Sunday morning south of Whitehorse

I've been staying for the last two nights at the home of John and Susan Streicker about 70 K south of Whitehorse just off the Alaska Highway on Marsh Lake. Marsh Lake isn't marshy at all, just named after someone named Marsh. You look down from the porch here through towering aspens and white spruce to a large lake, brilliant and clear. More on John and Susan later; they're wonderful.

This has proven to be a great spot in which to rest up after a couple of intense days in Whitehorse. Thursday was an especially long day, for that was the day I met with the Yukon Elders Panel on Climate Change. The meeting in the Council of Yukon First Nations building. Six of the eight elders on the Panel were able to attend. This was the first time they had gathered in a year and a half, and I think they were all glad to get a chance to talk together. I certainly felt enormously priveleged to be sitting at the table with them.

At the table, in order of introduction, were Pearl Keenan, Teslin Tlingit Council; Lena Johnson, Kluane First Nation, from Burwash Landing; Charlie Burns, Kwanlin Dun First Nation, from Whitehorse; Johnson Edwards, Selkirk First Nation, from Pelly Crossing; Stanley James, Carcross/Tagish First Nation, from Carcross; myself and Agnes Mills, Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation. Also attending, among others, were John Streicker, Michael Westlake and Katharine Sandiford of the Northern Climate Exchange, Jessica Thiessen of the Artic Youth Network and Michael Fleischman, who does work on legal issues for the CYFN. The meeting was chaired by Bob Van Dijken, Circumpolar Relations Office, Council of Yukon First Nations. Bob is also the coordination for the Yukon for the International Polar Year Node.

There will be a printed transcript of this meeting available in the next few weeks, so I'll hold off writing in detail now and just give you a few of my impressions.

To begin with, these are highly intelligent people and very concerned about the rapid changes they see taking place in their environment and their culture. They are also well aware of the effect that the climate crisis is having on the whole World. They feel a great frustration in not being allowed to participate more fully in decisions that are being made at all levels that profoundly affect their lives and their resources. They want funding from the government so that they can attend important meetings that shape their world, often at great distances.

They range in age from the mid-80's for Pearl Keenan, to the 60's, for Agnes Mills. Sitting at the table with them , you get a sense of their strength and their great courage. I was especially moved when listening to Agnes, who had been taken from her parents in Old Crow as a very little girl to a "residential school." There is an faint echo of that child's voice when she speaks. She must have been so frightened and homesick, but she never lost her great spirit and the pride in who she was. I had never sat next to anyone who had had such a sad experience, and it was hard not to cry for that little girl, and for all the other children who suffered this cruel, degrading experience.

At the end of the meeting, the panel members all stood and said a prayer for me and for success in my journey. I silently vowed not to let them down.

One final note: Stanley James, who as a lay person, continues to inform himself on many issues and has taught himself some law, had a few words to say just before the meeting broke up. It went something like this: "We're learning more and more about climate change. And as we learn more , our voices will get louder."

I certainly hope so. These are voices that must be heard.