Monday, August 7, 2006
On the Hay River Reserve July 29, Dene chiefs and delegates turned to former national chief Bill Erasmus as the person to lead the organization back to prominence. He was also re-elected as regional chief for the Assembly of First Nations.
Erasmus replaces one-term chief Noeline Villebrun.
She won the job in 2003, but her hope of rebuilding the organization dissolved in a morass of financial difficulty, staff turnover and bitter backbiting.
Villebrun's blamed Erasmus for all the troubles that handcuffed her leadership, but that didn't seem to sway delegates at the assembly.
Erasmus received almost double the votes as his nearest competitor, former Yellowknives Dene chief Richard Edjericon.
So now he's back in the job he held for 16 years, aiming to settle resource royalty revenue sharing and devolution for NWT First Nations by 2010.
First, he has to prove the Dene Nation is the organization with the moral and political authority to do the job.
The Aboriginal Summit now has responsibility for negotiating with the territorial and federal governments. That group was formed in the vacuum left during Erasmus' final days as national chief.
First Nations had drifted away from the Dene Nation, in 2002 Akaitcho leaders called for Erasmus to be ousted as Dene National chief.
He survived that encounter, only to step aside at the next national assembly, saying it was time for new blood.
But now he's back and hopefully re-energized to rebuild the once proud organization that began as the Indian Brotherhood.
It won't be an easy road. Erasmus is a consummate politician and he needs to set an agenda that's agreed to by all NWT First Nations.
That may not be easy given the growing number of First Nations earning self-government authority. The question must be asked: is the sun setting on the Dene Nation?
He also has to balance the Dene leadership with his duties as AFN regional chief -- two demanding full-time jobs. Can he do both well?
-oWas trying to do the two jobs one of the reasons why the Dene Nation faded during the past 10 years?
The AFN regional chief must report to the Dene national chief, but perhaps it should be a separate person.
We wish Erasmus good luck as he embarks on a new term. It's not going to be an easy job.
Nunavut heal thyself. With a near-desperate need for physicians throughout Canada, there's little chance of attracting permanent doctors to the territory, short of giving them qamutik loaded with $1,000 bills.
So the government, Inuit associations and communities are going to have to take matters into their own hands.
The head of the college of family physicians was in Iqaluit recently to see the problem for herself, but Louise Naismith had few solutions.
Sandy Macdonald, Nunavut's director of medical affairs, suggested a training program similar to Akitsiraq law school that saw 11 Inuit receive law degrees two years ago.
That's an idea worth exploring.
Also worth considering is what's happening in Boissevain, Manitoba. The town has agreed to pay for a 22-year-old to complete medical school in exchange for spending a similar amount of time practising in the community afterward.
The territorial government could sponsor a few Inuit and regional Inuit associations could do the same. In a few years time, we may end up with enough Nunavut-born physicians to meet the territory's needs.
While Nunavut's justice department moves with all the swiftness of an iceberg, residents of Kugluktuk are waiting to see who will walk away from the community's prison next.
In April, a man with a history of aggravated sexual assault and assault walked away from the so-called "healing centre" when the employee watching him stepped inside.
The first mistake was to leave a prisoner alone. Especially this prisoner, who failed to return to the minimum-security Illavut healing facility a few days earlier when he was released on a pass.
When outside the building, common sense suggests that prisoners should always be watched by one, if not two, guards.
Luckily, there have been no incidents at the centre since this one, but why is the mayor of Kugluktuk still waiting to hear what changes will come to security measures at the centre.
According to a justice official, changing the way the department assesses prisoners destined for Illavut is complicated.
The mayor called the criteria used to select inmates "vague." That's troubling.
Instead of having bureaucrats go through reams of policies to come up with new ones, we have a simple solution that will solve most security needs at Illavut.
Put up a chain-link fence topped with barbed wire.
Editorial Comment
Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News
Well, valued readers, it certainly is good to be back at the helm of the Kivalliq News and home again in Rankin Inlet.
One disconcerting factor about my time away from Nunavut was the change in the type of questions I was bombarded with this summer from curious southerners.
Since I arrived in Rankin in 1998, the line of questioning I received every time I ventured south remained fairly constant.
I was asked about the temperatures, weather, storm severity, fishing conditions, what I did for fun away from work and a million hockey-related questions I won't bore you with the details of.
And, of course, there was always that one person who would ask me how many Inuit still live in iglus.
Hello? It's 2006!
But, I can honestly say, the questions thrown at me this summer had me longing for the days of, "You pay eight dollars for two litres of Pepsi?"
The questions I was asked this year illustrate the downside of a territory whose government and organizations gain most of their national media coverage by blasting away at the feds.
I was actually taken back by the anger I detected in some of the questions.
In fact, I was more than a little astounded by the number of people who asked me if anything good ever happens in Nunavut.
With my curiosity peaked and my feelings more than a little hurt, I started panning the Internet for Nunavut-related news articles and, I must confess, the vast majority of what turned up wasn't pretty, Northern-based media aside.
Now, keep in mind, most of the people who read/hear/watch these reports have little or no understanding of our territory other than what they come across in the media.
I quickly understood why many of them now have tainted views of Nunavut.
Most of what turned up revolved around sexual misconduct, violence, financial wrongdoing and an endless stream of we're not happy and/or we'll sue type of articles.
I'm sure many of you are reading this and wondering why I'm so surprised the evil media paints such a dark picture of Nunavut?
If it bleeds, it leads. Right?
Sometimes, yes. But there's more to it than that.
Yes, we have more than our share of challenges in the North with housing, health, education - the list goes on.
And, yes, we need our leaders to continue lobbying for improvements.
But, it's reached the point where somebody in our organizations is simply not doing their job.
A lot of great things have happened since division, but more is required to get that news out than simply inserting a press release and hitting the send button at 4:50 p.m. on a Friday afternoon.
The onus falls on us to show the rest of the country we're much more than their poor, misbehaving cousins.
Maybe it's time some of our well paid media-relations types spend a little less time shopping for traditional clothing to look the part, and start putting in the same level of effort to get the good news out that southern journalists do to obtain the bad.
Maybe then we can all go back to counting the antennas on top of iglus in preparation for the questions we face on our summer breaks.
Editorial Comment
Dez Loreen
Inuvik Drum
The way I see things, there are two types of people in our region: the haves and the have nots.
When I say that, I mean there are people who have their sense of culture and tradition and those who don't. You can tell which group these people fall into by the way they act, the way they present themselves, or their mannerisms.
Normally, those people who strongly identify with their traditions tend to be older, and were products of an older society. Granted, there are younger people who also are aware of who they are, and what is important when it comes to their heritage.
These people can be found at whaling camps, out at old-time dances, and can be seen around town sporting their traditional wear.
I saw a lot of people like that this past weekend at the Gwich'in gathering. People were talking and laughing in their language, and eating soup and sharing stories of past gatherings.
For every person who is still in touch with their past, there might be two or three people who just don't get it. Maybe they passed up the chance to go out on the land because they got a promotion in their job, or maybe a Caribbean cruise sounded more appealing.
I can totally relate with the people who have strayed from the pack of cultural do-gooders, because I am a product of a different culture. I'm like one of those brown eggs who was put in a different carton, and was raised, well, white.
I know that I have family in the outlying communities, and I know that there are about 40 people in Tuktoyaktuk who would be glad to spend time sharing their stories with me about the first time they saw a ship pull into the bay.
As a kid, I was always around a group of people who preferred to stay in town, and play soccer, rent video games and watch television.
I've never reached out to my cultural roots, and I see more and more people around me who have done the same. You know who you are, wearing a du-rag and blasting the new 50 Cent song from your car stereo.
I cannot say that my culture was stolen from me, or that some bureaucratic fat cats came and bought me out for an I-pod. I willingly gave up my rights to being traditional when I bleached my hair for the first time.
Some people were taken from their homes many years ago, faced many hardships and maybe forgot their language in the process of assimilation.
Those people are now parents, or even grandparents. I'm speaking of the younger generation that chose the cartoon heroes Thundercats over Super Shamou.
As a young person who has not embraced every aspect of his culture, I have to admit that I had fun at the Gwich'in gathering this weekend.
I was tapping my toes to the beats of the drum, and I had some traditional eats too. (Yes, they were just donuts.) I guess I'm thanking the co-ordinators for showing close-minded people like me that everyone is treated the same at these gatherings, and fun can be had by anyone.
Editorial Comment
Roxanna Thompson
Deh Cho Drum
Stepping into public office is much like willingly stepping under a microscope.
In smaller communities, like those in the Deh Cho, it's hard to keep anything private for very long. And for public officials, that scrutiny gets turned up a notch higher. They become like the ant under the magnifying glass, but instead of a child holding the handle, every member of the community has a hand on it. And just like an ant when the sun comes out sometimes it can get hot under the lens.
People in positions of authority are always under the scrutiny of the public eye. Details of their private lives are more readily known than those of the average person and their decisions are analyzed and criticised. They are also often held to higher standards of accountability.
This level of scrutiny extends across a wide variety of positions from chiefs to band councillors, and even to teachers and RCMP officers.Are these higher standards fair?Arguably, yes they are.
These jobs and others like them are positions of trust and come with heavy responsibility. Members of the general public need to feel comfortable that those they look to for help, leadership and guidance are reliable to give that assistance.
It's human nature to view someone differently and look at their competency in a different manner after you learn something about them that you find questionable.
Activities that may be shrugged off as common occurrences in the general public take on a whole different light when the person in question holds an important office. The poster case for this is, of course, the former president of the U.S., Bill Clinton.
While extra-marital affairs are probably a daily occurrence for many in his country, the case of Clinton showed us that if you try it as a president you are bound to be held accountable. The Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky scandal also showed that the public will make up its own mind while the courts may reach a different conclusion. In all cases in Canada, people are innocent until proven guilty. This, however, will not erase the stain that is caused the moment charges are laid against a person. Guilty or innocent, it never makes a good impression. These higher standards are, however, there for a reason -- even if they often prove to be hard to follow.
When something happens and someone falls short, important decisions need to be made about how serious the incident was and the degree to which it will alter their effectiveness as a leader. Appropriate steps must be taken from there.
But while we stand around holding the magnifying glass we should all remember that no one is perfect. While much time is spent looking at the faults of others, the attention should also occasionally be reversed.
Incorrect information appeared in last week's Nunavut News/North. The Kelowna Accord was agreed to by the federal, provincial and territorial governments as well as aboriginal groups in 2005. Nunavut News/North apologizes for any confusion this error may have caused.