Mi'Kmaq, Cree, Dene and other First Nations Gather in Halifax

I stood next to Elijah Harper at the registration desk for the 28th Assembly of First Nations Annual General Assembly yesterday. I was down there so my 22-month-old son could hear and see first hand the opening ceremony – drumming, honour songs and flag bearers. These are all things that he loves. They are things of value that I love too introduced to me by Cree and Dene friends in my early 20s.

Mr. Harper is an iconic figure in Canadian politics. As a member of the Manitoba Legislature he opposed the Meech Lake Accord – negotiated without First Nations input – sounding the death knell on this constitutional amendment. CBC’s archives host a clip from an April 1990 interview on As It Happens. And last year CTV started production on a movie focusing on Harper’s life.

A national assembly of chiefs, elders and other First Nations representatives was last in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 2001 at that time under the leadership of Matthew Coon Come. I think the attendees of this Assembly would agree that since 2001 the pace of forward movement in addressing endemic challenges has been less than astounding.

Nova Scotia is no stranger to high profile causes spotlighting First Nations’ Peoples. The most celebrated individual is Donald Marshall Jr. who experienced two strikingly different outcomes before the courts. The first was a miscarriage of justice achingly recounted in Michael Harris’ Justice Denied and portrayed on screen in a film by the same name starring Billy Merasty. Mi’Kmaq historian Daniel Paul provides his take on The Marshall Inquiry that exonerated Junior.

Later in life, Junior’s fishing and selling of eels resulted in a court challenge based on 1760 Treaty Rights accorded to the Mi’Kmaq by the British Crown. This case has had some profound impacts and returned two decisions R. v. Marshall, [1999] 3 S.C.R. 456 and R. v. Marshall, [1999] 3 S.C.R. 533.

Aboriginal peoples have been petitioning for decades to have their rights recognized. In 1977, the Haudenosaunee (Six Nations Iroquois) made an address to the United Nations in Geneva. I first came across A Basic Call to Consciousness (the book version of the address) when visiting the Canadian adjunct of The Farm in the early eighties. This edition of the book was co-published by Akwesasne Notes and The Farm. It’s a must read to appreciate an insider’s perspective on the Iroquois nation – its political structure, its economy and its culture and spirituality.

As many nations gather under one tent this week to seek improvements in the quality of life of their peoples, let’s also remember the many positive contributions that First Nations peoples continue to bring to our lives.

South of the border, N. Scott Momaday’s The Way to Rainy Mountain is classic prose and spirituality that’s partially available online. XIT started recording songs of political resistance in the 1970s. Their 1971 recording The Plight of the Redman is a haunting indictment of America’s treatment of Aboriginal Peoples. In Canada, Tomson Highway articulates the Aboriginal ethos and resilience in his plays and his novel, Kiss of the Fur Queen. Native Earth Performing Arts takes theatre and bears witness to the diversity of the Native experience including traditional roots, reservations and urban living.

A personal favourite of mine is an Arawak musician/poet originally from Guyana but for these many years past a resident of Ontario and British Columbia. David Campbell’s melodies and poetic lyrics promote aboriginal identity and celebrate diversity. One album in particular was a favourite of mine, Pretty Brown. So much so, that I am ordering it today as I lost my original long ago.

The Assembly continues tomorrow and its deliberations will be reported in regional and national media, as they should be. Let’s hope that concerted action will enable us to collectively address the many challenges we face as a country in coming to terms with the inhabitants of Turtle Island who preceded the arrival of the first Europeans by millennia .

By the way, my little guy adored the flags – he has a fixation on them and to see 20 or so in one place was a toddler’s dream come true. He loved the drums and told us later in the day through words – “boom, boom, boom” - and gesture, his arm pumping up and down in the air, what an impression they made on him. As for the singing, he was a little tentative on that. The volume may have been too much. Maybe we’ll go down for the wrap up tomorrow and see if he likes it any better.