Conciliatory Tones or Purely Oppositional?

"We will no longer accept poverty and homelessness while resource companies and governments grow fat off our land and territories."
"Canada is Indian land. This is my truth and this is the truth of our peoples."
"To this government here, that's here now, we need to reach out and bring them to the table because the status quo in this country is just not acceptable."
"You have to bring people to the table. No question. You can't stay on the outside. You have to engage in dialogue."
Perry Bellegarde, incoming national chief, Assembly of First Nations

Ted Rhodes/Calgary Herald   Then-newly elected Grand Chief of the Assembly of First Nations Shawn Atleo, left, gets a handshake onstage from runner-up Perry Bellegarde following Alteo's win on a marathon eighth ballot Thursday, July 23, 2009 in Calgary.

A nation within a nation, both sovereign, and each traditionally at odds with one another, each attempting to override and control the other. A national government comprised of roughly 35-million people of diverse backgrounds, ethnicities, ideologies and heritage. And an indigenous population, here before the advent of European migration, now numbering one million, four hundred thousand aboriginals in various First Nations communities.

First Nations consider all those of European and later immigration to Canada to be newcomers to the land, settlers, intruders with whom they were forced through sheer strength of numbers and the weight of arms to make peace, at the very least to accept their presence. The ongoing task by successive national governments in Canada to arrive at a mutually agreeable pact honouring treaties and providing First Nations with the means to live as the original inhabitants has brought little satisfaction to either side.

Chief Bellegarde speaks of communication and meetings and agreements but the conversations are generally one-way, with government listening and AFN speaking of the needs and demands of First Nations. The huge welfare system that has traditionally marked tribal reserves' support for aboriginals to live in 'dignity' as their ancestors once did, has been a marked failure. Remote reserves do not accommodate themselves to urban living lifestyles; and no one living on them lives in traditional mode.

With huge unemployment, resulting shiftlessness, disinterest in upkeep of houses they don't own, alcoholism and drug-addiction have become problems affecting even the youth of reserves left to their own devices where education is not recognized as a high priority, and too many parents neglect the well-being of their children, and familial violence is far too common. There is no dignity in social ills so pervasive that suicide becomes salvation. All of which blights the AFN lay squarely at the feet of the federal government.

The Assembly of First Nations in theory represents all those aboriginals living on reserves; and they and the system of reserves have not been successful in representing the best interests of First Nations peoples, too many of whom live in poverty and social destabilization. From the tenor of the speeches emanating from the new AFN chief-elect, as opposed to the more accommodating relationship between his predecessor and the Government of Canada, matters will not be any easier in the future.

As for resource-sharing demanded by leaders of First Nations communities when development projects cross into First Nations territories, that is already proceeding, honoured increasingly by the provinces and the federal governments alike. Former AFN Chief Shawn Atleo was entirely too prepared to meet the government halfway in negotiations -- from the perspective of Chief Bellegarde who contested him for the 2009 election of chief -- having concluded an agreement with Aboriginal Affairs on Bill C-33 to improve on-reserve education.

Chief Atleo faced opposition from too many of the chiefs, new Chief Bellegarde included, for being entirely too comfortable in dealing with government, and opposition was so fierce he was forced to step aside. The result of that will be to move to another process through which a version of improved education can be managed by dealing with reserves one-on-one, providing each of them with the financial resources to enable them to undertake improved education.

"When I look at the reality of First Nations in the country, they are so diverse from all corners of Canada, that I think the way forward is to work locally with the communities, the willing partners who are ready to take the steps to improve the outcomes of education on reserve. We have tools in place where we can, I think, move forward in a positive way and achieve reform without imposing, or without having a national solution", stated Aboriginal Affairs Minister Bernard Valcourt.

The Assembly of First Nations, in opposing the new Aboriginal Education Act and rendering it toothless by their rejection of it, insisting that they are prepared to take possession of the $1.9-billion funding increase that would accompany it, have made it obvious yet again, that they have outlived their promise to represent the best interests of First Nations communities in Canada.