Six Nations Chief Issues a Call to Action
at Special AFN Assembly in Ottawa
May 22, 2002
"The governance initiative that is attracting so much attention
is the visible part of an iceberg
the rest of the agenda lies below the surface."

Notes for Remarks by ROBERTA JAMIESON Chief, Six Nations of the Grand River

A CALL TO ACTION: TAKING CHARGE OF OUR FUTURE

SPECIAL CHIEFS ASSEMBLY, ASSEMBLY OF FIRST NATIONS
Ottawa, Ontario, May 22, 2002

Good morning! Sehkon! Tansi! Ahneen! Ho Han! Bon jour! Greetings!

I am not here to give a speech. I am here to issue a call to action.

I want to talk to those of you who are ready for action, and I want to convince those of you who aren=t ready that it=s time to get moving!

I hope you will permit me to be blunt and frank.

National Chief Coon Come has set out a plan for change. There can be no argument we need to do a lot of nation-building and re-building. There can be no argument that we must insist that our Treaty partners comply with their promises B the honour of the Crown requires nothing less. There can be no argument that we require a redistribution of lands and resources if our nations are to be restored to health. There can be no argument this means new fiscal arrangements must be put in place. We can be united around the National Chief's Plan.

We Must Take Vigorous, Principled Action

Today, however, being united is not enough. We must also take vigorous, principled, and clear action. We can leave no doubt about our intentions.

We are in a situation that won=t wait Until powwow season is over, or until we have the free time and funds. If you=re standing on the decks of the Titanic saying you=re not going under because you have a Treaty, or you are at a negotiating table, or that your rights are protected by the Constitution, you=d better be prepared for a cold bath.

The lights burn 24 hours at day at DIAND=s headquarters at Number 10 Wellington, and if we are not prepared to take action to protect our Treaties and our rights, we will find ourselves submerged in a new reality from which we might never escape.

This IS a call to action.

I would like to acknowledge now that among us, there is a wide range of feeling at this moment. There is frustration, anger, a feeling of powerlessness, even denial all this is happening to us, along with strong determination to get moving, to get into action.

We need to talk with each other about the way we feel, to be open to giving and receiving encouragement, to provide information and exchange opinion with each other B this is an essential part of unity-building.

I also recognize that there may people here who will not agree with my point of view B respect that. At the same time, I invite you to meet with me in the hope we can inform each other, better understand each other=s point of view, maybe even find common areas of agreement.

I also recognize that some who have hesitated to be critical of the Minister may have found it advantageous to their First Nation to be silent.

So I start off by recognizing that at the outset. But what I ask you to recognize is that once Ottawa is sure we have returned to our homes, the federal government will finally reveal its plan to throw the current Indian Act out the window and replace it with a new Indian Act of its own making.

A Dazzling Display of Smoke and Mirrors

The publicity teams are working overnight to assemble a dazzling display of smoke and mirrors.

Their object is to convince the Canadian public this new Act will bring us prosperity, employment, economic development.

The Minister will stand up in the House of Commons to reveal the AFirst Nations Governance Initiative and promise that this new legislation is just a temporary measure -- a Abridge@, he says, to help us get ready for self-government.

The Minister will claim that responsible Indian leaders are all for it. He may even have a few live endorsements on hand for public consumption.

He will claim he is liberating Indians from an archaic and oppressive Indian Act. He=ll say that those of us who are opposed are afraid of the responsibilities of self-government, or worse, that we are bad chiefs protecting our own self-interests. He will ask, AHow can they be opposed to something which they have never seen?@

Well, in the next two weeks we will see it. We can expect the Bill will be as the Minister has promised.

The proposed legislation will bring an end to custom bands B every First Nation in Canada will come under the Indian Act. We'll be ordered to meet the standards the Minister sets for us. You can expect that under the new legislation, we will be told what we can do and can=t do in acting for the best interests of our people.

The new legislation will unburden the Minister of his accountability, his fiduciary duties, and ask us to carry the Crown=s load as well as our own.

The Minister claims he is giving 'power to the people!' when really he is setting up incredible hurdles for the people to jump over if we want to take any action. The scrutiny of Indian Affairs officials will increase to ensure we meet the Minister=s imposed standards, and a whole new industry for third-party managers will be created.

Totally, totally unacceptable.

The Example of the Constitutional Express

Let's put the Minister's initiative in historical context. Many of you will remember November, 1980, right here in this very room, when the Constitutional Express arrived from Vancouver with almost a thousand people. The objective was to make certain that our aboriginal and treaty rights would be protected in Canada's new constitution.

Through the efforts of our people across Canada, led by the drum of the Constitutional Express, we achieved that historic goal. We woke up our Treaty Partner to join with us then just as it had in Treaty times, just as had when we entered into the Two Row Wampum.

My call to action is to wake up Canada once again. It has gone to sleep over the last 20 years, and is operating once again on the colonial automatic pilot.

Ottawa's corporate memory has forgotten about the Constitutional Express. It tries to ignore s.35 of the Constitution, just as it has the Treaties.

I think we have misread the situation. We forgot key decision-makers in Ottawa are deluded that they have a royal mandate to decide what is best for us. We were naive in assuming that governments would seize the opportunity offered by the gains we made in the courts. We have tended to personalize and demonize the Minister of the day as being the villain in all this. Really, we=re up against a massive system that fools us into thinking just one or two individuals are at fault.

We have spent little time keeping up our guard in a struggle which we know is on-going and which will go even beyond our own generation.

Some of us are tired and burned out from dealing with the tragic reality of life in our communities. Some of us may have become too comfortable with the status quo. Some seem to be too ready to give up.

Where is the brazen self-confidence the Constitutional Express represented?

The Minister's own self-confidence has been strengthened with the belief we can't provide any real opposition to his initiative. He has worked to divide us at every turn.

This is the time for a call to action - and we must listen - and act.

Waking Up To The Promise of S.35

We have to wake ourselves up and harvest the true promise of s.35 in the Constitution. Our historic rights to govern ourselves according to our own values and to make decisions in our own way is enshrined in Canada's constitution. We have to wake Canada up and make it clear there is no going back to the days before section 35.

We have to make it clear that NO legislation cut from colonial cloth can be acceptable either to Canada or to First Nations. What the Minister claims is a progressive initiative is really one giant step backwards into the dank mists of colonialism, not much different than the 1886 Act for the Gradual Civilization of the Indians.

A month from now, our children will be coming home with their report cards. It's time Canada gets its own report card, and the federal government should be ashamed of its performance.

In the subject of Acting Honourably on behalf of Canada 'Failing Grade'. Won't admit to past wrongs. Blames others for its faults. Fails to learn from experience. The government's insistence in taking every dispute to court and litigating every last technicality shows a fundamental lack of good faith.

In the subject of 'Fulfilling Outstanding Obligations': Failing Grade. Fails to set priorities. Fails to keep promises. Backlog of claims increasing. And a new claims process won't be any better than the old claims process unless there is a change of attitude and the resources to make it meaningful.

In the subject of 'Accountability', the government's report card must also show a big F: no appeals process, no willingness to account for funds spent or the lack of progress which has been achieved; a profound unwillingness to be held to the same standards it expects others to follow.

And what does the government do with this report card? It hides it from public view by pointing at First Nation leaders and claiming their grades aren't good either.

The Department's Strategic Words and Tactics SWAT communications experts tries to focus the media's attention on OUR failures - but any misdeeds of a few of our leaders pales in comparison with Canada's sustained failure to be open, fair, and transparent to First Nations.

I don't think we need any lessons in accountability from a teacher whose own report card is so full of failure. There simply is no excuse for this hefty dose of colonialism in the form of the FNGI.

If we, as Chiefs, allow it to happen, we will have to be accountable to our own Seventh Generation for our unwillingness, or our inability to oppose this move with much more vigor than we have shown up until now.

The Wide-Screen View of Indian Affairs in Ottawa

Before I set out the plan of action I am recommending, let me give you the wide-screen view of what is happening here in Ottawa.

First of all, there=s no new money on the wide-screen. In fact, expect the government to come around to ask us to start picking up a bigger share of the tab.

The governance initiative that is attracting so much attention is the visible part of an iceberg - the rest of the agenda lies below the surface. There are actually five different pieces of prescriptive legislation, including the creation of new national institutions, maybe even a new National Indian Education Act.

Canadians were told in last year's Speech from the Throne that the government must and is prepared to act to address the social and economic conditions of aboriginal peoples. We were promised 'This commitment will be reflected in all the Government=s priorities. '

A Ministerial Reference Group was set up a year ago to put this promise into action by developing a 'Quality of Life' Agenda for us. The Reference Group, like most Canadians, seems to remain confused about the best way to redress the situation, and they are frustrated that nothing the government does seems to make any difference.

While this group of ministers needs all the help it can get, in fact it is working in ivory tower isolation. It's been totally confused by the bureaucrats, who tell them that existing processes don't work and are difficult to fix, yet making fundamental change is not all that easy either.

The trouble is, they are afraid or unwilling to take any new approaches. They're unwilling to work with us, unwilling to listen to the many voices who have laid out the bold new course which must be followed. The Penner Committee recommendations are not on the agenda. Neither are the Royal Commission recommendations.

So when the Minister says he has the answer, and that it won't cost any more money, and that it will solve the age-old Indian problem and bring Indians prosperity, of course that sounds attractive.

There is a chance - a slim chance but a chance nonetheless - that over the next two weeks, the Government could be persuaded that it should back off on the Governance Initiative. It would be to the Government's credit if it would instruct the Minister to rise in the House and say, "Mr. Speaker, we're going back to the drawing board with the Governance Initiative. We're going to clear the table, start afresh, and we're going to work on this together with First Nations people."

How can we persuade government to go back to the drawing board? Well, to start with, we can urge Liberal members to raise the issue in caucus, Opposition members to raise the issue in the House. We can remind government that many First Nations people do vote, and there will an election before too long.

We can urge influential Canadians - church leaders, labour leaders, opinion makers, to join us in asking the Government to hold off.

We can advise government what lies ahead if it persists in advancing its ill-advised initiative.

This is the first alert in my call to action.

When The Minister rises In the House

But if we are unsuccessful, if the government will not listen to reason, one day about two weeks from now, the Minister will rise in the House of Commons and table his new legislation.

We must be ready for that day. It will be important to fill the public galleries, the Opposition Galleries, even the Liberal gallery, with First Nations people - orderly and respectful of Parliament, of course - but ready to tell the media everything Canada's people need to know about this regressive unacceptable Act.

The opposition leaders will have their opportunity to respond to the Minister - have we ensured they are well briefed about our position?

Once the legislation does see the light of day, we need to be prepared to hit the ground running. We need to give it our most expert analysis, and we need to have a communication network ready to ensure that we are all well informed almost immediately.

The media will let you know what the Minister wants you to hear, but we need to have our own experts look at it, to help us move towards an informed consensus.

We need to be prepared to counter the Minister's claim that he did the best job in history of consulting us.

We can easily demonstrate that by any measure, the consultation process was a dismal failure. It did not meet even the most modest of legal standards.

We need to reject the proposition that our refusal to participate in the consultation process was our own doing, and instead demonstrate that the consultation was so pre-determined our voice could never be heard.

We need to be ready for that day when the Minister rises in the House, and that is the second note in my Call to Action.

There is also a chance the Minister will confuse the issue by introducing at the same time a new Indian Claims Commission and Tribunal. I can't help but be suspicious of both the timing and packaging of this move. We also need to be ready to deal with this.

The Bill Will Go To Committee at First Reading

The Minister is expected to refer the the Bill to the Standing Committee on First Reading. The Committee is expected to hold hearings all across Canada during the Summer, and be ready to report to the House in September.

We should set aside any idea of boycotting the hearings to show our contempt for the government's efforts. We can be much more effective by using the Hearings as a powerful vehicle for public education and to let our voices be heard.

We need to start getting ready now. We need to invite the Committee to meet on our reserves, to see and understand our reality.

Every First Nation, every tribal council, every provincial organization must tell the Committee we want to appear before it.

We must insist the Committee rent very large rooms for the hearings so that hundreds of First Nations people can attend and hear the proceedings, to meet with the members individually to let them know their views.

We must ensure that First Nation people understand the threat the Government's initiative represents to their Treaty rights, to their inherent rights, and that they are able to express their opposition.

We also need to do more than give the Committee our opinion on the Governance Bill.

We must share our vision for our own First Nation - our plan for the education of our children, about economic development, skills training, health, everything important about our future, and what we are doing and want to do to make this our reality.

This is also an excellent opportunity to get across our message that we do not need to waste years working on new legislation to prepare us for self-government, as the Minister wants us to do.

We already have s.35 of the Constitution. We already have the right to govern. Government needs to get out of the way so we can exercise it rather than engineer another barrier.

Would it be possible for every organization across Canada to invite the Committee to join with it to hold joint hearings, Members of Parliament and leaders sitting at the same table? I don=t know how many of you remember, but I was an ex officio member of the Standing Committee when it held hearings on self-government in 1982-83. I sat with Members of Parliament in our hearings and in writing the final report. As the AFN's representative to the committee, I was able to ask the right questions, to help clear up confusion, to ensure that our First Nation vision was front and centre in the committee deliberations. Are we pressing the Committee - now - today - to adopt this progressive policy once again?

This is the third step in my Call to Action.

Welcome, The Queen In Canada

Sometime in September, Parliament will be prorogued. The reason is that in this 50th Jubilee Year of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen will be invited to deliver the Speech from the Throne in October. Every Bill on the Order Paper of the House of Commons will die, including the Minister's Governance Bill.

You may wonder why we should go to all the effort I am recommending if the Bill to be tabled in June doesn't have a chance of passing. We should go to this effort because we can use this opportunity to deliver a powerful educational experience to government and Canada alike.

After Parliament resumes for the Queen=s visit to Ottawa, any government plan to reintroduce the Governance Act will be informed by our efforts.

As First Nations, we have a long history of alliance and friendship with the British Crown. We defended the Crown. We agreed to share our lands with the Crown=s people.Many parts of Canada would not be Canadian today if it had not been for our relationship with the Crown.

Knowing that the Queen will be in Canada this fall, we need to make sure we have the opportunity to make our concerns known to her.

We cannot wait until her arrival to make arrangements, so this is the another part of my call for Action.

The last part of this Call to Action is throughout our entire campaign we let government know that if the day should ever come that it is successful in unilaterally passing a new Indian Act, the Crown can anticipate firm and sustained opposition right from Day One.

We should be prepared to be in Court the same afternoon the Act is passed, urging that it be blocked from being proclaimed and implemented on the ground that our aboriginal and Treaty rights have been violated, that the obligation of the government to consult with us was breached, and so on.

It is with both a feeling of determination and sadness that I set this Call for Action before you.

I am determined because I believe the government is fundamentally wrong.

I am sad because all the energy we will all put towards this lengthy struggle - and all the energy and money the government will spend to oppose us - will not make our communities better, nor build any houses, not keep our people healthy.

We do not engage ourselves in this struggle by choice, but rather out of a sense of responsibility .

Our reason for rejecting the Governance Initiative is that it doesn't move us one centimeter closer to a more productive relationship with the Crown.

It takes us backward, not forwards.

Looking For Signals From Government

We have to take the high ground in this struggle by going beyond mere opposition and call upon Canada to take two bold steps to signal to us that it is prepared to break from its colonial habits and work with us to build a positive relationship, to agree that it is willing to be publicly accountable for its actions and the health of its relationship with First Nations people.

Those signals are contained in the Penner Report accepted by Parliament and government 19 years ago.

The first signal we ask from the government is that a Minister of State for First Nations Relations be established, handled by a senior minister and closely connected with the Prime Minister's office.

This would be an ideal means through which the Ministerial Reference Group could break loose from its wheel-spinning ruts and implement the policy goals set out in the Speech from the Throne 16 months ago.

That announcement could be made by the Prime Minister this afternoon, it's that easy to do. We can work out the details together.

Let's ask the Prime Minister for that signal.

The other signal we should seek is an announcement that the government will ask Parliament to establish a Parliamentary Commissioner on First Nation issues an Ombudsman to investigate complaints about government actions and omissions and to report to Parliament annually.

That signal the government is willing to be held accountable for its relationship with First Nations can also be made right away. We can work out the details - together.

Let's get to work now on a Declaration of this Assembly to call for these signals from government - we can present our Declaration at the close of this Assembly.

Our Own Pro-Active Agenda

I wish I could say that if we respond to that call to action, we will have done our duty. But reacting to the Government=s agenda is not enough. We have to become pro-active on our own agenda.

Is there a First Nations agenda? National Chief Coon Come has set out the long-range agenda which we have been pursuing and on which we need to continue moving. A shorter term agenda is to use the next twelve months to deal with accountability in our own way.

Let's start by acknowledging that there is a need for us to improve accountability. What else would one expect after a century of an Indian Act which held chiefs and councils accountable only to the Indian Agent? The last thing the government wanted then were chiefs and councillors accountable to their own people.

We also know there are accountability problems caused by under-funding. But why wait for the Governance Act to force us to do things we can and should do for ourselves? Some of us are already taking positive action. If we=re telling the Minister we have the solutions and he=s not talking to us, why not just implement them?

We can create our own Ombudsman, our own human rights commissions, at a local, tribal council, regional, treaty area, or provincial level - so let's do it!

Another pro-active move is to get moving on those parts of the Royal Commission Report and the Penner Report we find acceptable.

It is our responsibility to keep these recommendations alive, to implement for ourselves those recommendations which do not require government.

We are the only ones who can make this happen. We can be sustained by our accomplishments, by remembering our successes when we put our minds and hearts to realize our goals.

Revitalizing Our Spirits and Strength

Within our lifetimes, we have seen the results of visionary action. We were able to convince Canada that its Constitution should recognize and affirm our rights. Our leaders sat with the Premiers at First Ministers' Conferences.

We have to revitalize our spirits, to regain the spirit and strength we showed in the days of the Constitutional Express, in the days of the First Ministers' Conferences.

We have to insist upon the exercise of political will --both by government,and by ourselves.

We have to implement a -change agenda- of renewed relationships, fresh thinking, new institutions. We have to move away from thinking we can just issue demands and the government will jump. We have to start saying, 'We will . . . and We are . . . and We commit ourselves to . . .'

We can use the international landscape to our advantage.

But we, just as much as government, have to break from an unhealthy past and take control of our future. We don=t need government=s permission to do it.

We have been given a proud foundation on which to stand.

We have the leaders of a century and more ago - but we also have the leadership of Deskaheh, of George Manuel - there are some inspiring leaders right here today.

Let's be ambitious, committed and creative -- but also let's be realistic.

Let's keep our ideals intact, but let' be practical. Let's concentrate on what we can do - now. Here.

Thank you for listening to this call to action. Those are my words. I put them in your minds and heart.

NOTES FOR REMARKS by Chief Roberta Jamieson
TAKING CHARGE, TAKING ACTION
National Forum on Protection of Treaty & Inherent Rights
Winnipeg, Manitoba, 12 March 2002

Sago! Ahneen! Tansi! Ho Han! Bon jour! Greetings! Thanks to the Chiefs of Manitoba for taking the lead role in calling this gathering together.

Yesterday was an interesting day, and it is clear we have a challenging time ahead of us. Right here at this conference, we have seen our own wide range of reactions: frustration, anger, a feeling of powerlessness, despair, even denial all this is happening. Some hope all this will just go away, while others are gearing up for a hot summer. Some are asking where is the , where do I sign? it's inevitable anyhow, isn't it? they say we might as well go for it.

These are all natural reactions to this mysterious Great Ottawa Creature rolling slowly out of the mists toward us, gradually taking shape before our eyes, and which we believe will affect our lives so profoundly.

We are so very good at reacting, aren't we?

Roller-Coaster Riding With the Morphing Creature

We have been together on this roller-coaster ride with this Morphing Creature for the last three decades from the low point of the 1969 White Paper to the peaks of near-accomplishment in the 1980s and now almost in free-fall toward what looks to be the same depths we were in during the 1960s.

My question to you, however, is not about how we are going to react to all this noise from Ottawa. There will be court actions and marches and protests and confrontations, if recent history is any guide. There will be angry speeches and letters. But all of that is in reaction to Ottawa I've been there myself, and I'm willing to go there again if need be.

People need to do what they feel is right, but that's not what I want to dialogue with you about.

What I do want to talk about is what I think we need to be doing pro-actively.

Yes, about our pro-active agenda. Or has the government's ballyhoo and dance behind the buckskin curtain distracted us from our own agenda?

Maybe. Maybe, but really let's be honest what was our agenda before all this happened? What was and is our vision? What are the things we should be doing now, regardless of what the government does?

Surely we don't want government to develop our own vision, to suggest our own agenda! But I'm not so sure we're addressing it ourselves. In fact, I ask you to think over this proposition that we aren't much ahead of the government when it comes to having consensus on a coherent agenda for action, to know what it is that we're doing.

We might be able to stop them, but then where do we go? Surely we can't blame government for our own policy vacuum we have to accept that responsibility for ourselves.

And that's what I want to deal with today how do we know where it is we want to go, and taking responsibility for getting us there.

Let's start with the so-called governance legislation. I'm prepared to be surprised, but history has taught us a bitter lesson that Ottawa alone cannot give us something we can live with.

Hitting The Ground Running

We already know that, but once the legislation does see the light of day, let's be prepared to hit the ground running. We need to give it our most expert analysis, then decide what to do with it.

Next, we can be sure there will be Parliamentary hearings both in the House and the Senate about the new legislation. We should be gearing up for them now!

I have been delighted to see that the Penner Report of 1983 is still a shining beacon for us to follow it continues to be a much more solid roadmap to the future than anything I have heard recently from Ottawa. Still twenty years later, I think that report is the most concise starting point that is out there we wouldn't go wrong if we once again adopted it as our agenda and moved it forward.

I don't know how many of you remember, but I was an ex officio member of that committee and sat with the Members of Parliament in our hearings and in writing the final report. This report was unanimously adopted by all political parties and was essentially accepted in the government=s official response.

We should start now to push the Standing Committee which will be conducting hearings this summer to have a First Nation representative sitting with M Ps, as I did in 1983. As the AFN's representative to the committee, I was able to ask the right questions, to help clear up confusion, to ensure that our First Nation vision was front and centre in the committee deliberations. That's one agenda item we can start working on now -- an ex officio member of the Standing Committee. Is there someone here who can start working on that?

We also have an excellent opportunity to influence the legislation because it will be sent to Committee after First Reading. In 1969, the White Paper went to Committee at First Reading and we know what happened to that. When government is sure where it's headed, it sends a Bill to Committee after second reading. Then, all the principles are locked in, and can't be changed a Committee can only recommend minor adjustments. But when it wants wide public discussion before it makes final decisions, it moves a Bill to Committee after First Reading.

That's what the government has told the Minister to do send it to the Committee at First Reading we have an opportunity here to reshape the Bill with recommendations for second Reading or even to have an entirely new Bill introduced.

So on the pro-active agenda: let's get ready to give this Bill very intense scrutiny, and let's start to get ready now. Then, let's be ready to offer options and alternatives.

Let's be thinking of what we are going to reply when Committee members ask us if we don't think we'd be better off if we would turn our reserves into privately held real estate? Can we find a constructive way of educating others on issues such as these? As well, let's not limit our comments just to M Ps let's be prepared to take our message, our analysis to churches, service clubs, universities to the people who elect M Ps.

Will We Tell Them Of Our Vision?

When the committee does come through your area, what is it that you will tell them? What is your vision for the education of your children? For the administration of your community? For economic development and skills training? For the future of your First Nation? Isn't that what we should be telling Parliament when it comes around, rather than waiting for the Minister's plan to be published so we can react to it?

Are there people here who can start now to work on getting our vision in shape so we can start now to sell it to Canada?

Sounds obvious, but . . . the reason I mention it is that we didn=t seem to do that with the current so-called consultations on Governance. The consultations during the last half of 2001 were doomed to fail from Day One. They were poorly conceived, and DIAND officials now admit the results are useless one way or the other.

But where were we on our consultations, the ones we could have designed and conducted? When we first heard about the initiatives, why didn't we organize consultations among our people? We could have obtained the results, analyzed them objectively, and prepared a package which we could have used to gain support from a broad spectrum of the Canadian public, and together we could have gone to the Government. It=s not too late, you know. We still could have something ready for the autumn.

And I am wondering there are some First Nations who have gone for the bait and are buying into the government's dream-machine. Are there friendly ways we can discuss that with them? Educate, persuade, convince, counter the propaganda? Members of Parliament do this all the time why shouldn't we?

There is another area which should be on our pro-active agenda. The situation is this. With very little opposition from us, we have let a firestorm of stereotypes sweep across the country into the public's consciousness, including calls to do away with reserves entirely. Make them move to the cities and get jobs! If First Nations leaders weren't so corrupt, they say, there would be no poverty on the reserves.

Dealing With Simple Jingoistic Colonial Thinking

This is the kind of simplistic jingoistic thinking that is behind the government's fixation on a new Governance Act as its contribution to the legacy of colonial thinking. Sure too often there is a lack of accountability out there. What else would one expect of a century of an Indian Act which held chiefs and councils accountable only to the Indian Agent and his successors? The last thing the government wanted then were chiefs and councillors accountable to their own people.

This is where my pro-active thinking kicks in. Why are we waiting for a Governance Act to force us to do things which we can do for ourselves? We know there is a need for greater transparency and accountability. But the answer is not more legislation cut from the cloth of colonialism, put forward by a Department itself unwilling to be held accountable or to accept responsibility for the measures it insists our communities adopt, unwilling to adopt for itself the same standards it wishes to impose on us.

We say publicly, The answer to any governance problems which we may have should lie with the First Nations, with us. So why haven't we done it then?

One reason why not is that we had the expectation that we would see movement on all the recommendations in all those reports before government. We come from a relationship which has diminished initiative. We grow weary from spending so much energy and money in reacting to government's latest round of initiatives.

But if we know there are real accountability problems in our communities mostly related to under-funding and well over a century of colonial control why don't we be proactive in establishing or reestablishing our own accountability institutions instead of waiting for the Minister and a new Act?

We can create our own Ombudsman at a local, tribal council, regional, treaty area, or provincial level why don't we? We can have our own human rights commissions, our own electoral officers. Why look to the Government of Canada to compel us to do something when we already see the need and can take steps to address these issues for ourselves?

The expertise to create these institutions is right here in this room in fact, there are several First Nations who have already taken these moves.

They have been ahead of the rest and the more of us who join them in being out front, the less ammunition the government will have in promoting its case.

Another item for the pro-active agenda is the Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal People. It sets out an agenda, a vision for our generation. Such a great public vision for our generation! One we could have adjusted to our liking, lobbied for, nurtured, and made it our reality. We could have worked with universities and churches, with the private sector, on those recommendations which applied specifically to them.

The Well-Monied Gathering Strength Tour

Instead, the government bought our silence with the well-monied Gathering Strength tour and we let the government off the hook. Five years later, none of the recommendations leading to a renewed positive relationship of mutual trust with Canada have been implemented.

But you know, we still aren't too late to do that now. Just last week, Georges Erasmus said in a Vancouver lecture the time has come to move forward on the RCAP recommendations. Is this on our own agenda keeping the RCAP recommendations alive and starting to implement them? Which recommendations can we implement without waiting for government? And by the way do we know what the recommendations are? Maybe that would be a good starting point B a re-read might increase our enthusiasm and commitment.

I hope we're not too cynical to keep us from action. Mind you, there is every reason for us to be cynical, frustrated, disillusioned, tired. But we simply cannot afford to indulge those thoughts.

Neither we nor Canadians can fail to meet the challenge we face to develop an honest, respectful relationship through which we can flourish and fulfil our rich human potential. That is a challenge which will never go away until we meet it. We can encourage each other to meet the challenge.

We need to remember our accomplishments when we put our minds and hearts to the task. Within our lifetimes, we have seen the results of visionary action. We were able to convince Canada that the Constitution of Canada should recognize and affirm our rights. Our leaders sat with the Premiers at First Ministers Conferences. We had the public=s attention, for sure. There was the mixed blessing of Charlottetown, the mixed blessing of Oka but something we can build on in both cases.

We have seen our persistence pay off with Supreme Court decisions such as Calder, Guerin, Sparrow, Delgamuukw and Marshall, dramatically altered the legal landscape by recognizing rights we had always asserted. New hopes were kindled just last week with Haida and Benoit on Treaty 8 taxation. Two years ago there was the great Senate Report on Forging Relationships.

Strange, isn't it, in our crisis-oriented worlds as First Nations political leaders, mention of these comparatively recent landmark events already sounds like ancient history. Perhaps that is because all this has just disappeared from the public agenda, slowly slipping under the table after the initial hurrah of the media releases.

But how do we let this happen? I don=t think any of us ever thought that all those inspiring reports and recommendations could have just disappeared, almost without notice, and today be so very, very invisible on the public agenda.

We have all underestimated what we were and are up against. We underestimated how deeply rooted, how firmly entrenched in modern Canada were the values and attitudes brought here by those who colonized our lands and people. We underestimated the degree to which institutionalized racism permeated politics, business, and yes, law. We did not realize the degree to which both politics and the bureaucratic system are capable of rationalizing any status quo, able to see progress when we see only regression.

Unilateral Action For Our Gradual Civilization

We did not realize just how dearly held is the belief of those in Ottawa who still govern Indian Affairs that they can unilaterally determine what is best for us, the degree to which they are willing to act unilaterally to bring about our gradual civilization.

Our assumptions that governments would seize the opportunity afforded by bold new judicial thinking turned out to be naive.

We tend to personalize and demonize a Minister or a bureaucrat as being the villain in all this. Really, it is a massive system which we are up against, one which fools us into thinking it's the fault of just one or two persons.

But either way what I am asking is if we knew when those reports were being tabled that our visions would have been covered by bureaucratic dust, what is it we would have done? What would our agenda have been to have prevented it from happening? And now we know that is precisely what happens, what is our agenda now?

The remarks of the Chief Justice last month about our people being conquered by the British is an indication of how far we have yet to go to educate Canadians on their own history. The fact is that had it not been for the Six Nations and other allies, Ottawa would be a part of New York and had it not been for the Ojibway and Dakota here, this meeting would be here in Winnipeg, North Dakota.

We must take considerable responsibility for allowing Canadians to be so ignorant about us. We have been shy-some would say slow- to move ahead on a steady program which will educate teachers, jurists, politicians, the public about their own history, which will help them to appreciate our vision for sharing Canada with them.

I was delighted to see Judge Campbell chastise the racist and divisive position of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation in the Treaty 8 case as misguided, ill-informed, and inflammatory. I wondered, what are our responsibilities to help all judges, police, and correctional officers everywhere to develop positive attitudes and broad knowledge?

Blind-sided By The Avalanche

I have another worry which requires a proactive response. We must move beyond reacting solely to the bugaboo of the federal governance initiative. This may cause us to be blind-sided by the avalanche of other changes which Ottawa plans to reveal to us in the next few months. Really, the governance initiative is like the visible part of the iceberg and the rest lies below the surface.

Let's talk about this still out-of-sight agenda.. We can expect pressures for own source funding, or OSR as it is known in Ottawa jargon. That means letting the government off the hook for providing us with our share of what it provides other Canadians, as well as what it is obligated to provide.

There is talk about eliminating funding of research for claims is this time for us to form a Legal Fund to allocate promising claims in exchange for a payback to keep that fund replenished? Maybe we could invest a small percentage of claims awards for that purpose.

What else is below the surface in Ottawa? There are actually five different pieces of legislation, including the setting up of new national institutions, a new claims body, maybe even a new National Indian Education Act.

You also may know about the Ministers= Reference Group which was set up to develop a Quality of Life Agenda for us. Canadians were told in last year's Speech from the Throne that the government must and is prepared to act to address the social and economic conditions of aboriginal peoples. We were promised This commitment will be reflected in all the Government's priorities. This followed the Prime Minister's personal commitment in Toronto December 6, 2000, to tackle conditions of poverty in First Nations communities .

And so the Reference Group was set up to put life into the promise. While this group of ministers needs all the help it can get, in fact it is working in ivory tower isolation. It's been totally confused by the bureaucrats, who tell them that existing processes don't work and are difficult to fix, yet making fundamental changes is not all that easy either.

Putting thing in order in the box, as they say in Ottawa, has to be accompanied by moves outside the box in other words, fresh ideas.

The trouble is, they seem to be closed in by another box. For strange reasons, they also are intent upon solving the situation from scratch, ignoring all the recommendations in those dust-covered reports. The Penner Committee recommendations are not on the agenda. Neither are the Royal Commission recommendations.

Another monumental problem the Ministers face is they=ve waited too long the accumulation of need is truly overwhelming. During the past few years when record surpluses were accumulated, the federal and provincial governments have successfully avoided taking decisive steps to address the conditions which are all-to-common in our communities and amongst our people in the urban centers.

This failure to act didn't just happen. It is the result of a long and continuing history of denial of rights, of discrimination, of benign neglect, of second and third-class services, of failure on the part of government to fulfil its duties, of taking too much of our resources and leaving too little for our survival.

To defend itself, government has successfully promoted public image about the billion of dollars being spent on us, and we just aren't giving results.

The new Reference Group of Ministers is swimming against this strong current of long-standing indifference while being weighted down with monumental inertia.

Even though it seems to acknowledge that our situation in Canada is unacceptable and must be addressed, the Reference Group, like most Canadians, seems to remain confused about the best way to redress the situation, and they are frustrated that nothing the government does seems to make any difference.

Can we get it through to Ottawa that the course that has been set in motion is nothing more than another colonial imposition, rather than the forging of a new relationship?

A word of caution: if we speak to the Government=' agenda, it will be considered to be consultation. If we speak to our own agenda, it will be the government who will have to be consulted and we should make that clear in our presentations.

Reinventing the Wheel And Then Spinning in the Rut

Can we let Ministers know they don't need to reinvent the wheel and spin in the rut when we could be working together to resolve critical problems?

I think we have to break the curtain of secrecy and offer to help that Ministerial Reference Group. A relationship cannot be built unilaterally. Given the historic gap between promise and deed, between intent and result, if the Prime Minister and the government as a whole want to see their public commitments honoured, they must be prepared to make a dramatic shift in their approach.

That shift has to do mostly with the way the federal government regards us, the attitude it has towards us, the manner in which it relates to us. It also has to do with both ourselves and government spending strategically to support innovation, creativity and new institutions.

Isn't that what all the Commissions and reports have been telling Canadians for so long?

To a strategic thinker, all this spells opportunity. But . . . now. Now is the time for us to act!

Now, before any new blueprint is finalized. Now, when our guidance is needed and might be welcomed.

Now when our experience can connect the promises with practical steps needed to make good on them.

We have to hold out high expectations for government. We have to insist upon the exercise of political will.

We have to implement a change agenda of renewed relationships, fresh thinking, new institutions. We have to move away from thinking we can just issue demands and the government will react.

When are we going to say, We will . . . and We are . . . and We commit ourselves to . . . instead of, We demand that or You can't do this to us.

These are some of our tasks and yes, I do realize how complex and difficult they are. I also know that we can in our generation meet the challenge to use our skills as lawyers, negotiators, mediators, persuaders, diplomats, politicians, elders to encourage others to work together with us to create a healthy relationship in which Canada meets its fiduciary responsibilities.

We can fulfil the opportunity to use the international landscape to our advantage.

We can create the political and bureaucratic infrastructure from which we can act.

We can make the concept of fiduciary relationship easily understandable for the public at large.

We have the skills to do our part in keeping the relationship healthy.

But we, just as much as government, have to break from an unhealthy past and take on control of our future.

We don't need government's permission to do it.

We all have a role to play in this enterprise the diplomat, the protester, the teacher, the protector, the nurturer, the expert, the leader, the follower. The important thing is that we take with us wherever we are is our commitment and dedication. We can all work together from wherever we are.

Let's support one another in the choices that each one of us makes. Let's be ambitious, committed and creative but also let's be realistic.

Let's keep our ideals intact, but let's be practical. Let's concentrate on what we can do now. Here.

Let's be proactive! Let's take charge! Let's take action! There is still time!

Nya weh. Thank you for listening to my words.

Roberta Jamieson was elected chief at Six Nations on December 8, 2001. She worked with George Manuel in the early days of the National Indian Brotherhood, became the first First Nation woman to become a lawyer, and was the AFN=s representative on the Penner Committee in 1982-83. She was named Indian Commissioner of Ontario, and subsequently became Ombudsman for the Province of Ontario, a position she occupied for the full term of ten years. She was vice-president of the International Ombudsman Institute. Ms. Jamieson has received honorary doctorate degrees from five Canadian universities.

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