by Zabrina Whitman, Sr. Policy Analyst, KMKNO

Community members have provided a lot of great information over the years on the topic of “who is Mi’kmaq?” This summer, we, at KMKNO, have started to report back on the information collected and present to community members a potential N.S. Mi’kmaq Enrollment Process through articles in the Mi’kmaq Maliseet Nations News and on our website. There is a lot of information to go over, questions to ask and considerations to think about. Before presenting more of this information to you, we need to take a step back and explain what this process is all about, and what it means for Nova Scotia Mi’kmaw.

The N.S. Mi’kmaq Enrollment Process is a part of the Made-in-Nova Scotia Process. In 1999, the Marshall Decision recognized Mi’kmaq Treaty Rights. Even though we have always said we have Treaty Rights, the Marshall Decision confirmed our position legally, and required that Canada and Nova Scotia recognize our Treaty Rights as well.

But recognition is different from implementation. As discussed in a July article, the negotiation process is about figuring out how we can implement our Rights, to the satisfaction of the Mi’kmaq of Nova Scotia. More importantly, the Made-in-Nova Scotia Process is about our self-determination: implementation means that Nova Scotia Mi’kmaw decides, together, what are the rules and processes that we want to have in place to manage the resources, protect our culture, and ensure that what we have today is there for future ge ...