Chiefs continue to press feds on its land back and NRTA shortcomings – Windspeaker.com
July 19th, 2023
“It is a broken system and it’s something that needs to be fixed. It is probably the poorest form of getting land back to your communities and control over those.” Marc Miller, minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations
Reforms are needed in broken systems that are cumbersome to navigate and too slow to be realized when it comes to land back, said chiefs at last week’s annual general assembly for the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) in Halifax.
Resolutions adopted in that assembly focused on the federal government working with First Nations to reform the Additions to Reserve land process and to develop a framework for a Specific Claims process that recognizes Indigenous laws, legal orders and systems of land tenure.
“This resolution is about land back. It’s about being in line with the United Nations Declaration (on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples),” said Madawaska Maliseet First Nation Chief Patricia Bernard about the Additions to Reserve reform.
