If an Indian does something bad, you will hear it in the news, that an individual would commit something bad in society. The media will put the Indians all in the same basket – all the Indians will be responsible even if it’s the act of only one individual. They say, ‘It’s all the Indians.’ You do your own thing, lead your own life, but you are put in the same basket and the Indian will be told, ‘It’s all you Indians who are responsible.’ For the actions of the individual it’s a collective betrayal because a negative image has been given of Indians.

The Indian people will always be labelled or portrayed in a very negative way. They will always be looked at as if there are only the negative aspects of being an Indian that you will see on TV. You won’t see or hear about the good side, the good actions and achievements of the Indian people. The media portrays negative images only and the government should do something about it.

Unfortunately even if I have a nice house, this house doesn’t belong to me. It belongs to the Crown. It belongs to the Band Council. I will never be able to mortgage it and use it as leverage for economic purposes because the banks will say, ‘The house doesn’t belong to you. It belongs to the Band Council.’ Even though I have paid rent all my life, it will never belong to me. I will never own it. If I leave this community to go somewhere else, I leave all the money that I gave here for this house, all the rent that I paid over the years. I won’t get it back.

If we don’t do something now, we will be really poor – they don’t know we are here.

Young people are leaving because we don’t have adequate housing and because of financial problems.

The church is a tool of assimilation.