by Zabrina Whitman, Policy Analyst, KMKNO

One of the pillars of the negotiation process is “to revive, promote and protect a healthy Mi’kmaq identity”. Determining who is a Nova Scotia Mi’kmaw beneficiary is an important and critical topic. Our role at Kwilmu’kw Maw-klusuaqn Negotiation Office (KMKNO) is to gather information from community members on this issue. Since 2008 we have been engaging with NS Mi’kmaw through community sessions, youth competitions, university visits, information booths at community events, think-tanks, focus groups, webinars (Web-based seminar) and regional sessions. In the last year, we reviewed that information to start to analyze how to build an enrollment process.

Remembering last month’s article, we discussed how community members identified the difference between a “Beneficiary” and a “Citizen, and in closer examination of these community definitions, KMKNO’s focus of work is a beneficiary enrollment process.

Just to recap, a “Beneficiary” (an Heir of the Treaties) has an ethnic, familial tie to a Mi’kmaw family and a community/band, while a “citizen” can be naturalized (non-Mi’kmaw).

This month we will start to dive deeper into how this beneficiary enrollment process may potentially work by examining what community members have proposed as enrollment criteria.

The intent of this month’s article is to summarize what has been said and to start to critically analyze how it can be implemented. This is our first attempt at ...