Land claim doctrine to be celebrated
The Council of Yukon First Nations (CYFN) will host a week-long celebration next month to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Together Today for our Children Tomorrow with daily events and activities.
The Council of Yukon First Nations (CYFN) will host a week-long celebration next month to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Together Today for our Children Tomorrow with daily events and activities.
Most planned activities will take place Feb. 11-18 at the Kwanlin Dün Cultural Centre, and most will be free of charge.
The document, which was a formal appeal for the start of Yukon land claim negotiations, was presented by Yukon First Nations leaders to then-prime minister Pierre Trudeau in early 1973 in Ottawa.
Throughout the celebration week, community members will be able to explore exhibits from the CYFN’s extensive archives collections, which will be located throughout the cultural centre.
Guests will be able to participate in a variety of programming and activities offered daily throughout celebration week.
Those will include a Community Art Project led by a Yukon First Nations artist, and workshops led by First Nations artists and knowledge keepers
A daily Speaker Series will be offered featuring a panel of Yukon First Nations leaders, trailblazers and emerging leaders speaking on various topics related to Together Today for our Children Tomorrow.
Cultural activities and performances will celebrate First Nations culture. Events will include performing artists, cultural performances, language learning, film screenings and a hand games tournament
The series of planned celebrations will include a gala night performance, a potlatch night, a community feast and dance and an art market and trade show. That will showcase items for sale created by Yukon First Nations artists.
The trade show of Yukon First Nation organizations and businesses will be assembled to provide information about opportunities for Yukon First Nations to engage and participate.
Comments (14)
Up 15 Down 3
Anie on Jan 9, 2023 at 3:26 pm
I think that the UFA that sprang from this is an excellent blueprint for the rest of Canada and it's disheartening that we don't see it referenced at all beyond Yukon borders. That being said, I disagree with Ron Wilton's comment that the 3 people who posted before him were spouting racism. Disagreement and discussion are a healthy component of society. Disagreement does not equal racism, and to assume so discourages healthy discussion that can lead to better understandings and, I think, can encourage divisiveness and, in fact, racism. Please consider that before dismissing different perceptions as 'racist"
Up 9 Down 4
BB on Jan 9, 2023 at 1:28 pm
On the topic of "take" I suggest first knowing something about "The Doctrine of Discovery."
I chuckled to myself when travelling in the bush with visitors from the south who, on their first visit to a beautiful location in the Yukon, say..."Wow, I bet we are the first people ever to be here." The reality is we were not the first ones there on that unnamed mountain.
We are all here in the Yukon now and it is still beautiful so let's celebrate these Yukon Land Claims for all of us...people.
Up 15 Down 8
BB on Jan 8, 2023 at 2:21 pm
The Final Agreements are Our agreements - “Our” meaning First Nations, Yukoners, and Canadians
Local Land Claim agreements to be celebrated
With people co-managing the land we call home.
Up 10 Down 9
Chaos Theory on Jan 7, 2023 at 10:06 am
Hello iBrian on Jan 6, 2023 at 4:19 am:
You wrote: “As documents like this move forward it is the carrier who is separating the people of the land today from uniting. By creating a divisional class with privileges above a majority of the population.”
Do you mean ‘carrier’ as in people who carry things or ‘Carrier’ as in the those people who are members of the ‘Carrier’ First Peoples?
And why is it that the Carrier Peoples are solely responsible for this current crisis in rights based cultural primacy reified by the construction of a hierarchical categorical imperative founded in abstract notions of superiority reinforced along the same classist-cultural predicates leading to the same old prejudices in the social order that the classists created in the first place through the application of rules, regulations, policies, and/or law that were “intended” to govern the relationships between people and commerce in a sociopolitical context. Laws that were enforced.
This is the sociopathology inherent within the ‘subject-object’ (representative) of the body politic embedded in an adversarial political system without foundation in a common purpose. The result is absurdity. Society and its institutional structures become little more than manipulations of abstract psychogenic manifestations of feelings. This cannot be sustained, it is chaos.
Certainly, a ‘reset’ could have been better managed. Unfortunately however, our current leadership is too invested in maintaining their own power than to consider the overall good of all peoples - The creation of a fair and just society based on normative standards, principles, and values… Not in the advancement of the status quo but in the recognition of equality for all… We do not have that right now and we did not have it then. This is a problem of general application. But this is a nuanced argument based in a considered approach…
This is why I can hold 2 contradictory thoughts in my mind and be open to understanding the contexts in which we think them and then act them. I can allow myself to shift my perspective as the information that I have to make decisions and judgments about the world around me changes.
So, I welcome the BC Supreme Court decision in which, “British Columbia's top court has broadened the sweep of a sentencing law meant to reduce incarceration rates among Indigenous peoples, ruling that Indigenous-specific sentencing can be applied even to offenders who have become disconnected from Indigenous communities and are only minimally aware of their heritage”.
This makes sense. After all, the Federal, Territorial, and Provincial governments deliberately set out to “kill the Indian in the child” (Indian Act) and perhaps “they”
(The Government) should not be rewarded for having committed these acts against the Indigenous peoples and against the electorate who were mandated to bear witness to their violent assault on a group of people by virtue of their economic survival.
Is this governmental coercion to achieve its will over the people or a manifestation of the will of the people as asserted by those who greatly benefit from the moral diffusion that flows from the blame shift to the “people”? Thus, the accusations of ‘privilege’, ‘entitlement’, ‘implicit bias/racism’, and/or ‘white/male privileged’.
Our current system is antithetical to the promises made by ‘them’ in their application of democracy which in the contemporary sense has become a de’mock’cracy in expression with its social hierarchies - You, okay, - She, better, - They, greater… You become an abstract representation of degrees of privilege which are balanced by the idyllic thrust of ‘equity’.
It’s bad!
Up 18 Down 7
Groucho d'North on Jan 7, 2023 at 9:31 am
The racism pendulum is sweeping again, stimulated by the efforts of governments to achieve fairness for all Canadians. I would like to see their efforts focused on achieving equality for all of us. Equality will never be achieved if the government's pandering favours one group over others, but then fewer votes would be bought with our money, and that is the true goal of all this. An Indian in the Cabinet written by Jody Wilson Raybould, read it and better understand the motives of our federal Liberal government.
Up 27 Down 8
iBrian on Jan 6, 2023 at 4:19 am
@BB
Although I do agree with your comments. I’m reality, a few error in facts. Yes, some residents of this land were here befor a “Canada” was formed. However, there were a great many more people here then who are included in that beautiful document.
It’s a great document and turning point in time for sure. Unfortunately the Yukon was not settled in a Theatre of War fashion. It was Occupation by Population. How many foreigners were here at time of Confederation? Russians, Norse, Dutch, French, German, American, American Indian, and those people were push.squeezed out of recognition.
As documents like this move forward it is the carrier who is separating the people of the land today from uniting. By creating a divisional class with privileges above a majority of the population. This creates unease and unrest.
We can not move forward together if you are more important than me. Even if I wanted us too as the value you recognize me at is less then yourself.
Up 30 Down 12
bonanzajoe on Jan 5, 2023 at 8:07 pm
@BB on Jan 5, 2023: I'm still waiting to see what you "first residents" have to offer Canada in contributions. Most of all I've seen in all my years is "take".
Up 19 Down 14
bonanzajoe on Jan 5, 2023 at 8:04 pm
@ron wilton on Jan 5, 2023: Its called "Freedom of Speech" dude. However, unfortunately, JT, is taking it away. Would like to hear what you have to say, next time your comments get government censored.
Up 12 Down 14
In the Idiocracy ignorance is king… on Jan 5, 2023 at 7:47 pm
Dear ron wilton on Jan 5, 2023 at 5:30 am:
While I understand and support the underlying principle intent of your submission your message is obscured by your resort to ad hominem attacks. This is similar behaviour to what you accuse them of… It is understandable why we are so “#%€$&¥!” as a species - We do not communicate, we assert, we demand, and we allow the fantasy of an impulsive whimsy to become our shared reality through the assertion of categorical imperatives within a stratified hierarchy of a predeterministic authority… Virtue of the day! WTF have you done… Seriously… WTF?
Up 32 Down 28
BB on Jan 5, 2023 at 9:52 am
Welcome to the Yukon; my family came here for work in 1958 and I was just a child when the First Nations went to Ottawa for "Together Today for our Children Tomorrow." If you haven't read it I suggest you do before spitting negative comments.
I hope you get to attend some of these Land Claim events; you may learn something about this part of 'Canada' we live in that has been home to (Yukon) First Nations before there was a 'Canada.'
Easy to hide behind your internet comments on this forum; it take effort to listen and learn more in person - hope to see you there.
From a born Yukoner who knows about the people and land where we live.
Up 24 Down 37
ron wilton on Jan 5, 2023 at 5:30 am
Wow!
Sad to see that overt racism is still tolerated in Whitehorse. Giving those intellectually challenged unfortunates a voice in your paper only emboldens them and makes them believe that their distasteful comments are acceptable so they persist in their inherited ignorance and even worse convey their ignorance to their unfortunate offspring.
Up 33 Down 29
drum on Jan 4, 2023 at 6:14 pm
Who will pay for this. The people who actuallly work and pay taxes. Get a job!!!!!!!!
Up 70 Down 45
Matthew on Jan 4, 2023 at 3:43 pm
ALL of this, sponsored by the tax payer.. it's time to end the cash cow. Stop dividing yourselves from the rest of Canada and participate in the economy like the rest of us.
Up 60 Down 41
bonanzajoe on Jan 4, 2023 at 3:18 pm
Make sure you invite your street people..