I just want to clarify very quickly that there are women who appreciate the programs.
Let's talk about identity. Sharon McIvor went and tried to do that, and said “You can't be declaring who we are. Hear us.” She had everything there, and the government only went so far.
So government has a role. The federal government has to take the role seriously and implement the treaty agreements we have. They have to start supporting the Assembly of First Nations instead of cutting funding when something AFN does might offend them.
So that's what I'm talking about, ethical funding. The funding that you do provide has to be directed by the community: what do we need, for how long? I like what I heard earlier this morning about programs that are stratified rather than one blanket fits all. There are certain women...and I'm grateful, because I was one of those women who were on the street, living like that, and I went through a stratified recovery. In Edmonton there are programs like that, but we don't have them in the north. We actually have one treatment centre. Northern people have been crying forever that not everybody's alcoholic. Everybody's having other trauma issues. We don't have services like that. Communities need to tell us what it is we want.
I like what my sister Arlene said, that we need to be including the leadership. We have a government; the public government is also the aboriginal government. So they need to be acknowledged for that. The president for the NWTalso said to give us some ethical funding, not just “Oh, we're doing our part; here, you can have it.”
We have to start recognizing the systemic violence, and until the federal government does a review of the policies that are in place that oppress or assimilate us, the rest of us have our hands tied. I think that needs to be acknowledged, and they need to partner with a whole bunch of people in order to really clean that up.
Merci.