Yes. Netukulimk is the meaning of the balance of life, to understand taking what we need and therefore always making sure that we protect it for the generations to come.
As Mi'kmaq people, we signed one of the strongest treaties in the country of Canada, of no surrender of land, but also of peace and friendship. When we look at peace and friendship and the importance of land and the importance of who we are, netukulimk is so important to understand the balance of where we come from and where we are.
When we look at those treaties that were signed by our ancestors, our ancestors weren't acknowledging the Mi'kmaq of the 1700s in those treaties; they were protecting the legacy they were leaving behind for the generations to come.
When we look at Mi'kmaq today, in 2023, we ask fellow Mi'kmaq and non-Mi'kmaq what legacy we are going to leave behind for this country and what legacy we are going to leave behind in the next hundred years or two hundred years. It is that there is no surrender of the land, which we continue to do today.
We have to protect our ways of netukulimk and protect our way of life throughout our territory of the Mi'kmaq.