I just came back from the Dene National Assembly, which was my brother Billy Erasmus’ last meeting as the Dene National Chief after thirty years. Can you imagine? Thirty years as the head of the Dene Nation, except for one term when he was the NWT representative to the Assembly of First Nations.
As a person who has been elected as an MLA and as a Band Councilor, I am in awe of Billy’s achievement of being elected 10 times as the Dene National Chief. Ask anybody in politics and they’ll tell you it’s hard enough to get elected once. Eschia!
Norman Yakeleya was elected to replace Billy as the new head of the Dene Nation. He should do a good job, being a former band councilor, chief, and MLA. He is well respected as a hard worker who has the good of the whole Dene Nation at heart.
There were many presentations and speeches to outline Billy’s achievements. Most of them were serious and Billy probably won’t have enough walls to hang up all of the pictures that he received. There were also a lot of laughs.
For instance, one woman from Kakisa said they used to ask Billy, ”How come you have such nice skin” and he used to say “Oil of Olay”. She presented him with a bottle of Oil of Olay. LOL.
Issues Discussed at Assembly
Many leaders spoke to provide the new Dene National Chief with an overview of their main concerns.
One big issue that Norman was continuously told to address was the imbalance in money provided for Dene languages in comparison to French. People wondered why the French, who have a very small population, get more money for their language than all the money for Aboriginal languages combined.
Delegates said this is our homeland and Aboriginal people make up over 50% of the NWT population, yet it’s the French who get their own schools, and government phones are answered in French but not in Aboriginal languages.
People were also passionate in telling how they were treated in residential school, and how important it is to ensure that people are assisted to heal so we can take our rightful place in the NWT. This will be done through counselling, workshops and on the land programs. Well yaaaaaa.
Great concern was expressed about the pollution coming from the south and the dams and development that are causing huge changes in our water levels, including nesting grounds. In fact, a Wood Buffalo National Park study shows how the Park has been drastically affected by less water.
Also, people repeated over and over that education is the future of our young people. They said we need to be “strong like two people”, meaning that we need to be knowledgeable about our culture and speak our languages while also finishing high school and getting degrees and trades. Now you’re talking.
A common thing I heard in discussions with people was, “We do not have enough of our own trained people to fill the positions we have, so we have to hire non-aboriginal people. That has to change.”
Abandoned mine sites are also a huge concern as they are expensive to clean up. For instance, government spent $110 million cleaning up Tundra Mine site, which was owned by Royal Oak. Giant Mine will also cost nearly a billion dollars to deal with the arsenic left behind. Another Royal (Oak) disaster.
The Dene want to know how those people could leave a billion-dollar disaster in the NWT and be allowed to walk free and even try to open other mines here. Not cool man!!
Caribou was brought up many times, including in questions to candidates. People have relied on caribou all their lives and suddenly there’s no caribou to hunt and no caribou in the fridge.
Norman also heard how difficult it is to deal with the GNWT after Devolution, the GNWT land claim through which they got all of our land and they didn’t even have to negotiate with us. Drives people nuts.
And don’t forget the almighty buck. People want infrastructure and program funding to come directly to First Nations instead of going through the GNWT, which they feel takes its cut.
Also, a lot of funding designated for First Nations only goes to southern reserves. For instance, we did not receive two nickels of the $600 million allocated for first Nations housing. We need a concerted effort to get the rules changed so Ministers can get badly needed dollars to us or a separate fund for the north. Well yaaaaa!
Good luck in your new endeavors, Billy. And good luck dealing with all of the issues you heard about, Norman. Fortunately, many leaders said they’re ready to provide you with their support.