease in itself, but it is the complications that are associated with diabetes that create the problems. If you do not have your blood sugars under control, if you are overweight, if you smoke or if you are not eating right then it starts affecting your kidneys and your eyesight," she said.
For many local patients, travelling to Saskatoon for treatment takes up an entire day, with three hours of driving time each way and four to six hours for the treatment itself.
Because the new hemodialysis unit just came online at the beginning of March, Kennedy said, it's not yet clear how many patients will be using the new unit.
"So it will be interesting to see in six months how many clients are able to use and to see the outcome, especially for the BTC members who utilize it," Kennedy said. "At this point I'm not sure how it is going to impact the communities. On one hand it is good to have the centre closer to North Battleford. But then again if only one out of 10 clients are able to use this one here this still does not solve the other nine clients' problems in terms of travel," she said.
Kennedy said there are preventative steps people with diabetes can take before they are at the point where they need dialysis. The first one is as simple as getting a thorough checkup from their doctor.
"I believe that people with diabetes should get all types of tests done when they go and see their doctor, such as asking to get their urine tested for everything so that they would not have to go on kidney dialysis. And also to take their shoes and socks off so that the doctor can look at their feet for ingrown toe nails or infections. Because a lot of times the doctor won't ask you if you've had this checkup done. These are little things that the client should be aware of when visiting the doctor," she said.
"I believe that diabetes is a concern everywhere. In our area we've had different screening clinics going back to 1998 and back then there was a high percentage-probably about 22 per cent of our people had it. So it is quite a health concern," she said. "We are seeing some success but not to where we want to be at."
The provincial government contributed $300,000 toward the cost of renovating the hospital in order to accommodate the new hemodialysis unit. The cost of the unit itself was covered through a partnership between the hospital and the Gold Eagle Casino Community Development Corporation, with the hospital contributing $130,000 raised through a cash lottery, and the corporation providing just over $341,000.