Good morning, Mr. Speaker. There was a quote that I’d like to do my Member’s statement on. The quote is: “The land is in my blood.” One reason for the lack of understanding between the European people and the Aboriginal people can be traced back to the early world views of Aboriginal humanity. For example, taking care of our elders or taking care of our land. Both are different but yet they are the same.
It is in the European’s view of the natural world that our resources are primary value, quite simply of raw material. In the North we have a wealth of these resources. For example, the discovery of oil in the Sahtu by the Dene people only to have Imperial Oil come in and get rich and give the federal government a share of these riches. We even built a road to pipe this oil out in 1943, now famously called the Canol Oil Project, built by the U.S. and Canadian governments. Just look at the Tlicho traditional territory where a small, shiny rock is being dug up and sold for millions around the world, and I’m not even talking about the Beaufort Sea.
My people are at a crossroads in our thinking as to who we are and why we are and, most importantly, where are we going. These three simple questions to each, ask ourselves when you find these answers, you’re on your way.
The Sahtu is my homeland of my own. We follow the laws of Yamoria and this is told down the Mackenzie Valley. As a matter of fact, our Dene laws are posted in the schools.
The point I’m making is our elders have to fill the roles in our communities by teaching and connecting us to the land. Our elders have reminded us over and over again about our relationship to the land. Our elders are very concerned about our young people. They cry when they see young people hurting themselves and they pray for them. Our elders are our professors, teachers, leaders, counsellors and spiritual guides. They earned their degrees from their years being in school on the land.
As one of our elders said to me as we talked early on when I sobered up, when he knelt down and picked up some dust off the ground and the dust came out of his hand, he said this is the blood of my people, be careful how you walk on this land. We need to put together a policy that will honour our elders by our government in this Assembly. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
