LaFontaine-Baldwin Symposium
2002 Lecture

Mr. Georges Erasmus

Aboriginal treaties are often described in legal terms as creating a trust relationship, one that invests the trustee with superior power and greater ethical responsibilities. For Aboriginal people, treaties created a relationship of mutual trust which was sacred and enduring. The bond created was like that of brothers who might have different gifts and follow different paths, but who could be counted on to render assistance to one other in times of need.

Renewing the relationship between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples in Canada is the major theme of the 1996 Report of The Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. The RCAP Report presented a comprehensive set of recommendations to restore a relationship of mutual trust, starting with an acknowledgment of historic wrongs, a ceremonial commitment to renewing the relationship and the establishment of laws and institutions to ensure that commitments would be acted upon.

It is now more than five years since RCAP reported to the Prime Minister and the people of Canada. There is a consensus among Aboriginal people, scholars and activists, that little has changed in the interim. Underlying tensions over lands and treaty rights continue to boil up into open conflict. Litigation on residential schools wends its slow and tortuous way through the courts, bringing satisfaction and closure to no one. The federal Minister of Indian Affairs has unilaterally announced a timetable for consultations and revisions to the Indian Act without regard to the advice of RCAP that Aboriginal consent is essential to a renewed relationship.

In the months following the armed confrontation between Mohawks and Canadian authority at Oka there was an urgent and audible demand from the Canadian public to repair the relationship that had gone visibly wrong. In the decade since Oka that sense of urgency appears to have subsided. Polling data indicate that there is still public support for spending to resolve social problems and, to a lesser degree, support for self-government and cultural survival of Aboriginal peoples. The framing of the questions solicits answers that reinforce a sense of distance and reluctant obligation. Aboriginal people, guided by their traditions, would pose other questions: In this situation, how can we establish good relations? In the circle of our relations, how do we maintain harmony and well-being?

We have not found a way to ignite the imagination of contemporary Canadians with the possibilities represented in Kaswentah, the wampum belt recording 18^th century treaties between the Iroquois and the colonists that has struck a responsive chord with other Aboriginal nations. The Kaswentah shows the wake of two vessels, a First Nations canoe and a European sailing ship, travelling together on the river of life. The peoples represented retain their own identity and autonomy, but they are linked to one another by principles of truth, respect and friendship. The two-row wampum belt is often read as symbol of separateness. In fact it symbolizes a strong, ethical relationship between peoples.

Perhaps one of the impediments to mutual relationship envisioned by Aboriginal peoples is the notion we are an exceptionally needy population.

The picture of needs blocks out a perception of Aboriginal capacity. I suspect that media images of gas-sniffing youth in Davis Inlet are etched in the memories of most adult Canadians. There are other Aboriginal communities where substance abuse and clusters of suicide and suicidal behaviour are of crisis proportions. But there is also evidence from many quarters that Aboriginal people are in the midst of a remarkable resurgence - in education, healing and community wellness, the arts, and economic activity.

Considering the primary importance of children in Aboriginal cultures it is not surprising that education was one of the first sectors where Aboriginal nations and communities moved to re-assert control of their lives. Many schools in First Nations communities are now administered locally, and where possible they incorporate Aboriginal languages and cultural content in the curriculum. More youth are staying in school to complete a high school diploma, though a gap still exists between graduation rates of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal young people. Post-secondary enrolments of registered Indian students have held steady at around 22,500 nationally for the past five years. The most remarkable fact about this group of students is that the largest proportion of them (42%) is over thirty years of age. The pattern is that Aboriginal students leave school as youth and return as adults, often with family responsibilities, to complete academic and vocational credentials.