Envisioning the Future
INTRODUCTION
The Gespe’gewa’gi claims process is about reclaiming our territory. It is also about reclaiming our cultural and linguistic traditions, which give evidence of our long-standing and exclusive occupation of Gespe’gewa’gi. Over thousands of years, we named, occupied, and used the territory.
But what about our future? What changes do we expect from the eventual success of our claim to rights and title over our territory? This section explores the future we seek as our claim moves forward.
WE HAVE MET THE LAND CLAIM TESTS
We believe that we have already met the requirements set out by the Government of Canada with respect to “exclusive occupancy and use.” We have set these out in Nm’tginen: Me’mnaq ejiglignmuetueg gis na naqtmueg, our statement of claim that was filed with the Governments of Canada and Québec in 2007. Our future will be built upon this proof.
Currently, we are working along with Canada and Québec on a Framework Agreement that will set out mutually acceptable processes and understandings as we go forth in claims negotiations. Our negotiators are moving through phases of identifying common interests that are going to be suitable and agreeable for our entire nation.
It is not our intent to enter into treaty-making regarding our land. It is already ours and we are claiming it, not making it a treaty issue. We do not have to make treaties about this right because it already exists, inherently.
WHAT DOES CANADA WANT IN THE FUTURE?
Canada’s main interest is to establish clarity about our rights and title. Even though our rights have constitutional protection, we have to be clear to Canada on what our rights and title mean to us as Mi’gmaq. Canada wants certainty that we have been here for thousands of years and thus have “first rights.”
In the past, Canada’s negotiations strategy with other First Nations included the Government’s intent to suspend or abolish Aboriginal rights through treaty-making. Thus, today, some members of Gespe’gewa’gi communities are mistrustful of negotiations with government and question them.
Again, we do not have to make treaties about this right because it already exists, inherently.
WHAT DOES QUEBEC WANT IN THE FUTURE?
Québec’s goal is similar to Canada’s ~ they too want proof of continuous occupancy and use. Their agenda, however, is to engage us in a process that fits into their provincial Aboriginal program and policies.
Québec’s position is that they have “territorial integrity” over our land, which means that this territory belongs to Québec.
We will not accept that Québec has territorial integrity because to do this would agree with them that nobody was here before the Europeans arrived. Québec believes that we were simply “visitors” only in the northern area of Gespe’gewa’gi (that is, the Gaspé Peninsula). This notion is what Québec has used to supersede our rights.
The Natural Resources Ministry of Québec has a major stake in opposing our claim to rights and title, because Québec would then have to include us in decisions about resources and the subsequent benefits from resource use. This is what we are up against in the near future.
Other First Nations (some inside Québec, some outside) have criticized Québec’s position on territorial integrity, their refusal to share royalties, and their alleged “ownership” of natural resources. Québec’s position is a huge challenge to our future.
The Government of Québec considers the Minister of Natural Resources to be the “keeper” of all resources in the province. The government truly believes that it is their land and their resources. These beliefs are exactly opposite to what Mi’gmaq believe about Gespe’gewa’gi. We believe the land and resources do not “belong” to anyone. We continue to ask Québec to prove how they had territorial integrity long before the Province of Québec was created. What or who gave them that authority and control? They can show no deed that gave them that.
Québec continues to push its way through First Nations communities, imposing provincial policies without regard to our First Nation status. Up until now, we have been just by-standers, treated much like municipalities that get all their power from the Province.
WHAT DO THE MI’GMAQ PEOPLE WANT IN THE FUTURE?
First and foremost, we want to be recognized as a nation with rights to self-governance and self-determination. This will only come through recognition of our inherent rights and title to our territory.
Then, our people, through their elected representatives, want to be consulted on decisions regarding use, income and sharing of the natural resources on our land. We want to be accommodated according to our needs and our original occupancy of the land. We want the results of resource exploitation to be directed toward betterment of our people.
To be consulted and accommodated does not mean that we “own” the land. In the future, Mi’gmaq people will continue to hold fast to our belief that nobody owns the land. Instead, we are essentially caretakers of the land, as we have been for centuries.
Consultation and Accommodation
In the summer of 2005, the Chiefs and Councils of the eight FIrst Nation communities of Gespe’gewa’gi met at and issued a collective proclamation on the Crown’s duty to consult and accommodate Mi’gmaq interests with respect to resource and land use. This proclamation was signed by the Chiefs of the eight First Nations of Gespe’gew’agi, and it was witnessed by the Sante Mawiomi.
You can read the 2005 District Seven Proclamation on Consultation and Accommodation by clicking your choice of language ~ Mi’gmaq, English or French.
Subsequent discussions and interactions at the community level have been going on to determine which interests we want to focus on when we are consulted and accommodated with respect to use of resources.
Some suggested issues are:
- consultation on industrial development in Gespe’gewa’gi,
- fishery rights,
- increased forestry harvesting rights,
- increased access to the land,
- increased freedom to trade,
- to be included, as a Nation, in discussions that the Government of Québec holds with various private-sector resource-based and economic development companies, rather than our being on the outside and looked upon as just observers,
- resolution of certain tax issues.
Our views on these issues, and other areas of concern, need to be discussed and deliberated within our district and as a nation. Then, our leadership and other appointed officials will convey our views to Canada and Québec.
CONCLUSION
We envision a future for our people that will protect the instructions and teachings passed along to us from our Elders, in our language. We resolve to uphold the Covenant Chair of Peace and Friendship Treaties that we ~ as a sovereign nation ~ mutually agreed to with the Crown so many years ago, when we ~ the original occupants and users of Gespe’gewa’gi ~ agreed to co-exist in with mutual respect for the British. We are entitled to that future.
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