In the following speech, Chief Bellerose of the Muskowekwan First Nation, says, "... I want to propose today... a Treaty report card. We need to fairly and honestly grade where we are at as First Nations, and our Treaty partner."
In Education it's pretty hip to talk about "Assessment for Learning" and "Assessment of Learning". In Assessment for Learning there is a focus on descriptive feedback with the expectation that the learner wants to learn and do something about it. This cycle of growth is based on informed reflection and purposeful action.
I admire Chief Bellerose's honesty and courage to invite assessment. I'm humbled and a little afraid of what the assessment will be for "the treaty partner" he refers to since "the treaty partner" is me and my people.
Just today, one of my students, Nathan Philp, handed in an overdue assignment called, "Think, Believe, Become" (which is our school motto). As one of his nine belief statements about education, Nathan wrote, "I believe if I fall behind I lose the will to work. I feel when I start to fall behind I think it's too late and I quit."
I have a few questions:
- Does the treaty partner know the content on which she is being assessed? (treaty implementation)
- Does the treaty partner have ears to hear the descriptive feedback? (from those who know the content)
- Does the treaty partner want to learn and grow?
- Does the treaty partner want to pass?
- What mark does the treaty partner want?
- Does the treaty partner feel she is too far behind and it's too late anyway, so she has already quit?
Chiefs’ Open Forum
Reg Bellerose:
Chief, Muskowekwan First Nation
I would like to make some comments about what I, as a Chief, have to
deal with on a daily basis. I have
listened to people talk about sovereignty, land, minerals, laws and
self-government. I want to focus on the
people. We need to re-awaken the people.
One of the first things we have to focus
on is the effects of a welfare economy. Elder
Gerry Kayseas from Fishing Lake said it has been imposed on us, but our people
have taken ownership of welfare. That’s
the outcome the imposers want to see. Some
of us are dealing with third or fourth generation families on welfare. We come forward with jobs and opportunities and
the first thing they ask is, "Will I have to pay my own power?” And of course the answer is, yes. Well, they don’t want that job if they have to
pay their power bill. This kind of
attitude is an immediate and critical issue that we, as Leaders, have to look
at. The government is going to impose a
policy that 18-24 year olds can’t be on welfare after April 1st. I foresee a lot of problems in each First
Nation as they try to deal with this.
The second thing we need to address is healing of our people and our
communities. We talk of sovereignty and
different issues but we need to address healing and wellness. We don’t need someone from outside the
community telling us how to heal by proposing a clinical system. We need our own system that we take ownership of
through a balance of the spiritual, mental, social and economic needs.
We need to teach our parents how to be parents. Those old ladies that help bring children into
the world need to be utilized in terms of how you care for a child. A result of that nasty education system that was
imposed on us is a loss of parenting skills. That affects education today. You work with a child and when corrective
action has to be taken, the parent thinks the best thing to do is to go in the
school and fight for your kid, not fully understanding what’s in the child’s
best interests.
The third area in terms of sovereignty is spiritual help. The Elders that are here acknowledge our
Creator. I want to reach out to you and
tell you that we do need you. It’s a
critical time.
So I look at the people and ask what steps we need to take. We can achieve sovereignty through the land. Those Indian Reserve pegs have done a lot of
good in keeping us together. Our
reserved land is still there and so are we. Recently we’ve been focusing on generating our
own revenue. We cannot continue to
depend on contribution agreements to fuel our Nationhood. There are some fiscal transfers that come from
the Crown according to Treaty and fiduciary obligations, but we must accept
responsibility for funding our governments as well.
We need law-making to assert Treaty and Inherent rights. In Touchwood, we have hunting and wildlife
laws but we need to build up the oral history component of our law-making
process so it’s not written down by a judge or a court. In this law-making process, we need to define
our expert witnesses as the Elders and Chiefs because of our role in our
communities. We’re generating law but leaving
it up to a judge to determine our expert witnesses. In the Touchwood Wildlife Management Act,
there’s only one small sentence saying it’s an oral-based law. We need to be more aggressive in expanding our
interpretation of oral testimony and oral law.
One of the things I want to propose today is a Treaty report card. We need to fairly and honestly grade where we are
at as First Nations, and our Treaty partner. I hear about it when a Band member can’t pay
for a prescription or if they get a generic drug, which is happening more and
more. They go to the dentist and can’t
get a tooth fixed. They may be having
problems with their eye glasses and Health Canada won’t pay for new glasses. This has to be reported and dealt with. Our goal in the grading system is to get to an
A+ but you can’t go from an F to and A+ in one year. We have to work on it and the first step is to
record the Treaty breach. I propose to
the Treaty 1 to 11 Movement that we develop a Treaty report card to track how
Canada honours its Treaty obligations.
For Treaty implementation, we must focus on reclaiming lands and
resources and clarifying the underlying title as belonging to First Nations. Self-determination begins with language and
culture; I’m learning the language myself. I am also re-thinking today whether I should
be part of AFN or not. I see the impact
of the decisions we make as Chiefs and we’re the ones that have to live with
that, not the AFN or the National Chief.
(Key lines bolded by Sheena)
page 40-41 , excerpt from
Chiefs' Forum on Treaty Implementation
Dakota Dunes Casino and Conference Center
March 29 & 30, 2012
shared as public document with permission from
Dan Bellegarde, Executive Director, Treaty Governance Office
CD of Chiefs' Forum on treaty Implementation available for $5.00
or free transcript is available
by contacting Dan Bellegarde at Dan.Bellegarde@fsin.com
No comments:
Post a Comment