Finding Dahshaa

On their visit to Canada, William and Kate spent some time out at the Dechinta Centre for Teaching and Learning, where I am co-instructor of the Dene Self Determination Course. The course uses Finding Dahshaa as one of its texts, and incorporates moose hide tanning as the land based element which is used as a cultural referent for understanding community dynamics of self determination. This summer, during July 2011, the moose hide tanning portion of the course was led by Melaw Nahkeko, Dehcho Dene from Fort Simpson.

Below is an article co-authored with Bill Erasmus, originally published in News North, the weekly paper in the NWT…

The terms of the devolution agreement in principle (AIP) between Canada and the GNWT are not particularly good for any of us who live here in the NWT, whether Dene or non-Dene. In 2007, the GNWT would not agree to many of the same terms. Yet now, they have decided to sign on to an agreement with these terms, despite the Premier’s stated opinion that it is “not the best deal.” In addition to giving in on issues the GNWT did not agree with in the past, the GNWT and Canada failed to address the outstanding Treaty and Aboriginal rights concerns of Dene leaders that were raised over the last three years.

In 1973, the Dene launched a court case asserting that Dene had not extinguished rights under Treaties 8 and 11. That case, the Paulette case, established that Dene have Aboriginal and Treaty rights throughout the Mackenzie Valley. The findings of that decision and another known as Calder, brought by the Nisga’a people, resulted in the development of Canada’s Comprehensive Land Claim Policy (1973).

The Dene Nation as a whole negotiated throughout the 1970s and 1980s to reach a land settlement with Canada. In 1990, Canada instead chose to change the land claims policy to negotiate agreements with individual regions. The regional agreement negotiations have been based on the 1990 Final Agreement. In the Gwich’in, Sahtu and Tlicho agreements there are clauses that require their “involvement in the development and implementation of” what used to be called Northern Accord, and are now called devolution negotiations. The Akaitcho and Dehcho peoples want to deal with devolution issues within the context of their own negotiations.

The Premier assured the Dene at the July 2010 national assembly in Fort Good Hope that if regional leaders are “not interested in moving forward on [devolution], then I am prepared to put that money we are using into programs and services, not on having further discussions that will lead to nowhere”. However the GNWT Cabinet decided to sign the AIP. The Dene were opposed to signing an AIP that did not take into account outstanding concerns. Concerns included the impact on the Dene of transferring lands, resources and waters to the GNWT.

By signing the devolution AIP, the GNWT and Canada are not honoring ther obligations to make sure the land claim governments are “involved in the development and implementation” of a devolution agreement. The GNWT signed the AIP despite the fact that the AIP was reached through a negotiating process that did not meaningfully involve Dene leaders. That goes against what GNWT and Canada agreed to in the land claim agreements.

Now, the GNWT and Canada say that to participate in final agreement negotiations, Dene must sign the devolution AIP. Because signing the AIP is the only way regions can get funding to meaningfully participate. By asking Dene leaders to sign an AIP reached without meaningful Dene involvement, the GNWT is requiring Dene leaders to agree to the surrender of their rights and to condone the breach of their own agreements.

The GNWT signed the Sahtu and Gwich’in land claims as part of the federal negotiating team (not as a separate government in its own right). Canada has a responsibility to ensure that its junior partner, the GNWT, fulfills its obligations in good faith. So far, Canada has failed to do so.

In the last few months, Dene leaders worked to set up a process to allow all governments to move forward in partnership on the question of devolution. Dene leaders, who represent the majority of the NWT population, want to be involved in protecting their rights and interests through a collaborative process. To make progress on devolution, the outstanding concerns of the Dene must be taken seriously and addressed in meaningful ways. And the GNWT and Canada must engage the Dene in a process that promises to build relationships, instead of one creating tension and distrust.

Please join us for the official book launch of

by Stephanie Irlbacher-Fox

July 11, 2009, 4-6pm

@ Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre Cafe, 2nd Floor
Yellowknife, NT

In conjunction with the International Congress on Circumpolar Health

About the Book…

Just as dahshaa — a rare type of dried, rotted spruce wood — is essential to the Dene moosehide-tanning process, self-determination and the alleviation of social suffering are necessary to Indigenous survival in the Northwest Territories. Finding Dahshaa shows where self-government negotiations between Canada and the Dehcho, Délįnę, Inuvialuit, and Gwich’in peoples have gone wrong and offers an alternative model for negotiations through descriptions of tanning practices that embody the principles and values of self-determination. read more…

About the Author…

Stephanie Irlbacher-Fox holds a doctorate in polar studies from Cambridge University and for the past decade has worked for Indigenous peoples on self-government and related political development processes in Canada’s Northwest Territories. read more…