FREDERICTON -- A traditional longhouse has been erected near the New Brunswick legislature, with a First Nations elder saying it's not to protest Canada 150 but to educate that indigenous people were present long before Confederation.
Alma Brooks of the Wolastoq Grand Council says the temporary structure on the Fredericton riverfront is a place of teaching and a chance to celebrate time immemorial.
Brooks said she was pleased that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that protesters who erected a teepee in Ottawa ahead of Canada 150 celebrations on Saturday had a right to be there.
Senator Sandra Lovelace Nicholas said this week that, as an indigenous woman from the Tobique First Nation in New Brunswick, she won't celebrate Canada Day until all treaties are settled, and all First Nations children enjoy equality.
Brooks says she agrees, and there needs to be more truth and reconciliation going forward.
She says Canada 150 is like two grains of sand in the hourglass that measures the time her ancestors have occupied the land.
