Opportunities and Realities
The Story of the Assembly of First Nations
The story of the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) is one that remains unknown to most Canadians. It is
the story that is lived each day by the First Nations peoples of Canada. It is the story of a struggle for selfdetermination and human dignity. It is a story that must be told.
Many Canadians are unaware of the enormous problems that the First Nations peoples have faced on the
road to political recognition in this country.
Few Canadians realize that the First Nations peoples are identified in the Constitution as one of the
founding nations of Canada, along with the English and French. Few Canadians are aware that up
until the 1983-87 First Ministers Conference on Aboriginal Rights, the First Nations People were
excluded from taking part in the Constitutional developments of Canada.
First Nations peoples have had to deal with conditions of extreme poverty and isolation, and vast
geographical dispersion, within the tremendous diversity of aboriginal cultures, languages, and political
ideologies. Improved communications and transportation have allowed First Nations Peoples to begin to
talk to each other, to the rest of Canada, and to the rest of the world.
The years of being excluded from Canada's formal political process has left First Nations Peoples with an
incredible void to fill just in order to attain a level of political, social, and legal knowledge that is on par
with other groups in Canadian society.
The past cannot be changed, but yesterday's injustices can be corrected by today's political leaders. The
Assembly of First Nations exists to fulfill the goal of correcting these past injustices and to enhance the
rightful position of the First Nations Peoples in Canada's future.
The development of representatives in Canada has never been easy. For instance, the 1927 Indian Act
forbade First Nations people from forming political organizations.
Hence, it was common for a First Nation leaders to be jailed by the RCMP for trying to organize any form
of political group. This apartheid law prohibited traditional First Nation government systems from existing
in the native communities and in its place established the present day "band council" system.
In addition to suppressing the political activity of First Nations, the 1927 Indian Act also denied the
Aboriginal people of Canada from speaking their native language, or practicing their traditional religion.
Aboriginal children attending residential schools were often severely punished for uttering even a single
word of their native language. The Potlatch ceremonies, a ritual common to most First Nations religions
across the country, were declared illegal (in fact, only recently has their legality been approved by the
federal government).
Attempts to form a national lobby group were hampered by Canadian government opposition and lack of
internal unity. In 1968, the Status and Treaty aboriginal groups formed the National Indian Brotherhood
(N.I.B.), while the non-status and the Métis groups remained united and formed the Native Council of
Canada.
Thus, the National Indian Brotherhood (N.I.B.) was born in the midst of controversy. Soon after the N.I.B.
came into existence, the Federal Liberal Government revealed its 1969 White Paper policy which called
for the assimilation of all First Nation peoples into the mainstream of Canadian society, and the removal
of First Nations from the Canadian Constitution. The N.I.B. quickly organized itself and confronted the
Liberal government. With the unity of its provincial and territorial members the N.I.B. successfully lobbied
parliament and the Canadian public to defeat the White Paper. For the next thirteen years the N.I.B.'s
Unit 5: Renewal and Reconciliation
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structure remained relatively unchanged with the provincial and territorial organizations forming its major
pillars of strength.
Despite the success of the NIB, the organization drew an increasing amount of criticism for not being truly
representative of all the Status First Nations in the country. The NIB made the transition to becoming the
Assembly of First Nations (AFN) in 1982. From being an "organization of representatives from regions"
the AFN became an "Organization of First Nations Government Leaders." Hence, the NIB/AFN became a
truly representative body of the Status and Treaty First Nations Peoples in Canada, and at the same time,
a consensus driver.
Making our Nations strong and exerting the right to govern our own affairs is important work. Much
remains to be accomplished, both at the local level and within the Assembly. Therefore, the support of
each individual First Nation and its citizens is needed if the national organization is to continue to be a
strong and united voice for all the First Nations people in Canada.
The Assembly of First Nations is committed to the belief that such support is building and that the future
will yield the desired accomplishment of self-determination for each First Nation in Canada.
Current National Chief of the AFN,
Chief Shawn A-in-chut Atleo
The Aboriginal Family
The Aboriginal family in traditional, land-based societies was, until very recently, the principal
institution mediating participation of individuals in social, economic and political life. The extended
family distributed responsibilities for care and nurture of its members over a large network of
grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. Clan systems extended the networks of mutual obligation
even further. Families were the units which exercised economic rights to territory and resources. In
village, nation and sometimes confederacy families were represented in councils charged with
collective decision-making.
From the passing of the first Indian Act in 1876 until the protection of Aboriginal and treaty rights in
the Constitution Act of 1982, Aboriginal societies were essentially under siege. While poverty,
powerlessness and breakdown of social order were taking hold in Aboriginal communities under the
impact of colonial policy, Aboriginal children were simultaneously being removed to residential
schools whose express purpose was to disrupt their ties with "savage" culture and, of necessity,
their families. Chief Cinderina Williams of the Spallumcheen band in British Columbia, writing of her
community's experience with residential schools, reported:
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Later when these children returned home, they were aliens. They did not speak their own language,
so they could not communicate with anyone other than their own counterparts. Some looked down
on their families because of their lack of English, their lifestyle, and some were just plain hostile.
They had formed no bonds with their families, and some couldn't survive without the regimentation
they had become so accustomed to ...
Consequently, when these children became parents, and most did at an early age, they had no
parenting skills. They did not have the capability to show affection. They sired and bred children but
were unable to relate to them on any level.
The stage was then set for massive intervention by provincial child welfare authorities, characterized as "the
sixties scoop". Patrick Johnston documented the dramatic increase of Aboriginal children in-care as a
proportion of all children in care. In British Columbia the proportion rose from less than 1% in 1955 to 34% in
1964. By 1981-82 the proportions of Aboriginal children in care, as percentage of the in-care population,
ranged from a low of 2.6% in Quebec to a high of 63% in Saskatchewan. Kenn Richard, Executive Director of
Native Child and Family Services of Toronto told the RCAP hearings:
Most of our clients - probably 90 per cent of them - are, in fact, victims themselves of the child
welfare system. Most of our clients are young, sole support mothers who very often were removed
as children themselves. So we are dealing with perhaps the end product of ...the sixties scoop.
Actually the sixties scoop lasted well into the 70s. ....The other interesting note is that while the
mother may have been in foster care the grandmother - I think we all know where she was. She
was in residential school. So we are into a third generation. Aboriginal adults, cut off as children
from their roots as a result of foster care and adoption placement, are seeking to re-connect with
their origins, often without social and emotional support and with disappointing outcomes.
Aboriginal victims of abuse and graduates of the child welfare system make up a disproportionate
number of street kids and commercially exploited youth in the sex trade in Canadian cities. High but
undocumented numbers of Aboriginal inmates likewise have experienced family breakdown and
foster home placement.
The encouraging news is that programs to support families are becoming available and are being
taken up by Aboriginal people in urban and on-reserve settings. Headstart programs which
emphasize cultural content and parental involvement were serving 3,252 off-reserve Aboriginal
children in 1999. The program has been extended by Health Canada to on-reserve sites. An array
of programs to promote healthy babies, parenting skills and community involvement is available,
albeit on a limited and competitive basis, for urban and on-reserve Aboriginal people.
Part of the Aboriginal worldview is a sense of time that places present experience in the context of
seven generations. Prophecies in many Aboriginal nations, handed down in the oral tradition, speak
of a renewal of Aboriginal wisdom and spirituality that will mature in the seventh generation, after a
period of great loss and confusion.
The Catholic View of the Family
The family is the original cell of social life. It is the natural society in which husband and wife are
called to give themselves in love and in the gift of life. Authority, stability, and a life of relationships
within the family constitute the foundations for freedom, security, and fraternity within society. The
family is the community in which, from childhood, one can learn moral values, begin to honor God,
and make good use of freedom. Family life is an initiation into life in society.
The political community has a duty to honor the family, to assist it, and to ensure especially:
- the freedom to establish a family, have children, and bring them up in keeping with the family's
own moral and religious convictions; - the protection of the stability of the marriage bond and the
institution of the family; - the freedom to profess one's faith, to hand it on, and raise one's children in
it, with the necessary means and institutions; - - in keeping with the country's institutions, the right
to medical care, assistance for the aged, and family benefits; - the protection of security and health,
especially with respect to dangers like drugs, pornography, alcoholism, etc.; - the freedom to form
associations with other families and so to have representation before civil authority.
Catechism of the Catholic Church, Sections 2207 and 2211
Unit 5: Renewal and Reconciliation
Activity 2
Opportunities and Realities
Assignment
Part A: Fill in the Blanks
Questions related to “The Story of the AFN” article
1. According to the Canadian Constitution, what are the three founding nations of Canada?
2. First Nations People were excluded from taking part in the Constitutional developments of
Canada until what decade in the twentieth century? ________
3. What did the 1927 Indian Act say about Aboriginal political activity?
4. According to the 1927 Indian Act, what common Aboriginal religious ceremonies were declared
illegal?
5. At residential schools, children were denied what basic rights?
6. Attempts to form a national lobby group for aboriginal groups led to the formation of what
organization in 1968?
7. The 1969 Federal Liberal Government White Paper (or plan) called for the
______________________ of all First Nation peoples into the mainstream of Canadian society.
8. In 1982, the National Indian Brotherhood (N.I.B.) made the transition to becoming the
____________________________________ - a more representative body of the Status and
Treaty First Nations Peoples in Canada.
Questions related to “The Aboriginal Family” article
“They did not speak their own language, so they could not communicate with anyone other than their own
counterparts. Some looked down on their families because of their lack of English, their lifestyle, and
some were just plain hostile. They had formed no bonds with their families, and some couldn't survive
without the regimentation they had become so accustomed to...”
1. In the quote above, Chief Cinderina Williams is referring to what group?
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2. According to Chief Williams, the group referred to above became what type of parents? Select the
correct answer from the two options below.
a) Loving and caring parents
b) Unskilled parents who could not demonstrate affection
3. What is the "the sixties scoop"? Select the correct answer from the two options below.
a) The increase of information among Aboriginal Nations – as in “What is the scoop?”
b) The large number of Aboriginal children taken or “scooped” by provincial child welfare authorities.
4. By 1981-82 the proportions of Aboriginal children in care, as percentage of the in-care population as a
whole was ______ per cent in Saskatchewan.
5. Speaking of his clients, Kenn Richard, Executive Director of Native Child and Family Services of
Toronto, notes that if the mother was in foster care, the grandmother was probably in
________________________ (two words). Thus, we have Aboriginal adults who were cut off as children
from their roots as a result of foster care and adoption placement.
6. Aboriginal victims of abuse and graduates of the child welfare system make up a disproportionate
number of ____________________________________________
7. The encouraging news is that programs to support families are becoming available and are being taken
up by Aboriginal people. What is one of these programs?
8. Other encouraging news: prophecies in many Aboriginal nations, handed down in the oral tradition,
speak of a renewal of Aboriginal wisdom and spirituality that will mature in the ____________________
generation, after a period of great loss and confusion.
Part B: Discussion
a)
Describe how the Catholic view of the family is similar to the traditional Aboriginal view of the
family.
Remember.........According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church [Section 221],
The political community has a duty to honor the family, to assist it, and to ensure especially:
- the freedom to establish a family, have children, and bring them up in keeping with the family's
own moral and religious convictions;
- the protection of the stability of the marriage bond and the institution of the family;
- the freedom to profess one's faith, to hand it on, and raise one's children in it, with the
necessary means and institutions;
- - in keeping with the country's institutions, the right to medical care, assistance for the aged, and
family benefits;
- the protection of security and health, especially with respect to dangers like drugs, pornography,
alcoholism, etc.;
- the freedom to form associations with other families and so to have representation before civil
authority.
Catechism of the Catholic Church, Sections 2207 and 2211
b) In your opinion how has the political community (or government) failed the Aboriginal family in
Canada?
Unit 5: Renewal and Reconciliation
Activity 2
Opportunities and Realities
Rubric
Unit 5: Renewal and Reconciliation
Activity 2