Among all those groups that are around here I think that the government is creating a lot of prejudice against us. They undermine a lot of our rights. We are the poorest of the poorest in the sense that we are the last in line. If you look all around here – all the ore that has been exploited and the wealth generated and created and even today all the work that has been done on the exploration – we still haven’t seen any benefit for our community and all of this is done without our knowledge or consent – without our prior consent. And this is our homeland.

Unfortunately what happened is that without evidence or any proof, the Pierre Trudeau government signed deals with aboriginal groups, for example the Naskapi, without any evidence that they owned the land, and now it is the same with the Labrador Innu. They have no proof or claim that they are the rightful owners of the land that they are occupying right at this moment. I can say that this is my land.

I would have liked back then to have the right resources to work with me, the right people to work with me, and somehow it wasn’t possible. This work that we tried to do with the other chiefs in this native or indigenous environment was picked up by a bunch of lawyers and they screwed up the whole thing.

The fundamental problem that underlies the negotiations is those pre-set rules, because the federal negotiators come up with examples. They will tell you what they did in other places with other nations. But we have a right to have our own views on this and to say for us it is different. You were always stuck with the thought that you either take the money or resign.

The land would belong to the government if we signed. It is sad to see people signing over their rights to the government in return for money – they do not realise they are giving money to the government. Money given on signing doesn’t last.