Innu Nation says it will move forward with cancelled exhibit amid history dispute with N.L.

The Innu Nation is moving forward with presenting a timeline of its history in a provincial exhibit — but says that nothing has changed in its dispute with the provincial government over how far back that history spans.

Grand Chief Jodie Ashini told CBC News that she is planning for the Innu Pakassiun exhibit to be shown at the Labrador Interpretation Centre in North West River on Sept. 30 — National Truth and Reconciliation Day.

“The Innu people, the elders, have worked too long, too hard on this exhibit for the government to let that continue to be hidden,” Ashini told CBC News on Monday.

“I’m going to go ahead, I’m going to put up my timeline and I’m going to show the Innu kids who they are and where they came from.”

The exhibit’s cancellation by Innu Nation leadership in June was the tipping point of a dispute between the First Nation and the province over the timeline of Innu history in Labrador.

The Innu Nation says they have been on the land for thousands of years, while according to the Innu, the province’s archaeology office considers their history to go back 300 years. It has led to a months-long public dispute, highlighted earlier this month by Ashini walking out of a meeting with Premier Tony Wakeham.

‘I didn’t agree,’ says Innu Nation Grand Chief of N.L. government’s archaeology review

Wakeham and the provincial government have committed to an independent audit of Innu records held by the archaeology office — which Ashini says the Innu Nation didn’t agree to.

The Labrador Interpretation Centre is owned by the provincial government and operated by The Rooms.

In a follow-up interview with CBC News on Tuesday, Ashini said that nothing has changed in the dynamic between Innu Nation and the province — and that permission wasn’t sought from either government or The Rooms to open the exhibit.

“I didn’t ask them. And I’m going to go ahead, and the Innu youth will learn about who we are from us,” she said Tuesday.

“Have you heard any response from [government or The Rooms] since you announced that it’s going ahead?” a CBC reporter asked as a follow-up.

“I didn’t ask for their permission. It’s their setup, I just want to ensure that the kids [see it]. They can’t take that away from the kids.”

A spokesperson for The Rooms told CBC News the Crown corporation that it looks forward to the exhibit, and that the centre will stay open until Oct. 18 to facilitate it.

Ashini said she had hoped to open the exhibit with Wakeham — after a public apology from the premier — but feels that won’t happen.

Ashini told CBC News on Tuesday that she wrote Wakeham to ask about the idea last week, but says the letter hasn’t been acknowledged.

“I was hoping that, in good faith, that he would come with me and open alongside with me the exhibit while offering an apology to the Innu. And he is not,” she said Tuesday.

Asked on Tuesday about Ashini’s comments on an apology — and comments that the Innu Nation wouldn’t support the new Churchill Falls MOU without the province ending its “300-year theory,” Wakeham told reporters that he has had dialogue with her about the exhibit.

“I’ve already spoken with Chief Ashini about the circumstances that happened around that, and I look forward to further conversations,” Wakeham said.

“We have work to do with the Innu Nation, and I look forward to sitting down with them.”

When Wakeham was asked specifically how long the Innu have been in Labrador, he returned to a past comment that he’s “not an archaeologist or an historian, so I’m not going to make any comment on that,” but is more than willing to continue to sit with the Innu to discuss their concerns.

Wakeham also confirmed work to begin the audit is continuing.

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