Dana Brown
The Hamilton Spectator
(Oct 15, 2007)
Aaron Detlor is a man who stands firmly in two worlds.
In one, he's a Toronto-based lawyer, living in the city with his family, the son of a Dutch-German father.
In the other, a he's litigator and consultant who focuses exclusively on First Nations law, is firmly immersed in land rights negotiations and is the son of a Kanienkehaka, or Mohawk, mother.
Now, the 40-year-old father of two has stepped into the limelight as the one of the architects of the Haudenosaunee Development Institute, a controversial new body formed to regulate development on land that Six Nations says is theirs.
The institute isn't surrounded by the same frenzied sensation that accompanies protests such as the one at the former Douglas Creek Estates or the Stirling Woods subdivision in Caledonia, but its impact is no less significant.
By creating a body that insists developers must have its permission to build on designated lands, the Haudenosaunee have effectively pronounced they have the same authority over the lands that Canadian government bodies do.
The designated area, known as the Haldimand Tract, runs about 10 kilometres on either side of the Grand River.
Although not in the spotlight until recently, Detlor has been instrumental in helping to take the fight for land rights from protests to planning departments.
He's adept at using the tactics of a legal system not recognized by the Haudenosaunee to advance the community's cause, and there's no doubt the method is getting noticed.
"We're not doing anything new," Detlor explains. "We're just trying to revitalize the concept for Canadians that we're a political and legal entity that makes laws."
Critics have accused the Haudenosaunee Development Institute (HDI) of trying to circumvent formal negotiations with the province and the Canadian government by declaring their jurisdiction over the land, something Detlor has flatly denied.
A deal between the HDI and the developers of Stirling Woods fell apart when the developers refused to acknowledge that the Haudenosaunee Confederacy Chiefs Council had jurisdiction over the land.
One Brantford developer compared the HDI's demand for fees to mafia "extortion."
Haldimand Mayor Marie Trainer has also expressed concern about threats of legal action from the Confederacy if it is not consulted before new permits and licences are issued.
Detlor has said that any development that goes forward in the tract without a permit from the HDI will be considered unlawful.
Despite the criticisms, Detlor says that what's being done now is nothing more than the modern-day articulation of concepts and agreements that are hundreds of years old.
He says the development fees the HDI is asking for need to be better understood, with a distinction being made between an initial permit fee and development fees that will guarantee an income stream from the land for the Haudenosaunee, as was always intended.
"This is about, in some broader terms, self-determination," Detlor says. "We're going to determine who we are and how we're going to do it. But it also takes care of the practical necessities of dealing with development."
Detlor isn't an abrasive man. He's calm and well-spoken, and when he makes a point it's done clearly and logically.
There are commonly used words he takes issue with -- native, Mohawk, aboriginal -- but his response isn't one of anger.
Instead, he educates with a simple explanation. The use of broad sweeping terms such as aboriginal "diminishes the idea and the concept that the groups here are political and legal groups," he says.
The comments are made with respect, not judgment.
For Detlor, it's respect and recognition that are key to effective communication, both personally and professionally.
Detlor says when he was young, his mother told him he wasn't allowed to start a fight, but he was certainly allowed to finish one.
Growing up in a Kanienkehaka household, Detlor says respect was paramount. Respect for his parents, his elders, the environment.
"I didn't have any other word burned into my head," he says. "If my mother could've tattooed 'respect' in the back of my head she would've done it."
For the first year of his life, Detlor was raised on Tyendinaga territory, near Kingston, although he grew up mostly in Waterloo. His father was a bank manager, and as he got transferred, the family went with him, spending time in Barrie and Peterborough.
As a young man, Detlor attended the University of Toronto, working his way to a degree in political science as a social worker at a Toronto youth facility.
While there, he saw the need for broader, institutional changes, and the lure of being able to effect those changes, particularly with First Nations, was one of the reasons he entered the legal field.
After finishing law school, also at the University of Toronto, Detlor was called to the bar in 1998 and stepped into the world of commercial litigation.
He eventually developed a focus on First Nations law and branched out on his own in 2002.
Detlor's focus is now exclusively on First Nations law. He's worked with several groups in Ontario, including the Oneida Nation of the Thames, Sagamok First Nation and Whitefish Lake First Nation, and he has done some work in Quebec.
"It's compelling work that needs to be done and ... even though it's difficult from time to time, it's tremendously rewarding to be able to try and make a move in these difficult areas," Detlor says.
His skill at working with both First Nations and non-First Nations communities is something friend and former colleague Kimberly Thomas refers to as Detlor's "bicultural competency.
"Aaron is well-versed culturally in both mainstream and First Nations (communities), when it's appropriate to speak and when it isn't. And that is a real skill and something that you don't necessarily learn as much as it's inherent."
It's that duality that has helped make Detlor such an effective communicator for the development institute.
Hazel Hill, one of several people who has acted as a spokesperson for Six Nations, said Detlor is good example of someone who is using his education to help the overall community.
She stresses, though, as does Detlor, that the process is not about one person. Hill says a team has been working together on the HDI and Detlor says it's the body itself that really matters.
"It's not about me. It's not about any of the other people involved," he says. "It's about setting up an institution that can continue to do the work."
For Detlor, it's not a matter of if things will change, but when -- and he expects that will take generations.
In addition to his work with the HDI, he's also technical support at the Caledonia negotiations and attends main table meetings as well as co-chairing the consultation side table.
Detlor said he's been paid for his work as a technical support but not for his work with HDI.
He also clarifies that he's not the lawyer for the Confederacy Chiefs Council or the HDI because they do not work within the Canadian legal system.
"That's, I think ultimately, the big misunderstanding right now is that this has to be a situation of conflict," Detlor says.
"Right now you get ... this fearfulness and this pulling back from the province and the feds because they don't understand or really want to be open and pursue all opportunities. There are peaceful ways to go forward where things can be shared in an equitable fashion."
Aaron Detlor speaks about:
The Haudenosaunee Development Institute
"We've tried to turn the tables a little bit and say, 'We're a government, so we're going to act like a government. We're going to make them come to us on our terms and come up with a way of doing things that is reasonable and proactive.' It's simply not reactionary."
Most challenging thing he's dealt with regarding land rights issues
"How deeply entrenched the bureaucracy and industry is that survives on continuing to categorize First Nations in Canada as Indians ... That's a tremendous mountain to try to move."
Moving that mountain
"We're taking it down shovel by shovel, and we're going to start taking it down bigger piece by bigger piece, but we'll start right now. And we've already seen people's attitudes have changed."
How career affects his family life
"I have a wonderful, understanding, terrific wife who really makes sure that I'm in a good space to do the work that I do ... I do make a significant commitment to my children to spend time with them. And despite the firestorms that might be on going, when it's time to spend time with my kids, it's time to spend time with my kids."