Posts By: First Nations Drum

By Lloyd Dolha

Chief Donny Morris of the Kitchennubmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI) First Nation met with De Beers Canada president Jim Gowan for talks on possible exploration in their traditional territories on August 24, 2009, at the diamond giant’s downton Toronto offoce.

Gowans said his conversation with Chief Morris clearly showed that “the community is receptive to exploration and development that is undertaken responsibly following meaningful dialogue with the community.”

Both parties greed the discussion was constructive and useful, agreeing to that the dialogue should continue.

De Beers and KI have agreed to further discussions to consider “mutually beneficial opportunities.”

Be Beers owns the Victor Diamond mine in northern Ontario and has already signed Impact/Benefit Agreements with the Attawapiskat First Nation, the Moose Creek First Nation and has developed a working relations agreement with the Taykwas Tagamou First Nation of the region.

But while KI may be open to exploring new opportunities with the diamond conglomerate, at least one of their existing partners isn”t happy with the deal they already got.

The week prior, members of the Attawapiskat First Nation were in the city to confront De Beers, saying the company is prospering while their people still live in dire poverty.

Attawapiskat chief Theresa Hall said her community still faces a host of social ills despite their agreement with De Beers.

Hall said her community still struggles with a lack of physical infrastructure, toxic contamination of homes and schools, overcrowding and a failing sewage system.

The IBA signed between Attawapiskat and De Beers Canada in 2005, outlines financial compensation, training and job opportunities and a promise for additional building supplies, if available, to the community.

“If it wasn’t for us, no diamonds would be benefiting De Beers of Canada,” said Greg Shisheesh, spokesperson for the First Nation. “But the wealth is not reaching Attawapiskat and that’s why we’re here.”

Shisheesh organized a rally outside De Beers downtown office and later met with president Jim Gowans.

“You state we havemoney, we have joint ventures we have trust funds, we have training. All those things … they are not reaching the community,” Shisheesh said he told Gowans.

Spokesperson for De Beers, Tom Ormsby said the company has met all the benefits outlined in the agreement.

He said 110 Attawapiskat members work at the mine of less than 500 employees and the First Nation has been compensated for De Beers presence in the area.

Infrastrucure, including housing, the school and sewage system is not the company’s problem, he said.

The Victor mine began operating early last year and is located about 100 kilometyres west of the community.

Less than a week later, in a related development Chief Morris and other KI leaders threatened to re-ignite a longstanding dispute with the platinum mining company Platinex,if they return to their traditional territory to resume exploration.

In late August, James Trusler, president and CEO of Planinex sent a letter to Chief Morris advising him that the company will be going back to the mining site at Nemeigusabins Lake near the community.

Vhief Morris responded by sending a letter to Premier Dalton Mc Guinty prssing him for a meeting to discuss the Platinex situation.

“The province has not called one meeting on this controversy since last year,” said Morris. “This is a bad sign.”

In September 2007, six leaders from the KI First Nation were arrested for not allowing the company’s staff to pass through the community’s airport. They were sent to jail in March 2008 for two months becoming nationally known as the KI-6.

Morris said he and his people will be out at the lake mining site to “engage in peaceful demonstration.”

KI leaders said they intend to set up a blockade if Platinex attempts to drill at the site.

Compant spokes person Steve Skyvington said that president Trusler and a geologist will arrive in the area on August 25th to survey the land at the site.

The next day, members of the KI kept the floatplane carrying Platinex employees from landing on the lake with a small flotilla of canoes and a boat. KI members watched as the plane circled, then left.

“I think the community is happy because regardless of what other issues come into play, we accomplished what we wanted to do,”said councillor Sam McKay.

Attended by members of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP), the First Nations fully expected more arrests to be made.

Throughout the discussions to modernize the Ontario mining act announced earlier this year, the First Nation had adamantly asserted a moratorium on mining development in their territory. KI has consistently maintained that it was not adequately consulted over the mining development as required by Supreme Court of Canada rulings.

In a follow-up release by Platinex, the company said it is the responsibility of the province to to uphold their license to drill at the site.

Trulser said his company has “stayed on the sidelines” for over a year and a half waiting for consultations with the province to reach consensus.

“Clearly, Premier McGuinty and his officials either don’t care about this issue or simply decided to hide their heads in the sand, hoping Platinex and KI would go away. This is not the kind of leadership one would expect from the premier of Ontario.”

Both KI and Platinex blame the provincial government for the impasse and Chief Morris said he’s deeply disappointed that the McGuinty government has yet to intervene.

AFN national chief Shawn Atleo urged the province of Ontario to take immediate action to resolve the ongoing dispute.

“A number of court cases have already determined that there is a duty to consult First Nations prior to development on their traditional territory. The Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug First Nation want to complete a land use study before they consider whether or not mining should take place.”

The national chief urged Ontario to consult the KI First Nation on the land use plan and suggested the province could cancel mining permits until that plan is complete.

KI councillor Sam Mckay expressed disappointment that Ontario has filed a notice of motion in the courts rather than negotiate with the community.

“We have no funding to fight procedural cases that do not address our aboriginal and treaty rights,” said McKay. “This is a matter that would best be resolved through negotiation rather than litigation.”

By Lloyd Dolha

The Algonquins of Barriere Lake in northern Quebec set up a blockade to prevent Abitibi-Bowater logging equipment and forestry workers from entering their traditional territory. Protesters peacefully lay down in front of trucks loaded with logging equipment on a road near their Rapid Lake reserve. The Algonquins plan to continue the blockade until the government responds to their needs. “Our community has decided there will be no forestry activities or any new developments in our Trilateral Agreement Territory until the status of our leadership is recognized and the agreements we signed are resolved to our community’s satisfaction,” said Jean Maurice Matchewan, customary chief of Barriere Lake.

Chief Matchewan said the Quebec government has acted in bad faith by ignoring their legal obligations and giving the forestry company the right to continue logging in the meantime. Matchewan said he received no response to an August 25th letter sent to Paul Grodin, manager of Abitibi-Bowater’s Maniwaki mill, requesting that the company suspend logging operations until Quebec and the Canadian government follow through on their legal obligations.

The Barriere Lake Algonquins say the governments have refused to honour the “spirit and terms” of legal agreements reached in 1991 and 1998 intended to harmonize forestry activities with the traditional activities of the First Nation. In August 1991, Canada and Quebec entered into a trilateral agreement with Barriere Lake to develop and implement an Integrated Resource Management Plan (IRMP) for the greater protection of forests and wildlife. Companies such as Abitibi-Bowater would need to develop cutting plans and submit them to the First Nation for review and approval. Once approved, the plan would then be submitted to the province for review before issuing any cutting permits.

The 1991 three-phase agreement became a landmark in sustainable development and co-management and was praised by the United Nations and highlighted in the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP) in 1996. Phases One and Two involve the development of the draft management plan, and have been essentially carried out. However, as part of Phase Three, representatives from Barriere Lake and Quebec had to reach a consensus on a set of joint recommendations for the IRMP and negotiate an agreement to carry out the recommendations. Those recommendations appeared in a report submitted by two Quebec cabinet ministers in a letter dated July 13, 2006. Three years passed, and the government of Quebec has yet to respond. Canada dropped out of the process in 2001.

The complimentary 1998 agreement was intended to allow logging to continue while protecting the Algonquin’s traditional way of life and giving them a $1.5 million share of the $100 million resource revenue generated annually in their territory. But most importantly, the governments of Quebec and Canada have refused to conduct relations with the customary council and have not acknowledged elected Chief Matchewan as the legitimate customary chief of the Barriere Lake Algonquins.

The 450-member community, some 300 kilometres north of Ottawa, has been affected by a long-simmering dispute between two camps led by opposing cliques of elders; some support the customary system of electing leaders and others support the Indian Act system. In September 2007, former chief Matchewan stepped down after being charged with gun and drug-related offenses. However, he remained on the customary council and Benjamin Nottaway was named acting customary chief. In January 2008, another election was held, and Casey Ratt became chief. Chief Ratt charged that changes were made without the full support of the community and held that he was the legitimate chief. Violent clashes between the two groups erupted that spring, peaking in early March when riot police from the Surte de Quebec had to be called in, arresting supporters from each side.

On February 22, 2008, the Algonquin Nation Secretariat tribal council recognized Benjamin Nottaway as the legitimate chief of the First Nation. Less than a month later, the situation worsened when Andre Cote, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC) Regional Director-General, faxed a letter to Chief Ratt. The letter confirmed Chief Ratt’s legitimacy and indicated INAC would work with him in all future endeavors. The band’s previous leadership vowed they would never accept the INAC decision to support Ratt.

Ratt and his council had been out of the community, dealing with INAC, and Nottaway declared Chief Ratt and his council would never be allowed to come back. Ratt’s house later burned to the ground in a mysterious fire. Nottaway also sent a letter to INAC minister Chuck Strahl, warning him to “act carefully” and reconsider the decision to recognize Chief Ratt and his councilors.

In January 2009, the Federal Court of Canada agreed to hear a legal challenge from the custom council elders, accusing Ratt of breeching the First Nation’s customary election code in deposing acting Chief Nottaway. Judge Russell Zinn set aside an earlier ruling, determining that the decision by Minister Strahl to deal with the Ratt council was reviewable. That challenge is still before the courts awaiting a final ruling.

In the spring of 2009, a new leadership selection process was initiated under former Liberal MP Keith Penner and eventually resulted in the return of Matchewan as customary chief on June 24, 2009.

Quebec and Canada have refused to acknowledge those results, although the Algonquin Nation Secretariat has reiterated its support for the custom council. AFN National Chief Shawn Atleo met with Chief Matchewan on August 19th to discuss the trilateral agreement. “Instead of acting honourably and cooperating with our customary council to implement these signed agreements, the federal and provincial governments have been working in unison to try to install a minority faction whom they can use to sign off on the cutting of our forests,” said Chief Matchewan.

By Clint Buehler

Joane Cardinal-Schubert, B.F.A., LLB (Hon.), RCA (Blood) passed away in the early morning of September 16 after a long and courageous battle with cancer.

Although best known for her paintings and installations, Cardinal-Schubert, throughout her long and successful career, engaged in an impressive range of other activities as curator, writer, lecturer, poet and activist for First Nations artists and individuals engaged in the struggle for Native sovereignty. Her painting and installation practice is prominent for its incisive evocation of contemporary First Nations experiences and examination of the imposition of EuroAmerican religious, educational and governmental systems upon Aboriginal people.

Born in Red Deer, Alberta in 1942, she attended the Alberta College of Art in the 1960s, then obtained her B.F.A. from the University of Calgary (1977). She was assistant curator at the University of Calgary Art Gallery in 1978, and curator of the Nickle Arts Museum in Calgary from 1979 to 1985. She has been a lobbyist for the Society of Canadian Artists of Native Ancestry (SCANA) and an outspoken advocate of Native causes.

Her work has been reproduced in various publications, exhibited internationally and is in numerous prestigious private, corporate and public collections. In addition she was in much demand as a lecturer and writer, and was actively involved in video and theatre production.

Her accomplishments have been recognized with numerous grants and awards. She was the fourth woman to be admitted to the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (1986), recipient of the Commemorative Medal of Canada in 1993 and the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal in 2005. In 2003 she was granted an Honorary Doctor of Laws by the University of Calgary. In 2007 she received the National Aboriginal Achievement Award in Art from the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation.

Those dry facts, however, do not begin to express the passion with which she lived her life, the talent she exhibited in her various artistic pursuits and the impact she had, not only in bringing Native art to prominence, but in exposing truths about Native history, culture and contemporary issues.

Joane credited her father with setting her on the path to her artistic achievement: “Having a father who was a builder and innovator, I was exposed to a broad range of materials and media. I had seen blueprints and plans and sketches probably before I was four years old. Like most children, I was imitative so I used to construct things, draw anywhere I could and also sewed, designing clothes and making my own patterns from an early age. Of course I was born in an age when people still made things . . . it was normal.”

Joane said she “fell into being a curator through interest, volunteerism and due to organizing skills from past experience in organizing events.”

Since 1988, Joane had volunteered with the Calgary Aboriginal Arts Society (CAAS). In the course of serving CAAS committees and board, including a term as president, she said, “I’ve been able to help other artists by organizing annual exhibitions including their work. In 2001we created the F’N (First Nations) Gallery, which allows us to hang small exhibitions year ‘round of both individual and group work.

“A few years ago we began to explore theatre, so I have gained a lot of experience in that area helping with several theatre productions.”

Joane worked on the first video (Self Government – Talk about it) that was to become the Aboriginal Program at the Banff Centre and was one of the charter group who participated in the planning of the Aboriginal Program.

As for her writing, Joane said it was something she had been interested in since childhood. “I was an avid reader – about four books a night sometimes. I love writing – and particularly poetry. I wrote for years not worrying about being published. Then the University of Lethbridge’s Whetstone Press called me to use an image on their Aboriginal issue, and I told them I was a closet poet. They asked me to send them some examples and they ended up publishing four or five poems. This happened in 1983 or sio, and it seemed after seeing my work in print I took it more seriously.”

Joane believed that making issues known that need addressing was important. “I suppose I have advocated to have Aboriginal art exhibited in galleries and museums as a lot of artists have done. I just joined in and contributed what I could from my point of view. I suppose one of the more important issues I was involved in was saving the Alberta Aboriginal Art Collection from being sold off piece by piece. That involved telephoning a lot of collectors to not bid on the work. Fortunately, it was saved almost in its entirety.”

Typically, one of her last challenges—earlier this year—was to travel the province on behalf of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts to meet with Aboriginal artists and identify art work from the various stages of their careers not represented in the foundation’s collection, and to recommend purchases. Not only did Aboriginal artists directly benefit from her efforts, but those artists and their work will now be available to this and future generations.

She said her life and career was about “the joy of discovery, curiousity, the journey, the people met, experiences, learning, just being within the creative process.”

To the end, she said “there is still a lot to be done, mainly in figuring out how to continue to share my work in more innovative ways. Basically my career is, I think, to just keep working and everything will follow along.”

Joane is survived by her husband, Eckehart “Mike” Schubert and sons Christopher and Justin Schubert; siblings Douglas (Adoia) Cardinal of Ottawa, Ronald (Lori) Cardinal of Vancouver, Kenneth (Cathy) Cardinal of Perth, Australia, Robert (Carla Kalke) of Vancouver, Carol King (Mike King) of Sherwood Park, AB, Brian (Judy) Cardinal of Edmonton, and numerous nieces and nephews.

She was predeceased by her parents, Joseph and Francis Cardinal, and her brother David, who is survived by his wife Jenny in Auckland, New Zealand.

By Richard Wagamese

I started to run again. It’s been twenty years or more since I ran anything further than a trip around the bases in a slow pitch rec league. Back then it was still possible for me to entertain the idea of a marathon or competing in distance races. Back then it was elevating and somehow freeing.

Now, today, after chugging around a couple short miles, alternating between walking and running, it feels restrictive, flagging and darn hard work. The scenery’s nice and the air on the gravel road by the lake is clear and invigorating. But I’m in my fifties now and starting over is tough.

Still, there’s something big in it. There’s the promise of something buried in the sweat and burning lungs and concrete legs. Maybe it’s the possibility of reclaiming something of the youth I was, maybe it’s the idea of sticking around the planet a little longer or even just the knowledge that I’m out there.

It takes me back to another challenge when I was eighteen.

I’d dropped out of school with a Grade Nine education. The work I was able to find was less than fulfilling and there was a part of me that craved more. I understood the dangers inherent in a lack of formal schooling and I was afraid to be left behind, to appear stupid or unenlightened. Libraries gave me the opportunity to continue learning and I always took it.

But one night, sitting at a bar, I overheard the knot of people next to me discussing a book called Finnegans Wake. They talked earnestly and I understood that the book they referred to was important. They made references to other books, debated story structure and elements of the writing and I was impressed by the energy of their talk as well as the idea that a book could drive people to such impassioned heights.

Well, I asked the librarian for it the next day. She gave me a quizzical look but retrieved it form the stacks nonetheless. It was huge. That was my first impression and there was nothing on the cover to give any indication of what kind of story to expect. But carrying it across the library to a carrel near the window I felt, well, studious almost.

When I opened it, that feeling changed.

The language of James Joyce was dense, quirky and alluded to things more than simply stating them. The first sentence was mind boggling and the first paragraph sent my mind reeling. I put the book down and stared out the window. Then I picked it up and tried again. The language was daunting, unyielding and seemed to ask something of me that I did not possess.

I walked out of the library discouraged. But the book would not leave me be. I thought about it all that night and when I went back the next day I was determined to read it through. I got through the first page. When I asked the librarian what it was about the answer she gave me was a convoluted as the book itself. I left disheartened.

But there was something in the challenge that book represented that called to me. I didn’t know what it was or why it should be so important but I felt the pull of it anyway. So I checked it out and took it home. Each time I opened it I got a little further. Still, it was a writhing mess of aphorism, allusion, mythology, dream and seemed conjured by a fierce, raging intellect I was at odds to harness.

It haunted me. It invaded my waking thought. It irritated me that I couldn’t grasp the narrative thread of it and angered me to think that a story could elude me. Each time I picked it up I had to force myself to stick with it. Each time I picked it up I was confronted again with the thick hodge-podge of idea and image and each time I fought my way through. It took me over five months to read it.

The day I finished it was amazing. I’d allowed that book to take me over and when I closed it I felt awed by the passage of time. I’d been displaced and when I went walking to mull it over I was shocked to see that it was autumn. It had been late spring when I started. I understood then why the people I’d overheard were so smitten by Finnegans Wake.

It wasn’t that it was a rousing story. It wasn’t that it was a captivating and elevating read. It was because James Joyce had taken language by the neck and shaken it vigorously. He’d taken form and structure like a Lego set and created something odd and fantastic and magical. He showed me in the course of six hundred odd pages what was possible with language and story.

I read other books after that. I read Homer and Aristotle, Dante, Thomas Aquinas, Henrik Ibsen and Shakespeare, all the writers that influenced James Joyce in the writing of Finnegans Wake. Then I read Beckett, Borges, Virginia Woolf, Thomas Wolfe, Vladimir Nabokov, e.e. cummings, William Carlos Williams and Jack Kerouac. Reading Finnegans Wake proved to me that I had the intellectual mettle to tackle anything and that I could emerge from it a more aware human being.

It took everything I had to finish it. But like the first run around the gravel road I sensed that there was something big in it for me. I didn’t know what it was then but I know today.

Finnegans Wake allowed me to construct a dream of language. It was a dream that I might create worlds upon a page, a dream that I might throttle language too and shake it into new and fascinating forms. It took everything I had to finish it, but like running, at the end, I was bigger, hardier, full of grit and eager for the next challenge.

By Bernie Bates

A car passes by and inside is a person who is completely unaware of my gaze, my intrusion or even of my own existence. And I ask myself: what are they thinking, where are they going, what’s their story? This particular thought has crossed my mind many times before. And I was wondering if you too, have pondered this as well or am I special?

These people seem so focused, so intent on their destination that they rarely make eye contact with me. All I know is that their heart beats just like mine. I know that somewhere someone waits and cares for them. Other than that, I have no idea what makes them tick. What makes these people laugh or what can bring them to tears?

I sometimes worry that society is becoming fragmented into religious, ethnic or economic groups. We seem so detached from our fellow human beings, even from those who are so close that we could literally reach out and touch them. Not that I’m recommending that you feel up the lady next to you in the elevator. But ask yourself, what do I really know about those around me? Again, boundaries must be respected, but are we so afraid of rejection that we close ourselves off? Do you find yourself looking away rather than openly smiling? I’m not suggesting that you walk down the street grinning like a fool, but rather, presenting yourself as beginning an open and approachable person.

Being a people-person myself, I find that a smile and the simple acknowledgment of saying hello, works wonders. A person who at first glance looks angry may simply be using their grimace as a defensive mechanism. When in reality they are as eager as you are to communicate. You know how nice it is when someone cares enough to ask you, “So, how’s your day going?” The only problem with that question is they may just tell you the entire twenty-four hours minute by agonizing minute.

Profiling people by their looks is a doubled edge sword. On one hand, approaching a person who’s frowning could be as rewarding as uncovering a shiny gem. On the other hand you could be opening a can of spit and venom. And that’s where our primal instincts come in handy. If you can look a person in the eye and are able to tell within a microsecond whether you should turn tail and run or turn on the charm, could make or break – your nose.

Some folks walk this Earth with a big chip on their shoulder and play the part of the tough guy. They seemingly wake up just to make the rest of us as miserable as they are. I’m sure everyone knows a jerk like that. Or maybe you see one every morning as you look in the mirror. What purpose does it serve to be a mean-spirited a-hole? Is it to isolate themselves from humanity? The worst thing that they can do to a person in prison is to put them into solitary confinement. What a sad and lonely existence. I guess it’s like hemorrhoids, eventually, every ass gets it in the end.

On to something more uplifting, for example the corners of a mouth. In general most of us are communal animals. We search out acceptance and praise in our daily lives. And the best tool we upright monkeys have is a great big smile. If you can make another person smile, you’re unwittingly furthering human evolution. Together, we homo-sapiens can reach for the stars, and in doing so heal the scares of war, prejudices and hatred – one smile at a time. It’s hard to believe, but one of the most powerful weapons mankind has is the joke. If you think about it, how could you possibly be mad at someone if you’re sharing a laugh with them? So let’s get out there and knock’em dead. Be a comedian, slip on a banana pealing, make a funny face or at the very least acknowledge a stranger with a smile and a greeting. Who knows, you may make a new friend, maybe even a best friend or if you’re really lucky a bump-buddy. Remember: “The whole World is a stage.”

THE END

By Jim Ada

The evening that Dudley George was killed by the Ontario Provincial Police, (September 6, 1995), the Premiere Mike Harris happened to be celebrating his recent election victory at a gala event at the York Club. Peter Edwards of the Toronto Star notes the York Club has been described by James Fitzgerald of Canadian Business as a “ magnificently aloof Romanesque relic of the robber baron era.” Edwards explains the club was previously a mansion belonging to George Gooderham, president of the largest distillery in the British Empire. Premiere Harris’ congratulatory dinner in the historic brick and stone manor was hosted by the Financial Post newspaper, and the premiere shared his head table with business bigwigs and high ranking press personas such as Post editor Diane Francis, Conrad Black (president of Hollinger Inc.), Ted and Loretta Rogers of Rogers Communications Inc., Fredrik Eaton (CEO of Eaton’s of Canada), Paul Godfrey (president and CEO of the Toronto Sun), and Douglas Knight (president and CEO of the Financial Post).

Edwards wrote, “After grace was offered… the guests dined on a seven course meal that included smoked fillet of mountain rainbow trout, chilled vichyssoise, black angus roast tenderloin, and cold pear and juniper berry soufflé.” In stark contrast to this celebratory feast, the theft of a picnic basket in Ipperwash a few days earlier had caught Premiere Harris’ attention. He was quoted saying, “I want the fucking Indians out of the park.” The final report by the Attorney General regarding the Ipperwash Inquiry confirms racist comments made by the Premiere as well as the officers who dealt directly with Natives before and after the night of the crisis. They shouted at Dudley George in particular, taunting him, “Come on over Dudley. Come on over. Welcome to Canada. You want to be the first?”

In the short time Mike Harris had been Premiere of Ontario nothing other than “the picnic basket incident” had occurred regarding the Ipperwash claim of injustice. There had been various occupations of Ipperwash Provincial Park and the military base over the course of several years, held by a community that believes the land is theirs. One such occupation under Harris’s reign (July 29, 1995) began with the crashing of a yellow school bus into the park and ended with natives receiving federal government maintenance jobs (earning $10 an hour) from the military personnel and camp superintendents. Another occupation took place September 4th, just days before the crisis blossomed, and ended with the park superintendent giving the Stoney Point Natives a key to the main building, figuring there would be less damage. Out of these relatively harmless events, however, flowered the unacceptable death of Dudley George. The Ipperwash Inquiry reported that the premiere’s insensitivity, racism, and impatience narrowed the scope of options, and the premiere’s secrecy and involvement with a police matter was intolerable.

Light woke the bud of the crisis when on Labor Day, September 4, 1995 the Native people of Stoney Point moved in to occupy Ipperwash Provincial Park. It was about an hour and a half after the park closed—just how land can close is hard to understand—when the protestors cut a hole in the fence and drove several cars through it. With this event the occupation climaxed. The protest began with a dozen people, and although more individuals joined them over the next few days, the number of occupants never went above thirty-five according to police surveillance.

The Acting Superintendent of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) John Carson discussed the situation with Detective Sergeant Wright late that night trying to determine the necessity of a court injunction that would order the Natives to leave the park. Without an injunction it would be unclear whether or not the occupation was even illegal. “We may be forced to control outside,” Carson told Wright in a phone conversation.

Astoundingly, the morning after Dudley was killed, during a court hearing for this required injunction, their confusion became a strong point of contention. The presiding judge condemned the police for not communicating with the Native protesters. Court notes record the judge’s questions: “I want to know whether any effort was made by bullhorn, or otherwise, to indicate to this crowd that if they remained behind and inside the park that there was no intent on the part of the officers to go any further.” Whatever answer the judge received, he was forced to ask again “whether or not there was any attempt to communicate to the eight to ten people that were at the location at that time…that no attempt was going to be made to enter the park or pursue—that they were just to keep off the public access, keep off the public road, and remain in the park.” This time the lawyer responded that no direct attempt to communicate had been made.

Looking back to the initial Labor Day incident, records from undercover police officers called “badgers” indicate that the occupation was “very disorganized” and the only illegal activity amounted to “bonfires and firecrackers.” This innocuous activity resulted in establishment of a police mobile command post about a kilometer away from the occupation site. That evening, OPP superintendent Carson distributed the official plan for the officers calling it Project Maple.

Project Maple’s stated objective was to “contain and negotiate a peaceful resolution.” Officially, the plan called for thirteen police negotiators to be on call around the clock. Negotiation was originally the most important notion of Project Maple, though somehow, the OPP’s planned negotiations would devolve into “shield chatter.” Ambulances, caged buses, and arrest teams complete with female officers (arrests of women were expected) were all organized as Project Maple took shape. The police organized an arena in a nearby town of Forest for use as an “arrest center.” A building called Legion Hall was set up as the media center. Polaroid cameras were supposed to be in all the cruisers used for arrests, and two OPP officers would videotape all arrests so there could be no questions of brutality or excessive force. In the end, however, there were no videos or photos of Project Maple’s execution.

Political interest was keen as events unfolded. All levels of government were fixated on the crisis, from the premiere’s office to local MP Rosemarie Ur, who had called the OPP on the first day of the occupation. Premiere Mike Harris himself, though residing in Toronto, seemed to be calling too many shots from a distance. The provincial government wasted no time in getting involved with the executive branch’s affairs. The conservative premiere’s approach to Native affairs is well known for being tough, disregarding, and racist. Even so, Provincial Cabinet briefing notes state that the protesters were carrying no weapons—despite all the police surveillance trying to find otherwise—and that the occupation was nonviolent in its origin and execution and it should not be equivocated with the Oka Crisis or Gustafsen Lake.

On September 5th, Ipperwash Provincial Park superintendent Les Kobayashi delivered a written notice indicating the First Nations were to leave the park. When the occupiers refused to leave, lawyers for the Ministry of Natural Resources prepared to obtain the proper court injunction. In the meantime, park superintendent Kobayashi gave the protesters a key to the main building, thinking that it was better than risking potential damage from breaking in. Kobayashi was a Canadian of Japanese decent, and his own family had lost property and possessions during WWII under the War Measures Act.

On the same day, twenty high-ranking government officials met in Toronto. Representatives from Ministries ranging from the Solicitor General to Native Affairs all the way down to the OPP superintendent were present. Transcripts note that the issue of a Native burial ground at Ipperwash Provincial Park came up, but despite strong evidence to the contrary, the notes indicated there was no evidence for such a burial site. Those present in the meeting room wanted to “stick to the script” of Project Maple to “contain and negotiate peaceful resolution.” And yet there exists an interesting note that states: “Premier Office—any way to confirm gunfire” even though the topic had been discussed and it was concluded several times that all noises that sounded like gunfire were confirmed to be firecrackers.

Somewhere else OPP Detective Staff Sergeant Wright was organizing aerial support, armored personnel carriers, and offshore police boats. According to OPP communication transcripts word at the time was that nine protestors were in the park, including two women and three children. These police notes state at 4:07pm: “If they become pushy, arrest them and get them out of there. D/Sgt Richardson states that 100 arrest packages have been prepared.”

Additional police notes from September 5th refer to an infamous letter written to a newspaper by “Booper” George about the picnic basket incident. Booper condemned the “Army Camp Indians” and their actions at that time, saying, “Please do not think that all Chippewas act this way.” The conclusion in the police notes is “The councilor [Booper] is right, we are not dealing with your decent native citizen. We are dealing with thugs.” Another note states, “Enough is enough. Where is the leadership from not only the provincial officials, but also the federal officials and from First Nations itself? How can we negotiate with irresponsible, law breaking dissidents? We must come to our senses and take back control before something irreparable happens. As citizens of this country we have a responsibility to be law abiding, reasonable people. This should apply to all who live here.” These statements ring loudly of Canada’s narrow minded insensitivity to the Native cultures from whom it took lands during the 1830’s. Furthermore, at the moment this note was written, no attempt to negotiate had even been made. The move into and subsequent occupation of the park had not been ruled illegal, and the evidence of an ancestral burial ground in park lands would put them within their Canadian rights.

Things began to spiral out of control later in the evening on the 5th. Despite a law dictating when military weapons may be requested in support of civil power (i.e. under circumstances involving “riot or disturbance beyond the powers of the civil authorities to prevent or deal with”), the OPP called on Canadian Forces for a great deal of heavy equipment. Although the military’s aim was to remain “at arms length” and not become involved in law enforcement, the OPP was rearing to go anyway, communicating back and forth that “OPP are cognizant that no authorization for direct support…has been formally received…while I understand your predicament…I also know the turtle can only make progress when he sticks his head out.”

By Lloyd Dolha

The Alberta provincial government and Shell Canada filed motions in the Queen’s Court Bench on September 1st, requesting the dismissal of a case brought forward by the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN) last year that could threaten the continued expansion of Alberta’s tar sands developments. The First Nation is located on Lake Chipewyan about 600 kilometres northeast of Edmonton and is based around the site of the oldest fort settlement in Alberta (established in 1788). Their lands are downstream from Alberta’s tar sands.

The ACFN, one of Treaty 8 First Nations, said Alberta and Shell Canada are seeking to suppress much of the evidence the First Nation has brought forward. “It’s very clear to us why Alberta is pulling out all the stops to keep our case from being heard,” said Chief Allan Adam of the ACFN, who is supported by several other Treaty 8 chiefs. “If we’re successful,” he added, “it will threaten the expansion of the tar sands and fundamentally change how oil and gas are developed in Alberta.” The ACFN brought forward a cross-motion seeking a disclosure of all the province’s records if the First Nations’ evidence is suppressed.

In December 2008, the ACFN filed an action for a full judicial review, challenging Alberta’s refusal to consult with First Nations territorial lands are sold to industry for tar sands development. In that action, the ACFN asked for a review of how leases are granted to oil companies for development. The First Nation wants the court to order the province to consult with them before it grants such leases. Several provincial courts and the Supreme Court of Canada have previously ruled that governments in Canada have a legal duty to consult First Nations, and this case asks whether that process should start before Alberta leases the land. Rather than respond to the ACFN’s concerns, the Alberta government has worked with Shell Canada to stop the case from proceeding.

“In Alberta, government and industry are working as fast as they can behind closed doors to sell off the rights to develop the traditional homelands of First Nations without a word of consultation before these deals are done,” said Robert James, a lawyer representing the First Nation. James said unlike most provinces, Alberta delegates virtually all consultation duties to the oil industry itself. Alberta, he added, is the only province that refuses to carry out its own consultation on large projects that have substantial impacts on the land, such as seismic drilling.

Alberta also doesn’t hold consultations before tar sands rights are sold, while other provinces such as British Columbia consult with their First Nations before granting tenures to private companies. In late 2006 and early 2007, the Alberta government sold five oil sands exploration leases to Shell Canada, all within 20 kilometres of the First Nation’s reserve on lands traditionally utilized by the Athabasca Chipewyan people for hunting, fishing, and other subsistence activities such as gathering medicinal and sacred herbs.

Lawyers for the province and Shell argued that the application for disclosure should be dismissed because the First Nation didn’t file its objections until well after the six-month period allowed under provincial law. Lawyers for the ACFN said they weren’t informed by government that the leases had been sold. Both sides acknowledged that the ACFN was never officially notified of the sale. Alberta lawyer Stephanie Latimer pointed out that the information on the lease sales was posted on the Internet and that the ACFN was informed in June 2006 about an online link that posted lands about to come up for lease sale.

The ACFN said that granting a lease is a “critical step” in the development of lands, and consultation should not wait until after companies survey the land. They cited the terms of the lease sale that require companies to carry out work on the lands in question within a certain time period. That, they argued, creates the duty to consult even before the lease sales are considered. If the ACFN is successful in defeating motions to dismiss their case, a full hearing for a judicial review of the province’s records will likely take place next winter.

By Jonina Kirton

It has been said that you can feel the spirits of the murdered/missing Aboriginal women on the Highway of Tears, and many families and friends of the Aboriginal women who are murdered or missing across the country recount stories of dreams or visitations from the women. In some cases the women asked to be brought home. I am reminded of the title of Gregory Scofield’s book Singing Home the Bones. Not knowing what has happened to their loved ones leaves holes in the fabric of a family and their greater community.

In 2007 the RCMP expanded their Highway of Tears investigation to include 18 women who are missing or murdered since 1969. The geographical scope now includes other major highways in BC; Hudson Hope, Kamloops, Merritt, 100 Mile House and as far as Hinton, AB. Their list of murdered or missing women now includes:

1969 Williams Lake – Gloria Moody – murdered

1970 Hudson Hope – Micheline Pare – murdered

1973 Clearwater – Gale Weys – murdered

1973 Kamloops – Pamela Darlington – murdered

1974 Terrace – Monica Ignas – murdered

1974 100 Mile House – Colleen MacMillen – murdered

1978 Merritt – Monica Jack – murdered

1981 Kamloops – Maureen Mosie – murdered

1983 Hinton, Alb – Shelly-Ann – missing

1989 Prince Rupert – Alberta Williams – murdered

1990 Smithers – Delphine Nikal – missing

1994 Smithers – Ramona Wilson – murdered

1994 Burns Lake – Roxanne Thiara – murdered

1994 Prince George – Alishia Germaine – murdered

1995 Terrace – Lana Derrick – missing

2002 Prince George – Nicole Hoar – missing

2005 Prince Rupert – Tamara Chipman – missing

2006 Prince George – Aielah Saric Auger – murdered

Thirteen of the women were found murdered and five remain missing. Some say the list should be longer; that there are far more women missing and possibly murdered. Some speculate that there is a serial killer on the loose.

According to police reports, there have been few leads on most of these cases. Many of the families and friends of the murdered/missing women remain skeptical that these cases are being given the attention they deserve. Some suspect racism accounts for the lack of action.

Recently law enforcement zeroed in on a five-acre property at 31645 Pinewood Road in Isle Pierre, northwest of Prince George that was previously owned by Leland Switzer. Close neighbours to the property, Cindy Mortimer and Wally Anderson, have both said in the press that they have been forwarding tips to the police about Leland Switzer for a number of years.

In November 2008, Anderson located a bag of bones in an abandoned freezer at a dump site near the Switzer property. At that time, he did not feel the police took his find seriously. However, almost a year later Nicole Hoar’s father, Jack Hoar, advised opinion250.com that the RCMP had contacted him to say that they had found what may be her remains “ but they can’t be certain”. Law enforcement has not officially named Leland Switzer as a suspect, but Cpl. Annie Linteau has been quoted as saying “I can say a previous owner is a person of interest in this investigation”.

Switzer has been in jail since 2005 for the murder of his brother, whom he killed two days after Nicole disappeared. Law enforcement has said that there is no need for the public to be concerned for their safety as “the person of interest” in Nicole’s case is in custody.

Given the time span and the geographical distribution of the murders, it is unlikely that all these deaths are the acts of one man. Angela MacDougall, the Executive Director of Battered Women’s Support Services, has a theory about where law enforcement should look next. Upon reading a FBI report that had noted the relationship between murdered women along highways and long haul truck drivers, she learned that in the US there were 10 long haul truck drivers in custody for over 30 murders and that there were 200 more suspects, most of which were long haul truckers. It occurred to her that perhaps the same thing might be happening along the Highway of Tears, as well as elsewhere in Canada. She has been actively seeking support from communities and law enforcement across western Canada to investigate the possibility.

On hearing this, one cannot help but think of the murder of Chesley Acorn by Jessie Blue West, a long haul trucker, and his son, Dustin Moir. It is a well known fact that most of the murdered or missing women across Canada are Aboriginal, sex trade workers. It is also known that the sex trade is rampant at truck stops. Angela likened the situation to that of a pedophile who seeks places of employment where children are present. This is not to say that all who work with children are pedophiles no more than it is fair to say that all truck drivers are serial killers. However, it seems obvious that a serial killer would likely choose an avocation that would provide access to easy targets and a trail that is challenging to follow.

MacDougall points out that a long haul driver is constantly on the move. He could easily pick up a sex trade worker, rape and kill her, only to dump her body in the next province making it difficult to either determine the victim’s identity or locate a killer in the vicinity.

Whether or not it is a long haul truck driver, one serial killer or many, what has become more and more apparent is that racism is at play on all sides. MacDougall pointed out that “Marginalized is a sanitized word. Disdain and overt hatred of Aboriginal women is rampant.” The report, Voices of Our Sisters in Spirit, compiled by the Native Women’s Association of Canada, states that there is in fact “racialized, sexualized violence against Aboriginal women in Canada”. In some cases, adding to this racialized, sexualized hatred is the fact that some of the missing/murdered women are sex trade workers. Steven Egger an associate professor of criminology at the University of Houston-Clear Lake and the author of The Killers Among Us, has been saying that, “People just don’t give a damn about prostitutes,” and that they are somehow considered the “less dead”. As evidenced by those experiencing the dreams and visits from the spirits of those that have passed, whether they are sex trade workers or not, they are far from “less dead”. For the families and friends, these women are sisters, daughters, mothers, aunties and wives first and foremost. They continue to “sing home the bones”.

By Frank Larue

The Wasagamack and God’s River First Nations in Manitoba received body bags in H1N1 Kits received from the Ministry of Health and Welfare. The kits also contained facemasks and hand sanitizer, and the body bags seemed like a precautionary measure, in case the H1N1 flu might spread and leave a wake of death in its path. Fortunately, the flu hasn’t turned into a plague among First Nations, but sending body bags without any official request is probably one of the most insensitive things the government has done in years. After finally making it a priority to arrange for vaccinations against H1N1, the body bags arrive before the flu shots.

Jim Wolfe, Manitoba’s regional director of the First Nations and Inuit Health Branch of Health Canada has egg all over his face, and tried to explain how this happened. At a press conference in Ottawa on September 18th, he said the bags were intended for reserves to use over the winter and were not linked exclusively to H1N1. “We really regret the alarm this incident has caused, and it was unintended,” Wolfe said. “Some of these communities are unreachable by road, water, or air during the winter months. In other words, they wouldn’t be able to bring these supplies into some of these communities should they become necessary.”

The government department supported Wolfe, telling the media this was only business as usual: “Health Canada delivers services in remote areas through nursing stations. We routinely stock commonly required medical materials such as personal protective equipment, pharmaceuticals, and other medical supplies such as body bags.” Any link with H1N1 was unintentional, according to Health Canada. “Whether it’s a nursing station in a remote First Nations community in northern Manitoba or a hospital in Vancouver, supplies are constantly being restocked to prepare for unknown and unforeseen events, whether it be a plane crash, environmental disaster, or pandemic,” they stated.

Their explanation and forced apology didn’t make much of an impression with Manitoba Grand Chief David Harper who told the Star Phoenix, “It really makes me wonder if health officials know something we don’t… I make a plea to the people of Canada to work with us to ensure the lowest fatalities from this monster virus. Don’t send us body bags. Help us organize, send us medicine.” Chief Harper was infuriated over the action and called for Jim Wolfe’s resignation as well as an apology from Leona, the Minister of Health & Welfare.

The Minister, who had accused the media of “sensationalizing” the story, was quick to offer her regrets to Chief Harper and the Manitoba First Nations. “It was insensitive and offensive,” she admitted. “As minister of health and as an Aboriginal, I am offended. To all who took offence at what occurred, I want to say that I share your concern, and I pledge to get to the bottom of it. I have ordered my deputy minister to conduct a thorough and immediate inquiry into the situation.” Minister Aglukkaq then promised to make the result of the inquiry public.

There are grave doubts whether Leona Aglukkaq will fire Jim Wolfe, and the report she promised is unlikely to be released until next spring. By then, tempers will have cooled and the impact of the action will be old news. Shawn Atleo, newly elected chief of the AFN, was not amused by Health & Welfare’s gauche attempt at reconciliation. While attending a conference in Halifax, he said, “At the core and crux—and I’d look to legal experts to consider this notion—Canada has yet to recognize our peoples in a fundamental way. We still have policy being done to us and for us in isolation of our First Nation government leaders. Whether we’re talking about issues of health or issues of the fishery and economic prosperity in our community, we need to break this pattern whereby governments are doing things for us.”

By Jim Ada

“Why do you go back and back to the woods unsatisfied, longing to express something that is there and not able to find it? This I know, I shall not find it until it comes out of my inner self, until the God quality in me is in tune with the God in it.” Emily Carr

From May to November (2009) the Vancouver Art Gallery is displaying a comparative exhibition showing the works of Emily Carr (Klee Wick, “the laughing one”) and Jack Shadbolt. The exhibition fills several rooms with the spirit of the two artist’s unique take on the same subject: capturing the rhythms of Canada’s vast natural world, and the life and art of native cultures.

Many see Carr as a “Canadian icon” known for interpretive paintings that give a fresh expression to the spiritual life of Indigenous Totems and living forests. Before Carr, mainstream Canadian painters were primarily creating portraits and representing landscapes with watercolor, oil paints, and other mediums. Carr was one of Canada’s first painters to attempt to capture not just a thing, but the spirit of the thing in itself. In Carr’s definition of her process she includes the Japanese concept of Sei Do: “the transfusion into the work of the felt nature of the thing to be painted.” For an example of this we find, in many of Carr’s paintings and sketches, hidden or vague figures, animals, and spirits inhabiting a particular angle looking in the woods, sometimes they even seem to peer back out at you. Her brush strokes in other works give the impression of a forest alive with a chaotic and vibrating spirit, creating nature full of a character: a skyline screams in her work, and a forest quiets its secrets for a human figure entering it.

Jack Shadbolt was greatly influenced by the work of Emily Carr, and in moving from rooms full of Carr’s work to his own one can feel her presence. Shadbolt was willing at times to take on a radical activist stance in depicting not only the modern experience of Canada’s indigenous peoples, but also the rape and pillage approach the Western World brought to the living Natural environment itself. In comparison with Carr’s work that express the living force of the woods, Shadbolt will kill the woods in a painting, showing it chopped, logged, and cleared, and simply let it be dead. The emptiness and absence of life expressed in the lack of a vibrant forest, or in giving us an environment that once was full of life but no longer, is an extension of Carr’s own work brought to a new generation of people. The physical scale of his oeuvre is also an extension of Carr’s work, bringing similar sensations to a jaded or attention deficient era. At times his paintings might be seen as stuffed with heavy handed one liners, yet one can respond in defense by agreeing: “Yes, and precisely so is contemporary Canadian culture and the way it has treated Indigenous people and the environment.” Shadbolt, like a good comedian, is willing to throw you an old gag but do it well, and with a twist. His repertoire is wide and there are many periods of his work. In some works, by contrast, his attention to subtle detail is extraordinary, for example by imposing complex orders into the chaos of living thickets.

The idea of two artists of British ancestry securing such a vast hold on Canada’s artistic access to First Nation’s culture and art reminds us of the feminist slogan about the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. It reads, “You have to be nude to be a woman and hang at the Met.” We can change the slogan to suggest that, “You have to be British to be a Indigenous painting icon.” There is something ironic about this phenomenon, and while art communities justifiably follow sets of unknown, unwritten, and often mad rules, it is the case that many current and past Native artists go underrated and unacknowledged by large Canadian art collectors. What would a solution look like?

Both Carr and Shadbolt spent a great deal of time abroad, studying the painting of other cultures. Sometimes Shadbolt is clearly channeling or modeling the Cubism of Picasso, or the Abstract Expressionists of New York, or the forms of India. Carr herself studied painting in San Francisco, England and France (she found the St Ives group in England, and the colors of the Fauves in France), and returned to Vancouver Island to paint her favorite subjects with the techniques and ideas she developed.

Given the value of influence from other cultures on artistic expression it seems a reasonable response to our need for a strong community of First Nations artists, creating First Nations art, would be financial support for studying abroad. This way of support is simple and attractive, but the implications are also clear: the development of native art involves developing it with influences from other cultures. Related is a modern Totem called the “Spirit Pole” which was unveiled in its beauty at the 2008 North American Indigenous Games. The Totem’s lines and colors were remniscent of Carr’s own and the Group of Seven’s influence. The Totem was both originally executed (by thousands of people all over B.C.) and originally designed by Carey Newman, a Coast Salish/Kwagiulth artist.

The journey of the these and many artists seems to be stubbornly counter-cultural. What culture one originates from is the culture the artist should speak both for and against. Carr herself went against a bigoted Canada to express herself in an unconventional way for the time. And now her style is the status-quo for Canadian artists. The cycle is predictable. The logical interpretation and conclusion of this brief discussion for First Nations artists is this: stop compulsively creating Native art, and then perhaps you really will begin to.