Page 5 Chatter - June

IS IT A CASE OF A REPENTANT THIEF?

Six First Nations artifacts were returned to the Tomahawk restaurant in North Vancouver in May two decades after they were stolen. CTV in British Columbia is reporting that restaurant owner Charles Chamberlain had thought he’d never see the pieces again after they were removed from his establishment during a break-in 20 years ago. RCMP said an unidentified man in his mid-thirties made two trips into the restaurant, placing the stolen items on the front desk. Chamberlain was in the kitchen at the time, and a waitress said that it wasn’t unusual to her because people were always dropping such items off for the owner. His family is widely known for their collection. Police hope to speak to the person who returned the items. They’re asking for anyone with information to come forward.
“My mouth fell open,” Chamberlain told CTV News. “I just stared and couldn’t believe what I was looking at.”
He’s not interested in pressing charges, glad just to have his artifacts back. There are still items missing, however, from the night of the robbery. Chamberlain’s hoping they too will be returned.
“It would be nice for the rest of it to come home too.”

TREATY 5 IS 100 YEARS OLD,

and seven Nishnawbe Aski Nations celebrated with Assembly of First Nations National Chief Shawn Atleo in Thunder Bay, Ont. May 12. Atleo called on Canadians to help in the effort to get governments to recognize the legal and moral obligations of treaty rights, reports tbnewswatch.com. “What’s been happening in this country in the last number of years is we’re clogging up the courts, battling it out,” said Atleo of the struggle to encourage Canada to live up to its treaty promises. “It’s been conflict-filled on the ground and it will continue to be so until we really come to resolve and reconcile the original treaty spirit and intent in a modern context and there’s every reason why we should be able to do that.” Nishnawbe Aski Nation Grand Chief Stan Beardy said Treaty 5, signed with the Crown in 1910, was a document designed to allow for peaceful co-existence between first peoples and the settler populations, and, most importantly, it was designed so that all could benefit from the natural resources.

CELEBRATIONS TOOK PLACE IN

New Aiyansh, B.C. in the Nass Valley on May 11. The occasion was the 10th anniversary of the Nisga’a Final Agreement, the first modern-day treaty in the province. The agreement was negotiated outside of the BC Treaty Process. Within the process there have only been two other treaties successfully negotiated. The Tsawwassen agreement, which came into effect on April 3, 2009, and the Maa-nulth treaty on Vancouver Island, which comes into effect on April 1, 2011.
Mitchell Stevens, the new president of the Nisga’a Lisims Government, said the agreement was a good one for his people, though some still argue that assertion. CBC quotes Ginger Gosnell-Myers, a Nisga’a living in the Vancouver area. She said the celebrations marked an important milestone, but progress in the community was not moving along as it should. “I think in the next 10 years, if the progress is the same as the last 10 years, then we’re in a lot of trouble.”
The Nisga’a anniversary celebration took place marking the date of implementation. The agreement was signed in 1998, but not implemented until 2000.
“We have been told many, many times that we have sold out. We’re not going to succeed,” said Stevens. “But here we are today breaking ground, and we’re very excited about it.”

The Associated Press reports that

France has agreed to return 16 mummified Maori heads to New Zealand, “ending years of debate on what to do with the human remains acquired long ago by French museums seeking exotic curiosities.” Collections in dozens of museums around the world contain such remains, obtained often by Westerners in exchange for goods or weapons. Many museums have agreed to return the remains to the Indigenous people of New Zealand, though not all museums have come to such enlightenment. There are worries that the repatriated remains might pose a big problem for some museums by creating a precedent. The Louvre, for example, houses many Egyptian mummies. Those fears have been downplayed by lawmakers who say the return of the heads, once prized for the intricate and traditional tattoos adorning them, is unique to the Maori situation, because the men had been killed to satisfy the collectors.

THE SOU’WESTER REPORTS THAT

A new monument unveiled May 29 in St. Norbert, Man. will remember hundreds of Metis whose graves were destroyed in the area due to years of flooding. The commemoration was initiated by the now late local historian Jeanne Perreault, and spearheaded by Paul Bilodeau, a teacher from the community.
“A Metis woman herself, she wanted to remember the Metis people that were settled in this area before the settlers came,” Bilodeau said of Perreault. “Louis Riel had taken a stand against the government of the day to keep his land for his people and many of his meetings were, in fact, held in St. Norbert.” Bilodeau added.
Field stones collected from St. Labre, Man. make up the monument, and are meant to represent the strength, tenacity and perseverance of the Metis people. Plaques listing all of these names will be placed on the new monument, which was blessed by Archbishop Albert LeGatt.