Yeah But You Haven't Done Anything Lately.

There are many of you, many of us who have done some very good things. Things which have helped someone immensely. You know like you baby sat the kids so they could have the time of their lives at dinner at the new snotty restaurant where the latest stars are known to hang out and you have a secret crush on the one actor who is there tonight. Or you co-signed a loan for their brand new car and they have consummated their new car with the the sights sounds and smells of amour. Or you managed to stop logging company from successfully being granted a license to rape the country side in your Traditional territory. You started a wild Wood Bison project in a community. You marched with Women to get their plight on the national stage. You built a National Museum for Human Rights. You built a Turtle Lodge. You built a Thunderbird House. You fasted for your people to bring awareness to their health. You sacrifice your life for four days every spring.

I guess its kind of cool you done all of that, But really what have you done lately?

I think we all feel like forgotten or neglected. Its okay. It seems to be a normal reaction to the good you've done. You helps someone or do something significant but the people either downplay how you have helped them or ignore what you have done. I visited a friend of mine the other night and remember how smart she is and how hard she works. She and her deceased husband did some great things for this one community. The community has either a skewed, short or revised memory of the work my friend and others did on their behalf.

Skownan First Nation receives Excellence in Sustainability Award

“Skownan worked with the province for approximately 15 years to establish the park, which encompasses the core of Skownan’s traditional use area, officially designated in 2014,” says Ron Thiessen, executive director of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) Manitoba chapter, who nominated the community for the award on behalf of the International Boreal Conservation Campaign. “It is the first to bear the provincial land designation of Indigenous Traditional Use. This designation supports cultural and economic well-being by honouring the Aboriginal and Treaty rights of Skownan members to continue traditional land use practices within the park.”

The park is co-managed by Skownan First Nation and the province and straddles more than 1,000 sq. km of healthy, intact swaths of Aspen Parkland and Precambrian Boreal wilderness. Notably, Chitek Lake is the site of a successful establishment of Manitoba’s only free-roaming herd of North America’s largest land mammal, the threatened wood bison. It is also the only known area on the continent where wood bison are found in boreal habitats with white tailed deer, elk, moose and the threatened woodland caribou. Within the park industrial logging and mining are prohibited, and the wood bison are protected from hunting. With a lodge already in place, the community is exploring various opportunities to develop sustainable ecotourism in the region as a local economic asset.

My friend Karen, Deceased Harvey Pane, Harvey Nepinak worked long and hard to get the project on the ground.  They won't be acknowledged for all the ground work done. They won't get any credit for going every year to the Forest Management License process and giving reasons for not granted a license to the logging company. They won't get acknowledged for working and writing the terms of land protection for the area. They won't get acknowledged for bringing up lands management topic to a hostile provincial government-where they are told not to even mention co-management. Nope but that's okay,  because people know what they accomplished on behalf of the community.

That is the way it is in many situations. Our heroes just go along in life. We see that everyday. 

Dr.Karen Stock Phd Author Artist 

Still a Thank You - Kitch Miigwech is appreciate every now and then. Many times its not the lack of recognition that hurts its the absence of friends or how we are now ignored. The act like someone doesn't exist is what hurts the most.