Maria king's victory over clawback just one of her many struggles
Dave Sullivan
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Apr 20/01) - Maria King's fight with the territorial government over the clawback of the federal fuel rebate was just the latest skirmish in the social activist's struggle to return dignity to the lives of persons on welfare.
"They gave the money back but never addressed the large issue of why they don't adhere to the regulations," said King, pointing to the a clause in the Social Assistance Act, that territorial civil servants used to snatch the $250 payments from social assistance recipients.
"There was a time the system was for those in need, but now they're creating the need by the way they apply the policies. They forget their purpose."
The 55-year-old adoptive mother of two boys said changes to government policy have gradually chipped away at benefits.
These include the government's move to eliminate $20 a month for household items, another $5 for personal hygiene products, and a phone line for abused women.
The territorial government "chooses to interpret everything in a way that will disallow you," King said.
The eldest in a family of three sisters and a brother, King knew early in life that she would have to forfeit much of her childhood to fend for herself.
Her mother was hospitalized with tuberculosis and Maria wound up in residential school.
A bout with measles during infancy damaged her hearing and left her with vertigo that causes nausea and loss of balance.
While in residential school at Fort Smith's Bryant Hall, she protested the strict segregation that prevented contact with a brother who was also there.
She was expelled for her actions, even though boys and girls were allowed to mingle soon after.
In 1963, King earned a high school diploma and took business courses at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT). That opened up a 25-year career working on government finances.
"I learned to cope and adjust. I didn't realize any real problems until my later schooling got really challenging."
Her medical condition worsened but she didn't qualify for a disability pension. She left the civil service in 1992. Since then she's been raising two adopted sons and volunteered with groups that share her convictions.
The main injustice in King's experience cuts to the soul of who she is and where she's from.
She was raised in Rocher River.
The village of 300 was 50 kilometres east of Fort Resolution, separated from it by the criss-crossing Slave River delta.
It's still on the map, but today has fewer than a dozen residents.
The federal government used subtle means which forced residents to move on in the mid-1960s.
King remembers when bureaucrats wanted to build the dam which powered the Pine Point mine, but villagers were against it. The community's fate was sealed when the local school burned down.
The government's refusal to rebuild gave it control over residents' destiny. Officials could say the children were not getting an education, and dictate their relocation by threatening to snatch the children away from parents.
"I kept lobbying to get the school rebuilt but it wasn't until years later we realized the reason why they didn't."
With no community or chief and former residents spread through the North, any basis for a land claim has disappeared.
"Our community is gone. It's a ghost town but I still call it home."
