August 2013 - Page 29 of 30

An Indigenous Way of Life Threatened by Oil Sands in Canada

Ian Willms has photographed the effects of oil extraction on First Nations land in Fort McKay and Fort Chipewyan, in northern Alberta, Canada. Mr. Willms, 28, based in Toronto, is a founding member of the Boreal Collectiveand spent several months over the last three years photographing his project “As Long as the Sun Shines.” His interview with James Estrin has been edited and condensed.

By JAMES ESTRIN July 30, 2013

The New York Times

How did this project start?

When I graduated from school in 2008 I was hearing a lot about the oil sands in Canada. So I started doing research, and the more I learned, the more horrified I became.

I read a CBC article about cancer rates in indigenous communities that immediately surrounded the oil sands, and I knew right then that was exactly what I had to do. I searched pretty thoroughly for anybody who had done a proper photo story on the community, and I couldn’t find anything that was particularly in-depth.

What did you find when you got there?

I found a community that was far more developed economically than I had expected. There was a lot of infrastructure, and the homes were more modern than most First Nations communities. That has a lot to do with the proximity to the oil sands and the economic benefit that comes with that.

But the community is still struggling. First Nation reserves are still very dark and damaged places in many ways, and in other ways, they’re incredibly vibrant. So it was not as bleak as I expected it to be. If you didn’t already know that their water was basically coming off of a storm pipe of one of the largest polluting industrial projects in the world, you wouldn’t.

A lot of photographers who photograph native peoples in North America just hit and run. How did you go about capturing a fuller view?

Well, the most important thing is time. And it’s always going to be more time than anyone’s going to be willing to pay you for.

Beyond that, I think it’s a matter of becoming invested in people’s lives, because if you don’t care, they won’t. And if you fake it, people know. People aren’t stupid. If you treat them like they’re stupid, they’re never going to trust you. And so I spent a lot of time there, I made a lot of friends.

There are a lot if white journalists that go into indigenous communities in North America with a preconceived notion of what these people are like and what they need. But in truth this attitude is just a continuation of the abuse of those people.

What the first nations really need is the respect and the confidence of the rest of Canada, to tell their own stories and to manage their own communities. They need to be empowered but they don’t need others to tell them what to do.

I continually show my subjects the work that I do in these communities and ask if I am getting this right.

Tell me more about the oil sands.

There’s an oil reserve that’s located beneath Canada’s boreal forest that’s roughly the size of the state of Florida. It’s rich with oil, but the process of extracting it is incredibly energy intensive, difficult and expensive.

The process involved first clear-cutting the forest and then creating a strip mine. They dig the sandy oil out. It’s like hot asphalt. On a hot day, it’s very gooey and very much like tar.

The environmental toll is dramatic. There was a study by an NGO in Toronto, Environmental Defense, that in 2008 found that about 11 million liters of toxins were leaking into the Athabasca River every single day from several toxic-base water lakes in the oil sands region.

What’s the effect on the people?

It has brought more money into the communities than there was before. With that said, it’s really a small fraction of what they’re actually entitled to. These First Nations get really bad deals from the oil companies in order to leave their lands for oil.

A career in the oil sands may sound good to some people, but really it is the death of their culture because it’s taking the new generation to work toward a completely different way of life. And it’s a way of life that embraces the destruction of their land.

The Canadian Indian Residential School System was a cultural assimilation program that saw aboriginal children taken from their parents and forced to live in these boarding schools. Generations of children were physically and sexually abused in residential schools across Canada. The last federally operated residential school closed in 1996.

There’s a lot of grief, especially among the elders in the community, over the younger generation not taking an interest in hunting and fishing and trapping. And there’s a lot of conflict among the generation in between the youth and the elders — the generation that are in their late 20s to their 50s; the people who work in the oil sands but grew up hunting, fishing and trapping.

They are very conflicted, because they know what they’re doing. They know that they’re taking away their own land. But they do it because there’s no other option for them to make money. There’s no other way for them to feed their families. These communities are no longer able to be self sufficient off the land like they had been for thousands of years.

Read the full article and view photo slideshow here. View Ian Willms work here.

Fishing For Compliments: Chief Joseph Hatchery Opens 70 Years Late

Jack McNeel

ICTMN.COM July 22, 2013

The salmon once swam freely throughout the upper Columbia River, and plucking them from the waters represented an opportunity to benefit all the Colville Tribes by sharing the bounty.

“What a beautiful experience it was,” said Mel Taulou, an elder of the Colville Confederated Tribes, at a recent ceremony celebrating the first fish to be taken from the Chief Joseph Hatchery. He and others spoke of the sharing associated with fishing, of the exchange of fishing gear if someone was lacking something, and of sharing their catch with elders, friends and family.

“You gave freely. Everybody did. That’s the way it was,” said tribal member and longtime fisherman Lionel Orr, who sang in honor of the first fish as it was lifted from the river in the First Salmon ceremony. “That’s the way I was taught by the older fishermen.”

The salmon was then filleted, smoked, and later everyone present at the pre-opening ceremony was offered a taste of the first salmon.

About 800 people gathered near Chief Joseph Dam for the grand opening of the brand new Chief Joseph Hatchery on a rainy, overcast June 20. The water did not dampen their enthusiasm. Rather, since rain fills the rivers for salmon and is the lifeblood of the region, it was welcomed on this day in particular.

Although the day included a ribbon cutting and other opening celebrations, it was also an opportunity to honor the fishermen and their contributions to keeping this part of tribal custom alive and in passing their knowledge on to younger tribal members. The crowd gathered around tables under a huge tent to listen as representatives from tribal, state and federal agencies spoke about the history leading to this moment and what the hatchery would mean for the future.

The celebration concluded with tours of the hatchery, a full lunch featuring salmon, and the traditional ribbon cutting signifying the opening of the hatchery and completion of a promise made seven decades earlier.

The salmon’s freedom was first cut off by a series of dams that impeded their return to the spawning grounds. In the 1930s a number of dams throughout the Columbia basin were being planned, and tribes in the region were bracing themselves for the disastrous effect these constructs would have on fish runs and thus on tribal members’ lives. Four hatcheries were promised to help mitigate those effects on the Entiat, Wenatchee, Methow and Okanogan watersheds.

“Three of the four hatcheries were constructed between 1939 and 1942,” said Jim Brown, with the Washington Department of Fisheries and Game. Then came World War II. The hatchery plans were put on hold. Chief Joseph Hatchery, the fourth, had to wait. The wait is now over.

“Today’s event gives us the chance to celebrate the fulfillment of the 70-year old commitment,” Brown said at the opening. “Chief Joseph Hatchery is a tremendous accomplishment.”

The hatchery sits on 15 acres of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers property within the Colville Indian Reservation. It will be managed by the Colville Tribes under guidelines recommended by scientists as requested by Congress. It includes 40 raceways, each measuring 10 feet by 40 feet, plus three rearing ponds and three acclimation ponds, some onsite and some offsite.

“This is a modern hatchery built to the highest modern standards of science,” said Lorri Bodi of the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA). “It represents 30 years or more of progress in trying to meet the commitments by the federal government to tribes and the region. It represents a major step in our efforts to get fish back into the rivers of the Northwest.”

It was a collaborative effort involving the Colville Tribe, BPA, US Army Corps of Engineers, several Public Utility Districts and the NW Power & ‘Conservation Council. Funding came from the BPA and area public utility districts, Bodi said.

Colville Tribal Chairman John Sirois, center, cuts the ribbon for the long-awaited Chief Joseph Hatchery on the Colville Reservation, June 20, 2013. He is flanked by representatives of partner groups from the federal and tribal governments. (Photo: Jack McNeel)

The $50 million hatchery will annually release up to 2.9 million chinook salmon.

“We’re going to see natural spawning of fall and summer chinook in the Okanogan River and we’re going to see spring chinook in the Okanogan basin for the first time in many, many years,” said Tom Karier from the Northwest Power & Conservation Council.

“It’s been a historic day,” said Tribal Chairman John Sirois, who was the day’s emcee. “It really touched my heart hearing stories from our elders about our history. We are salmon people. The salmon sacrifice for us in a sacred way. We also make that sacred commitment to them, to provide their water. I am so grateful, thankful and humbled by all the work that went into making this hatchery possible.”

Derek C. Jones Poetry tonight at Hibulb

Thursday, August 1, Tulalip Hibulb Cultural Center welcome poet Derek C. Jones for an evening of his poetry followed by open mic poetry.

6-7 PM, Hibulb Cultural Center Research Library

hibulbculturalcenter.org

Scrub-A-Mutt returns for sixth year Aug. 17

Source: Marysville Globe

MARYSVILLE — Scrub-A-Mutt is returning for its sixth annual fundraising dog wash on Saturday, Aug. 17, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. As always, the dog wash will take place at the Strawberry Fields Athletic Park, located at 6100 152nd St. NE in Marysville.

Suggested donations for dog washes are $5 for small dogs and $10 for large dogs. Groomers and vet techs will be doing nail trims for suggested donations of $5 per dog. The first 250 dogs washed will receive stylish bandanas and “doggie goodie bags,” with treats and gifts for their dogs.

In addition to the dog washing, the site will host vendor booths for dog-themed businesses, like Furizzy and City Bones Barkery, as well as a wide array of dog rescue groups, including Bulldog Haven, Seattle Pug Rescue, the NOAH Center and more. Human visitors can enjoy snacks from Surf Shake Espresso, Sturgis Kettle Korn and the Hillside Church.

There will be three police K9 demonstrations this year; the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Department at 11:30 a.m., the Everett Police Department at 1 p.m. and the Marysville Police Department at 2:30 p.m. The Sun Dogs Agility Group will be on hand all day, with demonstrations and a training course for newcomers to the sport of agility.

“It seems like each year, our event gets more exciting,” said Elizabeth Woche, co-director of Scrub-A-Mutt. “Between the three police K9 demos, the all-day dog agility and our fun new vendor booths, even I can’t wait for the event day.”

The raffle tent is a familiar favorite at Scrub-A-Mutt, offering rows upon rows of gift baskets with the purchase of $1 tickets. Most of the baskets are dog-themed, with treats for both dogs and their owners.

Scrub-A-Mutt primarily raises money for three local dog rescue organizations; Old Dog Haven, NOAH and the Everett Animal Shelter. Additional rescue groups do receive donations based on the amount of money raised at the event. All of the event day proceeds are donated to rescue efforts.

Old Dog Haven is a nonprofit dog rescue group in Arlington that aims to provide loving and safe homes for abandoned senior dogs. Their website and outreach program finds “forever homes” for dogs 7 years or older.

NOAH is the Animal Adoption Center located in Stanwood that works toward stopping the euthanasia of healthy, adoptable dogs and cats, and has a strong spay and neuter program. They partner with local shelters, providing pets a second chance for a home.

The Everett Animal Shelter and ARF (Animal Rescue Foundation) care for lost or unwanted pets from most of Snohomish County. The staff and volunteers prepare unwanted animals for adoption. ARF’s mission is to improve the quality of life for companion animals and their caretakers in Snohomish County, through increased community involvement and fundraising with and for the Everett Animal Shelter.

Scrub-A-Mutt would like to remind dog owners to keep their pets on leashes at all times, and to remember that a well-socialized, well-behaved dog is a pleasure to wash. Visit their website at www.scrub-a-mutt.org for a map to the event and a complete guide of the day’s activities. Find them on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ScrubAMutt for updates.

For more information, call Jennifer Ward at 360-659-9626.

Frank Sex Talk Gets Sherman Alexie’s Book Yanked From Reading List

Source: Indian Country Today Media Network

It’s not the first time Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian has been scrutinized for its mature themes. This time it’s New York parents saying their sixth graders aren’t ready for the content in the book and have asked that it no longer be required summer reading.

“It’s about… masturbation—which is not appropriate for my child to learn at 11,” Kelly-Ann McMullan-Preiss, 39, of Belle Harbor, who refused to let her son read the book, told the New York Daily News. “It was like ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ for kids.”

At least eight parents planned to boycott the book, Parent Teacher Association co-president Irene Dougherty told the Daily News.

But before that was necessary, Public School/Middle School 114 in Rockaway Park, Queens announced on July 31 that the book would no longer be required summer reading. Prior to that announcement, incoming sixth graders had been expected to write an essay on the book, reported the Daily News.

McMullan-Preiss told the newspaper she didn’t want a book deciding when she would have the awkward conversation about masturbation with her son.

“And if God hadn’t wanted us to masturbate, then God wouldn’t have given us thumbs. So I thank God for my thumbs,” a line in the book says.

The book has come under scutiny before. The autobiographical story of a 14-year-old Native teen who explores questions of community, identity and tribe as he assimilates into a white, off-rez school has repeatedly been on the American Library Association’s list of most-challenged books. Though in 2012, it slipped from number two to number five on the list. It was cited for “offensive language, racism, religious viewpoint,” and for being “sexually explicit, unsuited to age group.”

The book has also been rewarded heavily, winning the 2007 National Book Foundation Award for Young People’s Literature. The book also appears repeatedly on the Best of BookUp Selections for 2013—these are chosen by students at middle schools.

In 2011, Alexie (Spokane/Coeur d’Alene) wrote a piece for the Wall Street Journal in defense of not only his book, but others with mature themes, titled “Why the Best Kids Books Are Written in Blood.”

“I write books for teenagers because I vividly remember what it felt like to be a teen facing everyday and epic dangers,” he wrote. “I don’t write to protect them. It’s far too late for that. I write to give them weapons—in the form of words and ideas—that will help them fight their monsters. I write in blood because I remember what it felt like to bleed.”

He defending his book back in 2008 as well when it was pulled from an Oregon classroom.

“Everything in the book is what every kid in that school is dealing with on a daily basis, whether it’s masturbation or racism or sexism or the complications of being human,” Alexie told The Bulletin, an Oregon newspaper. “To pretend that kids aren’t dealing with this on an hour-by-hour basis is a form of denial.”

While Teri Lesesne, who teaches young adult literature at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas, feels everyone should read the book at some point, “I’m not sure I’d give it to sixth-graders,” she told the Daily News. “I’m not sure sixth-graders are young adults.”

Alaska’s heat wave breaking records, killing salmon

John Upton, Grist

Something smells fishy about a record-breaking heat wave in Alaska.

It might be the piles of dead salmon.

The Land of the Midnight Sun has been sweating, relatively speaking, through a hot and sun-soaked summer. From the AP:

Anchorage has set a record for the most consecutive days over 70 degrees during this unusually warm summer, while Fairbanks is closing in on its own seasonal heat record.

The National Weather Service said Alaska’s largest city topped out at 70 degrees at 4 p.m. Tuesday, making it the 14th straight day the thermometer read 70 or higher. That breaks a record of 13 straight days set in 2004.

In Fairbanks, temperatures Monday reached 80 or higher for the 29th day this summer.

While most of the world is getting warmer, the 49th state appeared recently to be getting colder – the temporary effect of a long-term oceanic weather pattern known as the Pacific Decadal Oscillation. Now the unusually toasty summer is raising questions about whether climate change is heating up the state, though some are arguing the heat wave could just be an anomaly.

What isn’t being questioned is the link between the hot weather and a die-off of 1,100 king salmon. The fish were returning to a hatchery south of Petersburg to spawn when they succumbed to hot water and low oxygen levels, perhaps worsened by low tides. From a weekend report by the AP:

Alaska Department of Fish and Game sportfish biologist Doug Fleming said he found the dead fish July 18 after last week’s warm weather, when temperatures were in the 80s.

He began monitoring water levels earlier in the week when it appeared temperatures were reaching dangerous levels.

“And so, getting through till Wednesday which appeared to be the hottest day, then on Thursday I was conducting an aerial survey just to get a grip on how many fish may have been killed by the warm water, not expecting to see a large die-off but some, and I was shocked to see the numbers of fish that we lost,” he said.

Start your engines for Seafair Weekend

Seafair Weekend hydroplane races and air show, Aug. 2-4, Seattle

Madeline McKenzie, The Seattle Times

Colorful hydroplanes racing on Lake Washington and festival activities onshore star at the Seafair Weekend at Genesee Park Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The big event, a festive Seattle Seafair tradition since 1951, draws thousands of spectators on the shore and in watercraft for the hydro races, air show and summer fun.

The Patriots Jet Team stars in the daily Air Show, since the Navy’s popular Blue Angels couldn’t make it this year. Vintage and specialty planes perform in the air throughout all three days, and vintage hydroplanes are on display in the pits all weekend and in the water at 12:15 and 2:30 p.m. Friday, 10:20 a.m. Saturday and 10:45 a.m. and 1:15 p.m. Sunday.

Onshore events include military-flight simulations, entertainment, Kids Zone inflatable rides, souvenir vendors, interactive exhibits and a variety of food from 20 vendors. Learn all about hydroplane racing at the Hydro 101 tent, see the Budweiser Clydesdales and try the zip line and the new waterslide in Genesee Park.

Beer gardens are at the South Turn and North Turn areas with views of the races, and at Genesee Park adjacent to the music stage. It’s fine to bring your own food and beverages, but no outside alcohol is allowed.

Shoes are required in certain areas, including closed-toe shoes for access to Stan Sayres Pits for guided tours and up-close views of the hydros, available daily with purchase of a Pit Pass ($10/person). Grandstands are the only area providing reserved seating at premium cost. For everyone else, folding chairs or a blanket to sit on come in handy, though many spectators simply sit on the grass or stand near the lake during the races.

Parking is extremely limited in the area; advance parking is available online for $33 a day, if it’s not sold out. There’s a bike corral outside the main gate for bicycle parking. A free shuttle bus from the Columbia City Link Light Rail station offers 5-minute rides to the Seafair main gate 7 a.m.-6 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Seafair’s website has a $10 coupon for all-day parking at SeaTac Airport Garage and information about parking near other Light Rail stations.

Pope Francis Defends Amazon And Environment In Brazil

By Bradley Brooks, Huffington Post

RIO DE JANEIRO — Pope Francis took on the defense of the Amazon and the environment near the end of his weeklong trip to Brazil, as he donned a colorful Indian headdress Saturday and urged that the rainforest be treated as a garden.

The pontiff met with a few thousand of Brazil’s political, business and cultural elite in Rio de Janeiro’s Municipal Theater, where he also shook hands with Indians who said they were from a tribe that has been battling ranchers and farmers trying to invade their land in northeastern Bahia state.

In a separate speech to bishops, the pope called for “respect and protection of the entire creation which God has entrusted to man, not so that it be indiscriminately exploited but rather made into a garden.”

He also urged attention to a 2007 document by Latin American and Caribbean bishops that he was in charge of drafting, which underscored dangers facing the Amazon environment and the native people living there. The document also called for new evangelization efforts to halt a steep decline in Catholics leaving for other faiths or secularism.

“The traditional communities have been practically excluded from decisions on the wealth of biodiversity and nature. Nature has been, and continues to be, assaulted,” the document reads.

Several of the indigenous people in the audience hailed from the Amazon and said they hoped the pope would help them protect land designated by the government as indigenous reserves but that farmers and ranchers illegally invade for timber and to graze cattle. In fact, grazing has been the top recent cause of deforestation in Brazil.

“We got credentials for his speech and attended so we could tell the pope what’s happening to our people,” said Levi Xerente, a 22-year-old member of the Xerente tribe in Tocantins state in the Amazon, after he attended the pope’s speech. “We hope that he will help intervene with the government and stop all the big public works projects that are happening in the region.”

Xerente, speaking in broken Portuguese, said the biggest threats to Indians in the region were big agribusiness invading land and the government’s own massive infrastructure projects, including the damming of rivers for hydroelectric power generation and roads being carved out of the forest, often to reach giant mines.

Francis thanked Brazilian bishops for maintaining a church presence in the rugged and vast Amazon, which is about the size of the United States west of the Mississippi River. But he pushed church leaders to refocus energies on the region.

“The church’s work needs to be further encouraged and launched afresh” in the Amazon, the pope said in prepared remarks, urging an “Amazonian face” for the church.

He cited the church’s long history of working in the region.

“The church’s presence in the Amazon basin is not that of someone with bags packed and ready to leave after having exploited everything possible,” he said. “The church has been present in the Amazon basin from the beginning … and is still present and critical to the area’s future.”

Catholic priests and nuns have taken up the causes of Indians and of poor subsistence farmers in the Amazon, often putting themselves in danger. Violent conflicts over land rights are common in the region, where wealthy farmers and ranchers are known to hire gunmen to intimidate people into leaving land the government has often set aside as reserves for their use.

In 2005, U.S. nun and Amazon land-rights defender Dorothy Stang was murdered by one such gunman in the state of Para. Two ranchers were later convicted of ordering her murder so they could control a parcel of land the government had ceded to a subsistence farming group Stang worked with.

___

Associated Press writer Jenny Barchfield contributed to this report.

What’s a GMO? And Should Washington Food Labels Warn Us About Them?

BY RACHEL BELLE on July 31, 2013

MYNorthwest.com

Good day, class. Today we’re going to learn about GMOs. Those three little letters have been in the news a lot lately, and most people don’t really know what it means. For example, today in our show prep meeting, I told the guys I was doing a story on GMOs and Ron said:

“What’s the ‘O’ stand for? Genetically Modified…O?”

Organism. Genetically Modified Oganism. It’s also called GE, Genetically Engineered.

This November, Washingtonians will vote on I-522 to decide if foods and seeds containing GMOs should be labeled at grocery and home and garden stores.

Trudy Bialic is director of public affairs for PCC Natural Markets. She wants the labeling. “Essentially all GMOs are either tolerating a pesticide or producing their own pesticide and insecticide. It’s engineered with properties that make the produce its own insecticide. You are eating a registered pesticide.”

GMOs can currently be found in some zucchini and yellow squash and sweet corn, which means they often show up in processed foods that contain corn syrup. But Trudy isn’t taking a stand on whether GMOs are good or bad. She simply wants the products labeled.

“I-522 is really about labeling,” says Trudy. “It’s not about the science. Labeling gives us transparency and it gives us, as shoppers, the ability to decide for ourselves what’s appropriate and best for us to buy and feed our families.”

But not everyone wants the labels. Dana Beiber is the spokesperson for the No on 522 campaign.

“We already have a labeling system that works perfectly,” Dana says. “For folks who want to avoid foods with GE ingredients in them, they can do so by looking for the organic label. So it’s not necessary. The other reason it’s not necessary to put a warning label on these foods is because we’ve been eating them for decades and we have overwhelming scientific research that tells us that the foods are safe.

She says farmers will either have to spend money on a new label, that’s specific to Washington state, or change the ingredients in their product.

“I think it’s consumers who are really gonna end up paying the bill for us,” Dana says. “We can expect our grocery bills to go up by hundreds of dollars per year to pay for this unnecessary labeling system.”

Trudy says 64 countries and a few other states have already passed GMO labeling laws.

“Two-thirds of Washingtonians support labeling of genetically engineered foods. There are only five corporations that are funding the opposition. Five! They’re protecting their profits. Their concern is not the right to know for all Washingtonians. We all should know what’s in our food.”

We already label products with their fat and sodium content, we list all the ingredients, so what’s the harm in alerting consumers to GMOs?

“The fat or the sodium or whether it has eggs or peanuts in it, all that’s placed on every label throughout the country. It’s also on the back of the product. It’s not a warning label on the front of the product. Make no mistake, 522 is a warning label. In fact, the proponents have said they want it to be a skull and crossbones label on the front of a package.”

The spokesperson from Yes on I-522 says they have no intention of using a skull and crossbones, just a simple couple of words.

Class dismissed.

A Good Dam Movie: Speaking the Ameriquois Language in Montreal

Gale Courey Toensing, Indian Country Today Media Network

A standing-room-only audience filled the auditorium of the Grand Bibliotheque (Great Library) in Montreal on July 30 for the world premiere of filmmaker Pierre Bastien’s new feature-length documentary, Paroles Amerikoises (“Ameriquois” Lyrics). The screening kicked off the 23rd First Peoples Festival, which takes place through August 5 at various venues in downtown Montreal and at Kahnawake, the nearby Mohawk territory across the St. Lawrence River.

Bastien’s film is about a unique gathering of Native and non Native writers — poets, essayists and novelists — who were invited to meet by Innu poet Rita Mestokosho at Ekuanitshit (“where things run aground”), an Innu community of just over 500 people. The film shifts between views of the Romaine River and its surrounding landscape and the writers, who inhabit the same vast geographical, economic and cultural territory, talking in an attempt to find a common ground based on “Ameriquois” identity.

The writers met over five days on the Romaine River. “It was a very deep encounter on the Romaine River, which is a very emblematic river,” Henri Welch, communications coordinator for the First Peoples Festival, explained. “Hydro Quebec [the publicly-owned electricity generating company] decided to build a dam on the river and naturally it was against the will of some of the indigenous communities and also some of the white people, who said we have no use for such a dam. The Romaine River is one of the best rivers we have in Quebec and it’s a tragedy to build a dam there.” Furthermore, Welsh said, Quebec, with its abundance of relatively inexpensive hydro-electricity, doesn’t need more electricity. “The only reason to build it is just to sell the extra electricity to the Yankees!” he said. “So the film is really important because it’s the story about [the dam], and it connects the Native and non-Native imaginations, and it was a crucial moment when people came together and expressed their thoughts and expressed many issues within their cultural range. It’s very, very beautiful.”

Filmmaker Pierre Bastien

Bastien, who is of Huron ancestry, said the group of aboriginal and Quebec writers formed around six years ago with the French language as the common organizing element. He was invited to join the group not as a filmmaker but as an artist whose opinions the group sought. “I brought my camera with me and I soon found myself immersed in the filmmaking process more than giving my opinion on things,” Bastien said. “I started filming and then I became this roaming eye, this seeing-all eye behind every one and [I was] listening and watching and looking more than talking.” As a filmmaker for more than 25 years, Bastien easily slipped into that role and made himself invisible. “I didn’t want the camera to be the star; I wanted it to be just like another person there. I tried to capture the spirit of the moment. Sometimes it’s like a bit of magic but you don’t always get that result.”

Paroles Amerikoises is Bastien’s fifth feature film. The film is currently in French only but Bastien said he hopes that the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) will offer to translate it into English. Meanwhile, the film will go on French television in a shorter version because, Bastien said, “they never buy a 75 minute film.” From there, Bastien said, it would go on the indie film circuit to universities and film festivals.

Bastien succeeded greatly in being unobtrusive. The film captures the writers — Rita Mestokosho, Joséphine Bacon, Louis Hamelin, Jean Désy, Yves Sioui-Durand, Jean Morisset, Guy Sioui-Durand, and others — speaking in the most heartfelt way, unaffected by the presence of the camera. Among the most moving scenes is one in which the poet, filmmaker, and songwriter Josephine Bacon (Innu), talks about an elder who dreamed of returning to his territory: As he drummed he talked about a beautiful white-haired person that he longed for — the young people present thought he was talking about his wife, but he was really talking about his hunting territory in the wintertime when the land was covered in snow.

“[Bacon] is probably the wisest, most spiritual person in the group,” Bastien said. “She’s like a mother to us all and she plays a very important role in the culture here, in all cultures, she’s a very important artist figure.”

While the film documents the physical meeting on the Romaine River, it is as much about the meeting of minds in which the Native and non-Native writers talk about both geographical and cultural territories and the way to share them. “It’s about the power of artists on the territories and how, in Quebec, over 400 years, the population has become a uniquely Metis kind of people,” Bastien said. “Like [one of the writers] says in the film, ‘Our father was river and our mother was an Indian girl.” The statement references — poetically — how the pattern of French settlement in “New France” differed from English settlement in “New England.” The earliest French settlers were mostly single men who came as indentured laborers, and married Native women, which accounts for the enduring belief that a vast percentage of “white” Quebecers have Native ancestry. “Yes, they did marry Native women otherwise the white people would not have survived,” Bastien said. “So the mixing of the cultures — not so much of the blood but of the cultures — is a way to peace.”

The First Peoples Festival will continue through August 5 with more films, including the Canadian premiere of Winter in the Blood, an adaptation of the Blackfeet writer James Welch’s novel, starring Chaske Spencer. Most events including concerts at Festival Plaza are free. For more, see the full calendar of First Peoples’ Festival activities.