Lubicon Lake Indian Nation Little Buffalo Lake, AB 403-629-3945 FAX: 403-629-3939 Mailing address: 3536 - 106 Street Edmonton, AB T6J 1A4 403-436-5652 FAX: 403-437-0719 May 25, 1990 Retyped for your information is a copy of a commentary on the plight of aboriginal people in Canada. One correction need be made. One paragraph refers to a Federal Government offer of "$140 million or more" to the Lubicons. Although not technically correct either, what the writer undoubtedly meant was "$40 million or more". ************************************************************************ The Edmonton Journal, Sunday, May 20, 1990 Satya Das, National Affairs * * * * * SUNDAY COMMENTARY * * * * * = = = --== WITNESS TO NATIVE BETRAYAL ==-- Museum, Meech accord reflect broken promises To enter the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Hull is to bear witness to a vast betrayal. This show-piece purports to be the history of the human settlement of Canada, yet there is a great empty spot at its heart, for there is no substantial depiction or documentation of the first Canadians. There are only hints, like the totems rising starkly in the museum's great hall. But even these are dissonant, because they are devoid of context. Rather than reflect the six West Coast cultures they are supposed to represent, they seem curiously uprooted and out of place. It doesn't take long to discover why the totems appear so. Displays meant to convey the vigor and animation of each coastal culture have yet to be mounted. What were to be doors to Canada's history are boarded over with black plywood. Museum guides will tell you that perhaps one of the displays will be ready for the summer tourist season. All that we have now are the totems, the most obvious external symbols of our forgotten founding cultures. Totems that rise in a sterile hall on the banks of the Ottawa River, staring Parliament in the face. NATIVE STORY REMAINS UNTOLD The totems were supposed to lead to the First People's Hall, planned as the central attraction of this monument to Canada. But all that's there now is blocked entrance and an Orwellian screen, flashing the message that the hall has yet to be built. Upstairs, we can see displays of Viking life in Newfoundland, of the Basque whalers who plied the 16th century Atlantic coast, of neat protestant streets in 19th century Ontario. But of the founding peoples there is only an unfulfilled promise and a plasterboard wall hiding the vast empty space where their story was to have been told. In a perverse way, it is appropriate that this should be so. The void in the museum finds resonance in the document that is to shape the civilization of tomorrow's Canada, the 1982 Constitution, and amendments to it proposed in the Meech Lake accord. Throughout the drafting of the Constitution, and of the Meech Lake accord, the issue of aboriginal rights has been studiously deferred. There have been inconclusive first ministers conferences, repeated assurances that these rights would be enshrined in the Constitution. But like the museum, there is only an unfulfilled promise, and a constitutional wall hiding the vast empty space where the fundamental rights of Canada's first peoples were to be enshrined. Somehow, the very concept of what these rights ought to be elude definition: the last time the first ministers met, they broke because they could not agree on what the constitutional rights of natives should mean. In this age of endless constitutional wrangle about the meaning of a distinct society, it is strange and frustrating that these rights and dues of Canada's most distinct society, the first peoples, have yet to be dealt with. This, surely, should be a constitutional priority. Although there are differing views on native self-government, and the potential for quarrels on jurisdiction and the devolution of power, there should be no confusion about the basis of any native rights agreement: freedom from the paternalism of the state, and the right of native societies to develop and nurture their own distinction. A clear illustration of this concept is found in the ongoing dispute over the Lubicon Lake Indian band's claim in northern Alberta. The federal government claims it is being more than generous in offering $140 (sic) million or more to the band, in the form of housing, community services and federally designed economic development plans. But the federal view is based on a profound misunderstanding that the only programs good for the Lubicons are ones that have federal sanction. The band doesn't want paternalism, no matter how well intentioned. They want to take on economic development projects without federal input, and they want a fair share of the mineral resources that would have accrued to them had the agreement been signed even a decade ago. RIGHTS STILL DENIED If native rights include the absolute right to control one's destiny, then the Lubicon case becomes a persuasive one. Chief Bernard Ominayak wants the kind of settlement that will enable economic independence for his people: an end to handouts from the state, and the right to take risks and make mistakes and enjoy success on their own. They want the joy and the uncertainty of shaping their own future. Such desires must find a place and a voice in the Canadian Constitution. The companion resolution to Meech Lake, proposed by an all-party committee this past week, once again raises the promise that the aspirations of Canada's aboriginal people will be fulfilled. This time, the politicians and institutions of the state must do all they can to give substance to that promise. We are too good and decent a society to perpetually defer our promise to Canada's first peoples; we betray our own claim to goodness and decency so long as we consign native rights to blank spots in the constitution, and native culture to unbuilt halls in our show-piece museum. ************************************************************************ For more information contact web:car by e-mail or in writing Aboriginal Rights Support Group Committee Against Racism P.O. Box 3085, Station B Calgary, Alberta T2M 4L6