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the experience of First Nations having lost control
of their lives. She acknowledged that the history
was different in BC, and that the sense was that
the new way forward was to organize.
She spoke of the impacts of residential school
and the impacts of the loss of land. There was
a need to find a way to care for a group within
the communities of First Nations that was made
ill by what happened historically ... “we all love
somebody who is either living that way, or who has
died that way, someone who has been made very
ill by all this trauma.”
“Gathering Wisdom for a Shared Journey”
speaks to the knowledge that First Nations Elders
hold. One of the greatest gifts First Nations have
is an understanding that manifests in a very loving
and gentle way. Health is inextricable from love
and care.
ms. Keeper commented that proposal-driven
funding does not work because most often the
people that need the funding the most do not have
the capacity to write proposals. Legal obligations
aside, she noted that there was a moral obligation
to deal with this. Health practitioners and
politicians need to discuss the issues of love and
caring as a way to move forward. She did not want
to look forward to a future where First Nations
were giving up their collective rights and identity
as Aboriginal peoples.
ms. Keeper added that First Nations were at
a turning point. Dialogue was begun and needs
to be driven by the knowledge acquired from the
grassroots level - particularly the Elders. She spoke
of a colleague in Aboriginal Health working with
First Nations in the north who was not allowed
to speak Cree because she was not hired as an
interpreter. This is a concrete example of the
constrictions that continue to exist within the
current system. She emphasized the need to think
outside of the box, and to challenge the system.
Working in television ms Keeper had met many
non-native Canadians who felt that they knew her
because they knew her television character. She’d
had the opportunity to speak to many people who
shared what they thought about the show, First
Nations people, or Canadians and their relationship
to First Nations. She had learned that people
really were good at heart; that colonial rule was
a tradition of the British which they imposed on
others as ‘part of their way‘.
ms. Keeper recalled the story of a Cree
character created out of the experience of
starvation, called the Windigo, which represented
the spirit of greed or rage. She had felt like a
Windigo during her first years on Parliament Hill.
She had grown up in a privileged life on the land,
but was shocked by the level of privilege that
non-First Nations people enjoyed in Canada. First
Nations had the ability to speak together and
needed to speak in a good way. First Nations had
to insist on what they wanted in moving forward.
In response to a question, ms. Keeper
confirmed that she was part of the parliamentary
Aboriginal Affairs Committee and worked closely
with the Health Committee. A driving force that
encouraged her to get into politics was First Nation
health issues and the reality that there was no
legislation for First Nations health in Canada. There
continued to be a significant discrepancy and lack
of jurisdictional clarity surrounding Aboriginal
health issues. There were human rights violations
in terms of delivering health services for First
Nations. Some of her opportunities as a First
Nation member of Parliament included becoming
aware of the issues; making her caucus members
aware of the issues; inviting people to present
at Standing Committees; and participating in the
introduction of private members bills and motions.
ms. Keeper concluded with a note that the
Tripartite First Nations Health Plan model was
very exciting because there was a whole new
generation of Aboriginal youth, the fastest growing
sector of the population - there was a need to
find a way to take care of them. She wished
participants the best, and thanked the forum for
the opportunity to speak.
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SECONd ANNUAl FORUm