Thank you.
I have a question for Mr. Dinsdale.
You mentioned something in your introduction which really intrigued me: the idea of investing in the preservation of first nation languages.
I produced a documentary film about the Blood Indian Reserve, which is right by my place. The question that we were trying to learn about was, what makes a difference? I have adopted siblings from the tribe. Their mom died of a Listerine overdose, but her brother is sober, middle income, and teaches Blackfoot immersion; same parents, different situation.
The question was, what makes the difference between the 20% who are like Andrew, who are sober and free, and the people who are in bondage? We found that three elements were present in almost all of the people who were free. They were: they spoke Blackfoot, they were involved in religion of some sort, whether Christian or native, and they had a strong relationship with their grandparents.
We also found that the loss of identity was worse than suffering itself. There was a teenage kid who said: “What the heck is an Indian? I have no idea what that means”. His parents and his grandparents were taken from their communities and taught not just that they were savage, but that they shouldn't even exist. Then, in the sixties and seventies, we came to our senses—whatever that means—and said that the pre-Columbian Indian was a wonderful thing, it's what makes them wonderful. But this kid says, “I can't be that, so my worth is based on something that can't even exist”.
So how can we help first nations people? When you look at roots and people who study their geneology, you see that there is great power in freeing people if they connect with their ancestry. But how can we do that in a forward-thinking way without giving them this desperation of not being able to go back?