Nishnawbe-Aski Nation
Organization profile published 1983
http://www.nan.on.ca/
Year Published: 1983
Resource Type: Organization
Cx Number: CX2849
Abstract:
The NISHNAWBE-ASKI of 40 Indian communities in Northern Ontario are officially represented by Grand Council Treaty No. 9, and Association of the Chiefs of Treaty No. 9. The Grand Council was formed in 1973 to advance the spiritual, social, cultural, economic and political aspirations of the NISHNAWBE-ASKI. The Council's activities include political representation as well as socio-economic development work in the communties.
The Council has established four basic principles of economic growth:
- initiatives to solve the social and economic ills of our communities must come from the communities themselves;
- Economic growth must not destroy the environment. Protecting the land is our sacred mandate; neither profit, nor jobs will cause us to deny our custodianship role.
-The eoncomic base of the NISHNAWBE-ASKI must be renewable resources of the land. Traditional economic pursuits of fishing, hunting and trapping must reamin the foundations of economic life;
- Socio-economic development must be advanced through en equitable share of wealth derived from non-renewable resources.
In order to pusue their traditional lifestyle, the Grand Council has written a number of petitions and submissions to government. These include:
- A Declaration of Nishnawbe-Aski, (The People and the land) by the Ojibway-Cree Nation of Treaty No. 9 to the People of Canada. Delivered by the Chiefs of Grand Council Treaty No. 9, to Ontario Premier William Davis and his Cabinet, July, 1977.
- A Submission to the 3rd General Assembly of the World Council of Indigenous People, Canberra Austalia, April, 1981.
- The Land: Our Culture, Our Heritage, Our Tradition, and Our Future, a Position Paper presented to: The Government of Ontario, Represented by: The Honourable Alan Pope, Minister of Natural Resources, Moose Factory Island, Ontario, August 1982.
- Aboriginal Rights: a Treatsie on the Rights of the Aboriginal Peoples of the Continent of North America
written by Fred Plain, March, 1982.
At present, there is little cause for optimism on the part of the Ojibway and Cree people of Northern Ontario: investments in economic development in the area are poor; communities continue to have little control over their own future; and resources development is encroaching on traditional land and lifestyle. In spite of this, these people remain committed to the challenge to demand what is rightfully theirs.
This abstract was published in the Connexions Digest in 1983.
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