FE a RTS SE Ame = SL r : : f i : j i { the Other Press We October 15, 1992 I set up an informal interview with Betsy Senyk at the beginning of September. met in Charles Parker’s (the VicePresident Internal) office, where she | greetedme warmly. The first thing that struck mewhenI walked into the office was the sight of a large Canadian flag draped along the back f wall. Whatis so striking about it is the figure of 7 a First Nation’s person superimposed in front of the the maple leaf. Betsy noticed my interest and stated it was a s had taught Betsy how to pluck eagle feathers, and in return, it is tradition and a show of respect to thank the person by giving them a gift that is their most prized possession. Betsywasstillratherheartbrokenforparting with it. The eagles, which had died of an accidental poisoning, were obtained from rouse Mountain. Betsy further explained: gift to Charles from her. Charles BS: We decided that to just leave the eagles on Grouse would be a waste, so we thought we would take them and put them to good work. We put our names on a waiting list, and four eagles came down. by Angela Chiotakos Whatweare going todois tomakea traditional staff for the native war veterans. Our native war veterans are our elders; they foughtin the twoworld warsand weretreated most unfairly. They paid double the price for the country. They had to sign away their status to being with; they had to enlist as Scottish or French or English, or some other ethnic group. They had their lands taken away. They had their herds takenaway. Allsorts of injustices wereimposed; and then upon their return, they weren't able to vote, they weren't able to purchase liquor, they weren't able to sit in the pub to have a drink with their buddies. What we hope to do as an association [First Nations Association of Douglas College] is to show our respect to our elders, and start there. We are hoping to present to the native war veterans this traditional staff of eagle feathers. We some of the feathers are painted halfred, to signify the wounded, and the restof the feathers we paintall red, tosymbolize those who had died. That is one of our projects though the first nations association here at Douglas college. Weare going to have a day of recognition for the native veterans. In fact, for the first time inhistory they willbe having their firstnational day of recognition in Ottawa on October 20. We hope to serve as role models for future students who come to D.C.... and respecting our elders is high on our priority list. Wearealso planninganother First Nations meeting this week [September 20] but we would like, if at all possible, to move away from being spectacles. Respectour spirituality. Wedon’t want tobe on display, weare willing to share our culture, open up lines of communication, but we don’t wont to be on display...especially our spirituality. Some traditional dancing; a friend ship dance is something we could share. Sacred spiritual objects we don’t want on display.We feel uncomfortable about that. A good anal would be having the Roman Catholics display their holy water, or their communion post or whatever you call it. The federal goverment is failing to honor its treaties. AC: How many First Nations students are here at Douglas? BS: What we are really proud of is that our numbers are growing. Its just phenomenal the number of First Nations studentsattending the college. AC: Do you have any numbers? BS:Idon’thaveanaccuratecount. But! did talk toAnneFenton, at Accounts Recievable upstairs at the Accounting Office, she handles the Native students sponsorship forms and was saying that four years ago there was a total of one or two. And this year there were just so many that she did't know what to do. Its just hectic for her now, which is a good sign. But at the same token its like this catch 22 situation with the federal government. We have experienced cutbacks of 30 % to 100%. Here we are trying to educate our people, but we're getting caught up in this and its seriously raising a lot of issues. One of the main issues it is raising is that if European settlement is based on treaties and agreements, to date the federal government has failed to uphold their treaties and obligations. So how are we supposed to trust them? And what is the point of talking self government? There are some factions that want everything lock, stock and barrel. We do have some factions that want to settle under the constitution. We have certain factions who are totally undecided. However, there is the unity that we do not want to settle and loose do here by petition the federal government to honor its treaty obligations to the First Nations pe ofCanadaand cease withholding funds ‘om post secondary students.” AC: How many people have signed this? BS: Over one hundred. And we will be setting this off to the federal government along witha every strong letter outlining our feelings in regards to their treaty obligations concerning theissue that they , the federal government, are failing to honoring their treaties. AC: So how did they decide which student did get funding and which didn’t? BS: The way it happened was that we heard rumors. That there was federal cutbacks and there was no notification no, communications atall, it was just “sorry there’sno money, sorry you will not be going to school this summer.” registration because you talk to two and ten more would flock by as youare talking, and its so hard... AC: Yah I know, its like “Oh my God! I don’t want to hit desk number zzy 234!” BS: Like which way is out! Butit was really nice to actually get support from Douglas College students. It was really really good, a) because of the petition , and b) for the letter to Etherl Gardener. It was really good to get support as opposed to people just walking by, you know “oh first nations, big deal.” You know the attitudes are coming around, and it’s enlightening, its encouraging. AC:I’dlike to goback talk about the students who were force to withdraw from school. Do you know any of them personally? BS: Hey , I’m one of them! everything. To date we have up held ourtreatyagreements,and todate the government has not. The avenue, the key to self governmentis education. They would like to have more say in | the government process and practices. Just havinga support system here at Douglas college is important. We have such a diverse membership from the east coast to the west coast, different nationalities, different spiritual orientation. And yet most of us want unity. AC:Sohow many First Nations students have been elected to the DCSS? BS: Charles Parker is vice presidentinternal,and youhave me, who's the native student rep; and to date thatis all that I have. AC: How often does theFirst Nations Meet? BS: What I’m hoping to have is at least one meeting a month, and what we are working towards is to getting a special meeting room to practice our spirituality, we like to purify ourselves with Sweetgrass before we go into meetings, remove all negatives so that we may think and speak and feel and hearonly positives towards our fellow brothers and sisters. ‘One idea which has been brought forth is to have a room where we can produce a news eR ee ee ee oy eo eee letter so that we can keep in touch. That way we can have unity and have a common program that we work together. A First Nations news letter but we will be holding a meeting within the next weekend deciding what the membership would like to see where they would like to go. AC: Tell me more about the federal cuts in Native student funding. Do you have any personal experiences or experiences from others that you can share? How does this all link into treaty rights? BS:European settlement is based on treaties and agreements in exchange for land. What was agreed upon, was that the federal government would provide for health care, housing education. And wehavesome housing ,but would leave a lot to be desired, health care and education. But at the post secondary level, it just seems to be there aren't any funds. And yet the federal government spent 80 million dollars celebrating "their" birthday(laugh) this July 1! So what we did at registration was we tooka petition whichsaid “we the undersigned AC: So when you went to the bank, or when you were expecting a letter or something you just found out “sorry, no money.” BS: Yes, that’s it. We just got notice and there was nothing, there was no preparations. A lot of students just got one two week notice and that was it. AC: Wasit close tothebeginning of the term? BS: Actualy we know certain students who had to withdraw from classes so they could get jobs to make money to live. One question that was raised, which really does make sense, was that maybe perhaps the federal government is afraid of educated Indians. On a positive note, we have BC's first Native woman to be accepted at Harvard University. Her name is Ethel Gardener and she's beenaccepted on full scholarship tostudy law—so we sent hera letter of congratulations. AC: How many student shave signed? BS: Well it is hard to get students signatures at AC: Are you serious? BS: Yes! Serious. Yes, my funding was cut one hundred percent. Iwas fully expecting toattend the summer semester as well as Mat...as wellas my other sonJohn.Therearethreeofus...there’s other students, I don’t know their names off hand, but they were fully expecting. to take suramercourses,and withina weekandahalfs notice..sorry.. no funding now.No funding. Why? Why not? But they have money, I know they have money! AC: How much on average do you get? Is it full tuition paid and a certain amount for living expences? BS: Yes, we do get a living allowance. AC: Including full tuition with books? BS: Yes AC: And that varies from... BS: It varies from province to province. It also varies too from band to band, and Indian Affairs?