THE STANDING SENATE COMMITTEE ON INDIGENOUS PEOPLES
EVIDENCE
OTTAWA, Wednesday, June 7, 2023
The Standing Senate Committee on Indigenous Peoples met with videoconference this day at 6:48 p.m. [ET] to examine the federal government’s constitutional, treaty, political and legal responsibilities to First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples and any other subject concerning Indigenous Peoples.
Senator Brian Francis (Chair) in the chair.
[Editor’s Note: Portions of the proceedings were presented through an ASL interpreter.]
[English]
The Chair: Honourable senators, I would like to begin by acknowledging that the land on which we gather is the traditional, ancestral and unceded territory of the Anishinaabe Algonquin Nation and is now home to many other First Nations, Métis and Inuit Peoples from across Turtle Island.
I am Mi’kmaq Senator Brian Francis from Epekwitk, also known as Prince Edward Island, and I am the Chair of the Committee on Indigenous Peoples.
Before we begin, I would like to ask everyone in the room to please refrain from leaning in too closely to the microphone or to remove your earpiece when doing so. This will avoid any sound feedback that could negatively impact the committee staff in the room.
I will now ask senators in attendance to introduce themselves by stating their names and province or territory.
Senator Martin: Senator Yonah Martin, British Columbia.
Senator Greenwood: Margo Greenwood, British Columbia, Treaty 6 territory homeland.
Senator LaBoucane-Benson: Patti LaBoucane-Benson. I’m a Métis from Treaty 6 territory in Alberta.
Senator Sorensen: Karen Sorensen, Alberta, Banff National Park, Treaty 7.
Senator D. Patterson: Dennis Patterson, Nunavut.
Senator Coyle: Mary Coyle, Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Mi’kma’ki.
[Translation]
Senator Audette: Kwe. Michèle Audette from Quebec, Nitassinan.
Senator Dupuis: Renée Dupuis, independent senator, Laurentians, Quebec.
[English]
The Chair: Thank you, colleagues.
Today, we are pleased to welcome a number of Indigenous youth from across the country as part of 2023 edition of the Voices of Youth Indigenous Leaders. We will invite each of them to provide opening remarks of up to five minutes, to be followed by a question-and-answer session with committee members.
I would like to introduce our first witness of this meeting. Paula MacDonald is a Saulteaux-Cree deaf woman and member of the Pasqua First Nation in Saskatchewan. Ms. MacDonald will provide opening remarks of up to five minutes, which will be followed by a question-and-answer session with committee members.
[Interpretation]
Paula MacDonald, as an individual: Hello. Thank you for the invitation. I feel this is a unique experience for me to be here.
I just graduated from Indigenous and Canadian Studies at Carleton University. During the course of my studies, I looked for others who identified as deaf and were survivors from Indigenous schools. During the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, I did find one document. There weren’t too many records, but I did find one individual. He was registered as son of Esau Montahugh, but the child’s name was Augustus John Montahugh. He was born in 1890 and attended the Ontario School for the Deaf, which is now at Sir James Whitney in Belleville. He entered the school in 1901. In 1903, he left the school. I wanted to mention this story because I don’t know what the outcome was. Hopefully, in the future we’ll have more resources and be able to find more history around who this deaf child was.
There have been a lot of experiences that I’ve had growing up. I was adopted. I came from a family with a single father. I can see a lot of changes before I joined the family that I live with now. I recall learning American Sign Language when I was seven. Previous to that, I had home signs. I got by with minimal communication. I moved in with a family that was non‑Indigenous, and they were good. I was fortunate to get support and get access to education. But I recall when I finally understood a full sentence, and it was quite some time. My adoptive mother explained about shampooing and showed me a bottle of shampoo and a bar of soap. She gestured to me, don’t use the bar of soap for your hair, which I used to do because I didn’t know that shampoo was for your hair and the bar soap was for your body. My adoptive mother taught me that. That’s when I started to learn about communication. This could impact other Indigenous children, and it’s very personal to me.
With this year’s topic around education, it’s very important, because there are many deaf and hard-of-hearing Indigenous people, but often they aren’t recognized. They might live in an isolated community, and they may be struggling with school. As others have mentioned today, for those of us who are deaf and hard of hearing, we experience more challenges. For example, in this room, how many individuals are able to hear? Quite a number of you, compared to me being deaf. If you don’t know sign language, you don’t know how to communicate and you don’t have access to your culture, how would you engage with me? I felt very isolated and alone growing up.
And that was my experience when I went to school. I was one child amongst other hearing students until I was older and went to the deaf school, and then that impacted me in different ways and I finally was able to learn my sign language and learn about deaf culture. But one aspect that was missing was the Indigenous knowledge. I didn’t understand or have that identity until later when I went to college and university and I was able to find my identity.
I wanted to say that we have deaf schools and we have deaf curriculum, but what we need is an Indigenous deaf perspective. Not all deaf people experience the same thing, so I wanted to say what the differences were.
As you can imagine, many communities are remote, and these experiences can apply to urban settings as well. When you are born deaf or you become deaf later in life for whatever reason, parents sometimes make the decisions but sometimes it’s educators and the doctors who make the decisions. When they come across a deaf child, it’s a difficult decision to make. The options are limited. Do you make the decision to send your deaf child to a residential school? Generally, they’re quite far, and they are only in the populated centres.
If a child decides to stay in their community, they may not learn sign language. We have a very Western approach on teaching language. Oftentimes, educators and all the resources and support around the deaf child aren’t available. At the deaf residential schools, it means that the deaf child may be impacted more, and that is still an issue today. It’s a difficult decision to make.
Do you take the residential route or decide to stay in your community? Families have that decision to make because they want their child to have access to their culture. But language is so integral. It is easy to get sign language interpreters in urban areas, but in remote communities it might not be. And interpreting services can be quite expensive. Will the community be able to afford those services?
The other issue is interpreters aren’t necessarily knowledgeable around Indigenous culture and need additional training to be able to meet the needs of an Indigenous deaf child. I am sure you can imagine that the access for learning and education is very early in their childhood, and that window starts to close. The schools may be hiring deaf educators who have knowledge around Indigenous culture, but that doesn’t happen very often. Will you be able to make a connection with that educator and those resources? Maybe and maybe not.
There’s not a lot of support or resources with that additional Indigenous lens. For example, during COVID, a lot of youth were able to access education through Zoom and other applications, but you need to have good internet, a good Wi-Fi connection, cameras and computers. In remote areas and communities, you may not be able to access that or even to afford it. As a deaf youth or child, you may not be able to access education in your community, and that has a huge impact and creates delays.
Between those options of going to a deaf school or staying in the community, I think the end result will be same. There’s not much difference because the resources are so limited. If the resources aren’t there, then it’s not clear who will cover the costs. Will it be covered federally or provincially? Who will provide those services for that deaf child on reserve or off reserve?
It’s very difficult for deaf youth. There’s a high percentage of drop out, and it ends up leading to high unemployment rates. Basically, it comes down to language deprivation.
Thank you for listening.
[English]
The Chair: Thank you, Ms. MacDonald.
We will now begin the question-and-answer session. We open the floor to questions from senators.
Senator LaBoucane-Benson: Thank you, Paula. I feel like you have opened a window into a world I have never been in. I am a bit in awe of you in terms of the way you have communicated emotion to us today.
My question for you is around world views. I’m sure that American Sign Language has a very Western world view. How does an Indigenous child learn Indigenous culture through American Sign Language?
[Interpretation]
Ms. MacDonald: I’d be happy to answer.
In my experience, American Sign Language has already grown and become the dominant language, similar to English. We have Indigenous sign languages; however, it’s different. For example, when we’re talking about Inuit and the translation from Inuit to English, there are a lot of words that don’t necessarily exist. It’s the same with Indigenous sign languages. It relates to everyday life, things that you need to get by. When it comes to higher language, like different vocabulary, it’s difficult to have those conversations.
Deaf Indigenous youth struggle to have access to sign language. This conversation could take a long time. The best option is to learn sign language so that you have a language. But if you want post-secondary education, you have to learn English. You need to be able to get by with a sign language interpreter to be able to access that education. I can’t expect every interpreter to know an Indigenous language in addition to English and ASL. Maybe someday, but it would take additional training, and it takes time to train an interpreter. I value my time as well, and I want my education now.
[English]
Senator LaBoucane-Benson: English has a lot of racism embedded in it. It’s a colonial language, and it’s founded on colonial structure. Is there racism embedded in American Sign Language? If so, how do you deal with that?
[Interpretation]
Ms. MacDonald: It’s the same. Depending on who people are, whether they’re non-Indigenous, and depending on who your teachers and what they bring to the table, they have biases, and they’re teaching children regardless if they are non-Indigenous or Indigenous. For deaf Indigenous persons, there’s autism. The general community will have that. We experience it as well, and perhaps doubly.
[English]
Senator Sorensen: Welcome, everyone, and congratulations for being here. It has been wonderful to see you all around for these last couple of days. It has brightened our world.
Paula, I see here that you are an activist for deaf youth and that you volunteer with the Deaf Indigenous of Canada committee. I’m interested in the work you do there. Do you ever come across Indigenous interpreters for your use, and do you have any aspirations of becoming a deaf interpreter?
[Interpretation]
Ms. MacDonald: First of all, for deaf Indigenous youth, we just recently established the committee as part of the Canadian Association of the Deaf. It’s just been three or four years ago now. I joined and saw that there were a lot of projects they wanted to focus on, whether national-level discussions or if we should focus on provincial issues. There are a lot of things that need to be focused on. We’re struggling because we need to build up skills around self-advocacy. Some individuals are very humble, and they need to be a little more assertive in order to push the policies.
[English]
Senator Sorensen: Like you.
[Interpretation]
Ms. MacDonald: Yes. I’ve noticed that people have different personalities. They are interested in getting involved, but it is difficult. It always comes down to funding, and that’s so important. If we had funding, that would motivate us more.
For deaf Indigenous youth, it requires a lot of volunteer work. There are not a lot of employment opportunities. These volunteer positions are great, but we also want employment. We don’t just want to be offered only volunteer positions. We have the same aspirations as everyone else in society.
When it comes to deaf interpreting, I just obtained my deaf interpreter certificate. I’m not officially ready to do the work, but I’m focusing on supporting deaf Indigenous youth and the general community. I’m just one person. I would say that there might be fewer than 10 — maybe 5 — Indigenous interpreters across Canada. There are not very many. When it comes to spoken interpreters, at the federal level, there’s one Indigenous interpreter, and she is with us right now.
Across Canada, there are others, but they work for their community. If there is an absolute need, they might do the extra work, but there is a bit of unwillingness to do more business sorts of assignments. They don’t want to work for big corporations; they want to work within their communities. There are pros and cons.
We’re still working on that, because we need to grow the number of sign language interpreters with an Indigenous focus. When it comes to the Indigenous program, we want to develop more awareness, and we need to recruit more.
[English]
Senator Martin: I echo what Senator LaBoucane-Benson and Senator Sorensen have said. You have opened my eyes to the world of Indigenous deaf persons, the advocacy work you are doing and the fact that there are only about five Indigenous interpreters in this country. Thank you for being such an incredible advocate.
The month of June is Deafblind Awareness Month. You may have heard the speech from Senator Marwah.
I have a couple of questions based on what you’ve said. The first comment is about learning about deaf culture. I’m curious what that was like for you.
As well, you said you found your Indigenous identity in university. I think that is the key: your sense of identity. You are deaf and Indigenous. Would you explain a bit more about what you were referring to?
[Interpretation]
Ms. MacDonald: Sure. Thank you for the question.
When it comes to deaf culture, I find that the best way to learn is from the deaf community and at deaf school. You have an opportunity to learn a lot, and you’re in deaf space so things are more visually accessible. Things are taught in a circle. If they have teachers who know how to sign, that’s fantastic. I was fortunate to have that sort of education. It led me to be able to access post-secondary education.
Within mainstream hearing schools, they have deaf and hard‑of-hearing programs. They can provide good education, but the socialization piece is missing. Students do the best they can. I don’t want to feel alone. I want to be able to socialize. If not for schools that have deaf and hard-of-hearing programs, I would not be the leader that I am today.
I forget what the second question was.
[English]
Senator Martin: My second question was about finding your Indigenous identity in university. I’m curious about what happened. How did that develop?
[Interpretation]
Ms. MacDonald: Thank you.
The deaf school that I went to was close to a reserve, but they didn’t often talk about it. There were no Indigenous people at my school to learn from until I went to college. I went to college in the United States because they had a deaf program at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf at Rochester Institute of Technology. I met a lot of POC students who were doing a lot of advocacy work, and I started to get engaged and learn about my own culture. They had a Native American Students Association. I joined, and that’s where my introduction to my culture began. I thought, “Why am I engaging in theirs? I should learn more about mine.” However, I am thankful for that opportunity because I was able to learn about Indigenous cultures.
When I came back home to Canada after I graduated, I started my second degree. Fortunately, I had interpreters who followed me throughout my studies. It was better than nothing. I was able to learn more and more. It has led me to opportunities to be here, so I’m thankful to be able to have that support. Again, I’m still learning my identity and culture.
[English]
Senator Coyle: Thank you, Paula, and to the women who are helping us communicate together today. It probably shouldn’t be such an opening experience for each of us, but it is. I’m being honest here — it really is for us. I thank you for helping to open us.
I am hard of hearing myself. I’m not deaf, but I’m hard of hearing. I can turn my volume up, which I did when she was speaking softly at the beginning so that I could hear you in my hearing aids. You’re actually inspiring me because maybe someday I won’t be able to hear, and it would be good to learn. I’m not minimizing what it might take to learn what you know about how to communicate. You’re inspiring me.
My question for you is this: Here you are in this incredible moment in your life. You have worked so hard to learn to communicate with the big world around you and with your peers and to go to post-secondary education twice already. What’s next for you, Paula? What do you want to do with everything you have developed within yourself and learned about the world? It would be interesting for us to hear more about what some of your dreams and ambitions are.
[Interpretation]
Ms. MacDonald: Okay. I have a list. I’ll have to start with that.
But to begin with, for the immediate time, I’m going to do advocacy work. I’m going to continue to do that. I’m not going to be considered a youth for much longer because I’m heading toward my 30s, but I want to advocate for other Indigenous deaf youth and support them because they are important to the future. We have to think about future generations. They have the opportunity to be the change we want to see in the world. I remember when I graduated from college — I did design engineering — I looked at other role models, and I realized there weren’t any out there. It’s not just about being the only one. It depends on who your family is and what kind of supports you have. I shouldn’t just focus on myself and getting further ahead just for me. I need to advocate for others.
If I can get three, four or five other deaf leaders involved, then we can make a difference. I think just two or three deaf Indigenous youth are attending college or university at the moment. There are not that many. I would like to see that number grow. We need to improve Indigenous education, but it starts with deaf culture. If we can get that out into communities so people understand the resources and the supports that are needed for a deaf child and hire the appropriate people and have the appropriate training so that they can access both worlds, that’s important. We need not just hearing educators but deaf ones too that can understand our lived experience. It’s challenging. It’s easy to access sign language interpreters in the urban centres, but in remote areas, it is very difficult. Funding will help, no doubt, but there are other challenges as well.
I have a list of other things that I want to do, but that’s just the beginning of my list.
[English]
Senator Arnot: Thank you, Paula. I was happy to have a good conversation with you last night. I thank you for your good questions this afternoon. Here are two more good questions. Paula, thanks for being a champion for deaf persons and First Nations people in Canada. I really encourage you in your work. Thank you for your courage, enthusiasm and passion for what you’re doing.
I’ve got a comment and then a question. The comment is that, in Saskatchewan, I know that First Nations youth living in rural, remote, isolated northern Saskatchewan lack access to early medical attention. As a result, many First Nations children in northern Saskatchewan become deaf as a result of a curable illness — a very preventable incident. Do you have any experience with that, or do you have any comment about what this committee could recommend about better health care for First Nations people in rural areas who suffer these kinds of incidents?
The second question is this: Do you have any advice for this committee about recommending how the federal government can promote, encourage and fund deaf interpretation for First Nations people?
[Interpretation]
Ms. MacDonald: Thank you for your questions. Those are big questions.
I’d like to emphasize that becoming deaf is a positive thing. In my view, it’s a positive thing. I don’t use the medical model and see it as a deficit. I see that I have opportunities, and there are tools like hearing aids, cochlear implants and other tools. It doesn’t mean they will give you a better life necessarily, but they bring you on par with people who can hear. As well, having access to sign language is important.
Parents may grieve their children’s hearing loss, but it is important to provide that child with the resources they need. If they have resources, they may feel a little bit more hopeful, but without those resources, they may not know what to do. It may lead to poor outcomes and decisions. I cannot predict what a parent will decide for their deaf child, but I encourage parents to look at the positive and to advocate for their deaf child and not be stuck in that grief. I see it as a positive thing.
When it comes to better supports, it really depends on who the parents are. Some children are born to deaf parents. Oftentimes, deaf children are born to hearing parents, and it’s important that the parents have support. If they are given sign language interpreters, that’s important. I don’t like to hear excuses — for instance, at hospitals and clinics — about how it takes too long and they can’t afford to provide sign language interpretation. This leads to delays in access to service, and what is the outcome and who is responsible for that? Parents want the best for their child when it comes to health and safety, so it’s important to provide those services as immediately as possible.
What I struggle with is the jurisdiction when it comes to individuals on reserve versus off reserve. On reserve, technically, the federal government is responsible, and we have the Accessible Canada Act in place now. There is a question or a discussion that is happening more and more that reserves should be providing access to sign language interpretation and other supports. However, not every province is providing that service. But the resources should be there. There is a little bit of that discussion around Jordan’s Principle happening. Which jurisdiction does it fall under? It’s important that children and youth — and adults as well — get access to services, and if those services improve, it’s going to impact a lot of things.
When it comes to your second question, having funding for interpreting services is good, but I’m not just advocating for that. We need to have more deaf and hard-of-hearing educators — people who know sign language and can teach in ASL so that students get direct access to communication. It would be nice if there were other programs so that deaf children could participate in extracurricular activities and so on. Again, it’s okay to choose to go to a deaf school that has deaf educators and teachers and supports, but it is the Indigenous perspective that’s missing. Many of the deaf schools now are losing their funding, and it might be difficult to provide that Indigenous perspective if there’s no funding to even continue the school.
I can’t speak for everyone across Canada. There are so many different needs and wants. I’m looking at doing more research. That’s my goal.
[English]
The Chair: I wish we could keep going, but we’re on a time limit tonight. The time for this panel is now complete. I wish to thank Ms. MacDonald for meeting with us today.
Our next witness is Helaina Moses of the Na-cho Nick Dun First Nation in the Yukon. Ms. Moses will provide opening remarks of up to five minutes, followed by a question-and-answer session with committee members.
Helaina Moses, as an individual: [Indigenous language spoken.]
Good day. My name is Hozhá. Good evening, senators. I would like to thank you for your time today. I am incredibly honoured to sit amongst you all. I hope you all had a chance to read my written testimony, and I would like it to be accepted into the written record.
I want to share with you about my story that our people share. I want to show you that nomadic lifestyles existed in Yukon only 70 years ago, in a life before colonization in Canada. Our people need to be part of the decision making on our land. Doing this together is the only way we can all succeed in the future.
My name is Helaina Moses, and my traditional name is Hozhá. I describe myself as a land healer, a natural leader and traditional. I have a passion for my community roots and heritage, and I am 27 years old. I grew up in Mayo, Yukon, which has a population of about 400 people. I am a citizen of the First Nation of Na-Cho Nyak Dun, which means “flowing from our ancestral waters,” also known as “big river people.”
I was taught to be an environmentalist at a very young age and taught to harvest for myself and my family. Education is such a valuable tool to be successful for you in your life and for facilitating effective change. I grew up in small communities in the Yukon my entire life, and I experienced schooling in a small community. I was in grade 6 doing grade 9 schoolwork while going to school. I had friends the same age as me in the school that didn’t have the ability to read or write.
I left the community to continue to go to high school in Whitehorse, which led to provide me more access to education. I graduated with honours from Yukon University, where I took an environmental monitoring training program. I assisted in writing an article for ArcticNet about bringing both Western science and traditional known knowledge practices into research. While I was a research assistant for Yukon University, I helped in the development of a mind remediation curriculum and did presentations for high school students.
I now work with Yukon Seed & Restoration in developing a curriculum for restoration training initiatives. I was honoured to accept the community championship award alongside Yukon Seed & Restoration in May 2023. I do an abundance of work with youth providing paid training opportunities for our community.
Growing up in a small, isolated community like Mayo, Yukon, my ancestors lived happily in Mayo for centuries until they were introduced to mining. My grandparents lived a nomadic lifestyle growing up and were introduced to mining at a very young age. They did a lot of travelling with dog teams in the winter and moose skin boats in the summer.
The impacts of mining have been around our traditional territory for decades. It started with the gold rush to Yukon in the late 1800s. The settlers came up to the Stewart River to start their journey to find gold. We used fur from wildlife for currency to buy things. We never used flour, tea and sugar before. Currency and money were not part of the lifestyle for our ancestors. We valued our lands and the resources it provided to us.
Back in those days, there were limited environmental regulations to keep the environment safe. This has impacted our traditional lifestyle and our culture. Our water quality is changing, and the absence of our salmon coming up the Stewart River has further impacted our culture. We wish to harvest from the land as we normally would.
My nation signed a treaty, a self-government agreement, in 1993. We just held our 30-year celebration of this milestone on May 29. These agreements held the promise of special management areas, shared areas, land use planning, environmental and development assessment process and was intended to inform the regulatory process. Those promises, the promise to establish certainty within the processes, are yet to be fulfilled. Our primary concern is that even if we started land planning for our traditional territory, today the cumulative effects have impacted our rights.
Currently, the Canadian government is prioritizing critical mineral development and lobbying to include gold as a critical mineral. The necessities of education, health and water are the basic promises of any government. Of the top 100 operating mines in Canada, three are in my traditional territory. If corporations cannot maintain a relationship with the people on whose land they are working, they find it easy to be taken advantage of.
Our connection to the land and the water impacts our health and well-being. When our lands are destroyed, so is our culture. This makes it difficult to pass on known knowledge to our youth about harvesting and traditional known knowledge. This is where land-based education and healing plays a role. The need of mixing traditional known knowledge with Western science is an important first step in working with First Nations communities. Traditional known knowledge represents a powerful link to the community’s past. It offers information about a people’s history, the land they have lived on and processed resources. Indigenous people know the land better than anyone, and our ancestors have travelled in the Yukon for generations. Much of our ancestor’s known knowledge has been passed down for generations.
Working together to restore the land and water is a common interest we share and benefits research for both communities and First Nations communities. It is key to understand that everything is interconnected from our history of colonization, mining, environment, climate change, wellness and our education. I want to see our communities with more land-based training, education and healing to live like our ancestors once did.
Our Indigenous youth have high drop-out rates, and 15 out of 52 students at our school in Mayo have been impacted by the ongoing opioid crisis in our community. Those 15 students have each lost a parent in the last three years. This has huge impacts on their education and further impacts to the community’s well‑being. We need to make our community healthy, and we need support to do this from our partners such as the Government of Canada. On behalf of youth throughout our nations across Canada, our young people desperately need support and wellness. We are losing a generation in our homelands of Yukon Territory. My community of Mayo continues to be struck by tragedy with our First Nation declaring a state of emergency to address the opioid crisis on March 14, 2023. This was announced just days after a recent double homicide in Mayo which shocked our community. People are in an endless state of grief, mourning for our family and our friends. Our loved ones and children are growing up with no parents.
I want to see a difference in our community with land-based education, creation of more opportunities, promotion of community engagement, practising our cultural values and share traditional known knowledge with future generations. Our young people desperately need role models who will lead they will on the path to wellness. If our people are not healthy, who will help our nation succeed, and who will our next leaders be? We need to inspire them to find their greatness. This is what my grandparents did for me.
Masi cho.
The Chair: Thank you, Ms. Moses.
I was wondering if you could speak about the importance of land-based training for Indigenous students and how accessible it is in Yukon.
Ms. Moses: It looks like providing training without any fundamentals or providing more support and resources to ensure these individuals are successful in returning to school or getting employment. Also, healing the land and the people. I do a program with Yukon Seed & Restoration where we pay attention to the cumulative effects of environmental and cultural impacts, seed collection workshops developed in partnership with YSR, which provides an example of the First Nation and how we maintain and strengthen our responsibilities to keep the water clean and the land healthy for future generations. Workshops provide a platform of known knowledge and networking amongst citizens in relationship. By building known knowledge capacity for honourable seed harvesting, native seeds may be required to be used in reclamation and restoration efforts while mitigating further harm done to the land. This will all happen when providing the northern Tutchone language to plant names and traditional plant uses and medicines. We are incorporating traditional known knowledge with Western science.
The Chair: Great answer. Thank you.
Senator Coyle: Thank you so much, and I know you live in one of the most beautiful territories probably in the world but certainly in Canada. I have had the good fortune to visit the Yukon, not Mayo yet, but the Yukon many times and it’s heaven on Earth. I am really saddened to hear what you’re describing in terms of the opioid crisis in your community and particularly how it is affecting the young people. It’s a sign that something is not right. You’ve identified some of that. You have also identified some really important priorities.
Our theme is education. You’ve had a lot of schooling, and I sometimes distinguish schooling from education, although schooling can be part of education. I think I heard from you that your own upbringing provided you with a certain kind of education that prepared you, in a way, to go further in your schooling in order to land where you are here today. Could you talk to us about your own experiences and how the kinds of experiences you had as a young person can be encouraged for other young people so they can also follow that path? As you said, you need more role models, but you’re one of those. What has contributed to you being one of those role models that we can learn from and help other people enjoy the kind of life we would want for them?
Ms. Moses: I did presentations for high school students about my work in bringing people together and talking about the environmental impacts. We all experience in this Yukon. It’s the mining capital pretty much of Canada.
I like to share what I know from my grandparents with those I am teaching. Recently we had a youth who graduated last Saturday — I attended in Whitehorse — from the environmental monitoring program, and I did mentorship with her throughout her entire experience through post-secondary. I like to be very involved with the people I am teaching, and this is in work, in schools and in my current leadership role within my First Nation as well. I just really enjoy working with youth and inspiring them to find their greatness.
Senator LaBoucane-Benson: Thank you, and boy you packed a lot into a short presentation. That was fantastic. There was a lot of information there.
First, how do your people mobilize traditional knowledge and values in the remediation of mines? Second, what advice would you give a community that has a critical mineral mine being planned on their territory?
Ms. Moses: To answer your first question, we currently have a few mining companies on our traditional territory that we have agreements with, but unfortunately sometimes the agreements aren’t fulfilled. It’s lack of community consultation, not coming into our community to speak to the Indigenous people. They go through the territorial government to get approval of their projects without doing community consultation.
Can you repeat your second question?
Senator LaBoucane-Benson: What advice would you give a community that has a critical minerals’ mine being planned on their territory?
Ms. Moses: Always be involved in the process from the start to the finish. Write submissions and be part of the entire process. We have a company, or an organization in Yukon, called the YESAB, the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Board, and it’s the environmental assessment that would go through processes for projects happening. You can go on the web, and it takes you to which region or nation it is on, and then you can write submissions or attend the community consultation meetings, if any.
Senator LaBoucane-Benson: Do your people do monitoring of mines that are actually working, of the environment around the mines?
Ms. Moses: Yes. Our Land and Resources Department does have environmental monitors and land guardians.
Senator D. Patterson: Thank you very much for your very thoughtful and somewhat alarming presentation.
I was concerned to hear you describe the self-government agreement, now 30 years old, you said, as a promise yet to be fulfilled. I know this is a big question, but what’s the problem? How can this be? You’re on the band council. What needs to change to make this agreement work for you?
Ms. Moses: We’re not a band. We are self-governing First Nation.
Senator D. Patterson: I’m sorry. The bio we got misled me.
Ms. Moses: Can you repeat your question?
Senator D. Patterson: You said the promises of the self‑government agreement were unfulfilled. How can that be fixed?
Ms. Moses: We really need to get our land use planning done, and I think that is due to funding. Only 50% of the Yukon has completed their land use planning since we signed our treaty 30 years ago.
Senator D. Patterson: That money should come from?
Ms. Moses: The Government of Canada.
Senator D. Patterson: Canada. We’re dealing with a lot of issues of unfulfilled modern treaties. Thank you for that.
If I may, you studied mine reclamation, and I know this is a bit outside your territory, but we’ve all heard about the Faro environmental challenge. I think there are 25 hectares of waste that is apparently being remediated now. Are you familiar with that project? How is it going, may I ask, in your view?
Ms. Moses: I think they are still in the process of doing reclamation on their tailings. They have very exposed tailings, which results in bioaccumulation within our communities. We eat and harvest from these lands. What does that mean in the future from these mines? We have one on our traditional territory called the Keno Hill project. There are tailings still sitting on the bottom of creeks and lakes because we didn’t have the environmental regulations back in the day. Unfortunately, the companies got away with what they were doing and dumping wherever they wanted.
Recently, in May, Minto has abandoned their mine. Now, it’s up to the territorial Yukon government, taxpayers’ money, to fund that project for reclamation for, I don’t know, ongoing years, maybe for eternity, because the water quality needs to be passively treated.
Senator D. Patterson: Has your government been able to negotiate some benefits from mining companies?
Ms. Moses: Yes. They are very minimal. I will leave it at that.
Senator D. Patterson: Thanks very much.
The Chair: I want to acknowledge Senator Pate, who just dropped by. Welcome, senator. We are glad to have you.
Senator Greenwood: Thank you for your presentation. As the previous senators have said, it was jam-packed and very interesting.
There were many facets that you brought up in your presentation. I’m interested in the leadership. Many of you have talked about leadership, as you have in your presentation. I would like to know how youth have been involved in advisory boards, councils and the decision-making bodies. Many times, in my experience, national advisory boards have been looking for youth representatives. What are your thoughts on that idea, given that you are a youth leader in your territory? What advice would you give other youth who want to be in leadership and decision‑making positions?
Ms. Moses: Yes. Our ancestors worked hard for these agreements, very hard. I’m not sure if senators are familiar with Together Today for our Children Tomorrow, which was presented to Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau back in the 1970s. That document is important to read for our future generations; they need to get to know that and understand how hard our people worked to get these agreements with the Government of Canada and uphold our rights and entitlements in those agreements. We need to put it in our education in the Yukon. Let’s talk about the Umbrella Final Agreement. Let’s let our people know what they are entitled to and what their rights are.
Did I answer all of your questions?
Senator Greenwood: What advice would you give a young who came to you and said, “Helaina, how do I get involved?” or, “How can I be a part of the decision-making?”
Ms. Moses: I would strongly encourage them to be part of their government, whether it’s on the policy team, the implementation team, the governance team, or maybe even lands and resources, because that’s where I started.
Senator Sorensen: I wasn’t going to ask a question, but then you said to always be involved in the process, which is one of my personal mantras. That resonated with me. I was active on my local community council for 17 years. I am assuming that that statement is what inspired you to be involved in your local government. Are you finding that work rewarding? Are you achieving some of the things you hoped to by being on your local government? You might have to explain your local government to me. It is a council, but it’s locally operated?
Ms. Moses: Yes. We’re a self-governing First Nation. We govern in certain departments like social, education, lands and resources, justice and so on and so forth. We govern our people. We do have a chief and council. Recently, we just got our first female chief elected in April.
What was your other question?
Senator Sorensen: Are you finding that a good avenue for you personally and finding it rewarding, using that tool to move your passions forward?
Ms. Moses: Hard work pays off. When you dedicate your time, your attention and your love or passion to what you believe in, it’s rewarding in a heartfelt way. I can tell you right now I feel very rewarded sitting in front of all of you and telling you my people’s story.
Senator Sorensen: Yes. I do think it’s a love for your community that gets you involved in community governance. I miss it.
[Translation]
Senator Audette: I’d like to share a comment with you.
I’d like to say to Helaina, Paula and the others who spoke this morning that my wish for all of us is that you become witnesses who will be called upon to testify often on various subjects such as the environment, economic development, health and Indigenous rights, so that we can see you participate in the work of other committees.
I don’t know if this is your first experience, but I’m very impressed and really proud to see that we have such strong young people. I would like us to invite them back. That was my only comment.
[English]
Ms. Moses: Thank you, senator. I would be honoured to attend again, hopefully amongst you eventually.
The Chair: The time for this panel is now complete. I wish to thank Ms. Moses for sharing her testimony with us today.
I will now introduce our next witness. Audrey-Lise Rock‑Hervieux is from the Innu community of Pessamit in Quebec. Ms. Rock-Hervieux will provide opening remarks of up to five minutes, followed by a question-and-answer session with committee members. I will now invite Ms. Rock-Hervieux to give her remarks.
[Translation]
Audrey-Lise Rock-Hervieux, as an individual: Good afternoon, everyone [Innu-Aimun spoken].
My name is Audrey-Lise Rock-Hervieux and I’m an Innu from the community of Pessamit. As you may have noticed, I began by expressing myself in my first language, since it was our Indigenous languages that were born here, on our land, even before English and French took over. As language and education are linked, I’m also doing this so that you can see how important it is to save our Indigenous languages before any other language. We have been here for a long time. It’s finally time to listen to us because we have so much to say and defend. I’m honoured to be here with you today to speak about our vision for education. I say “our” because I’m speaking today on behalf of young people.
I’m not here just to talk about language; I’m also here to talk about First Nations education. Maybe my testimony won’t reach everyone who’s here right now, but it doesn’t matter to me. If I can make a difference to just one person here, that would be a big step forward. In fact, I’m extremely grateful to be here today. By being here, I want to carry the voice of First Nations youth because these young people are the future.
When it comes to education, an awful lot could be said. We could talk about it for days, but I’ll try to keep my presentation short and to the point. I’ve long wondered what could be done to improve the First Nations education system; I’ve looked everywhere in our institutions for answers, but never really found what I needed. I finally found on the land last March. In a nutshell, I’m a student in Indigenous governance and soon to graduate as a land guardian. It was there that I became aware of the need for an education rooted in our ancestral values and traditions.
In addition to my educational background, I also took the initiative of going out to meet with my people, so that I could tell you what they would like in terms of education. There is, of course, self-determination in educational programs for all Indigenous communities across Canada. It’s about time we were able to work on our own programs, instead of having government programs imposed on us. If I may speak from my own experience, I had to redo my history course, which, remember, is a required course to graduate from high school.
Do you find it normal that, in 2023, the history of Quebec and Canada, as presented in our institutions, is not the real history? That’s something to think about. I sincerely believe that the education presented in our various institutions is not at all adapted to the Indigenous reality. Before trying to teach us subjects that aren’t adapted to our realities, it would be fairer to offer mandatory courses on Indigenous issues in educational institutions.
It would also be worth reviewing the training offered to teachers, as they aren’t up to date in their knowledge of Indigenous issues, either. This often leads to difficulties in establishing contact with young Indigenous students. Beyond all that, having an Indigenous university in Quebec, with a pedagogy fully adapted to our realities, would be one of my greatest wishes. I’m not the only one thinking about it; many of us are dreaming about it.
I’m aware that there’s a lot of development in university programs just about everywhere, but unfortunately there aren’t any infrastructures truly adapted to our cultures and traditions.
In short, beyond all that, the message I wish to convey to the government today is that it’s finally time to decolonize overly closed mindsets. It’s high time to change that good old pair of glasses, to look reality in the face and realize that First Nations education isn’t always easy. Not to mention the underfunding that many Indigenous communities are still experiencing today.
In an ideal world, consideration should be given to providing more funding for the revitalization of culture through practice on the land, as learning begins on the land first and foremost.
So, how do you expect our young people to stand out in their academic careers if our governments don’t open their eyes? Yes, there is a lot of potential among First Nations youth. If I’ve been able to prove myself, just imagine what can happen in the future. I’m convinced that Indigenous youth are capable of doing the work you’re all doing here right now, and even more. All you need to do is reach out to them, listen to their real needs and give them the right tools for the future.
Let’s stop always trying to get in everyone’s way and start working together. We’re always saying that Canada is a great place to live. Let’s set an example for others. Let’s show them that it’s possible to work together as a team, not separately. Let’s stop always thinking of First Nations as second-class citizens because, on the contrary, there is enormous potential in our Indigenous communities. All the authorities need to do is open their eyes, reach out and talk to us; we’re just waiting for that.
Stop creating projects for us that we didn’t ask for. Instead, take the time to sit down with us and ask the right questions about what we really want. Even today, all too often, when we want to bring in and promote our good ideas — because yes, we have a tonne of them, innovative ideas — we get pushed aside again and again.
Enough is enough! This has to change, but for that we have to sit down together, start a real dialogue and not be afraid to do so. We may not agree on everything, but let’s at least try to do it for our children, and above all, for the sake of future generations. I have every confidence in you, ladies and gentlemen of the Senate, to make our voices and our hopes heard.
[Innu-Aimun spoken]
Thank you for listening to me. I want a better future. See you soon. If you have any questions about my educational and professional background, feel free to ask.
[English]
The Chair: Thank you, Ms. Rock-Hervieux. I will now open the floor to senators.
Senator Sorensen: Thank you for the invitation to ask about your professional life. I’m intrigued about the work you do with the film production company Terre Innue. I’m also super interested to hear about your blog, Native Mom. I’m intrigued to know what you focus on. At that level — I guess I would call it the media level and the artistic level — how can government work with Indigenous people not only to stimulate investment and attract more Indigenous production but also audiences for Indigenous film and television, which I believe hugely assists with education and therefore truth and reconciliation?
[Translation]
Ms. Rock-Hervieux: First of all, I’d invite the government to come and meet with us, as it’s conspicuous by its absence at the moment. I’ve never seen a single minister come and ask us the right questions. I think that would be the first step.
[English]
Senator Sorensen: Would you elaborate on what the production company you work with does and what your blog focuses on?
[Translation]
Ms. Rock-Hervieux: Terre Innue, for those who don’t know, is an audiovisual production company that makes documentaries, series and podcasts. It’s the same company that produced the series Telling Our Story, which was broadcast on Radio-Canada and will soon also be broadcast, if it hasn’t already, on CBC.
[English]
Senator Sorensen: I’ll ask one more question about your blog, Native Mom. What do you talk about? Maybe I know.
[Translation]
Ms. Rock-Hervieux: First of all, before the blog was born, I did three collaborations on another blog, that of a lady called “La parfaite maman cinglante.”
However, that blog was all about parenthood and the role of the mother. I wanted to go beyond that; I wanted to talk about topics that resonate with me, whether it’s residential schools, intergenerational trauma or domestic violence. The possibilities are endless. I wanted to express myself freely on subjects that resonate with me in everyday life. That’s why I took the plunge and created my own blog.
Senator Coyle: Thank you, Audrey-Lise. That was very thought-provoking.
[English]
I have so many questions, but I will start by commiserating. I have worked a lot internationally. A good friend of mine wrote a master’s thesis, and she called it, “Why don’t you scratch where it itches?” As you said, young Indigenous people have had a lot of things foisted on them by somebody who thought that’s what they needed, or even wanted.
You are now speaking with us about something where I would say we know there is huge potential in Indigenous youth. Every one of you here is an expression and exemplar of that incredible potential. We know that you are just the tip of the iceberg from every place that you’re coming from.
In response to Senator Sorensen, you mentioned that the government needs to come and talk with Indigenous youth and needs to ask the right questions. I think you said that the government needs to give Indigenous youth the right tools. Could you speak to us a bit more about what you mean by asking the right questions and giving the right tools? What would you say you mean by that?
[Translation]
Ms. Rock-Hervieux: It’s a difficult question to answer, to be quite honest, because when I came here, I didn’t have the questions in hand. I came to bring the message of these young First Nations people. I can’t answer on their behalf.
[English]
Senator Coyle: Can I ask, what if it were you? Obviously, you can’t put words in anybody else’s mouth, but you can use your own words. For instance, if Marc Miller, Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations, were here with some of his colleagues and sitting down with you, Audrey-Lise — you were not you, but you were somebody who knew you — and you were giving him advice such as, “Minister, you should ask Audrey-Lise this,” in order to bring out the best advice, what would those questions be?
[Translation]
Ms. Rock-Hervieux: First of all, I’d like to invite the minister. As a matter of fact, I mentioned that I took part in the youth meeting. Recently, in March, I attended the First Nations Quebec-Labrador youth summit. I was sad to see that there were no other authorities attending the event. Thank God Michèle was there to listen to us. When I talk about high-level authorities, I’m talking about governments, ministers, whether provincial or federal. None of them were there. That would be the first step: for them to come and listen to what young people have to say. That would be the start of something.
[English]
Senator Martin: Thank you very much for your presentation. I have many questions too, but I will focus on a couple of things that you said.
As a former teacher, I know that in my home province of British Columbia, a lot of teacher training is done. In most if not all schools, there is an Indigenous program and staffing. There have been a lot of advancements. You mentioned what can be done to improve First Nations education. You said that training for teachers needs to be updated and that there should be some — maybe we call it locally developed curricula. I had one course that I offered, which I developed myself. Could you speak a bit more about what you would like to see in terms of the training and curriculum-related matters?
[Translation]
Ms. Rock-Hervieux: Firstly, in Quebec, there’s a shortage of programs adapted to Indigenous realities. If they do exist, they are only a few hours’ training. That’s not enough. More needs to be done. Even today, there’s that old mentality, not to say a colonial mentality, and there are still prejudices about Indigenous peoples. This is where we see the extent of the lack of knowledge about Indigenous realities. Unfortunately, this is still the case in Quebec. I don’t know about the other provinces, though. In Quebec, it’s sad to see that this is still the case.
[English]
Senator Martin: You would want to see more than a couple of hours, so maybe a course that’s part of the teacher training, perhaps in universities?
[Translation]
Ms. Rock-Hervieux: Yes, of course. That would be one of my wishes for the future.
[English]
Senator Martin: I think other provinces might be good models to look at, such as British Columbia.
My second question is regarding the development of curriculum. What are some teaching materials that you would like to see for the curriculum that you mentioned?
[Translation]
Ms. Rock-Hervieux: That’s not an easy question to answer. I’d say it’s a collective effort. A number young people would have to sit down together to do this work. Just like that, I can’t give a million answers to this question. We need to start a process, sit down together and think about our ideas. I don’t have any answers right now.
[English]
Senator Martin: Both points are very important for good education. You need the teachers to be trained. Those teachers look at the curriculum, working with First Nations. I hope that those two things will happen in the next little while. Thank you for raising that today.
Ms. Rock-Hervieux: Thank you.
Senator Greenwood: Thank you, Audrey-Lise, for your presentation. It was very informative. I really appreciated it. I particularly respect the use of your language. It was music to hear it. Thank you, hiy hiy, for that.
I also understand and respect the political nature of speaking for oneself or speaking for others. I appreciate your responses in that regard.
I was reading your bio. I see that you have been part of film production and blogs. To me, those speak about art. You also spoke about learning on the land. I would like to hear your thoughts about using the arts for teaching and learning as well. I think you are already an artist, from what I read here. Do you think that is an important venue for youth and for learning and teaching?
[Translation]
Ms. Rock-Hervieux: Certainly. Your question is rather broad. If I may go back to what I said about apprenticeships on the land... Looking back, I wasn’t always proud to be Innu; I was often ashamed. I wasn’t really lucky enough to grow up on the land. I didn’t have access to that richness.
I asked myself how I could get involved to learn ancestral knowledge and knowledge related to my culture and the land. It was through art that I really discovered all this. It’s partly thanks to my blog, which has opened doors for me.
When I was on the land, I couldn’t even describe how I felt at the time. I dreamed and thought that if I felt that way and could share it with other students, it would be magical.
I had imagined a university on the land. I thought it would be a really nice way of keeping our traditions alive for millennia because today, where we are now, young people are unfortunately losing their language and culture. They’re no longer interested in that stuff. I think it would be a good way to show them that our traditions are beautiful, that our culture is beautiful.
[English]
Senator Greenwood: Thank you.
[Translation]
Senator Audette: I’ll continue in the same vein as Senator Martin. I think you’ve just told us what the subjects of an ideal or dream curriculum would be. I think there are things on the land that should be part... I think we’ve just fed our colleague.
We’re going to have a university, a house of learning in Quebec. Nadine and many others have worked hard on this. We’re going to do it. Here, now, we have allies, friends, senators who are very sensitive and who will support us across Canada, especially in Quebec, so that we can have our university house of knowledge. This will enable us to bring together the two types of knowledge: knowledge and our knowledge.
If you had a message for us, as this may be my first bill — the creation of a university of knowledge for Quebec. I don’t know, I just feel like dreaming.
What would you like to see recommended for education as a whole, both in terms of content and tradition? It’s okay to dream. Your mother did, my mother did.
Ms. Rock-Hervieux: If I may speak on behalf of First Nations, I said it earlier: Learning begins on the land. It’s one of the most beautiful ways for First Nations to feel they belong, to feel connected.
I don’t really have anything else to add, other than to say that my words say it all. It really is a university on the land that I’d like to see one day.
Senator Audette: Can you tell us where you’ll be living your first experience as a land guardian?
Ms. Rock-Hervieux: In Mushuau-nipi.
Senator Audette: In the woods. Thank you.
[English]
The Chair: I wish we weren’t out of time, but unfortunately we do have time limits that we have to follow here. Thank you, Ms. Audrey-Lise Rock-Hervieux, for your amazing testimony. The time for this panel is now complete.
Our next witness is Chante Speidel from Sapotowick Cree Nation in Manitoba as well as from the Standing Rock Sioux reservation in South Dakota. Ms. Speidel will provide opening remarks of up to five minutes, to be followed by a question-and-answer session with the committee members.
Chante Speidel, as an individual: [Indigenous language spoken]. Thank you.
Hello, my friends and relatives. I greet with you with a great heart and shake your hand. It is an honour and a privilege to be here. I know a lot of young Indigenous voices are depending on me here today.
My name is Chante Speidel. My first name translates to “heart” in Lakota, so it’s not French. I’ve been called every name in the book today, but we’re getting better at speaking the Lakota language. My Lakota name is Good Red Road of Life Woman. In representing that name, I want to acknowledge and invite my ancestors into this room to sit here with me because I know this topic of conversation, Indigenous education, is really important to our people. Speaking in this language, I also acknowledge the sacrifices that my ancestors went through and survived to have the language passed down to me so I could be here to take up this space to speak to each and every single one of you today.
It is an honour to have been given the privilege to have parents who felt the need to educate me and my sisters in our Lakota and Cree ways of knowing, influenced by our language. Because of that upbringing, I always knew who I was. I was always proud to be a Lakota, a Cree woman. I had a lot of cultural pride throughout my entire life. I always had access to land, ceremony and travel across the country to attend ceremony and to dance in powwow celebrations, but also to be invited to spaces like this so that I could speak on behalf of my people. My parents trailblazed their entire lives and broke down barriers so that my generation would have a little bit of an easier step forward to do the same thing.
When I think about this topic of Indigenous education, I too wish that every Indigenous young person would have the access to land, culture and access to learning their language. That goes beyond a school environment. There is a lot of cultural programming and a lot of work done for language reclamation. A lot of it is needed beyond the education system. There is a need to connect to urban Indigenous youth. I can speak on that because I grew up in a Saskatoon urban area, but I always had a connection, as I said before, to land and ceremony. I attended schools that were White-dominated. I could not relate to anybody who attended those schools. They knew that I was different. They knew that I had a different sense of pride, of belonging, a different accent maybe, but I was White-presenting so maybe they didn’t label me as Indigenous until I wore my ribbon skirt to school or my Indigenous beaded earrings. Afterwards, after I was labelled as Indigenous, I went through racism and discrimination that is still very prominent in our education system.
There is a need for change so that more of our Indigenous youth who attend these urban centre education schools can walk with cultural pride in these schools and be welcomed into these schools. What I see, working in the spaces I do now — and also attending different schools as a presenter — is that a lot of our Indigenous youth who are attending these urban schools have lost their sense of cultural pride. They are walking in these institutions like zombies. There is no connection to being Indigenous and no connection to land, culture or language. When I’m here today, I advocate on behalf of them.
I know that there is a lot of spirit of hope that exists. I’m not one to focus on a lot of negative. I know that I walk with hope, because if I chose to walk with a lot of negatives, focusing on that, it wouldn’t be a really good life to live. I’m focusing on the spirit of hope. I know that it’s a possibility for Indigenous youth to connect to their language and culture. By doing so, we are all leaders and trailblazers in this room, not leaders of tomorrow or the day after that, but leaders right now. We are doing the work on the ground right now. I wanted to acknowledge that because, so often, we are brought to these spaces as young Indigenous youth and are referred to as the leaders of the future. We’re doing the work right now. Our voices will only get louder as we age. I hope to continue on the work that I have started ever since I was 15 years old when I was Miss Manito Ahbee and a spokesperson on the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls topic of conversation.
Now I’m in a really beautiful place where I get to pursue my passion for working with young people as a youth adviser of the Oyateki project. This partnership is a tri-institute partnership that is funded by the Mastercard Foundation. It is local in Saskatoon. I’m a youth adviser that leads a youth advisory circle for teens, young people, who attend these institutions. They’re all Indigenous young leaders. I am grateful to lead them. Here, too, I know they’re depending on me to speak about these issues, about connecting to culture, because in every single one of our meetings that we’ve had as a council, they have raised that there is a desire to connect to a smudging ceremony, to elders in the community, to sewing and beading classes or to connect to land-based education in these post‑secondary institutions.
Thank you for allowing me to speak today. [Indigenous language spoken].
The Chair: Thank you, Ms. Speidel.
We’ll open the floor to questions from senators. I will start.
In your view, what is the best way for non-Indigenous people to learn about Indigenous people without placing the burden of education on us as Indigenous people?
Ms. Speidel: That is a really great question.
I do a lot of that in my work as a Speakers Bureau member of the Office of the Treaty Commissioner. I’ve been on this bureau for about six years. I have had a lot of experience being welcomed in non-Indigenous spaces where they have invited me to be the advocate or the educator on all Indigenous people. I know that’s a very common experience for Indigenous people.
What I see during my presentations in doing this work is that I’m igniting a flame. I’m giving it to all non-Indigenous people to keep throwing into that flame and carrying it on so this fire never dies out and that conversation never dies out. Whatever bits of education that I can provide, speaking as a Lakota or Cree young person, it is only to ignite the flame. They have to continue on the work, continue on to asking the right questions, to meeting with other Indigenous people, other elders, going into other Indigenous communities and making that flame grow.
The Chair: Thank you for that.
Senator Arnot: Chante, thank you for your presentation.
You’re talking about land, culture, language and learning on the land. Several witnesses have talked about that as being important. That is part of reconciliation and should be funded, in my opinion. Do you know if there are barriers to Indigenous people who want to learn on the land, learn their culture and language? Are there real barriers there? We heard some witnesses say today that it was difficult to actually learn on the land, to have a process or to meet an elder to help. I wonder what you have to say about that.
The second thing is that I noticed that the Oyateki Partnership is funded by the Mastercard Foundation. You went outside of government to get funding. I’d be interested to know how you did that and why you did that. Is that working for you? Is the Mastercard Foundation a better partner than the Government of Canada? That’s the basic question.
Ms. Speidel: To answer your first question, I do think that connecting to land-based education and cultural programming is very difficult. There are a lot of barriers that exist there. It goes with funding and access to land resources, because there’s not enough funding in place to always invite someone who has the knowledge of the medicines, the knowledge or access to their own land to bring young people there to participate in the cultural programming. There’s also a lack of funding for these knowledge keepers to attend these institutions or to be in these spaces where the young people are. That’s the biggest barrier.
For your second question, that’s a really big one. The Oyateki Partnership has partnered with the Mastercard Foundation. The Mastercard Foundation has funded multiple projects across the world that are similar to ours. Working with them is very easy because they don’t impose on anything that we do. They’re mainly there to offer support. They don’t really control what we do in our partnership. This partnership involves the University of Saskatchewan, the Gabriel Dumont Institute and the Saskatchewan Indian Institute of Technologies in Saskatoon. Working with these three post-secondary institutions, it’s really important that we get to control what we want. This whole partnership is about providing pathways for Indigenous youth to post-secondary education and employment. Our entire focus is to support Indigenous youth.
Senator D. Patterson: Thank you for your presentation.
I understand you also have your own youth-led organization. Could you tell us about that, please?
Ms. Speidel: I am the founder of Techa Oaye. We are a non‑profit youth organization under the Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act. Founding this organization was about focusing on the beauty of being an Indigenous young person.
Like I said earlier, we are often invited to these spaces to talk about the negative, but when Techa Oaye came about, and when I had this dream of founding this organization, it was about providing spaces for Indigenous youth to talk about all the good about being an Indigenous young person. Let’s celebrate that we have our language and our culture and that we are these phenomenal Indigenous athletes and educators. Let’s have the spaces to talk to other Indigenous young people about the successes in our communities. We have had and hosted two successful conferences as part of this organization to really do that.
Senator D. Patterson: You shared with us that when you began to show the Indigenous ancestry that you’re so proud of — your ribbon skirt and your beaded earrings — you encountered prejudice in those non-Indigenous schools. How did you cope with that? What’s your advice to people who unfortunately are still experiencing that today? How can that be handled?
Ms. Speidel: I did experience a lot of racism and discrimination in high school, specifically — not so much post‑secondary, which I am grateful for. But in high school, like I mentioned earlier, I was Manito Ahbee ambassador. That was a one-year reign, and during that reign, I dedicated myself to wearing a ribbon skirt every day for 365 days to raise awareness for missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. While attending this White-dominated school, I wasn’t originally labelled as being Indigenous. However, because I walked into the space now wearing a ribbon skirt and being proud, I had to navigate through the racism that I hadn’t received before.
Really, I relied on prayer, and I relied on faith and hope, because being so embedded in traditional knowledge and growing up with so much culture and understanding, I knew that a lot of this racism and discrimination was not coming because they hated me. They disliked me because they were not knowing or understanding why I was walking the way that I did in that ribbon skirt and why I found it important to wear a ribbon skirt that day and what I was doing. Providing that education was how I navigated through it. I always made sure that, if I had the chance, I would speak to my peers that attended school with me about the importance of the ribbon skirt. That’s how I navigated through that.
The Chair: Thank you.
Senator Greenwood: Thank you, Chante, for your presentation.
It makes my heart sing when I hear people speaking about hope, faith and prayer. It’s often easy to sink to the negative. It’s much harder to stay up and look at it from a different place. Thank you for that in your presentation.
As I listened to you speak, I heard you talk about young people living in urban settings. We’ve heard the concepts of getting back to the land. I have been asked this question many times around young children. How do you do that when you are working with a group of young people living in an urban setting? How can you get to the land? What does that look like? Can you tell me in really practical terms?
Ms. Speidel: I will provide an example. My father is cultural liaison at the Saskatoon Public Schools. He does phenomenal work. Saskatoon Public Schools had purchased land outside of Saskatoon for the division to utilize for cultural programming and land-based learning. Part of his role is to provide that programming, and a lot of the youth in the division at Saskatoon Public Schools are able to do that and access those services. Where I see the limitation and barrier now in Saskatoon is that there are other school divisions that don’t have that same opportunity. Also, our post-secondary institutions don’t have access to that. I think that every institution and every school division should probably purchase land for cultural programming and land-based learning because the Saskatoon Public Schools division has done such a beautiful thing by trailblazing that opportunity and showing a lot of great success.
Senator Greenwood: Thank you.
Senator Audette: I have a short comment with lots of hope and love. Education is important, but we have to study in French or in English in all of Canada. For us, going outside, what about the Indigenous languages? How can we protect our languages, knowing that it’s important to have those experiences at university or college? Can you help me enhance or promote or make the Indigenous languages stronger to make sure that even if I go outside of my community, I don’t lose my language? Do you have solutions or hope to share with me?
Ms. Speidel: Yes. I think a lot of that work starts by visually showing the language in all the institutions and spaces around us. I know it has been a huge initiative back home to include welcoming messages in all buildings in the six Indigenous languages of the region. Carrying on that effort, I think that every single building in Saskatchewan and beyond can include that same messaging. Also, in our land acknowledgement and stuff like that, we just have to make it publicly known that there is a need and a want to reclaim Indigenous languages.
Outside of that, Indigenous language programming is really important. It needs to be led by Indigenous people or partnered with Indigenous people in these institutions to really control that programming.
I can’t speak much more than that for solutions, but I hope I provided some.
Senator Coyle: Thank you so much, Chante. Really, again, you’ve added another whole dimension here to the conversation we have been having all day. I really appreciate that.
I had the good fortune of working with young leaders from Pine Ridge at one point. I don’t know if your people are connected into Pine Ridge, but there were really impressive young leaders from that community. This was decades ago that I did some work with them, and you are absolutely right to point out to any of us who may not have noticed that you are definitely the leaders of today and for tomorrow as well.
We’ve talked a lot about the education system, be it primary, secondary or post-secondary. You mentioned the importance of working beyond the education system. Earlier, we heard Dylan speaking about quite a number of things that he is involved in with his community that were beyond the education system. What are the sorts of things you might be involved in beyond the education system? What kinds of things would you like to see that take people beyond that system and do things in different ways?
Ms. Speidel: Another area where I find a lot of importance to providing Indigenous education and awareness is the employment system. I’m very familiar with that in my role now, but I think there is a huge desire to include trauma-informed education as part of different employment opportunities and also provide more summer student opportunities for Indigenous young people. It is really important going forward that a lot of our organizations outside of just our Indigenous communities support or reserve a spot for an Indigenous young person to be a summer student and to have the opportunity to be in the employment system, to learn about the system and to get job experience at a young age. That’s really where I find, outside of the education system, a lot of learning, and there is a really huge gap that exists now.
Senator Pate: Thank you to all the committee members. I miss this committee tremendously, and all the staff too.
Thank you to all the youth. Those of you who I wasn’t here in person for, I either listened to or will listen to your presentation, so thank you very much for the richness of your leadership. I apologize that it’s going to you, Ms. Speidel, but I invite all of you to send me the information, if you don’t have my card already, and I want a duet with those of you on TikTok, when I get back on.
I would like you to tell us what we should be doing. We have the privilege of these positions right now. You’re in leadership, but so are we, and sometimes we lack the courage to do what we know we need to do. If you had one, two, three things — however many things you want to tell us — that you would like to see us do right now, based on what you know we can do, and even if you don’t know if we can do it, then what you think needs to be done, I would like to hear that. I’m already inspired by all of you, and I know that will help give me more walking papers.
Ms. Speidel: It’s a really loaded question, but I really appreciate it.
Like I said before, it’s really about echoing our voices in any way that you can, whether it translates into a bill or into any other table beyond here. That’s really important. We don’t constantly get to sit in these spots, so if you take one message that you have heard today with you somewhere else, that’s a really big deal for me, and echoing my voice and my peers’ voices is a really big deal to me. Hopefully, I have inspired a little bit of hope for you to walk with as well today. Like I said earlier, we’re only igniting a flame, and now it’s your role as senators to really throw fire into that flame and carry it on with you. That’s all I can suggest now. Maybe it’s not the biggest suggestion, but thank you.
The Chair: One last question here because we have one minute left: Should Indigenous-related training be made mandatory for all parliamentarians, as in us here, and also all public servants?
Ms. Speidel: 100% agree.
The Chair: Thank you for that. That’s a great answer.
The time for this panel is now complete, and I wish to thank Ms. Speidel for taking the time to testify here with us today. You gave some amazing testimony, as did everyone.
This brings us to the end of our meeting. Wela’lin, thank you to everyone again for participating today, and please know we see you, we hear you and we’re here to help. I wish you and your families and communities all the best, and I hope our paths cross again. Thank you.
(The committee adjourned.)