Media attention focuses spotlight on plight of Innu

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The plight of the Inn at Davis Inlet once again brought attention to the issue of Native rights and the deplorable conditions many aboriginals find themselves living in.

The conditions that the 500 residents in the remote northern community endure

are frightening.

They've been moved off their traditional hunting grounds, shunted around the province over a period of almost 50 years and now live on the edge of a desolate, rocky island where self-sufficiency is all but impossible.

The community's current crisis is nothing new. Since 1967, they have lived without a supply of clean drinking water or proper sewage treatment.

The absence of game forced them to abandon traditional hunting practices.

Constant appeals to the government for practical relocation to the mainland

have gone unheeded. Substance abuse, violence, poverty and unemployment have

gone untreated for lack of government funding.

The situation changed, however, when the Innu became the focus of media attention last month. When six teenagers were found high on gas fumes and considering suicide as a coping option, the press jumped on the story. When five more were found sniffing solvents the following week, the press dug in at Davis Inlet like an occupying army.

All of a sudden, Canadian, provincial and Native government officials were in

there as well. Some were seeking the opportunity to further their cause, while others

were looking to do as much damage control as they could.

As a result of this melee, Davis Inlet residents may escape the nightmares they have lived for decades. Their children will be counselled for their addiction at Poundmaker's Lodge near Edmonton and workers from the Nechi Centre will go to the inlet to help everyone else.

Maggie Hodgson, executive director of the Nechi Centre, made note of the media's responsibility in the whole affair during a presss conference last week.

Her first words to the assembled journalists were about their responsibility to the subjects of the story, not the audience who pays the bills. Journalists were the ones who brought the plight of Davis Inlet to national attention and they should not abandon the story when it loses its sensational angle.

As with the Oka crisis three summers ago, the plight of Natives never appears to be of importance to governments (or even the average Canadian) until the media takes some interest. The media takes interest when it knows it can sell the story.

In the case of Oka, the cameras showed up when the guns came out. In Davis Inlet, the press arrived only after children were willing to kill themselves to escape their circumstances. Sensational events prompted sensational responses.

When the smoke finally clears over Davis Inlet, when the blame has been properly laid and the immediate crisis is over, the mainstream media will more than likely ignore Hodgson's advice and move on to the next story of the week.

As with the Oka of Kanesatake and the Lubicon of northern Alberta, the Innu

of Davis Inlet will likely be forgotten until the press hears about the next set of children willing to die to opt out.