Will Goodon speaks on Indigenous Leadership in Nature Conservation
Minister Will Goodon of the Manitoba Metis Federation highlights the Métis Peoples deep commitment to protecting the land, water and air for future generations.
https://Canada.ca/Our-Nature
* * * * * Transcript * * * * *
WILL GOODON (Minister of Housing & Property Management, Manitoba Métis Federation):
One of the things that your viewers might not know about the Métis Nation is that we are at this point a landless people. There are some municipal-style lands that are available to Métis people in northern Alberta, but for the most part we’re landless.
And to have the opportunity to be on the land that we have always been on, that our ancestors were on, that our grandparents and our parents were on, I think, is absolutely critical, not just for the cultural side of our people, of the Métis Nation — because we harvest, we hunt, we spend time on the land, that’s where we teach our youth — but also, you know, if you look at the bigger scheme of what Canada’s trying to do with respect to protecting… well, to get to the 2020 targets and the bigger targets that were just recently announced.
I think from everything I’ve been able to see and learn and listen to from people all around the world, is that Indigenous people absolutely have to play a major role. Not just a role, but a major role in protecting these lands, so that we can still live on this planet in 100 years. I think that, there’s no doubt that we have to be involved, and the Métis Nation wants to play as big a role as we possibly can in that as well.
Source: Environment and Climate Change Canada
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