Youth want justice now
By Steven Rickard
Bill C-33 – First Nations Control of First Nations Education Act — is a bill that will give the Canadian government full control over First Nations education, funding and how our children should be taught within the education system. In other words, if this bill continues throughout Parliament and passes this will allow the Canadian government and the Legislature to take full advantage over First Nation education. This will force First Nations to assume liability while the government retains complete authority.
This does not respect or recognize First Nation jurisdiction over education. This does not respect our true inherent and treaty rights. For many years and for many generations we have always experienced this government breaking many promises with us and our treaties. We will rightfully oppose any bill or acts that involve First Nations people. We are and will always be the essence of Canada. We will not back down, we will not step away from any adversity and we will not go away.
As a First Nation youth, I see that our people are very visual which is how traditional teachings are taught and should be always kept that way, rather than just sitting in a classroom. It will be too late to learn those teachings if we don’t do it now; if not, all those teachings will soon disappear with our elders.
It is up to us, to all of us to make sure that our young ones get the best education now. The government does not live with us and does not have the right to tell us how we should teach our children, since they are our future.
Our traditional and cultural ways of living must be included in the education system, and developed by us, if we are to survive.
Our concept of meaningful self-government is therefore based on the belief that we must become self-sufficient and self-determining in all areas which affect the physical and spiritual life of our people.
When I read the numbers of our missing and murdered sisters, I was in disbelief and dismayed that this matter has gone unnoticed or efforts truly taken by the government. It is absolutely shameful that our call for action continues to fall on deaf ears. We want justice.
On education we witnessed our children being forcibly taken from their homes and placed into residential school to be assimilated, and to this day, there is still evidence that they continue to assimilate us.
We witnessed Oka and Ipperwash and our brothers and sisters from the East in a standoff with the RCMP during a peaceful protest. No justice whatsoever. We are proud nations, as in the past, we will also declare our own laws, rules, regulations, bills and acts to be passed and enacted without interference. The right to make laws, which govern our people, must be returned to our people.
We are Anishinaabe, we are the Cree, we are the Ojibwe, the Mohawk; we are the Original Peoples of this land.
On behalf of the youth we want to say Gitchi-Meegwetch for being asked to come to Ottawa and to speak to all of you, not just for us, but for the future generation as well. This has been a great experience to be engaged together in unity and in peace; I thank the elders for giving us these teachings and to the families who have lost loved ones who have never received justice. We will have justice.
In the words of the late Malcolm X, “We declare our right on this earth….to be a man, to be a human being, to be respected as a human being, to be given the rights of a human being in this society, on this earth, in this day, which we intend to bring into existence by any means necessary.”
Aho! – Meegwetch!
Steven Rickard, Taykwa Tagamou Nation, Cree territory of Treaty No.9, is a secondary student at Nbisiing Secondary School in Nipissing First Nation. He completed his Grade 12 co-op at the Anishinabek Education Institute (AEI) at the Head Office of the Union of Ontario Indians. He was asked to speak on the many issues facing First Nations youth at the rally staged on Parliament Hill on May 14.