Mike W. Bryant
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Oct 24/01) - A group of Russian bureaucrats are in Yellowknife seeking input on how to provide economic development and more participation in government for aboriginal people living in the country's Far North.

The team of 12, representing Russia's most remote regions, arrived as part of a Canadian International Development Agency funded project, which paired the Russian delegates with representatives from the Inuit Circumpolar Conference and federal and territorial governments.

While issues such as self-government and revenue sharing have become a normal part of every day discourse between governments and Aboriginal groups in Canada over the last two decades, the Russians said aboriginal people are still without economic infrastructure and local government.

"I find it unacceptable to find an elk hunter, who has hunted for years, picking through an oil field for garbage because he is too old to train," said Valeriy Vengo, head of administration for the Northerly Russian region of Dudinka.

It has been more than a decade since Russia began its first tentative steps toward democratization, and now the government is casting an eye Northward to its long-neglected Aboriginal people.

Like the NWT, Russia's three Northern regions in Siberia and along the Arctic coast are rich in mineral deposits and oil and gas reserves. The main inhabitants of these regions are indigenous groups, many of them still subsisting on hunting and fishing.

"What we're trying to do is learn from your experiences, and avoid some of, I hate to use this, your mistakes," said Anatoliy Raychev, deputy chairman of the Department of Indigenous People for the Khants Mansyisk Okrug.

"The problem of boarding schools (similar to residential schools) still exists. I myself was in one for six years. The (Canadian) government has gone a long way to changing the system."

Even though there are still Russian residential schools, and aboriginal self-government is still in its infancy stage, Raychev said there areas where Russia has managed to surpass Canada.

"As for the cultural aspect, there's a lot more that can be learned from us," Raychev said. "We have laws specially designed to protect indigenous languages."