Melissa Daniels, a member of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, wanted her Indigenous culture to be an integral part of her call to the bar. She also wanted to highlight the strength and leadership of Aboriginal women. These goals led to a ceremony that was steeped in tradition for family and colleagues who gathered in an Edmonton courtroom this past summer.

As Karen Pheasant’s supporters sat around tables and booths at Glen’s Sports Grill and Pub waiting for Edmonton School Board results to be flashed across the large TV screen on Oct. 21, campaign advisor Lewis Cardinal was getting the results on his Smart phone. It was to a subdued crowd that he showed the bar graphs that consistently placed Pheasant fourth out of four candidates in Ward C.

Over 100 women, children and men marched down Stephen Avenue to Olympic Plaza on Oct. 4, many carrying placards with photographs of lost loved ones, and drumming in the annual peaceful protest that showed solidarity for the over 600 Aboriginal women who have been murdered or gone missing across the country. They were part of a movement of over 200 vigils that took place nation-wide, a number that grows each year as awareness spreads from community to community.

Robert Hayes, Senior Vice President, Alberta Division, BMO Bank of Montreal (left) presents a cheque to Mount Royal University President David Docherty to support Aboriginal students throughout their time at Mount Royal. (Photo: provided)

Aboriginal students ensured success with ongoing support

Rally to protest Edmonton Public School cuts

Cuts by Edmonton Public Schools of three Aboriginal liaison positions were among the reasons protestors took to the streets at a recent Idle No More rally. “The Aboriginal liaisons play a key role in every school, and even so much so that a lot of kids won’t even want to go to school if there is no Aboriginal liaison there,” said rally organizer Alana Boysis. Parents say the absence of the three positions will have an impact on Aboriginal students.

Land guarantees and promises for the future prompted Tsuu T’ina residents to give the Calgary ring road the go-ahead.
On Oct. 24, 644 Nation members voted in favour of swapping their land for provincial Crown land along with a monetary settlement from the province.

“If this had been just about the road it never would have been approved,” said Tsuu T’ina Chief Roy Whitney, speaking the day after 993 ballots were cast. “(Members) voted for a better, more secure future for their children and grandchildren and great grandchildren.”

The emotion was thick in Lorraine Cutarm’s voice and in the room as the grieving mother relayed how she lost one son and had another injured at the hands of the RCMP.

“This all comes from my heart,” she said in a shaking voice to United Nations Special Rapporteur James Anaya when he stopped in Hobbema on Oct. 11 during his whirlwind eight-day tour of Canada. She said her family advised her she wasn’t ready to speak but she had to. “I need to be heard. I need to know is anything ever going to change?”

The land rights battle of Elsipogtog can be felt right here in Alberta.

 “Like our Mi’kmaq brothers and sisters out east, our nations and the nations in northeastern Alberta are facing annihilation of their traditional territory and homelands to industrial development,” said activist Eriel Tchekwie Deranger, a member of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation. “What happened out east is a representation of the inequality our people face, not just out east but across Canada and across Turtle Island.”

Denise Montour and Tina Wolfe, both of whom reside on the Maskwacis Cree Nation, were among the 200 or so people to fill the gymnasium at Ermineskin school, in Hobbema, on Oct. 11 to listen to presentations made to United Nations Special Rapporteur James Anaya. Both women are wary about the impact Anaya’s report will have on living conditions for Aboriginal people in Canada.

Being granted the opportunity to be heard is not about setting legal precedent, it’s about doing what is best for Fort McKay First Nation traditional territory.