Ontario First Nations Group Bans Term “Aboriginal”
Thursday, July 31, 2008 at 14:43
The leader of Ontario’s Anishinabek Grand Council says his council’s move to outlaw the term “aboriginal” has generated more interest and attention than anything the council has done in its nearly 60 years of existence.
At the grand council’s recent annual meeting, chiefs of the 42 communities that make up the Anishniabek Nation agreed that the term is another tool of assimilation and is not what they call themselves.
Grand Chief John Beaucage says the word “aboriginal” did not come from First Nations people and is not a word that’s seen in the treaties.
Beaucage notes the move prompted Hydro One to change the name of a department from “Aboriginal Relations” to “First Nations and Metis Relations”.
He says the grand council would also like to change the name of the corporate arm of the Anishinabek Nation known now as the Union of Ontario Indians.