Media.Knet.Ca

PART-TIME INSTRUCTOR OPPORTUNITIES

We are inviting applications from qualified individuals for contract teaching positions for several programs for the Winter Session, 2007.  Each program is offered in a modular format; students attend one-week/two-weeks on-campus sessions in each semester and the remaining is through distance delivery. These positions require flexibility, intensive instruction hours during the on-campus sessions, teleconference delivery, preparation, marking and student support by telephone and email when students are in their home communities.

First Nations Business Administration Certificate
 Spreadsheet Management
 Mathematics of Finance
 Introduction to Marketing II
 Managerial Accounting
 FN Human Resources Management I
 First Nations Funding Agreements
Aboriginal Community Services Worker Program
 Promoting the Needs of Elders
 Crisis Intervention and Response Planning
 Understanding Mental Illness and Treatment
 The Human Body
 Health Administration
 Approaches to Wellness for Women
Native Early Childhood Education
 Introductory Computer Skills
 Methods 1
 Child Growth & Development 1
 Field Practicum/Seminar 1
 Interpersonal Communications
 Introduction to Ojibway
 Introduction to Cree

Qualifications:
• Diploma or degree in the appropriate field of study;
• 3 - 5 years related experience;
• An understanding of First Nations culture;
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills; and
• Experience in adult education is preferred.

Interested candidates are requested to submit a cover letter, resume, with references by October 30, 2006 at noon EST to:
Executive Director
Oshki-Pimache-O-Win Education & Training Institute
106 Centennial Square, 3rd Floor
Thunder Bay, ON  P7E 1H3
Telephone: 807-626-1880
Fax:  807-622-1818
Email:  info@oshki.ca

While we appreciate all applications for this position, only those who are selected for an interview will be contacted.

Sandy Lake First Nation, Presents:

Sandy Lake Youth Invitational Hockey Tournament

Brian Walmark, Keewaytinook Okimakanak's Research Institute Coordinator, was recently reappointed as a member of the Northern School of Medicine Board of Directors, representing the city of Thunder Bay.

From http://www.nob.on.ca/aroundtheNorth/10-03-06-nosm.asp

NOSM’s new Board of Governors

Six new members have joined the Northern Ontario School of Medicine. At the annual member’s meeting the audited financial statements were approved, amendments to the corporate by-law were ratified and new members sworn in.

Barbara Beernaerts, was nominated by the Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association, Dr. Amar Cheema, was nominated by the post-graduate medical trainees, Austin Hunt, nominated by the Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities, Jeanne Naponse was nominated by the Union of Ontario Indians, Neil MacOdrum was nominated by the Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association and Elizabeth Moore was nominated by the Nishnawbi Aski Nation.

Dr. Jean Anawati, Helen Cromarty, Ron Chrysler, James Gordon, Dr. Peter  Hutten-Czapski, Jeremie Larouche, Dr. Neil McLeod , Dr. Dermot McLoughlin, Dr. William McMullen, Tracey Ross, Lou Turco, Dr. Stephen Viherjoki, Brian Walmark and Carl White were re-appointed.

From http://www.kenoradailyminerandnews.com/News/260187.html

Treaty 3 Chiefs angered by program funding cuts

By Mike Aiken - Miner and News - October 11, 2006

Treaty 3 chiefs advocated for constitutional challenges and civil disobedience Tuesday, during the first day of the fall National Assembly being held in Seine River.

Upset by what they saw as arbitrary cuts and amendments to programs affecting their children, leaders didn’t mince words.

Delegates at the table focused on the recent cuts to supports for special needs students on First Nations, who usually attend provincial schools in neighbouring communities.

“It’s a clear and blatant violation of our treaty rights,” said the chief responsible for the education portfolio, Chuck McPherson of Couchiching First Nation.

He said families are considering placing their children in the care of family services, so they can ensure they get access to a proper education.

As classes resumed, Couchiching band council found themselves without funding for 16 education assistants, who accompany special needs students in classrooms. Across Treaty 3, the total was $1.3 million in cuts, and members began a letter-writing campaign to protest the drastic changes.

Without the added support, McPherson said three students in the Kenora area have been unable to attend school, which he saw as a violation of the children’s rights under the treaty, as well as their provincial right to be in school and their rights against discrimination listed in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The federal government came under criticism in aboriginal circles for a range of cuts last month, as well, which included anti-smoking campaigns and funding for legal challenges.

“The new Conservative government has openly targeted treaty rights and our people,” said Chief Earl Klyne of Seine River.

As First Nations celebrated their recent victory regarding redress for residential school issues, assembly chairman Francis Kavanagh said the clawbacks were already in the works.

“We’re financing our own settlements,” he said.

Others criticized Indian and Northern Affairs for saying the decisions were related to expensive evacuations due to flooding on northern reserves, such as Kashechewan.

Chief Warren White of Whitefish Bay called for civil disobedience when he urged chiefs to force a meeting with Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice over the issue. During their trip to Ottawa in December, he said they should sit in the minister’s office until he agrees to meet with them.

Right to consult denied

Speakers also called for a legal challenge based upon their right to consult in section 35 of the Canadian Constitution. While this right has normally been applied to resource rights, they said it was time to apply it to social policies.

Chiefs also suggested they ignore provincial laws regarding child care, because Queen’s Park ignored their suggestions on changes to the new Child and Family Services Act.

“I can say to you we got diddly,” stated George Simard of Weechi-It-Te-Win, the aboriginal children’s aid society operating in the southern part of Treaty 3.

Simard told the assembly he wasn’t prepared to work with provincial regulators towards harmonizing practices, and their only recourse was to go through the courts and force the province to consult with First Nations.

Lac La Croix First Nation Chief Leon Jourdain challenged his colleagues to commit $3,000 each towards the development of their own child care system, saying it was time to act on their words.

The assembly continues Wednesday with an update on a controversial youth trip to Honduras, followed by a visit from the auditors on the their third and final day, Thursday.

Lakehead University Press Release ...

Lakehead Professor Leading Team in Research of the Northern Social Economy

(Thunder Bay) The largest Northern Social Science research grant has been awarded to establish the Social Economy Research Network for Northern Canada (SERNNoCa).

Dr. Chris Southcott, a Professor of Sociology who is working with Yukon College as the lead institution, received $1.75 million from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) to fund his work as Principal Investigator with the Network.

This Network will conduct research that is relevant and useful to communities currently facing substantial social and economic challenges. The term ‘social economy’ covers the economies of a range of organizations which are in neither government nor the private for-profit sector. It includes the traditional relationships in aboriginal communities, volunteer organizations, cooperatives, community groups, non-governmental organizations, non-profit groups, and charities.

In addition to Dr. Southcott, there are four other Lakehead University faculty members involved in the project: Dr. Bob Jickling, Faculty of Education; Dr. Margaret Johnston, School of Outdoor Recreation, Parks, and Tourism; Dr. Harvey Lemelin, School of Outdoor Recreation, Parks, and Tourism; and Dr. Joanne Zamparo, School of Social Work.

The research conducted as part of SERNNoCa will focus on four main areas: profiling the social economy in northern Canada; Indigenous communities and the social economy; resource regimes and the social economy in the north; and the state and the social economy in the north.

“The communities in Canada’s North are facing substantial challenges,” Dr. Southcott says. “This Network aims to help these communities with research findings that are relevant to their social economy, and will help them deal with changes in their economy."

A coordinator for SERNNoCa is working at Yukon College’s Northern Research Institute, in cooperation with the research institutes at Nunavut Arctic College and Aurora College in the Northwest Territories. In addition to Dr. Southcott’s work, social scientists from three other universities—Carleton, Memorial, and the University of Northern British Columbia—will be involved in the research projects.

“Yukon College is pleased to be the lead institution for this important northern research initiative,” says Paul Driscoll, dean of Arts & Science at Yukon College. “This role acknowledges the leadership capability of the Northern Research Institute at the College.”

Members of the Media: Dr. Southcott is available for interview by calling him directly at 807-343-8349. To connect with partnering institutions, please call Marla Tomlinson at 807-343-8177.

Background Information:

This proposal seeks to establish a social economy research network, or node, for Northern Canada. It is built around the three Northern territorial colleges and their respective research institutions and links researchers working in the North with Northern students, community organizations, and educational institutions. The network is structured around four main themes and three sub-nodes – one based in each territory. In addition to research seeking to conceptualize and inventory the social economy in the North, the network will investigate the particular relationships that exist between the social economy and indigenous cultures, resource regimes, and the state. Working with community partners, the network will conduct research and produce findings that will assist Northerners in the development of effective alternative social and economic strategies for their future development.

Communities in Canada’s North are currently facing substantial social and economic challenges. The social economy offers tools to help these communities face these challenges. The creation of a network of university and college-based researchers and representatives of community-based organizations, operating as partners, to conduct research relevant to the social economy in Canada’s North is therefore relevant and important to the region. Northern governments, both Indigenous and public, need research in this area in order to undertake realistic program development and especially to develop realistic economic development policies.

The network will be organized around four research themes. The first theme is the conceptualizing, inventorying, and evaluating of the Northern social economy. The other three themes are related to the specific realities underlying the social economy of the North: dependence on resource use, the predominant role of the state, and the significance of indigenous cultures (Arctic Climate Impact Assessment, 2004; Arctic Human Development Report, 2004). The remaining themes will be focused around these realities. Core research will be conducted for each theme. In addition specific projects have been developed to complement the core research. These projects will evolve over time and new projects will be added along with additional researchers and partners.

The network will ensure several key outcomes. These include an increased general awareness of the importance and potential of the social economy related activities to the North, the enhancement of social economy capacity in the region, a greater understanding of alternative forms of social and economic development in the North, the improved performance of organizations and enterprises in areas that are important to the social economy in Canada’s North, new policy resources for governments relating to the social economy, and better trained individuals to assist in the development of social economy organizations.

From http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&call_pageid=971358637177&c=Article&cid=1160171410851

Hidden Treasures
Oct. 7, 2006 - TRISTAN STEWART-ROBERTSON - SPECIAL TO THE STAR

Locked away in museums across Britain are totem poles, kayaks, wampum belts, arrowheads, masks, pipes and scores of other items that were once the property of Canada's natives.

The objects, including human remains of at least 31 Indians and Inuit and grave goods, were all either traded or bought or stolen from native communities over the past 400 years. Most of the artifacts are no longer even on public display in the museums.

Even British curators have described the collections as full of "hidden treasures" for Canadian native communities.

A four-month investigation by the Star has retrieved detailed lists of more than 16,500 items held in just 23 national and local museum collections in the U.K.

It's the first time such lists have been compiled for the wider public, outside of researchers and individual communities who have had piecemeal contact with foreign institutions.

Many sacred ceremonial antiquities are viewed as critical to healing in today's Indian and Inuit communities. Increasingly, Canada's natives are pressing to have the objects repatriated, and their return has become a key point in ongoing treaty negotiations with the federal and provincial governments.

But there is no legal obligation for U.K. museums to deal with indigenous cultures around the world. In fact, British law prohibits the British Museum in London from returning some of the 2,000 artifacts it holds that were made before 1850, unless there is a duplicate. (However, another law permits the return of human remains.)

What happens now will define the future of U.K. collections and the Canadian communities they purport to display. One type of artifact, which played a central role in the Caledonia land dispute this spring, typifies the importance natives place on their antiquities.

Made of hemp cord and shell, and unfurled at the negotiations aimed at resolving the dispute, wampum belts are still being used as guiding principles for the Six Nations of the Grand River and reflect how they see their relationship with the rest of Canada.

The Two Rows Wampum Belt of the Six Nations lays out two parallel paths, of the natives and the "white man," in this case, originally the Dutch in the 1600s, then the English and later the French. Both paths are equal but distinct — each has its sets of laws and neither interferes with each, living in peaceful coexistence.

"It's a recording, and we have to have the capacity to understand what it's all about, otherwise it's just a pretty thing," says Keith Jamieson, who does historical research, particularly with the Woodland Cultural Centre of the Six Nations, and also teaches at Wilfrid Laurier University. "And when we no longer have them, we can't interpret them."

The Two Rows is just one wampum belt of about 40 the Six Nations band has. Jamieson says there are at least 450 others somewhere in the world.

"I have a huge collection of 33 LPs and brought one to the class and said: `Look at this Santana album,'" Jamieson says. "I pulled out the LP and said: `It looks pretty bland and doesn't mean anything. But put it on a record player and all of a sudden you get all this fabulous music. That's what a wampum belt is."

The belts are perhaps one of the best examples of the complexities surrounding indigenous artifacts in foreign institutions and whether they should be returned. While some are considered sacred, others are diplomatic, and copies were made for each party in treaty talks. To repatriate one held in the U.K. might undo those relations established hundreds of years ago.

"When wampum belts have come back to us through repatriation, then the community almost revitalizes," Jamieson says. "In Caledonia, there has been a lack of respect for those treaties and agreements we have come to.

"The wider community would benefit tremendously from learning about these objects — we would have far less trouble relating to the world if they understood us."

On Canada's West Coast, the full significance of native artifacts and the depth of feeling surrounding the return of human remains has touched every corner of some communities.

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`A lot was made for sale or given as gifts. A very small number of items are questionable'

Laura Peers, Pitt Rivers Museum
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Andy Wilson stepped down as co-chairman of the Haida Repatriation Society last June after 10 years of working to bring the remains of ancestors back to their home in the Queen Charlotte Islands.

The Haida have perhaps been the most proactive peoples in Canada when it comes to reclaiming human remains, first from museums in British Columbia and the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Ottawa, and then in the U.S.

The process has also involved everyone in the community, from the preparation of bentwood boxes to hold the remains, to button blankets made by elementary schoolchildren to wrap around their ancestors.

"When we started, we didn't know what repatriation was, let alone how to say it or spell it," says the 53-year-old Wilson from his home in Skidegate, B.C. "None of us knew how to make bentwood boxes. I didn't realize I would spend 10 years making more than 500 of them."

The last decade has also involved a great deal of fundraising, from auctions to seafood dinners, to cover the costs of travelling to museums around North America and bringing hundreds of boxes back.

Visitors to the Queen Charlotte Islands, or what the natives call Haida Gwaii, have been asked to show their support for the community's ongoing battle for the return of a Haida skull from the British Museum in London.

Wilson continues: "People are still appalled at how human remains and objects came to be in museums around the world. They understand it is important to bring them home and not place blame on anybody but do the right thing ... to pay respect to our ancestors.

"If you take a percentage, only 0.001 per cent was sold to collectors. After smallpox wiped out 95 per cent of our people, people just came here in droves because they knew they could take things. Trading and selling was done by people who stole them. The laws at the time didn't protect us. But even stealing was still against the law in the U.K."

Laura Peers grew up in Uxbridge north of Toronto and defined her early career working directly with Indian communities in Canada. Since 1998, the 43-year-old has been curator of the Americas collections at Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford.

The Victorian building and its storerooms house one of the largest single collections of Canadian artifacts — about 3,200 items, from human remains to 400-year-old model canoes.

But Peers suggests that few items in the museum were stolen from natives.

"A lot was made for sale or given as gifts. A very small number of items are questionable. It's things taken illegally or by coercion or human remains, which quite often fell into that category.

"Some were raided from cemeteries at night, or against the specific wishes of aboriginal peoples, so they're laden with difficult episodes."

But Peers understands that aboriginal peoples need the artifacts returned so they can take back "control over their lives.

"If you as a people have been through a period when you could not control what happened to your children, nor what happened to your beloved dead, then one of the ways you symbolically take charge of your lives is literally taking repossession of your human remains and say, `That period of our history is done.'"

Some of the human remains may be impossible to ever connect with the originating community. For example, one bone in Oxford is listed as: "U.S.A? Canada? Australia?"

About a third of the items are arrowheads, harpoons and other such tools. Another large percentage is clothing, ranging from ceremonial outfits and children's moccasins more than 100 hundred years old, to items bought by tourists over the past decade.

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`They were stolen — it was legalized theft at the time'

Francis Frank, Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council
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Peers says U.K. museums have a great deal of work to do on the Canadian items, but they need the resources and help of indigenous communities.

"I'm the first North American historian working in the Pitt Rivers Museum in 50 years, and the last person refused to set foot in North America," she says. "North America is far down the list of importance in terms of overall ethnographic material in U.K. collections.

"First Nations don't want to take someone else's remains home — they want the research to be done and be absolutely sure. I have been astonished by the degree that First Nations peoples are willing to help institutions to research."

Garry Courchene, director of the Sagkeeng Cultural Centre on the Sagkeeng First Nation reserve in Fort Alexander, Man., says he's just learned that there is a human skull identified as Ojibwa hidden in a crate somewhere in the United Kingdom. He feels the hand of the Creator at work.

"It's up there that's doing that. They want to come back," he says. "Something's coming."

Courchene says "stolen" is too strong a word to use. "We don't want to look at it that way. These artifacts were appropriated, just like our land. I don't like to blame. My aim is just to get them back."

Courchene, 51, says the objects might have been made in the past, and exist in the present in foreign museums, but are timeless and important to the future of natives.

"Those artifacts are alive and kicking and just waiting to come home," he says. "The spirit has not been dead in them, so they have to be taken care of. We can go into ceremony to use spiritual guidance to find out where the objects come from."

Courchene's approach points out the very different views on how to determine an object's history: spirituality or research. Where U.K. museums and Canadian communities go from here will be framed in that debate.

But there appears to be no agreement on the next step toward building new relationships between British museums and Canadian communities.

Francis Frank, president of the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council in Port Alberni, B.C., puts the responsibility squarely on the federal government.

"The Canadian government should approach U.K. museums to repatriate these objects," he says. "Once we have been able to identify objects as Nuu-chah-nulth, the federal government must initiate steps with the British government, or anywhere else in the world.

"Although there are some human remains from our communities, we know there's greater abundance of artifacts. They were stolen — it was legalized theft at the time. Our goal in treaty negotiations is to have them back."

A few hours' journey away, at the Sto:lo Research and Resource Management Centre in Chilliwack, B.C., David Schaepe says native communities must be ready to enter a complex relationship with museums.

"You can't start to bring back and not know what to do with them," says Schaepe, 38, the centre's manager and senior archaeologist. "What's going to happen with the objects, with human remains? Where will they be put?

"We have to get a cultural centre built so the Sto:lo can use the objects and educate others and have a better relationship between themselves and other communities.

"It's a detailed and time-consuming process finding out where those things are and dealing with each object individually. What do you search under? What cultural names? Fraser River? Sto: lo?

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`People are still appalled at how human remains and objects came to be in museums around the world'

Andy Wilson, former co-chairman Haida Repatriation Society
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"And it's not just objects — it's knowledge that's bound up in things, such as songs, names, photographs and things that are covered under intellectual property."

Jamieson at the Six Nations reserve says: "A lot of museums in Europe are very afraid to open their stuff up to us because they're scared of the repatriation issue. But we have to respect their laws — the Two Row says we can't interfere with your process because we expect you to not interfere with ours."

Even if artifacts aren't returned, there remains the issue of how they are displayed, if at all.

Peers shows off some Canadian items in glass cases set up more than 100 years ago, under the watchful eyes of a totem pole. The Haida pole was removed from outside Star House in Old Masset, B.C., after the people who raised it died. It was installed in the Pitt Rivers Museum in 1901 and bolted to a pillar.

Nearby are what are likely the most popular display cases for school tours: shrunken heads from the South Pacific and two scalps from Canada.

"One of my first goals was to haul these scalps off display," Peers says. "These are considered human remains and would not be displayed in Canada any more. But if we take them off display, it's a form of censorship in the sense that Pitt Rivers is a museum of British colonial history as much as anything else.

As for other objects in foreign museums, natives in Canada want them celebrated in the light, not hidden in the dark.

"We told the Museum of Natural History in New York, `Get our objects out of the dark,'" says Wilson in Haida Gwaii, B.C. "You have got to stop portraying our people as something dead and gone. It makes it look like we are part of the past, but our objects are alive with colour and light and magic. Light it up in here, give it life."

If objects need to be returned to Canada, how will British students and the public learn about indigenous cultures? Can there be bridges over the gaps of mending historical wrongs but educating future generations on both sides of the Atlantic?

"You get a little shiver up your spine when you handle them," says Jenny Allan, a third-year University of Glasgow student in history of art and English literature. The 21-year-old worked this summer on objects collected on Captain James Cook's voyages up Canada's West Coast.

"I used to look at Captain Cook objects on class trips — they make a huge impact," she says. "They're very striking objects. And this stuff has made more of an impact because I have been able to touch them. It's impossible not to get a huge sense of the people in this."

But Wilson would rather Allan and others come to Haida Gwaii to learn about the objects currently held in museums around the world.

"It's like me learning about the U.K. and not going to the U.K. I didn't know why I was learning Shakespeare in school, but when I went to London, I got a better understanding of why he wrote the way he did.

"We travel all over the world to learn about other cultures, and what makes sense is to have our stuff and people come here to learn about us. It's abstract until you come here and understand why the Haida were so strong and powerful, and their culture became so advanced.

"If anybody went to another culture and took their most sacred objects, people would be appalled, especially in the U.K. That's what they're doing to us. People just don't get that."

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Canadian journalist Tristan Stewart-Robertson is a senior reporter at the Greenock Telegraph in Scotland. He can be reached at tsr@scapestreet.com.

++++++++++++++

An addendum to the above article ...

Native art auction conjures highs, lows

The Museum of Northern British Columbia succeeded in buying a carved spoon for $25,600 at auction Thursday, but there is more sadness about the famous 19th century Northwest Indian collection being dispersed than joy over this acquisition.

"It was one of about 30 pieces we would have liked, but prices were astronomical. It's very beautiful," said Susan Marsden, director of the museum in Prince Rupert.

The Sotheby's auction in New York netted $7 million (U.S.) on 57 lots, a record for native artifacts. The highlight of the sale was a record $1.8 million (U.S.) paid for a multi-coloured Tsimshian mask. The lion's share of the items is coming home to Canada.

Art dealer Don Ellis bought four pieces for the Museum of Civilization in Ottawa, four for his own gallery in Dundas, Ont. — to be offered to Canadian institutions at cost — and 19 pieces (including the mask) on behalf of two Canadian philanthropists. One is David Thomson, son of the late Ken Thomson, whose collections have gone to the Art Gallery of Ontario.

The Tsimshian and Tlingit artifacts, known as the Dundas collection, included chief's regalia, rattles, boxes, a bone "slave killer" club, wooden bowls, masks as well as combs and spoons.

The objects had been consigned to Sotheby's by Simon Carey, a retired British psychologist whose great-grandfather, the Rev. Robert James Dundas, had acquired almost all the objects on Oct. 26, 1863, from the missionary William Duncan.

The collection, the last 19th century field collection of Northwest Coast art in private hands, had tantalized Canadian museums for decades but attempts to buy it in its entirely foundered because of the many strings attached. Besides asking for a lot of money, Carey wanted it kept together on permanent display. He also demanded the publication of his great-grandfather's 250,000-word journal.

While many in the cultural community celebrated the fact most of the artifacts were staying in Canada, a high-ranking Tsimshian chief expressed disappointment at the sale itself.

"The missionaries got them (the artifacts) for nothing and now they put such a big price on it," James Bryant said by telephone yesterday.

The Tsimshian and Tlingit descendants of the makers of the objects in the Dundas collection live in the area around Prince Rupert.

"According to the research we did, Father Duncan took their regalia and their artifacts when they became Christian and that's how it ended up in England. If we wanted to wear our regalia to the potlatch they'd throw us in jail," Bryant said.

"They got those things for nothing, never paid a penny for them and the great-grandson of the missionary is going to become a millionaire on account of this. We would have liked to see all of them (artifacts) remain in Canadian museums so they can be displayed properly."

But Gerald McMaster, a member of the Siksika Nation of the Plains Cree and a curator at the AGO, is gratified to see prices of native art catching up with European art.

"Maybe we'll no longer ask the question, `Is it art?'" he said. The rise in valuations reflects that "we are more aware of our heritage. There is greater interest and more scholarship now."

Production levels were high in the 19th century, when Rev. Dundas acquired his collection.

"My great-great-grandfather wrote that during his journey to Metlakatla (the 19th century name of the area), he was surrounded by canoes with people offering lots of items for not very much," Benjamin Carey, who represented his ailing father at the auction, told the Star.

He said his great-great-grandfather recorded that he traded a bar of soap for the pair of spoons (not the one bought by the Prince Rupert museum).

Judy Stoffman

From http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Features/2006/10/08/1978536-sun.html

Native communities our 'Third World' - Feds slammed over neglected treaty rights - By BROOKES MERRITT -- Edmonton Sun   

It's shameful that the United Nations - not the federal government - will be the group highlighting the neglect of native treaty rights in Hobbema next month, says the dean of native studies at the University of Alberta.

Ellen Bielawski says a century of ignorance has made aboriginal communities Canada's "Third World embarrassment."

"(Canada) skims along on its international reputation as a peacekeeper, a place of good social programs and all that, yet we have this great black hole that we are ignoring.

"It shouldn't take a UN visit, but the failure of our government to honour treaty rights for things like land and resources is an embarrassing bit of our history."

In November, a UN forum in Hobbema will discuss results of a multi-year study on issues facing indigenous populations around the globe.

"Everything plaguing native populations today, including drug abuse and crime, are symptoms of the marginalized communities we created," Bielawski said.

"It reflects poorly on us that our government hasn't addressed these issues, some have been outstanding for 105 years."

Mel Buffalo, head of the Indian Association of Alberta, said Canada failed its native populations by neglecting treaties and assuming aboriginals would assimilate into mainstream society.

He said what many call "the Indian problem," cannot begin to be addressed until treaty rights are recognized.

"Outstanding land claims cause disputes like Caledonia. Potable water issues make people sick like in Kashechewan.

"Native communities are Canada's Third World. For decades our governments have refused their responsibilities."

Natives continue to be marginalized, he said, because "most people would have to be more than 100 years old" to fully understand the roots of the aboriginal plight.

Buffalo expects the UN forum of up to 50 international delegates to draw at least 2,500 people. The forum will also discuss issues including health, economics, housing and education.

From http://www.sootoday.com/content/news/full_story.asp?StoryNumber=20097

Tribal council accuses feds of welching, job losses loom - By Carol Martin - SooToday.com - October 07, 2006

As many as 12 people could loose their jobs and 650 members of North Shore Tribal Council could be without employment counselling services within the next few weeks.

Garden River First Nation Chief Lyle Sayers announced yesterday that Indian and Northern Affairs Canada is refusing to honour its agreement to fund employment counselling up to 50 percent.

As a result, Sayers said, First Nations people are being denied access to important services that other Canadians get for free.

The funding dispute is between the province and the federal government.

North Shore Tribal Council leaders had believed the province could and would top up the funds for employment counselling services to levels paid to similar Ontario Works programs across the province, while Ontario dukes it out with the federal government.

If not, Sayers says the programs cannot be delivered.

"Indian Affairs says they don't have the money to pay it," he said.

"If that's the case, I'd sure like to know where it went because the federal government set aside funds for these programs as a result of an earlier agreement."

"These programs are vital," said one service provider in attendance.

"It gives our people an opportunity to reach for a hand up instead of a hand out," the provider said.

The full text of North Shore Tribal Council's media release follows:

********************
The Department of Indian and Northern Affairs is refusing to live up to Canada's financial obligations to Ontario (and therefore to First Nations) under a federal/ provincial social services cost-sharing agreement that dates back to 1965.

The First Nations of the North Shore Tribal Council recently negotiated an agreement with Ontario to deliver the full range of social assistance services (financial and employment assistance) to persons living on reserve who are eligible for these services.

As required for federal cost-sharing by the terms of the Canada/Ontario Agreement Respecting Welfare Services for Indians (the 1965 Agreement), the NSTC Social Assistance Program (Niigaaniin) has been accepted by Ontario as meeting the requirements and standards set out in its Ontario Works Act.

In addition, the level of funding that it has been agreed is required to meet these provincial standards is consistent with the level of funding provided by Ontario to non-native organizations delivering the Ontario Works Program in similar socio-economic and geographic circumstances.

Despite provincial and First Nation adherence to the terms of the 1965 Agreement, the Department of Indian Affairs is refusing to pay its full share of the funding First Nations have negotiated with Ontario.

At this point, eight years beyond implementation of the Ontario Works program, the Department has realized a saving of as much as $120 million across Ontario by not having to cost-share services which to this point have not been provided.

Nonetheless, the department is saying it will provide only $3.9 million in additional funding per year to support First Nation service delivery of the full program.

The bottom line: the department, with little or no expertise in the area, is presuming to second-guess Ontario in an acknowledged area of provincial jurisdiction.

It is of the opinion that the First Nations can deliver the Ontario Works program in a manner that meets provincial standards with a level of funding that is half of what it takes for non-aboriginal agencies to deliver the program in similar geographic and socio-economic circumstances.

Once again, First Nations' people in Ontario are facing discrimination at the hands of a federal department that is supposed to advance their interests.

As a result, First Nations’ people continue to be denied services to which they are entitled under law, or are being denied the level of service provided to other citizens of the province of Ontario.

Since the 1965 agreement is a federal/provincial agreement, it is up to these governments to sort out their problem.

However, given that it is First Nations and their members who ultimately experience the impact of the delay in or failure to resolve the problem, the several chiefs of the North Shore Tribal Council (NSTC) are planning appropriate action to deal with the failure of the Department of Indian Affairs to fulfill Canada’s obligations under the 1965 agreement.

NSTC Options

It is our understanding that provincial and federal officials are meeting about their difference of opinion respecting funding levels.

However, if the current impasse between Canada and Ontario is not resolved in the next very few weeks, the NSTC and member First Nations will no choice but to lay off staff, curtail operations, and at least cancel the delivery of employment assistance services to their members – thus continuing to deny their members access to services to which they have a right under provincial law.

Since it is now a condition for receipt of financial assistance that recipients of financial assistance be engaged in employment assistance services, it will fall to the federal and/or provincial governments to figure out a way to provide such services on reserve in order to ensure there is compliance with the requirements of the Ontario Works Act that both governments insist apply on as well as off reserve.

Alternatively, the NSTC and member First Nations may decide to cease acting as a delivery agent for Ontario in respect to both financial and employment assistance services - leaving it to Canada and/or Ontario to figure out how to ensure people living on reserve receive the entire range of Ontario Works services they are legally entitled to under the Ontario Works Act, and at a level consistent with delivery off reserve.

Under the terms of the 1965 Agreement and the Ontario Works Act it is our view that it is possible for Ontario to flow 100 percent of the agreed level of funding while Canada/Ontario work to resolve their impasse as to cost-share obligations under their Agreement.

This alternative has been proposed, and we are hoping for a positive response from Ontario within the next week.

In the absence of a change in the position of the Department of Indian Affairs or an agreement with Ontario to fill the funding gap at least temporarily, the chiefs of the North Shore Tribal Council will take appropriate action.

From http://www.timminspress.com/webapp/sitepages/content.asp?contentid=220369&catname=Local+News&classif=

Governments not serving Aboriginal youth: Bartleman

Scott Paradis - October 06, 2006

Aboriginal youths in southern Ontario vent their frustrations through protest, while in the North they too often turn to suicide, said Ontario's representative to the Queen.

James Bartleman, Ontario's lieutenant-governor, spoke to a crowd of delegates attending the Boreal Conference 2006 on Wednesday at the Thomas Cheechoo Jr. Memorial Arena in Moose Factory.

He told the room of forestry officials from around the world the painful struggle facing Northern First Nation youths.

"First Nations in the south aren't doing as bad," Bartleman said. "But I saw that when I came to Northern Ontario, First Nations are the Third World."

Bartleman said the suicide rates are so high in fly-in communities that some in Ontario report a suicide nearly every week.

The problems began when Northern Aboriginal peoples, who only recently have had post-modern life pushed upon them, stepped away from traditional livelihood, he said.

Populations are too great in most of these communities for residents to live off the land, "but, you go to the store where milk costs $13 and fresh fruits and vegetables are out of the question," he said.

The state of education exacerbates the social problems caused by poverty, he said.

Schools in most fly-in First Nations are dilapidated, falling apart and full of mould, he said.

The way the federal and provincial governments are set up to handle Aboriginal affairs does little to help First Nation education, he said.

"The federal government is responsible for First Nation education, but they don't have the expertise to implement the programs," he said.

"The province has the expertise, but they don't have the responsibility," added Bartleman.

Amid the social troubles comes a program that could help curb anger, frustration and eventually suicide in remote communities, said Bartleman.

The lieutenant-governor's literacy camps ran this past summer in every Ontario fly-in First Nation.

Bartleman implemented the program after running a successful pilot project with six communities.

Now that financial commitments will likely keep the literacy camps running in the future, Bartleman said another literacy program is ready to get off the ground.

The $1-million-plus program called Club Amick for Young Readers will have selected youths receiving a new, hard-cover book of their own every second month.

Amid these hurdles, Smith said there has been success.

The program will also have a newsletter, magazine or newspaper sent to them written by some of the club's participating youths, for youths.

"The kids will get to see what they, and other kids, are writing," Bartleman said.

"It could be a story about themselves, a fictional story, a poem."

Bartleman previously announced the Literacy Camps and Club Amick programs months earlier during a visit to Timmins.

However, he gave an update on the program's progress during his visit to Moose Factory.

Club Amick will launch in as little as two weeks, noted Bartleman.

"Poverty, does not allow some children to own their own books," said Bartleman.

"Imagine these children getting a book, with their name on it, in the mail," he added.

Children living in the Nishnawbe-Aski Nation territory are about three to six years behind the national average in literacy, said the lieutentant-governor.

Bartleman said he believes this statistic is connected to low self-esteem on isolated First Nations, and the suicide rates.

With the literacy programs, Bartleman said he hopes to begin the ripple effect that will curb and reverse these statistics.