A busy day yesterday for the National Chief at the Assembly of First Nations Annual General Assembly in Quebec City.
The National Chief met with leaders of the Roman Catholic Church to help ensure the Roman Catholic Church participates fully in the upcoming Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission. As well, the National Chief is hopeful that there may eventually be an apology from Pope Benedict XVI himself. Pope Benedict XVI recently acknowledged Australia's apology to the Aborigines for past injustices.
The National Chief also attended the meeting with the Council of the Federation - the forum where all provincial premiers and territorial leaders meet. The National Chief, premiers and territorial leaders emerged with an important agreement to press the Prime Minister and Government of Canada to honour and implement the Kelowna Accord and to convene a full First Ministers Meeting on First Nations issues. The premiers and territorial leaders can be important allies in the call for a progressive agenda to move First Nations from poverty and prosperity.
Let us know what you think about these developments.
The AGA wraps up today, so stay tuned for further updates on the outcomes and next steps.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
How can little insignificant Indian like myself get a hold of some of the information about the Israel delegations. Specifically, I would like to know the names of these elite Indians who are more deserving than the rest of the people to be taken on fabulous trips to the Holy Land, how much of the peoples' coin was and will be spent on these things, and how much will we have to pay to the Israelis to save our languages.
It is unfortunate that the Grand Chief is not aware that a member of his home community came up with plan to protect the specific dialect of that community. While it can't be said for certain that the plan would work, it seemed to many that it would've been a worthwhile endeavour. It is also unfortunate that the current leadership of the Grand Chief's home community felt that only superficial support for the plan was warranted.
That's ok, though, slim. Since the current Indian Chief of the Grand Indian Chief's home community did not see the value in the language plan, it has since been updated, adapted to suit the needs of all First Nations communities, and a kick ass distribution plan has been created. Since the Indian Chiefs have determined that ol' Payzhannakut's input don't matter, then ol' Payzhannakut will take his plan to the people.
AFN can work with Jews to save our languages, The Free Odjibwe will work with the people. The Indian Chiefs can waste all the time in the world with calls for action from the government and other non-Anishinabe. Me and other true Anishinabe Ogkimaak won't waste our time as such, we will call the people to action and then you will see some real results, Dawggy.
Expect our grassroots strategies to protect and promote indigenous languages to be distributed in the near future.
Toodles.
Oh yeah, I also forgot to mention that I've been intensly studying the Indian media lately, and the youth in certain northern communities are using very different language from the Indian Chiefs. Whereas the Indian Chiefs talk about money for them so they can provide services like housing and water, youth are talking about things like sovereignty, identity, and treaties that are ka-ka.
This is something. It is starting to smell like Anishinabe Nationalism is taking hold of the hearts and minds of the people. I know it's not Indian politics, because here in Manitoba, Indian youth politics smells like pizza, courtesy of the AMC.
One more thing, then I'll never bother the AFN again. Indian CHiefs are not corrupt. the word corrupt does not accurately describe the situation with Indian Chiefs. "Ineffective" is a much better word to describe the efforts of the Indian Chiefs. I said in the previous post and I'll say it again here: Time can't be wasted with calls for the Canadian gov't to take action, the people must be called to action. And not simple vague directions too, someone has to give them specific directions, lest they be mislead.
payzhannakut has some good questions. Who went to Isreal? How much of the people's money was spent on the few whil the many suffer? I have questions of my own. Why arent these trips reported on the afn website or on this blog? Was it some kind of secret? Why is afn ignoring questions from there own people?
You've got an interesting perpective, payz. You should be the grand chief. Lord knows that cheifs have been using the same tired arguments since the 60's and very little has changed. My favorite chief comment is that treaties are sacred, but the words in the treaty don't matter. HOw can they be sacred if the words don't matter?
The AFN put out a press release about the trip to Israel the day it was announced. It includes a list of participants. It's here (on our website): http://www.afn.ca/article.asp?id=2276
CJC covered the costs.
Post a Comment