Tāłtān Central Government Election Candidate Profile Curtis Rattray
Curtis Rattray’s Political Platform
Dzenes hoti’e, Nenh Gluadz ushyē, good day my name is Nenh gluadz. I am running for President of the Tahltan Central Government.
If elected as the President of the TCG, I will use my leadership strengths of building effective teams and lead these teams accomplish the political priorities outlined here. I will use Tahltan traditional leadership approaches of inclusiveness, unity, hard work, consensus decision making in creating teams of Tahltans to achieve these political priorities. I will then use Tahltan political influence to make changes for Tahltan Nation.
If you feel the political priorities that I aim to work on in the next 3 years is what you would like to see please vote for me as your next President of the TCG.
Child at the Centre- Youth
- Culture & language programing – our communities are weak in providing youth programming and our language programming is starting to grow. I am already heavily involved in youth activities in Dease Lake that include youth from all our communities; and during the summer Tahltan youth outside Tahltan territory.
- I will lead a team to develop a more unified and coordinated approach to youth programming that reaches out into our youth outside Tahltan territory.
- Land-based leadership & culture – Tahltan youth need to experience being on Tahltan land and making connections with the spirits of their ancestors and the land. I have been guiding Tahltan youth on Tahltan land and I am currently fully involved in organizing and running culture camps on the land, including to very remote locations.
- I will lead a team to develop land-based youth leadership programming that will allow for Tahltan youth to experience Tahltan territory through a range of age and interests’ appropriate offerings.
- Wellness – intergenerational trauma is a pandemic in Indigenous nations and communities. There have been many positive steps to address this, some I have been involved in. I recognize and honour those Tahltans who support youth directly to find ways to help them.
- I will lead a team to develop a wellness approach in all the things we do, specifically youth and cultural programming.
- Education
- Jurisdiction in K-12 education, the current education system is infringing on Tahltan ancestral rights. It is the Tahltan nation who has the right to educate our children. There is very little work being done in this priority area, with some exceptions, the Tahltan Nation must have a more unified and aggressive approach to improve the education of our children
- I will lead a team to develop a strategy to address this infringement and achieve jurisdiction.
- The K-12 and post-secondary curriculum is western based and it is part of the Canadian assimilation policies which is negatively impacting the Tahltan nation.
- I will lead at team to create Tahltan curriculum for K-12 and post-secondary.
- Post-secondary education is one of the Tahltan Nation’s strengths, which has been achieved over the past 20 to 30 years. However, there is room for improvement in the area of funding and the decolonization of the current Canadian post-secondary programing and pedagogy.
- I will lead a team to develop a Tahltan nation strategy to post-secondary that includes unified and streamlined funding.
- I will also lead the exploration of Tahltan post-secondary programming.
- Child and Family protection
- The current child and family protection system is not working for the Tahltan Nation, it is actually harming our children and families. This practice also is infringing upon our ancestral rights.
- There is good work being done on this issue, however there needs to be more coordination between Tahltan organizations and a much harder approach must be taken.
- I will lead a team to develop a strategy to address this infringement and achieve jurisdiction.
I have worked on these political priorities in the past and I have gained a lot of experience and I understand what we are up against. From my experience I have seen how the current situation we inherited has impacted our youth.
Currently, I am involved in youth programming, I have been able to accomplish a great deal with very little funding or support, I feel I can do so much more with the full weight of the Tahltan Nation.
I have talked in great detail with the youth and Tahltan citizens and I have gained a lot of ideas from them about how to approach these issues. I have the leadership skills, positive energy, team work, and vision to put the Child in the Centre.
Governance- What is governance?
- It is the act or process of governing; governing is the exercise of continuous sovereignty authority.
- It is the values, structures, systems, and practices that take place that assigns decision-making authorities, and how decisions are made.
- It is the creation of regulations and policies that reflect the Tahltan nation’s values and practices.
- I will lead a team to develop a Tahltan constitution that is based on Tahltan values, structures, systems, authorities, and practices that is realistic for our current Tahltan generation; but is also adaptable for our future generations.
- Tahltan Governance
- Unity – unity is one of the Tahltan Nation’s strengths, but there is more work to be done. In the late 1990’s the Tahltan Nation was divided, I was a big part of unifying the nation when I was elected President (Chairman) of the Tahltan Central Council in 2002.
- I will lead a team that will promote Tahltan unity and sovereignty by using Tahltan values of caring, listening, honesty, fairness, and working in the best interests of the Tahltan Nation.
- Inclusiveness – is about including everyone of Tahltan ancestry, including those who live outside Tahltan territory. Our ancestral rights come from our ancestors who were alive at the time of contact with Europeans. Our rights exist today because of those who descend from those ancestors. There are some families who currently do not fit into any of the current families.
- I will lead a team to explore our genealogy and determine if everyone is included and to document as evidence that can be used to protect our rights.
- Structure – families is the structure of our government; families need to be supported so the families can structure and organize themselves. Each Family that makes up the TCG is an extended family, they are a group of related families, each Family should have a family council based on their family tree. This will create strength through a more unified approach.
- I will lead a team to support the Families to become organized based on how each wish.
- Authority – is the right or power to make decisions. Most democratic systems are representative governments, which means the elected representatives and the body e.g. House of Commons is the supreme authority. I believe the Tahltan Nation’s government is not a representative government, we are a traditional tribal government which means our appointed or elected representatives have limited power to make decisions. I believe that Tahltan citizens have authority to make decisions on issues that infringe and impact our ancestral rights.
- I will lead a team to develop governing policies that define Tahltan citizens decision making authorities.
- I will lead to develop a Tahltan governance system that reflects our traditional governing values and practices.
Asserting the Tahltan Sovereign Right- What is the Sovereign Right? – Our ancestors used this term in the Declaration of the Tahltan Tribe in 1910.
- I believe our ancestors are not saying the sovereign right is a separate sovereign nation from Canada, but as a distinct political entity within Canada. The current political landscape requires the Tahltan Nation to extinguish about 90% of our ancestral rights to join Canada in the form of a land claim treaty. In accepting the current Canadian definition of our rights as “Aboriginal Rights and Title” we have already given up too much.
- This is about defining the Tahltan Nation’s relationship with Canada. Currently, the relationship is a ‘parent – child’ relationship where the “Queen Mother” knows what is best for her “Indian Children”. Indigenous peoples are wards of the state. The legal term for this relationship is Fiduciary Obligation.
- The Tahltan Nation has to collectively to define what is the Sovereign Right. In Quebec they use the term ‘sovereignty association’, there are other places in the world who are also exploring this; the Hawaiians and other Indigenous nations, also the Basques, Kurds, Welsh, and Scottish. They are all looking for another way to define their relationship with the modern nation-state.
- I will lead a team to explore what is the Tahltan sovereign right and ways to assert our sovereign rights.
- Mutual Recognition – mutual recognition is when other sovereign nations recognize each other, this is one of the international requirements for countries to belong to the international community. The Tahltan Nation needs to reach out to other Indigenous nations who have the same goals of the sovereign right and mutually recognize each other’s sovereign rights. This mutual recognition will add to our political influence and clout.
- I will lead a team to explore our best approach to seek mutual recognition.
Assert jurisdiction-based land ownership and assert Tahltan stewardship values that guarantees a bright future for future generations
More to come...
My goal has always been to protect our Sovereign rights as envisioned in the Tāłtān Declaration. To achieve this, I would like to hold dialogue sessions with community members and elders to find the best way forward and to focus on youth development, culture and language, responsive government, and critical land and wildlife issues.
