Cultural drifters shouldn't have a say in government

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Pikiskwe

I know by the time this paper hits the street, Canadians will have made their decision as to the referendum. So anything I write about the question may be redundant. However, I would like to slag one issue that found its way into the Charlottetown accord.

That is the equality of access to aboriginal and treaty rights be recognized and affirmed. My concern is that not all Natives or Indians are culturally Native or Indian.

It may be time for Indian people to decide what it is the accord or any special status may be protecting. Is it just rights or are we protecting a distinctiveness that is something more?

Non-Native society seems to have this obsession with equality of things. I can understand that in some sectors of society this obsession with equality is a necessary and admirable thing. However, with this obsession comes a tunnel vision that tends to see differences between people as inequalities.

How did this notion of equity find its way into aboriginal sections to the Charlottetown accord? I would have thought that the aboriginal drafters of the accord would have seen past the rhetoric and realized the dangers that this notion would have

for aboriginal people.

We must remember that our culture can only be renewed here in North America, or more specifically on those little four-by-six mile parcels of land called reserves that are dotted across this country. We do not have another portion of the globe where our culture flourishes under protected governments like the Europeans.

Has it come to the point where aboriginal culture, language and knowledge is slowly being pushed aside for rights?

I believe that to be a recipient of these rights must entail some responsibilities and these responsibilities should be to promote the survival of Native or Indian people.

Recently being Indian has had more benefits tied to it than it did 20 or even 10 years ago, and as a result a number of cultural drifters have jumped on the Indian wagon. These drifters may have little knowledge or appreciation of Native values and traditions.

I think it is unjust and unfair that they would have the same amount of influence on our government as those who live in traditional communities.

The Charlottetown accord, whether it was ratified or not, did raise some important questions that should be looked at by Indian people.