The Territory At the Center of Life
Ki minakiniyok kitci tajikiyotc anicinapek akini. Oki kikendanawa adi eji pitcanik otakimiwa.
Oki kikindanawa sagaiganik pakotinanan mitikon adi eji ijinikatenik. Mica i kitakiminan. Enikwak kitakiminan nac moniak ki iji tipamadisiyok anicinapek, waswanipi inik acitc otakimiya ici pakwese
Ojibway acitc atikamek acitc kipi pakwepinanawa .
Each family inhabited and protected its ancestral territories, whose rivers, mountains and millennial secrets whispered by the trees. We are all children of Mother Earth, whose trees are the hair and rivers the veins.
We belong to her and each one of us has a definite place with her. She is both our mother and our home; she holds a special place in the heart of our culture and her balance is the balance for all of us. We are the dispossessed children of this mother’s womb, chained to a small piece of the landscape we once walked through in its entirety. From the Cree territory to the North, the Attikamek territory to the East and the Ojibwe territory to the West, Anicinabe Aki extended as far as the St. Lawrence River to the South. It was and will always remain our house, our temple, our heritage.