Evidence of meeting #77 for Indigenous and Northern Affairs in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was lands.
A video is available from Parliament.
4:25 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal John Aldag
Chief Augustine, we're at the end of the six minutes, so I'll give you a couple of sentences to respond.
Then we'll need to move on to our final round of questions with Ms. Idlout.
4:25 p.m.
Mi’kmaq Grand Council
I think there is a need to educate the public about the reality of indigenous peoples in Canada, about the treaties and the colonization issue, and our own people need to be educated about their own history and their own cultures. We've been colonized for so long that a lot of our cultures and our peoples have lost their connection to the land and the traditional ceremonies and the languages. We need to get back all of that stuff.
I also think there needs to be a governance structure that can be shared with the federal and provincial governments and the Assembly of First Nations, the Métis National Council and the Inuit. We could all work together and manage our own lands in different ways, and I think it would work positively for everybody all the way around.
4:30 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal John Aldag
Thank you.
Ms. Idlout, you have six minutes now for our final round of questions for this panel.
4:30 p.m.
NDP
Lori Idlout NDP Nunavut, NU
Qujannamiik, Iksivautaq. Thank you, Chair.
Just in this session alone, we were exposed to two very different timelines. We started out our session with such a wonderful testimony provided by Hereditary Chief Augustine, which I very much appreciated, as well as Graham Marshall, and then we had, on the other extreme, realities that indigenous peoples continually face, which are the use of administrative tactics to steal our time.
To me, this is not just about land back. This is about respecting our cultures. It's about reconciliation.
My question is for Hereditary Chief Augustine and for Graham Marshall. Could you each share with us how we could reconcile using indigenous laws, and what “land back” could mean from the indigenous people's perspective?
I'm not asking about colonial laws. I'm not asking about colonial policies. I'm asking you to share, from your indigenous perspective, and speak about land back and reconciliation using your indigenous laws, and how we can make sure we learn from it and use it so that when it comes to writing our report we're able to act on land back in a way that is meaningful to indigenous peoples.
I'll ask Hereditary Chief Augustine to answer first, and then I'll ask that Graham be given time as well.
Qujannamiik.
4:30 p.m.
Mi’kmaq Grand Council
Wela'lin. Thank you.
I've been teaching for the last 30 years at universities and I've been using a methodology called the talking circle. The talking circle started with a sacred ceremony, a spiritual ceremony. An eagle feather or a talking stick is passed around, and people speak one at a time. That process can take us into a lot of areas. I've focused on law, traditional laws, indigenous philosophies, and education about environment and climate change. We were able to talk about all of these things, one at a time. With the Marshall Institute, we've been focusing on those issues in our first nations communities, and people have been sharing those concepts, one at a time, listening while the others are speaking, and coming up with a final resolution, mostly agreeable to everybody and built on consensus. Some people may not agree, but they'll nod their heads and walk away and say it's okay with them the way it is.
I think it's a meaningful way to get opinions from other people without talking at each other and screaming at one another in an assembly.
4:30 p.m.
Councillor, Membertou First Nation
When we talk about land back and the acknowledgment, I think that, as Canadians, we also have to look at the dispossession of the land throughout this great country, understand that truth and how we have to walk and understand the truth together.
We are all here because of our passion for our country. I think there are ways we can look at how we can co-succeed with one another, how we can create those relationships again and how we can start off on a better foot with a better understanding through all the stolen land in Canada. It is stolen. We have to understand that and we have to agree on how to co-succeed and how to live with each other. I think that's important. As indigenous people, as Mi'kmaq people, we have to understand and we have to look at that truth first. We can look at the problems, yes, but I think we have to look at the solutions on how we can co-succeed with one another, how we can work together and agree on amazing things, and how we can look at this hard topic. It's a hard topic.
When we look at a hard topic, we have to look at solutions on how we can co-succeed with one another. I think that is the best place. We started off in a good way. I think that's the foremost step on how we can look at this.
4:35 p.m.
Legal Counsel, Semiahmoo First Nation
I think land back is a great way to start looking at indigenous laws and looking at how.... There's no word I can use, but “stewardship” is the closest thing I can think of when we look at land back and look through our indigenous knowledge and our indigenous laws around that. We're probably the best people to be taking care of the lands, to be protecting those lands and respecting the fish, the shellfish and the environment. That would be a place to begin with applying indigenous laws to land back, to own things.
For Semiahmoo, one of their things would be taking back Boundary Bay and putting Semiahmoo into jurisdiction over that so they could apply their indigenous laws in bringing back the fishery, bringing back the shell-fishery and the protection of other waterways. In the U.S., where waters cross reserves, everybody upstream of that reserve on non-indigenous lands has to meet or exceed the water quality requirements on the reserve. There's nothing like that in Canada.
If we were to apply indigenous laws to things like that and to other areas of land, I think we'd be a lot better off. That's where I see a start.
4:35 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal John Aldag
Thank you. That's the end of our time on that one.
I would like to thank all three of our guests today—Hereditary Chief Augustine, Mr. Marshall and Mr. Munnings—for being here. I apologize for the delay, but we have our procedures we have to follow. We got through it, but I do appreciate your patience as we did that.
I also wanted to quickly raise to our committee members, in case anyone else has heard this, that on Tuesday we had an unfortunate situation where two members of the public came to hear our panel. I'd like to offer a public apology. We had two people who came and were interested in hearing what was happening. Security, for some reason, had a note that we were in camera, and they were turned away. That's unacceptable. I don't know how it happened, but I'm working with the clerk, with security and with the Sergeant-at-Arms to make sure that accurate information is conveyed to visitors who want to be here and listen in on the very important conversations that we have.
Gentlemen, I do apologize on behalf of the House and our committee. Thank you for joining us today.
With that, we're now going to suspend briefly while we go in camera to talk about some committee business.
[Proceedings continue in camera]