By Malcolm McColl

Roy Michano survived a near-death experience after a bout of surgery in late in 2007. The Honourary Elder of the Union of Ontario Indians (representing the Ojibways of the Pic River) explained, “I went in to have gall bladder surgery and complications ensued.” It became serious when they had to move the esteemed elder into an intensive care unit in North Bay, and it took quite a few days to restore Roy’s secure footing on earth. “It was a relief to pull through,” he said, giving credit to the health professionals surrounding him during those few weeks. He also noted he has changed a few things regarding diet, exercise, and fitness. “It was long time coming.”

It was Roy Michano who exerted the initial effort to bring energy income to Northern Ontario First Nations. Roy worked closely with developer David Carter of Regional Power to create the Wawatay Small Hydro Project on the Black River, completed in 1992, on Pic River First Nation land. Michano said, “We have had two chiefs elected since I put that project together,” and economic developments have obviously ascended over politics. The joint partnership coordinated with David Carter has helped to create a more self-reliant Ojibway community.

At the assembly of affiliated First Nations, the main focus was on wind power, co-generation, and water power partnerships, and according to Michano, the government connections are working to the benefit of First Nations. “Our dreams are becoming reality,” Michano said, “and it is gratifying as an elder to watch these programs and developments growing into the long-awaited return to self-sufficiency.”

This activity in electrical generation has arrived when forestry has fallen into a steep decline and mining projects are in flux, and Michano believes hydroelectric energy is the most viable route to economic security. He has seen a lot of new players enter the process. “What we began as a goal to obtain self-sufficiency has spread to other communities along the northern shores of Lake Superior. A few different communities are doing what we have done, and developers are hounding First Nations to get involved in new projects with energy,” he said.

Michano is impressed that new talks about energy development require participation of First Nations. “We are not sitting in the bleachers anymore,” he said. “If projects are coming into play, royalties and revenues will include First Nations.” Still, he hears the talk from the white man, telling First Nations, “We are here to save you again!” Michano points out, “It was like that 15 years ago when we started, when a flock of developers started coming around and a pittance was offered.”

The Ojibways of Pic River have an ideal territory for hydro development, and First Nations in the region owe a debt of gratitude to the 66-year-old Michano for sticking to an ownership position when he started with Carter’s Regional Power Inc. The company has spinoff developments from Wawatay, is allowed first right of refusal from the government on future projects, and can make changes to existing arrangements. “We have a 50 year agreement for $4 million a year,” he said, and because of the work done with Carter, the investment of First Nation assets will be taking a whole new direction.

Regional Power Inc. is in the business of developing, building, refurbishing, financing, and operating hydroelectric power plants, and also happens to be a subsidiary of Manulife Financial. Michano sees spinoff benefits coming from existing and impending discussions that will occur when the pension assets of a host of First Nations are combined into a single envelope of investments.

For more information about the Wawatay facility at Black River near Marathon, contact Byron LeClair, Economic Development Officer by mail at Pic River First Nation, 78 Pic River Road, Heron Bay, ON P0T 1R0 or phone (807) 229-1749.

By Myles Zacharias

Splashed across Canadian news in late January 2009 was the headline: “Residential school payments have deadly fallout: Documents”. The article began here:

“Payments to Indian residential school survivors meant to compensate them for mistreatment have led to suicides, substance abuse and depression across the country, documents obtained by Canwest News Service show.”

Sharon Thira, executive director of the Indian Residential School Survivor’s Society, is the source of several quotes in the article, (printed in the National Post, the Vancouver Sun, Calgary Herald, Times Colonist, the Province, and several other Canwest owned media syndicates), but has since indicated to the First Nations Drum that the story was unfair to the overall complicated experience of residential school survivors. Thira began her statement to the Drum by saying, “I want to make it clear that I’m not interested in perpetuating the notion of Survivors dying from receiving the CEP payments.”

However, Thira does not shy away from confirming along with counselors and families in several parts of Canada that there have been deaths and increased substance abuse alongside the surge of money that came to many residential school survivors. But Thira, and in a similar fashion Phil Fontaine (national chief of the Assembly of First Nations), are claiming that the cause of recent deaths is not the money itself. This simple conception (money means problems for Indians) lops off too many important discussions. Rather, Fontaine and Thira would argue that the real ‘cause’ worth exposing and developing is still the greater tragedy of the residential school experience. And then moving to consider a larger range of issues they pinpoint social, political, and economic structures that have snubbed this archetypical Aboriginal experience, an experience captured starkly in this residential school abuse story.

Fontaine dismisses the question over whether or not to restrict the spending freedom of residential school survivors who receive payment. Instead he directs the conversation to current (disproportionate) rates of suicide and substance abuse in First Nations communities, and that neither of these similar complex problems can be solved by the restriction of financial freedom. Fontaine believes that on the whole payments and issues surrounding them have been handled well. Others believe counseling interventions for survivors have been inadequate, and still others say it is not inadequate but it is very difficult to get people to go, given barriers like survivor’s strong distrust of government institutions.

While people disagree over the best approach to therapy and access to it, there is widespread agreement over the following quote by Ingrid Sochting, (chief psychologist at Richmond General Hospital in B.C., witness of settlement cases, and author of Traumatic Pasts in Canadian Aboriginal People): “Post-traumatic stress disorder and severe depression doesn’t just magically disappear just because one has received an apology and some compensation.”

For Sharon Thira the recent deaths were not unexpected and in some cases not preventable. Thira says, “For me the issue is far more complex. Survivors have been dying in huge proportions since coming out of school. These recent deaths are merely a continuation of that tragedy.”

At the same time Thira says that the positive aboriginal stories are too often left out of Canada’s mainstream media. She says, “The fact is that the 70,000 or so recipients who have done well with their payments are not being reported on.”

The good news is that Leader-Post reported that in Regina Police Service Staff Sgt. Jerry Nelson has witnessed minimal negative consequences from the CEP payments. Sgt. Nelson told Leader-Post that the Cowessess First Nation deserve much credit, as they came to the police in June with worries over pending payments and their potential negative consequences in the community. Their plan, which Sgt. Nelson called the First Nation’s “visionary strategy”, was developed from conversations in the community. The Cowessess Chief’s assistant, Alvin Delorme, said they moved to offer residential school survivors a “financial management tool kit”. A four-day workshop was also held during which residential school survivors were assisted with filling out applications, dealing with emotional issues that arose, and opening bank accounts.

Sgt. Nelson said further in that article that the strong relationship between all the diverse groups continue, and “healing gatherings continue to take place out of the public eye.” Given that about $130 million in CEP surged into Regina, Sgt. Nelson said, “we’re quite excited and satisfied with the fact we had minimal (negative) effect based on what’s happened in the rest of the country.”

By Malcolm McColl

My first encounter with Jackson Robertson was completely by chance, a brief meeting outside an art store in the coastal city of Duncan, B.C. on Vancouver Island in 1999. Duncan is known as the City of Totems, and hosted the North American Indigenous Games in 2008 as covered by Native Journal’s Allan Beaver.

Back in 1999, Jackson Robertson was delivering a beautifully crafted talking stick about five feet tall to the art dealer at a shop downtown. I met Jackson carrying the talking stick into the store, and I asked him if I might take his picture holding the spectacular art piece.

I did a short interview and sold a story somewhere along the line. The meeting was unforgettable because of that memorable photo of a man and his art together. It stuck in my mind and never left. So imagine my surprise when I came around the corner of the Nicol Street International Hostel a couple of days ago in Nanaimo, only to meet Jackson Robertson standing with one of the guests.

It was another of those wonderful, short reunions that often occur in the way that I do this job. I told him I’d done a story about him once, but he didn’t remember me, so I tried to jog his memory. “I’m the guy with a wooden leg,” I said. “You said you would carve me a peg.” He grinned, “Still don’t know you.”

The next day, I was on my way to visit Jackson’s carving studio downtown and saw him on the sidewalk. I said again, “You must remember me.” This time he replied, “I know you.” Later, while sitting in the carving studio, Jackson’s son Satchia mentioned local carver Willy Good, a well known in the Coast Salish carving tradition from Nanaimo, and this name rang a distant bell in my head. It had been Willy Good who offered to carve me a peg leg. Willy Good had been fully prepared to do it on the spot, so to speak.

I had my interviews mixed up, no doubt about it. Jackson comes from a completely different nation (Kwaguilth), though he was born in the Nanaimo Indian Hospital on Nov. 15, 1956. “My great-grandfather was named Jackson Ford,” he said. His family members descended out of Kingcome Inlet, a long, deep inlet on the B.C. central coast. It is a vital district in the Kwak’wala speaking territory. His Kingcome Inlet roots are still as thick as giant cedar, although he currently lives in Nanaimo, where he grew up.

Jackson has a carving studio located downtown at The China Steps, a Nanaimo landmark. It’s a short walk to the Nanaimo harbour, and the studio seats half-a-dozen carvers for work. One working carver, Sammy Dawson, 32, is also a descendent of Kingcome Inlet. Sammy lives in Burnaby, B.C. and carves cedar masks that he sells at the Eagle Spirit Gallery on Granville Island. Carving is a deeply traditional craft in the hands of these people. The artists are communicators of mythological roots in the Pacific Coast. It also pays the bills.

Sammy said, “I carved my first piece with my uncle David Robertson when I was 10 years old when we were visiting Alert Bay.” Sammy said he was raised in Nanaimo, “but we always went to Campbell River, Alert Bay, and Kingcome Inlet for potlatches. Visits to family relations old and new are meaningful for him and help keep the family strong and united. “Every time I come to Nanaimo I visit Jackson’s carving studio, but I also go up to Alert Bay at least five times a year, and every time I go, I meet another close relation.”

Sammy says he enjoys living in the Vancouver metropolis. His girlfriend attended Kwantlen College’s upholstery school, then got a job at the Serta mattress factory, so they stayed in the area. Well, the job at Serta disappeared last year, even before the major downturn in the economy. Now she’s pregnant with their first child and Sammy is step-dad to a young son, so he carves in his Burnaby home through all seasons. He spends quite a bit of time outdoors in a jumpsuit because his work continues selling well at Eagle Spirit Gallery.

“I learned to carve from Alfred Robertson, David Robertson, and Jackson Robertson,” Sammy said. Behind the traditional art is the responsibility to know the meaning of the characters being carved and to study the mythologies that lie behind these surreal images of the Pacific Coast. In the animistic view, the animals in some of the images have powers and responsibilities. There are mythological creatures in this art form as well, and over the course of time, Sammy, like many coastal artists, has made contemporary expressions out of the imagery.

Sometimes the art has a political nature, so, in the political view, the clan images are composed to speak about national identity and jurisdiction. Many of the coastal images are combined into totem poles to make a “Coat of Arms” according to Beau Dick, another Northwest Coast carver of renown (also of Kingcome Inlet)

Regarding contemporary use of the coastal images, Jackson Robertson is a promoter of the unique art form on the coast. He hosts a two-day carving course at The China Steps in Nanaimo, open to the public. A session includes a pair of 5-hour sittings on consecutive Saturdays (11 A.M. to 4 P.M). Jackson makes it easy for students to explore their carving talents. “Cut-outs are distributed, and the students shape it out, and an artist is born,” he explained. The studio is located at B-22 Victoria Crescent in Nanaimo, and the current fee is $65.

By Lloyd Dolha

The Carrier Sekani Tribal Council of central B.C. is challenging Premier Gordon Campbell to publicly clarify his position on the New Relationship commitments he negotiated with First Nations four years ago in 2005. “Four years ago, the premier committed himself and his government to work with First Nations to finalize shared decision-making agreements on land and resources, including legislation and policies to implement those agreements, as well as the broader vision of the new relationship itself,” said tribal chief David Luggi.

The tribal council is taking the premier to task in the wake of fruitless talks between the First Nations Leadership Council (composed of the First Nations Summit, the Union of BC Indian Chiefs, and the regional AFN leadership) and the province on recognition legislation—a key to-do item from a comprehensive list of commitments found in the New Relationship document. Discussions about the New Relationship have been ongoing since March 2005 to deal with Aboriginal concerns that are “based on openness, transparency, and collaboration…that reduces uncertainty, litigation, and conflict for all British Columbians.” Following the 2005 agreement, it was intended that a number of subset commitments would be fulfilled under the auspices of cutting-edge agreements between the province and local First Nations, based on “respect, recognition, and accommodation” of Aboriginal title and rights.

A five-page document outlining the vision and principles of the New Relationship was developed as a result of those meetings. It broaches the topic of a new government-to-government relationship with First Nations, including new processes and structures for coordination, as well as shared decision-making on land use and resources. The document also proposes discussion of revenue sharing that reflects Aboriginal title and rights interests and assists First Nations with economic development. The document also sets out a plan for developing scenarios under which those concepts could be made to work.

“Now the province is saying the action plan is no longer a common objective,” said Chief Luggi. “Instead of pursuing government-to-government agreements and recognition legislation with us, it’s offering inferior community economic development agreements with no shared decision-making on lands and resources.” Luggi says this “represents an about face by the premier” and calls it “another example of his erratic approach to major public policy.”

The tribal council and the province have been at odds over several issues in the last few years. Last year, the Carrier Sekani withdrew from the B.C. treaty-making process with the province and the federal government. They have expressed widespread concern over large-scale industrial development in their traditional territories, current forestry practices, and the province’s environmental approval process.

Chief Luggi said he outlined his concerns in a letter he personally gave to the premier in January at the Northern Economic Summit held in Prince George. The tribal council dismissed the economic summit as a public relations exercise. In the hand-delivered letter, Chief Luggi points to “an invisible, yet unconcealed obstacle present” that prevents the province from engaging in honest, meaningful negotiations in the New Relationship discussions. That obstacle, asserts the chief, is that the province “asserts de facto control, ownership, and jurisdiction while denying the existence of unextinguished Aboriginal title and its constitutional consequences.”

In the area of forestry, the province has made amendments to forestry legislation, introducing a program called Forest and Range Agreements (FRAs) without First Nations consultation. The program is meant to take back five percent of tenures from large forestry companies for First Nations use. The FRA program involves a fixed sum of money that would be offered as revenue sharing on a per capita basis. As a condition of receiving resource and revenue sharing benefits, the province requires that First Nations must agree that they have been consulted in advance about administrative and operational decisions that have yet to be made, including the renewal of large-volume forest licenses.

The letter points out the province has made it clear that these FRAs, now known as Forest and Range Opportunities (FRO) agreements are a “take it or leave it” one-size-fits-all proposition in the sense that the formula used to establish to distribute these benefits is non-negotiable. The FRO template was dismissed by the BC Supreme Court in 2005, which held that the FRA program fails to meet the province’s constitutional duty to consult First Nations. It rejected the “quick and easy” population-based formula contained in the policy and directed the province to consider the individual interests of an affected First Nation. The court ruled that the process and terms of the FROs violate the duty to consult and accommodate First Nations. The court rejected the take-it-or-leave-it negotiating tactics of the provincial government.

Unbelievably, the province is still promoting the FROs as a program to accommodate First Nations interests in forestry. “The Crown is not really doing anything different in ignoring these decisions,” said Luggi. “It’s like business as usual.” Luggi said that before the provincial legislature convenes this spring, he hopes the Liberals and New Democrats will release their Aboriginal policy platforms framed in the context of today’s challenging economic times. “The desires and efforts of British Columbians to address the urgent economic crisis will become even more challenged if our voices go unheard.”

By Lloyd Dolha

A prominent BC First Nation tribal group and a Vancouver-based renewable energy company have embarked on a historic partnership for the development of Canada’s first offshore wind energy project.

Located in British Columbia’s Hectate Strait between Haida Gwaii (the Queen Charlotte Islands) and the mainland, the NaiKun project will supply up to 396 megawatts of clean, environmentally-friendly energy, enough to power some 130,00 homes and link Haida Gwaii to the province’s electrical grid. “The establishment of the limited partnership marks a significant milestone for NaiKun’s business relationship with the Haida and is a key step forward for the development of offshore wind energy in British Columbia,” said Michael Burns, chair of NaiKun’s board of directors.

The limited commercial partnership between the Council of Haida Nation and NaiKun Wind Energy will provide comprehensive benefits to the Haida Nation that includes revenue sharing and environmental stewardship, as well as employment and economic development opportunities for the Haida people. The partners will operate and maintain the wind energy project following construction.

The agreement formalizes the relationship between the Haida Nation and NaiKun (on-going since 2002) and builds upon a memorandum of understanding signed by the parties in May 2007. The Haida Nation and NaiKun Wind Operating Inc., a subsidiary of Naikun, will participate equally in the partnership in terms of ownership and economic value. The $2 billion project is still contingent on the receipt of environmental approvals from the harmonized federal/provincial environmental assessment process and the Haida Nation itself. The application for an Environmental Assessment Certificate will be formally submitted to the BC Environmental Assessment Office and the Council of Haida Nation in early 2009. The wind energy project is also dependant on the award of an Energy Purchase Agreement from BC Hydro.

Last November, NaiKun submitted a proposal for the project to BC Hydro’s Clean Power Call—an initiative launched last June that seeks 5,000 gigawatt hours of clean renewable energy per year as part of its effort to attain a goal of energy self-sufficiency for the province by 2016. NaiKun points out that wind energy is one of the cleanest, most abundant, and most cost-effective resources for electricity generation.

Wind speeds over water are generally greater than on land, which makes energy from offshore wind projects more consistent and efficient. The Hectate Strait has some of the strongest and most consistent winds in Canada. The NaiKun project is located in an area with average annual wind speeds ranging between 9.5 and 10 metres per second, which gives the region the potential to become one of the most efficient , high-producing wind project locations in the world.

Located in the shallow waters of Dogfish Banks off the east coast of Haida Gwaii, the sandy seabed along the banks at the project site is well suited for offshore construction. Local residents have been employed during the project planning and design stage, and 200 seasonal jobs will be created during project construction. Following construction, 30 to 50 long-term career positions will be created for operations and maintenance. Training and recruiting for the project will begin immediately, as activity for the project ramps up for the start of construction in 2012. Toward that end, NaiKun will set up to 110 wind turbine generators to be installed in 2013 and 2014.

In addition to local First Nations support, the majority of British Columbians also support the wind energy project. Last September, a public opinion poll conducted by the Mustel Group, indicated that 73 percent of British Columbians support the green energy project. “The Haida people support development that brings benefits of all kinds—individual, commercial and environmental—to Haida Gwaii and to the Haida Nation,” said Guujaw, president of the Haida Nation.

By Clint Buehler

HOBBEMA, AB – Gang violence has subsided substantially on the four reserves here since RCMP and community leaders have taken a numbers steps to quell it.

With 13 gangs competing in the lucrative drug trade in a community of only 12,000 residents, beatings, stabbings and shootings were an almost daily occurrence, and violent deaths happening almost weekly.

But it was the wounding of a toddler in a drive-by shooting that galvanized the community, leading to community action that finally seems to be getting results.

Asa Saddleback, only 23 months old, was sitting at her grandfather’s kitchen table eating soup when she was struck in the abdomen by a stray bullet from a drive-by shooting. (She was airlifted to hospital in Edmonton in critical but stable condition in the pediatric intensive care unit where she underwent successful emergency surgery. The bullet that pierced the wall of her home and hit her could not be safely removed and she will have to carry it for the remainder of her life.)

Community leader Roy Louis says many of the gang leaders and members are now in jail or in the Remand Centre awaiting trial, while others have left the community as a result of community action taken against them.

Some of the community actions were basic and subtle, some more dramatic. One of the more dramatic was the bulldozing of 26 dilapidated houses that were known to be drug houses, and/or the headquarters for drug gangs.

Other less dramatic actions included the imposition of curfews, and the immediate removal of gang-related (and other) graffiti whenever it appears. There was also a dramatic increases in tips to police from community members—who had previously kept silent because they feared retaliation—on gang-related activity, leading to arrests and the confiscation of drugs, weapons and money.

“Community members said ‘enough is enough,’” Louis says. “Only they can make a difference in setting the tone for our community.”

To that end, there have been numerous community meetings, and Louis and his daughter Claudine, who is pursuing a Ph.D. in education, have also made numerous presentations to reserve schools, and to schools in the neighbouring towns of Wetaskiwin and Ponoka attended by Hobbema residents, with the emphasis on cross-cultural teaching.

The community meetings, Louis says, are aimed at “setting the tone for our community, talking about the future, setting a plan,” and particularly involve the community’s business and education leaders.

Louis gives particular credit to the Hobbema Community Cadet Corps which, he believes, is providing a positive alternative to young people who might otherwise have been recruited into the gangs and their drug trade.

Founded in 2006 with the enthusiastic support of the community, and under the leadership of RCMP Cst. Richard Hlushak, a “people person” who is also the RCMP liaison officer in Hobbema schools, in a matter of weeks more than 700 Hobbema young people had joined its ranks—a number that remains constant to this day.

Surprisingly one of the attractions and key factors to the corps success was the influence of the strict discipline of its members demanded of them by their “drill sergeant,” RCMP Sergeant-Major Mark Linnel, directing them in the strict no-nonsense manner of British-style regimental sergeant majors, complete with the moustache and swagger stick. Linnel’s success in Hobbema has led to him being put in charge of Community Cadet Corps across Alberta.

The achievements of Hobbema cadets were so impressive that they performed at home with the RCMP Musical Ride, the first time the Ride had performed on an Indian reserve, and had the added honour of helping to care for the Ride’s horses while they were on reserve.

Now 20 of them will have a new honour when they go to Jamaica to showcase their achievements.

A former president of the Indian Association of Alberta (when it was still an influential grassroots organization), Louis is currently chair of the Maskwachees Consulting Group which deals with community issues, advisor to the Commission of Corrections, and advisor to Rod Knecht, assistant commissioner of the RCMP’s K Division.

By Clint Buehler

The iconic theme of the Metis Nation anthem’s “Proud to be Metis” is perfectly personified in the attitude and achievements of Chelsea Lavallee.

The 17-year-old Metis dancer from St. Ambroise, Manitoba—a tiny Metis community of 170 on the southest tim of Lake Manitoba—has packed an incredible portfolio of achievements into her young life, and not just with her impressive accomplishments as a Metis dancer.

No wonder she’s the recipient of the 2009 National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation’s Special Youth Award, which includes a $5,000 scholarship.

As David Chartrand, president of the Manitoba Metis Federation (MMF) noted in his support for Chelsea’s nomination, “Chelsea is an exceptional role model , not only for Metis and Aboriginal youth, but to the whole Metis Nation.

“She has a passion and drive that is hard to find, and through her personal efforts she has been successful in sharing our Metis culture with her peers and with numerous people of all ages throughout the province of Manitoba.

“At the young age of 15, she unselfishly volunteered more than 100 hours of her time to numerous causes such as the Christmas Cheer Board. The Southwest Region MMF Youth Network, and her school’s Teen Against Drinking and Driving organization,” while managing to consistently making the honour role at school in the neighbouring community of St. Laurent.

Also in 2005 she gained the title of Miss Teen Manitoba Metis.

Chelsea received the 2006 National Metis Youth Model Award in the “M Leaders” category, and was also honoured by the National Aboriginal Health Organization as a recipient of the 2006-2007 National Aboriginal Role Model Award.

In 2006, Chelsea was one of four Manitoba Metis youth selected by MMF president Chartrand to present her life story to the 100-plus youth delegates in attendance at the 38th MMF Annual General Assembly.

In 2007, she received the “Manitoba Aboriginal Youth Achievement Award” in the “Cultural Female” category, the first Metis selected in that category for an award that had traditionally gone to First Nations youth in the 15-year history of the award.

The foundation for Chelsea’s dedication to the performance and preservation of Metis culture has been through her involvement and performances with the St. Ambroise Youth Steppers Dance Team, and her numerous solo performances.

Youth Steppers is a Metis Dance program facilitated by the St. Ambroise Community Centre and funded by the Southwest Region Manitoba Metis Federation. It has been performing for three years.

Chelsea and the group have promoted Metis culture by performing at dozens of events across Manitoba., in competitions and on television.

She also assisted two older dancers in teaching the Red River Jig and Heel Toe Polka to a group of four to seven-year-olds.

Chelsea caps her impressive resume with a consistent academic achievement averaging in the high eighties.

By Malcolm McColl

When I called Angelique Merasty Levac to interview her after the award ceremony in Vancouver, she was feeling a bit under the weather, perhaps from a lot of excitement. “I made myself some Indian medicine,” she said. “It’s a tea made from muskrat roots, peppermint leaves, and a green leaf from the muskeg. You drink this stuff and you sleep all night. I learned that from my Grandmother.”

Angelique won the Individual Achievement Award for her 15-year operation of Angelique’s Native Arts in Prince George, B.C. She opened the store after migrating from northern Manitoba and Saskatchewan where she learned the art of birch bark biting in the tradition of Northern woodland Cree women. She is one of the very few who practice birch bark biting anymore.

In 1994, Angelique began selling her own art and the work of other Native artists at her downtown store. Most recently, Angelique has sold a book entitled Kisemanitow Peyohtena Iskwahtem: God Opens Doors to a well-established publisher. Her story is about growing up in the Manitoba wilderness speaking only Cree until the age of 15. The publisher has committed to printing it for Canada and the USA in Spring 2009.

At the B.C. Achievement Foundation award ceremony held at the Pan-Pacific Hotel on January 27th this year, Angelique began her speech in Cree, explaining to the audience that birch bark biting changed her life and she credits her faith in God for the entire experience. “I flew up there and they paid all my expenses. Me and [my sister] Marie went. She was my helper, and we flew in there, and they booked us at the Pan-Pacific Hotel. It was the most beautiful place I ever stayed. I felt like a princess,” she laughs.

Angelique admitted that the event was “really stressful for a while until I did my speech. They said I had two minutes to deliver my speech. I really wanted to reach these people. It’s not all my doing.” In the end she credits the Creator. “I had a standing ovation. They clapped for one minute . . . You could hear a pin-drop while I told my story.”

Angelique was born at Midnight Lake, Manitoba in the far Northern reaches of central Canada. She says, “It is bush and nobody lives there.” Yet, Angelique’s story resonates because she holds close to her memories of this place where she lived with her grandparents during the 1950s and 1960s. They held to the old way of connecting with the land, which meant her grandpa always found it necessary to break camp and find a different place every few weeks, for he was a trapper, hunter, and fisherman.

“There was nothing to play with when I was a child,” she said, a fact she once pointed out to her grandma. She said she wanted a doll, so her grandma made one. “We had a flour sack and she tied up the bag into a rag doll, eyes made from the soot of the fire. That was my doll.”

At 9 years of age, Angie began to spend more time with her mother and less time with her grandparents. She remembers watching others do birch bark biting when she went out with ladies on berry picking sojourns. On the cranberry picking trips, she saw the women conduct little competitions. They would peel birch bark and make pieces of art with their teeth, but Angie was too young to think much about it. It was her first impression of the way the ladies had social exchanges and created exquisite artistic impressions by biting birch bark. She remembers some of the art simply got tossed away. It was not until much later that she herself would learn and help to preserve a fast disappearing cultural practice. It was her destiny to become a Cree cultural icon and reigning expert of a disappearing art form important to First Nation culture.

Over the past three decades, Angie garnered a lot of attention for her artistic skill at birch bark biting. Her beautiful straight teeth still take on the task of this ancient artistic craft (she flosses regularly).

You can reach Angelique by email (creewomen@hotmail.com).

By Lloyd Dolha

In a press conference on Parliament Hill, Chief John Beaucage announced his candidacy for the leadership of the Assembly of First Nations on February 3rd. “Today, we’re here to take the first step in the rebirth of the Assembly of First Nations—a new AFN,” said the Grand Council Chief of the Anishinabek Nation. “I have a vision for a new AFN where the rights-based agenda is paramount and First Nations assert a renewed jurisdiction towards self-determination, self-government, and nationhood.” Beaucage said he was approached by an overwhelming number of chiefs and First Nations citizens to seek the top job, and his vision for a grass-roots movement was “spurred on by the youth and their call for unity, pride and inspiration.”

“The youth have spoken about the need for action, about their need for inclusion, [and] to ascend from despair, disregard, and indifference to take their rightful place as holders of their own destiny,” said Beaucage. He believes that among the youth, there is an expectation for change, and he said, “With all that my spirit can muster, I accept that call in being their agent for change.”

Beaucage noted that the AFN progenitor, the National Indian Brotherhood, developed as an organization primarily responsible for political advocacy and the current AFN has continued that role. The AFN has advocated against legislation First Nations don’t agree with and has worked to uphold people’s rights to education, housing, and health care. AFN also represents the interests of First Nations in constitutional talks.

Beaucage said the AFN must now move beyond the role of a special interest advocacy group and recognize the historic confederacy of First Nations. “Now, we are moving into another era where visionary leadership will be a catalyst for change and First Nations can take our place as a legitimate order of government in the fabric of Canadian society,” he said.

Beaucage is one of four candidates in this election. Perry Bellegarde, the former leader of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations (FSIN) has also thrown his hat in the ring for leadership of the AFN. Currently a Regina-based business consultant, Bellegarde (age 46) was grand chief of the FSIN from 1998 to 2003. Prior to entering the private sector, he was also a vice-president of Saskatchewan’s Crown Investments Corporation. In a press release announcing his candidacy for the AFN position, Bellegarde said he plans to focus on economic development and employment among his priorities as National Chief. “This is our moment in time,” he said. “It is my intention as National Chief to ensure that First Nations people become the beneficiaries of the changes that promote self-determination, self-sufficiency, and the honouring of our sacred traditions.”

The incumbent National Chief, Phil Fontaine, plans to seek an unprecedented fourth term as national leader. Fontaine (age 63) was first elected National Chief in 1997, following a long career in local First Nations politics at the provincial level. He was defeated in 2000 by Matthew Coon Come for being overtly close with the then Liberal government. Fontaine came back to win re-election in 2003 and 2006.

The final contender for National Chief is B.C. AFN Regional Chief Shawn A‑in‑chut Atleo, who has shunned early media attention. Shawn is a hereditary chief of the Ahousaht Nation, a position that requires both responsibility and accountability in his work and with his people. Shawn was re-elected in November 2006 for his 2nd consecutive term as the BC Regional Chief of the AFN. On his 2009 campaign website (www.shawnatleo.com) he states his position in straightforward terms: “By standing up proud and standing up together for our traditions, our laws, and our territories, we can ensure healthy families and communities, achieve sustainable economies, and return to living in balance and harmony with our environment. It is our time to act.”

Of the potential candidates, Beaucage is the only one who has pushed the AFN for change beyond the present structure (voting rights for only the 633 elected chiefs) and encouraged a complete reorganization of the AFN to a “nationhood model.” Such a model would extend voting rights to every aboriginal across the nation regardless of where they live.

An economist by training, Beaucage laid out a ten-point plan for the fundamental restructuring of the national body. Some of the key points include: a renewed commitment to a rights-based agenda and treaty rights; greater transparency, engagement and renewal; overhauling health services through the integration of federal, provincial, and local health programs. His vision of a new AFN calls for moving First Nations governance toward formal acceptance within the Canadian constitution in the Canadian federation. The process would take the form of constitutional amendment to recognize First Nations right to self-government, as well as a constitutionally recognized right to have representation in the House of Commons and in the Senate. Elected representatives would not belong to any established party, but would advocate, vote, and participate in debates to ensure that First Nations interests and treaty rights are being protected.

Grand Council Chief Beaucage is the leader of the 42-member First Nations of the Anishinabek Nation, representing one of the largest First Nation’s constituencies in Canada. He was first elected as Grand Council Chief in 2004, then re-elected in 2006 by acclamation. Beaucage played an instrumental role in the 2005 First Minister’s Meeting that led to the Kelowna Accords. He also served as co-chair for the First Minister’s Working Groups for Housing and Relationships. On the national scene, Beaucage co-chairs the National Portfolio for Housing for the AFN’s Chief’s Committee on Housing. In May of 2008, he was appointed chairperson of the $300 million First Nations Market Housing Fund. As leader of the Anishinabek Nation, Beaucage advocated a “solution-based approach to a rights-based agenda” by implementing grass-roots approaches to restore First Nations law-making authority.

The election of the AFN National Chief will be held in Calgary, Alberta on July 22, 2009. “No matter who is elected as the next National Chief, there is no question – change is coming,” said Beaucage. “That change will be toward nationhood and recognition of First Nations as legitimate orders of government within Canada.”

By Morgan O’Neal

During the past few years, three aboriginal writers (Richard Wagamese of the Ojibway, Eden Robinson of the Haisla, and Joseph Boyden of the Métis Nation) have deservedly taken home about every literary award worth winning. If there are any side effects from this good medicine, the possibilities are well examined in the short story “Bearwalker” in Joseph Boyden’s first book Born With a Tooth, a brilliant collection of connected stories exemplary of the intricately polished nature of his writing. In the story, members of the Bird family discuss the problematic return of a daughter and her man, who has recently gone over to the shape shifting realm of the Bearwalker, becoming one with the bush:

“Wouldn’t you feel lost wandering around in crowds of people like that?” I ask. “You’d always feel like you were”—I pause for the word to come —”surrounded … by a bunch of white people.”

“That’s never a good situation for an Indian.” Michael says.

“We’re already surrounded by them,” Raymond speaks up.

One thing is certain, these awards require an author to be “surrounded by white people” often enough to get recognized. This may be the beginning of an unexpected new reign of terrific Native writing. It may also mean being surrounded a lot.

Wagamese, Boyden, and Robinson have mastered the English language in order to widen their audiences. It is this mastery of English that allows them to gain recognition for the finesse and subtlety in their expression. Many poets and prose masters have long practiced their craft with the same severe concentration a master carver applies to a traditional pole or mask in a given tribal tradition, and aboriginal authors working in the field of creative writing have risen to match and conquer mentors and teachers such as Rita Joe, Maria Campbell, and Thomson Highway.

Rita Joe, one of the matriarchal rocks upon which indigenous writing has built its house, died in 2007, leaving a legacy strong enough to sustain indigenous writing into the future. Known as the Poet Laureate of the Mi’kmaq Nation, she was appointed to the Order of Canada and awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Dalhousie University. Maria Campbell is another elder who laid a strong foundation in prose and truth-telling that reached beyond her own Métis community. In 1973, the year Halfbreed was published, the Métis were not even considered to be aboriginal people at all under The Indian Act in Canada. As Agnes Grant has observed, “Until [Maria] wrote the book, ‘halfbreed’ was nothing but a common derogatory term; now it means a person living between two cultures.”

Thomson Highway stands stalwart as a wooden Indian guarding a burgeoning library of indigenous literature. He gives us a joyful image of ourselves, all biologically hilarious and hairless upright two-leggeds. In his a collection called Me Sexy edited by Drew Haydn Taylor, Highway’s “Why Cree is the Sexiest of All Languages” leaves no dirty laundry unhungout. The answer is nearly always funny and true and intellectually stimulating. The English language is designed for dissimulation, a Renaissance word that means lying) and, as Highway says, European cultures are based in the idea of power that rests in the accumulation of property and riches and armies and warfare. Native languages bring the mind and body together again in the telling of truth.

As Thomson puts it, the Greek/Hebrew source of Western morality and literary propriety originated in a garden, along with an estrangement from body, biology, and sexuality that had dire consequences for the civilization which grew out of that book: the Bible. In his work, Thomson describes a figurative garden where a “tree of knowledge stands at stiff attention,” a garden from which the English language has been evicted. Of his own language, Thompson says, “The dialect of Cree that I speak is arguably the fastest in the world . . . full of such succulent remarks as ‘it was so hot that day that I had rosary beads of perspiration clinging to the crack of my ass.’” An aboriginal author writing award-winning novels in English can still tell the truth in indigenous dialect because he or she is still thinking in Cree or Haisla or Ojibway, and because of this, can ignore ancient prohibitions against truth-telling that continue to censor even the best writers in English.

Eden Robinson quite significantly took her first name from that famous biblical garden. Her first book of stories, Traplines, was received with shock and awe by readers all across North America precisely because it could tell such normally censored truths. Eden (born Vicki Lena in 1968 on the Haisla Nation Kitamaat Reserve in northern B.C.) became successful quickly, but ask her who is responsible for her achievement and the answer is “definitely family.” As she told Suzanne Methot in a January 2000 Quill & Quire article, “I am surrounded by a family that supports artistic drive. I never felt like I was letting anybody down by being a crazy artist. I’ve only found out lately how rare that is.” Her book Monkey Beach, set on the Kitamaat reserve, won the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, was short listed for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and was nominated for both the Giller Prize and the Governor General’s Award. Blood Sports was marketed as a “Canadian bestseller, written with the cunning of Alice Munro and the twisted violence of Stephen King.” Robinson credits King’s The Shining with making her want to write in the first place because his novels “are full of working-class people who have shitty jobs and live in small towns. They’re people I know.” Thankfully, you can take the woman out of the rez, but you can’t take the rez out of the woman.

In the introduction to his collection of short essayistic memoirs, One Native Life, Richard Wagamese writes, “Stories are meant to heal.” These days, cities and states and whole countries need to heal. And so, we await the third book in Joseph Boyden’s proposed trilogy begun with Three Day Road and Through Black Spruce. He wishes to establish an Aboriginal Student Scholarship Fund with some of the financial portion of the Giller Prize he just received for the second novel. Joseph Boyden and his comrade in letters and CAA Canadian Author’s Awards winner Richard Wagamese are now recognized among the greatest writers Canada has ever produced.

Wagamese is a wise man, who has lived a life as difficult as any, and has taught himself to write in a way that strikes straight to the heart of things. This unique Canadian master of prose aspires to greatness and shrinks away from absolutely nothing.

In the history of our nation, stories can remain untold for decades—even centuries—for all the wrong reasons of racism, marginalization, dishonesty, even censorship and all manner of media manipulation. But in the end, aboriginal authors write from the heart about the truth of living as a nation within a nation. In the last decade, Canada has seen a remarkable flowering of truth-telling fiction, a number of novels that aspire to greatness and are recognized as such. Joseph Boyden, Eden Robinson and Richard Wagamese have written books that transcend the particular of characters and events and soar like an eagle.