Welcome to AMMSA.COM, the news archive website for our family of Indigenous news publications.

Assembly of First Nations Chiefs of New Brunswick released their plan

Author

Compiled by Debora Steel

Volume

30

Issue

9

Year

2012

Assembly of First Nations Chiefs of New Brunswick released their plan “Restoring Hope for First Nations” in November outlining 10 ways to increase economic stability and meaningful employment for their people, but the chair in Native Studies at St. Thomas University said their plan is doomed to fail because it doesn’t address the root causes of First Nations poverty. Andrea Bear Nicholas said loss of culture is to blame for the social challenges facing Aboriginal people. “Our culture has been under assault since Europeans arrived here,” she said. “You basically destroy a people if you attack their culture. We have a tendency to think the attack ended with residential schools. In fact, it continues as long as our children are put into public schools with no option to learn their language.” Bear Nicholas said Native children should have a separate education in their traditional languages. “If you’re teaching in the language, the culture is incorporated in that,” Bear Nicholas said, CBC reports. “The French fought for that right a long time ago. I’m sad that I’m not seeing the chiefs fighting for that right.”