Wela'lin.
I attended a citizenship ceremony in Wolfville two years ago. I made opening remarks and said the opening prayer. I wore the regalia. For people to be able to do the oath, education is so important, not only for new immigrants coming in but for Canadians as a whole. We're seeing a lot of conflict in that today.
Nova Scotia does have a citizenship pamphlet available that provides some of the information about the first nations in Nova Scotia, the Mi'kmaq—we just have the one tribe. In it, there is some of the treaties that have taken place and some of the cultural components.
It's important, because Canada is a very large and diverse country and we have so many tribes across the country, for pamphlets to be available for those areas where the oath is given, for that province or territory. An education pamphlet should be given to new immigrants coming to Canada, letting them know that we have lived here for thousands of years and we are the first peoples.
When I was at the event in Wolfville that day, the immigrants and new Canadians were so appalled to see a woman up there speaking, and then to see an indigenous person. They'd never seen an Indian beforehand in the cultural regalia. All of the other areas have different regalia as well. It is an important component, when we have an opening, for the elders to be involved. We had drumming of the Honour Song to welcome everyone. We have our Peace and Friendship Treaties that have taken place in Mi'kma'ki. This was the first discovery of colonialism. It started in the east and then went west. [Technical difficulty—Editor] of peoples that have lived through all of the hardship, the hurt and the pain that we've gone through with colonialism, so education is such an important component.
I hope I was able to answer your question.