When Newfoundland joined Confederation in 1949, the Mi’kmaq communities were left out of the Indian Act. Whether that exclusion was deliberate or not depends on whom you talk to about it.
Many in the Mi’kmaq community believe it was a deliberate attempt by both federal and provincial governments to assimilate them into the mainstream population.
And one could say that nearly happened. The Mi’kmaq people dispersed across Newfoundland. Many lost their land, language, culture and heritage.
Newfoundland is home to 10 Mi’kmaq communities. They’re spread out along the central and western regions of the province and total more than 6,000 people.
Even though they identify themselves as Mi’kmaq, many would tell you that their bloodlines also include Innu and Beothuk.
Last fall, I travelled to Newfoundland to cover a series of stories about the Mi’kmaq of Newfoundland and their struggle to get Indian band status vis-a-vis both the federal and provincial governments.
Even though unemployment runs high in Newfoundland, it runs even higher in aboriginal communities. Joblessness can be as elevated as 70 per cent there, compared to 17 or 18 per cent in non-aboriginal communities. Newfoundland Mi’kmaq describe themselves as the poorest of the poor in one of Canada’s poorest regions.
They are now trying to change this.
Mi’kmaq communities in Newfoundland see Indian band status as a way to get on equal footing with others around them in terms of services, infrastructure and a land base. But it also means they would become dependent on federal dollars to maintain those services. For those communities, some money is better than no money. So one by one, communities and groups began to sue the federal government for leaving them out of the Indian Act.
The Miawpukek First Nation was one such community that sued Ottawa over the exclusion. The federal government responded by starting negotiations with them. In 1987, Miawpukek was finally granted Indian band status. People there immediately began to see changes. Water and sewage lines were installed. Modern homes were built to replace tar-paper shacks. Proper roads were built. Jobs became available.
Miawpukek now has its own school, fire emergency services and fisheries. It has control of education, so the Mi’kmaq language and history are being taught. Before it received band status, Miawpukek received barely enough to run a community. Today it is able to provide services that most other communities have always taken for granted.
In the early 1970s, the Federation of Newfoundland Indians also launched a lawsuit against the federal government over the exclusion. Then in 2003, the FNI, which represents nine Mi’kmaq communities, announced they were in negotiations with the federal government to get band status.
After consulting their membership, the FNI decided to put their lawsuit on hold to begin negotiations for a landless band. That means its members would have band status and access to basic services such as social, education and health services, but they wouldn’t have land set aside to create reserves.
According to the FNI president Brendan Sheppard, it was the only way the federation could convince the federal government to sit down and negotiate with them. Sheppard says its members have been living without services for more than 50 years and would rather not go another 50 in these circumstances.
But some Mi’kmaq believe a land base is essential to maintain their culture, heritage and history. Which is why the Tkaqamukuk Mi’kmaq Alliance is continuing to pursue its lawsuit against the federal government.
According to the alliance, which represents approximately 7,000 members, Mi’kmaq people in Newfoundland will continue to be at a disadvantage unless they have a land base and access to better housing and education opportunities.
While I was in Newfoundland, I couldn’t help but reflect on my own sense of community while I was growing up in rural Nova Scotia. Living in a Mi’kmaq community that has band status, I’ve always known that I belonged. While I don’t speak my language, I understand some words and phrases. I know the customs of my people. And throughout the years, I learned the history of my people in this region.
But I got the impression the Mi’kmaq people I met in Newfoundland did not have this same sense of belonging that I received while growing up. Because they didn’t grow up in a distinct Mi’kmaq community, they didn’t have a connection to their culture, language and heritage.
Receiving Indian status would be one simple way for a people to get some of this back and have a sense of belonging and history that most of us, no matter the nationality, take for granted.
Maureen Googoo is a Mi’kmaq journalist living and working in Halifax.
