A Powerful Dene Woman

Therese Deranger 1919-2016

For mama's 95th birthday, I had this picture commissioned.

She was the oldest traditional Densuline of our community, Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, in Alberta, until February12, 2016. She passed on peacefully with her family by her bedside.

My mom's parents Christine and Chris Adam 

Six Generations Sophie 1885, Christine , Therese , Dora, Donna, and Sandra.   

On Mother's Day 2008, I paid tribute to her life in a blog, which I kept adding to each year.  Although, it is long, I could have written it much longer if I were to document everything she means to so many of us.  

HAPPY MAMA'S DAY!

Therese Deranger - May 08, 1919 - February 12, 2016 

She arrived into this world at Old Fort, Alberta on May 08, 1919. Eldest child of 11 Children, 2 sisters and 8 brothers.Married just after turning 15 on July 1933 in Fond du Lac (Isadore Deranger) Widowed April 4, 1993 in Fort McMurray, Alberta.

Born into an era where modern convenience was for others, she lived without electricity, plumbing, telephones, TV and many other amenities taken for granted by many for too many years.  Her life, in those days was about survival. 

Born and raised in the traditional Dene lifestyle in northern Saskatchewan and Alberta, on the shores of Lake Athabasca.  It was those very conditions that makes her who she is, who I am, and who we are as family.

Mama is having an amazing life journey, from bush life to city dwelling, from dogsled to jet, from moccasin telegraph to emails and texting. 

Once, she told me that she wanted to go to school but her Dad would not allow it. Thankfully, after learning about what happened in these residential schools, it was a blessing her dad didn't send her to school.  However, I remember when I was a child, she went to continuing education for upgrading. She was so thrilled that she could do some rudimentary reading and writing, particularly when she was so proud to be writing the names of her children.

Mama was a teenage bride,  she was married at the tender age of 15 through an arranged marriage to a stranger who was in his twenties. This was not unusual in the Desesuline custom. She became pregnant almost immediately, and had her last child well into her forties. Earlier in her marriage she would run away back to her parents' home, but each time her Dad returned her to her husband. She still resents this.

Mama, big brother Rossi, Angelina 

She gave birth to nineteen healthy children; the majority of her children born without the help of a doctor, except for the youngest ones. During one of the pregnancies she had to walk about 10 miles to the nearest community in early spring with the ground snow-covered, so she could make it to the midwife’s home for the birth of my brother. There were no prenatal classes to help her cope with understanding the development of pregnancy and caring for babies. There were no nurses to talk about baby blues. No one to help her understand what her body was going through, no one to help her understand the emotions that comes with exhaustion after having a baby and being sleep-deprived caring for babies whilst living in a tent miles from the nearest town.

Can you imagine, there were no Pampers, no baby formula and no prepared jars of baby food. Everything was home-made, and all those diapers had to be washed by hand. Fortunately, as the babies grew they became helpers in the care of the younger ones.

Mama experienced many challenges in her life time.  We were very poor. My dad was a trapper and so he would leave her alone for extended periods. As with most women in her generation, she had to cope on her own. Some people would argue that many other women of her day were in the same position, and maybe this is so, but that does not minimize the hardship she endured.

She once told me a story about how she hated the sound of the wind blowing through the house because it reminded her of a time when she was living in a tent during the early years of her marriage. It was in the fall, and she had a head cold. Throughout the night the wind was howling and she was all stuffed up. She said she was alone with some very young children at the time. Sometime during the early morning her head was aching so much, that the increase pressure in her ears eventually blew her eardrums. She remembers the warm blood pouring out of her ears. She said that ever since then, she has had problems with dizziness (she may have damaged her inner ear). Another time when one of my sisters was just two weeks old with the wind blowing the walls of the tent, my sister took ill and died a week later.

How it must have been difficult for her to cope with the loss of a child when she herself was no more than a child. Later in her life she would lose five more of her children, as recently as in 2012 late December her son, my brother, Billy died of an apparent heart attack.

Indeed, that Christmas was a difficult time for her. Parents should never have to bury their children, it was heartbreaking to see her overwhelmed with grief.

In her thirties she had breast cancer and had to have a partial mastectomy. Over the years she has had eleven operations. Years later, I remember one incident where she was very sick in the hospital, I was a young child at the time, we all gathered in her empty bedroom in Doghead in Fort Chipewyan, Alberta and prayed for her to get well. She made it through that ordeal. Later, I remember her telling us that she had a dream that she saw a man surrounded by light standing at the foot of her hospital bed, and she asked him to not take her because she still had young children. She came home from the hospital, and in her mind it was God’s will that she survived.  And not for her sake but for the sake of the children who still needed her.

There were times of difficulty involving alcohol during the sixties and seventies. I can recall bits and pieces but mainly because I was too young, I was oblivious to what really was happening. Thankfully, she stopped drinking. We, her children, did okay for ourselves, being educated and becoming contributing members of society. I definitely believe we survived because of Mama, and not in spite of her. Her guidance allowed us to be strong individuals much like her. I am amazed at her will, whenever she decided something she did it. Like to quit drinking, and then later she actually stopped smoking cold turkey too.  She just decided she was not going to do those things anymore and that was that.

Mama’s life is not all gloom and hardship. She enjoyed life and loved to travel. Visiting with her grandchildren, and great grandchildren, and her friends.

Indeed,  helping others made her happy.  Her joy, her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren, which number over a hundred now. Her passion was beading and sewing things for her family before her eyes failed her.

She says that she enjoyed keeping busy. Her Dene beaded jackets are distinctive and recognizable all over the territory. She did the most beautiful beadwork. When I was a little girl she looked at my long thread as I was beading and she said, “Don’t be lazy, make your thread shorter.” She was right of course because when your thread is shorter it does not get tangled up. It takes longer to bead, but the results are perfection.

If things were not done right, be it sewing, cleaning or anything, she also had you redo it until it was done properly. I don’t know how many hours were spent cleaning, even when the house was already clean. Her standards are high for all of us.  People nowadays don’t take enough care to do things right. Rarely do we find anyone that actually takes pride in their work.

Until a few of years ago, she enjoyed the yearly pilgrimage to Lac St. Anne, one ofCanada’s largest Indigenous healing pilgrimage. She enjoyed visiting with old friends and family who also have travelled a long way from isolated communities to attend. There she always bought Holy Water, blessed statutes, and pendents like St. Christopher, which she gave away as gifts. I still have a few she has given me over the years.

When I was younger I always enjoyed the fresh bread, and bannock she baked in the summer. The wood stove was moved outside because it was too hot in the house. At Christmas she made the best bread pudding I have ever tasted. I also really enjoyed the fun we had making homemade taffy in the winter.

        Mama's 92 Birthday

I honour Mama. Her gifts to me are strength, courage and reverence. When I’m worried or upset, I clean, clean, clean, I know she gave that to me too. She welcomes work, and keeps busy all the time. But most of all, she gave me life.

Mama turns 93 and makes the local news!

May 2012

Liz & Mama

With her four daughters 2015

The last few years after a fall that resulted in a broken hip and shoulder and was no longer to take care of herself, she lost her independence 
and had to move into an extended care facility.  I know it was difficult for her to accept that after all these years of care taking children, grandchildren, and great, great grandchildren she now had to be dependent on the good will of family and friends for her basic needs. 

Although, her body is weak, her mind and memory are strong. She is an incredible woman and I love her dearly. 

I could not resist adding a story, as told to me by Margo  

"My story of Mama.  Mama grew up in a hard life and she did the best she could. Yes.  Many times I could see the stresses in her life.  With so many children how would anyone not understand her.  I only have a couple, and my God I get stressed, then I think I now fully understand mama.  I have always had a great respect for mama. 

One day long ago, I took mama, my mom, and Adeline TripdeRoche to Lac St. Anne with my old car.  My car had holes on the floor, which I tried to cover with a cardboard paper.  Hight 63 was not payed yet back then.  I tell you each time I hit a bump puffs of dust would fill the car.  The ladies sat in the back seat and they all had polyester suits on.  We would stop on the way a couple of times getting out to stretch.  My goodness they all would brush the dust off their suits, all the while laughing about it.

As we were getting closer to Grassland, my mom said in Dene, "Oh, not too far now we will be stopping in this place called "Greengrass".  Mama then said in Dene "No, it's not called that, it's called "Gasline" and here is Mrs. TripdeRoche with her high pitched laugh practically rolling with laughter in the backseat. This was so hilarious.  I couldn't stop laughing too.  They were all so cute.  Mama is a very strong woman and inside mama she is very loveable, and I love her."

Thank you Margo for sharing this story!

Mama's 96th Birthday, with great granddaughter, Kirstie

Mama's 95 Birthday!

YOUR VOTE IS YOUR VOICE

FORT CHIPEWYAN, ALBERTA

Two elections, one right after the other, is exhausting.

The first one was the Canadian federal election. And as we know the Canadian electorate voted on October 19th, 2015, for “real change” and overwhelmingly voted to reinstate the Liberal party with a majority government. I am pleased with that result.

The second one is my First Nation, the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN).  The election is fast approaching, on October 30^th, 2015.  ACFN has their elections for chief and council every four years.

Many of the over 800 electorate do not live in the hamlet of Fort Chipewyan, Alberta, but are represented by a Council that according to the by-laws must be a resident of Fort Chipewyan, Alberta. This was a real hindrance with respect to communications for members who didn’t live in the community, like myself.

Fortunately, because of social media this election is vastly different. I decided to facilitate this process by creating a Facebook election group for members to discuss issues relating to the election and to obtain information to make an informed decision. Moreover, it provided a platform for candidates to reach as many members as possible in the short timeframe of two weeks between nominations and election day. I also created a number of individual political Facebook pages for candidates and shared what they have on their page with the group. Eventually, they did this on their own without any prompting from me.

For sure, as expected, some people are suspicious of my motives as I have written some critical blogs on the current Council.  But they are wrong I did not create the page to discredit them. Simply put, I, like others, needed a forum, so I created one.  I only wanted to raise the level of communication about the issues facing our First Nation. In fact, I have been active in the past few years attempting to encourage members that they had every right to raise questions and to request accountability and transparency from our local government.  An election is the ideal opportunity to send a message that we expect and deserve better. Canadian's did it in the general federal election on October 19th, and established a new relationship with the governing party. I have confidence ACFN members will make the right choice, too.  On the other hand, maybe, they are not ready yet. 

What was my experience as moderator for a politically charged election? Remarkably, it was not as bad as I thought it would be. I assumed there would be more rumours, gossip and attacks on people, but on the whole the exchange was very civilized. I had to delete only two threads, which I found had no useful contribution to the discussion and served only to attack a certain individual. By and large, I am rather proud of how our members used the forum and the tone of the discussions. Although some might disagree since there was some pointed questions asked of the current council. But I believe this was not asked out of malice but to clarify questions members had.

Did it meet my expectations?  Indeed, I would say that it exceeded them. I thought that only a small handful of people would actually use it, but as word got out more and more people asked to join. And initially, I thought I would have to introduce the conversations by suggesting topics and guide people along. I tried a couple of polls and asked questions, however, although I could see who saw the question only a few people actually took part in the polls. I quickly moved away from that approach.

It didn’t take long for the page to organically take on a life of its own. People were genuinely interested in how candidates would specifically answer their questions.  In turn, while the candidates eagerly provided scripted platforms, their answers on the forum for the most part were less scripted and a natural dialogue ensued.

Was I surprised by how the page influenced me?  Yes, very much.  I started with an idea that I would be supporting particular candidates.  However, as candidates started responding, or in some cases failed to respond, I began to see a shift from a candidate I was supporting and moving to someone I had never considered before.

As my mind became more made up, I felt although the forum was excellent, it lacked something.  I needed “real human” connection. I needed more information and started contacting people and asking questions. What kind of character did this or that person have, are they motivated, and most importantly did they have the respect of the community? Very much like checking reference of an applicant. What resulted made me once again reconsider some of my choices. Someone who looked great on paper but then when references where checked resulted in a red flag.

As we head to the end of the election I feel good about being able to facilitate the online forum. But I hope members do their own due diligence and instead of relying on what they read on the online forum and decide to make that “real human” connection before making their mark on the ballot.  Unlike a federal election, in a small community you can often get the real story about candidates just by asking the people who know them.

The people we elect are taking on a position of great responsibility and it is not enough to say, “they are a pretty good person.”There has to be substance and character with values and experience that resinate with us. 

Who knows, I might be swayed again with still four days left before Election Day.   

  

What Makes a Good Chief?

Elijah Harper 1949-2013
Was a Leader of his People!

My First Nation, Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN) is embarking on a general election on October 30th, 2015, and, like the Federal election, real change is not only desirable but also necessary. Are there any members out there who aspire to be a great leaders?  Remember to be humble, have fun and don't be afraid to ask for help. This will be the most challenging position you will ever have and the most rewarding if done properly.

It reminds me of when I lived in Alberta and one of the Vice Presidents of the Indian Association of Alberta asked me what I thought made a good Chief.  His question caught me off guard and at the time I felt ill prepared to give him a satisfactory answer.  But his question has stayed with me over the years.

Background 

I was the Executive Director for Treaty and Aboriginal Rights Research (TARR) in Alberta, in the late 1980s and early 1990s.  I worked with all the Chiefs of all of Alberta – namely the Chiefs of the First Nations of Treaty 6, 7, and 8.  At the time there were 45 Chiefs in Alberta.  I led a team that worked diligently to research and document specific claims (mostly Treaty breaches) that were ready to be submitted as Statement of Claims to the government of Canada. When the Federal government validated a claim, we continued to provide support to the First Nation’s negotiation team to ensure that a fair settlement was reached.

After working at TARR, in 1992 I accepted a Executive Director position with the newly created Indian Claims Commission in Ottawa. The Commission was established by the Privy Council under the Inquiries Act to address the bottleneck of specific land claims across Canada.  For the first time, an independent body existed to which First Nations could seek redress when Canada had rejected a claim.Again, I was working directly with Chiefs from across all of Canada. 

However, one day by chance I met the National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, Ovide Mercredi, on a flight to Ottawa.  By the time we landed, he had offered me a position as his Executive Assistant and I had accepted it. Working at the AFN national office I was privileged to work at the highest level with Chiefs from across Canada, on a variety of issues that concerned them.

 

As a result of these extraordinary positions I was able to experience working with a variety of Chiefs from Alberta and across the country. I have observed many different styles of being a Chief.  

I feel that the question is still a very complicated one and conceivably in today’s environment an even more difficult one to answer than in the past. 

 What do I mean?

I will speak of my own First Nation, Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN). ACFN owns a business, ACDEN, which serves the oil industry.  I’ve been told it does more than $280 million in contracts annually and employs a staff of almost 3,000 people. In 2014 ACDEN moved into a state of the art modern building on five acres of prime land in Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada.   This is the only building in northern Alberta that is Gold LEED Certified.

 In a video on the ACDEN website, a person says,  “This building symbolizes growth, quality, and  dedication.”

 

 Good for us, right?  Well, not so fast.

 In spite of this perceived achievement we still have  overwhelming unemployment, poverty and lack of  housing in our community, not to mention all the  problems that are associated with poverty, like  drugs and alcohol, mouldy houses, poor health, and high suicide  rates.  The question I have been asking for the past  few years is why there is such a huge disconnect  between the apparent success of our business and  the abject poverty of our members?  Shouldn’t the success of the ACDEN also mean the success of its owners, who are the members of the First Nation?

Which brings me back to the question of what makes a good Chief. Well, Lawrence, I finally have an answer I feel comfortable sharing after years of working with Chiefs.  Understandably, there is not one clear answer.  My observation is that the Chiefs who are successful are the ones with a clear vision and a strong mandate from their members.

Chief Louie (click here)
He is a great chief!

Notwithstanding all the other qualifications and skills you require to fill the position of Chief.  A “good Chief” is a person whose priority is the well-being of the First Nation’s members. It is not enough to have a successful company when the members derive no noticeable benefit.

A “good Chief” takes direction from the members, but is also not afraid to provided leadership.  A “good Chief” continually evaluates decisions made by Council with how those decisions impact the members. A “good Chief” is not afraid to admit when he or she has made a mistake.  A “good Chief” might make mistakes, but will learns from them and move forward.  A “good Chief” makes decision not based on emotions but well thought-out and in the best interest of the collective membership. At the end of the day, the members will benefit from his / her leadership. 

First Nations have collective rights, but they also have collective responsibilities. Traditionally, the entire membership made decisions together as a group.  

Thus, a “good Chief” is an integral part of the First Nation and not separate from them.  A “good Chief” is on the same page as the members and derives the strength necessary to do a good job from the support of the members for their collective vision of the First Nation’s future.

Which begs the question, what would it take to make a “Great Chief” because a “good Chief” will recognize that just being 'good' does not cut it? A “good Chief” will always strive to be a GREAT chief. A great Chief will not only lead his or her community into a  brighter future but will also empower its members.  A great Chief will know the community, its history and its rights.  A great Chief will strive to improve the prosperity and wellbeing of everyone in the First Nation and not just a corporate entity. 

I realize I like randomness

• Sometimes I wait for that moment just before being overcome by sleep, but that moment eludes me.

• Summer is almost over in my part of the world, Canada. How does it make you feel when one season transitions into another?  Summer ending makes me feel sad, even though, I do enjoy autumn. 
• Receiving a telephone call from a friend out of the blue. Does anyone say “telephone” anymore?
•  

#12 is wrong.  There are10 facts. And, now you're counting again, right? You just can't help yourself. A joke being told that has no connection to anything but is totally funny. lol 

  

• When did people stop using their own words to express themselves and instead turn to random quotes and emoji to represent what they are feeling? 

• Why is organic food packaged in plastic containers? It makes me feel guilty seeing my recycle bin overflowing with plastic at the end of the week.  :( 

• Not Psychic, you're kidding, right. My computer knows me better than anyone. It recommends books, music, and stuff it thinks I would like because I've been searching it on line, all the time.  Now it's pretending it does not know who I want to email. Random.

Okay. Go outside and play!

New Blog Post?

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Patric and Andrew Sept. 02. 2015

Patric, a long time friend of my son, Andrew  is visiting from Switzerland, which got me thinking about when he moved back to China in 2008  Flash back to September 2nd, 2008   He however returned to Ontario to complete his grade 9 & 10 and returned to Switzerland to finish high school.  Patric is in his 2nd year of University at ETH Zurich and is an accomplished pianist.

It is so nice to see him mature into a nice young man.