More First Nations involvement asked for at APEX meeting

Matawa First Nations CEO David Paul Achneepineskum called for First Nations involvement in Ring of Fire mining developments during the Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce’s APEX Aboriginal Partnership Exchange.

“Our population is about 10,000 and a large percentage are young people,” Achneepineskum says, estimating youth up to 30 years old make up about two-thirds of the population. “So that makes for a large population that will be coming out or is already out there looking for jobs.
Potentially, there are a lot of opportunities for our First Nations mainly in the economic development area.”

Achneepineskum says many of the Matawa communities have not seen economic development projects in their territory.

“So when any mining company comes to our territory to talk about wanting to open up a (new) mine — ‘here is how we are going to do it, here is what your benefits are going to be, we want you to come on side and work with us’ — our chiefs have said hold on here,” Achneepineskum says. “You cannot just come to our territory and give us what you want to do.”

Achneepineskum says the Matawa chiefs and councils have protocols in place to deal with how mining companies are going to engage their communities.

“These protocols usually entail that our people, our First Nations have to be involved,” Achneepineskum says. “Our people have to know exactly how that (development) is going to impact them in terms of their livelihood, social aspects and also how are they are going to be involved in terms of business and economic opportunities.”

Achneepineskum says Matawa’s goal is to have full employment in the communities, full opportunities for community members who want to start businesses and full opportunities for people who need housing.

“Anybody who needs housing, you can have it,” Achneepineskum says. “We want to have clean water, we want to have community facilities that will accommodate our social, recreational and health (needs) for our people.”

Achneepineskum says the goals are not an unrealistic dream — they can be achieved over time.

“We don’t expect it to happen immediately — it’s something we have to work hard at,” Achneepineskum says. “We want to emphasize our rights to what we believe our ancestors committed to when Treaty 9 was signed in 1905-1906. Our people understood that sharing agreement, to share the land, to share the opportunities. In return we had some initial benefits, such as health, and also what we hold sacred — the right to hunt and gather as free as we want on our land.”

Achneepineskum says the Matawa communities also want to have the lands protected.

“I believe we need to be there as equals, equals as people of the land, and equals for what every Canadian expects from any development,” Achneepineskum says. “Certainly, for ourselves, we are willing to sit down and negotiate an agreement that will see benefits for our people.”
Achneepineskum says companies have to communicate directly with the communities on development plans, not Matawa or Nishnawbe Aski Nation.

“You are going to have to go and make a commitment, to take time to listen to the people that actually live in our lands,” Achneepineskum says. “Listen to them, listen to their concerns.
Once you build that relationship, I can tell you a lot of positive things are going to happen. That is where decisions are made. The people in our community, they are the ones who will have the final say.”

Achneepineskum says the Matawa community members are not going to leave their traditional territories.

“We’ve been living on that land for thousands of years,” Achneepineskum says. “And we are going to continue to live there for another hundred of thousands of years. And we want to benefit the same as anybody from any development.”

Held in partnership with Nishnawbe Aski Development Fund, the gathering included panel discussions on Establishing the Economic Landscape for Northwestern Ontario; Digging Deeper: Understanding the Cultural, Social, and Economic Impacts of First Nations Business; Aboriginal Solutions to the Workforce, Education, and Training Needs of the Future; “The Business” of Aboriginal Business: Finance, Legal, and Accounting Considerations; and Emerging Leaders.

Chief Clarence Louie, Osoyoos Indian Band, delivered the morning keynote address on A Pathway to Prosperity. Other speakers included Lakehead University’s Cynthia Wesley-Esquimaux, Nishnawbe Aski Development Fund’s Brian Davey, Pic River’s Byron LeClair and Thunder Bay Community Economic Development Commission’s Doug Murray.

Link: http://www.wawataynews.ca/archive/all/2015/7/31/more-first-nations-involvement-asked-apex-meeting_26006