Mi’gwame’l Tplu”taqnn Inc. (MTI), an organization representing Mi’gmag communities in New Brunswick, has filed a massive title claim that covers more than half of the province on behalf of eight of the province’s Mi’gmag communities.
Their title map overlaps with that of the Wolastoqey First Nation filed in 2021, meaning the entire province and some of the waters surrounding it, are now subject to land claims.
The six chiefs of the Wolastoqey First Nation sent Global News a statement on Wednesday, saying their talks with MTI have been “open, friendly and productive” and that they ” wish to amplify (Wednesday’s) call from the Mi’gmaq chiefs: It’s time for the Government of New Brunswick to see the importance of negotiating recognition and implementation of Indigenous title.”
“We’re not looking to reclaim private lands, that’s not part of the discussion,” Chief George Ginnish of the Natoaganeg First Nation, a Mi’gmag community near Miramichi said in an interview.
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“It’s about Crown lands, it’s about industrial activity that’s happening on Crown land. It’s about having a process for development, resource extraction, things that are going on now that are kind of one-offs that would have a formal process.”
MTI based the map on research pertaining to historic land and water use.
Ginnish said MTI intends to negotiate with the province before resorting to the court system.
“Let’s have a realistic discussion that recognizes the relationship and helps our communities move forward and take our rightful place in the words of our elders, in our own land,” he said.
A representative for the department of Aboriginal affairs sent Global News a statement saying :” The province will address the Mi’gmaq’s position in due course and as part of that process must consider how it implicates the current claim by the Wolastoqey to land that is in the Mi’gmaq map area.”
The statement also said the province would be reviewing the development “in the coming days and weeks.”
The relationship between First Nations communities and the provincial government has been fraught with tension, leading to Mi’gmag and Wolastoqey leaders to call for Premier Blaine Higgs’ resignation alongside Acadian leaders at a protest in October.
Higgs had previously come under fire for falsely claiming the Wolastoqey Nation’s title claim “attempted to take control of land that is privately owned.”
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