Annette Francis
APTN National News
Members of the Kashchewan First Nation have voted almost unanimously in favour of moving out.
The community on the coast of James Bay floods almost on a regular basis.
The results of a September referendum shows that 90 percent want to move.
Now everyone is waiting on Ottawa to make it happen.
Qwhy wait for the government to initiate the move? Why doesn’t some other reserve with a better location safe from flooding take the initiative to invite the Kashchewan peoples to move to their reserve? Of course additional housing would have to be built and paid for by the Federal government but it would be much cheaper than starting fresh on a new piece of vacant land which will require all the central services (water, electricity ,administration buildings etc) This would be consistent with a recommendation made way back in the 1996 Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples that the 1,000 reserves and other indigenous settlements should amalgamate into 60-80 “nation ” groups that would be large enough to realistically function as self governing entities. While not included in any of the Calls to Action in the recent TRC Report the same RCAP recommendation to form 60-80 “nations” was noted and supported In the text of the Report. My expectation is that if similar free votes were held in many remote reserves suffering problems of inadequate housing and services,suicide of their youth, etc the result would be the same large majorities voting to move to a better location.. It’s important to remember that both of these Commissions were headed by Indigenous people so the recommendation to amalgamate is not being imposed by the government