"Time Arrived to Settle Issues, Natives Told"

HAMILTON - The challenge was sent to every one of the 250 native and non-native people at the Drumbeat Conference in Hamilton on Sunday.

With two voices, but one message, Manitoba MLA Elijah Harper and Ontario Ombudsman Roberta Jamieson told the audience to take advantage of the current interest in native people and start resolving the issues which have been facing native communities for years.

Crowd members rose to their feet in a deafening burst of applause to show their appreciation for the man who said no to the Meech Lake accord when Mr. Harper prepared to speak.

While expressing his thanks for the welcome, the Cree man from northern Manitoba refused to dwell on events of last summer, when he and his eagle feather became symbols of power for all native people.

"Oftentimes, what I find is that aboriginal people across this country are seeking approval to do something, or seeking permission to do something.

"We don't need permission from anyone, like the Department of Indian Affairs, to start dealing with things, to deal with alcohol and substance abuse in our communities," said the 10-year veteran of the Manitoba legislature.

"Self-determination isn't something that can be given. Respect and honor cannot be given. Dignity cannot be given. That self-esteem, that pride has to come from within the community."

Mr. Harper said there is an unprecedented unity among native leaders, which must be acted upon, or lost.

Non-native people who are sympathetic must also take an active role in native struggles, he said, "because their sympathy and support doesn't mean anything until they do something to help find solutions."

Ms. Jamieson, a Six Nations woman, said Canadians must "insist upon, demand and succeed in establishing a neutral forum for facilitated negotiations" of conflicts between native people and governments.

Negotiated settlements are vastly superior to those which are imposed upon a community, she said, but both parties have lost faith in the existing system and must develop a new process.

The neutral body would comprise native and non-native people, with a chairman acceptable to both parties, and it would have to report publicly, said the Mohawk woman who once served as Ontario's Indian commissioner.

However, before such a process can be successful, Ms. Jamieson said important obstacles must be overcome.

For example, the dominant non-native society must abandon the cultural arrogance which has poisoned relations between natives and non-natives.

"Even sensitive, generous and kind members of North America's dominant culture have been acclimated from birth to ignore, depreciate and reject... the human beings who live in aboriginal communities," and that must change.

Ms. Jamieson said such steps could probe to be vital, not only for the survival of native communities, but also for the survival of the country.

"The First Nations have what Canada needs to deal with some of its more basic problems," she said.

The constant search for a Canadian identity might be solved forever if citizens embraced the land as native people have always done, which would give them a sense of what truly sets Canada aprt from the rest of the world.

Native people also could teach a spirituality which has been lost in today's technological world, she said.

Harvey Longboat, an Iroquois Confederacy chief, said the country would be stronger if the different cultures were allowed to flourish and grow together.