FRANCIS PEGAHMAGABOW ONE OF ONLY 39 CANADIANS AWARDED MILITARY MEDAL THREE TIMES – MOST BATTLE AWARDS EVER RECEIVED BY AN ABORIGINAL SOLDIER SERVING CANADA
The life-sized bronze monument, created by Sudbury-based sculptor Tyler Fauvelle (www.tylerfauvelle.ca), is situated on the Georgian Bay waterfront at the Charles W. Stockey Centre for the Performing Arts, Parry Sound, Ontario. Photo courtesy of Tyler Fauvelle
NAUGHTON, Ontario –
One hundred years after Francis Pegahmagabow received his first Military Medal, his family and community joined First Nation, military and other dignitaries on National Aboriginal Day to celebrate the unveiling of the first monument erected in Pegahmagabow’s honour. The life-sized bronze monument, created by Sudbury-based sculptor Tyler Fauvelle (www.tylerfauvelle.ca), is situated on the Georgian Bay waterfront at the Charles W. Stockey Centre for the Performing Arts, Parry Sound, Ontario.
The Ontario Native Education Counselling Association (ONECA) started the project two years ago. “Our hope is that this spirit-building public monument will inspire and empower Canadian students of all backgrounds, and resonate strongly with Aboriginal students,” said Roxane Manitowabi, Executive Director of ONECA.
“The Great War has passed from living memory,” said Tyler Fauvelle. “A bronze monument is an enduring witness. This one will tell, in its own way, the story of Francis Pegahmagabow – an amazing story that is part of our shared history.”
“We are so grateful for the contributions and assistance we’ve received,” said Roger Chum, President of ONECA. “The generosity and goodwill of the Pegahmagabow family, the communities of Wasauksing and Shawanaga, the Town of Parry Sound, the Department of Canadian Heritage, the Royal Canadian Regiment, the members of ONECA, and of everyone who supported this work of respect and remembrance, is truly heart-warming. It’s the spirit of reconciliation.”
National Chief Perry Bellegarde (Assembly of First Nations), and Lieutenant-General J.M.M. Hainse (Commander, Canadian Army), were among the dignitaries at the unveiling. A 50-soldier Guard of Honour (3rd Battalion, the Royal Canadian Regiment), stood in solemn tribute.
Francis Pegahmagabow was born and raised in Shawanaga First Nation. Enlisting in 1914, he fought overseas for virtually all of the First World War, seeing action at the Second Battle of Ypres, the Somme (where he was wounded), and Passchendaele. A superior scout and sniper, he was one of only 39 Canadians to be awarded a Military Medal and two bars. In Canada’s history, no other Indigenous soldier has ever received as many battle awards.
Settling at Wasauksing First Nation, where he was twice elected Chief, he continued to fight – this time, for the traditions, rights and self-government of his people. He was a founder of the Brotherhood of Canadian Indians, and twice served as Supreme Chief of the National Indian Government.
Donations are still needed, and can be made by cheque payable to “Parry Island Hero”, and sent to ONECA, P.O. Box 220, 37 A Reserve Road, Naughton, Ontario, P0M 2M0, or online (via Pay Pal) at www.oneca.com.
Once we focus on walking out the prison door free again we have to visualize what put us in the cage. What took away our freedom?
The poison that we pop or drink does not belong in our blood stream or in our mind, and they pollute our spirit. All of the bad medicine we take is foreign to our way of life and culture. About ninety per cent of native inmates locked up were on drugs or alcohol when they committed crimes that would not have happened if they were living their traditional native culture because native culture is based on sacred native teachings and ceremonies.
Our brothers and sisters are affected by culture shock with the loss of their land base, their social society, their sacred ceremonies, their elders and youth, and the loss of hunting and gathering — with devastating impacts on our families, and communities and nations. Native/indigenous people are struggling more than ever to maintain their health, harmony and freedom. Even after the Truth and Reconciliation process there is a desperate need to see hear and feel the casualties of colonization, and now the impacts of lawyers, and engineers fueling the mass exploitation of Mother Earth’s last resources in Northern Canada.
When I was young I heard our old elders speak at our sacred circles about our young people locked up in prisons, and that they had no chance of healing in non-native programs. Non-native authorities did not focus on Mother Earth or the Natural World around us; there was never any talk of how the plant life, rivers or lakes could heal us by giving thanksgiving, or the need to put our moccasins back on and live our way of life with respect for life the way Tom Porter talked about over and over in his life time – by bringing back Traditional Culture to our communities.
We had so many good elders and teachers only 20 years ago. Many are now gone and this is hard on our people and culture too. When we as native people lose our elders we are losing our wisdom keepers, our faith keepers, our chiefs and our clan mothers. This has been hard on our survival as indigenous people! Our old elders are saying we can survive by lighting our Sacred Fires from within — and in our circles and pipes. We also need to help those who are hurting us and themselves because we are a healing people, we are a Thanksgiving people, sharing and thinking not only of our selves but of healing all Creation.
Photo: L to R: Mohawk Spiritual Leader Tom Porter and Danny Beaton around 1996. Photo by Oren Lyons
Our people are suffering in prisons and on the streets and in their homes. We as native people are faced with an overwhelming task of healing ourselves, our families, and our communities and nations. If we recover the wisdom that gave our ancestors Good Minds that will be healing. As a Mohawk man I am willing to do all I can to bring back a healthy and healing way of life with anyone who is willing to help or join our struggle for justice.
After years and years of society drifting away from natural life and natural laws, our society has moved towards a monetary mentality that is based on a profit driven life style and profit seeking activities, with profit seeking priorities. Even our children know things are not right. Once they start talking about the environment in the class room, they share a lot of sadness with their classmates and teachers. There is hopelessness in our children’s hearts but we as parents can fill them up with wisdom and love.
Our children have a lot of wisdom and love for life in their human make up while they are still young. Once they are taught how sacred the wolf is, the bear, the Eagle, the turtle, insects, birds and creation – they are filled with happiness and excitement. We are living in buildings surrounded by more buildings — in condos, suburbs, mansions, apartments. The city is so full of electricity, electronics, cars, with endless stores and shopping malls, to keep us in a fantasy world.
When the children in Tecumseh heard developers wanted to cut down their forests, they spoke out at City Council for the rights of animals, trees and life species. The once clean air, fresh pure water, rivers, streams, oceans and Mother Earth are chemically tainted from the North Pole to the South Pole. We human beings are suffering directly or indirectly from cancer. But there is a movement in the world to support ‘Climate Change’ and bring about values and standards that will help Mother Earth to heal.
We as human beings need to be connected to all the life forces – earth, air, fire, and Mother Earth’s blood – the sacred water. The machine mentality is paving over Mother Earth, taking out the last hard wood forests and wetlands while endangered species are ignored once more.
Even with environmental laws in place our government is failing our children. Our old elders told us this would happen if we continued on the path of negativity, rape and pillage, but prophecies do not have to happen if we change our destructive ways. Mother Earth will help us if we learn to help her. We need to protect the forests and wetlands that are still here.
When Becky Big Canoe organized the Water Walk around Lake Simcoe last summer my daughter and grand kids came out and joined us for the Healing and protection of Lake Simcoe and our Great Lakes. Artists have created films that tell the Mother Earth story. Just watch the movies – Last of the Dogmen, The Mission, Black Robe, Sun Chaser, The Last of His Tribe, Grey Owl, Dead Man, Renegade, End of The Spear, Thunderheart, Emerald Forest, Koyaanisqatsi, Dream Keeper, The New World, One Dead Indian.
The new President of Nunatsiavut says he’s looking forward to working to advance the interests of all Beneficiaries of the Labrador Inuit Land Claims Agreement.
“I am very excited about the future and taking on the challenges that lie ahead as we continue to move Nunatsiavut forward,” says Johannes Lampe, who took the oath of office during a ceremony in Nain today.
Lampe says he’s hoping to build on existing relationships with both the federal and provincial governments, and to working closely with Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, the national Inuit organization, to address ongoing concerns and issues facing Labrador Inuit.
Lampe, a former Minister of Culture, Tourism and Recreation and an Ordinary Member for Nain in the Nunatsiavut Assembly, replaces Sarah Leo who served as President for the past four years.
Lampe, who was the only candidate to file nomination papers for the position, was acclaimed President-elect on April 7. He is the third official President since Nunatsiavut was established on December 1, 2005.
Lampe, siagu Ministeriulauttuk IlikKusiliginnimut, Niuggutitsinimmut amma Pingguanimmut amma kiggatuttiuluni Nainimiunik Nunatsiavut katimajitsuanginni, ininganojuk Sarah Leo AngajukKângulauttuk sitamaukKaujuni jârini.
Lampe, angnigigatsatolauttuk tatattuiKâlluni angnigusotinnik suliatsamut, uKausiulauttuk AngajukKâsaugiamut Aprel 7-imi. Pingajugijaulittuk AngajukKângugiamut Nunatsiavut pingutitaulaummanit December 1, 2005-imi.
Protesters gathered outside the Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada in downtown Vancouver to announce “a day of victory” as they ended their six-day occupation of INAC office. The group announced that Carolyn Bennett, Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs, and Mélanie Joly, Minister of Canadian Heritage, have agreed to meet with the protestors in Vancouver in late May or early June. “Securing two ministers to one meeting in six days is a huge accomplishment,” said organizer Jerilynn Webster, who is Nuxalk and Onondaga.
Occupy INAC Vancouver organizers announcing the end of the protest and the meeting with federal ministers. From left: Valeen Jules, Jerilyn Webster, Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, Webster’s son Sequoia, and Crystal Smith. Photo by Sophie Woodrooffe
The group, who call themselves the Council of Mothers, have two demands. They want the federal government to spend as much on Indigenous languages as they do on the French language, which receives $2.4 billion in funding. Indigenous languages receives $5 million. They also want the national program Cultural Connections for Aboriginal Youth to be revived. The program, which offered cultural and economic support to off-reserve youth, was shuttered in 2012 by the Harper government. Webster sat on the CCAY council for six years.“This is just the beginning of the work. It’s not like we’re going for a photo op or for lip service. We’re there for action and we’re demanding action,” said Webster.
Women Leading The Way
From April 18 to 23, Jerilynn Webster, Chrisse Oleman and Crystal Smith occupied the INAC office in Vancouver along with youth Valeen Jules, six children and one father. “Right now in Canada the most unsafe person is an Indigenous woman,” said Webster during the press conference. “And today we flipped the script.”
Webster said she did not intend for the protest to comprise mainly women. “We did ask men and there wasn’t any available at that time.” She says men later supported the occupation from the outside.
At the end of the rally, 18-year-old Valeen Jules, who participated in the six-day protest, addresses the crowd. Photo by Sophie Woodrooffe
Union of BC Indian Chiefs Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, who supported the Council of Mothers’ occupation, sees the female-led protest as an advantage. “Quite frankly, I think had there been men involved they would have mucked it up,” said Philip. He says women are better equipped to take decisive action. “It’s women, single mothers in particular that carry the heavy and quite often tragic burden of poverty that afflicts Indigenous peoples.”
Initially, the women protested in solidarity with Attawapiskat in northern Ontario, which is facing a suicide crisis. After Carolyn Bennett met with the community, Attawapiskat youth urged protesters in cities across Turtle Island to focus on regional issues.
Webster and Philip said they expect more direct action in the coming months — even if Bennett and Joly satisfy the Council of Mother’s demands. “Indigenous youth are beginning to mobilize and if I was government, I’d be deeply concerned about that,” said Stewart. “What happened here could be the harbinger for a long hot summer given the multitude of issues that are confronting the Indigenous people of this country.”
PRINCE RUPERT, BRITISH COLUMBIA — The Port of Prince Rupert announced today that a $244,000 investment from its Community Investment Fund will help preserve traditional food production, increase nutritional education and develop new skills within the Gitxaala Nation.
Ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Gitxaala Nation’s new community kitchen and greenhouse garden.
A celebration in the coastal village of Kitkatla, BC took place Tuesday, April 12, 2016, to bless and commission two new community spaces: a garden and greenhouse where local produce will be grown, and a kitchen and eatery for food preparation and training. The event was attended by over one hundred Kitkatla residents that included school children and elders, as well as a delegation of staff from the Port of Prince Rupert who prepared the first community meal served out of the new kitchen.
“We couldn’t be happier after seeing the impact of these projects first-hand,” said Don Krusel, President & CEO of the Port of Prince Rupert. “The community kitchen and garden are physical embodiments of the spirit of our Community Investment Fund, which was established to enable significant quality of life improvements to a broad demographic of community members. Experiencing these facilities, surrounded by members of the Gitxaala Nation, it was evident how useful these community assets already are, and will be for years to come.”
“We are very thankful to the Port of Prince Rupert’s partnership and financial contributions, for the Green House and Community Kitchen.” said Clifford White, Chief Councillor of the Gitxaała Nation. “These new facilities will go a long way to fostering the greater independence and sustainability of our nation, providing meaningful educational opportunities while strengthening the social fabric of our community.”
Over 100 Kitkatla residents came to celebrate the new community kitchen and garden.
The kitchen is located in a building locally referred to as the ‘loaf of bread’ due to its unique design, and over many years had fallen into a state of disrepair. Under the direction of Housing Coordinator Ernie Westgarth, a group of local workers renovated the building, installed the new kitchen and added a two-story deck that allows its patrons to sit outdoors and enjoy the oceanfront view. The kitchen will provide an opportunity for Gitxaala to explore a partnership with North West Community College to offer a culinary training program to residents interested in pursuing regional employment opportunities.
“The ability to do an entire project like, this with a local workforce that are learning and practicing skills throughout, is a really rewarding opportunity,” said Westgarth. “The pride and accomplishment we’re all feeling was evident when we gathered as a community there for the first time. It’s a really positive experience that’s created momentum for the housing renovation work we have ahead of us this year.”
Kitkatla’s garden programming was initiated several years ago, but the lack of naturally occurring topsoil and the cost to ship it to the community by barge remained a hindrance. The recent addition of a 20-by-40-foot greenhouse with a heating and water system will allow the community to become increasingly self-sufficient, promote physical activity through gardening and maintenance, and ultimately lead to a reduction in diet-related illnesses amongst community members.
Kitkatla singers and drummers perform at celebration.
“It’s been an amazing community effort to put our Food Security Plan into action, and the garden project is directly contributing to early childhood wellness,” said Cindy Ignas, Health Director for Gitxaala Nation. “We’re so thankful for the contribution from the Port of Prince Rupert, and everyone is looking forward to getting food from the garden into the breakfast program at Lach Klan School and the prenatal packages delivered by the maternal health program.”
The majority of funding for the Gitxaala Community Garden and Kitchen project came from the $244,000 contribution from the Port of Prince Rupert’s Community Investment Fund. Other funding partners included BC Ministry of Agriculture, Coast Industrial Construction, and the Heart and Stroke Foundation of BC and Yukon.
It has been a long time coming but Métis people and Non-Status Indians now have full status thanks to a Supreme Court of Canada ruling in mid-April. Prime Minister Trudeau called the decision a landmark ruling. “We, of course, respect the Supreme Court decision, and we’ll be engaging—not just on our own but with Indigenous leadership—to figure out what the path is forward.”
Governments have never agreed on whose responsibility Métis and non-status Indians were, and the new ruling places the responsibility with the federal government, which means both will now have access to post-secondary education funding and health benefits, along with organizational funding. BC Aboriginal Relations Minister John Rustad was happy with the decision since the BC government had signed an accord with the Métis in 2006. “We now have an opportunity to continue to build and strengthen our relationship with the Métis, and hopefully there will be an opportunity for the federal government to play a more prominent role.”
The late Métis leader Harry Daniels, who began the case for non-status Indians in 1999.
The ruling states: “There is no consensus on who is considered Métis or a non-status Indian, nor need there be. Cultural and ethnic labels do not lend themselves to neat boundaries.” There are 451,795 Métis in Canada with 46,325 in Winnipeg alone, which has the largest Indigenous population of any city in Canada. Proud leader Louis Riel, architect of western Canada, is an important historical figure, not only to the Métis people but to all Canadians. Non status indians were historically removed from any resources that came with a settlement. “When the treaties are made, they (federal negotiators) are pretty clear to dial in the no-status members, but then they don’t fully resource them in the treaty package to take account of these numbers. So I think this is a clear signal this has to stop,” University of Ottawa law professor Joseph Magnet told the Ottawa Citizen. “I’m very happy that we were successful in removing a blockage. The court recognized that this blockage has caused significant disadvantage, discrimination, and resulted in denial of programs and services that all governments recognized were necessary.”
Dwight Dorey, National Chief of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples described it best: “This is a great day for over 600,000 Métis and non-status Indians. Now hopefully we will not have to wait any longer to sit at the table.”
The case that was started in 1999 by the late Métis leader Harry Daniels along with Leah Gardner and Terry Joudrey has finally delivered the result they had anticipated for all those years. “I’m overwhelmed and ecstatic, and I wish my father were here to see this,” Gabriel Daniels told the media. “He’d probably do a jig right now.”
Protest and Occupation at Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada Toronto for the kids of Attawapiskat. Photo by Stan Williams, April 2016.
Two weeks before the takeover of Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC), I had the privilege of sitting down with Gary Wassaykeesic (Dec 4, 1969) near Pickle Lake, Ontario Canada five hundred miles north of Thunder Bay. Gary was one of the protestors who took over the 8th floor of Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada on Thursday, April 14th, 2016, where the protest is still going on today (Sunday April 17th).
Gary has been a friend from our neighbourhood here in Toronto where we both live and work as Native activists for Mother Earth and our people, only now our kids are committing suicide because of the attack and rape of the land by mining companies and logging in Attawapiskat, Mishkeegogamang, and other northern Native communities. Many elders call our sadness and sickness “culture shock” or traumatization, helplessness. Children are seeing no future ahead but see drugs and alcohol finding a way into northern communities by roads built for exploration and exploitation on Indigenous territories. With no sharing of the corporate profit, Indigenous people are losing culture, homeland, respect, and their heath. Native kids are committing suicide because of the negativity and being out-of-balance with their culture, the misery they see their parents facing!
Gary Wassaykeesic Speaks Out
I am from northern Ontario, five hundred miles north of Thunder Bay, Pickle Lake Sioux Lookout area. But there’s a reserve called Mishkeegogamang, formally known as Isenberg. There is a lot of mining going on where I am from, a lot of extracting that they are doing, always finding different minerals up in our territory.
Gary Wassaykeesic (Left) and Danny Beaton (Right) at Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada Toronto. Photo Credit: Greg Allan
There is so much to talk about now. Canadian gold mines that do international mining. The mining companies put a highway right through our community and built hydro dams for power. They really did the conquer and divide routine on us. There used to be five different communities in our territory; they turned around and separated us with the highway, and they separated us further by putting hydro down the middle of our main community, which makes hundreds of millions of dollars every year. They built a highway which goes through our community, which serves the gold mines. It’s all self serving.
Danny, they are doing other mining too: ore, diamonds, and more. We are ninety eight percent on welfare! What is wrong with this picture? The same thing is happening in Attawapiskat, James Bay, communities all across the north are being exploited for minerals or logging or hydro—whatever makes a profit for companies.
But yes, that’s where I come from, and there are a lot of issues happening, like the Ring of Fire. It’s going to be happening within our territory, so the mining companies will be using our roads—or its more like government roads—and the highway or the little strips of land that cuts through our territory, our reserve, our land. They consider it that little “government strip of land” That highway is theirs to do what they want. That hydro line that goes right through our territory, our reserve, belongs to them. It’s considered government or Hydro property and we get nothing from all that! We get nothing from the mines, hardly. Whatever agreements were made, we get minimal; they are like two cents to whatever they profit.
Our people are dying at a fast rate now. We’re dying from diabetes, from alcohol-related deaths, a lot of our people are on the streets. Some could not take it here—the isolation, seeing the rape of Mother Earth, the pollution, the violence growing and growing. Some of our people left the reserve and are dying in Dryden, Thunder Bay, Red Lake, Pickle Lake, Sioux Lookout and even Toronto where I am living, cities near and far.
I just feel the way things are this has got to stop. It’s been going on since first contact: walking all over the Indian man. The death rate is so high. That’s the bottom line for me. When people are dying, you have to do something man. If no one is going to do nothing, someone is going to pick it up and do something about it, and that’s the way I feel. All this stuff that’s happening, man— because when I get a phone call, sometimes I have to hold my breath. Sometimes because you’re getting bad news from home. Sometimes its from your own family that someone is dying from diabetes or violently or found frozen outside, so many different causes of death in our territory right now and that’s what Toronto doesn’t know or Six Nations doesn’t know. That’s what southern regions don’t know: what’s happening in Northern Ontario.
In some communities, if we are walking down the street after dark and a non-Native is walking on the same street towards you, if you don’t cross the street then you get beat up or attacked. There is still racism in Kenora. It is the worst place for beatings in Canada. It’s like Mississippi Burning. We’re the blacks all over again. Would you believe this is happening all over the north? Sure there are some good people but not enough to make a difference. Our women are disappearing, our mothers are not safe, our sisters are not safe. We are afraid to live in our own country. The corporations did this to our reserves. We never had so much sickness.
We have been here for thousands of years, so why are these companies not sharing our resources that they are extracting? Look at our people! We have been here thousands of years! Look at our people. When the government says we have to move in a day, we are told we have to live in a box called reservations. Then they send us to these wonderful institutions called residential schools. They did the Sixties Scoop on us. These are issues that created culture shock. We are a broken nation!!
The way I look at this is the genocide is still going on here in the north, but its affecting all of Ontario, all of Canada, and the whole planet! The resources that they are extracting, all the gold that they take out of our territory comes down to Bay Street in Toronto. They take it down their government highway they consider government land right, and our people are lining up at the welfare office. Meanwhile Toronto is living like kings and queens. They are benefitting from our misery because all the gold and minerals comes from our homeland, our traditional territory. We have been here since the beginning of time, living off the land hunting, trapping, and gathering. The earth was pristine when they got here! Why does it have to be destroyed? We were living the way you’re supposed to live. Now they make us live the way we are today, moving us around in misery.
When I talk to my brother and relatives and friends back home, things are not the way they are in Toronto. In Toronto everything is at the touch of a button. Everything here in Toronto is happy. Like I said Danny, its good here, but how can I be positive when you’re always getting news of people living in misery? How can you be positive when so many of our people are dying in misery? My own story is, I have been through the residential schools. I know the story first hand about all of this. The government has turned us around so much that we have to beg for what is ours to start with. They have done a fantastic job of turning our lives around.
Now the forestry companies are getting closer and closer to our homeland, and they want to build a gold mine in our backyard. If this carries, my work as an activist will have to help my people more because I am awake spiritually and consciously for ten years. I know where I have been and am at, and I know where I am going. My mom was murdered when I was in the residential school. That’s when I started to get into activism because I needed to know what happened to my mom while I was in Residential school. As a kid I was always put into foster homes, group homes, training schools, jails—all of that. My life was institutional for a long time, but I always wanted to do something for my mother’s case, my mother’s justice! I have been doing line nine blockades, train blockades, road blockades to protect Mother Earth with Natives and non-Natives. Trying to get the word out what happened to our people. Why we have so much drug and alcohol addiction, homelessness on the streets—its happening all over Canada.
The impact of what happened to us, the politics that have played out, its exactly what happened to us—now I see on the streets of Toronto, not just in my community. Sometimes I live on the street, and I would rather be on the street. I used to have a girlfriend. I used to have a job and apartment. I had a lot. But when I started looking into my mother’s case, I became a Native activist. I became involved in something more than myself. I became one with Mother Earth and my people. I don’t have too much, Danny, but I am a happier person, and I am a little bit more satisfied because I have answers now. Now I know what happened to me, my brothers. I know what happened to my family, our community. I know what happened to Native people right across this land, now our home.
The impact of residential schools, the politics that played out, are still going on to this day. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission doesn’t mean a damn thing because no one contacted me about my opinion, and I have been working on Native missing and murdered women issues for ten years now, trying to get the truth out because Canada has a propaganda machine going that we as Native people are up against. Canadian society has fallen asleep spiritually and consciously. Corporations and government are making war on Mother Earth and her children.
When people come to our country, they don’t know what Native people are because Canada tells them who Native people are. New Canadians say, “Oh you Natives get a big house and free money every year! Canada treats you real good,” and I could bring them new people to our home and they would be shocked.
The Upper Nicola Band recently celebrated the release of critically endangered burrowing owls in their territory. On Sunday, April 10, 2016 six tiny, chubby, brown and white, yellow-eyed yearlings were released into burrows on the First Nation’s reserve near Merritt, BC. The burrows were built by First Nations technicians with the assistance of local biologist Chris Gill.
“It was a great opportunity to practice the stewardship of the land that is deeply ingrained in our people,” said Bernadette Manual, cultural heritage project manager for the First Nation. Manual said the community worked with Gill for nearly three years, surveying their eight reserves to find suitable grasslands for the project with the assistance of the Kamloops-based Burrowing Owl Conservation Society of BC. The society raised the six owls in captivity at a site in Kamloops in preparation for their release.
Upper Nicola Band celebrated the release of critically endangered burrowing owls in their territory on April 10, 2016.
The charismatic burrowing owl is a culturally and ecologically important species for the Sylix (Okanagan) people. The owls were traditionally considered guardian spirits to the Sylix hunters and warriors and were sometimes considered spirit carriers to other worlds. These small birds of prey make their home in the grasslands of North America.
Unlike most owls, burrowing owls are social and inquisitive. They live and breed on the ground in underground burrows, usually the abandoned homes of marmots or badgers. The tiny birds of prey hunt small mammals and insects, but are vulnerable to larger predators such as coyotes or hawks. Gill said the loss and degradation of grassland habitat due to pesticide use in agriculture has led to a dramatic decrease in burrowing owl numbers across Canada.
Mike Macintosh, director of the Burrowing Owl Conservation Society of BC, explains, “These small birds are part of the rich weaving of life in BC’s grasslands. They’re predators and prey, and they’re disappearing from Canada as a result of habitat loss and environmental threats. We’ve been learning what it takes to bring them back. It starts with conserving grassland habitats and with the work of people like members of the Upper Nicola Band and volunteers with the Conservation Society.”
Bernadette Manual holds a Burrowing Owl before its release back into the wild.
The Burrowing Owl Conservation Society began a captive breeding program about 26 years ago. Mackintosh said the hope is that the owls will breed this spring before migrating south to Washington, Oregon, and California in the fall. Each spring, they return to mate and reproduce. The goal of the program is to boost the owl’s numbers high enough so they can breed and replenish their population naturally without human help. Last year, 65 burrowing owls were released and had offspring, totaling around 200 birds that were successfully raised in the wild.
Members of the Upper Nicola Band will monitor the mesh-covered burrow regularly to protect the young owls from predators and provide supplemental food until they are mature enough to fly and hunt on their own in the grasslands.
The Canadian residential school system operated on a federally sanctioned policy aimed at eradicating First Nations culture. That is the truth. The Royal Winnipeg Ballet’s production of Going Home Star, commissioned with the support of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), is part of reconciliation.
Founded in 1939, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet is Canada’s premier ballet company, under the artistic direction of André Lewis for more than fifteen years. Over a decade ago, Going Home Star was first envisioned by the late Cree elder and activist Mary Richard and André Lewis. Multi-talented Tina Keeper (Cree activist, producer, actress, TRC Honorary Witness, and former MP) later joined as associate producer and soon the company assembled a remarkable team of some of Canada’s top artistic talents, including Giller Prize-winning Canadian author Joseph Boyden, acclaimed choreographer Mark Godden, and Juno Award-winning composer Christos Hatzis.
As a profession, ballet is a relatively exclusive and particular calling. “It is a little bit ironic,” Joseph Boyden admits. “We are taking a very European form and introducing it to a First Nations experience.” The company was aware from the outset that they were taking on a sensitive subject and took measures to collaborate with First Nations in meaningful and imaginative ways. “It was a risky project,” Justice Murray Sinclair, chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, told the Toronto Star, “but I knew something magical could happen, and it did.”
Going Home Star began its nationwide tour this January in Ottawa, concluding with the Vancouver premier April 7-9. Lewis feels this production is his best work since The Ecstasy of Rita Joe (a production Elder Mary Richard loved). He also recognizes the subject matter is difficult, but extremely important. “This chapter in Canadian history needs to be a dialogue in schools,” he said.
RWB Company dancers in Going Home Star, 2014; Photo by Samanta Katz
“We feel immensely honoured to have been entrusted with this story and to use the ethereal beauty of ballet to further an imperative dialogue around truth and reconciliation,” says Lewis. “Born from a collaboration between some of Canada’s finest creative minds, it is a gorgeously raw, exquisitely honest work whose artistry and message will resonate in the hearts of all Canadians.”
Going Home Star tells the story of Annie, a young First Nations woman adrift in a modern lifestyle of excess until she meets Gordon, a trickster disguised as a homeless man. Scenes shift through time in an otherworldly realm as Annie and Gordon travel the roads of their ancestors, rife with injustice and abuse. They walk together through the past and into the future, helping one another carry the weight of that legacy.
Mark Godden’s choreography is not a “tutu and tiara” ballet. The dance style is contemporary and emphatic, with expressive movements that communicate powerfully raw emotion as well as tender vulnerability. Joseph Boyden says, “Ballet cuts right to the heart of what’s most beautiful physically in humanity and what’s most beautiful in story.” An original score by Christos Hatzis provides a richly-layered soundscape that incorporates spoken word and the voices of Steve Wood and his Northern Cree Singers, along with Polaris Prize-winning Inuk throat singer Tanya Tagaq and the occasional echoes of classical works (Rite of Spring, Swan Lake, Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet).
RWB Company dancers Sophia Lee and Liang Xing in Going Home Star, 2014 performance. Photo by Samanta Katz
The heart of the ballet is cradled in the teachings of the four directions. Annie is South (red), a fiery young urban hairdresser who spends her downtime doing everything her mother warned her against, living fast and going nowhere. Her new found friend Gordon is North (white), a man of winter living hand to mouth on the streets, scooped by social workers as a child and toughened by a life in foster care. Gordon remembers his grandmother’s stories of Nanabush the trickster, and it is Gordon who holds the key to Annie’s awakening.
Niska is West (black), a young woman imprisoned in residential school. Their goal is to break her, but she will not be broken. She comes from a family of healers; her strength is in the earth and the grounding rhythm of the drum. Memories of her family keep her going. Charlie is East (yellow), a child suffering and desperate to find a way home. In Niska, he has a friend and ally, a light in a dark and lonely place. It is significant that the children knew to find the north star, Lewis explains. It’s a small but meaningful detail, knowledge likely to have been shared by their parents, not something they would have learned in the school. “When they escaped from the school, that was the way home.”
Theodore Fontaine, former chief of the Sagkeeng Ojibway First Nation in Manitoba, wrote of his own residential school experiences in a memoir, Broken Circle. He attended the Fort Alexander Indian Residential School for ten years (1948-58) and the Assiniboia Indian Residential School from 1958 to 1960. André Lewis shared that Mr. Fontaine had seen the ballet and felt Going Home Star has helped in his own healing and that it was a positive experience to see this performance.
Thelma Musqua also attended residential school in Manitoba. She spoke at a reconciliation event in Nipawin, Saskatchewan and shared her story in the Nipawin Journal. “My life was turned upside down,” she said. “There were things I believed in that I had to let go. What your parents taught you was demon worship.” Each child at the school was assigned a number and learned how to work. “It was not education at all,” Musqua said.
Her description of the school itself illuminates the metaphor of the schoolhouse on Gordon’s back in Going Home Star. Musqua recalls the cement building was a physically and emotionally cold place. “You had to forget about feeling, loving, forgiving. The sadness, the pain. It was a very cold environment.” Before going to the school, she remembers a warm and safe place with no violence. “We knew when we could play and when we had to sit still. We would always listen. It was very beautiful.”
By the time Thelma Musqua left the school, everything changed. “I had a broken spirit,” she says. “I knew how to work, that was it. I was so ashamed of who I was.” Going to ceremonies and listening to the community elders helped her navigate. She went to a university and became a social worker, but her siblings, who also attended residential schools, were less able to cope. “I leave the past in the past but I never forget,” she said.
The story of Going Home Star isn’t just about the characters onstage. “This is a story of Canada,” says Joseph Boyden. “This is one of our stories that we have for years and decades and centuries refused to face as a nation.” He explains, “For almost 100 years Aboriginal peoples were not allowed to practice their own dance, to speak their own language, to practice their own religions.” Now people are beginning to realize “we not only have to face this story as a nation, but we need to.”
Present History by Candace Curr with a letter to the children of residential schools.
RWB Company dancers in Going Home Star, 2014; Photo by Samanta Katz
I am personally grateful to have attended the premiere of Going Home Star during its tour in Coast Salish Territory. The lobby of Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Vancouver was bustling with activity before the performance. Everywhere you looked, people were engaged. There were information booths and displays of art and carvings. Smudging took place on the patio outside. There was also a lovely little tree decorated with paper stars bearing messages of hope and reconciliation, some written in the languages of the people. Health care workers were also on hand if anyone felt “triggered” by the performance and needed support—an unusual service, but a uniquely compassionate gesture.
The buzz of activity settled only when Tsatsu Stalqayu Coastal Wolf Pack arrived with drums and song, focusing attention and spirit before the ballet began. It was uplifting to hear their singing and drumming again when the performance was over. I turned to exit the aisle and noticed the entire row of people behind me was still wiping away tears from their faces—a humbling, yet comforting, experience of shared emotion.
When the 2016 Juno Awards came to Treaty-Seven Blackfoot Territory, Tsuu T’ina Nation welcomed all of the inspiring artists to the area with an honouring ceremony during a special JunoFest Indigenous Showcase a few nights before the awards. The legendary Buffy Sainte-Marie stood amongst other Juno-nominated Indigenous artists including Black Bear, Armond Duck Chief, Don Amero, Cris Derksen, and Derek Miller. All of the nominees were invited to perform for their brothers and sisters at the Grey Eagle Events Centre, and it was here that they shared their unyielding passion for their craft and culture.
The night started off with the resonating cultural sounds of Black Bear, an Atikamekw drum group from the community of Manawan, Quebec. Their Juno nominated album Come And Get Your Love: The Tribe Session Powwow indulges in the tribal spirit of their ancestry. The group sang in their native tongue over traditional Atikamekw drumming, bringing the audience into the atmosphere of a powwow.
2016 Juno Aboriginal Album of the Year nominee Armond Duck Chief
The next act was Armond Duck Chief, a country singer from the Treaty-Seven community of Siksika Nation. “It’s awesome that the Juno’s this year is where I grew up” he told First Nations Drum. “I’m on cloud nine right now, and to just have my name amongst the other Juno nominees—that in and of itself is rewarding. They’re all top notch and have been grinding it out for so long.” Duck Chief performed an acoustic set for the audience, featuring three songs from his Juno nominated album The One. He swept in two awards at the last Indigenous Music Awards for the same album, but had no luck at this years Juno’s. With the expected release of another album in early 2017, it is hoped that Duck Chief will have a chance to rope in an award next year.
Don Amero followed Duck Chief, bringing to the audience his own style of strumming strings to heartfelt ballads. During his uplifting performance, Amero shared music from his Juno nominated album Refine. His album’s theme centres on the removal of toxic impurities in order to create a better sense of self. He spoke to First Nations Drum about how Canada’s community can remove it’s own impurities to create a better tomorrow. “Above all, it is important to have honest relationships with each other,” he says. “Being able to progress is about developing a community and trying to get people to realize that it’s not about government programming. It’s not about saying ‘Hey, here’s some money to help you with your situation.’ It’s about saying ‘I want to walk with you. I want to become a brother. I want to become a cousin. I want to become a friend.’ I think that this is not happening enough, and I think a lot of people in the non-Indigenous community are saying ‘Alright, well we need to fix this problem; I hope the government gets on that.” My mission is to change people’s mind and say ‘It’s not up to the government—It’s up to you.” Although Amero did not win a Juno this year, his vision and voice are vital to have in music.
Next up was half-Cree Albertan musician Cris Derksen, a cellist who captivated the audience with her multi-dimensional performance. She started off with a live improvisation that embraced the acoustics of her cello, creating heavy bevies of beautiful sound by weaving her bow masterfully along its strings. Within her Juno nominated album Orchestral Powwow, Derksen braids traditional powwow singing and drumming together with new-age electronic manipulation, creating unique textures that overlap and culminate in genre-defying arrangements. As for the rest of her performance at the showcase, she decided to share songs that she will be putting onto her upcoming album, including a piece that was written in respect for the missing Indigenous women across Canada. Unlike the other Aboriginal Juno nominees, Derksen was nominated in the category of Instrumental Album of the Year. While she didn’t win the award, she hopes her next album will be nominated for another Juno in 2017.
2016 Juno Aboriginal Album of the Year nominee Derek Miller.
Blues guitarist Derek Miller of Six Nations in Ontario hit the stage next, belting out songs from his Juno nominated album Rumble. Receiving a Juno in 2003 and 2008, Miller was well-seasoned in his performance at the showcase. With a band accompany him, he rumbled the auditorium with heavy guitar riffs and rocking blues songs. He even did a cover of “Come And Get Your Love” by Redbone, adding his own flare of grittiness and snarling vocals.
Above all, though, Buffy Sainte-Marie was the standout performing artist of the evening. Accompanied by her band, she sang multiple songs from her Juno nominated album Power In The Blood, as well as many others from her past records including “Darling Don’t Cry,” “Universal Soldier,” and “Little Wheel Spin and Spin.” On Juno award night, Sainte-Marie received not only Aboriginal Album of the Year, but was also recognized for her work’s thought-provoking lyricism and received the award for Songwriter of the Year. During her acceptance of the awards, Sainte-Marie shared a spoken word segment of her lyrics from the closing track on her album Carry It On, which she also shared at the JunoFest showcase.
“Hold your head up,” she said. “Lift the top of your mind, put your eyes on the Earth. Lift your heart to your own home planet–what do you see? What is your attitude? Are you here to improve or damn it? Look right now and you will see, we’re only here by the skin of our teeth as it is, so take heart and take care of your link with life. It ain’t money that makes the world go around, that’s only temporary confusion. It ain’t governments that make people strong, it’s the opposite illusion. Look right now and you will see, they’re only here by the skin of our teeth as it is, so take heart and take care of your link with life… Life is beautiful if you got the sense to take care of your source of perfection. Mother Nature, she’s the daughter of God and the source of all protection. Look right now, and you will see she’s only here by the skin of her teeth as it is, so take heart and take care of your link with life.”
All of these artists exhibit the strength of Canada’s Aboriginal peoples, especially through a shared connection to culture, tradition, Mother Earth, and community. Check out these Juno nominated albums to see how our indigenous culture is being represented in the innovative music of today.
2016 Juno Award winner Buffy Sainte-Marie takes home Contemporary Roots Album of the Year and Aboriginal Album of the Year for Power In the Blood.
