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----- Original Message -----
From: RUSSELL DIABO
To: Undisclosed-Recipient:;
Sent: Tuesday, August 23, 2005 12:05 PM
Subject: Algonquin band poised for a new way of life
Tuesday » August 23 » 2005
Algonquin band poised for a new way of life
A federally backed plan to build a new village for the Kitcisakik natives
will work, so long as the money is there and, more importantly, the bureaucrats
are not, they tell Maria Cook.
Maria Cook
The Ottawa Citizen
Tuesday, August 23, 2005
CREDIT: Jean Levac,The Ottawa Citizen
Kitcisakik band members like Suzanne Papatie live in poverty
in one-room shacks, but that could change under a plan for a new village.
Ottawa architect Douglas Cardinal has been hired by the band to design a
community, one he says will combine the old and new. 'They want a drum in one
hand and a computer in the other.'
Jimmy Papatie's new Chevy Blazer bumps over the dirt roads of the
Algonquin community of Kitcisakik. A miniature beaded Indian head-dress swings
from the rear-view mirror. A Pink Floyd CD is cranked loud. Money, it's a gas.
Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash.
"Money. That's what we need," smiles Mr. Papatie, 41, a negotiator for
the 380-member Kitcisakik band. They live near Grand Lac Victoria in La
Verendrye provincial park in Quebec, about 350 kilometres north of Ottawa. But
it is a world apart.
The Algonquins of Kitcisakik are the last native community in Quebec
without electricity, running water, a sewer system or telephone. They live in
poverty in primitive one-room shacks. About 80 per cent of the population is on
welfare.
Today, they have a vision for change. "One word can describe how far
we've come," says Mr. Papatie. "Hope."
Four years ago, the federal department of Indian Affairs agreed in
principle to the construction of a new village, at an estimated cost of $85
million. It would include housing, a school and a health centre.
The community has hired renowned Ottawa architect Douglas Cardinal, who
is part Blackfoot, to design a master plan for the village and housing. They
hope to start construction in 2008 or 2009.
"We're creating a new way of life," says Mr. Papatie, who has spent the
past 10 years as a member of the band council, seven as chief. "The power we
have today is to dream."
Building a new village from scratch is unusual. Two communities have done
it in recent years, with starkly different results.
The village of Ouje-Bougoumou, a Cree settlement 745 kilometres north of
Montreal, has become such a success story that in 1995 the United Nations named
it "a model human settlement."
By contrast, Davis Inlet in Labrador is still battling alcoholism, family
violence, suicide and gasoline-sniffing by youth -- in spite of moving to a
newly built village just three years ago.
One key difference was that people of Ouje-Bougoumou directed the
construction of their village, while Davis Inlet was created for that community
by Indian Affairs. "We want to be another Ouje-Bougoumou," says Mr. Papatie.
His community believes it can replicate the success of Ouje-Bougoumou by
being in charge of the project. But Indian Affairs is insisting on shared
management.
"We are now entering a battle with bureaucrats," says Mr. Papatie. "They
want to control the process."
The chief and council of Kitcisakik plan to send a letter in the next
couple of weeks to the Department of Indian Affairs stating their case for
self-management.
Christian Rouleau, Quebec regional director for agreement, negotiations
and implementation for Indian Affairs, says the department expects to co-manage
the project.
"We will try as much as possible to listen to their expectations," he
says. "We will require collaboration between us and them. Construction of a
village is a huge undertaking."
The people of Kitcisakik have found an unlikely champion in the person of
former Ottawa Senators owner Rod Bryden, who is advising them for free.
Mr. Bryden is a trained lawyer. In the 1970s, he worked for the federal
government as a bureaucrat, including a stint as assistant deputy minister of
regional economic expansion.
"The people of Kitcisakik have already done a lot to improve themselves
in spite of squalid physical conditions," says Mr. Bryden. "They are extremely
unlikely to achieve the community that they want through a decision process
they don't control. When you have co-managers, if you can't agree, it means you
don't move.
"One process leads to Ouje-Bougoumou and the other process leads to Davis
Inlet. Which way does Indian Affairs want to go?"
- - -
The Algonquin of Kitcisakik have lived in the Grand Lac Victoria area for
hundreds of years. In the past, they survived by hunting and trapping. The fur
trade was an important part of their economy, but it has declined in recent
years.
When La Verendrye Park was created half a century ago, they refused to
leave their homes. Today, the members of the small community have become
squatters on the land.
Because they do not have reserve status, they do not receive Indian
Affairs funding for housing, infrastructure or schools.
At age five, the children attend school in Val-d'Or, a one-hour drive
from Kitcisakik. From Monday to Friday, children and teenagers live in
French-speaking foster homes, returning to spend weekends with their parents.
"The system is similar to the disastrous residential school system," says
Douglas Cardinal. "It comes from the same mentality of assimilation, which
denies them their language, culture, heritage and identity."
The community spends almost half its budget, about $2 million a year, on
foster parent fees, school board payments and school buses.
"What's really hard is the loneliness and sadness, not being with mummy,"
says Veronique Papatie, a 23-year-old member of the band council and mother of
two young boys. "I can't do simple things like homework at night with my child.
You have to have blind faith in foster parents."
The summer camp represents an old way of life. About 50 non-insulated,
one-room wood houses sit in a beautiful landscape of lake, trees, long grass
and rock.
Madeleine Papatie, 70, shares one of these houses with her 64-year-old
brother, David, who is blind. Inside, the whitewashed house is neat as a pin. A
double bed in the corner is covered by a quilt. A rough shelf beside the wood
stove holds pots and pans. A beaded cross hangs from the wall.
Wearing a long braid down her back, Mrs. Papatie is making a dress at an
old-fashioned sewing machine. Outside on the front step lies a leg of moose. It
was shot the day before by a local hunter.
Because of the education system, most younger people speak French rather
than Algonquin and have lost their native traditions. "No more Indian after,
just white man," she says. "Are you happy?"
A small abandoned tarpaper shack reminds Jimmy Papatie of the kind of
house he grew up in. "We were 16 kids. I remember in the winter it was very
cold. We burned more than 60 cords of wood a year."
Twenty years ago, recalls Mr. Papatie, the community was dysfunctional.
Almost everybody was abusing drugs and alcohol. Teenage pregnancies were on the
rise. "We woke up one day and saw the community was dying."
They decided to take action. Almost half of the men attended a long-term
treatment program. Today, 60 per cent of the population has been sober for at
least five years. "We're proud of what we have accomplished," says Mr. Papatie.
Most residents live in the community's other settlement, a makeshift
village at Lac Dozois off the provincial road 117. Here, houses are crude
wooden sheds, about 22 feet by 24 feet. Built in recent years for $7,000 to
$10,000 each, they do not have running water or washrooms. The residents heat
their homes with wood stoves, and use outhouses. There are about 40 generators
in the community. The only businesses -- a snack bar, gas station and
convenience store --are run by the council.
Something of a tourist attraction is a communal shower that Indian
Affairs admits it spent $422,000 to build. It contains six toilets, six showers
and a laundry room and is far from luxurious.
Mr. Papatie's sister, Mary Ann Papatie, lives in a four-room house with
her husband and nine children. It is made of unpainted plywood. A bucket serves
as a toilet. "It's so cold in the winter," says Mrs. Papatie, who cleans
holiday cabins for the provincial tourism service. "I'm waiting for my new
house in the new village."
- - -
In August 2003, Mr. Cardinal held a four-day "vision session" with the
community to discover what they wanted in a new village. "There was a lot of
hope because I had done the same work for Ouje-Bougoumou," he recalls. "I went
there to listen, something they had never really experienced before."
The event was held in a large tent, where people approached microphones.
There were translators for the meeting, which took place in English, French and
Algonquin. "People talked about their frustration in providing for their
children," says Mr. Cardinal. "It was a terribly heart-rending experience.
"The elders talked about how they had been totally self-sufficient in the
past, and welfare has been a curse because it has taken away their
independence, and they have to return to it. People talked about creating jobs
and opportunities for themselves."
Mr. Cardinal created a design for the village, as well as an
economic-development plan. Every member of the band has approved it. They have
chosen a site at Baie Barker on Grand Lac Victoria.
"With Douglas we're working in a good spirit," says Mr. Papatie. "Mostly
we understand each other. We agree. Sometimes we feel we are working with
robots when working with people from the ministry."
Mr. Cardinal designed the village in a circular form. A turtle-shaped
building, made of heavy timber and a triodetic dome, would be located in the
centre of the village. It is to house the school, administration offices and
elders centre.
"They wanted children 'to be at the centre of the community" says Mr.
Cardinal.
He separated pedestrian traffic from vehicles so children could walk to
school without crossing roads.
Shops, offices, emergency services and townhouses would be grouped around
the main building. This area would also contain a church, hotel, restaurant and
housing for visiting professionals such as teachers and nurses.
"They want to have the best of both worlds," says Mr. Cardinal. "A good
education to compete anywhere, but also to have solid connection to their
roots. To live in harmony with nature. A drum in one hand and a computer in the
other."
The outlying circle would be comprised of single family houses on large
lots in a forest. Mr. Cardinal has designed an open-concept eight-sided house,
with living space on the main floor and sleeping areas in second-floor lofts.
The community hopes to build their own houses out of local timber and
mill the wood themselves. Mr. Cardinal envisions the houses could be built of
pre-fab panels that join like IKEA furniture.
Mr. Cardinal is recommending a complete revamp of the economy, and
suggests the community set up its own school board, health facilities, and
stores. Members of the community should be trained to provide all the goods and
services the residents currently buy elsewhere -- from hairdressers to
mechanics and paramedics.
He notes the community currently spends about $4.5 million a year. "Who
are the beneficiaries of Indian welfare? It's not the Indian people in
Kitcisakik. They are just the vehicle to have money flow from the government
into the hands of non-native communities that have all the jobs and resources."
- - -
Four years ago Jimmy Papatie visited Ouje-Bougoumou. He was impressed by
what he saw. "When I walked into the community, everything was very clean. If
you look at reserves you see garbage, broken windows, graffiti," he says. "They
had the same chance we have now and they took it."
Paul Wertman, an Ottawa-based non-native adviser to Ouje-Bougoumou, says
the community insisted on total control of the planning and construction.
"Ouje-Bougoumou is an expression of what's possible when you allow
aboriginal people to run their own affairs," he says. "We have had people from
many aboriginal communities come visit us. They're generally blown away by the
experience.
"Usually the Department of Indian Affairs plays a strong directing role.
We wanted to do some innovative things. We felt we would be fettered by a
cookie-cutter approach to community development.
"We basically challenged the federal government to live up to its
rhetoric about supporting and recognizing aboriginal self-government."
After being displaced seven times since the 1950s by forestry and mining
firms, the 650-member Ouje-Bougoumou community used a $50-million provincial
and federal grant in the early 1990s to build a new town.
Paved roads and sidewalks lead to modular homes adorned with
Cree-inspired designs. The town's circular centre contains a church,
band-council offices and a school. The town boasts a revolutionary heating
system that runs on sawdust and slashes heating bills.
The Ouje-Bougoumou website says the village has helped them heal. Some
former drinkers have sobered up and much of the domestic fighting and child
abuse of the past has stopped. Most people are employed.
"In the course of doing this, they came to realize what an important
community-development tool architecture is," says Mr. Wertman. "It inspires. It
reinforces traditional culture. It makes people want to take care of what they
have. If you go to a typical native reserve, you see a lot of vandalism. We
have very little."
By contrast, Davis Inlet, says Mr. Wertman, was largely directed by
Indian Affairs.
"There was minimal local input into the planning and implementation of
the plans. I would call it a cookie-cutter approach where there's a
preconceived idea of what a native reserve should be, what facilities should be
there."
The 600 members of the deprived Innu community of Davis Inlet were moved
into a new $152-million community in 2002 with new houses, school and health
care centre. Yet, buildings have been vandalized and serious social problems
persist.
"We think Kitcisakik could be an example of how to take the
Ouje-Bougoumou example and make it the standard for native communities," says
Mr. Bryden.
- - -
"We think it's a great model. We agree with their vision," says Christian
Rouleau, Quebec regional director for agreement, negotiations and
implementation for Indian Affairs. But Indian Affairs expects to be involved
with the project every step of the way, he says. "We will involve them as much
as possible. They cannot say, 'We're going to do what we want when we want and
you will pay.' It won't work.
"That village will be built with taxpayers' money. Treasury Board
requirements will have to be fulfilled (such as policies regarding tendering
for contracts)."
Ouje-Bougoumou was able to direct its own affairs because it was backed
by the large and wealthy Grand Council of the Crees, he says.
"The context is totally different. We're going to have to work here on a
really strict financial restraint and we don't have a big organization to
support to development of the project."
Mr. Rouleau says the department hopes to receive approval for the project
from cabinet and Treasury Board next year or in 2007.
Three times in the past 100 years, Indian Affairs offered to build a
reserve for Kitcisakik. "For many years they refused," says Mr. Rouleau. "They
said they were happy with their nomad life."
The last time was in the 1980s. Mr. Papatie says the community refused
because it would have had little input and would have to give up rights to its
territory. Negotiations over land rights will continue as a separate issue from
building the village.
Kitcisakik has asked for $85 million for the village project, while Mr.
Cardinal's estimate is $116 million. The department considers this too rich and
is doing its own estimates, as well as approaching the Quebec government for
help.
The Cardinal plan is "a great place to begin," says Mr. Rouleau, noting
that the department will pay for a person from Kitcisakik to work as the
community's project co-ordinator.
"We think the vision is realistic. Maybe we don't have that much money,
but it's not in the clouds. It's something beautiful and it's great that they
want that. We think we can achieve something close to that."
Mr. Rouleau says officials will speak to the community about how to
define the residents' collaboration.
"It's power and control," says Mr. Cardinal. "Who would accept so-called
'co-management' in any kind of endeavour in any other part of society? It's the
worst form of paternalism and racism."
Adds Mr. Wertman: "If they had control over the whole process it would be
a huge benefit. They learn responsibility, learn what it takes to maintain a
village. They will have a sense of pride in what they're doing."
No Water, Electricity or Phones, but 'Hope' and An $85M Vision
© The Ottawa Citizen 2005
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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