Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to also thank all Members of the House for their thoughts, for their passion, for their analytical
thinking in terms of this issue. It’s a very big issue. It’s good that the people of the Northwest Territories hear the peoples’ government talk about a very important species in the North.
Mr. Speaker, the motion that I’ve moved in this House is to consult; consult with each other, consult with the aboriginal governments and show respect to the aboriginal peoples and to the aboriginal governments.
Mr. Speaker, the comments about this animal, you know, thinking back when we used to hunt, and we still hunt, the joy of the hunters when they go out and get a caribou, you know that feeling. Mr. Premier talked about that. It reminds me of when I went out with some elders and people, out hunting and you know this animal is going to feed a lot of good people, the animal is teaching you something, the traditional knowledge about this when they skin the animal, how you skin it, how you are supposed to be around it, there’s lots of values and beliefs. Most importantly, you know when you take this animal and you bring it back to your family, you can see the joy in the children’s faces and the family’s when you start cooking it, making meat out of it.
You know, we talk about this animal being here for thousands and thousands of years. We could not survive without them. They can survive without us. However, we have disturbed their way of life. The first thing the elders say to me: why did you put collars on them, that’s traumatic for the animal, they are very sensitive, they’re very holy and very clean. My elders said that when you put a caribou there and you put a collar on the caribou, it’s just like us having a grizzly bear come and attack us. It’s not good for them. There’s traditional knowledge like that that’s in our communities.
We have lived with these caribou for thousands and thousands of years. My people know about conservation measures. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be here. This animal would have been extinct a long time ago. We should give weight back to our people in the community. Tell us how to deal with this. Why is the caribou birthing but having calves two weeks late? Something’s telling us they’re having calves two weeks late, why is that? Like someone said, we should go to the elders and talk about that.
This motion talks about consulting, this motion talks about maybe sitting down with people. We do it right. We do it with the aboriginal governments, as the motion has said from the Dene Nation, passed by Edward Sangris, seconded by Grand Chief Sam Gargan in terms of lifting the ban and looking at how we sit down. Another motion about coming together. Mr. Speaker, we listen to our people. We have to have faith in our people and give weight to the traditional knowledge.
Mr. Speaker, we talk about future generations and Mr. Miltenberger is right; this issue here on water, I look forward to the day when we’re going to have a
good discussion on water, because all that poison is coming down the river from the Alberta tar sands to the Bennett Dam, coming down. Pretty soon there’s not going to be any for us. Maybe we’ll be extinct; we can’t drink the water. I know he has some strategies and I’ll certainly support him, but those things should be called emergency measures in Canada.
Mr. Speaker, I wanted to say there are lots out there. We grew up with the Dene laws. My friend Mr. Bromley talked about Yamoria. His law is signified in Bear Rock, the three beaver skins, two arrows in the Mackenzie River that complements the Bear River and the Mackenzie and the smoke in Tulita. His laws were there passed down to us. Just recently now we started to operate in the court of law, man-made laws to tell us how we should operate and how we should be with these animals. How come we don’t listen to our own laws? We do but it is not being taken very seriously. There are laws around handling animals, laws around for handling the meat, for cutting it, for hunting it. It seems like these laws are lost.
Mr. Speaker, now we talk about this motion. We talk about it because it is part of me and, as Mr. Lafferty said, we are connected to it. I can’t separate the spiritual part of it. That is who I am. Too bad caribou is in us. It is in my blood, in my heart and in my soul. I can’t take it. How can you do this to our people and say you can no longer hunt in this specific area? Yet they have thousands of trucks that go by there every year where the diamond mines are, the three big holes up there for diamonds. That is something that should have been done about destroying our land.
Mr. Speaker, I just want to close off saying that in Section 25 of the Charter of Rights, that certain rights that aboriginal people have that are protected. That is our shield of special provisions that we have protection. Rather than do the courts, the government says, let’s go to court and decide. My motion says that we sit down and consult each other and work it out. Let’s discuss this as leaders. This government says let’s call out the lawyers. Our people say let’s call out the hunters. We have rights too. Let’s get tied up into the court issue.
Mr. Speaker, this here, this consensus style of government is really taking a hit today, as I see it. At the end of the day, they state it is us against them. At the end of the day, the interim measure says you still are unable to hunt. This motion says let’s discuss them and work out our solutions here. In my view, meaningful consultation has been put aside. We talk about relationships, future generations, trust building. We really have to think about those words and how we use them, especially with aboriginal governments, aboriginal nations with this government here. Even thinking about in relationship to the culture of aboriginal
people, they have sacrificed enough for us to be here; tremendous amount of sacrifice.
If we look at just one instance such as the residential school, we would have been extinct. That never happened. So we talk about trust, it’s a big issue here. We are talking about a very important animal here in terms of this caribou. I think it’s a really good start as to where do we go from here, Mr. Speaker.
I want to thank Members here for really talking passionately about something that’s important to them. Wherever they’re from, whatever knowledge you have about this wonderful animal that has sustained us for thousands and thousands of years. That’s what we need in this Assembly here.
Mr. Speaker, for the record, I would like to ask for a recorded vote. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
