Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The people in the Sahtu have always talked about going out on the land. Unfortunately, some of our people end up in correctional institutions. I’ve listened to Colville Lake people, people in Fort Good Hope and Tulita, Deline and Norman Wells. The older people talk about the power of going out on the land and getting healed and being taught.
Unfortunately, this government has only two, I think, on-the-land treatment programs or healing programs or correctional camps that are operating, if not maybe one. People in the Sahtu are saying that and the elders are saying that. Old Jim Perriot, the old former chief, is saying take them on the land, or Chief Charlie Barnaby, the former chief, says take them out on the land. Our elders are saying this for a reason.
Even this morning, I read parts of the book on returning to the teaching by Rupert Ross, who was the assistant Crown attorney at the time. He talked about Aboriginal justice and how that fits into the western concept of justice and corrections, and he’s starting to understand the importance of what the Aboriginal people are saying about taking their people who have done wrong against their own community or the society, and the elders have encouraged them in this complex world to bring them to the land.
I want to say to the people here that the land is our teacher and nature will be doing the teaching. There are things that man has no control over and there are things that man does not have any control at all. No matter how smart we get, whether it be in technology or science, there are things we will never control. God, the Great Creator, carefully protected and hid the control on certain things in the unseen world. There are forces in the unseen world that make sure humans don’t mess things up. The bottom line is, no matter what we do, nature will have the last say. Nature is the teacher. We are the students. May we honour and respect our teacher.
So the people are saying take our people to the land. I tell the Minister: Free my people.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
