Mr. Chairman, every summer, around the middle of July, people from at least the southern part of the Mackenzie go down to a place called Lac Saint Ann on a pilgrimage. There are miracles happening there. All those people go there on their own. When that is over, you will see vehicles and vehicles, especially from Fort Rae, coming from this pilgrimage. The whole purpose of healers is not something that is given to just any aboriginal person. Some people have it. Some people feel hopeless because they don't think they can be cured. I refer them to several people down south who do work in those areas, but those are all done on the basis of your state of mind. You have to be able to go over there with good intentions. It's a pilgrimage. You are in a state of mind to either be cured or not cured. It is all based on how you get there. That doesn't happen if you are going to have people buying tickets for you to jump off a plane and you go with those people. You have got to be able to prepare yourself while you are travelling. That is what I mean, it doesn't work if you are not in the right state of mind to see those people. That is why I said it is not all dollars and cents.

If I was in Fort Providence...for example, my mother still does it. She still gathers roots, she still gathers plants, and I go to her when I have physical problems. But I go to the nurse if I had a broken leg or something like that. If I can't see, I go to see an eye doctor. The method of delivering that kind of healing is not based on whether you have a lot of moolah in your pocket. It's all based on a state of mind. For those people who did go on their own, the results are quite amazing. We see this happening...The very traditional being incorporated into the existing system is nothing more than a system that really doesn't mean anything because the healing doesn't happen.

You have to be able to make a lot of sacrifices and that is the whole purpose of healers. Also, it is a community effort; people find that if a member of the family is sick and that it will require that this person travels, it becomes a community concern as opposed to a government concern. Again, I use the example of Fort Rae, they raise money to go to those events. That is the only point I am trying to make. A statement was made by the international...linguistic genocide. The United Nations is saying that 50 out of 53 aboriginal languages in Canada are expected to perish. Now why is that? Is it because it's in the existing system that it is doing that? If it gets gobbled up by the system, then it no longer exists. I believe that even funding it, I'm afraid, will lead to the extinguishment of those healers.