I have been asked to state what some of my ideas are, what some of my goals are. While I doubt I can list all of them in one setting I will highlight what to me would be the “basic.”
MNI should have many goals.
First and foremost is the uniting of our people. We need to come together to preserve what is left of our heritage and recapture those things lost to us. We cannot do that without openly coming together and sharing our knowledge. We need to preserve those ways for future generations; we need to be able to pass these things on and teach our children.
While it is important to discuss current events and those things that affect our lives politics should not be the dominate theme at our gatherings. We need to just talk, we need to communicate; we need to share our feelings, our knowledge, our ideas, and traditions with each other.
We also need commitment. We need commitment to and from each other. We need to “want” to do this and we need to make sacrifices, at whatever level we are capable of, to make this happen so that we may continue to grow and prosper.
A huge major problem for us is that we have been scattered across the land. We have lost our homelands and our communities that were so important to preserving the culture. For me, the number one goal is to establish a Métis Community; not just a group, or an organization or a Band but we have to have a place where we can come together, where we will not just simply meet but unite, re-unite. We need land. We need to be able to come back together, to build homes, build a community center, ceremonial grounds.
