4. Context and General Principles to Guide Consultation and Accommodation
a.
AFN has been home to the Mississauga Anishinabeg of the Ojibway Nation
since the mid 1830’s. Before that time our people lived in their traditional lands
around the Bay of Quinte and elsewhere within our Traditional Territory.
b.
In addition to Aboriginal title, AFN rights in its Reserve and Traditional Territory
and/ or Treaty Territory include rights to hunt, fish and trap, to harvest plants for
food and medicine, to protect and honour burial sites and other sacred and
culturally significant sites, to sustain and strengthen its spiritual and cultural
connection to the land, to protect the Environment that supports its survival, to
govern itself, sustain itself and prosper including deriving revenues from its
lands and resources, and to participate in all governance and operational
decisions about how the land and resources will be managed, used and
protected.
c.
AFN laws require AFN to preserve and even enhance a mutually respectful
relationship with the Environment, to co-exist with Mother Earth and protect this
relationship. AFN under its laws has the responsibility to care for its Traditional
Territory and/ or Treaty Territory for future generations, to preserve and protect
wildlife, lands, waters, air and resources. AFN relies on the health of the
Environment in its Traditional Territory and/ or Treaty Territory for its survival. The
health of the lands and waters is essential to the continued existence of AFN as a
people and it and its members' Health, its culture, laws, livelihood, and economy.
d.
AFN is recognized as a respected and principled steward of the Environment.
AFN's input and perspective in any consultation and accommodation process
will likely include the use of traditional ecological and cultural knowledge
alongside knowledge from western scientific and technical sources.
e.
All decisions about any Activity that might cause an Impact shall be weighed
carefully in regard to AFN Sustainability and recoverability of the Environment.
AFN has suffered significant adverse effects from development, use and
pollution of its Traditional Territory and/or Treaty Territory and from taking and
using of parts of its Traditional Territory and/or Treaty Territory including Lands
over which it asserts Aboriginal title.
8 — Alderville First Nation Consultation Protocol