GOVERNANCE



Video #1 Implementing Independent

       The Speakers in this video are Jacqueline Romanow, Brian Calliou, Bruno Bonneville, Chief Sophie Pierre, Larry Chartrand and Peter Kulchyski it was filmed on November 8, 2010. The film talks about aboriginals inherit right because  Aboriginal people were here first in Canada and we are entitled to certain rights that we have inherited. In this video they stress that aboriginal people become more educated about our rights so we can be more alert about things that are going on around us and we can be apart of decision making if we knew more.

          The Steps mention on the video that we as aboriginal people need to take are:

•  we have to become more familiar with these right
•  we have to go back to our roots to learn and understand our culture and history
•  we need to practice these right so we can protect ourselves/communities 
•  we need to stand strong as aboriginal people and fight for our rights.

          This film made me think and look at things I never thought of before, things like how I need to become more familiar with our rights and how any aboriginal person can make change. Everyone of the people on the film was full of interesting information and help me realize that I need to educate myself more about our rights.

Video # 2 Governance and Cultural Match



      This video was made on November 6 2010. The speakers are Chief Sophie Pierre and Brian Calliou, The two of them are talking about governance and the cultural match, they focus on  the question how does first nation match governance with culture and traditions? The list provided below is some of the things they have shared.

• Teach tradition and cultural ways in learning institutes.
• explore traditional forms of leadership, decision making and governance.
• The learning of culture and tradition needs to be relearned. One cause for it being forgotten, is because our culture has not been practiced or learned by many people in such a long period of time.
• One form of governance in aboriginal communities that was stated in the video was the chief and council. This is a new form of governace for communities.
•  Many aboriginal people do not want the one person one vote decision for government. The change that aboriginal people like to see is to have our own governance.
• To make these things happen we need to create a relationship between traditional methods and the modern forms of governance.

         

         My thoughts about video are it may be hard to combine governance with culture and tradition but it can be done and will require hard work. We as aborgnal people need to relearn and teach the culture in every aboriginal institute and to our children so this way we can start to make the connections with our tradition and cultural way and tie it into our own governance.  Sophie and Brian speak of the ways we can make these connections and what they say is what needs to happen.

Video #3 Tsawwassen First Nation

       The speakers in this video are Doug McArthur and Chief Kim Baird. The video was made on December 10th 2010. The Tsawwassen first nation has had self governance since 2006  and it has been a success in the community. They incorporate the culture and language into their law, community member are  involve in making some of decision making in community, the Tsawwassen first nation are growing as a community and doing well.  The choices sometimes were ambitious; one for example was with their land, they made buildings that benefited the community, and it turned out to be a smart decisions. 

     

      The reason why I think the Tsawwassen first nation were very successful with their self governance, is because they made laws and policies that worked for them and then made changes in the constitutions that then benefited them.

Video #4 Membertou First Nation Circle Of Excellence







     The people in this video are Chief Terrance Paul, Dan Christmas  Alex Paul and Mary Beth Doucette. The film was made on December 10th 2010, they discuss the change that was made in Membertou. Like many other reservation Membertou was in debt and depended on Indian Affairs for funds and they knew they had to make a change for the community.  The leaders in the communities look more into making this change and went and seek the help, they then got involved with ISL which was a very great thing.

     Then in 1999-2000 they became a debt free reservation, because they were well managed Membertou had big companies calling and wanting to partner with them. They became so successful  with this change in Membertou because firstly; they had good leaders second; they got the skills needed to achieve these goals; third they hired the right type of people to help; fourth they became educated about many things and then they learned how to run and own companies properly.