"Elected Chief Ava Hill urges involvement in AFN restructuring"

Six Nations Elected Chief Ava Hill took absent First Nations Chiefs to task last week during her presentation on the restructuring of the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) after a poor turnout of band chiefs at last week's annual general assembly in Winnipeg.

With almost half the country's band chiefs absent from last week's meeting, Hill said, "I don't know why they're not here. That's a little disappointing."

During her presentation she said, "most of the people in this room are grass­roots people. Where are the Chiefs?"

Her comments came during a presentation she gave on AFN reform and restructuring.

"I'm hearing that some chiefs are not here because the AFN is not relevant," said Hill.

She questioned the role of the AFN as a political advocacy group for First Nations.

Hill said the AFN has been called upon to adapt to the changing needs of First Nations communities and citizens.

"Our people want to be involved, our citizens want to be involved," she said. "We saw the Idle No More movement two years ago and our people still want to be involved. This is one of the reasons that led up to this.

"How do we engage our citizens?" she said. "Do they need to be directly involved in all of our discussions? If so, then how? A lot of them are wanting to be here but they can't afford to pay the $300 it's costing to get in here."

Last year, a task force was struck to examine AFN renewal and restructuring, with many of the questions on reform coming from a decades old AFN renewal commission report that began work in 2004. Over 47 recommendations to overhaul the AFN charter came from the commission. The 2004 commission recommended change in the areas of accountability, structural and procedural reforms, processes, and a renewed focus on the AFN as an advocate for First Nations rights.

"The AFN is not a national government," said Hill. "It's in Ottawa because it's supposed to be an advocate and a lobby for us to get access to the federal government."

There are also glaring questions surrounding the election of the national chief. Currently, the national chief is elected with one vote from each of the country's 633 member First Nations but Hill says the AFN needs to examine whether or not grassroots citizens should be voting for the national chief.

She also questioned whether or not the AFN should be given power equal to any province or territory in Canada.

Other questions include:

• adoption of a code of conduct for AFN meetings
• changing the term of national chief from three years to four years
• embracing decolonization and assisting nation-building efforts among member communities
• including traditional leadership in the AFN
• a review of the AFN's decision-making processes and resolution-making processes

"We have tons of resolutions that say, 'we demand the federal government do this or we demand they do that' and when we send it to the federal government...they just ignore the resolutions," said Hill.

"Our sources tell us that once our resolutions get to Ottawa they just laugh and say 'what are they demanding of us now.'"

She told the meeting "If you're a chief moving a resolution you should take some action and step forward in implementing that resolution."

Perhaps the biggest question she proffered was, "What is the role of the AFN? What is the role of the national chief? Is the focus of the AFN advocacy or is it a political representation? I know that my community always says, 'the AFN doesn't speak for us; we speak for ourselves.'"

Hill said questions are being raised about if the AFN can move forward independently without funding from the federal government.

"How do we move forward in continuing this work and not rely on funding from them?"

She said the AFN ad-hoc committee will begin work on renewal and reform in January.

She called on chiefs to send "consistent" representation. "We don't want to be having to waste time having to keep going over things."