Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Like I said at the beginning of this motion here, this motion is to support, to nudge the government on the establishment. It talks about some of the things that we think can be looked at when you start developing this secretariat. Not just two people, maybe 15 people or so. Give you some ideas.

I know you’re going to come back in the future on this secretariat. We don’t know when. Monies are introduced and monies sometimes disappear. We want to put this on the radar for the government, that this is an important enough issue here that it stays within the books with the finances. It’s not something we can willy and dilly and take it out. This motion here is so serious that we have to bring up a motion to say keep going, keep doing what you have to do, put the proper resources in there.

When my mother was alive, she worked with the community health representative for over 30 years. She was translating for somebody in the hospital, after 30 years of working in the health centre, and she said that she didn’t understand how to translate certain internal organs of a patient. She had a tough time. This is after 30 years, growing up in the bush, coming off and speaking the language really well. The doctor came in, made the assumption, assumed you know what I’m talking about. My mom said, you know what? I’ve been here over 30 years, the doctor said this and he just expected I do this. How dare he did that to my mother. But my mom said, that’s my job. She tried to explain to the elder what the doctor wanted to know about that part in his body. She couldn’t get it.

The story here is that my Mom phoned a dear friend in Fort Simpson, Albertine Rowe, and said, how do you translate this in South Slavey? The doctor wants to know. How do I translate that to the elder? Albertine said – God bless her heart – well, look at it like when we skin a moose and take the moose apart. We have words for the inside organs for moose, just like a human being. If you tell that to the hunter, the old man, because he’s skinned so many moose in his life, he would know what you’re talking about and that’s the part you’re talking about inside his body. My mom said, okay. So that’s what she did.

I guess that’s what we’re asking about: specific terminology for our people. That’s what our people want through the secretariat. Give them the dignity of first peoples on this land. This is their land and their language is their culture and it’s their heart. That’s who they are. If we do it no less than that, we’re doing a disservice to our people. That’s what I’m saying. Our people’s voices are strong and powerful. So strong. Very, very strong. We don’t have this secretariat to help the government, us, honour their language and we’re not doing any service to them. We’ve got to put it back in. That’s why we wanted to nudge the government with this secretariat. Let’s do that. Let’s honour and recognize the culture of the Aboriginal people, or the French people, as my friend has talked about. Let’s be equals amongst us here. Our language is our future.

I ask for a recorded vote on this.