Shawn Atleo

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Atleo in the traditional wood fiber habit of the Ahousaht (2009)

Shawn A-in-chut Atleo , Shawn Atleo for short (born January 16, 1967 in Vancouver ) is a Canadian politician. He is a member of the Ahousaht and from 2009 to 2014 National Chief or Chief national of the Assembly of the First Nations .

Life

Atleo has been hereditary chief since 1999 of the Ahousaht, who live on the west coast of Vancouver Island , especially on Flores Island , and followed his father in it. Atleo comes from a chief family that can be traced back 26 generations. Atleo, the great-great-grandfather of Ahousaht chief Sam, had a vision while hunting in Tofino Inlet . An otter turned into an eagle.

In his childhood on Flores Island off the west coast of Vancouver Island, he experienced poverty that left a deep mark on him. Dwellings that were badly adapted to the extremely humid climate of the west coast and suicides among his friends reinforced his attitude towards better education and housing, and to fight poverty and disease. His parents decided to leave the island. Atleo moved a total of 34 times before graduating from high school . At this school he met his future wife Nancy. He and her have two grown children and lives in Nanaimo .

Atleo owned a coffee shop on Commercial Drive in Vancouver , but was ousted by Starbucks within a year . He moved into the lobby of the British Columbia Institute of Technology campus , where he ran his business successfully for five years before selling it to his manager.

Atleo graduated from the University of Technology in Sydney , Australia , with a degree in adult education in 2003 , which he completed as an online distance learning course. From 2004 he sat on the AFN Executive Committee , the executive council of the Assembly of the First Nations.

In 2008 he became Chancellor of Vancouver Island University , making him the first indigenous chancellor in the province, just as his father was the first Indian to earn a doctorate from the University of British Columbia .

In 2005, the BC First Nations Leadership Council emerged from the Regional Chief , the Union of BC Indian Chiefs and the First Nations Summit through an agreement . This largely resolved the disagreement between the three Indian organizations in the province. Prior to his election as head of the AFN, he was its regional leader in the province of British Columbia and he was re-elected to this post in 2006 by the 203 chiefs of the province.

Atleo was involved in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and was one of the driving forces behind the issue of residential schools , for which Prime Minister Stephen Harper officially apologized in June 2008. Atleo and his 87-year-old grandmother listened to this excuse for the bad treatment of the children of the indigenous people in the boarding-like schools set up for them - several thousand lawsuits are pending here.

The slogan for his election campaign to head the AFN - It's Our Time - was modeled on Barack Obama , who had run his election with Yes we can . Similar to the US President , he was mostly supported by younger people. According to him, 54% of Canada's Indians were born after 1984, and Canada should embrace this "youth tsunami" of education, training and jobs. He also turned against the massive immigration subsidies in some provinces, which also lowered wages.

In the election, he prevailed against Perry Bellegarde , the Grand Chief of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations , after eight rounds of elections in 22 hours. His election by the 553 present (out of 639) chiefs he accepted in the language of the Ahousaht. Atleo was seen as an exponent of the groups that focused on education, linguistic diversity, history, teaching and cultural values, while Bellegarde, chief of the Little Black Bear First Nation in Saskatchewan , was more of a proponent of economic strengthening. Atleo conceded before the meeting: “We know that economic independence is political independence. Economic power is political power. "

After the election, his first visit was to a tribe in Saskatchewan , the Carry the Kettle First Nation . In doing so, he expressed his respect for the loser in the election, but also his will to work closely with the so-called Treaty Indians , the tribes who signed one of the numbered treaties with Canada .

At the end of August 2009, the negotiations on the land use rights of the First Nations in British Columbia, which had been prepared for years and which had been specially pursued by Atleo, which were to result in a Recognition and Reconciliation Act , in a Recognition and Reconciliation Act , failed . In British Columbia there are few treaties with the First Nations, in contrast to most other provinces. Some of the tribes in the province apparently withdrew support from the negotiators, while some of the companies withdrew support from the negotiators of the 2010 re-elected Liberal government of Prime Minister Gordon Campbell .

In July 2012 he prevailed in the third ballot against seven other candidates for the chairmanship of the AFN with 67% of the country's chiefs. The second strongest candidate was Pamela Palmater , a member of the Mi'kmaq from the east coast.

As a member of the World Future Council, Atleo is committed to the rights of future generations.

In 2014 he was succeeded by Perry Bellegarde, who lost in 2009, on a temporary basis in the office of Grand Chief after Atleo resigned over a controversy over Bill C-33 of the Indian Act , in which the control over access to indigenous education should be changed by the Harper government. His political course was seen by his opponents as too closely linked to that of the government.

Web links

See also

Remarks

  1. ^ New AFN chief from BC boasts resume of education and community work. In: Canadian Press. July 23, 2009.
  2. Born Leader: Shawn Atleo. ( Memento of September 23, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) In: BC Business. February 1, 2008
  3. film contribution of the university to the office Atleos, 2008
  4. ^ BC's Shawn Atleo chosen as Assembly of First Nations chief , in: The Province, July 23, 2009, archive.org, October 23, 2009.
  5. Prime Minister Stephen Harper's apologies to the students of the former residential schools
  6. ^ New First Nations chief Atleo drew inspiration from Obama , in: Calgary Herold, July 24, 2009, archive.org.
  7. ^ Atleo elected new AFN chief. In: The Globe and Mail . July 23, 2009.
  8. ^ "We know economic independence is political independence. Economic power is political power "( Atleo elected new AFN chief. In: The Globe and Mail. August 12, 2009)
  9. ^ Reconciliation plan hit from all sides , in: Vancouver Sun, September 1, 2009.
  10. ^ Shawn Atleo resigns as national chief of Assembly of First Nations , CTV News, May 2, 2014.