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Much of the past 30 years has been about protecting and defending Cree rights. In the course of ensuring that our Agreement was implemented with the same spirit and intent as when it was signed, we have found ourselves in the forefront of the struggle to advance aboriginal rights not only within Canada but internationally as well. We spearheaded the efforts to ensure that indigenous peoples have a voice at the highest levels of international institutions, including the United Nations. We have been instrumental in advancing the standards and the benchmarks by which we measure progress in the struggle to gain proper recognition of the rights of indigenous peoples.
At the same time that we were entering the first stages of our history as a Cree Nation there was another reality developing in the background which we were not aware of and which we have only recently come to understand in its fullness. There is now emerging a very striking and hugely important demographic reality in northern Quebec (demography is the study of population trends). It is clear from the data which has been developing over the last few years that in a relatively short period of time—perhaps ten to fifteen years—and if things continue as they have been, we, the Crees will be the dominant population group of northern Quebec. The Cree population has been, and continues to increase at a significant rate while, at the same time, the Jamesian population is decreasing at a rapid rate. By the year 2021, if the current trends continue the Cree population will be approximately 17,000, and the Jamesian population will be under 10,000.
This demographic reality needs to be understood in terms of its economic and political potential. What the data is telling us is that the Cree communities and the Cree Nation as a whole, as the permanent and majority population, could and should become the major economic force in northern Quebec. Any serious understanding of this territory, and any serious planning for the future, must acknowledge this reality. It must be recognized that the future of resource development activities—and indeed most economic development sectors—in northern Quebec will to a significant degree involve the Cree communities as the permanent and growing population in the region. The data also tells us that, in addition to the economic opportunities for us, there are also opportunities for us to exercise significant political power in the region. We have realized that the opportunities are there and the challenge before us is to decide if and how we will take advantage of those opportunities.
All of these struggles over the course of the last 30 years, and our growing understanding of the regional population realities have brought into very sharp focus our need to remain united behind a common vision. Our struggles have united us and they have strengthened us. Our common struggles have opened up the possibility for us to dream powerful visions of what we can become and they have confirmed for us our strength to realize powerful visions.
Together, over the course of the last 30 years, such a vision has emerged, and we have also taken some hugely important steps in implementing that vision. The vision which has emerged among us is nothing less than building a genuine, effective, self-reliant and Cree Nation which is self-governing, in control over what happens within our territory, and increasingly becoming masters of our own house. We are now at a profoundly critical juncture in our history and we are clearly on the brink of entering an era of nation-building of the kind which has never been seen before in an indigenous setting.
As I see it, the vision and the task of nation-building requires that significant effort be placed on four pillars of achieving aboriginal nationhood.
1,
2, 3,
4, 5,
6
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