Honourable Chair, members of the House and all my relations,
[Witness spoke in Ojibwa and provided the following text:]
Aanii boozhoo kina wiya. Dalia Edwards miinwa Gimiwan Niimikwe ndishnikaaz. Anishinaabe miinwa shaganash kwe ndaaw. Hamilton ndoonjibaa. Wiikwemkoong ndbendaagoz. Baker Creek British Columbia Lhtako Dene aki megwa ndidaa. Waabizheshi ndoodem.
[Witness provided the following translation:]
Hello, everyone. My name is Dalia Edwards, Gimiwan Niimikwe. I am of Anishinaabe and European descent. I'm originally from Hamilton and belong to Wiikwemkoong unceded territory. I currently live in Baker Creek, British Columbia, Lhtako Dene territory. I am Marten Clan.
[English]
It's an honour to rise today to speak to Bill S-2, not just as policy but as lived reality affecting my family, my children and many others like us.
On paper we speak of equality, rights and fairness, but in reality it's far more complicated and far more painful.
My children are proud to be indigenous. Elders I look up to say this next generation will heal, and I see it in my kids. They come from a proud lineage with deep roots, language, culture and identity, but because of how status and band membership rules intersect with legislation, they may not have the same access to their community as their cousins, just as I did not prior to legislation changes.
This is not because of culture, and it's not because of connection. It's because of colonially imposed policy that conflicts with Canadian laws and the charter, and denies our own pre-existing E'Dbendaagzijig Naaknigewin, our own Anishinabek citizenship laws. These policies continue to divide indigenous families, generation by generation. Cousins whose parents were raised under the same roof will have fundamentally different futures. My family history includes enfranchisement, and its impacts continue across generations.
I struggled in many ways in post-secondary, and ironically, I paid to learn Anishinaabemowin, the language that my nokomis-baa, my late grandma, was fluent in but too ashamed to speak. My aunties work with youth who are affected by the second-generation cut-off, and they see how access to physical, mental and academic supports could ease burdens on families.
We cannot speak of reconciliation while UNDA is treated as symbolic and indigenous children are excluded from their own communities through a bureaucratic system that attempts to extinguish us.
I have a three-year-old daughter and an 11-month-old son. When I was preparing to speak to an MP, my daughter asked what I was doing. I told her I was practising what to say to someone who used to be ogimaa, a chief. She asked, “Mama, what's a chief?” I told her an ogimaa is someone who helps their people and leads in a good way. She asked if she could be one someday, so I told her she would make a great ogimaakwe.
The reality is that my strong-willed, kind, spirited daughter may never have that opportunity unless this bill reaches royal assent. It is my hope that she can start school in Anishinaabemowin so we can reclaim our language as a family.
Children deserve to grow up knowing where they belong. They deserve equal access to their culture, community and language, regardless of when their parents were born, their gender or who they love. Are we creating unity or maintaining division? Are we strengthening communities or fragmenting families? We can do better. We must do better.
In closing, chi-meegwetch to the many who have fought for indigenous rights and paved the way for this moment, including people such as my distant relative Dr. Jeannette Corbiere Lavell, Keewednanung, who has challenged these discriminatory policies for over 50 years. As she has said, justice delayed is justice denied.
Indigenous people cannot wait another half-century for decisions to be made on our behalf. Let first nations implement the plans already in place. We know who belongs, and welcoming people home to our communities strengthens our communities. Work alongside indigenous people instead of imposing upon us.
In my culture, we speak of looking seven generations ahead, and I ask you to do the same. Be a good ancestor for my children, for all indigenous children and for the future we claim to be building together in reconciliation. Let's choose inclusion, not exclusion, and ensure that no one is left behind.
Chi-meegwetch bizindawiyeg. Thank you all so much for listening. All my relations.
