National Aboriginal Day

First Nations need to set their own terms.

by Jody Dallaire, Dieppe Advisory Committee on Equal Opportunity between Women and Men

This Thursday, June 21 is National Aboriginal Day. June 21 is also the summer solstice, part of the reason the date was chosen for National Aboriginal Day. It is interesting to note that Wabanaki means the first ones to see the light in the morning — dawn breaking.

First Nations in the Maritime Provinces assert that they did not surrender their lands to the Crown. I acknowledge the Wabanaki Confederacy — the Mi'kmaq, Maliseet and Passamaquoddy peoples — on whose ancestral land most of us reside.

Most of us know little about our Wabanaki neighbours. Next week or this summer, some of us may have occasion to learn more if we participate in special aboriginal events or powwows. These events are held throughout the province every summer.

On the one hand, many of us, unless we've made an effort, only know what we hear and read in the headlines about the First Nations — poverty, violence and addictions. Reducing First Nations to these statistics would be another injustice. On the other hand, some people glorify First Nations persons as mystical, wise and spiritual, every single one of them. That would be another stereotype.

In between the stereotypes are peoples and cultures, burdened by the history that befell them and its ongoing aftermath, and who are much more complex than the stereotypes.

I don't pretend to know this area's First Nations people and culture but I do have a thought for them, a wish we could right some of the wrongs, from both then and now. I also hope that they thrive on their ancestral land.

I know that the Acadiens in this area owe much to the Mi'kmaq, who helped us go into hiding when history befell us also, about 250 years ago — even though they were themselves the object of "bounty hunters" due to the proclamations of successive British colonial governors for Mi'kmaq scalps.

Actually, aboriginal scholar Daniel Paul reports that any exchange or contact between Mi'kmaq and the Acadiens was forbidden by a 1722 proclamation — a proclamation that has yet to be rescinded.

Once the British-French wars ended, or as Daniel Paul writes, once "France transferred its self-endowed ownership of Acadia to the English", the Mi'kmaq continued to feel the consequences of their alliances with the Acadiens. Their numbers dwindled dangerously because of persecution, poverty, disease and displacement.

Today, Aboriginals in New Brunswick have an average age which is much lower than the non-Aboriginal population and their numbers are slowly increasing. Their education levels and participation in the labour force are much closer to that of the non-Aboriginal population than most of us would guess.

Five years ago, next week, a "historic bilateral agreement" was signed in the New Brunswick Legislature with the 15 First Nations of this province. It provided for a process to discuss outstanding First Nations and Crown issues and jurisdictions. Though some issues were reportedly worked out thanks to that process, the agreement seems to be less than alive these days.

One major blow to the agreement was the proposal by the New Brunswick government to sell NB Power to Quebec. The First Nations Chiefs had even more reason to be surprised than the rest of us when they woke up one day back in 2009 to that news. There are several unresolved aboriginal claims attached to the land and water that Hydro-Quebec would have acquired. Let us hope that the bilateral agreement with the First Nations, and the trusting relationship, are revived.

One joint initiative (set up even before the "bilateral agreement") that still works quietly away is the Advisory Committee on Violence against Aboriginal Women, created by the provincial government and First Nations women. New Brunswick-based Aboriginal women have historically been very active in the struggles for rights, confronting the federal government and their own community leaders.

Aboriginal women are also involved in politics. For example, they are as well represented on their band councils as other women are on their municipal councils throughout the province. This is to say that women aren't fully represented but the situation is improving. Aboriginal women are dispersed around the province and they face many issues related to both sexism and racism. As a result, they have a great need to work together. I hope Aboriginal women's groups will one day find governments, both First Nations and/or "self-endowed" Canadian governments, willing to include them and their issues on agendas, in agreements and in the funding provided to key aboriginal groups.

© Copyright 2012 Jody Dallaire, All rights Reserved. Written For: StraightGoods.ca