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Mi’gmaq fsheries agreement
Calmer waters
Listuguj Mi’gmaq sign fisheries agreement with feds after a year of tension
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by Ben Powless | Photo by Ashley Julian-Rikihana
The Mi’gmaq community of Listuguj has reached a historic agreement with the federal government that will give it greater control over its own fsheries.
The Listuguj Mi’gmaq Government (LMG) agreed to the Rights Reconciliation Agreement on Fisheries March 24, and said it expected the Canadian government to approve and sign the deal in the following weeks. The agreement would see the LMG and Ottawa form a Co-Governance Fisheries Committee to jointly plan and manage the community’s fishery.
The LMG passed its own laws on salmon fishing in 1993, followed by the Listuguj Lobster Law in 2019, after two years of community consultation. The enactment of that lobster law sparked renewed discussions with Ottawa about creating a rights-based agreement on fisheries, where Mi’gmaq beliefs and laws would be centred.
“This agreement will allow us to plan and implement our seasons with some certainty DFO will not unjustifiably infringe on Mi’gmaq fisheries governance and our fishing rights,” said Listuguj Natural Resources Director Fred Metallic.
“We will also gain increased access to fisheries resources whether for food, social, ceremonial or commercial purposes, funds for capacity building on fisheries governance, obtain fisheries access, which could include licenses and/or quota as well as vessels and gear.”
Fisheries and Oceans Minister Bernadette Jordan said in a statement that Ottawa recognizes that the Mi’gmaq have fished the Atlantic shores “for centuries” and have an inherent right to continue their way of life.
“With this agreement, Canada and Listuguj Mi’gmaq First Nation will work together to see that right manifest in a productive, sustainable fishery that will bring greater stability, opportunity and prosperity to the Listuguj people and the local communities,” said Jordan. “It demonstrates true partnership between our nations, achieved through the spirit of reconciliation.”
Listuguj Chief Darcy Gray described the agreement as an opportunity for a different relationship with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. “There’s a guarded optimism that comes out of this that we can talk government-to-government to find a good way forward in collaboration with our fisheries.”
Gray said that it was important that the agreement recognized existing Mi’gmaq laws, given Ottawa’s previous reluctance.
The agreement, he added, “changes the conversation around how we can manage fisheries as a community and nation. The agreement is structured in a way as just a beginning, not an end, and we can expand the lobster law or manage other fisheries or laws we decide as a community.”
Gray hopes the agreement will alleviate tensions and violence that arose in 2020 from non-Indigenous fishermen, when angry crowds burned buildings and destroyed lobster traps used by Indigenous fishermen in the Mi’gmaq community of Sipekne’katik.
He’s optimistic that the public will see that the Indigenous fishery is “well-managed, well-planned, and done in collaboration with conservation.” He added that the federal government also has a role in educating non-Indigenous fishermen about the nature of the rights-based fishery.
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans did not respond to a request for comment.
- Listuguj Chief Darcy Gray
ᒥᓯᐙ ᒑ ᐃᔮᒀᒥᓯᔮᒄ ᑭᔮ ᒑ ᒦᓯᒋᓯᔮᒄ ᐋ ᓅᒋᐱᔮᓱᐙ ᔮᒄ
We hope that hunters will remain in the territory of Eeyou Istchee during this coming spring Goose Break. We strongly encourage everyone to take part and comply with this prevention measure for the safety or our wellbeing, our people, and most importantly our elders.
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81 www.nationnews.ca May 7, 2021 9-895-2030 the Nation 23
Here’s another edition of the Nation’s puzzle page. Try your hand at Sudoku or Str8ts or our Crossword, or better yet, solve all three and send us a photo!* As always, the answers from last issue are here for you to check your work. Happy hunting.
PREVIOUS SOLUTION:
A B L E A F A R B A R G E R O I L D O V E A L O U D C A M I S O L E S S L U N G S T O O L D R I P I N K Y T A R E G L A N D G I N G E R S N A P A T A G E N E D O T T E A B A G A N T S F L A M E N O S E S I E S T A L O L N U T S P E R A C C E L E R A T E F I X E R A T O P S P A T D U D S D O W S E A L I C E D I S B E L I E F L A T H E U V E A I S N T E T H Y L P E S T S E T S
Crossword
by Margie E. Burke
ACROSS 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 1 Playground 14 15 16 staple 6 Give a hand? 17 18 19 10 G.I. offense 14 Solitary sort 20 21 22 15 Colombian crop 23 24 25 16 Post-WWII alliance 26 27 28 29 17 Deduce 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 18 Alternative to steps 37 38 39 19 Choral voice 40 41 42 20 Chick's chirp 21 Luau servings 43 44 45 46 23 Domain 47 48 49 50 25 Stick together 26 Sometimes it's 51 52 53 54 55 56 hidden 57 58 59 28 Approval power 30 Wayside stop 60 61 62 31 High spirits 33 Talk bad about 63 64 65 37 Like barcodes Copyright 2021 by The Puzzle Syndicate 40 State under oath 41 Latin dance 62 Kitchen strainer 10 Literary 36 Now's partner 42 "Yes, ___!" 63 Beach site repetition 38 Like craft fair 43 Sharply dressed 64 Latest thing 11 Pixar title robot goods 45 Where charity 65 Art studio item 12 Riverbank 39 Slack off begins romper 44 Promo 47 Something 13 Baggy 46 Weightlifter's wicked? DOWN 21 Not fancy at all worry 50 Danielle of 1 Lose traction 22 Write a check 47 Pants style romance novels 2 Famous Ranger for later 48 "So long", in 51 Lump in one's 3 Logical 24 Navy bigwigs Sonora throat conclusion 26 Draws a bead 49 Brazilian port 54 Dennis the 4 Intensify, as on 50 Cake serving
Menace's dog feelings 27 Nibble on 52 One of a bear 57 Bread for a gyro 5 Slip up 28 Dogcatcher's trio 58 Indian garment 6 Theater curtain quarry 53 Stuffed shirt 59 Pull strings? 7 Pawn shop 29 "Excuse me…" 55 Prime number 60 Line on a map offering 32 Take a breather 56 Have a hunch 61 Grander than 8 Top spot 34 Givens 59 "What's the grand 9 Vatican rule 35 Kind of chance ___?"
STR8TS
No. 277
4 2 4
Easy
7
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© 2021 Syndicated Puzzles Previous solution - Medium 4 3 8 9 6 5 4 3 2 8 6 7 9 3 2 4 9 5 8 7 6 4 3 5 9 6 8 7 2 6 8 5 7 1 4 2 7 6 4 3 5 8 5 7 6 3 4 9 6 7 8 9 4 3 5 1 2 7 6 5 3 4 2 1 How to beat Str8ts – Like Sudoku, no single number can repeat in any row or column. But... rows and columns are divided by black squares into compartments. These need to be flled in with numbers that complete a ‘straight’. A straight is a set of numbers with no gaps but can be in any order, eg [4,2,3,5]. Clues in black cells remove that number as an option in that row and column, and are not part of any straight. Glance at the solution to see how ‘straights’ are formed.
SUDOKU
No. 277
8 6 7 9 4 3 2 1 5 4 5 9 1 7 2 8 3 6 3 1 2 5 8 6 9 4 7 5 8 3 2 6 4 1 7 9 1 2 6 3 9 7 5 8 4 7 9 4 8 5 1 6 2 3 2 4 5 6 3 8 7 9 1 6 7 8 4 1 9 3 5 2 9 3 1 7 2 5 4 6 8
© 2021 Syndicated Puzzles To complete Sudoku, fll the board by entering numbers 1 to 9 such that each row, column and 3x3 box contains every number uniquely.
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Total disconnect
by Sonny Orr
I’d like to recount an isolation session during which I survived with only a landline to the outside world. It was comforting knowing that the earth still turned, even without my help, as I slipped into a time zone that could be controlled by a remote. I had no real connection aside from television, then I discovered that the cable wasn’t connected. So, I scrounged around for some DVDs and found a few decent ones, even an eclectic one, with a combination of humour, action, mystery and comic-book heroes.
I started with a Korean production, a gritty thriller featuring a chain-smoking inspector and his protégé mole who was placed near the top of a local gangster mob group. In the end, it was very ironic and somehow satisfyingly perfect in its delivery. I then slipped into some Rowan Atkinson movies and had a trio of movies that made me laugh out loud and startle myself because I hadn’t heard my own voice for a while. I’m not big into talking to myself unless I need to remember numbers.
Then came a knock on the door. My room-delivered pizza slices made my day as did the groceries to cover my basic meat, bread, eggs and juice diet. I managed to save a few snacks from my isolation in the south and wished that I had bought a few DVDs, but heck, talking to myself sounded like a good option for a while.
Then there was the sleeping with a new apparatus to quell the thunderous roar of my snoring and force air into my depleted lungs. This called for some practice time as I adjusted the hoses, snorkels and headbands attached to my cranium and muzzled my dainty nostrils. Eventually, as I rose from the tossing and turning that I call sleep, I felt somewhat refreshed. Hmm, there’s something to all this snorkeling.
Then, I spied a small radio among the debris on the kitchen table. Thankfully, I could hear the good old JBCCS morning show with a tasty espresso and some bacon-smothered eggs. Against all medical advice, I chose comfort food in these trying times despite the possibility of a blood clot. It helps to pass time quickly by doing things as slowly as possible. It left me lots of time to think of my family back home in Chisasibi who are dealing with losses of their own.
I decided to think positively. Then, a call from the local clinic for a second dose of the virus preventer added a brighter hue to my isolation blues. At least something went right for me; enabling my contribution to herd immunity and the rescue of human civilization.
After shaking off the blues even further with a hot cup of java, I phoned the local Covid guys to see if there was any glimmer of hope on the horizon. To my surprise, I discovered that I could now actually venture out in my vehicle alone! I rubbed my eyes and pinched myself to see if I was dreaming – it’s true, I can go outside! Ahhh, finally I can get some sunshine for my stubbled caveman face!
I’m free now from those days of confinement, but I sympathize with many others who have to endure it – keep your chin up! Signing off from post-isolation….
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www.underthenorthernsky.com Under the Northern Sky Historic church destroyed in fre
by Xavier Kataquapit
Attiwapiskat’s towering, historic St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church was destroyed in a spectacular fire April 21. There is a lot of emotion to this tragic event and most people, including myself, don’t really know how to express it.
Our feelings are complicated by the fact that Indigenous people in Canada and North America have a difficult history with the Catholic Church and organized religion in general. On one hand these religious missionaries taught us construction skills in building these monumental structures. On the other hand, they did their best to destroy our traditions and cultural beliefs.
These religious organizations, with the blessing of the Canadian government, were involved in the kidnapping of Indigenous children into the residential school system which ran for many decades. My late parents Marius and Susan and many others in the community endured this difficult experience.
In Attawapiskat, the tragic parts of this religious history were tempered by the late Father Rodrique Vezina, our parish priest who served the community for 43 years from 1973 to 2015. Father Vezina came at a time when the residential school era was ending, and the Catholic Church didn’t hold as much power over us as it had in the past. He was intelligent, hard-working, dedicated and, most of all, kind to everyone. He faithfully and diligently looked after our church and presided over many major events in our lives.
For those of us who grew up in Attawapiskat, we associate our local church with Father Vezina. He was there to lead us in mass every Sunday morning and every evening for over 40 years. We also think of the late Deacon Michel Koostachin, a community member and Elder who became involved in the Catholic Church and our parish for many years. My Aunt Theresa Hookimaw, my mom’s sister, played the organ in our church and she attended every Sunday mass to perform.
I remember times in the 1980s when the church was regularly at capacity and latecomers took part in standing room only. It is haunting for me to remember the harmonized voices of our Elders singing Cree hymns during the service. Strong, proud men who I knew as hunters and trappers intoned the low parts and the women who were normally quiet and reserved sang out the higher notes. The entire Sunday service was in Weenaybaykoo Inineemoon, our James Bay Cree language. Father Vezina spoke it impeccably – both in speech and in song.
Our parents and our Elders had a sense of pride in the construction – in 1917 without much modern machinery or equipment – of their church. Grandparents and relatives had built it under the direction of missionaries who taught the trade of carpentry and construction. They developed a lumber mill in the community and local people harvested towering old growth trees from the nearby wilderness.
In 2014, six beautiful stained-glass windows were installed as part of a project involving the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to address the painful history of the church and Indigenous people. The project was led by community member Jackie Hookimaw-Witt, her husband Norbert Witt and Father Vezina. The newly installed windows added a more hopeful and positive chapter of community history to this building. Sadly, these artworks were also lost in the fire.
Father Vezina enjoyed documenting our community and for many years he maintained a video system that recorded feast days or events such as weddings, celebrations and funerals. He also collected audio recordings of Elders as they spoke to the congregation or the singing they performed. Of course, his record keeping included all births, deaths, weddings and other religious ceremonies that took place for over a century. I was deeply saddened at the realization that much of this documented history was most likely lost as well.
The church in Attawapiskat was a familiar sight for all of us. When you travelled on the river or on the winter road, the sight of that tall, iconic building meant you were home. Now it’s not there and that is a very sad reminder of what we have lost.
Catholic leadership had suggested that after the building was closed in 2019 that a new church would be built. Hopefully this promise can come to fruition if the community supports that idea. This could be a creative opportunity for a healing statement in terms of meaningful reconciliation.
Wehavebeenpresent since1939.Allmembers ofthelargeDeshaies' familyarebyyourside todayandwillalsobe forthebetterdaysto come.
Cree individuals (JBNQA Beneficiaries), at least 18 years of age, or Cree Local Governments and their development corporaaons
No arrears of any kind or nature with a Local Government Meet relevant credit criteria
*Certain condiaons apply to the construcaon of eligible housing units.
