On Jan. 24, the Coast Salish people stood up National Chief A-in-chut Shawn Atleo and his wife Nancy in their house, the Musqueam Cultural Centre, and wrapped them in love and warmth, prayer and song, blanketing them in a symbolic embrace; the protection of women.
The morning's ceremony, hosted by the BC Assembly of First Nations, was meant to hold Atleo up on the crest of a wave, to strengthen him as he returns to Ottawa at this critical moment in history. It was held to show Atleo how much the Coast Salish care for him, and worry about him, a worry exaggerated by the great geographical distance between Ottawa and home, said Ray Harris, co-chair of the First Nations Summit, the man conducting the ceremony.
See photos from the event at: http://www.hashilthsa.com/gallery/national-chief-chut-shawn-atleo-given-...
The event was held also to demonstrate the strength--in numbers, depth, breadth, scope and skill--of the BC team standing behind Atleo as he heads off to press the federal government on its commitments made on Jan. 11.
Then, Atleo and 20-some other chiefs, met with Prime Minister Stephen Harper over three hours to deliver an eight-point consensus statement on the priorities of First Nations. In return the chiefs received the promise of high-level oversight from the Prime Minister's Office, a requirement for action on those key items to move forward, the national chief has said.
The action items include treaty implementation, fair and expeditious settlement of land claims through the reform of the comprehensive claims policy, resource benefit and revenue sharing, legislation consistent with section 35 of Canada's Constitution and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, a minimum international standard to which the Canadian government has stated it aspires to achieve.
See the full document here: http://www.hashilthsa.com/news/2013-01-15/national-chiefs-eight-key-elem...
Among the witnesses called upon to remember and go forward to tell the story of the day was Ktunaxa Nation Chair Kathryn Teneese.
"We are in full support and we will do everything that we can to ensure you, as national chief, can continue on," she said. Ktunaxa is currently embroiled in a battle to protect their sacred Qat’muk against the Jumbo Glacier Resort project. The development approval, "a significant and unjustifiable violation of Ktunaxa constitutional rights," the Ktunaxa contend.
Ed Newman of the Heiltsuk Nation, located at Bella Bella along the inside coastal waters of BC on the route of Enbridge's supertanker traffic, told Atleo Heiltsuk stands "solidly behind you, encourages you and gives you strength."
The Heiltsuk Nation is known for its basketball, canoe culture and, most recently, for a peaceful protest against the Northern Gateway pipeline project that so spooked the National Energy Board's Joint Review Panel last April that the group cancelled hearings in the community.
The 14 nations of the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council also took the opportunity to honor the national chief. NTC Vice-President Ken Watts offered his words of support on behalf of the group. He is the son of the late George Watts, widely credited with shepherding the Maa-nulth Treaty, the first-multi-nation treaty negotiated under the BC Treaty Process, into reality.
Ken expressed his frustration at not being by Atleo's side during a highly-charged meeting of chiefs in Ottawa Jan. 10. There, hunger-striking Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence urged the assembly to boycott the meeting with the Prime Minister the next day. Watts said it saddened him that only a few chiefs of the more than 200 from the region were with Atleo that evening.
He said Nuu-chah-nulth agreed with the decision to meet with the Prime Minister because "we believe in sitting down and negotiating." Nuu-chah-nulth Nations, for example, are currently involved in what they have described as a frustrating "negotiation" with the federal government on the implementation of their court-supported right to a commercial fishery of all species of fish (excluding geoduck).
Watts said "We witnessed Shawn taking a beating back East, through social media, Twitter [for taking the meeting with the PM]. It hurt me a lot when I couldn't be there for him." He assured Atleo that the Nuu-chah-nulth Nations are but a phone call away if he requires their help in the future.
But the message delivered by Watts was also about seizing the opportunity that this moment in history offers up. He said it wasn't the time to be fighting among ourselves, or fighting last July's election all over again. "We can't let... people's personal agendas... and sour grapes come between us."
"This is the moment that many of the people have been waiting for," Watts said. "We need to walk through that door... We can't let our kids go through what we are going through now."
The Nuu-chah-nulth presented Atleo with gifts that will remind him of home and his ancestral territory. A ceremony for the Atleos took place in Ahousaht on Jan. 21, where community members brushed them with cedar boughs, and expressed their deep love and unwavering support, said Stewart Phillip, president of the powerful and uncompromising Union of BC Indian Chiefs, who attended that celebration.
"Amazing. Absolutely amazing," said Phillip, adding that he and his wife Joan, their adult children and their grandchildren, committed their support to Atleo. "And we will be there for as long as it takes."
Many of the other chiefs in the assembly took their opportunity to support Atleo. The Kwagiulth sang songs for him. Nicola Valley pledged its support, as did Julie Morrison representing Gitanmaax in BC's north at Hazelton.
Robert Shintah of Ts’kw’aylaxw First Nation in the south central interior said his community was behind Atleo 110 per cent.
"I know we have one darned good national chief," he said.
The chiefs spoke freely and forcefully at the meeting.
Wilf Adams of Burns Lake described the Jan. 10 meeting held at Ottawa's Delta Hotel as an ambush, yet Atleo stood his ground, he said.
"I was very proud of him."
Regional Chief Roger Augustine, representing New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, stood to re-iterate his support of the national chief. He had flown from one coast to the other to be at the ceremony.
"We will walk with you until the day you tell us to go home," he said.
Augustine stepped into the national chief's role briefly as Atleo took leave to recover from a bout of norovirus, a "violent" illness Atleo said he would never wish on anyone; though to take the leave required to become well was another move the national chief was roundly criticized by his detractors for making.
Augustine was also beside Atleo at a national press conference held in the afternoon Jan. 24 after the morning's tributes. Also backing the chief there was heavy-hitter Ed John, lawyer and chair of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, an executive member of the First Nations Summit and an honorary witness of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings.
Chief Douglas White also stood for Atleo. White is a lawyer, a member of the Summit executive and chief of the Snuneymuxw First Nation at Nanaimo on Vancouver Island. He most recently led an Idle No More event to protest a Port Authority proposed 30-year lease of Nanaimo Harbour (a winter village site of the Snuneymuxw) to a private company without consulting the First Nation's community.
See his detailed statement of complaint here: http://www.hashilthsa.com/news/2013-01-18/snuneymuxw-chapter-and-verse-n...
Doug Kelly, grand chief of B.C.’s Sto:lo Tribal Council (home to B.C.'s former Lt. Gov. Steven Point, a former chief commissioner of the BC Treaty Commission) stood behind Atleo as well. Kelly is chair of the First Nations Health Council which is in the process of taking over health delivery services for First Nations in the province. The process includes a $2.5 billion funding transfer towards implementation of that negotiated tripartite agreement.
UBCIC's Phillip, representing a hundred-plus nations in the province, joined National Chief Atleo at the press conference, as did BC Regional Chief Jody Wilson Raybould, a lawyer and former acting chief commissioner for the BC Treaty Process. She has spent her brief time in her role with the AFN on, among other work, developing governance tools for BC nations.
Wilson Raybould hosted the day's events saying the BC chiefs were standing united to honor Atleo for the work he has done and the work he will embark upon to hold the Prime Minister to his commitments; to use the collective energies of the Idle No More movement, the efforts of Chief Theresa Spence and the other hunger-strikers and the skills of the team standing with him to translate that into "meaningful practical benefits for the people," she said.
