[Translation] I want to talk in Slavey, my language. It's pretty hard for me to speak it, but it's my language. I want to know that it's good to speak my language if I have to. Many times, I have been in meetings, and we will talk about our government, talk about our leaders, and an elder said that: whoever is the boss of this land, who you call the boss of the land, is he looking after all the land? How come you guys, we don't see them very often? If we speak in Slavey, in our language, we say that we're looking at the land, the boss of the land. All the time, we look at the government that way. When we say something is the boss, he's looking after something. Many times, if you're looking after the House, it's looking at people who are giving you money. In our language, that's how it is. We as Dene people, we should look at saying our own boss, us, we being our own boss; but in the community, the moms, the dads, the elders, all those are the bosses of the community. If you look in the past, whoever is the oldest, the elder, that's the one you talk to.

In the community, the band council, the Metis, the government, you look at this self-government. The council, you look at that, too. Many times they work together. We call them regions. Look at the Deh Cho region, for example. There are about seven communities working together. Over here in the Northwest Territories, we look at this. If we look at who's the boss, they all talk the same language, and when you're the boss for the Dene people, it's you who is the boss. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. [Translation ends.]