[Written for the Jan. 15/13 Yo! News]
Here is an update on Treaty activities:
Film
By now, many community members would have had an opportunity to view the film, How a People Live last week at the GN School. The film was two years in the making and the purpose is to tell a history of how our people lived since the time before our nations were colonized and became part of Canada. The focus is on the challenges and struggles our people faced and overcame for us to all be here today.
Negotiations
Over the past year we have continued to meet with the Governments of Canada and B.C. at the monthly negotiation sessions. During these meetings an AIP document has been almost completed. Canada has given their negotiators a “mandate” to discuss with BC an offer. An “offer” is an amount of land plus an amount of cash that they want to propose to the GN as a Treaty deal, so to speak. They call it a “land- cash” offer. We have not received their proposal to date.
On another note, through negotiations we have received grants from Canada to work on projects to prepare for a time when we could be exercising our rights through a treaty. Last May we completed a “governance” document under a Treaty Related Measure (TRM), our goal was to examine governance from a leadership and an administrative perspective. We needed to learn more about what our traditional governance/leadership was, get a better understanding about current governance to determine what will work best for the GN in the future. We also looked at our Band Administration, through meetings and surveys with many staff members we determined the level of services being delivered, education required for the jobs carried out and areas where there could be improvements made. A further note, we received a grant to finalize a personnel policy for the administration…we have been working with an old and outdated one since ’94, the new policy will reflect current staff, job and service delivery realities. Our goal is always one of finding ways to serve you the people more effectively to meet your needs.
Another TRM that we are working on is an economic development and land expansion project. We are researching to understand what our local lands needs will be in the short and long term for economic development purposes as well as for expansion of housing opportunities so that all members will have an opportunity to have a home. In early December we had a meeting where nearly 45 members attended, we looked at maps and talked about what we would like our Community to look like. We discussed ideas such as a recreation centre, a bighouse, a cultural
center, a high school, grocery stores, restaurants, a dock, a new housing complex for elders, housing for those that need homes, etc. It was a great meeting of young, parents, and elders visualizing a future for our community… More of these meetings will be held in the near future – don’t miss the next opportunity to put your ideas and views on a map.
Elders
In October after a great deal of planning with the Museum of Anthropology, near UBC in Vancouver we hired a bus/driver to take the elders to see artifacts and carving that were done by our GN ancestors. The museum staff set aside a room that was filled with items that our people could hold to view. Many were in tears as they remembered the loved ones who had carved the amazing creations in front of them. After we left, the Curator of the Museum offered to open up an opportunity to view the carvings again in the future – perhaps on a family-by-family basis.
Our office continues to support the Elder Coordinator in efforts to provide services to the elders, this Monday the 14th, a first Elder Care Program will be launched whereby Janine, together with myself and staff from Health and Family Services collaborate to support a full day of good food, presentations and fun activities.
GN School
The children are our future and we want to find ways to support their cultural and educational growth. In doing so, we assist in ways we can including the purchase of items that are not easily affordable by the school budget. We have been able to assist in this way for many years now, and are so pleased to see the growth in our children as they further their cultural and academic studies. Way to go children and school staff!
Lands
This is such an important area… Since negotiations started we have worked to learn everything we can know about our territories. Throughout the years we have learned that large multinational companies as well as smaller ones have been exploiting the traditional territories without consideration of the Nations to whom the land belongs. To combat this continued abuse our leaders have sought to find ways to exercise our title and rights through processes such as Nanwakolas and Treaty Negotiations. We have been involved in both for many years, but at least
now, the companies notify and make some effort to consult us, there is always room for improvement.
In the recent past we undertook and completed a “high level” land use plan, now from a grant our office applied for through a Capacity Initiative, we were able to secure additional funds to meet with our community to develop the necessary information for a comprehensive land-use plan. Currently the planners are working with youth at the Ekimixi School to teach about the land as well as to involve the youth in planning exercises…in these ways they can see how a community
is formed with the housing, recreation and service needs based on site location. The wisdom and knowledge of our Elders and community members will continue to be sought as we seek to prepare the GN Land Use Plan. This Plan is what is needed as we continue to assert our Nationhood as Gwa’sala and ‘Nakwaxda’xw Nations to those who want to extract our valuable resources from our lands in our traditional territories. We need to show the multinationals companies, industry and government how our land and waters and resources are valuable to us, and that we have to be fully consulted and accommodated on any activity undertaken.
Future meetings
Since 2010 until last Spring our treaty office hosted TAC meetings in the community. We wish to thank all those who attended the meetings; we received valuable support and input as we prepared positions for the negotiation tables during those times. Often during the meetings we were told that we needed to speak directly with individual families of the Gwa’sala-‘Nakwaxda’xw. To that end, we talked with elders who helped us to develop the names to include in specific family groupings. In November we met with representatives to confirm that we planned to have these family style of meetings, each in attendance agreed that this is a good way to talk to community members. One benefit would be that there would be no restriction as to the number of attendees. From our point of view, the more GN members we can reach to help educate about the Treaty Negotiations the better.
The first Family Meetings will be held soon. They can be held at homes, if that is the desire, or we will meet at the Elder Center. We are presently preparing materials, charts, etc.. that will be used to clearly explain.
Final Comments
It is great to be able to communicate with you through the Yo News, and through the planned upcoming family meetings. We are working toward a more fulsome communications with everyone. In the meantime, please write to our office or come in to talk directly with me if you have questions or concerns that you feel need to be addressed. Thanks to staff and all the people that I work/meet with as we all a better quality of life for all of our people.
Gila’kasla.
Written for YO NEWS by:
Colleen Hemphill,
Chief Negotiator in the BC Treaty Process
on behalf of the Gwa’sala-‘Nakwaxda’xw Nations