Status of Women committee  Meegwetch. I appreciate your question, because it is very broad, and we have to address it from your part as the government and from our part as members of our community. I will start with our responsibility. I know that right now, because of the impact of the residential sch

Status of Women committee  Could I ask my executive director to answer this? They deal with the actual project and budget submissions.

Status of Women committee  I would like to take a step back and share with you that we aboriginal women across Canada recognize the importance of the advocacy work we have been doing with our families and compiling all this information. We were able to do this because we had that close connection and there

Status of Women committee  Let me conclude by stating that the Native Women's Association of Canada wants to continue to address, with various departments within government, including Status of Women, the Department of Justice, and Public Safety, the alarmingly high rates of violence against aboriginal wom

Status of Women committee  Meegwetch. [Witness speaks in Ojibway] According to our traditions, I would also like to acknowledge the Algonquin Nation, on whose territory we are meeting today. I am from the Anishinabek Nation. I bring greetings from my people, who reside in northern Ontario and everywher

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  When you mention this topic, do you mean looking at the status question?

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Well, as I said, it started in 1970, which is 40 years ago now we've been working on this. We are determined to see the final end, where we will get that equal access to our rights as members within our communities. So it has been a long time. There have been changes and it seems

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The other big area that we must ensure continues is education. Our people need to be able to access higher education, post-secondary, because that is the only way we will be able to understand, know, and maintain our balanced life within our communities so that we can apply not o

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  To get back to your first question, there are studies that have been done by first nations themselves, looking at the future, at what is going to happen. That is available and it can be explored. Definitely some of our first nations will become extinct, because under Bill C-31,

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'd also like to mention the recent study that was done, which said that about 85% of our people, our women, are moving into urban centres, but even though they are moving into urban centres they still want that right to be part of their communities, just to be able to retain tha

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Well, we are dealing with one right now, one I neglected to mention. Women, especially the single mothers, are leaving our communities because of the physical abuse, just to get away in order to provide for their children. That happens. It's well documented. But at the same time,

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  We were able to discover that because these issues are so important, our people came together. There was disagreement on certain aspects, but in the long run they came together and said “This is what we can live with, this is who our people are, and this is what we must do.” And

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It's with the nations, not the small communities.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I would invite you to explore our citizenship law with the Anishinabe First Nation, because we went through all that.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Meegwetch. I understand and recognize the importance of what you're saying. This is what we have been trying to do within our communities, in northern Ontario with the Anishinabe Nation. I would invite you to visit our communities, our grand chiefs, who brought this about. We