Quaker Committee For Native Concerns Newsletter (QCNC)
Periodical profile published 1982
Publisher: Quaker Committee for Native Concerns (QCNC)
Year Published: 1982
Resource Type: Serial Publication (Periodical)
Cx Number: CX2447
The Quaker Committee for Native Concerns (QCNC) publishes this newsletter in an effort to communicate to "Southerners" the goals and struggles of Canada's native people.
Abstract:
The Quaker Committee for Native Concerns (QCNC) publishes this newsletter in an effort to communicate to "Southerners" the goals and struggles of Canada's native people. The Fall-Winter 1981 (no.9) issue deals with native concerns and strategies for change about the loss of their language, the hydro-electric water diversion project of northern Manitoba and the experiences of Native people in the legal system. The QCNC gathers articles from a wide variety of sources including "New Breed" and "Project North Newsletter."
Dr. Adam Cuthand's article on native languages explores the differences in the languages of the dominant and native societies. Native language has no masculine, feminine or neuter genders; it has animate and inanimate (living and non-living) objects. This affects the way in which people who speak their native language view the world and is a strong part of the basis for challenging the dominant society's assumptions about the use of land and resources. Cuthand stresses the importance of native children learning their own language in order to continue their struggle.
The article "Dreams Turn into Nightmares" examines the consequences of the Churchill River diversion project in northern Manitoba. The "dream" was to divert water from the Churchill River into the Nelson River and to construct hydro-generating stations along the new channel. In this way, Manitoba would be assured of a virtually limitless supply of energy for domestic use and export. The "nightmare" is the experience of Native people who have been flooded off their land and housed in shoddy woodframe houses as a part of the Manitoba government's "compensation deal." The changing of water levels has dramatically affected commercial fishing, formerly a viable industry for native people and a food source for Northerners and Southerners alike. Soil erosion is causing mercury levels in the lakes to increase as well as changes in the perma-frost levels, of which little is known at this time. The article concludes that the economic reasons for continuing the project no longer exist, because the loss of land, employment, housing and the health of native people cannot be compensated by the present welfare and social service system.
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