I was a bit perturbed to run into this story from the east coast. I had heard of the treaty/legal battles between First Nations fishermen and lobstermen and the fishermen/lobstermen of the 'greater society' that they are embedded in. The essence of the struggle is that shrinking resources and fishing quota regulations were already squeezing the commercial fishermen when treaty rights regarding fishing resources began to be recognised and enforced within the framework of existing quotas. Meaning: The newly recognised players in the commercial fishing industry -First Nations Communities- were being given a slice of the existing pie and shrinking the quotas for established fishermen, even further.
Years after their entry into lobster-fishing, the Indian Brook First Nation is wondering what happened to the $5 million that were poured into a couple of businesses that were engineered by a portion of their council, cutting out the community and the elected Chief of the Band/(Tribe).
Lobster article at Halifax Chronicle-Herald.
Lobster article 2 - Commercial fishermen protest Native lobstermen.
Lobster article 3 - Indian Brook gets last minute lobster licenses, without troubled business.
update, October 18,2006:
More lobstery scrapes
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Yay!:
I'm excited to announce that I've been offered a gig at the local Rainy River campus of Confederation College, to teach art. Much depends on the number of signups, but I'm planning a very 'practical, directed exploration' of building canvases and creating unique paintings. Fort Frances Times article.
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Art Stuff:
TPT (Twin Cities Public Television) Primer on powwows.
Artellephant Puppetry and mask link.
Eric Schweig interview.
Eric Scweig was in a couple of my FAVE "Native" flicks: Skins and Last of the Mohicans.
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Caledonia/Six Nations:
There has been increasing news coverage of the Caledonia/Six Nations standoff near Hamilton, Ontario; The Six Nations have manned a protest camp for months to block continued development of a housing project that was begun on land under land claim. An old land claim. The provincial government has since bought out the developers, but has not returned the land to Six Nations.
A couple days ago there was a counter-protest "Peace Rally" by white locals and outsiders: supposedly protesting "differential treatment" of the Native protesters by the Ontario Provincial Police; claiming that white protesters would have long been arrested and cleared out.
What I as a First Nations person hear, however, when I hear that we are being "treated differentially", is that we are not being murdered and overrun like in the "good, old days".
I offer one link re: Caledonia, but ask yous to inform yourselves about this situation.
Honour Six Nations
The "good old days1" - Oka & "good old days 2" - Ipperwash.
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Tainted wood:
Some Seattle homeowners must be chagrined to find out that the "Green" homes that they were sold were actually built with wood harvested out from under the protests of the Grassy Narrows Community, near Kenora, Ontario.
Free Grassy.Org
Download the report.PDF titled "American Dream / Native Nightmare"
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Hmmmmm... I might change this around a bit:
Then add some more papier-mache and paint.
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