THE FREE PRESS PEOPLE Page A17 THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2000 PHONE 564-0005 The AWAN rafters put their rain gear on and pushed off into the Fraser for the next leg of their journey to the sea and a stronger aboriginal female voice, doug brownvfree press Against the Tide Aboriginal women take to the Fraser to reclaim their future Canadian history isn't boring, says Jack Bieiler. Yawn, stretch, yawn. Standing on guard For my money, this summer taught me more about what it means to be a Canadian than 12-odd years of public schooling, plus a few post-secondary courses in Canadian history and political science, although, to be honest, I was napping through most of these, as were many of my classmates, which may be why we have such a monumental problem with our national identity in the first place. Our history is too boring to maintain even our interest. In between snoozes, I caught fascinating snippets of information about Sir John A. MacDonald, beaver pelts, parliamentary democracy, the British North America Act, and the real significance of the transcontinental rail line (paved the way for the development of the “bar car”). It’s no wonder we suffer a chronic lack of national self-esteem. We have little of the pop and pow of, for instance, American history, which features almost daily incidents of homicidal imperialism and related military wackiness. The Revolutionary War, The War of 1812, The Mexican-American War, the Spanish-American War; the Americans aren’t happy unless they’re waging war on somebody In a pinch, they’ll wage war on themselves (The Civil War, a.k.a. the American-Ameri-can War). When they run out of human adversaries, they declare war on ideas or inanimate objects (the War on Drugs, the War on Poverty, etc.) The Americans learned long ago that war was the easiest way to whip up nationalist zeal, and they’ve hung their flag on it ever since. Canadians, on the other hand, have had to endure way too much peace to have a national identity based on whup-pin’ other countries’ butts, and laying claim to their Caribbean islands. Besides, we’ve got more land than we know what to do with. True, much of it is uninhabitable (or at least inhospitable), and maybe we should have jumped into the fray when Puerto Rico was up for grabs, but, for better or for worse, we traded acreage for climate. We’ve got this big lump o’ tundra and we’d better learn to like it. It is our ongoing attempts to appreciate and populate this vast land — our endless, futile battles with geography and the elements — that define us, even more so than beer ads and paying $400 Aboriginal women are floating the idea of their collective voice on issues of violence, self-actualization and restorative justice. The Fraser River is their political theatre, this fall, as a group of them slide through the longest provincial waterway all the way to Vancouver. The group pushed off this week at the north end of the river and rafted through Lheidli territory (Prince George) on Monday, stopping at the confluence of the Nechako to pick up more aboriginal women. They expect close to 50 to be on board by the time they hit the ocean on September 25. They will be stopping in Quesnel, Soda Creek, Lillooet, Yale, New Westminister and Musqueam on the way down. At their Cottonwood Island Park departure point it was gray and soaked with rain on Monday morning, but there were still a number of women packed and dressed in weather-defiant slickers ready to make their statements. “These women (Emma Williams, Antoinette Tom, Geraldine Alec) belong to a women’s group that I facilitate,” says Terri Jones. “It is a self- empowerment group. These women are from the Lake Babine Nation. They have been a part of abusive relationships and that is why they are here: in support of aboriginal women. They are making a journey and it isn’t an easy one.” They are exactly the kind of women that Fay Blaney has been advocating for for years. Fay is an executive board member on the National Action Committee for the Status of Women and cofounder of the Aboriginal Women's Action Network, the group organizing the raft trip. “We are trying to ensure that aboriginal women’s voices are heard on issues of violence, and partly it is about the restorative justice system. The voice of women needs to be considered on those issues,” she says between cell phone calls organizing supplies, participants and the raft pilots. “At this point women’s groups are still not adequately represented. We need to hear women in those dis- cussions. We need to be at the table.” The Aboriginal Women’s Action Network likens their situation to the salmon, struggling against the strong current to get back to their rightful ground. That, coupled with the Fraser’s traditional role in First Nations communication and transportation, is why the long raft trip was chosen as a symbolic act. After the raft trip AWAN will then preside over four focus groups, a provincial symposium and a national symposium between now and 2003. The AWAN trek is the first event of its kind this week in Prince George. Violence against women is in the spotlight next Friday night when the Take Back the Night 2000 march takes place. The eighth annual march to protest violence against women is sponsored by the Prince George Violence Against Women in Relationships Committee (VAWIR). While the march Please turn to Women, Page A18 Jack Bieiler They are making a journey and it isn't an easy one. Please turn to Celebrating, Page A18 Words Frank Peebles Photography Doug Brown