I would love to.
As I said in my introduction, my family comes from St. Louis and Batoche, Saskatchewan. I live in Ontario right now. I cannot be represented by the Métis Nation-Saskatchewan. Once the self-government agreements are fully implemented, I would then have the right to choose the Métis Nation-Saskatchewan to represent me as my government because those are my homelands.
My family comes from a really historic part of the Métis nation homeland. My family contributed to so much history. The chair mentioned the Batoche National Historic Site. The one homestead that still stands on those protected grounds is the homestead of my great-great-grandfather. Those lands are so sacred to the Métis because those are the lands where our ancestors fought for, as I said in my introduction, what we are still fighting for today: to preserve the Métis way of life, to govern our people in the way that we know they want to be governed, to take care of our people in the way that we can take care of them and to take care of our children in the ways that we know how to take care of our children.
This piece of legislation is moving us forward in a way that we have not yet been able to, and it would be making history. It would be setting things right, and it would be truly meaningful to me as a Métis woman and, I know, to my family and my ancestors as well.