And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
Date: Thu, 15 Jul 1999 10:00:05 -0400
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
From: Lynne Moss-Sharman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Halifax AFN HEARINGS
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July 15, 1999 Task force listens to native concerns
By REBECCA MacEACHERN -- The Halifax Daily News
An Assembly of First Nations task force looking into national issues of
native and isolation for natives living off-reserve made its last stop
yesterday in Halifax. Natives making presentations to the urban issues task
force at the Mi'kmaq Friendship Centre on Gottingen Street told of
financial hardships, frustrations and the isolation of living away from
their home communities.
"People say I have the best of both worlds, having lived on a reserve and
living in Halifax," said Theresa Morris, a Mi'kmaq from Indian Brook. "But
that's not the case at all - it's just the opposite."
Morris, who is finishing her psychology degree, told the task force she's
been notified by her band council that her $1,200 monthly assistance has
been reduced to $750. "I have a son to support and I am close to finishing
my degree and then I get this letter," she said. "Instead of being rewarded
for trying to better yourself, you end up being punished." The assembly
estimates 45% of its citizens live off-reserve. Noel Knockwood, a language
and cultural instructor at the Mi'kmaq Child Development Centre, said
off-reserve natives are being discriminated against by the federal
government. He said government funding for natives living on reserves has
been cut, forcing natives to move to cities in search of jobs. By doing so,
said Knockwood, natives lose access to valuable services. "We are still on
the band lists, although we chose to exercise those rights within the laws
of the land," he said."The bands continue to accept the money designated to
them under the Indian Act, but they use that money without our permission
and we don't benefit." Knockwood said natives living off reserves want
access to federal funding for education, health and other services.
Peter Manywounds, chairman of the task force, said committee members will
be writing a main report and 11 regional reports later this week, and
presenting them to the assembly in Vancouver next week. When Manywounds
asked for Morris's possible solutions to the problems facing her and other
natives, her response was met with chuckles. "I have a few solutions," she
said. "But none of them are legal."
~o~
July 15, 1999 Local teen startled Travelling across Canada with the
Assembly of First Nations' urban issues task force, Holly McDonald saw some
incredible sights, not all of them pretty. "I was in Vancouver and I saw
all these natives living on the streets," said the 19-year-old Mi'kmaq.
"Until then, I never even knew there were homeless natives." McDonald, of
Dartmouth, was asked by the director of Mi'kmaq Friendship Centre to join
the task force earlier this year. "I guess they were looking for someone
young to be on it," said McDonald. "I was shocked when they picked me." She
went to 11 cities across Canada to hear people her age talk about their
lives off reserves. She said some of the most shocking stories were about
drug and alcohol abuse and suicide among her peers."Yellowknife has the
highest rate of suicide among natives 15 to 24 in all of Canada," she said.
"We listened to a drug and alcohol counsellor tell us about kids who would
be knocking at his door in the middle of the night to ask to sleep on his
floor. What I saw has really made me think about things. I realize now how
lucky I am and I'm so grateful for what I have." McDonald's mother, Freda,
who attended the task force session in Halifax, said her daughter has
"really changed, she's become so passionate about the issues. I am so proud
of her. This has really changed her life." Before she joined the task
force, McDonald was helping at a local day-care centre, unsure about plans
for the future. But her mom thinks McDonald has a better idea now about her
future. "I can see it, she's going to beome an activist for her people and
I think she'll be great."
"Let Us Consider The Human Brain As
A Very Complex Photographic Plate"
1957 G.H. Estabrooks
www.angelfire.com/mn/mcap/bc.html
FOR K A R E N #01182
who died fighting 4/23/99
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
www.aches-mc.org
807-622-5407
Reprinted under the Fair Use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html
doctrine of international copyright law.
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Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit)
Unenh onhwa' Awayaton
http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/
UPDATES: CAMP JUSTICE
http://shell.webbernet.net/~ishgooda/oglala/
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