I would like to thank the Premier, the Honourable Nellie Cournoyea, the Minister of Justice, Stephen Kakfwi, and all the Members of this Legislative Assembly. I know that if you weren't interested in family violence, you would not have invited this group to speak to you on how we can attempt to address the end of violence in our communities.

The Native Women's Association is very concerned about the high stats of crime rates. But, we say that there is enough

research on the issue of family violence. The time is ripe, the time is now, to strike up a working committee, made up of women's groups, men's support groups, elders, the disabled and Members of this House to start addressing the issue of family violence. Otherwise, I predict a continuation of community violence, a justice system that is expensive to maintain, a judicial system that has a backlog of cases.

We don't want you to think that family violence is only a women's issue. Family violence affects the whole community. A holistic approach is very essential. We can no longer work in our own little corners, in isolation, and hope that we can outdo the other initiative in family violence. For every young person in our court system, we must address that person holistically. What do I mean by holistically? I mean we look at that person physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually.

We also must look at financial contributions the holistic way. To me, that is to financially support the interagency. We can no longer say that it is the responsibility of the justice system when a young person comes into the court system. We have to start talking to the Department of Education, Social Services and all other departments that have an interest in making the community a safer place to stay.

We need to pool all our resources together and we need you, as legislators, and your departments to work with us. We may help you. We may suggest where there is need for changes in your policies. The Status of Women's Association has already told you where you can make cuts. We are good at that, if you give us that opportunity. Together, we can start to address problems and search for solutions.

What I have spoken about cannot happen in isolation. We have concerns about the communities. What our communities have said to us is healing must take place first. What do we mean by healing? Healing is a long painful process. I am sure if any of you are invited to family violence workshops, you will feel the pain. You will feel the pain of our care givers. Because the care givers are the ones who are directly involved with helping those people who have lived in violent situations. The healing process is allowing someone to talk, allowing someone to grieve. That is not an easy job. We get very emotional. In order to be of any help to that person, we have to feel their pain with them. This is what the communities have said. They need to go through that healing process.

There is another way to heal that some of our contemporary aboriginal people are going through. That is going back to our spirituality and that is helping many of our old people in the regions to heal. I am not going to give you an experience of what it is to see a grieving person. When I talk about the hurt of our women out in the communities, I get very emotional, but I am not going to cry because I don't know how you would take me crying up here.

We all know that violence is usually based on power and control. It is a result of this power and control. The vulnerable members of our society are the weaker members of our society, they are the women and our children, they are the elders of our community and they are the disabled. There are many dysfunctional families in our society. If we don't do anything now, as a group, and working in partnership, we can expect the women, children, elders and disabled to continue to experience neglect. They will continue to be the prisoners of an alcoholic culture and society.

Now I will throw out some questions. What can the Government of the NWT do? We are really thankful that you have lead in the declaration of zero tolerance to family violence. Now what does that really mean? What does that mean to each one of you when you took that declaration seriously? I hope you took it seriously. Does that mean that you will start coming out to public meetings when the care givers call for meetings? Or, are you going to continue...Gee, I am talking to the wrong people, I should be talking to the community leadership, but I will talk to you, anyway.

Our care givers in the communities are experiencing problems. It is said yes, you are doing a terrific job, I will go to your meetings to listen to you. But many times, these care givers talk to the converted, their co-workers. That is the end of the meeting. It is very frustrating for our care givers in the community. No wonder they are burning out. But now that you have made a declaration, will you publicly voice your concerns about family violence? Will you go on TV and talk to your peers, saying we want to live in a non-violent society? I hope you will. And tell the leaders, both at the local level and at the level of this House, until they start taking a public stand on family violence, I really cannot see any great improvement. But, because you have taken the initiative to invite us here, I am going to be trustful. I am going to trust you. You are the law-makers. You have the authority to make the changes. I'm going to trust that something is going to happen. The beginning is now. We are willing. Are you willing to work in partnership in developing a strategy to address community violence? If so, there is an implementation process. Like I said, to be an effective strategy, we need equal partnership in dealing with strategy and implementation. We realize that, as our Government of the Northwest Territories, you cannot do it on your own. We realize and have known for a long time, we as care givers, we as women's groups, cannot do it on our own. But, together we can accomplish much to restore our human values and to restore our dignity. Thank you.

---Applause