Mr. Speaker, I am especially proud to rise today to speak to the motion by the member for Winnipeg South Centre. It is a motion which reflects a commitment by the former Liberal government to continue the commitment to aboriginal people within our country. It is about the nations of people in our country whose nationhood and well-being was central through a process which spoke to a new partnership and a new vision and hope for aboriginal peoples including the first nations, the Inuit and Métis nations.
I am a Cree person. I am from the Norway House Cree Nation of the treaty 5 area in northern Manitoba. On my mother's side I am from the Muskrat Dam First Nation in northwestern Ontario. I am proud to say that I am descended from Chief Samson Beardy who was a signatory to the amendment to treaty 9. My paternal grandfather was Joe Keeper who represented Canada at the 1912 Olympics.
Many members may be wondering why I mention these bits of family history as it may not appear to pertain to what we are debating today. I do so because it is this personal history which is my testament to the strength, dignity and nationhood of who we are as first nations as one of the nations of aboriginal peoples in this country.
It is this knowledge which our elders carried. It is the knowledge of nationhood. This knowledge of nationhood is not a vague or academic concept, it is not a myth and it is not a cause. Nor is it nor should it ever be considered a political football.
We represent distinct nations, cultures and languages from coast to coast to coast, from the Maliseet of New Brunswick, the Inuit in Nunavut and the Haida of B.C. to the Métis nation of the Red River Valley in the heart of Canada. The relationship between aboriginal people and the Canadian government through most of our shared history has been one that has been inequitable, but our nationhood, our distinct identity, our livelihood and our history is of this land.
In Manitoba most of the first nations signed treaties in the numbered treaty process. Indeed their treaty rights have been entrenched in our Constitution, in section 35 respecting aboriginal and treaty rights. This relationship has not ensured that aboriginal peoples in Canada would benefit as Canadians do from the treaty relationship which was to share the land. What was entrenched in our Constitution for the Métis nation, the Inuit and the first nations in 1982 was a marker, a reference point of the basis of the relationship between aboriginal nations and Canada. It was a reference point of the effort by aboriginal people. It was a testament of the nationhood of aboriginal people. The relationship of aboriginal people is one of sharing in the wealth of this country, sharing the land of this country.
We all know that regardless of what has been entrenched in the Constitution of Canada, regardless of Supreme Court rulings to which the member for Churchill spoke, regardless of the goodwill of many Canadians, the well-being of aboriginal people has not improved over the last number of decades.
I would like to speak to this fact because that is what the Kelowna accord was all about. It defined in its process and in its goals a new relationship in which aboriginal people were working in partnership with Canada and the provincial and territorial leaders. It was historic. It was about equity and respect for all the nations involved.
This is the basis on which we need to move forward. It is the means in which we will meet the goals that we set in the Kelowna accord. It is through self-determination. It is the process which becomes the mechanism to achieve well-being.
In the past I worked in the area of suicide prevention in aboriginal people. There was a significant piece of research which looked at first nations youth in nearly 200 first nations over the period of a decade. It found that there is a direct correlation between the number of factors of self-determination within a community and a decrease in the level of suicide. Suicide is a health issue which has not been traditional to first nations people. In fact, first nations elders are the only population in North America in which suicide does not occur.
This is significant because it speaks to our nationhood. It speaks to who we were traditionally. It speaks to the strength and resiliency that have helped first nations, Métis and Inuit people overcome the difficulties of a colonial relationship. It is who we are traditionally and who we have been for thousands of years on this land.
The reclamation of wellness is what the Kelowna accord was about. It was about a vision of a new Canada. The Kelowna accord reflected a historic moment and marked a change in the nature of the relationship from the paternalistic approach of the past.
The Kelowna accord was a reflection not only of the Liberal government, but of the efforts of aboriginal leadership and aboriginal people. It was the culmination of efforts by aboriginal nations over many decades to represent the best interests of their own people and the then Liberal government to change its approach to working with first nations, the Métis nation and the Inuit to ensure that Canada represented itself in the way it has been perceived on the world stage, in which human rights, dignity and justice are upheld for all time.