Thank you for asking me that question. I think about this a lot, the way I'm going to speak Dene in the House of Commons. I'm an MP, and you are MPs here too. It's different when I speak my language. Some people speak English and French. Where I come from, in my community, the way we think about it—the way we grew up as indigenous people, Dene people, Métis people, people who are living in the north—is we say we are the first people. We grew up here. We lived here.
When you say “up to three nations”, I'll tell you the way we think about it. I think there should be four nations, the way I think about it. There are the people who came over here and are living here, people who will be working here. When we say “coast to coast” from Newfoundland to B.C., we help out the people who come over, and some people learn English and are recognized as Canadian citizens to give them the opportunity. For them, I consider that a third nation.
As Dene people and Métis people, there are a lot of us here. From our origins by being here, if we count that in, it would be difficult. When we speak, we say “nation to nation”. The way I think about it, the way we think about it, for the Denesuline and the Cree language, we're always put to the back of the land. From now, sitting here, sitting in front, we want to work together for young people. From where? Indigenous people say that, even from the far north. Even the Métis people say to fight for that. That's the way I think about it.