Chief finds 'lack of hope" in Davis Inlet
By Moira Welsh
TORONTO STAR
Ovide Mercredi visited the Innu people of Davis Inlet in
Labrador he found a community in utter despair.
The 500 residents of the tiny island in the Atlantic Ocean are
suffering from alcohol addictions, solvent abuse, violence and a
deep sense of isolation from the traditional lifestyle they once
had.
"It's a problem that goes beyond substance abuse," Mercredi,
national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, said in a
telephone interview yesterday.
"There is a lack of hope in this community. It's all related
to the loss of culture, the loss of life and the loss of their
identity. They are a dispossessed people."
Mercredi arrived in Davis Inlet yesterday after a request from
Innu Nation leaders who want his assistance in negotiating with
government officials in a planned meeting there today.
The Innu were forced to move to the island in 1967 with
government promises of better living with housing, sewage systems
and running water.
Those promises never materialized and residents live in
appalling conditions similar to those in Third World countries.
Last year there were six reported suicides in the community,
while an average of four people--many of them teens-try to kill
themselves every month.
Their troubles reached a boiling point last week when six
teenagers--distraught over the upcoming anniversary of a house fire
that killed six friends last year--tried to kill themselves by
sniffing gasoline and fought attempts to save their lives.
"The healing of the people is going to take some time," he
said. "Part of the healing is getting to the cause of the
problem"
The Innu, a once nomadic people, have a long tradition of
spending months hunting and living in the country.
Leaders say they feel trapped on the island and have asked to
be relocated to a site 18 kilometres (11 miles) away on the
mainland, which they have named Sango, after a nearby river.
Relocation could bring the people back to the lifestyle they
need to survive, he said.
"It's a way of trying to restore a culture that is still
viable in Canada."
But the Innus need the country's help Mercredi said.
The people have long asked for a treatment centre in Labrador
to deal with their problems.
Health Minister Benoit Bouchard said earlier this week that
the government will pay to send addicts to outside treatment
centres. But the Innu leaders have said they want more time to
decide whether their people could get better treatment closer to
home.
Bouchard told the House of Commons yesterday that the Innu
will have the final say on where their people will go for emergency
treatment.
Leaders aren't expecting many results from a meeting in Davis
Inlet today with government officials from the Indian and northern
affairs department and the health department, Mercredi said.
A recent government-commissioned study proposed moving the
community inland to a new site with room for growth and access to
their traditional hunting grounds.
Indian Affairs Minister Tom Siddon has said the government is
seriously considering the move but is proceeding cautiously because
it doesn't want to risk another failed relocation.