FNEN's Statement The Seal Slaughter

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FNEN's Statement Re: The Seal Slaughter

Mon, 17 Apr 2006 18:23:14 -0700

 

FNEN's Statement Re: The Seal Slaughter

 

Dear Friends, Please use the following in any way you

feel

necessary...it

has been written collectively by our Steering

Committee across

Canada...Thankyou, For All Our Relations, Steve

Lawson, National

Coordinator, FNEN www.fnen.org 250 726-5265

 

To All Good People of Conscience:

A First Nation Environmental Network Offering of

Public Appeal and

Concern

 

The First Nations Environmental Network [FNEN] is a

circle of First

Nations

People committed to protecting, defending, and

restoring the Balance of

All

Life by honouring traditional Indigenous values and

the Path of our

Ancestors. We encourage the work of protecting,

defending and healing

Mother Earth. We desire and need to link grassroots

Indigenous People

nationally and internationally to support each other

on environmental

struggles and concerns. We are obligated to leave

footprints for our

Children to follow by striving to live our life with

traditional values

 

Another seal hunt is underway. An estimated kill

for this season

is

upwards to 20-30,000 young seals. This is hardly a

hunt, as these

targeted

seals are slaughtered while they nurse from their

mother before leaving

the

ice flows. As members of the First Nations Environment

Network, we are

struck and outraged by this wanton act of genocide.

David Suzuki,

famed and

renowned Environmentalist informs us that Human Beings

do not “manage”

the

eco-system; we instead, manipulate and disturb its

natural balance, to

think

otherwise, is ultimately laying the grounds for

species annihilation

including humanity.

DFO management has been repeatedly challenged for

to its’ unsound

scientific data and strategy; even the parliamentary

Committee on

Oceans and

the Fisheries [public hearing, Miramichi NB, fall

2000] acknowledge the

incredulous unscientific policy and approach DFO

habitually seems to

take

with regard to their responsibility for the care and

wellness of the

fishery. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada

is

single-handedly

responsible for the deplorable conditions on the east

coast fishery,

where

species after species are disappearing.

As members of First Nations and Aboriginal

Communities, we

understand

the need for maintaining and establishing sound

economic and viable

Households and Communities; we know full well the

constant struggles to

attain meaningful and viable Lifeways under the duress

of imposed

economic

contrivances and poverty not of our making. Indeed,

much of the world’s

Indigenous Peoples are currently suffering from

situations imposed by

the

wealth and avarice of northern multi-nationals and

national resource

management schemes, as we are currently witnessing

from DFO.

Common sense must prevail that we, as human

Beings cannot destroy

Life

for economic gains. Rather, we must follow the

Original Instructions

that

celebrate Honour, Respect, and Care for Life in its

entirety. Let us be

reminded that human Beings are a part of Creation.

What we do as a

species

to other members of the Great Circle of Life, we do to

ourselves. To

confirm

this ancient Principal, we need only witness the

on-going calamities

humanity engages in as we speak. The simple threat to

All Life comes

from

only one species alone---humanity. The danger to All

Life from humanity

directly connects to misguided, greedy, self-servicing

notions for

obtaining

economic gain we rationalize to refer to as

“stability” and

“sustainability”. The present threat to All Life is

convincing us that

the

misuse of science and the lack of intelligence and

reason are creating

great

instability and imbalance in humanity’s approach and

relationship with

the

natural world around us.

For the sake of all Life and the Life of

20-30,000 young seals,

human

Beings need to find courage to be responsible rather

than economically

“practical” in our common approach to sustainability.

FNEN invites

Aboriginal Peoples and North Americans to consider a

simple Life Plan,

based

upon the ancient and fundamental principals that have

carried

Indigenous

Peoples and Communities to Life. FNEN sees no other

way forward than

through

implementing common reason and respect for valuing

Life. We offer these

following principals, as a reasonable foundation for

living

sustainably:

 

- To respect and ensure that Life-Giving forces on

Mother Earth will

always

be there. We are committed to healing ourselves, our

families, our

communities and Mother Earth.

 

- Seeking and recognizing the Sacredness of All Life,

the FNEN is based

on

faith, honesty, caring and sharing.

 

- Faith in the Creator, the Circle of Life.

 

- Honesty: Each one of us has our own truth and it is

not for anyone to

judge another person's truth.

 

- Caring: Kindness and Love for each other and

ourselves.

 

- Sharing: Reverence and Respect for one another as we

share

Responsibility

for our various Obligations as Indigenous Peoples to

Mother Earth.

 

- Respect: There is a place for everyone in our

Circle. First we are

Spirit, then we are human, then we are man or woman

and then we are a

race.

We are all human and respect that we are all at

different places in our

understanding.

 

www.fnen.org