From Sept. 24-28, McGill hosted its second annual Aboriginal Awareness Week (AAW). This year’s AAW included a variety of events celebrating Aboriginal culture and history, as well as educating attendees on issues of Aboriginal identity and rights.
Events were held throughout the week, featuring two dream catcher-making workshops, film screenings, and talks by prominent leaders of the Aboriginal community. One speaker, Ellen Gabriel, spoke on Tuesday in the SSMU Building on international Aboriginal rights issues.
Gabriel is a long-time Aboriginal rights activist who has dealt with every level of government, from local to international, in support of Canada’s Aboriginal people. Most notably, Gabriel was chosen by the Oka community to represent them during the highly publicized Oka Crises of 1990, when a land dispute between the Quebec town of Oka and a group of Mohawk people escalated into a violent conflict.
Gabriel’s talk touched on many issues facing the Aboriginal community. These issues include self-determination, violations of human rights, land and resource disputes, language rights, and intellectual property rights.
Although the United Nations (UN) has been a centre for discussion on dealing with such problems, Gabriel said it has not proved to be a successful forum.
“The problem is the UN has not come up-to-date with how to allow Indigenous people to participate,” Gabriel said. “We’re considered civil society players or stake holders, when really, [looking] at the UN Declaration of Rights for Indigenous people, [we would like to see] our rights of self-determination addressed.”
Gabriel stressed that it is up to Aboriginal people to determine their future. She argued that decisions are made for the Aboriginals rather than by the Aboriginals. According to Gabriel, Canada has been especially poor at working with Aboriginal communities to address these issues.
“I’m sorry to tell you [but] Canada is losing—or has lost— its reputation [as] a supporter of human rights because of infractions against Indigenous people—not just here in Canada, but for its actions abroad as well,” Gabriel said. “[The Harper government] has been especially difficult to deal with.”
Allan Vicaire, Aboriginal Awareness Week coordinator, attended Gabriel’s talk, and said that her topic is important for Aboriginal issues at both the national and international levels.
“The UN Declaration of Indigenous Rights is important,” Vicaire said. “It sets a standard for how states must uphold Aboriginal rights.”
Vicaire was very pleased with Gabriel’s speech and Aboriginal Awareness Week as a whole. He said it had exceeded his expectations.
“There are many people who attended across faculties,” Vicaire said. “When we can get people who aren’t from a humanities and arts background [to] learn about Aboriginal peoples, then we are reaching out to the broader community. To me, that’s success.”
