Top News - September - 2004 Published September 20, 2004 Health discussion proves profitable Métis harvesting agreement being pushed for fall Journey continues to heal school trauma This is only a partial listing of the stories featured in the September 2004 issue of Alberta Sweetgrass. If you are not receiving your own copy of Sweetgrass, then you have missed out on a lot. Click here for Alberta Sweetgrass subscription information. Health discussion proves profitable Debora Steel, Sweetgrass Writer, Ottawa The federal government has proposed expending hundreds of millions of new dollars to improve the health of Aboriginal peoples in Canada. Prime Minister Paul Martin says another $700 million should be spent in addition to the $1.7 billion already expended with funds targeted to improving inefficiencies in the system, prevention initiatives and increasing the number of Aboriginal health care professionals working in the field. The announcement was made at the beginning of the first ministers meeting on health held in Ottawa Sept. 13 to 15. Before the health care concerns of the nation were put on the table for discussion, the prime minister and the provincial and territorial leaders met with Aboriginal leaders to discuss Aboriginal-specific issues. Assembly of First Nations (AFN) National Chief Phil Fontaine, Métis National Council (MNC) President Clement Chartier and Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami President Jose Kusugak joined Terry Brown, president of the Native Women's Association of Canada and Dwight Dorey, national chief of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples, to speak on behalf of the nation's Native peoples. Alberta Premier Ralph Klein talked about the need for a national response to the crisis of diabetes in the Aboriginal community. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and the over prescribing of prescription drugs were also highlighted as problems being dealt with in the province. He said Aboriginal health care funding needed to be predictable and flexible enough to focus on housing and the promotion of healthy lifestyles. British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell said the living conditions of Aboriginal people in his province were 20 per cent lower than those of the province's mainstream population. He said the "statistics are damning" with every statistic representing the lost dreams of an Aboriginal person and the lost future of an Aboriginal family. He reminded the prime minister that it was a legal and fiduciary responsibility of the federal government to deal with Aboriginal health concerns. He thanked Fontaine for his "consistent, persistent and patient" support of the efforts being made in the province to improve the health care outcomes of the First Nations people living in B.C. As Canada's other leaders spoke, there were themes of concern that bubbled to the surface. Jurisdictional issues seemed a main irritant. Nova Scotia Premier John Hamm said there needed to be a clarification of the roles and responsibilities for Aboriginal health. That was echoed by Saskatchewan Premier Lorne Calvert, who also said there should be a focus on the determinates of health-housing, poverty, education-and not just on programming. Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams said action was needed immediately on broader social and cultural issues. He also said that mainstream Canada had no real appreciation for the magnitude of the health care problems facing the Aboriginal population. Yukon Premier Dennis Fentie spoke in glowing terms of the self-government agreements achieved in his territory and how the autonomy of First Nations had led to greater improvements there. Phil Fontaine called on the first ministers to agree to a special meeting on Aboriginal issues and there seemed to be some willingness among them for that. He said he was encouraged by the support of the premiers to see more control in the hands of Canada's first peoples and pleased with the country's willingness to invest in Aboriginal health care concerns. Terry Brown said she was encouraged by the spirit of co-operation and collaboration from the premiers, but chastised the group for not inviting the Native women's group to an earlier session of premiers and Aboriginal leaders held at Niagara-on-the-Lake, calling it embarrassing and insulting. She asked for more consistency of inclusion and promised her group would make itself available for consultation. Dwight Dorey said he was glad to see that the premiers were putting the focus on patient care over jurisdictional issues, and hoped that his fellow Aboriginal leaders could be equally as gracious. Dorey too had not been invited to the Niagara-on-the-Lake meeting, and has complained that AFN was encroaching on the Congress' turf when saying it represents off-reserve and non-status Indians as well as the on-reserve population. Jose Kusugak made it clear he wanted Inuit-specific solutions to Inuit-specific problems. "Inuit are not Indians," he said, adding there were only 45,000 Inuit but they were spread out over 53 communities across a huge, remote area of the country. He asked that Arctic boundaries be respected and that the premiers remember that Inuit are taxpayers too. Clement Chartier said he fully embraced the discussions on health and wanted the MNC to be fundamentally engaged in the process. He also told Ralph Klein he was hoping Alberta's current discussion for the advancement of Métis hunting and fishing rights gained with the Supreme Court's Powley decision could be expanded to include Métis health care concerns. Top

Métis harvesting agreement being pushed for fall Carl Carter, Sweetgrass Writer, Edmonton An agreement being hammered out between the provincial government and the Métis Nation of Alberta (MNA) that would govern Métis hunters and fishers has some people concerned that conservation issues are being ignored and that the deal is being pushed along too fast. The agreement has not yet been finalized, but Alberta Minister of Aboriginal Affairs Pearl Calahasen said she and the MNA have been doing all they can to get the Métis hunting rights granted under the Supreme Court's Powley decision into a provincial harvesting deal that can been put into action during this hunting season. Métis Nation of Alberta president Audrey Poitras said the agreement means more than just hunting. "We see it as the rights of Métis people as included in the Constitution of Canada," she said. "We believe how it will affect (Métis people) is that any Métis person that has a Métis Nation of Alberta card or that identifies as a Métis will have a right to hunt or fish without getting a license, without being afraid of being charged." Rob Makowecki, president of the Alberta Fish and Gaming Association, said that such an agreement could endanger the future of the province's wildlife stock. "We are very concerned that if we don't harmonize, manage together, that there is potential to jeopardize the wildlife resources, no matter which group may use them," said Makowecki. "So if you don't have a management scheme or regime up top, then the conflict grows." Makowecki said the agreement could alienate local hunters. "What will happen is that the [hunter] population will increase and if there is this kind of movement of people, that maybe they're going to come to Alberta and maybe from other sectors of British Columbia or whatever. And all of a sudden we have First Nation, Métis people, more and more of them that have become mobilized and then we basically eliminate the resident hunter. And that's our concern," said Makowecki. "The person who hunts here in Alberta lives here. If we start giving more and more opportunities that are special or exclusive opportunities for fairly broad use-you can hunt all year round, fish anytime you want, with certain types of minor rules-all of a sudden the conservation of our resource, maybe, comes into question." Poitras said that conservation is a concern, but the fear that there will be an unmanageable number of people taking to the woods, streams and lakes is far-fetched. "The only thing that will differ is the people who now go out and hunt will not have to sneak around and hide if they believe in their right and have chosen in the past not to get a license." Calahasen sees the necessity for speed on the issue. "I'm moving it as quickly as I can and with whatever tools I have," she said. "Of course, everything that we deal with is that we have to make sure that whatever comes through is going to be consistent with responsible wildlife conservation and management," Calahasen added. "As people who've lived off the land, most of the Métis, and, of course, First Nations in many cases, they're very responsible in making sure they do have good conservation and management because they do know that there's got to be sustainable resources available for future generations." Makowecki would have liked Alberta Fish and Gaming involved in discussion about the Métis agreement because their members have a long history in the province. "We have 15,000 members, we've been a fish and game association since 1908, almost a hundred years; we've been there for so long [and] we weren't asked to participate, or at least provide some comment with regard to some agreement. So is that fair, even there? We participate in all sorts of other things and we don't get asked, so it's a real disappointment. We're just looking after the general citizens that do hunt or fish," Rob Makowecki said. Harry Supernault, president of the Métis Settlements General Council, said the agreement is very important in fulfilling a right to hunt, fish or trap, but he is concerned that the stakeholders are moving too fast. "I, for one, don't really care if it takes another two, three years. I don't want to be pushed into an agreement just because some people want to go hunt," said Supernault. "We have to be very diligent. We waited a long time for it and we've got to be careful that we're not giving away rights as opposed to recognizing what we already had." Top Journey continues to heal school trauma Carl Carter, Sweetgrass Writer, Edmonton The final gathering in a series of four designed to help residential school survivors heal from the trauma they experienced while attending Edmonton residential school was held Labour Day weekend on the site of the old school. Hosted by Poundmaker's Lodge Treatment Centres and the Nechi Training, Research and Health Promotion Institute, this year's theme was Continuing Our Healing Journey. Participants took part in healing circles, sweat lodge ceremonies and other spiritual activities, all in the hope that they would be able to walk away from the weekend "feeling lighter." The school had a troubled past. Some of the students were paid to dig graves there for the Charles Camsell Hospital, and many are still haunted by the experience of seeing the caskets being put in the ground without ceremony or markings. "As a result of the school burning down [in 2000] people started to come here. It was almost like they were making there own personal pilgrimages of healing," said Ruth Morin, CEO of the Nechi Institute. "I knew that there was spiritual unrest here, even when the school was here. People told stories, people talked of sightings they had, feelings they felt, energy they felt and so we know there was spiritual unrest." Both Morin and Leona Carter, executive director of Poundmaker's Lodge, knew they couldn't ignore these stories so they began to hold these gatherings under the guidance of the Elders. "The school standing here was a replica of a lot of pain and hardship, but nothing was done to make it feel better. I think now it's a whole different feeling. Even one of the Elders that we lost, is no longer with us, he even said that the energy is so different," said Carter. "Everybody says that the energy is so different and it's a good feeling to be able to dance where the old school was, to actually dance and celebrate. And that's what we've done, the dancing and celebrating, and it's a good feeling." The school was in operation from 1924 to 1968 and was run by the Methodist Church and then the United Church of Canada. Jack Williams attended the school during the 1950s. He came to the annual gatherings with a lot of mixed emotions, he said. Williams found a wall on an old barn where the children used to carve their names. Williams was able to find his own carving along with the initials of his sister, his brother and some old friends. Seeing the carvings in the wall made Williams feel angry, he said. "Even though it's been nice to see some of our schoolmates from Edmonton, you get mixed feelings," said Williams. "I found my own, my sister's name, my brother's name. That was [carved] in 1954. It brought a lot of memories back, some of them not to good." Williams said the barn was used as a school and when they were in trouble they would be made to sit in what looked now like holes in the ground where the windows of the barn's basement used to be. Morin knows that people won't be healed by coming to the four gatherings, but she and Carter hope that the former students can find some peace. At the gathering plans were unveiled to build a monument in honor of the students who attended the school and also for the spirits of the those who lie in the unmarked graves on the land. "There has been healing that has been done here. We have seen it. People have come here, they have laughed, they have cried, they have sang, they have danced, they have shared their cultural ways," said Morin. "I know they'll have good feelings and, of course, they'll be some feelings too of melancholy, but hopefully it's a feeling of 'I'm OK now. I don't carry this shame anymore. I don't carry this pain anymore,'" said Carter. "I don't think you're ever done [healing]. You just carry on every day, every year and work on a little bit yourself and hopefully by the time you're in your 90s you feel a little bit better." Top