I mean, we're just ignored. We're coordinating a lot with academics. People are doing research. I'm doing a lot of work at the United Nations through the permanent forum, the expert mechanism, because it is a human rights issue. This is an avenue where we can go, engaging with the special rapporteurs and Human Rights Council. We have the opportunity to negotiate resolutions with different departments in the government, with CIRNAC or Global Affairs Canada, wherever we can be heard, because at the provincial and federal levels, the data is not given to us, or if it is given to us, there's no action plan.
We feel very defeated in not having the capacity at the community level to contribute. However, we would like to. I feel there are many options available. It's like we're out of sight, out of mind. We would like to, because we have that data. We have intergenerational data. We know what's going on. We can provide that data, extracted through our land-based activities and oral traditions.
We've developed our own environmental assessment processes. We can articulate our indigenous knowledge at science tables. There's a lot. It's really just being left out of the discussions and the tables where we can take action.
It doesn't need to be this way. We don't want to have these conversations. We want to sit at the table to say, “This is what we've achieved. These are our goals, and we've knocked off a couple of things.”
We would like to see more collaboration with the different levels of government to tackle some of these issues. Why should we have to go to the courts? Why should we have to go to the Human Rights Council? That's just above and beyond.
I feel like Canada has a much higher standard overall. This is an opportunity for these things to be fixed.