Riposte

National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, Phil Fontaine, a very nice gentleman, who genuinely wants only what is best for his suffering people, has a response to those among a newer generation of aboriginal representatives who appear to feel that assimilating First Nations people into the general population of Canada's cities, encouraging them to make the most of urban opportunities in education and employment is the wave of a successful future.

These newly-emerged leaders do not suggest submersing native culture into that of the prevailing larger culture, but rather to retain language, history and cultural manifestations of value of indigenous peoples, while integrating socially, economically, into the larger population mass. As the only way forward for a burgeoning younger population of First Nations who most surely deserve far better than the meagre opportunities that have presented to them up to the present.

Chief Fontaine hits all the right notes, and it's very ennobling and misty-eyed of him to remind Canadians that First Nations' "social, cultural, spiritual, economic and political development and well-being" is uppermost in his mind and that of his colleagues. But in encouraging Indian bands to sequester themselves within their own communities, in tribal villages where there is no obligation upon them to fend for themselves honourably, he does them no favours.

It is from within those cloistered and non-opportunistic enclaves that aboriginal lives are wasted in an atmosphere of hopeless submission to boredom through lack of purpose. Where alcohol and drugs can temporarily lift people from their sad lassitude and misery, and where First Nations children are bereft of guidance and vision for their own futures, eschewing education and the universal values of self-help.

In the persistent and pernicious assurances to our aboriginal population that they should remain economically dependent upon the guilt of a nation, they are deprived of an inner solution to their problems. And the ongoing funding from federal coffers of the Assembly of First Nations, and Indian Bands and reserves, with no insistence on accountability, while people who should be as competitive in the workforce, as enthusiastic about opportunities as any other Canadians, fester in sloth and poverty.

The successive governments of this great country have done a great disservice to our First Nations peoples by aiding in their vulnerability, their dependent state, their hopelessness. And the fact that there are so many outstanding land claims has demonstrated the greater burden and share of the ongoing problems. All outstanding land claims should be seen as priorities, and immediate steps taken to resolve this issue. It is our shame as Canadians that First Nations still await their just recognition and due.

With agreements and titles they can then take steps to further their interests by negotiating with the private sector interested in development and mineral extraction, or in setting up unique manufacturing or service infrastructures. Better yet, devising their own industries, as some bands and reserves already have, to their great credit. Casinos, shopping centres, vineyards, orchards, innovative manufactories, all offer enterprising opportunities.

But insisting on the cultural necessity and the impracticality of First Nations living in isolated and remote reserves where the geography and the distance dictate against the potential for establishing themselves self-sufficiently is a false promise and an inadequate delivery of responsibilities for those whom the Assembly of First Nations claim they represent. Love of land is all very well, but aboriginals no longer live upon the land as their ancestors did.

When aboriginals respect themselves sufficiently to become self-reliant, to proudly demonstrate their abilities and capabilities, their determination to succeed as equals among equals, then their own pride in themselves will help bigots move away from the view of First Nations people as "wasteful, errant, criminal, stagnant, backward and irrelevant", to use Mr. Fontaine's own descriptives.

The sad fact seems to be that it is the leadership of the aboriginal community to date that is as much at fault in failing the needs and aspirations of Canada's First Nations, as the neglect of the successive federal governments, some of which, to be fair, suffer their own pangs of authentic regret at their failure to live up to their duties.

Unfortunately, regret is useless. An honest and determined move to finally right these wrongs which have languished far too long on the Canadian social landscape is what is required. Now.