Expo may be focus of Native protest

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VANCOUVER - Expo hype is growing. Vancouver stores are busily cleaning and redecorating, hotels are raising rates and clearing out their regular residents, and the rattling skytrain is keeping Vancouverites awake at night.

However, despite the glitter and glitz, many visitors are already asking why there is no pavilion for the original peoples of this land.

Canada's last exposition held in Montreal in 1967 had a Native pavilion which was funded by the Department of Indian Affairs. But it appears the department was not prepared to fund a pavilion in Vancouver.

"A plan for a Native pavilion was made," says Pauline Douglas, co-author of a new book called "The Expo Story," which she says, will uncover the true story of Expo. The book is due to be released shortly before the opening May 2.

"The pavilion had the backing of Expo officials, and Vancouver City Hall was going to provide money for 25 years. This was going to be a long-term project to publicize Native people and their culture," said Douglas.

Chief Earl Smith of the Ehattesheht Band on Vancouver Island, who was the financial chairman of the ill-fated pavilion, is bitter and angry over the federal government's decision not to fund the pavilion.

"It would have been a great idea," he says. "But the decision (not to fund) was purely political...somebody go to the ministers," he said.

Smith worked for almost three years before his plan was finally turned down by the department, who he says, said they could not provide funds for capital projects off reserve lands and that the group did not have the co-operation of the Indian people across Canada.

"I talked to everyone in the department from Crombie to the chairlady, but it didn't get me anywhere," he added. However, although the conflict appears to be between the B.C. Indian groups and the federal government, Douglas says the issue is much more complicated than that.

"There is a battle between the (B.C.) province and the Indian groups," she says. "The northwest coast Indian groups didn't want to be part of (Premier Bill) Bennett's party because of Indian land claims. It's getting bitterer and bitterer," she said.

Some Indian nations are considering boycotting the fair. One group is the Haida nation, who came under the spotlight recently for blocking a logging road on their traditional land in the Queen Charlotte Islands.

However, many analysts say this tactic would fall right into Premier Bennett's game plan which is to whittle away B.C. Indian land claims by declaring their lifestyle and culture part of the past. If there is no visible presence of B.C. Indians at Expo, this would only confirm Bennett's assertion that B.C. Indians are no longer separate from mainstream society.

"Let's face it, if the Haida boycott, who will care?" asks Expo folklife pavilion organizer, Gary Crystall.

"We have so many other groups across Canada trying to get a spot in the pavilion that we could easily fill any cancellations," said Crystall.

Crystall points out that with all the Expo hype, many people are not aware of the Haida situation and are not likely to be because the eyes of the world will be focused on Prince Charles and Princess Diana, who will be opening the fair, rather than the empty canoe.

Native groups will be represented in the Folk Life pavilion which showcases various Canadian cultural groups, says Crystall. These cultural groups include Japanese cuisine, Caribbean drum dancing and French Canadian week, he added.

Haida Chief Miles Richardson says there has been no decision on a boycott as yet. However, in a recent speech he pointed out that according to Expo pamphlets, visitors to the fair can see the "once rich and colorful" B.C. Indian culture in local museums.

"I want to tell everyone that Haida Indians and all Indians are alive and well and living in Canada," he said.

However, with no Native showcase, with Native people relegated to a cultural pavilion and little, or perhaps no, input from B.C Indian nations, many people might join Premier Bennett in saying that Indian culture should join the Mayan, Aztec and Ancient Egyptian collections in local museums