This video examines the impact of the Alberta Tar Sands on First Nations communities in the region featuring an interview with Clayton Thomas-Mueller. Thomas-Mueller, of the Mathais Colomb Cree Nation (Pukatawagan) in Northern Manitoba, is an activist for Indigenous Rights and Environmental Justice.
http://www.ienearth.org/
I have been getting more involved with the Indigenous Environmental Network on a personal level since my home territory and community is being directly and most adversely affected by the Tar Sands development in northern Alberta. My family has lost so much at the hands of the Canadian government.
Please watch and understand what is happening in the north.
Understand that the oil being extracted is being shipped the United States. Further to that, we are using our own dwindling natural resources such as water, natural gas and land to fuel the United States, not even our own country.
Much has been going on over the past year or so regarding the Rights of Indigenous Peoples not only here in Canada, but around the world.
We all know about the current Apology to the aboriginal people of Canada for the wrong doing of the residential school process. I know that we must all have our own opinions regarding the Truth and Reconciliation process here in Canada. This issue itself is one of much debate. The truth and reconciliation process involves cash payments to residential school survivors and Federal money allocated to Aboriginal Healing Foundation. However, one area of great importance has been ignored in this process. The Aboriginal Youth of Canada.
Once again we find that the young Aboriginal voices of Canada have been ignored. The Truth and Reconciliation process was negotiated as a final deal, yet there has been nothing set in place to deal with the long term affects that it has had on the younger generations that did not directly go to the residential schools. I am a residential school survivors in the sense that my father, my step father, many aunts, uncles and Aboriginal role models growing up were residential school survivors. Many of them pass away before the apology, before the cash payments, before they were told that what happened to them was not right. I have had family members commit suicide, no doubt brought on by the socio-psychological effects of residential schools, loss of culture and identity.
How can money given to survivors and allocated to one organization fully heal the wounds of the legacy and intergenerational effects of residential schools?
Where do we go from here?
Now is the time that Canada takes serious action and looks into how it continues to breach the human rights of it's Indigenous peoples on a regular basis. We need to look at how Canada is dealing with land rights in British Columbia, Quebec, Northern Ontario, NWT, Yukon and Nunavut. If the words of our Prime Minister are true and we are a Country that truly respects the human rights of Indigenous peoples then now is the time that we all take a step backwards and take a good long look at the true history of our Country.
My great-grandfather was there during treaty negotiations. My grandfather was a child. My father a plucked from his family and stolen and forced to assimilate. No one in my family ever said yes to taking everything from us. No one in my family said they wanted to be assimilated and broken. My family continues to press forward and fight for our rights. My grandfather and my father watch their traplines get smaller and smaller. My mother and father we forcibly removed from traditional lands being considered squatters because Canada wanted to mine the land. Forcibly removed at gun point my the RCMP when my sister was less then two years old, and I was in still in my mothers womb.
You tell me Canada, does the RCMP have the right to go into the homes our your family and hold guns to them and tell them to move because they want to take what is yours for profit?
Indigenous Youth Issues and Challenges from Global and Regional Perspectives Side Session Introduction Video.
The Canadian Indigenous delegation organized a side session for Indigenous youth from various regions of the world to present on their unique issues and challenges. Indigenous youth have been working hard each year at the Permanent Forum to have their voices heard. The sides session was overfull and Indigenous youth and members of the permanent forum joined in listening, learning and discussion about world Indigenous issues and the importance of youth voice.
This is the first blog and the Aboriginal Canada project page. For those of you reading this for the first time I wanted to share some background information. The Aboriginal Canada project is part of the Creating Local Connections Canada (CLC Canada) project. We are currently wrapping up year two of the CLC Canada. In year two of the project we were able to shape and form the Aboriginal Team that is dedicated to bringing more visibility to Aboriginal youth and Aboriginal youth issues in Canada. We will be working to update the Aboriginal Canada page and make it new, fresh and exciting.
In the coming months we will be sending out a monthly newsletter highlighting Aboriginal Team events, work and other opportunities for Aboriginal Youth across the country. We will also be looking to profile outstanding TakingItGlobal Aboriginal youth members. If you are interested in being profiled in our upcoming newsletter please feel free to contact one of the Aboriginal Team staff.
We continually work to create partnerships with Aboriginal organizations across the country and would love your input and feedback on what we can do to make all of this possible.
The Aboriginal Canada - Creating Local Connections Canada Team consists of Aboriginal Youth in Northern and Southern Canada. We are continually looking for volunteers that may want to help with workshops, updating the site or giving feedback on what we can do better.
If you have any questions or concerns or are looking to be a part of this exciting team please feel free to contact me at eriel@clc.takingitglobal.org
So I know that I often neglect my blogging, so here goes. For CLCer's this is predominately the same as my update/trip report, for everyone else, this is a summary of my work over the last two months. At the end of February I was in Ottawa for two events. I was there at a networking session for my Global Youth Fellowship and for the first meeting for the National Aboriginal Youth
Organization (NAYO). It was a very fast paced, brain bleeding, somewhat life altering week.
Before that I had attended a few conferences, events and meetings. Here is a summaries of these events:
Prairie Sustainable Campuses Conference - Saskatoon - January 18-20
I drove to Saskatoon on January 18 to present at the Prairie Sustainable Campuses Conference. I sat on a panel title Climate Change and Social Justice with Rosa Kouri and Larry Lohmann on the evening of the 18th. I presented a brief overview of the Climate Change Guide to Action that evening. Much of the discussion were centered around how Climate change and social justice need to factor Indigenous peoples and issues into their strategies. It was really refreshing.
The next morning I presented an Anti-Oppression workshop with Jeh Custer to the conference delegation. This went particularly well. Jeh Custer is a Sierra Youth Coalition member and an active activist here in Saskatchewan and Canada alike. It was great to hear that many participants at the conference were aware of TakingITGlobal and the work that we have been doing. Unfortunately, there was no Aboriginal attendees to this conference. This was a little disappointing, as I thought that perhaps I would be able to network with some Aboriginal youth.
Saskatchewan Institute of Public Policy Volunteer Panel in collaboration with the President's Leadership Program - Regina - February 2nd
Saskatchewan Institute of Public Policy's held a Volunteer Panel, which was a part of the President's Leadership Program (http://www.uregina.ca/sipp/plpbackground.html). There were three other speakers on this panel, Dallas Gislason, a regional development worker with Enterprise and Innovation; Lee Boyko, director of volunteering with YMCA and Tori-Lynn Wanotch who is with Native Women's Association of Canada.
The panel began at 9:00am on February 2nd, with breakfast starting at 8:30am. The panel itself was an hour, ending around 10. The audience was
made up of approximately 20 University of Regina students. Each panelist had 8 minutes to briefly describe who they were, what motivates them to volunteer, what they gain from these experiences and how volunteering has affected their lives and their community. The floor was opened up for the
students to ask questions of the panelists.
I spoke on my own personal experience with volunteering at a young age and with my current position and organization. I spoke on the importance of community participation and how organizations like TakingITGlobal are really trying to ensure youth participation on many levels. I did some networking with other panelists, as well as with some of the students. In fact, Mike Dubois, a U of R student was in the audience and I spoke with him and invited him to be a part of the new National Aboriginal Youth Organization (NAYO). I also spoke at great length with Tori-Lynn and Spencer from Culture, Youth and Recreation. I placed TakingITGlobal and CLC materials on the material tables and left.
Intercultural Leadership Program 100 - First Nations University of Canada - INCA Department - Class Presentation - February 5th
I presented a workshop on the importance of local leadership. A copy of this powerpoint will be available on the TakingITGlobal site. This was my second time with this class this semester. The class is using TakingITGlobal as a resource and networking centre.
Adobe Youth Voices - YMCA Aboriginal Leadership Program - Regina - February 7th
I conducted my first workshop with the YMCA Aboriginal Leadership Program.
This group consisted for "at risk" youth from Regina's inner-city. They were ages 12-14. It was a rather small group consisting of 5 youth and 3
facilitator or leaders. We covered the first part of the workshop in the two hours allocated. We had some technical issues regarding the installation of Adobe Elements. However, we had some great discussions around Culture and what culture means to them. Some of the responses to what are some misconception that people have about you and your culture were very heavy. The participants replied with answers like "People call me a dirty Indian." or, "They think I'm lazy cause I'm an Indian." It was a very powerful workshop and the participants were super keen on taking photo and starting their art projects. We then took the two digital cameras and took pictures that we plan to manipulate using Adobe Elements in our next workshop scheduled for February 28th.
GYF Networking Session - Ottawa - February 17 - 20
This event was extremely intense and long. I arrived into Ottawa 6 hours late due to delays and overbooked flights. I was missing my baggage and missed the first part of the session. The next few days were packed from 7:30am until 9pm each night. We had guest speakers, workshops, presentation, luncheons, dinners, receptions and everything else you can pack into three days. For those of you who may not know, I am one of 9 Global Youth Fellows with the Walter & Gordon Duncan Foundation. I am researching Indigenous youth inclusion in youth policies in CAN, NZ, AUS and the USA as well as at the National level.
The sessions were very long and intense. However, it was a very good learning experience for me. I was also able to connect and meet many fascinating and interesting individuals. I had the chance to spend some good time with my mentor for my project, Evon Peter, which proved to be extremely beneficial. I also met with the new Canada's World Youth fellows and a few Aboriginal youth involved with various projects across the country. I was also fortunate to have a chance to meet and speak with Chantel Hebert, which was pretty cool as well. Overall, I found it to be very interesting and changed my perspectives on a few things about politics and government. But, I suppose that is always a good thing.
:-)
NAYO Meeting in collaboration with National Collaborating Centre on Aboriginal Health Forum - Ottawa - February 20 - 22
After the GYF networking meeting I stayed in Ottawa to attend the very first meeting for a new National Aboriginal Youth Organization formed by Aboriginal youth themselves. This organization plans to be non-affiliated and non-partisan. We were funded to meet by the National Collaboration Centre on Aboriginal Health during their first National Forum on Social Determinants on Health. The group discussed what some of the social determinants on health were for Aboriginal youth across the country. There were approximately 25 youth from across the country present at this forum.
The group also met to discuss how we can move forward as a National Aboriginal Youth Organization and what we would be doing. At times the discussions were tense, at others it was full of laughter and friendship. It was a great refresher after my somewhat intense experiences with the GYF networking session. It was nice to be in the presence of strong "youth" really looking to give a voice to other youth. It was great to be among like minded individuals striving for the same thing. Aboriginal integrity, voice, unity and courage. All of the moments that I felt out of my element and unsure of myself were swept away by the work of these youth with NAYO.
There were youth from Knowledgeable Aboriginal Youth Association, Friendships across the country, Students, from the Centre for Native Policy and Research Society, artist, Assembly of First Nations Youth council members, and many more. Having all of these strong and powerful Aboriginal youth in one room was empowering, encouraging and I only wish that people could see how much we want to see change not only in the government, but from our people, from our youth, from the world.
The group realized that we would not have enough time to hammer out the details of the organization in just a couple of days so we decided to reconvene the second week of March to discuss next steps, partnerships and moving forward. There was some indication that staying close with TakingITGlobal and pushing forward with a partnership was a great idea. We started a project page and some members have begun to use it. There was also some interest in seeing how we can have some sort of presence at the World Congress this summer. Hopefully, discussion in March will prove fruitful and the group can really start up and get moving and bringing the support and change that is necessary.
Home - Regina February 25 - present
Since I have been home I have been plugging away at networking and moving forward with Change that Clicks with the Boy and Girls Club/Street Culture Kidz; preparing for my trip to the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York City in April; preparing for my last session with the Adobe youth voices project with the YMCA Y's Leaders of Tomorrow program and responded to all of my emails from the past week. In addition, I am also gearing up for my trip to Atlanta, Georgia for the Facilitator's Conference. I was also invited to participate in a meeting with CCIC on Leadership transitions and youth involvement as an Indigenous leader and TakingITGlobal representative. I will also be heading out to Toronto after this meeting to meet with Kimia and Jen to discuss the Aboriginal strategy.
Overall the last couple months have been fast paced, exciting, at times very tiring, but overall a good experience. If any of you would like to know more about any of the organization or groups that I am connecting with please feel free to contact me at eriel@clc.takingitglobal.org.
Mashi Cho!
Eriel
P.S. I am also including a group picture of the National Aboriginal Group taken in Ottawa.
I came across this great link today and though that I should really share it. I provides online articles and full books on various issues. The particular link I am posting is relevant to Indigenous People of Canada.
I encourage you to take a look at the site and arm yourself with more information.
"Unbelievers deserve not only to be separated from the Church, but also... to be exterminated from the World by death." - Thomas Aquinas (Summa Theologica, 1271).
Christian civilization, by virtue of its exclusivist heresy and monotheism, became the self-justifying destroyer of all non-Christian culture.
5 part lecture series, delivered in New Westminster, BC, based on two books written by K. Annett, Hidden From History: The Canadian Genocide and Love and Death in the Valley. Click on lecture links below to listen.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
If you have any questions or comments please share!
This article is form a socialist group in Australia:
Australian government imposes military-police regime on Aborigines By the Socialist Equality Party (Australia)
23 June 2007
Use this version to print | Send this link by email | Email the author harper.s@parl.gc.ca
Under the cynical guise of protecting indigenous children from sexual abuse, the Howard government announced on Thursday a “national emergency” plan to take control of dozens of Aboriginal communities throughout the Northern Territory and impose virtual martial law conditions. Over coming weeks, police and troops will flood into as many as 60 towns and camps to enforce a series of draconian measures.
Welfare and family payments will be halved, with the seized portions transferred to food and clothing vouchers. All payments will be cut off if children fail to attend school, or are considered “at risk”. Forced labour will be imposed, via “work for the dole” programs, to “clean up”
communities.
In “prescribed” zones across the Northern Territory, all children under the age of 16 will be subjected to compulsory medical checks for sexual abuse.
Alcohol and X-rated pornography will be banned, with individuals as well as suppliers facing imprisonment.
At the same time, the existing permit system, which allows indigenous communities to restrict access to their lands, will be scrapped. Business managers—so-called “tsars”—will take charge of all public housing and government enterprises. These people will function as modern-day versions of the “administrators” and “protectors” who exercised complete authority over Aboriginal reservations in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Federal parliament will be recalled for a special mid-winter session to pass extraordinary, yet-to-be-seen legislation to authorise the takeover. The proposal was immediately endorsed by the Labor Party, whose leader Kevin Rudd pledged to give Prime Minister John Howard whatever support he needed.
Howard insisted that the catalyst for his government’s “hardline approach”
was a recently released Northern Territory government inquiry report, “Little Children are Sacred,” which found that child sexual abuse was serious, widespread and often unreported. But Howard and Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Mal Brough have brushed aside the report’s findings and recommendations, which called for better education and family support services, together with empowerment of Aboriginal communities.
The report concluded that “most Aboriginal people are willing and committed to solving problems and helping their children”. Aboriginal people were “not the only perpetrators of sexual abuse”—it existed throughout Australia and internationally. In indigenous communities, the roots lay in social problems that had developed over many decades: “the combined effects of poor health, alcohol and drug abuse, unemployment, gambling, pornography, poor education and housing, and a general loss of identity and control”. Above all, “Improvements in health and social services are desperately needed.”
On the contrary, Howard’s package includes not a single cent for health care, education, housing or social services. Such is the acute shortage of medical staff throughout indigenous communities, the government is asking doctors to donate their services to implement the mandatory medical checks.
While the myth is routinely peddled that millions of dollars have already been “squandered” on Aboriginal welfare, every available statistic points to decades of chronic under-funding.
Less than three months ago, Oxfam Australia condemned Australia’s “health gap”—the fact that the federal government spent approximately 70 cents per person on the health of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders for every $1 spent on the rest of the population. The “Close the Gap” report ranked Australia as the worst among wealthy nations at improving the health of indigenous people. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders still died nearly 20 years younger than other Australians, and infant mortality was three times higher.
Dr Paul Bauert, head of pediatrics at Royal Darwin Hospital, denounced the government for ignoring the huge medical challenge produced by poverty-related illnesses. The indigenous children he had seen suffered “pus coming out of their ears, rheumatic heart disease, pus in their lungs [because] they’re living in a house with 20 other people, with three bedrooms and one bathroom and one toilet”. He said existing resources were “minimal,” with the Northern Territory having only a quarter of the doctors needed to conduct regular visits to remote townships.
Far from addressing this social catastrophe, Howard’s measures will deepen it.
What will happen to the families whose welfare payments are cut off? What will be done with those children who fail the medical checks? How many more Aboriginal men will be jailed, when the indigenous imprisonment rate is already 30 times the national average?
According to Aboriginal health specialist, Dr Ben Bartlett, conducting forced medical examinations would be traumatic and could, in itself, constitute sexual abuse. Another expert insisted that the inevitable result of the government’s “knee-jerk ... military response” would be increased suicide and violence. “There will be greater feelings of despair,” said Southern Cross University professor Judy Atkinson, the author of three previous reports on child sexual abuse in indigenous communities.
Child welfare workers are warning of a new “Stolen Generation” of children placed in institutions or foster homes. Already, figures released this month by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare show that the number of children aged between 12 and 17 removed from their family in 2006 rose to 9,276, up one-third since 1998. Of these children, 1,170, or about 13 percent, were indigenous, although indigenous people make up just 2 percent of the population.
Howard’s political agenda
At Thursday’s media conference, Howard declared that “constitutional niceties” had to be cast aside for “the care and protection of young children”. In the first instance, the new regime will be imposed in the Northern Territory, which operates under a different legal framework than the states. But Howard has called for urgent meetings with the six state Labor governments to adopt similar blueprints.
The prime minister claimed he detected a new “mood” among “average Australians” who felt shame and anger about the sexual abuse of indigenous children, and expected governments to respond. With the enthusiastic assistance of the media, he is seeking to divert legitimate public outrage at the terrible conditions in remote Aboriginal townships away from those responsible—successive federal, territory and state governments.
Howard’s claim to be concerned for the plight of poor indigenous children is contemptible. In reality, he is using the social distress caused by decades of official neglect and deprivation, on top of two centuries of massacres, dispossession and forced separation of children, as the pretext for a new form of state repression. Alcohol and substance abuse, domestic violence and sexual abuse are symptoms of deep and longstanding social problems: poverty, deprivation and denial of essential infrastructure and services, including health care and schools.
The government’s turn—with full bipartisan support—to punitive police-state measures against the most disadvantaged layers of the Australian population has far-reaching implications for the lives, social conditions and basic democratic rights of all working people. During his media conference, Howard revealed that federal cabinet is drawing up similar measures for all welfare recipients. Precedents are being established, using the most vulnerable members of society, that will be extended throughout the country.
At the centre of the new scheme is a massive land grab. The Howard government will override the 1975 Racial Discrimination Act and the 1976 Land Rights Act—which granted land tenure to Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory—in order to take over land, initially through five-year leases. No compensation will be paid to the current landholders, despite a constitutional requirement to do so. Instead, they will be paid “in kind”—through government services—a proposal reminiscent of the days when cattle station owners gave Aboriginal workers rations of tea, sugar and flour in lieu of wages.
To enforce these deeply anti-democratic measures, police will be mobilised from across the country, backed by military units. According to Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough, a former army officer, the police will arrive in military vehicles and the army will provide logistical backup for frontline policing.
Brough likened the situation to a community being struck by a cyclone or flood. “Certain things have to be put aside. Certain normalities have to be discarded.” But the epidemic of ill-health and abuse among indigenous children is not a natural disaster—nor has it emerged overnight. It is a social disaster, which is now being exploited to radically extend the domestic role of the armed forces.
While Labor is marching lockstep with Howard, and a whole layer of privileged Aboriginal leaders is collaborating with the government, significant voices of opposition have already emerged among health professionals, scholars, lawyers and local Aboriginal leaders. Among them is the winner of the 2007 Miles Franklin literary award, indigenous writer Alexis Wright. She accused the government of “riding roughshod yet again, trampling heavily, bringing down the sledgehammer approach”. This opposition will grow and broaden as the true character of the government’s takeover becomes clearer.
As numbers of commentators have observed, there is an element of desperate election politics in Howard’s announcement. Facing the prospect of defeat at this year’s election, according to opinion polls, Howard is anxiously seeking another reactionary diversion, like the 2001 “children overboard”
refugee accusations or the 2003 “weapons of mass destruction” fabrications.
But the plan is part of a wider agenda. Throughout his political career, Howard has made a point of whitewashing the genocidal policies carried out during the past 200 years against Australia’s indigenous population. His government has dismantled representative Aboriginal bodies, such as the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) and consistently blamed Aboriginal people for their own plight. He has also sought to abolish native and communal title. Under the Northern Territory takeover, entire communities are likely to be dispersed and their land cleared for unfettered exploitation by mining companies and pastoralists.
Virtually every media outlet, including the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, has adopted the government’s line. The Murdoch media, in particular, has hailed Howard’s announcement. According to Nicolas Rothwell’s “analysis” on the Australian’s front page, Howard moved with “rapier speed and devastating force” to sweep away “a generation’s worth of political assumptions” and impose a “completely new pattern of surveillance and control” on indigenous people.
While this assault has a distinctly racist component, it is directed against the entire working class. As the social polarization produced by more than two decades of “free market” policies intensifies, the Howard government is erecting the scaffolding for a police state. At the same time as it turns to militarism abroad—in Iraq, East Timor and the South Pacific—to realize its economic and strategic agenda, the Australian ruling elite is trampling over basic civil liberties and democratic rights at home.
The Socialist Equality Party calls on the working class as a whole—indigenous and non-indigenous alike—to oppose Howard’s deeply reactionary plan and make a political break with the entire official political apparatus, including the Labor party. What is required is the unification of the working class on the basis of a socialist program to completely reorganise economic and social life to meet human need, not corporate profit. Such a program must include the allocation of billions of dollars in resources to overcome the social disadvantage suffered by Australia’s indigenous population, and to rectify the historic crimes perpetrated against it.
Over the course of the last six months I have been extremely busy I have been the Northwest Territories, Yukon, a few places in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Toronto, Ottawa/Hull and home. Next I am off for New York to the UN permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.
I wanted to send out an invitation to all Indigenous members to contact me with any concerns, questions, or just plain regards. I am really happy with the progress of the project and am looking forwarding to further building contacts and relationships with various communities, individuals and organizations acrosst the country and abroad.
I am also creating a monthly Aboriginal Connections newsletter. You can join the mailing list and group at http://groups.takingitglobal.org/aborginal . If you have anything that you would like to contribute the May newsletter or any newsletter in the future please feel free to contact me. If you would like your story to be featured in the next installment or future installments of the Aboriginal Connections Newsletter please contact me. I am always looking for events, peoples, opportunities, contests, and organizations to profile.
If you want to get involved, we are constanting looking for individuals that can contribute to the project and welcome all ideas.
If you would like more information about my role in the Creating Local Connections projects, any of the events I have attended, or anything else, please contact me at eriel@clc.takingitglobal.org
I recently attended an orientation for my new position as the Aboriginal Youth Engagement Coordinator for the Creating Local Connections Canada project of Taking It Global. The orientation left me dizzy and inspired. Meeting the provincial and francophone representatives from across the country was a great experience. TIG really did hire some really amazing individuals.
During the orientation we covered everything from the logistics of the site to running open forums and everything (and I mean everything) inbetween. Strong bonds were formed between the new CLC staff and the original TIG staff. I suppose that is to be expected when you are with each other for hours on end everyday for a week ;)
My arrival home to the long weekend was a much needed break to decompress and re-evaluate. So I sit here at my new desk at the Saskatchewan Council for International Cooperation office in Regina, Sasakatchewan and try and filter through the piles of information that are relevant to Aboriginal Youth. I am currently working with some of the web designers at TIG to develop a Canadian Aboriginal portal. It is a huge task in itself as the content is much different then thestandard country sites. I am excited to be a part of the CLC project.
I sincerely welcome any feedback or advice on the best approaches to engage Aboriginal youth/youth organizations.
