My perspective of Treaties in Canada… my belief of the Treaties initially signed by our People has always been based in the histories and oral tradition of our Peoples passed down from many generations through our Fathers and Grand Fathers…sadly, with little and minimal understanding between the two parties…especially on the part of the government… The treaty relationship confers a broader scope of international relations and expresses the self-determination of the First Nations. As I mentioned, First Nation interpretation and understanding of treaties is broad and revolves around the oral agreements made during negotiations. First Nation understanding of Treaties extends to the oral tradition of what was negotiated and agreed upon. Language was a problem and certain changes were made to the Treaties when the non-Indigenous language was used as the sole basis to put the treaty into written form. The oral tradition peoples’ expressions were not taken into consideration or may have been purposely ignored, as there was no consultation with the First Nations to seek accuracy in the translation process as to meanings and interpretations of what was agreed to from each of the treaty signatory’s perspective. In other words, the Government of Canada “wrote” the Treaties and enacted the so-called “agreement” as legislation in Parliament. This school year 2014-2015, we are implementing the Treaties curriculum into our local curriculum and we are going to have teachers teach the students the “facts” about treaties and brainstorm how we can make positive changes for the future. The Treaties curriculum has been strongly recommended to be used as a tool and resource to increase a better understanding of Treaties and how we can improve the standards of life with our people in the future. I am looking forward to leading this very vital initiative for our students in September.
Posted on: Sun, 20 Jul 2014 18:27:11 +0000
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