AFN urges bands to demonstrate

page 2

The Assembly of First Nations is supporting the Lubicon Lake band's boycott of the Calgary Winter Olympic Games and is urging all Indian nations to participate in demonstrations when the Olympic torch passes through or near their reserves.

The assembly says 44 reserves will be crossed by the torch bearers and in a Nov. 18 letter Georges Erasmus, grand chief, gives some advice on how to peacefully demonstrate support for the northern Alberta Cree band.

"The media may ignore you or fail to transmit your message unless it is, in their view, sufficiently newsworthy. Unfortunately, the main criterion for newsworthiness is controversy. If a First Nation's message or the matter it employs to attract the media's attention along the torch run is uninteresting, it will be ignored," said Erasmus.

Erasmus says he has received numerous suggestions on how to attract media attention, including greeting the torch with placards, leaflets or "first nation citizens can run alongside or just ahead or behind the runners displaying symbols of oppression (mouths gagged, hands tied, legs shackled.)"

Also suggested is the holding of an eagle feather in one hand and the torch in the other, or displaying the short message on clothing. "I am sure that you and your people can generate your own creative approaches," says Erasmus.

He is careful to remind Indian nations that neither he, nor the Lubicon band, suggest anyone "block, or stop the relay run, or that citizens of first nations be discouraged from participating in it. Such an approach would likely be counter-productive."

However, Erasmus is aware that Indian people will be criticized for their support because many people think "sports and politics should not be mixed.

"It is a noble thought, but there is little in the current state of world affairs that is not related to politics. It was not so long ago that Alwyn Morris, an Olympic gold medalist and Mohawk from Kahnawake made a symbolic political and cultural gesture when he held an eagle feather high in the air as he stepped on the podium to accept his medal."

Erasmus encloses a list of towns where the torch run is scheduled to pass, as well as a map of the route. In Alberta the torch will pass from the British Columbia border and arrive at Brocket in the Peigan reserve Feb. 5 and then move on to Lethbridge.

From there the run moves to Medicine Hat, Feb. 7; Lloydminster and Fort McMurray, Feb. 8; Fort Vermilion and Grande Prairie, Feb. 9; Namao and Wetaskiwin, Feb. 10; Red Deer, Feb. 11, Airdrie, Feb. 12 and finally Calgary, Feb. 13.