Now that Vancouver has the 2010 Olympics where do we go from here ?
Who will keep an independent eye on the activities of the organising committees, sponsors, environment, contracted workers and many other aspects of the games ?
Aboriginal conference's $2.5-million cost shocks poverty-ridden reserve's residents Natives say money would be better spent fighting unemployment, debt
Glenn Bohn
Vancouver Sun
Friday, October 10, 2003
MOUNT CURRIE -- In an aboriginal community where half the residents are jobless and many live in sub-standard houses and trailers, Lil'wat people can think of many ways to spend $2.5 million in federal tax money.
That's the sum the federal Liberal is investing in the wealthy resort municipality of Whistler, just 45 kilometres south of the reserve here, for a three-day-conference to discuss aboriginal culture and tourism.
Mount Currie residents approached at random Thursday were amazed that sum could be found for the three-day conference this December.
If the money went to Mount Currie instead, the 1,300 band members could rid themselves of most of the band's $3.5 million debt.
Ricci Grafton, an unemployed aboriginal woman who used to edit an aboriginal magazine, said some of the money could be used to create jobs for an estimated 500 adults who live on the reserve and are unemployed.
"I don't think $2.5 million to promote aboriginal tourism -- which is an oxymoron -- is a good deal," she said.
Grafton said aboriginals want to "privatize" their traditional ceremonies and claim back their culture, but she said non-aboriginals are "just stealing our culture to promote the [2010 Winter] Olympics. It's ridiculous."
Marcus Peters works as a cook in nearby Pemberton, a non-aboriginal community where new condominiums and homes are being built for those looking for alternatives to million-dollar mansions in Whistler.
When asked how he would spend $2.5 million to improve Mount Currie, Peters called for better housing on the reserve and more job opportunities.
"Fix up the housing," he said Peters, at the front porch of one of the many 1960s and 1970s bungalows in which Mount Currie residents live. "So many houses around here have been condemned."
Rosalin Sam, a Lil'wat who speaks for a protest encampment trying to stop the construction of the proposed Cayoosh ski resort at Melvin Creek, also pointed to the band's debt -- a debt she blames on federal government cutbacks of education, health and welfare services.
"People are living on $165 a month," she said. "That $2.5 million would well serve our people. To talk about tourism [during the Whistler conference] is crazy. They don't come to us to talk about our culture, our lands and our language. All that's exploited when they talk about tourism.
"They select 'yes' people. When they ask, 'Would you like a cultural centre?' someone is going to say, 'Yes, yes, yes.'"
Sam was referring to a promised $15 million First Nations cultural centre in Whistler that the Mount Currie and Squamish bands are to operate and manage. The new facility is to be completed next summer.
Many other benefits have also been pledged by the 2010 Olympic bid corporation and the federal and provincial governments: the two First Nations are to be partners in a Legacies Society, which would own, manage and operate the $102 million Nordic Centre in the Callaghan Valley, the $55 million bobsled and luge track at Blackcomb Mountain and the $13 million athletes' centre in the Callaghan.
The Squamish and Lil'wat people are also to get 50 moveable houses from the Whistler athlete's village, an additional $6.5 million for housing, and a share of a province-wide $3 million aboriginal sports legacy fund.
There are also guarantees that native Indians will get jobs on Olympic work sites.
But that's all in the future. On Thursday, the main street of the 185-year-old reserve was still a bleak collection of derelict and empty houses, small still-inhabited log homes and decades-old bungalows. A sign on one street declares that no photos are to be taken. But for decades, images of this community have appeared in alternative and mainstream media as a symbol of aboriginal poverty. And, like many other aboriginal communities in Canada, the population growth rate is far higher than the growth rate being experienced by wealthier, non-aboriginal communities.
Half the people here are under the age of 25. One third are younger than 19.
Mount Currie band administrators said only the elected Chief Leonard Andrew was authorized to speak for the Lil'wat people who live on this reserve.
Andrew did not respond to an interview request Thursday -- he was attending an Assembly of First Nations conference in Vancouver -- but the band's Web site includes a number of number of official goals that include better housing, better health care and more jobs.
