Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good afternoon, members.
Ideology can be western, European, oriental, black, or native American. Regardless of status, we all need each other. We all value the principles and beliefs that guide our everyday lives.
It is because of Mother Earth's good grace that we are here today, yet we keep creating innovative ways of ignoring the obvious, creating an illusion of misconceptions, playing Russian roulette, screwing around, and tinkering with her generosity. We need to honour her sacred elements of water, air, earth, and fire. Without any of these elements, mankind as we know it will not exist.
Indigenous people of the Americas have much to offer: a vast knowledge of what was good, what has gone wrong, and what could be recuperated in terms of our relationship with the broader environment.
Before contact, the Dehcho Dene lived with and from the land to sustain societies and to grow and develop. Relationships were organized to ensure both Dene and all living things continued to thrive and flourish. This required the development of systems of traditional knowledge that were precise and disciplined, and in what we would call today a material or scientific sense of having to deal with resource protection, renewal, and regeneration.
In this century, our environment is being destroyed to a point of no return. The very ground we walk on, the water we drink, and the air we breathe threaten to make us ill rather than being a source of our health and well-being. To this, Dehcho has much to offer.
Traditional knowledge is central to managing our environment. The land use plan passed in 2006 is a prime example of that. This essential document that creates harmony between governments, industry, and first nations is no longer relevant because of tinkering with what we consider survival mechanisms. Industries and governments seem to miss the point of this document.
Mr. Chairman, the Dehcho land use plan is a blueprint for industry to use when planning potential development. It is a good working document that industry can use to guide its direction. This responsible, perfect document is now being changed, based on a phase called conformity. These conformity requirements do not make sense to those who have used the land and the waters since time immemorial. Conservation zones have been replaced with special development zones by people who have never set foot on our lands.
In a contemporary developed country such as Canada, politicians often debate ideas in the abstract. Alienation of people by ideas can lead to war to defend one theory or another about the best way to govern, each proclaiming that their way is the best and only way. Politicians tend to become stagnant and defensive, seeming to care more about being right than doing right. The Dene way of governing is to see government as a constantly evolving and dynamic set of relationships between people. It must be open to adapt to changing conditions and circumstance. The Dehcho modes of government, like all forms of government, are not necessarily perfect, but we have a very important contribution to make to the contemporary debate on how we should care, govern, and live in harmony with one another.
The Dehcho can pass on traditional knowledge about trade and commerce and about peace, order, and good government by exploring first nations modes of government and the relationships between diverse people or ethnic groups of people. We are also living in a rapidly and dynamically changing world. We are in a recession. All systems of government are vulnerable, and they all have strengths and weaknesses. Indigenous values and principles have largely been cast aside and replaced by an administrative government driven by economic interests.
Canada relegated their values and principles to the past and deemed the Dehcho system of government inappropriate to present circumstances. To disregard ways of life and knowledge that organized the Dehcho Dene for thousands of years was a dreadful error and a grave loss that our people are suffering from, as are the land, skies, and water.
To recuperate these losses and to open the eyes, ears, and minds of the world's people to this historic tragedy will require much more than remorse and regret. It will require first acknowledgement and then respect. It will also require government to make brave decisions and to have the courage to act on them.
We have a vested interest. As stewards, we have a duty to protect what we have. However, for the time being we rely on governments that have only economic interests in mind. Recession gives us a time to reflect, evaluate, and refocus on why we are on this planet. Timing is everything. The opportunity exists now.
Mr. Chairman, being keepers of the water happens now. There's nothing new in that word. Since time immemorial we have been sharing our knowledge, stories, and legends regarding our lands and water. We have learned from nature the gift of survival. We have also learned in this generation about industrial development and the devastation and destructive measures it can bring in the name of progress.
First nations of this continent have become a collective force, through our moccasin telegraph, regarding our most precious resource, water. A humanitarian issue that started in the north is now spreading across the country, across this continent, and across this world. The collective network, the Keepers of the Water, and the water keepers, the indigenous water network, water strategy, and environmental forums are collectively furthering this struggle toward a common goal of protecting Mother Earth and her sacred elements. As stewards, our focus should remain consistent with human evolution, not material wealth. Our focus should be protecting water resources and the cultural use and traditional values of water, and our conservation practice should that ensure future generations are not denied those elements that sustain us today.
We are not missing any points here. While I agree a little money in the pocket is good, we must raise the bar to a higher level if mankind as we know it is to survive. We must have the courage to challenge the status quo. We must be vigilant and open our eyes. We haven't survived on this continent by denying others a means of survival. We all have a vested interest. How we survive will not be dependent on governments. Stupid decisions that compromise our survival will not go unchallenged.
Since global warming has become an issue, we have made half-hearted attempts to address it by seeming to care. We act concerned, while pondering, with our fingers crossed behind our backs, that it won't change by itself.