THERE are historical similarities between citizens of China and North American Indians. This could help promote deals between First Nations and Chinese business people.
This fall, I was among 21 Canadian Aboriginal representatives who spent two weeks touring China in an effort to develop business initiatives with China, which as we all know has the world’s most rapidly growing economy.
We were treated royally during our visit by the Chinese, who were impressed that we brought our culture and spirituality with us. This was something they found to be unique among visiting delegations.
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In turn, they invited us to a banquet at a building reserved for visiting heads of state. That is where U.S. president Richard Nixon went during his historic, ground-breaking visit to China in 1971. The provincial premier who accompanied us on the trade mission wasn’t invited there.
The Chinese were very interested in our indigenous identity. This wasn’t the first time we encountered this; a similar interest has been shown during the last few years by visiting Chinese business people.
Of course, the business world has a bottom line that is based on mutual interest. Chinese investors will only be interested in us if we have something they want.
And we do.
First and probably foremost from their view is resources ranging from various minerals to lumber to fish and animal life.
A person we have dealt with in the past, an immigration lawyer from China, used to tell this joke to make a point: “In China we eat everything that has four legs except for a table and we eat everything that flies that is not an airplane.”
The lawyer was trying to hook us up with Chinese business people who were interested in buying low-value types of fish that would normally be discarded as waste.
The Supreme Court has ruled that corporations undertaking new projects have a duty to consult First Nations with regard to projects that use or have an effect on natural resources with the traditional territories of a First Nation.
Traditional lands refer to land bands have used outside of reserve boundaries dating back to before signing of the treaties.
Some corporations are coming to grips with this new reality, while governments are either in denial or baffled about this requirement, which has been identified by the court but not completely defined in terms of exact nature of the ability of First Nations to exercise control according to Canadian law.
The Chinese know there are many resources that we control directly through reserve land and property we hold through investment. They also recognize, even welcome, the influence we will have over resource use on traditional lands. Being wise business people, they understand that business development will proceed without court challenges and blockades if First Nations are directly involved from the outset.
One of the people accompanying us on our visit was Calvin Helin, the son of an Indian chief from British Columbia. In 2006 he wrote the book Dances With Dependency: Indigenous Success Through Self-Reliance.
His message is that First Nations people must generate their own economic wealth.
I agree. We must get out of the dependency trap.
Morris J. Swan Shannacappo is grand chief of the Southern Chiefs Organization of Manitoba.
